xthetenth Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Have you ever wished you had access to a pool of information, but didn't because you had no way to understand it? I have enough problems getting through my English language sources without dealing with the fact that the mustached Germans who wrote about everything in the 1800s write prose dry that I probably couldn't get through a sentence even if it were my native language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 You should move. If I were to move to Russia, I'd move to a place with no people around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanagandr Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Fun ancedote; I had some very specific problems when I tried to learn Spanish. I know German well, and I know some Swedish, and there are a surprising number of false friends. 'Es' means 'it' in German, and 'it is' in Spanish. 'En' means 'the' in Swedish or 'in' in Spanish. 'Og', pronounced 'oh, means 'and' in Swedish, while 'o' in Spanish, pronounced the same, means 'or'. 'Y', in Spanish is pronounced the same as 'i' in Swedish; the former means 'and', the latter means 'in'. 'De' means 'of', in Spanish, and means 'they' in Swedish, but it is pronounced 'dome'. It took several weeks before I could reliably keep myself from pronouncing 'de' Swedishly. I still use 'es' in Spanish as the German 'es', which fortunately is fairly interchangeable, at least to the point that I'm understood. Another interesting thing is that whenever I learn languages now, I tend to relate them to German. IE Spanish first person's -o conjugation to German -e, second person -as to -st, third person plural -en to -en, etc. Collimatrix 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Speaking of anecdotes, the the final English exam on Dutch high schools have a time limit of 2 hours. People are still allowed to enter half an hour after the official start of the exam. When I started leaning back and relaxing after 15 minutes, a supervisor came rushing to me: "...something wrong?" - "Nah, I'm done" "... you sure? You did finish all parts?" - "Yep" "Well, I can't let you go, people are still entering, you gotta wait for a bit, just... double check your answers". Half an hour after the start I got waved over to the front and I could leave. If looks could kill, I would have been killed about a hundred times , I could feel the hatred burning in my back. Students in that high school are 'notorious' for speaking bad English. (No, it's not the school, it's demographics*.) Yes, I passed. Thankfully, it was a written exam, my pronunciation was, and still is, garbage. * There is a noticeable difference between religious and non-religious 'back in my day'. This is most likely due to religious people not having TV and not watching movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xthetenth Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Yes, I passed. Thankfully, it was a written exam, my pronunciation was, and still is, garbage. Don't worry, even the people who made the language can't even speak it right anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Yes, I passed. Thankfully, it was a written exam, my pronunciation was, and still is, garbage. You pronounce English a fuckload better than I pronounce Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 From what I heard on Teamspeak, yeah you better not speak Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Sorry I can't pronounce "phlemhgerolledrphlemzjeean" properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Sorry I can't pronounce "phlemhgerphlemzjeean" properly. Says Nettheynjieël . Like you don't have a sound like the first two letters of my name, we don't have the 'th' sound. Just call me Bronze (even though that's an utter mispronounciation of the first part of this nickname) or Big G, as Colli likes to call me, for some reason. I dunno how he came up with that since I'm neither big nor a gangster. I'm a pasty white dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 If you can't pronounce "thuh", then Nah-tah-nee-ell" is a perfectly acceptable and intelligible variant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanagandr Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Let's not forget how difficult it is to pronounce anything in Swahili, let alone keep track of conjugation or case. Also I would like to know what teamspeak this is, so I can pick up a good Dutch accent so I can pretend at knowing Dutch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Let's not forget how difficult it is to pronounce anything in Swahili, let alone keep track of conjugation or case. Also I would like to know what teamspeak this is, so I can pick up a good Dutch accent so I can pretend at knowing Dutch http://sturgeonshouse.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/5-forum-teamspeak/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T___A Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Fools, everyone knows the best Dutch language is Pennsylvania Dutch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Except it's German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T___A Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Except it's German.Nah it's Deitsch get your facts straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 Nah it's Deitsch get your facts straight. That's what I'm saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T___A Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 That's what I'm saying.Anyone who speaks Dutch or any of its countless dialects is a Dutchman as far as my 19th century sensibilities are concerned. And don't get me started on Alexander Schimmelfennig and his flying dutchmen, he spent the entirety of Gettysburg in an outhouse while his men earned their nickname and fled at the first rebel yell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 You do know that Dutch isn't the same as Deutsch, right? I, as a Dutchman, don't even know who Alexander Schimmelfennig is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T___A Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 There wasn't in 19th century English, which was my point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 There wasn't in 19th century English, which was my point. Fair enough, I don't know anything about that to be honest. I only know that a lot of people assume that Dutch = Deutsch. Like "Oh you're Dutch? Cool, I know Dutch!" *starts to speak in German*. Slightly relevant: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 You know we don't take kindly to CGP Grey 'round these parts, don't you, pardner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronezhilet Posted January 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 No I do not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 I'm kidding anyway. I just find some of his political theories amusingly stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanagandr Posted January 26, 2016 Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Fools, everyone knows the best Dutch language is Pennsylvania Dutch. This is just incomprehensible. I like how every once in a while he says something that comes straight of English though. On the topic of Deitch/Dutch/Deutsch, next people will be saying Bayrisch is German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted February 22, 2016 Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 Some fantastic language discussion here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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