drahkon Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Ha, for me talking with a British accent is just really weird, feels like I'm a character in a Monty Python sketch or something o_O I'll stick with American / Finnish English... I can't even fake a British accent. If only I'd lived in the UK for a year or so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Sounds like you're doing well To answer your question, google yo! (assalam 'alaykum) I thought it was that but then I saw another one that was something similar as well and I wasn't sure if it was that. Also, I know that that is Muslim so I wasn't sure whether I should have said that or not because I thought it was a religious thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I can't even fake a British accent. If only I'd lived in the UK for a year or so... I think German English sounds pretty cool too, so why change that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I thought it was that but then I saw another one that was something similar as well and I wasn't sure if it was that. Also, I know that that is Muslim so I wasn't sure whether I should have said that or not because I thought it was a religious thing. To be honest if you're not sure just avoid it and try to absorb it, or ask someone what they would say. Sometimes in languages you seek for an equivalent to something you're used to saying, and it doesn't even exist or is extremely unusual to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drahkon Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I think German English sounds pretty cool too, so why change that? A lot of people told me I don't even sound like a German speaking English. Some say my English is more akin to that of an American. But a British accent. I'd be so happy to have one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnus Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 But a British accent. I'd be so happy to have one Just drop the H's at the beginning of words and the R's at the end of words. "'Ello, gov'no'! I'm flippin' 'appy to see you, I am! Oi! That's a new ca', that is!" ~BRITISH PERSON~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I had a conversation with a customer in Urdu! lmao. It was really funny! He asked for my help and stuff but then (yet again) slipped into Urdu and thought I'd understand. I said I didn't speak Urdu but I'm trying to learn it. He asked what I've learned so far so I said in Urdu that I'm trying to learn Urdu, my name is Dazz, what's your name? He said that what I learned so far was "Badazarst" (which I think means great or something) so I replied "Shukria" and then said "Khuda hafiz". He tried throwing me off and asked how much something cost but I already learned that one and I said it was £40. He asked how long I've been learning it for and I told him I properly started about 3 days ago and he said I've done very well. He said I pronounced a word like "Key-ya" and it should be "Koi-ya" but other than that, it was good and he understood me. So funny though. Glad I'm going in the right direction, haha. There's only one thing I don't really know. How the heck do you say "Hello"? I know how to say Good Morning but I can't find the right answer for Hello. There's three different answers but which one is the general one you use? You've only been learning for 3 days and you managed to have a conversation that long with someone!?!? Who are you - someone famous who is good at learing languages - ?!? I signed up to the Duolingo website that @Charlie mentioned, and it's pretty good! Not sure if i'll be able to keep it up, but i'm reminding myself of some German at the moment. Unfortunately I seem to be speaking it with a British accent....but i'm hoping that will change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Finally got around to trying Duolingo. Bloody hell it's relentless! Didn't teach anything and just threw you in. Trying to remember the articles as well as the words is a bit tricky. May go away and learn about articles and genders and then come back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Yeah i keep getting the articles wrong. Seems ridiculous that you have to remember the gender of every single noun in the world for French/German/Italian. How does that part of language still exist?! Why does it?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It's even worse in Danish. We only have two genders, but there are absolutely no rules or guidelines for what words are what genders. You just need to know. Whenever we impersonate people speaking Danish poorly, a main feature is always wrong use of genders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 British accent British accent British accent. British accent Stop this, stop this now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 It's even worse in Danish. We only have two genders, but there are absolutely no rules or guidelines for what words are what genders. You just need to know. Whenever we impersonate people speaking Danish poorly, a main feature is always wrong use of genders. Same thing for Portuguese, when the foreigner is English or German. Yeah i keep getting the articles wrong. Seems ridiculous that you have to remember the gender of every single noun in the world for French/German/Italian. How does that part of language still exist?! Why does it?! Yeah, I figured this would be a particular hard part for anglophones At least shit tends to be pretty direct (In Spanish and Portuguese, the word is likely female if it ends in "a", and the same thing for French and ending in "e"). Though nothing excuses the bizarreness of the German word for "girl" not being female. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Though nothing excuses the bizarreness of the German word for "girl" not being female. Yes! This! Who the hell thought: Hmmm, yes, a little girl. We'll make that one..... neutral. Makes sense. To the pub! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Yes! This! Who the hell thought: Hmmm, yes, a little girl. We'll make that one..... neutral. Makes sense. To the pub! The reasoning behind it is that any diminutive form is neutral (so a lil' kiss or a peck on the cheek is also neutral). Since the word for girl literally means "Little Maiden", that's what happened. It's still a bizarre rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Do the different languages agree on what is male and female, or do they all have their own rules and genders? For instance, is a table male in every language? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Do the different languages agree on what is male and female, or do they all have their own rules and genders? For instance, is a table male in every language? Latin languages are mostly in agreement, though sometimes the terms that different languages use for the same thing really are wildly different. For example, with Car, the Spanish use the term "Coche" (male), but the French use "Voiture" (female). The Portuguese have historically used both terms, maintaining their respective genders, though we now use "Carro" (which is also male). Sometimes there are weird cases where the word is almost the same, but the gender is different for some reason. Milk and Computer are male in Portuguese and female in Spanish, even though they're barely different (o Leite vs. la Leche ; o Computador vs. la Computadora) German does its own thing, though (especially considering they have an extra gender). Table is female in latin languages, but male in German. And the diminutive rule I mentioned doesn't apply to latin languages, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ville Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Stop this, stop this now. British accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 I speak with a British accent. Like Dick Van Dyke yes? And Hugh Laurie? And Sean Connery? That's what i sound like. Edit: Yessssss, level 6 German! Oh yeah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 You've only been learning for 3 days and you managed to have a conversation that long with someone!?!? Who are you - someone famous who is good at learing languages - ?!? I was quite surprised myself but it's easier than I thought it was going to be. I've been learning on this: http://www.surfacelanguages.com/language/Urdu/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Just passed the test for the first stage of German, and reached level 8. Only just though, i had no hearts left and just about scraped through on my second try. Every single mistake i made was due to forgetting the fucking gender. I hate it. Anywho, next step - the Dative case. Woo! Random gender changes! Die becomes Der for no reason whatsoever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Well, there probably is a good reason, but it's most likely been lost to the history of the language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 @bob: Please tell me you know about something called "Indirect Object" (it's called something like this in Portuguese). If you do, that's a good step to understanding how you should use the Dativ. Example: I have said something bad to my neighbour. The blue part is the "Object" (called "Direct Object", in Portuguese) of the phrase, and what the verb refers to. The green part is the "Indirect Object", something like "to whom" it applies (in fact, "whom" is a Dative leftover in English) You use the Akkusativ with Direct Objects, Dativ with Indirect Objects. It's not an absolute rule (since both terminations are used in other contexts, too), but it's a good guideline (just remember that the verb "Sein" (To be) is an exception. You use Nominativ instead of Akkusativ) Example: I = Ich (Nom) Me = Mich (Akk) Me = Mir (Dat) Du hast mir einen Tisch geschickt = You have sent me a table Du hast zu einem Tisch mich geschickt = You have sent me to a table. All of that said, turning "Die" into "Der" is ungodly confusing, yes Don't even get me started on the plural forms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 @bob: Please tell me you know about something called "Indirect Object" (it's called something like this in Portuguese). If you do, that's a good step to understanding how you should use the Dativ. Example: I have said something bad to my neighbour. The blue part is the "Object" (called "Direct Object", in Portuguese) of the phrase, and what the verb refers to. The green part is the "Indirect Object", something like "to whom" it applies (in fact, "whom" is a Dative leftover in English) You use the Akkusativ with Direct Objects, Dativ with Indirect Objects. It's not an absolute rule (since both terminations are used in other contexts, too), but it's a good guideline (just remember that the verb "Sein" (To be) is an exception. You use Nominativ instead of Akkusativ) Example: I = Ich (Nom) Me = Mich (Akk) Me = Mir (Dat) Du hast mir einen Tisch geschickt = You have sent me a table Du hast zu einem Tisch mich geschickt = You have sent me to a table. All of that said, turning "Die" into "Der" is ungodly confusing, yes Don't even get me started on the plural forms. Thanks for the impromptu German lesson! But yeah, i understand what the Dative case is (it's one of the easier ones, i think), it's just that it makes remembering all the damned genders even harder. That and that some verbs are seemingly randomly dative as well. *exasperated gesture* The Dative case is actually the best one for guessing, since the neutral and masculine ones are the same so you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right if you choose dem/einem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoogleViper Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Question to all of our foreign members. What do you think of your system of gendered nouns? I find this very strange and completely illogical. I understand that different languages developed different forms of grammar, such as French's different syntax structure, which seems weird when you encounter it as a foreigner, but it makes sense within that language. But the gender system doesn't make any sense to me. There's no rules, e.g. "It's male when it's a proper noun, and female when it's not". That would make sense. But it just seems to be a case of "you just have to remember which ones are which. So yeah, thoughts please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnas Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 To me, it makes sense, because we have very few gender-neutral words. Pick up any adjective, it's either male or female. It's one of those natural things, as even in English, I tend to think of nouns as if they have genders ("Thing" has to be female). How it happens is mostly a matter of instinct, though, it's true. Not completely, as there are word endings that are (almost) always a certain gender (if it ends in "o" in PT/ES, it's likely male. If it ends in "e" in French, it's likely female. If it ends in "gung", "keit" or "tion" in German it's female, or neutral if it ends in "chen"). But granted, most don't follow a pattern. It's really just a case of collective humanization, I guess. On the other hand, I always thought that the way the English refer to animals as "it" was weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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