Learning German

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Discussion

philthy

4,689 posts

239 months

Friday 29th June 2012
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Use Psychology said:
and yes, people respond well to me totally mangling their language, at least I try. One thing I do notice is that far more people correct me (at work) than I would expect in the UK, and people don't understand so well when I talk really badly. I have a theory that british people are very used to hearing foreigners speak english, and are good at understanding what they mean when the grammar is not perfect, and furthermore are relaxed about the language being used incorrectly. maybe in other countries, where they are less used to hearing foreigners speak their language, this is not so much the case.
Very very true.
As a nation, we hear our language being absolutely mangled by everybody, including ourselves. It's been happening for so long, we have got very good at it.
Jump across the channel, and the opposite is true.
I'm not sure whether we should be proud or ashamed of that?
Recently, I upset a French woman who spoke very good English, but of course with an accent. As we were discussing it, I pointed out that in English, it is Mother in law, not "Mother in low" as she pronounced it.
Perfectly understandable for me, but you'd have thought I'd st in her handbag when I corrected her!

OP, watch German TV for a bit. Better yet, watch Hollywood films, with Deutsch subtitles.
Surprising how much you will pick up.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
paulwoof said:
i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
You do know that Geman uses three genders, don't you?

gherkins

483 posts

230 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
paulwoof said:
plus it is a nice sounding language
Never ever heard this said about German. I work in an international organisation and speak German, French and Spanish, but find German the worst. It is logically illogical. Numbers are backwards, half past one is halb zwei and conversations are slow as you have to wait half an hour for a bloody verb. To speak it well will take years. If you want to learn a European language, choose Italian or Spanish, or if you like the ladies blonder, Swedish. Otherwise, learn something that will be good on your CV, like Chinese or Japanese.


gherkins

483 posts

230 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Doofus said:
paulwoof said:
i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
You do know that Geman uses three genders, don't you?
And that a girl is neuter!

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

232 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Use Psychology said:
and yes, people respond well to me totally mangling their language, at least I try. One thing I do notice is that far more people correct me (at work) than I would expect in the UK, and people don't understand so well when I talk really badly. I have a theory that british people are very used to hearing foreigners speak english, and are good at understanding what they mean when the grammar is not perfect, and furthermore are relaxed about the language being used incorrectly. maybe in other countries, where they are less used to hearing foreigners speak their language, this is not so much the case.
a bit of that, also Germans are quite prepared to simply say "Falsch" (wrong!) to each other if they disagree with something they've said, they're used to being 'Besserwissers' - know it alls biggrin

my German is pretty bad, I tend to mangle my die-der-das-den-etc into a vague 'duh' if I'm not sure wink

gherkins said:
And that a girl is neuter!
if you add the diminutive '-chen' on to the end of any noun, you can make it neuter, so you can always use Das biggrin - you might sound like an idiot though

works much better in Dutch where it's quite acceptable to do that to every word, have a Biertje etc

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Friday 29th June 08:26

Use Psychology

11,327 posts

191 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
oh god, don't they just love being know-it-alls. I work with a bunch of scientists so this makes it even worse.

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

232 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Use Psychology said:
oh god, don't they just love being know-it-alls. I work with a bunch of scientists so this makes it even worse.
this is why I love Wer wird Millionär in German

Germans being forced to publicly admit that they don't know something, and losing money at the same time - it's torture!

Lady Muck

1,184 posts

208 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
I am learning Greek using the Michel Thomas Method. It is brilliant, and really easy.

Amazon is your friend.




Bodo

12,368 posts

265 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Hugo a Gogo said:
a bit of that, also Germans are quite prepared to simply say "Falsch" (wrong!) to each other if they disagree with something they've said, they're used to being 'Besserwissers' - know it alls biggrin
Wrong. It's 'Besserwisser' - the plural doesn't have an 's' at the end. Besides, I have no idea where you got that from; Germans being know-it-alls. hehe

Also, if you look up 'Besserwisser' in dict.leo.org (only an anorak would do this), it returns 'wisenheimer' as synonymical. Why does that sound so German?

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

232 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
bit of Denglish creeping in (or is it Englitch or something when it's the other way round?) putting an S plural on, sorry!

It's all "Wasser off an Ente's Rucke" as my scottish neighbour says

Bodo

12,368 posts

265 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Wisenheimer is quoted as being an English expression. Says it all biggrin
And please excuse me for being a smart ass. I just couldn't resist. It's in the genes. wink

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

232 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
I think it's Americanism, they're half German anyway wink

maser_spyder

6,356 posts

181 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
gherkins said:
paulwoof said:
plus it is a nice sounding language
Never ever heard this said about German. I work in an international organisation and speak German, French and Spanish, but find German the worst. It is logically illogical. Numbers are backwards, half past one is halb zwei and conversations are slow as you have to wait half an hour for a bloody verb. To speak it well will take years. If you want to learn a European language, choose Italian or Spanish, or if you like the ladies blonder, Swedish. Otherwise, learn something that will be good on your CV, like Chinese or Japanese.
I spend 2 or 3 months a year in Austria, but my German still isn't great...

And I'd definitely say it's not a pretty language. Romance languages are much easier on the tongue, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, etc.

Chinese, by the time you get relatively proficient, is quite a short hop to Japanese. Very similar to learning English and then French. English, let's be honest, is just French spoken with a bad accent. wink

Japanese comes directly from Chinese, via Korea, so it's a sort of third-cousin once removed, but in essence is really quite similar. Think Latin to Italian to French to English.

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
paulwoof said:
i had no interest in learning any language when i was at school. mainly because they only did french, i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
And therein lies a problem. If you weren't interested then, what makes you think you'd be interested now? It might seem like a good idea now, but after a couple of weeks of it you may well think differently. German has three genders to French's two, and it has a case system which French doesn't have.

In other words, if you want an easy language to learn, forget German. It's easy enough when you get the hang of it, but stuff like three verbs at the end of a sentence will blow your mind. biggrin Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!

Pixel Pusher

10,188 posts

158 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
gherkins said:
Doofus said:
paulwoof said:
i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
You do know that Geman uses three genders, don't you?
And that a girl is neuter!
Actually, it's spelt nutter.

smile

Bodo

12,368 posts

265 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
SGirl said:
paulwoof said:
i had no interest in learning any language when i was at school. mainly because they only did french, i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
And therein lies a problem. If you weren't interested then, what makes you think you'd be interested now? It might seem like a good idea now, but after a couple of weeks of it you may well think differently. German has three genders to French's two, and it has a case system which French doesn't have.

In other words, if you want an easy language to learn, forget German. It's easy enough when you get the hang of it, but stuff like three verbs at the end of a sentence will blow your mind. biggrin Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!
Paul, hör auf die Dame! Sie hätte nicht nur die Details über die Unterschiede zwischen den Sprachen schon wissen können, als das hier alles noch Felder waren - sie hat auch noch Erfahrung in der professionellen Übersetzung zwischen verschiedenen europäischen Sprachen smile

Bodo

12,368 posts

265 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Google translate breaks trying to translate this^ smile

Saddle bum

4,211 posts

218 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
I took advantage of free lessons offered by MoD in the 1970's. (Another incentive was that the teacher was an absolute Sweetie).

I did not find it terribly difficult.

I believe the ease or difficulty associated with languages may have something to do with your ancestry. Being very blond and blue-eyed, when abroad I had problems getting people to accept I was English.

I get very little opportunity to speak and practice German, but I really enjoy it when I do.

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Bodo said:
SGirl said:
paulwoof said:
i had no interest in learning any language when i was at school. mainly because they only did french, i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
And therein lies a problem. If you weren't interested then, what makes you think you'd be interested now? It might seem like a good idea now, but after a couple of weeks of it you may well think differently. German has three genders to French's two, and it has a case system which French doesn't have.

In other words, if you want an easy language to learn, forget German. It's easy enough when you get the hang of it, but stuff like three verbs at the end of a sentence will blow your mind. biggrin Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!
Paul, hör auf die Dame! Sie hätte nicht nur die Details über die Unterschiede zwischen den Sprachen schon wissen können, als das hier alles noch Felder waren - sie hat auch noch Erfahrung in der professionellen Übersetzung zwischen verschiedenen europäischen Sprachen smile
^^ Now you just know that this is going to be perfect German. hehe Hello Bodo, how are you doing? Haven't seen you in ages!

Hugo a Gogo

23,378 posts

232 months

Friday 29th June 2012
quotequote all
Pixel Pusher said:
gherkins said:
Doofus said:
paulwoof said:
i couldnt get my head around LE and LA, what country on earth has a feminine bus.
You do know that Geman uses three genders, don't you?
And that a girl is neuter!
Actually, it's spelt nutter.

smile
is that English 'nutter' or German 'nutte' (prostitute)?

be wary of saying "my missus is a nutter" in Germany wink