European Languages

[xJayChoux]

This is a topic dedicated to European languages, but I know we have another Language topic here, (http://www.jay-chou.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6422) so I hope this is alright...:oops:

Official languages of Europe: There are 11 official languages in the European Union: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portugese, Spanish and Swedish.

Which languages can you speak, or which language are you learning or do you want to learn?

Dutch is my 1st language since I live in the Netherlands. I'm learning English, French and German at school. It's really interesting, the more languages you learn, the more they look like each other :happy:

[jessca]

Im learning French and German too!! My first language is Chinese, and my second is obviously English.

I have a GCSE in French, which is why i have dropped it for a year to concentrate on my German, which i hope to take the exam for in June next year. But i only started it a couple of months ago..and i spent 5 years on French. I dunno how im expected to get the same result in under 9 months.... :glug:

I think that German is the odd language out when you compare it to French and Spanish. But German is supposedly a lot more useful, for business etc. Spanish is considered more of a holiday language.

How long have you been learning English, French and German?

[xJayChoux]

I've been learning English for 3 years, this is my 4th year...This is my 2nd year learning French, 1st year learning German...

German s*cks...it's annoying...especially the numbers...ggggrrrr....:-x

[vunsin]

Of course, I speak English. I think all of us here do. :) I also speak Spanish, not very fluently, but enough to have a conversation. And I can read and write in Spanish with minimal problem. I'd love to learn Italian and German though. Hopefully in the near future. :)

[xJayChoux]

:glug: vunsin, in which country do you live which makes you can speak Spanish?!

[Sparkling_Jade]

i can speak Finnish and English fluently and then a bit of Swedish, French and Spanish.


Finnish is my 1st language (they don´t have chinese as an option here :bleh: ) and then English...

I have been studying Swedish for 5 years now (because it´s a compulsory subject)
French and Spanish for 3 years... so i guess i could have a convo with these languages, and read somewhat effortlessly too, but my grammar is sooo sucky...

vunsin: i thought you lived in the US. or atleast your graduation pics were taken there?

[vunsin]

:glug: vunsin, in which country do you live which makes you can speak Spanish?!

Oh... I'm from Malaysia but I'm studying in the US. I took Spanish as my second undergraduate major and Japanese as my second undergraduate minor. I didn't mention Japanese because it isn't a European languages. I also speak a few other languages and dialects but again I didn't mention them because they're not European languages. :wink2:

[cinsin]

I speak English and Chinese, sometimes I get confused on which one is actually my first language. I want to study French but they don't offer it at my school and I can't actually be bothered going to learn it at a centre, but I might do it one day.

I used to study German at school and I did that for 4 years. It's quite funny because the other day my friend and I were going over what we had learnt in German and we couldn't think of anything except for 'prima', which I think means great/fantastic.

[jessca]

The German numbers? I get annoyed by the spelling in general!!


Actually French is the offical langauge of international business, however that is quickly beign repalcced with english. I think that because france was amajor imperalist with colonies all over the world.
that may one day be relaced with chinese *look of shock*
Thats what i was told by my language teachers hehe...and i was covered cos i know all 4 languages (including German which is supposedly important in UK cos major imports and exports are from Germany)...but i would have to further my chinese, french and german if i decide to go down that path..and that seems too intimidating.

Hehe...Sin Yuns english is great isnt it hehe... :wink2:

[xJayChoux]

:excited: wow, vunsin, you're very "international"! I'm wondering what you would like to do after your study :hmm:

xjaychoux, your enlglish is awesome, I coultn tell that its not your native tongue.


Well...j-c.net helped me alot with my bad english. Without the forums, I couldn't even make a complete sentence :oops:

[lattae]

Well... I am not exactly in europe... and I have zero knowledge on the languages other than english that is... erm... but I'd just like to know... which one in your opinion is the easiest to learn (other than perhaps eng)... cos i feel like picking up a new language jsut for fun...

[vunsin]

:excited: wow, vunsin, you're very "international"! I'm wondering what you would like to do after your study :hmm:

Actually I'm in my master's degree program right now majoring in student affairs in higher education. I plan to work with international students so my language skills will come in handy. :wink2:

[xJayChoux]

Well... I am not exactly in europe... and I have zero knowledge on the languages other than english that is... erm... but I'd just like to know... which one in your opinion is the easiest to learn (other than perhaps eng)... cos i feel like picking up a new language jsut for fun...

Pin jie> I think Dutch and German will be the easiest to learn...German is almost the same as Dutch, but dutch is better than German :bleh: I don't know the other languages...so maybe someone? :whistle:

[jessca]

lattae - out of German and french, i would have to say French. But i have no experience of Spanish so i couldnt judge there. But in the end, it depends which one you are interested to learn and which one will be more useful...:happy:


Actually I'm in my master's degree program right now majoring in student affairs in higher education. I plan to work with international students so my language skills will come in handy. :wink2:
Thats pretty impressive...and your knowledge of languages gives a clear advantage!

[candi_s]

out of all the european languages, i'm learning french. i wanna learn dutch soon! like, after i perfect my french...

[xJayChoux]

candi_s, why do you want to learn Dutch? It isn't a language which you can use very often...but of course I say it's easy...but not everybody speaks/knows this language ><

[candi_s]

ohoh.. nooo.. not dutch :laughing: . haha. danish! hahaha... big OOPS!!!

anyways, just interested in danish i guess. it is easy to learn??? cuz i don't wanna learn a mainstream launguage .. like japanese...

dunno why i typed dutch back then! :crazy:

[sauerkraut]

european languages? well, my first languages are german (quite obviously) and chinese, but i also speak english and french (and some latin, but that doesn't count, does it?). i'm learning finnish, japanese and russian right now, and i'd love to learn some other languages as well, but i don't think i have the time for it. therefore i'll probably just stick to those languages. or i'll learn them if i need them. :happy:

and german's great by the way. the numbers are so easy. :wink2: i really hate japanese numbers. kun-yomi and on-yomi - *that's* so annoying! argh.

i haven't tried dutch yet, but i guess it's fairly easy if german's one of your first languages. germans actually understand spoken dutch (or at least most of it), cos it is quite similiar to some german dialects.

[kahel]

i've learned basic german in school. I took it as a language elective. I thought it was fun!

The numbers were the most interesting of all. hehe.

I don't remember much of it now. hehe. Mein ____ist kaputt, Wie geht est ihnen. Is that right?

[jessca]

Mein ____ist kaputt, Wie geht est ihnen. Is that right?
I dunno... :cry: ..my ___is broken, somthing goes something???

I should though....im taking the GCSE in 8 months time... :wacko:

[Docano]

Hi everyone!!
It seems like noone is from France here...Jay has alot of fans in Paris though...so how come?? Anyway, I speak french, english and spanish plus one special one, an exclusive slang french, only spoken in french guiana...which is in south america, weird huh?? lol

[jessca]

:wave: welcome! I never knew that Jay had a fanbase in France too!

Wow...you know a language that is exclusive to South America? How did you learn it?

I know who to ask if i need help on my French hehe... :whistle:

[xJayChoux]

Wew...a fan from France! :excited: It's great...we're getting more and more fans from Europe!

Ehm...does anyone speaks latin here? :unsure:

[jessca]

Ehm...does anyone speaks latin here? :unsure:
Im learning Latin, since Yr 8...thats 3 years now. With a bit of help, i can translate from Latin to English, but not English to Latin. Luckily, thats not needed on the school's syllabus hehe...

[xJayChoux]

Wowwy jessca, I'm learning Latin too...first year. :sweat: I only have to translate from Latin to Dutch...do you find it hard?

[jessca]

With the text book of declensions and noun/verb/adjective endings and my dictionary...not really... so long as you know the jist of the sentence you can make it up as you go along!

Sit me down with nothing put a piece of paper and a pen... :wacko:

For my GCSE though, its not just language you get marked on, we have to study literature and Roman Life for a percentage of the marks. I suppose i prefer them topics to the straight translating.

[xJayChoux]

I see...I realised that in Latin they don't use "he/she/it" ...:hmm: Sometimes...I misunderstand a sentence, and than I'll translate it in the wrong way. :laughing:

But yeah...my cousin learned Latin too...for 3 years, and she said after 3 years, you can stop, because than you've learned the basics and stuff already. :sweat:

[Das Le Epi]

english, french, and german are similar because they are all germanic.

I thought French was branched off from Latin rather than German, being a Romance language...

Anyways, Chinese was my first language then English, although the latter has shown itself dominant, and I am currently learning French. If I can find spare time, which if I disconnected myself from the internet, I probably could, though likely won't, I would like to learn Latin, German, Spanish and Italian, among a multitude of Asian languages. Latin and German would probably be especially useful in understanding English and French on a higher level, while Italian is just pretty. With the growing Latino population in the US, I would probably try and work on a competancy in Spanish rather than French which is probably useless in North America if you disregard Canada (which most of us do anyways -hides-. Please don't beat me).

[jessca]

Wow..you do show an interest in languages. :D Seeing as your first language was French, many people found it easier to learn Spanish as it is quite similar. The pronouciation in German is different as you pronounce every single letter, and in French, there are many silent letters.

I was surprised to find out from my teachers how useful languages were, and the diversity of careers you can go into. I have an advantage at my school because of the number of languages and oppertunities they offer, which gives me a lead compared to my peers at other schools, which should come in useful when im applying for uni.

I was thinking of focisng on languages for my A-level options, furthering my English, French and German. For my last option, i would probably choose History out of interst and because it fits in nicely with the languages. In A-levels, we get video conferencing with student from German/French/Spanish schools and a week work experience in the country.

[Jerria]

european language? well i learnt french...it was like 4 or 5 years ago...but coming to aus made me forgetting it slowly..>_< i cant even speak french now...dang wat a waste....but i like it tho

i wanna learn spanish...dutch is also interesting...learning a language that hardly anyone use is a great charm...ahh i should learn them sometimes...

[xJayChoux]

i wanna learn spanish...dutch is also interesting...learning a language that hardly anyone use is a great charm...ahh i should learn them sometimes...

:excited: You wanna learn Dutch? But don't you think it's a waste if you learn a language, which you can't use very often...only in the Netherlands and a part of Belgium? If you want, I can teach you some words. :bleh:

[Jerria]

:excited: You wanna learn Dutch? But don't you think it's a waste if you learn a language, which you can't use very often...only in the Netherlands and a part of Belgium? If you want, I can teach you some words. :bleh:

of course it's not a waste of time....maybe when am old i'll go and stay in Netherland or smth :bleh: actually am thinking of learning greek too if i have a chance...

ok now teach me...i'd love to have u as a teacher... :D

[Shanhaigirl]

People, what about Russian language? haha, nobody wants to learn it? It's also European language

[Jerria]

People, what about Russian language? haha, nobody wants to learn it? It's also European language

oh yeah? that sounds interesting too...i jus love learning different language...so shanghaigirl u're from russia? can u teach me some? hehe i would love to have u as another language teacher... :laughing:

[xJayChoux]

Jerria, what do you want to know/learn?

Errr...is Russian an European language? :glug:

I think it isn't...refer to the first post...:oops:

[Shanhaigirl]

Jerria, sure, no problem :) anytime
xJayChoux, well, Russia is in Europe, at least part of it :), so i guess Russian can be considered European language.
Well, that doesn't really matter, i was just kidding :)

[xJayChoux]

The biggest part of Russia is in Asia right, than it's supposed to be an Asian language....right? :worry:

[jessca]

:excited: hoofdpijn and beetje! And the full sentence is Aspirine en paracetamol is voor als je hoofdpijn hebt, of als je een beetje ziek bent.(Proud of me Sinny?)

Anyways.. :sweat: ..Russia is part of Asia but ive never though of her language as being Asian..its always just been Russian!

[Das Le Epi]

It depends on how you define everything. Europe is not a continent, Asia is not a continent, and I suppose neither is Africa if you look at it like that. The three are connected bodies of land that were just distinguished from each other for cultural and to some, a need for Europeans to distinguish themselves from those they felt superior to. You basically have Eurasia, which should encompass Africa, although I don’t think it is defined as such.

I am guessing that this thread was mostly based around the Italic and Germanic branches of the Indo-European family of languages. The Italic Branch splits into the Osco-Umbrian limb and then the Latino-Faliscan limb. Latin then goes off into Portuguese, Rumanian, Spanish, Italian, French and languages that I’ve never heard of like Rhaeto-Romance (no idea where they speak that), Catalan, and Provencal.

The Germanic languages, this time not going to go too deeply into them, are most significantly Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, Dutch, German, and Yiddish.

Russian is also in the Indo-European family, although on the Balto-Slavic branch, which also includes Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Czech and Ukrainian, among others.

Still, you go back to the question of how you define Europe. If it isn’t a body of land, then can you define it using languages? While that would seem a practical way to do things, the Indo-European family of course includes the Indo-Iranian branch which comprise languages like Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Persian and such which are spoken by those whom I doubt people would categorize as European. I suppose that we’ll just go to the most obvious solution that we had in the beginning, which would be basically to say that it’s the western region of Eurasia, drawing the border at the Ural Mountains (or if you rely on basic political maps, Europe would stop where countries like Latvia, Romania and such ended, although you get Azerbaijan, Jordan and Armenia [is it Armenia? Think it is, not sure though] which are just north of Northern Turkey) which would include Russia.

That was amazingly pointless...

[jessca]

I havent studied language in depth but i managed to do some research on the idea of continents. A continent is defined as a large unbroken land mass completely surrounded by water, although in some cases continents are (or were in part) connected by land bridges. The seven continents are North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia (Oceania), and Antarctica.

And as Das Le Epi has said, politics has often overridden geographical facts when it came to naming continents. Traditionally, Europe is counted as a separate continent, with the Ural and the Caucasus mountains forming the segregation between Europe and Asia. Europe is a continent with many languages and traditions but that’s why we have the EU.

The debate whether or not Eurasia should be separated goes into ancient history. Geography in the past im guessing is very different to what we call it today. The western’s dividing line between east and west was often considered to be the Nile including Egyptian culture and history with what they define as ‘Asian’ traits. It was these traits that formed the concept of the separation between Europe and Asia (and eventually Africa was considered separate from Europe), with the three known continents defined not by geographical boundaries, but as the domains of the white, black, and yellow people.

[Jerria]

ahhh...xJayChoux and Shanhaigirl let first start with how to say:

1. Hello
2. My name is.......
3. Sorry
4. Goodbye

i'd be so apreciate if u guys teach me that....

oh i think it would be wierd to classify russian as an asian language cos they sound non-asian..lol

[Shanhaigirl]

yeah, Russian surely doesn't sound any close to Asian languages ,haha. And like Das Le Epi said, it is in the Indo-European family, so i guess it is more European language than Asian.
Well, anyways, why would anybody want to learn Russian, unless he or she has to work with it, or is going to live in Russia, or smth like that. If i wasn't Russian, i guess i wouldn't want to learn it either :). No need actually. Besides it's not that easy to learn, as i heard from foreigners.
Jerria, there you go:
1. Hello - Privet
2. My name is... - Menya zovut...
3. Sorry - Izvini or Prosti
4. Good bye - Poka or Do svidaniya
As for me, i would like to learn GErman and French. German is very useful,'cause there are lots of books on Chinese History in German. As for French, i just think it sounds really nice.

[xJayChoux]

:glug: Das Le Epi, I really don't know how to reply to your post...excuse me. :oops:

Jerria, here you go:

1. Hello ---> Hoi, Hallo
2. My name is....... ---> Mijn naam is
3. Sorry ---> Sorry
4. Goodbye ---> Tot ziens, Dag

Jessca!!! I'm so proud of you!!! :kisschee: How did you remember that? O_O

[jessca]

Yay more Dutch! And Russian... :glug: Do you pronounce every letter as you would for German?

Jessca!!! I'm so proud of you!!! :kisschee: How did you remember that? O_OHehe... i remembered beetje and hoofdpijn, but i had the sentence written down a while ago lol.. ... :sweat:

[xJayChoux]

Well the "G" is more hard than in German...and...you speak the "H" more loudly too...just like in English...:oops: Sorry...I'm bad at translating...

Jessca, that's okay...at least you tried to remember it by writing it down. :sweat:

[Shanhaigirl]

Yeah, Jessca, you do pronounce every word in Russian.
wow, Dutch sounds nice, if i pronounce it right :)

[jessca]

Hehe..so you pronounce the word as you see it..thats easy enough.. :D

I have another Dutch word! Buikpijn means tummy ache... :happy:

:whistle: ..wonder where i got that from..

[sauerkraut]

yeah, Russian surely doesn't sound any close to Asian languages ,haha. And like Das Le Epi said, it is in the Indo-European family, so i guess it is more European language than Asian.
Well, anyways, why would anybody want to learn Russian, unless he or she has to work with it, or is going to live in Russia, or smth like that. If i wasn't Russian, i guess i wouldn't want to learn it either :). No need actually. Besides it's not that easy to learn, as i heard from foreigners.
Jerria, there you go:
1. Hello - Privet
2. My name is... - Menya zovut...
3. Sorry - Izvini or Prosti
4. Good bye - Poka or Do svidaniya
As for me, i would like to learn GErman and French. German is very useful,'cause there are lots of books on Chinese History in German. As for French, i just think it sounds really nice.

hehe, i can teach you some german if you'd like to. german's one of mother tongues. :happy:

dutch is very similar to german. although i've never learnt dutch, i do understand most of it (some swiss german dialects are actually tougher to understand than dutch, although swiss german is usually considered as a dialect of german).

i took some russian classes last year, cos i really like the language (and besides, there are lots of russians in germany nowadays), and although i had to quit due to lack of time, i understand some basic russian (very basic though :angel: ). it's a very interesting language, and i really do hope that i'll get the chance to deepen my knowledge soon.

[Shanhaigirl]

Sauerkraut, i'd love to learn German :) I know that your grammar is very very difficult, but i hope i'll handle it. When i go back to Moscow, i'll take German courses there.
What will be Hello, Goodbye, My name is in German?
I can teach you some Russian too, if you want to :)

[jessca]

Wow..we got a member thats fluent in German! I know who to go to for help on my schoolwork then hehe.

Hello is Hallo
Goodbye is auf Wiedersehen
My name is is mein Name ist or ich Heiße

I hope they were correct... :oops:

I find the grammar okie, well what ive done so far is okie...most of the time you just send the verb to the end of the sentence hehe... :D

[Shanhaigirl]

THanx Jessca! i guess i'm gonna start learning German now :)
so far i knew only I love you in German, but now i know a little bit more :)

[cinsin]

You know how to say I love you in German? I don't even know that and I've been doing it for ages. So would you care to share how to say I love you?

[Shanhaigirl]

nupengyou, i don't really know how to write it, i only know how it sounds. it's like: ich liebe dich(i'm not sure about the spelling, i just know how to pronounce it :) )

[kahel]

Shanhaigirl, that's the correct spelling :wink2: I took up Basic german and forgot all about it. hehe. "kuchelschrank", I remember that :laughing:

anyway, nupengyou, you can add "auch" in the end (i think) to say I love you too. "Ich liebe dich auch."

[sauerkraut]

Wow..we got a member thats fluent in German! I know who to go to for help on my schoolwork then hehe.

Hello is Hallo
Goodbye is auf Wiedersehen
My name is is mein Name ist or ich Heiße

I hope they were correct... :oops:

I find the grammar okie, well what ive done so far is okie...most of the time you just send the verb to the end of the sentence hehe... :D

hey, your german's pretty good. :happy:
here's some basic stuff for Shanhaigirl:
hello = "Hi" or "Hallo"
goodbye = "Auf Wiedersehen" or "Tschüß"
My name is X = "Mein Name ist X" or "Ich heiße X"
I love you = "Ich liebe dich" (but it sounds quite cheesy if you ask me :laughing: )

Kühlschrank = fridge [kahel's post]

well, some ppl say that german grammar is tough, and i admit that german grammar can be a little unnerving at times, but it's definitely worth the trouble, if you ask me. besides, i know a lot of ppl who have been living in germany for no more than half a year and who are now able to express themselves in german quite fluently. so don't let anyone discourage you from learning german. :wink2:

feel free to ask me if you have further questions. :wink2:

jessca: how long have you been taking german classes? just being curious.

[jessca]

Its no problem hehe..ive been learning German since September. I have about 3 hours of lessons a week and my class is very small so we all get a chance to speak and its less intimidating if you dont understand something. The majority of people who got to do a second language for GCSE chose Spanish.

I took my French GCSE last year and was given the chance to pick another for next years GCSE, even though i learnt French for 3-4 years and German for what would be 9 months... :oops: ..so i need all the help i can get.

:D

[cinsin]

Wow so it's Ich liebe dich, I always thought that just meant I like you because 'liebe' means to 'like'.

And Kahel I think if you add 'auch' at the end it means 'also', so if you say Ich liebe dich auch it means I love you also. I think.

I remember the first time my German teacher taught us how to say 'subject' in German and everyone cracked up laughing.
Subject= Fach (because it sounds like a swear word)

[jessca]

Hehe... :laughing:

Vater, father, got us the worst, especially when it got to Großvater for grandfather hehe...

I was trying to sit there with a straight face cos it wasnt actually that funny, but a couple of people giggling got everyone else started hehe...

[Shanhaigirl]

Thanx guys! learning German is so nice :)
YOu know how " I love you" would be in Russian? It's like that: Ya lyublyu tebya. :)
how will it be in Dutch?

[jessca]

I know the French for that hehe..it would be Je t'aime!

Ya lyublyu tebya
I have no idea how to pronounce that... :glug:

Ya Ly-ub-ly-u Teb-y-u ? :?

[sauerkraut]

yeah, i figure that the word "fach" might sound a bit impolite, because of the "ch" in the end. it's a very common thing in german however, and dutch has even more of those "ch" sounds. :happy: besides, it's funny, but ppl whose first language is english seem to have a hard time pronouncing "ch" correctly. it usually sounds like a "k". so if an american says "fach"... well... you can probably imagine how it usually ends up. :wink2: (the "a" in german is usually pronounced like the "u" in english, i might add :) )

"i love you" in finnish is "(minä) rakastan sinua". :wink2:

yeah, i know that Großvater must sound pretty odd to americans, considering the meaning of "grosse" in english. :D

sure, if anyone needs some help with his / her homework, feel free to ask me anytime. i do work as a german teacher at times by the way. next year, i'll probably even do an intern a german teacher abroad, as one of my minors is "german as a foreign language" (you receive a certificate after graduation that allows you to teach german as a foreign language).

[jessca]

:excited: you are a german teacher? My conversation teacher is in your position i think, she is spending a year in the UK teaching German as a foreign language.

Im considering teaching a language as a career, i intend to study foreign languages further into A-level and even in uni later on, concentrating on French, German and English...possibly taking on a little mandarin and spanish as courses. Would you mind sharing a bit more on what its like to study languages? I need all the help i can get hee on deciding what to do next... :oops:

[sauerkraut]

:excited: you are a german teacher? My conversation teacher is in your position i think, she is spending a year in the UK teaching German as a foreign language.

Im considering teaching a language as a career, i intend to study foreign languages further into A-level and even in uni later on, concentrating on French, German and English...possibly taking on a little mandarin and spanish as courses. Would you mind sharing a bit more on what its like to study languages? I need all the help i can get hee on deciding what to do next... :oops:

oh really? i actually know two or three germans who are working as a assistant teacher in the uk. which uni are you attending if you don't mind my asking?

sure. :happy: well, first of all, you really have to love languages, and of course particularily the languages you'd like to study. otherwise it won't work, cos as you've probably figured out by now, there's a lot of work that comes along with it.

if i were you though, i probably wouldn't focus on a career teaching a language. from what i've heard, it can be quite tough if you have to depend on making a living of it. and of course, after a while it'll become some sort of routine, and it might get a little boring teaching the same stuff over and over again. that's actually one of the main reasons why i decided to pick "german as a foreign language" as a minor and not as a major. (besides, there are some certificate courses for teaching english as a foreign language as well. you might want to give it a try. :wink2:)

however, it's certainly a pretty interesting and really fulfilling job, knowing that you're doing something constructive. and of course the fact that you're making some $$ (depending on where you teach) isn't that bad either. :angel: :wink2:

[jessca]

oh really? i actually know two or three germans who are teaching german in the uk. which uni are you attending if you don't mind my asking?

Im not in uni hehe...still in high school and I live in Newcastle... :happy:

I see, thanks for telling me what you think hehe..languages come in useful in a diversity of fields so i would like to further my languages, i'm told only a small minority of graduates go into teaching.

Were you born and brought up in Germany and do you know any other languages? Just curious hehe... :happy:

[kahel]

sauerkaut you're a german teacher? are you pure german or an asian born in germany? I used to be really interested in german that's why I took that basic German as an elective in school.:D And I loved counting! :laughing: anyway, maybe you could help us learn more about the German language?:excited: And soon we'll all be saying "Ich sprache Deustch!".:D

[sauerkraut]

oh really? i actually know two or three germans who are teaching german in the uk. which uni are you attending if you don't mind my asking?

Im not in uni hehe...still in high school and I live in Newcastle... :happy:

I see, thanks for telling me what you think hehe..languages come in useful in a diversity of fields so i would like to further my languages, i'm told only a small minority of graduates go into teaching.

Were you born and brought up in Germany and do you know any other languages? Just curious hehe... :happy:

oops, that was a pointless question then. :blush:

yeah, i'm a gbc (german born chinese :wink2: ). there aren't many chinese ppl around in germany, and there are even less gbc's (or should i say almost none? :dry: ). i was raised bilingual (german and mandarin chinese), and i speak english, french, latin (doesn't count though, cos it's not spoken anymore), and some very basic russian. i've been taking japanese and finnish classes for the past few months, but there's still alot of work ahead.

[jessca]

Oh my gosh...French, German and Latin? I need you to come over to the UK and tutor me hehe...but you really do seem to have an interest in languages! I would have to say i find Latin the hardest, maybe because its taught differently to other languages, i just cant get used to it and there is quite a lot of grammar to remember.

[sauerkraut]

Oh my gosh...French, German and Latin? I need you to come over to the UK and tutor me hehe...but you really do seem to have an interest in languages! I would have to say i find Latin the hardest, maybe because its taught differently to other languages, i just cant get used to it and there is quite a lot of grammar to remember.

yup, i guess i'm a language freak. hehe :laughing: i even considered taking arabic courses, but finally decided not to.

that's true. i also had a hard time with latin, probably because it's not spoken anymore, and it's really tough learning a dead language (at least that's what we call in german (-> "tote Sprache")). it's funny, cos there are still many universities in germany that require you to have basic knowledge of latin, and many of my friends have had the same problems. another friend of mine, however, picked latin as her major.

and which one is your favorite language?

kahel: sure! as i said: feel free to ask me if you have questions regarding german. :happy: Laßt uns Deutsch sprechen! :wink2:

[jessca]

We call it a dead language too... :happy:

My favourite language out of the ones i speak...cantonese hehe! I love speaking it with my friends and family. But if youre talking about European languages, it might be French but only because ive learnt it for longer and have a GCSE in it so im more confident about it.

My friends were saying once how weird it was to sing the carol 'Silent Night' in German cos it sounded so harsh and they said it would wake the baby up hehe... but its not that bad when you get used to it.

[xJayChoux]

You know how " I love you" would be in Russian? It's like that: Ya lyublyu tebya. :)
how will it be in Dutch?

:glug: "Ya lyublyu tebya." I see....NOT. :wacko: Russian is difficult...

In Dutch it'll be: Ik houd van jou. ---> Ik houd ook(also/too) van jou.

[sauerkraut]

We call it a dead language too... :happy:

My favourite language out of the ones i speak...cantonese hehe! I love speaking it with my friends and family. But if youre talking about European languages, it might be French but only because ive learnt it for longer and have a GCSE in it so im more confident about it.

My friends were saying once how weird it was to sing the carol 'Silent Night' in German cos it sounded so harsh and they said it would wake the baby up hehe... but its not that bad when you get used to it.

oh, thanks. i wasn't sure if it's the same in english. :wink2:

yeah, i think it's the same thing with every foreign language. it all sounds a little odd in the beginning. in my chinese classes, they used to giggle a lot, but it has improved alot. on the other hand... i have to admit that the german pronounciation of our finnish teacher (he's a finn, and has just recently started taking german classes) is quite... amusing. :blush: but he's a nice guy, so he doesn't mind. besides, we really can't help ourselves. (i usually wouldn't laugh about this kind of stuff, cos i know that german pronounciation isn't that easy, but he's SO hilarious and he finds it quite amusing himself.)

oh cantonese? do you happen to know a nice place to learn cantonese? i'd really love to improve my cantonese, cos it's really poor. :dry:

[jessca]

I speak it at home and it was my first language cos my parents are from Hong Kong. But i learnt the writing and reading at church, so i have absolutely no idea im afraid.

Ive finished the lessons now so its just up to myself to read and watch as much chinese material as possible... :D And im sure i will improve cos im helping out teaching at my church so im learning as i teach really... I want to take the Chinese GCSE next year as well, so its coming in useful.

Im very very slowly picking up mandarin thanks to my interest in mandarin music hehe...but i really need to get proper lessons... :oops:

[sauerkraut]

mh, i think there are some universities in hk that offer cantonese classes. the thing is that i'm not sure whether they're good or not. :dry:

haha, it's actually the other round with me. i usually teach mandarin and / or german, and i'm quite determined to improve my canto. :wink2:

why are you going to take the GSCE? are you planning to go to hk or china? sorry, i'm just too curious. :wink2:

[jessca]

Its fine hehe..i would like another GCSE to take me up to 11. I chose full course ICT for a proper GCSE in IT, those who didnt would get the equivalent of half a GCSE. In addition to that, i got to take the French one a year early so i could pick another language, German. So hopefully, at the end of Yr 11, i will have 11 full GCSEs:

Chinese
French (A*)
German
English
English Literature
Maths
History
Chemistry
Latin
Biology
ICT

I just figured as i already know the language, it would be nice to have a qualification in it...you never know, it could come in useful one day... :wink2:

[Shanhaigirl]

Jessca, you have to pronounce it this way:
Ya lyu-b-lyu te-bya! :)

Wow, i guess when i go home in summer i won't need any German courses :), i'll learn German through ppl's help here at j-c.net by that time :)
Cool! :)
so in Finnish "rakastan sinua"? that seems to be easy to pronounce

[sauerkraut]

Shanhaigirl: yeah, finnish isn't that hard when it comes to pronounciation. vocabulary and grammar is another matter though.

i've just thought of some more (more or less :bleh: :wink2: ) useful jay-related phrases:

I love Jay = Ich liebe Jay
I like Jay = Ich mag Jay
Jay's the best = Jay ist der Beste
Jay and Jolin make a cute couple = Jay und Jolin geben ein süßes Paar ab :brows: ..::runs off and hides in a cave ::...

:yeah: hope you like them... hehehe...

jessca: um... what are ICT and IT? :blush:

that's true. i was thinking of taking a couple of exams in order to get some certificates myself. don't know which ones though. :bleh:

[xJayChoux]

Jay and Jolin make a cute couple = Jay und Jolin geben ein süßes Paar ab :brows: ..::runs off and hides in a cave ::...


:rifle: sauerkraut!

A new sentence:

"sauerkraut is ondeugend." :brows:

[sauerkraut]

Jay and Jolin make a cute couple = Jay und Jolin geben ein süßes Paar ab :brows: ..::runs off and hides in a cave ::...


:rifle: sauerkraut!

A new sentence:

"sauerkraut is ondeugend." :brows:

A couple of new sentences:

Danke gleichfalls. :harhar:

Jolin und Jay - verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet. :whistle: :wink2:

[jessca]

ICT and IT are the same thing and stand for Information (Communication) Technology, so its just basically about computers.
sauerkraut - verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet!?! :shock: I think we're gonna have to censor that from all of the fangirls here... :whistle:

EDIT - I forgot i was saving up my 2000th post! :oops: Oh well, im sharing it with the Europeans hehe... :hugz:

[xJayChoux]

sauerkraut - Jolin und Jay - verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet!!! :shock: :nunchuks:

New sentence:

Straks wordt sauerkraut nog uit jay-chou.net verbannen. :shifty:

Jessca, I know. I thought you were goin' to save your 2000th post for tomorrow...and than I came here. ***! :sweat:

[sauerkraut]

jessca: congrats to your 2000th post! :happy:

mh, why does everyone understand german all of a sudden...? :hmm:

hohoho... get ready for a couple of new sentences... :fish:

sauerkraut ist ganz lieb, aber xJayChoux ist ein ganz böses Mädchen. :angel:

Hier kommt das neue Traumpaar - J & J!

Jolin hat sich bestimmt keiner Schönheitsoperation unterzogen. :prop:

[dazzlette]

i dunno why i didn't notice this topic earlier.. or maybe i saw it but it didn't really catch my eye then..
anyhow i live in Singapore so my first language is English followed by Mandarin but during my secondary school days i took up French as a 3rd language.. i got an A2 for it in my O levels which i feel is pretty decent since i was struggling with it towards the end.. since then i have not touched French at all except for perhaps the occational French film that i watch.. recently i decided that i wanted to pick it up again.. i went to the Alliance Francais de Singapour to sign up for its courses and i took their free placement test.. it was mainly a grammar test and i did decently for the part that tested level 2 grammar but i didn't do very well for the level 1 grammar cos i forgot a lot of my basics.. they recommended i take a refresher course in grammar before proceeding on..
perhaps it's the environment i'm in which makes it difficult for me to learn French well.. i'm ok when it comes to reading and i can understand people when they speak to me slowly.. but i can't understand French if they speak too fast.. also i take very long to compose sentences to reply people.. i have to think a while before i can reply.. i know i just have to read, write and practice more as with all languages... i have about 6 months free before i start school again so i really hope to pick up French proper in this time period..

haha ok i think i got a little long-winded in describing my experience with French.. anyhow my teacher once told me thatif you can master French well the other European languages will be easier to learn.. is it true? i love the idea that in Europe the kids get to learn so many languages.. over here people learn english and chinese and that's about it... (some people don't even master either language well.. which is quite sad.. )

[jessca]

:wave: dazzlette..i didnt know that Singaporeans could take up European languages in school...hehe

I think that a knowledge of any European languags help in learning another. They are all quite similar in one way or other. Being fluent in English originally helps quite a lot too... :sweat:

i'm ok when it comes to reading and i can understand people when they speak to me slowly.. but i can't understand French if they speak too fast.. also i take very long to compose sentences to reply people.. i have to think a while before i can reply.. i know i just have to read, write and practice more as with all languages... i have about 6 months free before i start school again so i really hope to pick up French proper in this time period..
I have that problem too, and when youre in a speaking exam, the pressure really is on you but im lucky i had loads of practice and conversation lessons one on one with the teacher so that youre comfortable. I would say i was worst ay listening, i can never catch anything, it all just drifts over me like a whole load of nonsense. Reading and writing i can take my time so thats not much of a problem.

You can always practise your French in here hehe...i think we're playing insult Sinny and sauerkraut on their particular views on certain artistes who share the same first letter in their name... :whistle:

[Das Le Epi]

anyhow my teacher once told me thatif you can master French well the other European languages will be easier to learn.. is it true? i love the idea that in Europe the kids get to learn so many languages.. over here people learn english and chinese and that's about it... (some people don't even master either language well.. which is quite sad.. )

It's rather similiar to learning instruments, for example after learning violin, viola wasn't that hard. Once you get an idea of what the roots of a latin language is like through one language it's easier to pick up others. Actually finding it easy to understand a lot of Spanish even though I've never taken a course or anything just because I am familiar with the roots. Of course, you have the occasional "faux ami" so you can't get too cocky with it ^^; (interesting stories with that one), but it's just very practical.

[kahel]

aiyo! I hardly understand these new sentences! care to share and translate??:wink2::D

[jessca]

aiyo! I hardly understand these new sentences! care to share and translate??:wink2::D
The translations? Depends on how you view Jay and Jolin.. :whistle:

Which version would you like? :rolleyes:

[xJayChoux]

mh, why does everyone understand german all of a sudden...? :hmm:

I can understand some German because it's almost like Dutch. :happy:


hohoho... get ready for a couple of new sentences... :fish:

sauerkraut ist ganz lieb, aber xJayChoux ist ein ganz böses Mädchen. :angel:

Hier kommt das neue Traumpaar - J & J!

Jolin hat sich bestimmt keiner Schönheitsoperation unterzogen. :prop:

Translation:
sauerkraut is very kind/sweet/nice, but xJayChoux is a very angry girl.

Here is the new dream couple - J & J! (:rifle: - sauerkraut)

Jolin had absolutely no cosmetic surgery. (Liar!!! :rifle: - sauerkraut) :bleh:

Anyway...sauerkraut moet ophouden. :whistle:

[jessca]

Sauerkraut must stop the nonsense? Yupyup!
...
...
...
....But what if it isnt nonsense? :glug:



:tomato:

[kahel]

Ich weis nicht. Wo bu ming bai!!!

hehe. I hardly know any other language. Let's have German Lessons! *looks at sauerkaut*

[jessca]

hehe. I hardly know any other language. Let's have German Lessons! *looks at sauerkaut*
I second that... :happy:

:rolleyes: Guten Morgen Lehrerin! (i so hope that was right... :oops: )

[sauerkraut]

all right, i was just kidding. :wink2: it's just that i love having some shocked ppl around me once in a while. hehe. but i'm gonna shut up on this particular topic from now on, okie? :locked:

the translations xJayChoux provided were quite accurate, but "böse" would be naughty in english. at least in this case. :brows:

OK, guten Morgen, liebe Schüler! Was würdet Ihr denn heute gerne machen?
= OK, good morning, dear students (would you say "dear students" in english? not sure :hmm: )! what would you like to do today? (sorry, i'm not good at translating stuff :oops: )

and by the way,
"I don't understand." = "Ich verstehe nicht."
"Ich weiß nicht." = "I don't know." :happy:

[dazzlette]

:wave: dazzlette..i didnt know that Singaporeans could take up European languages in school...hehe



if you do well in the national exam at the end of primary school, you can be offered the option of taking up a foreign language (such as french, german or japanese) or malay in your secondary school days and even offer it for O levels if you take it long enough.. with the Jap craze going on here in the last few years.. the most popular option was Jap.. followed by French i think.. i think the reason most people took up French was cos they thought it was classy.. not many people take up German though.. my other friend told me it's quite difficult..


I have that problem too, and when youre in a speaking exam, the pressure really is on you but im lucky i had loads of practice and conversation lessons one on one with the teacher so that youre comfortable. I would say i was worst ay listening, i can never catch anything, it all just drifts over me like a whole load of nonsense. Reading and writing i can take my time so thats not much of a problem.

i remember for my orale exam for O levels i was quite fortunate.. somehow that day i managed to reply my examiner quite decently.. the exam is conducted by our own examiners so they're sort of nicer and try to help you along.. also there is sort of like common topics which they can frequently ask so you can prepare in a way.. but i remember listening was terrible of me.. sometimes it's quite easy.. but it's the toughest when they require you to listen to the passage read and answer long questions on it.. and sometimes they even require you to think a bit!! it was horrible!! you had to listen, think and write down the answer in such a short period of time!!

i feel that for students learning french in singapore one of the major weaknesses of the system is that we don't get enough practice talking and listening.. most of my weaker friends (i suppose it would also include myself!) suffered from problems in speaking and listening...

hahaha i don't really know how to insult people in French.. in singapore they probably want to teach everyone to be nice (or maybe i just forgot cos i'm just a nice person! haha! )

sauerkraut.. how do you say 'xxx is a pig and i don't like her' and 'it's fun to speak german because people can't understand!'

oh yeah just wanna ask you guys.. how do you differentiate each European language from each other?

[Shanhaigirl]

Ich weib nicht! cool! if only i knew how to pronounce it! :)
Ya lyublyu Jaya - I love Jay (in Russian)
Chornii yumor - Hei sei you mo(Black Humour)
Tishina - Anjing(Silence)

[jessca]

I see...my German class is very small becasue a lot of people were put off by thinking it was very difficult, which turns out to be an advantage for the 7 of us who do take it! :D

Our oral exams are also taken by our teachers, and then a few are chosen at random to be sent off to the exam board to be checked. If the exam board disagree on a student's grade, the entire year have to be re-graded.

How do I differentiate each European language from each other?
Errr....they just sound different! :glug:

Ich wurde Musik horen...aber wir im Schule sind.. :depresse:

[dazzlette]

haha i can differentiate French from say German.. but what about Finnish and Swedish? or Portugese from Dutch? is there like a distinct sound in each language that allows someone who has no knowledge of either language to at least know what language they are speaking?

[kahel]

though I'm not a multilingual person (only English + filipino + a dialect), I can distinguish European languages from the other. I don't know how, I just do.:D

Portugese is very different from Dutch. I guess it would be difficult to differentiate Dutch from German since they are very alike.

There is definitely a distinct sound from these languages. For example for similar languages, like American English, British, Australian and Irish. Though they are all using English there's a distinct sound for each. Like with Taiwanese Mandarin and Mainland Mandarin too.

Thanks for the lessons, sauerkaut! more, more, more.

Eventhough, Filipino is not European, I'll be doing this for the fun of it.

like Shanhaigirl's post..

Mahal ko si Jie Lun - I love Jay
Katahimikan - An jing

black humour was particularly hard. hehe. Ang hirap! (It's difficult)

[sauerkraut]

sauerkraut.. how do you say 'xxx is a pig and i don't like her' and 'it's fun to speak german because people can't understand!'

oh yeah just wanna ask you guys.. how do you differentiate each European language from each other?

oh, goodness. there i was trying to be nice, and now i'm being asked to say that kind of stuff in german. haha. :happy:

Ok, here we go:
1. X is a pig and I don't like her = X ist ein Schwein und ich mag sie nicht
(i should add that "Schwein" is the word for pig, but it's usually meant for males if it's used as a cuss word)
2. It's fun to speak German, because people can't understand = Es macht Spaß, Deutsch zu sprechen, weil es keiner versteht.
3. black humor = schwarzer Humor
4. Silence = Ruhe or Stille [depending on the meaning]
5. I'd like to listen to music, but I can't, if I'm at school. = Ich würde Musik hören, aber wenn wir in der Schule sind, geht das nicht. [not sure if that's what you wanted to say, jessca?]


haha i can differentiate French from say German.. but what about Finnish and Swedish? or Portugese from Dutch? is there like a distinct sound in each language that allows someone who has no knowledge of either language to at least know what language they are speaking?

yes, there is. um... dutch for example has many of those "h" sounds (even more than german). finnish is cool (hehe), and like many of those northern european languages most sounds are produced in the back of the throat, so it sounds a little guttaral. it's really hard to describe, it'd be much easier to demonstrate it. :oops:

[jessca]

What would a lesson be....Stunde?

If i wanted to say i would like to listen to music, but i am in a lesson in reponse to your "Was würdet Ihr denn heute gerne machen?"

is Ich wurde Musik horen, aber ich (whatever) bin correct?

because, the verb has to be second in a sentence, and aber sends the verb to the end?

Hope you dont mind all the questions.. :blush:

[sauerkraut]

What would a lesson be....Stunde?

If i wanted to say i would like to listen to music, but i am in a lesson in reponse to your "Was würdet Ihr denn heute gerne machen?"

is Ich wurde Musik horen, aber ich (whatever) bin correct?

because, the verb has to be second in a sentence, and aber sends the verb to the end?

Hope you dont mind all the questions.. :blush:

nope, i don't mind at all. just go ahead. :happy:

it depends on what you want to say. lesson can be translated into "Stunde", but also into "Lektion", "Unterricht" etc. in this case the most appropriate word would probably be "Unterricht".

So in this case you'd say: "Ich würde gerne Musik hören, aber ich habe Unterricht."

no, "aber" doesn't send the verb to the end, at least not in the present tense.

[jessca]

Okie then, so aber is not one of those words...like als and weil?

One more question for now hehe...when do you have to leave out the ein, eine or einen of a noun in a sentence? (is it the proposition?) Or do you never have it in a sentence, only for when the noun stands by itself?

For example, Ich habe Unterricht rather than ich habe ein Unterricht?

If its too complicated to explain, ill leave it for my teacher..but if its just a silly mistake ive made or misunderstood somewhere please tell me hehe...

:happy:

[sauerkraut]

Okie then, so aber is not one of those words...like als and weil?

One more question for now hehe...when do you have to leave out the ein, eine or einen of a noun in a sentence? (is it the proposition?) Or do you never have it in a sentence, only for when the noun stands by itself?

For example, Ich habe Unterricht rather than ich habe ein Unterricht?

If its too complicated to explain, ill leave it for my teacher..but if its just a silly mistake ive made or misunderstood somewhere please tell me hehe...

:happy:

right, "als", "weil" and "aber" are conjuctions, but unlike the other two, "aber" doesn't send the verb to the end of the sentence.

"ein" or "eine" is an indefinite article, and used only for countable nouns. "Unterricht" is an uncountable noun, so it can't have an indefinite article. therefore, you can't say "Ich habe einen Unterricht". do you know what i mean?

[jessca]

Okie...thank you so much! :hugz:

Sometimes the little bits like that just go straight over me..glad i got them sorted!

phew...learnt a lot of German today hehe... :D

[xJayChoux]

:wacko: 2 pages!!! People...hehe...ik schrok me dood! Hehe...

Anyway...what are you guys talking about? sauerkraut? I'm naughty? Why do you think that? :whistle:

[sauerkraut]

jessca: anytime. :happy: i'm glad that i could help you.

xJayChoux: :hmm: mh... no idea. must've been drunk when i was writing this. :brows:

[kahel]

Whoa! That's a really good lesson sauerkaut!

These countable nouns and uncountable nouns! Now I've really forgotten that Deustch Unterrincht I've had 2 years ago. I can't even count, I used to be really good at that :laughing: eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn..I am lost after that. :blush:

[jessca]

Eeee...German numbers.. :wacko:

zehn, elf, zwolf, dreizehn, vierzehn, funfzehn, sechzehn, seibzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig, einundzwanzig....and so on... :glug:

I always manage to get confused after a while and mix up the -zehn and -zig endings or miss out zwanzig... :wacko:

French numbers were the worst though..once you got to the higher numbers... :oops:

[xJayChoux]

Agree with you Jessca! French and German numbers...:dead:

Dutch numbers aren't...easy either. een, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven, acht, negen, tien, elf, twaalf, dertien, viertien, vijftien, zestien, zeventien, achttien, negentien, twintig...(this is easy)...but...when you go higher and higher...

[sauerkraut]

yeah, i know. our finnish teacher who doesn't speak german too well and has been working on it for the past two months also thinks that german numbers are quite confusing. but hey... what about chinese numbers? if you come to think about it, it's probably not that easy for a foreigner either. :wink2:

ok, here are some german numbers:
1 = eins; 2 = zwei; 3 = drei; 4 = vier;5 = fünf;
6 = sechs; 7 = sieben; 8 = acht; 9 = neun; 10 = zehn;
11 = elf; 12 = zwölf; 13 = dreizehn; 14 = vierzehn; 15 = fünfzehn;
16 = sechzehn; 17 = siebzehn; 18 = achtzehn; 19 = neunzehn; 20 = zwanzig
21 = einundzwanzig ...
30 = dreißig
40 = vierzig
50 = fünfzig
60 = sechzig
70 = siebzig
80 = achtzig
90 = neunzig
100 = hundert
1.000 = tausend
10.000 = zehntausend
100.000 = hunderttausend
1.000.000 = eine million
...

[kahel]

Thanks for giving me a review of german numbers everyone! Dutch is indeed quite similar to German if you look at it closely.

[xJayChoux]

"Ik wens alle Europese Jay fans, een gelukkig nieuw jaar!!! 2004!!!"

"I wish all the European Jay fans, a Happy New Year!!! 2004!!!"

*party time!*

[jessca]

I dont know how to say that in a language other than english.. :cry:

Oh well.. Happy new year everyone and all the best in 2004!

Am i the last one to reach midnight here? Only 30 minutes to go! :excited:

[sawmui13]

four more hours to go for me! happy new year everyone. the only european language i know is french

bonne nouveau année mes amis! :happy:

[sauerkraut]

yeah! Frohes neues Jahr Euch allen! :)

[jaychou88]

my first lauguage is eng/chi, use both around the same amount
use to do german and frence but i cant even rmember a word and it was only half a year ago since i stopped

kinda learnin mandarin (i speak cantonese), memorising and learnin jay's songs, but maybe not a gd idea since he doesnt sing clearly, i find it effective learnin those hard raps, quite cool when u can pull them off

[jessca]

:wave: jaychou88... Ive been learning French and German too!

Ive got my Latin mock next week...im so worried about it..i might be posting some questions here pretty soon as i go more in depth into the language with my revision... :oops: At the minute, ive done my set texts, prose, Roman Life and vocab...ive kinda left my grammar till last cos i can never ever take it in.. :blush:

[girl_next_door]

Waaaahhh some of you can speak soooo many languages..In terms of european languages I'm only fluent in English (but I also speak hakka, canto and a lil bit of mandarin!) - i learnt french from yr 6 right up till gcse and did ok. I also did german for a year but hated it cos my teacher was so bad!!! I wish we had the option to learn spanish cos that would be so useful...it is afterall one of the most widely spoken langauges.

[jessca]

:wave: girl_next_door!

I took French for GCSE too... :happy: and im still studying German for the summer. We have the option to do Spanish at my school but i chose German cos i thought it would be more useful in terms of business, as England major imports and exports are to the Americans/Chinese and Germans? (at least thats what i was told...)
Ooh and i got an A* for my Latin mock! :bounce:

[sauerkraut]

congrats, jessca! :wink2:

well, as for spanish (or any other language that is), i guess it depends on your point of view. i know for example that spanish might be a useful language, as it is widely spoken not only in north and south america, but also in europe. and given the choice, i'd rather have learnt spanish than french. on the other hand, i wouldn't take on the effort to do it now, cos there are lots of other languages that i'd prefer, although they might not be as useful as spanish. besides, i'm quite certain that i won't be living in a spanish-speaking country (it's not as if i'm prejudiced or even rascist, but i simply find the heat in those countries unbearable :wink2: ).

[jessca]

Gott nytt år!
happy new year in swedish =)
Heya tang... :wave: ..thanks for teaching us how to say happy new year in swedish but you're either a month too late or 11 months early lol... do you speak any other languages? Or you could just teach us other basic Swedish... :D

I've only been to Sweden once..loved it...its very pretty...but i think ive already gone on about how much i love it in the other thread... :?

Oooohh..and how would you pronounce the å?

[sauerkraut]

Oooohh..and how would you pronounce the å?

the swedish å is pronounced like the german o if i'm not completely wrong. at least that's what they said in our finnish class. :wink2:

welcome tang! tell us a bit about sweden and its language, if you don't mind. :happy:

[Blue Szeto]

hehe interesting. i'm german. learning english and french. hope to meet some german fans in here^^

[xJayChoux]

hehe interesting. i'm german. learning english and french. hope to meet some german fans in here^^

welcome Blue Szeto! whats your name? hope youll visit us more often now. =)

and there are some german J fans here...like sauerkraut! (hope i got your name spelled right...:sweat: )

[sauerkraut]

:excited: hi Blue Szeto! wie geht's? seems like i'm not the only german around now. finally. yey! :happy:

sinny: yeah, you got it right. don't worry. :wink2:

[yarukon]

hehe

I did't expext that here r so ''many'' germans :D , thought i am the only one :excited:

i am speaking german and english(almost fluently) and i am learning spansh.. actually i had to speak one more language, cauz i learned latin, but its no language to speak with and.. actually i forgot the most things anyway :angel:

now a part in german dedicated to sauerkraut and Blue:

Sag mal sauerkraut, bist du jetzt deutscher oder nicht? hab das noch nicht ganz verstanden, hab ja auch noch nicht so viel über dich gelesen..naja...

und blue.. wo wohnste denn in deutschland und woher kennste jay chou? naja..und wie alt und sowas kannste ja gleich mit beantworten :tongue:

dachte nämlich schon fast, dass ich der einzige ..naja ..nich einzige..aber dass ich zu den seltenen gehöre, die jay chou kennen^^

cya

[sauerkraut]

hm, also, ich bin eine in deutschland geborene chinesin / taiwanesin, was heisst, dass ich offiziell (also von der nationalitaet her) deutsch bin. und wie steht's mit dir?

[yarukon]

ja..ich bin auch in deutschland geboren...also bin ich deutscher...nur ist mein dad amerikaner, aber ich kann trozdem kein flüssiges perfektes englisch...achja..und ich bin ein ''er'' ^^

[Dong Feng Puo]

1st language: mandarin (even though i'm cantonese... xP)
2nd language: english (i'm told i speak the standard SoCal english... haha)
3rd language: spanish (4 years in high school... would love to relearn it in spain some day)
4th language: italian (just started this year)

would like to learn, in sequential order: japanese, french, german, taiwanese, cantonese

i LOVE languages... i wanted to minor in romance languages but couldn't because i'm a business major. languages are tricky though... they take forever to get down but not that long to forget, if not used. i think the best way to learn is to live in a multi-lingual environment (such as switzerland), preferably from childhood... sigh... if i could i would spend 10 years all over europe and 2 in japan xP

[ftlouiea]

1st: cantonese coz my family from hk and i talk to friends and family in it. also learning how to write chinese but to hell with it coz its so hard!

2nd: english coz born in england and coz i know it since i was born... its like 1/2 mother tongue you know? yeah thats all.

3rd: spanish learnt for 5 years at GCSE level and taking it for AS level this year. personally love the culture and wanna live in spain for a year you know?

4th: french learnt for 5 years at GCSE but dropped with all my attempts to imitate the gorgeousness of Thierry Henry's accent... i failed.

thats all. ooh does latin count? yah thats all.

[Onibot]

chronological order as well:

1st: German - i was born in germany, so its logical its my first language.

2nd: Cantonese - my family are chinese.. so naturally this became the next language for me to pick up.

3rd: English - i live in london so it would only make sense to learn english.

4th: French - french was compulsory language when i started secondary school.. i carried it onto GCSE. so did that for 5 yrs.

5th: Spanish - my school sort of forced us to pick up spanish whilst doing french as well. so did that for around 2 yrs i think.


of course i also learn other languages.. but only for short time (ie. Italian). i love languages. keke. wanan pick up mandarin, japanese and korean. after those i also wanna learn some more languages! ahh.. the beauty!

[sauerkraut]

:wave: hi onibot, nice to have another german around! where do you live?

[lingling]

ehm... i was born in sweden and grew up there as well, so i speak swedish and cantonese at home... learned english since grade 1... ive studied french for four years, but it still sucks... 'sighs'... studied spanish for two years and its even better than my french... heheh... ive studied german for two lessons... forgot everything very soon... hahah... im also studying mandarin... so yeah... i would say that i can speak swedish, cantonese and english well... and mandarin, french and spanish not that well... lol...

[FreaK]

hey! naja, ich bin in österreich geboren worden. bin aber chinesin. ist schon ganz toll hier leute zu ''treffen'' die auch deutsch können. find ich schon ganz toll ^^

i am chinese, so i speak cantonese.
i'm learning french for 2 years now..but it suxx....^^"
i was born in austria and i speak german.

[xJayChoux]

hey there! :wave:

wow...your German is so good...i think its bcos they speak German is Austria, right? :shy: so, do you also learn any other European languages beside English and French? Do you study Latin?

[Shanhaigirl]

wow, so many Europeans in this thread, how come you all are not joining us in our thread next door? :)

oh my! you all know so many languages! I heard that German is really tough! all of my friends who's been learning it say that grammar is really difficult! I was planning to start learning it when i came back from China, but then i decided that i'd go for Korean :shy:

you all have Latin in your schools, don't you? I didn't have it, but my little brother does. it's kinda useful for learning other european languages, isn't it?

[FreaK]

hey there! :wave:

wow...your German is so good...i think its bcos they speak German is Austria, right? :shy: so, do you also learn any other European languages beside English and French? Do you study Latin?

ya we do speak german in austria. but we speak an dialect (izzit called dialect :winkz: ?)
i dun study any other language but my parents also speak vietnamese, thats why i understand it. but i cant speak it coz the pronounciation is difficult.
do u speak german or any other european language?

[xJayChoux]

Patya jie, youre right. German grammar is difficult. tho. its useful for other European languages like Dutch and French...but its also useful for other subjects, such as chemistry...etc. but if you also take Latin, it'll make German a lot more easier to understand.

FreaK, yes it's called a dialect. and i'm learning German at school now, tho. this is like my 2nd year...my German is like: Guten Tag, Bitte sehr! :roll: i do study English, Dutch & Latin. i can also speak Chinese fluently cos i always go to chinese school on saturdays. :happy:

[Joey88]

hahaha... ive done german for a couple of years too at high school. was a total nightmare. teacher gave us sooo much work to do. dont think it was worth it in the end. I only remember a few words. Ich heisse Joey! lol.... thats pretty much it......

[jessca]

i agree with sinny, german grammar is the most horrendous thing to get used to. once youve done the practice, its not that bad...but having to grab the concept of the grammar at the beginning wasnt nice. :oops:

i took latin, but it didnt help my german. maybe because i never really understood my latin. ><

patya - korean was a good choice.. =P nyanya sarang hae! :D

FreaK - hi! we have a member from austria with us too? wow...hope you like it here! :happy:

Joey - lol, thats about how much i remember too. and danke. thats my favourite german word...and krankenhaus for hospital...and kaput for broken! lol! =X

[ftlouiea]

Ah, just remembered, will have to pop in the european thread in a mo...

hmm. i do spanish which makes me the odd one out.

p.s. jess kaput makes me think of kapp putsch... and what does sarang hae mean in k? its always in songs...

now a task: think of a singer in your lingo. mine has to be julion and enrique iglesias... "i can be your hero baby" *cringe*

[jessca]

spanish is probably the odd one out here, but its a lot more popular than german at school. :oops: there were only 6-7 people in the german fast set, but close to 20 in the spanish gcse 1 year course. part of me wishes i took spanish..that would have been easier, and id probably have done better in the exam.

sarang hae (yo) --> i love you in korean. =P thats why you always hear it in songs.. :laughing:

i dont think i know any french singers. i have some german songs on my HD hehe...recommended by sauerkraut to help me with my german last year. =)

[ftlouiea]

yeah, mighty easy. and you can just feel the sunny side of the language when you study... i think :-) its so amazing, and did you know they have fiestas where they throw tomatoes at each other for fun? and the have san fermin fiesta where they let young bulls run wild in the streets, and young men are supposed to run in front of them to impress the girls ( pure d***heads to me) but you know.

yeah! that's what i thought, coz i heard it at the end of a song, and it just sounded like "i love youuuuu" kinda style!

haha german songs. i can think of some rock band... which i can't remember their name.

las ketchup is spanish! #asereje ha je ....#

[FreaK]

haha...but i think i'm the only jay fan in austria...
austria dunno any chinese singer/actor...thats so..argh!!!!
well...we tok abt languages ;)
is latin difficult to learn?!
dutch is like german, isnt it?

[xJayChoux]

jessca, argh....! youre so lucky! you only had to study German for 1 year, right? :cry: sigh...btw, i have another Latin test for tomorrow. X_X

FreaK, omg...believe me...Latin is like 10 times harder than German. but maybe bcos i know Dutch and thats almost the same as German. (Dutch is much more fun tho. :wink2:)

[FreaK]

i think german is easy...haha...well i live in austria..sure its easy ;)
i think dutch sounds kinda funny.
i dun like french very much, because u have to write so much, hahah. there r so much ´`^ and whatever...hahha

[sauerkraut]

no offense, but latin is an absolutely useless language nowadays IMO (i mean, c'mon, it's a dead language... :dry: ). i had take latin courses for like 2 or 3 years... what a waste of time... :wacko:

wow, another fellow german-speaking jay fan! :happy: welcome FreaK! :wave:

[FreaK]

umm...well, i think u need latin if u wanna study medicine or sth like that.
i am quite new here. r there a lot of german speaking jay fanz?! :?

[sauerkraut]

umm...well, i think u need latin if u wanna study medicine or sth like that.
i am quite new here. r there a lot of german speaking jay fanz?! :?
sauerkraut do u know any other jay fan who lives in germany or austria?!

um, not really. i don't think there are lots of german-speaking jay fans. i mean i know lots of ppl who like his music, but they're not really fans, if you know what i mean.

there are a few other german-speaking fans around here, but i think they've been inactive for quite a while now.

yeah, that's true, but there are lots of universites that require at least basic or intermediate knowledge of latin in completely unrelated fields of study. it just doesn't make any sense. :dry:

[FreaK]

hhaha..icic
i was juz wondering that there R any german speaking jay fanz around here..hehe
but jay is more famous than i thought..keke
do u live in germany, sauerkraut? and where in germany?
have u ever been to austria?

[XiaoWuan]

i am from austria... so i speak german.....its very cool! its not very difficult to speak the language :-)
but i am originally from china :-) :rolleyes: :D :excited: therefore I can speak Cantonese...But I`m not so good :cry: I can speak it because it is my native language!!!
:wave:

so i search some austrian JAy_fans! do u like jay?? :D
verstehst du das dann schreibe mir! :oops:

[FreaK]

yeeaaahhhhzz...
another jay fan frum austria! hahahahah...sure...thats my cousin..hahahahahahah...
umm...i dun think that german is easy to learn becoz of der, die and das..

[sauerkraut]

Yep, I live in Germany, near Cologne. And of course I've been to Austria. I really like it there. :happy: Where do you live in Austria?

[FreaK]

i live in upper austria. where have u been in austria?
did u go skiing?

[xJayChoux]

yeah...i know Latin sucks. but it helped me during my German lessons. it still does. :happy: i hate Latin grammar...but their Mythology is interesting. =P

ssshh....should get back to work now...have a Latin test for tomorrow...:cry:

[sauerkraut]

i *wish* i could, but unfortunately i can't seem to walk on my own two feet without bumping into everything. :shifty: Have you ever been to Germany? Well, I've been to cities like Salzburg, Vienna etc.

sinny: good luck for your latin test then! :happy: Or maybe you should go in there and say, "Veni, vidi, vici" :tongue:

[FreaK]

ya i have been to germany..i have been to the Bavaria Filmstudios in münchen.
that was cool! i really liked it! have u ever been to this studio?

[sauerkraut]

Nope, not really. What did you do there? Where are you or your parents originally from btw?

[FreaK]

my parents were born in vietnam but they r originally frum china. so i am frum china too ^^
i was there (münchen) wif my class.

[xJayChoux]

sauerkraut, thanks. i did my test this morning...and it sucked so bad! :dead: its not even an "average"...:oops:

gosh...how i love English. :sweat:

[FreaK]

was it really THAT bad, xJayChoux? i hope u will get a good mark, but it seems very bad. next time u will do better! :happy:
u have to study latin in school?!
i luv english too :wink2: coz english is more important than french....^^"

[xJayChoux]

no...i dont have to...but i want to. :shy: im not sure if i want to continue taking Latin lessons next year tho :oops:

hmm....im not sure what mark i'll get...really dun wanna know. :sweat:

well....no only is it more important, its also lots easier....methinks...lol :D

[sauerkraut]

sauerkraut, thanks. i did my test this morning...and it sucked so bad! :dead: its not even an "average"...:oops:

gosh...how i love English. :sweat:

don't worry. latin isn't that important really. i never really liked the language myself. how long have you been taking latin classes?

[XiaoWuan]

jessca: hey cool u can write: Guten morgen Lehrerin!..its cool :-)

I am from austria....do u want some german lessons :-)

[xJayChoux]

don't worry. latin isn't that important really. i never really liked the language myself. how long have you been taking latin classes?

sry for my late reply. :sweat: :shy:

hmm...this is my 2nd year. i like the mythology and culture, etc....but the grammar is a nightmare. :dead:

[sauerkraut]

sry for my late reply. :sweat: :shy:

hmm...this is my 2nd year. i like the mythology and culture, etc....but the grammar is a nightmare. :dead:

yeah, i know what you're talking about. i remember how dreadful latin grammar can be. and absolutetly pointless, too. :dry:

[xJayChoux]

yeah...its not like its gonna be usefull for my future career...methinks... :glug:

hehe...we've to make something like an assignment for Latin...and we're going to watch "The Gladiator" in class. thats gonna be uber fun, cos i havent watched it yet. :tongue: and after that we'll have to make an essay about it too, i think. :unsure:

but im sure its gonna be OK. ^^

[sauerkraut]

wow, you get to watch "gladiator" in class? not bad... back in school, our latin lessons mainly consisted of grammar (lots of) :wacko: and translation stuff. i guess it would've been lots more fun if we've only had another teacher.

[xJayChoux]

:D haha its only 3 lessons tho. -_-

our Latin teacher is the "chef" of the Latin section, i think. she gives us loads of notes, translation stuff, etc. :wacko:

we've finished the movie today and i totally adore Russell Crowe's acting. :love: heehee...the end was kinda weird tho. O_o

[Sweet_Monkey]

hmm...I`m fluently in German because I live in Austria since I was born... :rolleyes:
And of course English...and now I`m learnin French in the first year in school...
And I really want to learn SPANISH... :happy:

[mjj86]

My first language is Finnish, but I speak English at the level of a native speaker, due to the fact that I study at an international school.
I'm also studying German, Italian and Swedish at school, and I'd consider myself to be semi-fluent at least in Italian. I've also studied Portuguese and Icelandic at some point in my life, so I know the very basics of those two languages. :happy:

I'd love to study Russian! Maybe some day...

[Katie23]

It seems a lot of people can speak more than one language...but do you think it's useful??? I speak Dutch, which is neccesary, since I live in the Netherlands, and I can speak English, which is good, because English is spoken almost everywhere. I know a bit French and German, but I think learning that at school was very very useless, because I would not be able to communicate with a native. They should have use those hours to teach us better English...I'm taking Mandarin lessons right now, which I think is useful, since I'm Chinese. I would like to learn Spanish too, because that's spoken in many countries over the world too. I think speaking English, Spanish and your own language are the best to learn. But if you always go to one country, learning the language of that country is good too. But anyway, being able to speak many languages may not be always neccesary, it's still COOL!!!

[ZeGeR]

I speak Swedish, English and Spanish. I also now some Danish and german. It´s fun to be able to express yourself in many ways =)

[yarukon]

My motherlanguage is german and i learned english in school....but my dad is american, so thats why i can speak this language quite good too.
i learn spanish right now in school and i hope i am able to improve my knowledge a little bit....because my anciestors were spanish...
i also learned latin 4 years...but i already forgot everything.... so i totally can speak 2 languages perfectly and i am learning spanish in school AAAAND i am going to learn chinese(mandarin) by myself(or better....i try to)^^

[junnleenfaah]

this is gunna be my fourth year of learning french, but i suck at it =/ it's such a most GORGEOUS language though. everything sounds sexier in french :P i love learning the language and i'm hoping to learn italian one day too (= [but i better learn my own native language first, eh? haha i know.. sad..]

[[edit]]
by the way.. i never knew we had so many european jay fans!! awesome (= i was reading several posts back and someone said jay was popular in france. i need to explore paris some more when i go back one day.. see if i find any places where they carry jay stuff.. perhaps in french!? haha that would be so cool.

so for those living in europe, are there some stores that carry jay merchandise? or do you hafta order it from yesasia.com or something like that? when i was in london last year, my parents and i went to chinatown but we only saw restaurants and bakeries :dry:

[HarmonyCloud]

hmm European Languages, I never realized that jay is so popular in Europe o.O
I can speak French and Polish
I think probably to answer your question Junnleenfaah, those fans most likely would have to order Jay merchandise off of the net...

[Joey88]

this is gunna be my fourth year of learning french, but i suck at it =/ it's such a most GORGEOUS language though. everything sounds sexier in french :P i love learning the language

junnleenfaah: everything DOES sound sexier in french huh! but my stupid primary teacher made me learn german! GERMAN! probably the most unsexiest languages in the world (no offence to the german speakers). so after i got my A in german for GCSE i was going to learn french. but instead, ive started to learn mandarin. no regrets.

so in a nutshell: be sexy... learn french.

oh i can speak english! :brows:

[Irina]

Hi,very interesting thread!Ok,now my turn.My mothertongue is russian.I was born in Lithuania so second language is Lithuanian,I can speak fluently.In school I am learning English(11 years)and 1 year I am learning german.And in nearst future I will be learning chinese in the university!:)

[Joey88]

irina: wow! :excited: thats going to be 5 languages you know! i wouldnt be able to learn 5 languages. ill get mixed up in which language im speaking and itll sound really strange. i get really confused when im trying to speak german now because i always end up speaking mandarin. its just some words are similar. eg:

Wo (Mandarin) = Me
Wo (German) = Where

:?

[junnleenfaah]

so in a nutshell: be sexy... learn french.



LOL. agreed. (=

haha, i kinda have the same problem as you, joey. when i speak chinese to my grandma or mom, i'll end up slipping a french word in there in replace of the chinese word [like when i want to say "but" in chinese, i have a tendency to go "mais" which is the french way to say it] and my mom or grandma will be like.. :? i get mixed up in which language i need to be speaking!! haha

[Joey88]

LOL. agreed. (=

haha, i kinda have the same problem as you, joey. when i speak chinese to my grandma or mom, i'll end up slipping a french word in there in replace of the chinese word

im getting worse and worse now. even when speaking my first language (cantonese), i usually end up speaking english. its really annoying. i think ive forgotten loads of words in cantonese! aiiii....

now all i do is speak english and add in some random cantonese words when i feel like it. :?

[junnleenfaah]

OMG the funniest thing happened to me yesterday.

so, i volunteer at this crisis hotline phone center place and there was this hispanic woman that called and asked for the spanish hotline number, so i gave her the number [with my volunteer telling me how to pronounce the numbers in spanish, lol] and then she repeated the number to make sure she was correct, and instead of saying "si" for yes in spanish i say "oui" in french instead!! and my co-volunteer and supervisor was with me and they were trying to hard to not laugh at me while i was on the phone. i, myself, was having the hardest time trying not to burst out laughing. finally when i hung up with the woman, the three of us just bursted out laughing for like 5 minutes. I FELT LIKE SUCH A DORK!!

[Irina]

Joey,haha,its not so hard to know 5 languages,just i always using them,that why i dont forget them.In family I am speaking Russian in the streets Lithuanian,now I am attending english college,with friends in the internet I am speaking english,german its only on the first step and chinese in the nearest future,actually Ive started to learn it by myself!:-)

[Beat of Angel]

eeeemmm,hi everybody!how are you??I'm new in this forum..I'm chinese but my first language is spanish because I was born in Spain but I know speak chinese a bit,I'm learning english and french at university.And..I LOVE JAY :-)

[hiikarii]

I can speak English, French and German for the European languages...
Other languages I can are: Chinese and a lil bit Japanese ;-)
Didn't know that so many of you learn German in school o_O"

[xJayChoux]

is German a must-learn language in schools in the UK?

and what about French?

^Chih, is your chinese (and with that i mean reading, speaking, writing) better than your english?

[princessKitty]

xJayChouxI had to leanr spanish compulsory for three years, then you had the option again to choose whether you want to carry on studying it for another 2 years as a GSCE.

I picked spanish, I studied it for 5 years.........and I forgotten half of it.:oops:

[xJayChoux]

princessKitty, ah...it needs practice. if i dont practice my chinese every now and then i'll also forget half (or shall say ALL) of it. :sweat:

Chih, i was born in the Netherlands so my dutch is better than my chinese. i also go to a chinese school once every week. do you also learn mandarin there?

[princessKitty]

xJayChouxYep! as they say, practise makes perfect doen'st it? I think if you live in the country that you are learning, it will also help immensly because you are constantly hearing it all the time everywhere, streets, T.V, shops etc.

I use to go chinese school. I went for about 10 years and I miss going.

[Simon00]

Hi!
I study english,french,german,arabian..I used to learn spanish,finnish...and something of japanese! I'd like to learn chinese!! Anyone wanna help me?!?:D

[princessKitty]

Hi!
I study english,french,german,arabian..I used to learn spanish,finnish...and something of japanese! I'd like to learn chinese!! Anyone wanna help me?!?:D

Help you learn chinese you mean?

There is currently a thread about learning chinese:

http://jay-chou.net/forums/showthread.php?t=804&highlight=learn+chinese

You can go here.

By the way, you study a lot of languages!!Don't it get confusing?:wacko:

[Livlife2_fullest]

i'm currently in the fourth year of my high school spanish education...might take ap Spanish next year, or just regular spanish 5...but i'm also very interested in french...

right now, i'm a junior in high school...when I get to college...would it be bad (scorned by college advisors) if I wanted to start French from level one in my freshman year? anyone that can answer my question? Thanx!

[LayRyan]

I speak english and german, i want to learn french but ive chosen latin which was one of my biggest mistake in life! arghhh

[princessKitty]

Just want to share some english slang with you guys, well slang that is used here in London. Here is just some that I can think of out of my head:

Key:
Purple-Slang word
Green- Original word

_______________________________________________

Nang-----------------Excellent, great
example: that film was so nang!

Safe------------------ An expression of agreement, or thanks or a way of greeting someone
example: that's nang man, thanks for this, safe yeah.

Allow it------------------Forget it, don't bother
example: ah allow it man, I'll get in trouble if my mum knows.

blad------------------Mate, Friend
example: safe blad

wagwan------------------A form of greeting.(What is happening?)
example: wagwan blad.

Bate------------------Obvoius
example: why are so you bate?

I use to use slang when I was at school, it was like a normal language to us, but we often get into truble for speaking 'unproper' english. I sometimes use the odd slang like 'nang' or 'allow it' but not as much as I use to. I wonder in 10 years time what words the younger generation would use as slang. :hmm:

[IsaBonita]

i learn and speak fluently German (for sure thats my first language)
for 6 years I am learining Englsih, so i guess thats quiete "ok" too laugh.gif

for 4 years i am learining French....lol
i dont have the feeling to be able to speak and undertsnad taht language very well O_______________O difficult

and last but not least, i can also speak and write and of course
understand Spanish....well most of it
since i am half spanish ^-^

[shez]

i learnt french, german and spanish (and obviously english) in school. i think it's great that they're introducing chinese in european schools now even though i'm sure some people will find it annoying and extremely hard

[panda_shine]

Wow, it seems like many of you can speak German here :excited:

I want to know if it's a hard language to learn? because I am currently looking for a language course to take at uni and German is one of the ones I am considering. I am just worried it'll be hard. I've learned French for quite a few years.. but I don't really know if it'll be helpful to learning German at all.. since when I look at the German words.. they sound very foreign to me.

[tomato_0]

i learnt spanish during primary school, but when i moved up to high school, i learnt italian and french. but they're ALL oh so similar ^^ but i dropped italian last year because i found that harder than french - french is uber cool =]

but i guess i'd rather learn japanese or chinese at school. it'd have more use to me in the future coz i dont really plan on going to france or italy

[xJayChoux]

karen jie, German IS hard. i speak dutch which is very similar to German, but German is still difficult for me. the grammar is much harder and the pronuncation is a killer. :wacko:

but yeah... i don't know, what other options do you have?

[HAMA25]

At school we don't have chance to learn European languages much( except english is so wide- teaching and learning :D )
I really want to learn French and i'm trying now myself:shy: , but French is soooooooo difficult and confusing:oops:

[panda_shine]

So Italian is similar to French? I might consider taking the course in the future then. :sweat:

I haven't touched French since high school and I actually miss learning French. In the beginning when I first learned intensive grammar stuff, it was a bit difficult but once you get the rules and stuff, it's actually not too hard.

Sinny: Ok, I guess I won't take German then :oops: (and I found out the class was all full too :sweat:) Other options I have are Italian, French, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Greek, Portuguese.. that's all I can remember for now :tongue:

[xJayChoux]

HAMA25, lol. i think every student around the world has to learn english nowadays. i don't know, "UK english" is different than "American english" right? i think most of the countries are teaching "UK english" though. at least mine is. :tongue:

Karen jie, hmm... you know chinese already right? i think it depends on whether you want to take an asian language or a european language. if you want to take a european language, i would say choose french. french is more common used in europe than italian (from my experience). =P hmm... actually greek wouldn't be such a bad idea either... i'd say go where your heart lies. xD

but yeah... i'd choose japanese for an asian language if i were you.

[princessKitty]

The good thing about European languages like Spanish and French is that the verbing and nouns concepts are the same. For example, in Spanish, the word for 'to talk' is 'habler'. If you want to say 'I talk' then you just change it to the first person verb to 'hablo', or 'we talk' is 'hablamos'. Likewise, in French, Italian and portugese, it is the same. So if you learn one european language, I am sure it won't be too difficult to learn another.

[IsaBonita]

^lol yes u are right
i know Spanish and in school i am learning French
i thnk french is also lil bit easier for me, coz it really has some siliarities with the spanish
lol the word for garden for example is exactly the same-> jardin
its juz pronounced ina different way
lol....

ps: the spanish infinitive of "talk" is -> "hablar" not "habler" but doesnt matter.lol juz a lil correction ^-^"

[panda_shine]

"UK english" is different than "American english" right?
Yup, it is.. but I think only certain vocabs and like different slangs.

Sinny: That's good news.. to hear that French is common because I really like French. My younger brother is so.. anti-French (language wise) which annoys me because he thinks it's only valid in Quebec (Canada) and France. :dry: So a lot of people know French in Europe? Is it kind of like a second language?
Yeah, Japanese was actually my first choice but time conflicts.. maybe in the future :tongue:

It's really interesting that French (and other European languages) words has masculine and feminine. When, I first learned it, it was really weird to think of words as that way since English and Chinese don't have it.

[xJayChoux]

Karen jie, well...it's not THAT common that every country can speak french. :sweat: but like in the south of belgium, they speak french...and in Switzerland too. when you look at other languages... you can often find similar words with the same meaning (as french). i don't know if you've ever learned latin, but that might help if you decide to study french. =P

[venetta]

Hmm I speak Romanian and I havent found anyone here who can speak this language. It sounds almost like Italian and some of the words are similar.
Knows a little bit of Spanish and I'm planning to take up French because I wanna go for study exchange to France by, hopefully, next year. In my opinion I think Asian languages are more interesting :roll: just me though. Japanese and Chinese in particular.

[baranamtara]

I'm fom Austria... So I speak German... ^-^ understand lots of this swiss-german stuff though. SOme people don't... ^-^ Hehehe...
I can speak a little bit of french... Cause I studied it in school once. But that's just a long time ago... Sooo long ago... ^^ :rolleyes:

... For European languages... I don't really know a lot... English of course...
Right now... I love to learn Asian Languages. So for now I'm learning Japanese and Korean... XD
Next will be Chnese. Yay!!! ^^ :D

[IsaBonita]

baranamtara
oh really u know german? very nice, welocme in the club!
I am from germany thats why i know german to of course
i cannot really understand swiss.german it sounds for me very starnge and is very hard to understand
though ausrial-german sounds cute (lol no offense ^^)

very impressive that u learn asian languages...
u go to a private school or what?

[1a2n3]

I speak Dutch as my main language cuz I live in the Netherlands, but I prefer speaking English and Chinese (Cantonese). English becuz I like the language.. Chinese becuz I'm Chinese.. I studied French and German in the past but I can't remember alot about that. I'm studied Spanish for a half year so I just know the basics from that language. :D

Ermz.. I want to learn Mandarin Chinese!! >=[

[murokeksi]

Okey, I speak Finnish and that is my first language, then English(what I like to learn:excited: ) and Swedish(what I hate... I studied Swedish 6 years, but now I`m free! (We have to study Swedish in Finland:rasp: ))

[DareCrow]

I'm Italian,so I Speak Ital...well,I guess there's no need to say that :-)

But I can speak French,English,German and Spanish too.

Languages are my passion,and my job...see ya,nice thread.

[taipan]

Swiss German is not that bad. ^_^ Okay, it actually my native language.
I also speak 'normal' German (more or less) perfectly.
Then I speak French, English.
I understand a bit Italian (because in a part of Switzerland Italian is used), Spanish also a bit and I've Latinlessons at school.
And I try to learn Japanese and Chinese because I'm very interested in Asian languages. ^_^

[DareCrow]

And I try to learn Japanese and Chinese because I'm very interested in Asian languages. ^_^


These are the languages I'm learning at university...or at least I'm trying to...they're not that easy,but they're amazing.

[ftlouiea]

^ Japanese isn't as interesting as I thought it would be. :depresse:

BUT SPANISH =D
I had never thought of it, but many of my classmates are from Hispanic countries, can speak but cannot write the language. And I always thought it was only Chinese where the children of families living abroad were the only ones hit by not knowing their native language.... :hmm:

[taipan]

I also think that Chinese and Japanese are interesting. It's not always the same like the roman languages like French, Spanish and so on.

I also know some Chinese people from my school - they have the same problem: The speak fluently, but the writing is a problem..

[Azn_Sweetie]

Whoa so much european people! :wave:
Well to my part, my native language is Chinese, i speak french too because i was born here. I learn English and Spanish at school. I'd like to learn Korean and Japanese and Cambodian! Cantonese too (i know, so much languages :D).
It's very interesting to learn many languages, and at the same time their custom. The world is so big and full of beautiful things! :happy:

[ranne0989]

Oooh I love languages! what an interesting topic :D

My first language is Korean (since my parents are Korean), but I was born in Sweden so I would say that my Swedish is better :tongue:
Im also studying English, German and Spanish in school. But Im not very good at Spanish tho:shy:

And Im gonna start studying Chinese this fall:-) Im so excited!!!

[aznamy]

hehe.
i speak German because i live in Germany and i learn English and French in school :) but some vocabulary of them are almost the same!
like. in english: page and in french it is the same word with the same meaning!

[alisadorsey@yahoo.co]

I already speak fluently English and Spanish. I would like to learn to speak German, and Swedish, since I have friends who live there. I would liek to visit one day and surprise them by speaking in their native tongue. I think that would be really cool.

[hk-kc-jc]

i know english fluently lol.. obviously cos thats where i was born =P

but at school i learnt spanish, german and french and did a GCSE on french which i think i failed in haha.. i can only make simple sentences so i dont know whether you call that fluent lol

i know cantonese since my parents are from hong kong but my speaking of it is ><" .. haha.. its cos i speak english all of the time and only occasionally do i speak chinese when im tlking to chinese adults..

i know some mandarin through listening to jay chou songs but i wouldnt say that i am confident in speaking it since the chinese sentence structure is so complicated and is hard to make sense lol.. because you cant just translate from english to chinese word for word.. chinese people would be laughing at u when they hear u speak LOL

i also know some korean phrases through listening to big bang music and watching their interviews lol.. ahhhh.. isnt listening to music from different countries so great? hehe

hmm.. maybe i should have listened to french songs to prepare me for my french exams haha