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Dr Strum
Я не работаю завтра, так я хочу говорить по–русски, по–немецки, по–японски, по–испански...
Не знаю, если это был хорошая идея... т.е. я не понимаю много языки, потему что, я учился их так кратко.


Essentially, this topic is for foreign languages. For practicing foreign languages, discussing them, getting help with them, etc. Foreign language meaning it's not English, since this is an English site. Even if non-English might happen to be your native language.
jcdietz03
So how does this work?
Do I say "How to say X in language Y?"
Can I say "I think X means Y. Is that right?"
How about "What is the best way to learn [aspect of language X]?"
Dr Strum
ANY DISCUSSION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IS ALLOWED, EVEN REQUESTS FOR TRANSLATIONS, TUTORING, AND OTHER THINGS THAT YOU WOULD THINK NO ONE WOULD AGREE TO AND RIGHTFULLY SO

BY THE WAY PPA I HAD A QUESTION ABOUT GERMAN I JUST REMEMBERED
I remember asking my German teacher this, but I never pay attention to anything anyone says, so I forgot her explanation:

Ich bin langweilig.
I believe that means "I am boring," but how would one say "I am bored"? I think my German teacher said the sentence used a different case for the personal pronoun "ich" (like "mir" or something), but I can't remember.
jcdietz03
I am a Japanese student. What is the best way to learn Japanese Kanji? I was looking at the Kanji 500 website focusing on English meanings. Are you supposed to try and learn all of the stuff (meaning, readings, and common words containing the kanji) all at once?

I was looking for printable flashcards to help with studying kanji. Are there any available for free (or for not too much)?

Any Kanji textbooks you can recommend?
P.P.A.
QUOTE(Dr Sturm @ Jun 30 2008, 08:42 PM) *

BY THE WAY PPA I HAD A QUESTION ABOUT GERMAN I JUST REMEMBERED
I remember asking my German teacher this, but I never pay attention to anything anyone says, so I forgot her explanation:

Ich bin langweilig.
I believe that means "I am boring," but how would one say "I am bored"? I think my German teacher said the sentence used a different case for the personal pronoun "ich" (like "mir" or something), but I can't remember.

"Ich bin langweilig." means indeed "I am boring."

"I am bored." would be "Ich bin gelangweilt."

"Langeweile" is the noun, "boredom". "langweilig" means "boring" and "gelangweilt" means "bored". The two adjectives stay the same in all cases.
Dr Strum
Well, the best way to memorize anything is to associate as much information with it as you can. I know in my Japanese textbooks (I used Genki I for my class this past year, and downloaded Genki II) most of the kanji, well, you're long familiar with the pronunciations of the word, and have seen the book use the kanji (with furigana) before it ever introduces you to the kanji itself.
Then in the workbook you have to write it out two dozen times, do grammatical exercises using the kanji, etc.

Essentially, do these things to remember:
-Write it out a million times, and practice it as well in sentences.
-Associate it with as many things as you can (example, 話 usually written 話す and meaning "to speak", usually pronounced はなす, contains the same radical as 言 "to say" which has the same radical 口 "mouth"; you've got a shitton of information here, relating three kanji to the original one you wanted to memorize, and could add more; as a verb you could practice conjugations with it [something really necessary with irregular verbs in which the pronunciation hidden within the kanji can change with conjugation]).
-Attach it to visual imagery. The human mind is a visual mind, so if you can attach a picture to it, you can remember it much more easily (especially since it ends up stored in two different sections of the mind; this is how the Rosetta Stone software works, it shows you a picture of a cat with the text 猫; unfortunately the Rosetta Stone software really fails when it comes to teaching grammar).

Also, in all these things, how important you make the word changes how easily the word is remembered, because humans only remember things that matter. Hence why it's so easy for us to remember our own phone numbers - both because we repeat it over and over, and because it's something we usually need to remember.
Dr Strum
QUOTE
"Langeweile" is the noun, "boredom". "langweilig" means "boring" and "gelangweilt" means "bored".

Danke. Aber, was ist das Adverb? Wie sagt man "boringly"? Und das Verb, "to bore"?
Raijinili
You don't learn Chinese/kanji. You have to be born with it. Like anorexial cables.
P.P.A.
QUOTE(Dr Sturm @ Jun 30 2008, 10:59 PM) *

QUOTE
"Langeweile" is the noun, "boredom". "langweilig" means "boring" and "gelangweilt" means "bored".

Danke. Aber, was ist das Adverb? Wie sagt man "boringly"? Und das Verb, "to bore"?

"to bore" wäre "langweilen".
Ich langweile *. Du langweilst *. Er/Sie/Es langweilt *. Wir langweilen *. Ihr langweilt *. Sie langweilen *.
Ein Adverb von "langweilig" hab' ich aber ehrlich gesagt selbst noch nie gehört. Ich weiß noch nicht mal, ob's das überhaupt gibt!
Irysa
Hey, will you guys translate my porn for me?
Raijinili
Hey, will you guys porn up my translating, please?
Archeia
What does Spielchen mean? I saw it in a german game :o
What should I Do to learn German? I want to learn German and French :'(
I started with French though.
P.P.A.
QUOTE(Archeia @ Jul 5 2008, 02:34 PM) *

What does Spielchen mean? I saw it in a german game :o
What should I Do to learn German? I want to learn German and French :'(
I started with French though.

"Spielchen" is basically the cute form of "Spiel", which means "game". Hanging the syllabe "-chen" to a noun basically makes it... cute. It's also used to indicaten that something's small or young.
For example "Bäumchen" would be a small "Baum/tree". Or an alternate word for "Welpe/puppy" would be "Hündchen" coming from "Hund/dog". "Häschen" from "Hase/rabbit" would indicate that you think of one cutely. Err, yeah.

HELLO DR STÜRMCHEN
Dr Strum
QUOTE
"Spielchen" is basically the cute form of "Spiel", which means "game". Hanging the syllabe "-chen" to a noun basically makes it... cute. It's also used to indicaten that something's small or young.

I REMEMBER LEARNING ABOUT THIS
I think we learned about it learning the word for squirrel.

As for learning German, same, really, with any foreign language. IMMERSION.
If you can't do that, start taking classes - at college, highschool, private, whatever, as long as they are person-person - and use every opportunity to practice - reading, writing, speaking, listening. This is why people never get far with languages in highschool, though, because they so rarely practice outside of class.
Dr Strum
Я учусь испанский язык на работе.
Потому что, я мой работа не люблю.
Никто не понимает русский здесь? :(

ALRIGHT ROLL CALL
What languages do you know, and what languages are you/will you be studying in the upcoming school year?
Know: English, Russian, German, Japanese
Starting in the fall: Spanish, French


And "know" is not the same as "fluent in."
P.P.A.
Languages I know: German, English, French (not so well yet)
Studying: French
DustyHaru
I've lost almost all my french vocabulary since last year. :|

My mom is trying to teach me Cantonese.
I'm working on pronouncing the five elements (gold, wood, water, fire, earth), sun (day) , moon (month), up, down, and 1-10

one
Dr Strum
QUOTE
Languages I know: German, English, French (not so well yet)

Ho ho ho. You shall then help me practice more than just German, soon.
d4rkdragon
I know: English, Cantonese (My Canto is quite bad though)
I'm learning: French

Damn I'm pathetic =(
Shadow
Nope, you are not.

I only know English and Spanish.
Yuka
I know English and French, and once the school year starts up again I'll be taking my second course of French.

I don't know why, but I enjoy French slightly more than I enjoy English, but I find English much more practical since it's native to me.
Dr Strum
Я думаю что я очень люблю русский. Я не знаю почему, а я всегда говорить по–русски, но не по–немецки или по–японски...
でも、僕は日本語で書くのが大好きです。分かりますか。とてもきれいだよ。

I'm planning on writing a book that uses several different languages - not in the same way as House of Leaves, but, well, I don't want to give it away. Needless to say, it will be near unreadable to most.
Malice
Wow, everyone knows so many languages...!

I've been thinking about immersion once i'm old enough, but I feel like I won't know enough of the language to go there. I also worry about cost )':. (It's French btw.)

Also, any suggestions for learning French over the summer?

! and.. I know English and I can speak/understand Cantonese. Can't read or write it though. )':
H. Tsukiyono
I know English, a bare minimum of Japanese (there was that fluency period back at age three, but then I learned English... :/ ), and some French.

I'm taking another French class when school starts, but I'm really tired of French. I wish I could take Latin instead. Or German. :/
Dr Strum
QUOTE
Also, any suggestions for learning French over the summer?
If you know some already - Google News. I have Google news in Russian, German and Japanese in my RSS feeds. I also regularly raid bookstores and libraries for foreign language books.

QUOTE
I wish I could take Latin instead.
Latin is a dead language. Ignore it.
Dr Strum
I have decided to vote for Obama largely based on the fact that he wants everyone in America to be bilingual or even trilingual.
And I can't believe anyone has used that against him.
blues
Sturm, you might find this useful,

http://caminobrowser.org/download/releases/1.6.3-MultiLang/

I'll assume that means you can change the text so that it comes out as the language you've selected.

You can also change things like that on OS X/Leopard, but I think you already know how to do that.
aerozero
I can speak Vietnamese, can't read or write it though >_>

Liger
I know English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and the um... that Fujian-Chinese dialect. Ugh I wish my family would stick to ONE dialect of Chinese rather than having some parts of the family speak Mandarin, some Cantonese, and then others Fujian. My ability to read/write Chinese isn't wonderful, though.

My Fujian is really choppy though. My Spanish isn't that great either, but I can carry a conversation.
Raijinili
I can't speak Fuking at all. Apparently my grandmother and I communicated with gestures. I always thought she understood Cantonese.
Dr Strum
У русских очень другое мнение о Войне в Южной Осетии. Ну, у новост, но я не знаю, как русские люди думаю. Я должен спрашивать мои русские друзья на vkontakte.
Dr Strum
Salut francophones, ça va?
I think (at least so far) I like French more than Spanish, but in Spanish we're moving so much more quickly - we were learning how to conjugate verbs day one, but in French we've only kind of briefly touched on it, saving the full discussion for a later, undisclosed date.
But maybe French and Spanish weren't the best to start at the same time, since they share something like 80% of their vocabulary (with exact spellings), they're just pronounced differently.
Dr Strum
Я наверно проваливался на моём французкем тесте. Может не быть. Но я ещё делал же плохо. Я знал мало о материале на контрольной, так я мог бы получать F.
Qui étudies français?
jcdietz03
IPB Image
I would like some help reading some kanji.
I am having trouble with:
The first two kanji in the yellow text.
The second, fourth, and fifth kanji from last in the white text.
Dr Strum
The problem with video games is that they'll often neglect strokes for clarity, making it hard to read for anyone not fluent.

The yellow, the first kanji is 鎧, I can't make out the second but I'm assuming it more-or-less means "Armor-plated" or "Armor-wearing" or whatever.
And I'm not totally sure what you meant, your last sentence was incredibly unclear, but I think these were the kanji you wanted: (maybe?)
情報を, 場所です
Malice
J'étudie le français!!! Il y a trop de verbes que je dois memoriser. C'est très difficile. Les accents sont terribles aussi parce que je les oublie toujours!

Je dois pratiquer plus! ):<

I'm not sure if I should have used trop. D: Halp..

edit: Qui is just like il/elle right? so there wouldn't be a s after étudie? \(o_O)/
Dr Strum
Verbes français sont trop pas mal. Mais, j'étudie les langues étrangère...
See, this is the kind of practice I want. Not this stupid workbook that I'm plowing through since I have forty pages due tomorrow and only started on an hour ago. >_>
As for whether you should have used trop, I have no idea. You actually just taught me the word. Do you know if I should have used it where I did (or at all)? <_< Actually I'm unsure about that sentence altogether. I wanted to say "French verbs aren't too bad." Should I have negated the verb? So, like "Verbes français ne sont pas trop mal"? Google Translate comes up with the same translation for both.
Accents are easy to remember if you get your pronunciation down, because they (usually) are pronounced different when they have an accent of some kind...

And yes, qui is singular third, so it should have been "qui étudie..."
Malice
I haven't really learned much about shortening negatives and stuff, but I think it should go something like

les verbes français ne sont pas trop mauvais

I think i'll ask my French teacher tomorrow. :/

Sturrrrm, how long have you been learning French? O: And did you finish those fourty pages on time..

There are French exchange students in my school. I want to talk to them, but I'm afraid of insulting them by screwing up when speaking French (or destroying the accent stuff). Speaking at the front of the mouth is hard. )':
Dr Strum
Like four weeks. And there are students in our class that are fluent in French, too.
San Aurora
Estoy aprediendo Espanol.

Not fluent, oh no, not too close at all, but I know the language fairly well. Of course I can conjugate (one of the first things you have to learn), and all that good stuff; wish I could learn more language, but unless I hire a tutor I'll have to wait a few years.

You don't like Spanish as much as French, Sturm? What are your criteria?
Dr Strum
There is no criteria. It's personal preference. Why do I like Japanese and Russian better than German, despite the fact that my German is far better than either? Just because.
San Aurora
Hm, language judgment. Well, who am I to understand you anyway?


jcdietz03
Which language is the best? Hm... I don't know. I know only one language though.

I don't like Japanese because they have too many letters. 46 in the "alphabetic like" part and 2000 extra characters. It makes reading unnecessarily difficult. Thanks to Dr. Sturm for the help earlier with this. An alphabetic language with few letters seems better to me. Then again, I can dictate a passage in Spanish perfectly and still have no idea what I'm saying.

Will there ever be a time when Americans, British, and Australians cannot understand each other because their language is too different?
Dr Strum
I think I like syllabic alphabets far more than "phonetic" alphabets. At least in the one I've encountered, there's little exception regarding pronunciation, spelling, etc.
French, English, Russian, Spanish, Irish and German all have letters whose sound is dependent upon its location in a word, or even in a sentence. Hence why the "a" in "cat" is pronounced differently from the "a" in "father", and why the "c" in "cat" is pronounced as a "k" whereas it is pronounced as an "s" in words such as "cease". In Russian, "vodka" (водка) is pronounced "votka" (вотка), simply because of the "d"'s location relative to the "k".
Raijinili
I thought Spanish wasn't so bad in that.
Dr Strum
Spanish and German aren't nearly as bad as the others.
jcdietz03
Rai is right.
Not in Spanish.
LL, RR, and N-tilde don't count - they're considered different letters than regular R, regular L, and regular N.

I thought about Spanish words I know, and I can't think of a single example of two syllables spelled the same but pronounced differently.
Dr Strum
No, in Spanish it certainly does happen. B, V, C and X all have pronunciations that vary (and with X they're historical; no way to know without hearing the word).
Neon_the_Chao
Salut!
Je m'appelle Neon the Chao.
Ca va?

(French for:
Hello!
My name is Neon the Chao.
How are you?)
Dr Strum
Comme ci comme ça, mais je suis trés fatigué.
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