bob Posted May 20, 2019 Posted May 20, 2019 I'm still doing it, but with my Portuguese holiday coming up in a couple of months, I'm basically just trying to learn as much useful vocab as possible, rather than learning strange verb tenses that I'm never going to need. 1
Jonnas Posted May 20, 2019 Posted May 20, 2019 9 hours ago, bob said: I'm still doing it, but with my Portuguese holiday coming up in a couple of months, I'm basically just trying to learn as much useful vocab as possible, rather than learning strange verb tenses that I'm never going to need. Good decision. Misusing a verb tense isn't too bad, and a wide vocabulary is always useful. That said, while we do have obscure verb tenses, make sure you know at least the basics of Presente, Pretérito Perfeito and Pretérito Imperfeito. Anything you want to say, you can manage with one of those three. (And if you're in Porto, let me know. I can show you around) 1
Ike Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 Saw this interesting article on how an interview or tweet gets mistranslated and it spreads like wildfire without anyone actually checking the original source themselves. https://legendsoflocalization.com/viral-and-memorable-mistranslations-of-japanese-game-news/ 3
Jonnas Posted July 16, 2019 Posted July 16, 2019 Man, didn't expect to see so many recent instances of mistranslation. You'd think we'd be good at deciphering Japanese PR speak by now. Guess not! (Also, "up until now". Holy shit, do I remember that! The Dojo was such a source of clue-hunting and paranoia)
sumo73 Posted July 17, 2019 Posted July 17, 2019 (edited) 22 hours ago, Ike said: Saw this interesting article on how an interview or tweet gets mistranslated and it spreads like wildfire without anyone actually checking the original source themselves. https://legendsoflocalization.com/viral-and-memorable-mistranslations-of-japanese-game-news/ Good read. Actually this just came up recently with the news about the remake of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz. Someone had translated incorrectly the original source in Japanese and it got relayed in English that an HD version of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz was coming out plus a new Super Monkey Ball game as well. There's been a bit of back-peddling on reddit because of the mis-translation by at least one user. As a side note, I would be careful with google/bing and any other machine translators. They can give fair results but it's never perfect and it would be stupid to trust them all of the time. Edited July 17, 2019 by sumo73
bob Posted September 5, 2019 Posted September 5, 2019 Well my two week holiday in Portugal went well (despite the fuel crisis which threatened to derail the second half). I didn't really end up using an awful lot of Portuguese though. Almost everybody spoke English, but I did try and order in Portuguese whenever I could. It was refreshing being able to understand signs, and menus etc though.Since returning from holiday though, keeping up Portuguese seems a bit pointless, since I doubt I'll go back any time soon, or visit Brazil, Mozambique or Angola.I've decided to do a bit of French for a bit, at least until I can decide on a different language to learn. 1
EEVILMURRAY Posted September 7, 2019 Posted September 7, 2019 I'm trying to give learning German a go. At the moment I have this app which gives me a German word each time I unlock my phone
bob Posted September 21, 2019 Posted September 21, 2019 Hit my 200 day streak today on Duolingo. Check out deez stats.Anyone else do better?
Ashley Posted September 23, 2019 Author Posted September 23, 2019 And yet I still struggled during an Italian brunch yesterday 1
Pestneb Posted September 24, 2019 Posted September 24, 2019 14 hours ago, Ashley said: And yet I still struggled during an Italian brunch yesterday The problem is that duolingo doesn't really help in a group setting (I presume it was?) Duolingo is fine for one focus, but in a group environment there are often 2/3 conversations going on, so you have to tune in the conversation you want to join and tune out the others. I think that's tougher but exposing yourself to those sorts of situations is useful. I don't think duolingo is that useful beyond vocabulary and to a limited extent pronunciation. For sentence structure and grammar I found it much more useful reading and listening to things in the target language.
Ashley Posted September 24, 2019 Author Posted September 24, 2019 Oh yeah I'm not trying to rely on Duolingo solely (at this very moment it is because life is an Indiana Jones boulder), but Bob asked so...
Ike Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 So it turns out that the English version of One Piece had mistranslated an important location's name. The Japanese version even went as far as writing the English name as the furigana in the latest chapter. Spoiler ラフテル was translated as Raftel, it was supposed to be "Laugh Tale". It's pretty easy to see why it was translated that way in the first place though. What's surprising is that Toei is pretty strict with terms used in the anime and I don't think they forced that one.
Fierce_LiNk Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 I've recently got back into learning Italian and am enjoying it again. The Dutch and Spanish alongside this is still ticking along nicely, although I'm mostly leaning towards Dutch these days due to having more opportunities to use it. I still use Spanish occasionally at work when we have Spanish children come to visit, but my opportunities for using Italian are going to be sparse, unless we plan more holidays there.
Ashley Posted January 23, 2020 Author Posted January 23, 2020 2 minutes ago, Fierce_LiNk said: I've recently got back into learning Italian and am enjoying it again. The Dutch and Spanish alongside this is still ticking along nicely, although I'm mostly leaning towards Dutch these days due to having more opportunities to use it. I still use Spanish occasionally at work when we have Spanish children come to visit, but my opportunities for using Italian are going to be sparse, unless we plan more holidays there. Possiamo parlare italiano insieme, se vuoi.
Fierce_LiNk Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 8 minutes ago, Ashley said: Possiamo parlare italiano insieme, se vuoi. 2
bob Posted February 4, 2020 Posted February 4, 2020 So my wife and i might be going to Hungary while our bathroom is being remodelled (no place to poop for a week, best leave the country). So i thought I'd do a few lessons of Hungarian, so that i could at least say please, thank you etc. The very first lesson "Basics" is teaching me this: What sort of place is Hungary?! 1
Sméagol Posted February 4, 2020 Posted February 4, 2020 Let's hope you have a working bathroom at the place you stay then. I should go try DuoLingo again soon by the way.
Nicktendo Posted February 4, 2020 Posted February 4, 2020 7 hours ago, bob said: What sort of place is Hungary?! Hungarian is arguably the hardest European language to learn. It's from the same branch as Finnish, but just looking at it makes me feel nauseous. Finnish is much more pleasing on the eye. As for the country, I've never visited, but Budapest is up there in the top tier of Central European cities. Glorious architecture, cheap food and beer / wine / local spirits. Plenty of culture and lots to see. Everyone I know who has been there had a great time. 1
bob Posted February 4, 2020 Posted February 4, 2020 Hungarian is arguably the hardest European language to learn. It's from the same branch as Finnish, but just looking at it makes me feel nauseous. Finnish is much more pleasing on the eye. As for the country, I've never visited, but Budapest is up there in the top tier of Central European cities. Glorious architecture, cheap food and beer / wine / local spirits. Plenty of culture and lots to see. Everyone I know who has been there had a great time. You're not wrong so far. I've done around 10 lessons, and the only phrase i can remember so far is Hogy Vogy, which means How Are You. And i can only remember that because it sounds funny and rolls off the tongue.
Ashley Posted February 5, 2020 Author Posted February 5, 2020 11 hours ago, bob said: 11 hours ago, Nicktendo said: Hungarian is arguably the hardest European language to learn. It's from the same branch as Finnish, but just looking at it makes me feel nauseous. Finnish is much more pleasing on the eye. As for the country, I've never visited, but Budapest is up there in the top tier of Central European cities. Glorious architecture, cheap food and beer / wine / local spirits. Plenty of culture and lots to see. Everyone I know who has been there had a great time. You're not wrong so far. I've done around 10 lessons, and the only phrase i can remember so far is Hogy Vogy, which means How Are You. And i can only remember that because it sounds funny and rolls off the tongue. I was in Poland last week and the only words I could vaguely recall were please (because it kind of sounds like one of my friend's names) and the word for thank you because it sounds like "gem queer" which amused me. 3
bob Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 I don't deny that Hungarian seems to be a hard language, but it doesn't seem to help that the DuoLingo lessons appear to have been written by a sociopath. I just want to learn to say 'Hello', 'Please' and 'Thank You', maybe learn a few words for various foods so i can navigate menus etc. All the languages I've tried so far on DuoLingo have been laid out like this.Whoever wrote the Hungarian course decided to launch straight into the accusative, supressive and inessive (?) cases, and complicated sentences. You don't learn food until lesson 72! I just want to know what tea and coffee are! Build up some vocab first, it's insane! 1
Fierce_LiNk Posted February 8, 2020 Posted February 8, 2020 Props for even attempting Hungarian, @bob. I've heard that it is notoriously difficult. Not going anywhere near that.
bob Posted February 17, 2020 Posted February 17, 2020 Guys guys guys!The word for mushroom in Hungarian, is Gomba.That can't be a coincidence, surely? 2
Fierce_LiNk Posted February 18, 2020 Posted February 18, 2020 On 17/02/2020 at 5:59 AM, bob said: Guys guys guys! The word for mushroom in Hungarian, is Gomba. That can't be a coincidence, surely? This is now fact. Maybe it can become an urban legend. We could be famous on the internets! How are you finding Hungarian?
bob Posted February 18, 2020 Posted February 18, 2020 This is now fact. Maybe it can become an urban legend. We could be famous on the internets! How are you finding Hungarian? Well I'm in Hungary right now!I found learning various verbs and tenses a bit pointless, so i just focused on a few phrases to get me through, which seems to be working. A woman this morning seemed genuinely surprised when i greeted her in Hungarian. 2
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