Learning German
Discussion
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.
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.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 my German is pretty bad, I tend to mangle my die-der-das-den-etc into a vague 'duh' if I'm not sure
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 - you might sound like an idiot thoughworks 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 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 GermanGermans being forced to publicly admit that they don't know something, and losing money at the same time - it's torture!
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
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. 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?
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.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.
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.
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. Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!
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. Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!
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.
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.
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. Why not try something like Dutch instead? It's similar to German, but easier!
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?be wary of saying "my missus is a nutter" in Germany
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