« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.
Is a correct paragraph in Mandarin. Here's the translation.
« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.
Likewise, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a correct grammatically sentence in english. The same with, James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher. Although James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher is more correct. Language is fascinating. Isn't it?
Yeah, but no native speaker would understand that unless s/he went back over it a few times as Mandarin is highly context-specific. Pretty neat way to confuse them though!
[editline]3rd December 2012[/editline]
《施氏食狮史》
石室诗士施氏,嗜狮,誓食十狮。
氏时时适市视狮。
十时,适十狮适市。
是时,适施氏适市。
氏视是十狮,恃矢势,使是十狮逝世。
氏拾是十狮尸,适石室。
石室湿,氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭,氏始试食是十狮。
食时,始识是十狮尸,实十石狮尸。
试释是事。
That's the poem in hanzi which makes a lot more sense to anyone reading it. Each tone of shi has multiple meanings but each meaning has its own character.
[i]Re-posting this because wow, of course I get the last post of that page[/i]
To start learning a language, it's incredibly important to start with personal pronouns and modal verbs.
Personal Pronouns:
[quote]
I
You
He/She/It
We
You (plural, like you all)
They[/quote]
Modal Verbs
[quote]
To Want
To Like
To Have
To Be
Should (to need to do)
Can (to be able to)
May (to be allowed to)
Must (to have to)[/quote]
And then the conjugations for the modal verbs to each personal pronoun. Even if you don't have a good vocabulary, if you learn those two things, you have the absolute basics for any language no matter what. You can add almost anything to a sentence with modal verbs and have it be correct. It should be noted that in the personal pronoun list, "He/She/It" only need to be learned as a trio if the language you're learning has definitive gender for objects. An example is German, which has three genders for nouns.
אני רעב אני רוצה בייגל עכשיו תודה
i am really excited to be able to express ideas that are relevant to my life
[QUOTE=TH89;38690965]אני רעב אני רוצה בייגל עכשיו תודה
i am really excited to be able to express ideas that are relevant to my life[/QUOTE]
你是白痴
me too
Been taking French for the past 5 years now and i can definitely say that it has been worth it. Really weird and awesome feeling finally understanding full, complex sentences without having to convert every word into your native language.
It's such a wonderful feeling when you read something in a foreign language and say "Well, that's not so complex". Then you take a step back and realize that the only reason it's not complex is because you're so familiar with the language. Communication is such an important thing, and it's why I want to learn a bunch of different languages.
Finally I can resume my russian studies. Hope I can still understand something after weeks without even using it
[QUOTE=The Aussie;38687700]« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.
Is a correct paragraph in Mandarin. Here's the translation.
« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.
Likewise, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo is a correct grammatically sentence in english. The same with, James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher. Although James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher is more correct. Language is fascinating. Isn't it?[/QUOTE]
Fuck, that buffalo thing sent me onto a google search.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sentences[/url]
hot
[QUOTE=TH89;38694301]חוצפה מאוד
לך זין את אמא שלהא שלך[/QUOTE]
你吃屎
肏你妈
肏你祖宗十八代!
[editline]3rd December 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Disseminate;38694470]肏你祖宗十八代![/QUOTE]
I especially like this one. In China your family tree is taken very seriously, so saying "fuck (肏) your (你) ancestors (祖宗) to the 18th generation (十八代)" is basically the worst thing you can say
[QUOTE=Disseminate;38694470]你吃屎
肏你妈
肏你祖宗十八代!
[/QUOTE]
Well, this escalated quickly
[QUOTE=TH89;38694522]Well, this escalated quickly[/QUOTE]
我爱你 :}
Might ask for this for Christmas, what do you guys think? :smile:
[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Dutch-Teach-Yourself-Book/dp/1444102389/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354582213&sr=8-1[/url]
[QUOTE=CMB Unit 01;38694752]Might ask for this for Christmas, what do you guys think? :smile:
[url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Dutch-Teach-Yourself-Book/dp/1444102389/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354582213&sr=8-1[/url][/QUOTE]
I hear the teach yourself books are great at getting you started
From what i can gather, Teach yourself Dutch is a good course. Although it has problems with retention. As always, to remedy the lack of Retention i suggest you find a speaking buddy using sharedtalk, italki or verbling. That should help you cement your current knowledge.
And where the hell have you been?
I had a conversation today
[img]http://i.imgur.com/P77kP.jpg[/img]
He asked how the Chicago bagels were and I was like idk I don't live in Chicago and he was like I thought you went to Columbia and I was like nope I live in San Jose lol
At least, I think that is what happened
[QUOTE=TH89;38697672]I had a conversation today
[img]http://i.imgur.com/P77kP.jpg[/img]
He asked how the Chicago bagels were and I was like idk I don't live in Chicago and he was like I thought you went to Columbia and I was like nope I live in San Jose lol
At least, I think that is what happened[/QUOTE]Do you get a lot of practice with Hebrew?
[QUOTE=FFStudios;38690913][i]Re-posting this because wow, of course I get the last post of that page[/i]
To start learning a language, it's incredibly important to start with personal pronouns and modal verbs.
[/QUOTE]
I'd honestly advise that the first thing you start with is a bit of background information on your language. I'm just dropping this post here as help to anyone trying a less european language, like I am. Japanese, which i'm studying is a good example of where going in blind with this kind of information can be hazardous.
Personal pronouns in japanese are very fickle, you should generally learn the two polite gender-specific ways of saying I (私 (Watashi) and 僕 (Boku)) and just referring to people by name or by their characteristics instead of using personal pronouns. Use of common variants of the word "you". (i.e 君 (kimi) and お前 (omae)) can be rude and when to use them is really finnicky. End result is generally, even while chatting with a person, you use their name in place of the word "you/your/etc".
Modal verbs are often a pain to work with too if you treated them as simple words you add in like in english to say you "can X" you actually have to change the entire X word as "can X" is actually an entire different verb to just "X"
Eg. 読む (Yomu, ”To read”)-> 読める (Yomeru, "can read")
or
The same goes for "I want to X" which actually involves nominalizing the verb into "a desire to X".
Eg. お箸で食べたいです (Ohashi de tabetai desu - Lit. [I] have a desire to eat with chopsticks.)
You'd probably translate this as "I want to eat with chopsticks" anyway, despite the phrase being based around the fact that the verb 食べる (Taberu) was changed into technically a noun, "want to eat" 食べたい (tabetai).
I've just chucked in the examples in case anyone learning japanese wants to learn some bonus grammar structures and to warn anyone learning Japanese that you shouldn't go rooting around for words like "want" and "should" (to want something is an existing verb, but you wouldn't use it with verbs the way you would in english) unless you want to end up confused.
Just start with simple vocabulary and learn grammar as it comes. Japanese gets its compact vibe from the fact that generally you alter entire words to change meaning instead of adding in another one.
When I meet Japanese people I ask for their name asap to avoid using あなた お前 君。I also introduce myself to avoid sounding like a snuff person by saying 俺。
So I'm at college. My major (Pre-PA) says that Spanish is a really good idea to do. Thing is, I took Spanish for 5 years in High School and I'm burned out from it. It's so boring! Nobody's like "Oh, spanish adshfslakdhfsd(Something in spanish)aslkhfslkdhfsfk" Because everybody knows it.
I want to take French! And I used Duolingo for a little bit to try it out the other day since I had a lot of success with German and I realized there will be a lot of pronunciation I will have to learn.
I'm thinking about taking a first-year French class next year here at school or maybe look for one at home over the summer. Anybody have any tips?
[QUOTE=Mrs. Moon;38710599]So I'm at college. My major (Pre-PA) says that Spanish is a really good idea to do. Thing is, I took Spanish for 5 years in High School and I'm burned out from it. It's so boring! Nobody's like "Oh, spanish adshfslakdhfsd(Something in spanish)aslkhfslkdhfsfk" Because everybody knows it.
I want to take French! And I used Duolingo for a little bit to try it out the other day since I had a lot of success with German and I realized there will be a lot of pronunciation I will have to learn.
I'm thinking about taking a first-year French class next year here at school or maybe look for one at home over the summer. Anybody have any tips?[/QUOTE]
I would give it a go for a semester, if you happen to have a shit teacher don't let it discourage you from learning the language.
[QUOTE=Mrs. Moon;38710599]So I'm at college. My major (Pre-PA) says that Spanish is a really good idea to do. Thing is, I took Spanish for 5 years in High School and I'm burned out from it. It's so boring! Nobody's like "Oh, spanish adshfslakdhfsd(Something in spanish)aslkhfslkdhfsfk" Because everybody knows it.
I want to take French! And I used Duolingo for a little bit to try it out the other day since I had a lot of success with German and I realized there will be a lot of pronunciation I will have to learn.
I'm thinking about taking a first-year French class next year here at school or maybe look for one at home over the summer. Anybody have any tips?[/QUOTE]
French is a fucking fantastic langauge. People also thing you're, like, cultured or something if you speak it. Since you already speak some Spanish, French should be easier for you. I'd reccomend, depending on your level, finishing up spanish. Seeing it through to the end will prevent you doing the same with French. Learning can be fun, it's learning how to make it fun is difficult. You might even just use it to fill in time. Speaking with someone in another language is a rewarding experience. It makes all that time and effort worth it.
I may have said this before, but no single site, program, or textbook can take you from zero to fluency. Nothing i have ever seen covers the full range of Vocab, Grammar, listening, and speaking. Something like teach yourself or Assimil (Older versions are better, and cheaper!) are great for vocab and listening. Grammar is taught but not in the same way, grammar is an aspect of language you can afford to be more (But not completely!) lax on. Eg, i say "I want car", or "I be good at soccer". You can still understand, and most people can accomodate. You can't dodge it forever though. French has some fucking retarded grammar rules though. Harder then Spanish. Watch out for your pronunciation too. Speaking, as allways, Verbling (Chat roulette with languges!), Italki, or sharedtalk are lovely for this. Speaking is important as fuck, remember.
Thanks for noticing i was gone Jasper.
Thanks for the input guys. I think I will take a French class next year then or if they happen to add one next term. And I know a person who loves to speak french herself so it will be nice having somebody to get advice and help from.
What I noticed is that all of my friends who have taken French love to speak it, whereas everybody who takes Spanish... some people like it, some love it, but a lot are just "Eh, whatever, just another skill that looks good on a resume"
Plus I lived overseas for 4 years in the UK while travelling around Europe. If I knew French and I told people about living in the UK (I'm in the US now) People would be like "ooooooh, he's so cultured!"
But that's not the primary motivation haha. I just want to learn a cool useful language that I can really enjoy and connect with people with.
Anyone got reccomendations for german books to read?
late elementary-middle school level.
Not grundschule level, i suppose lower-age hauptschule or realshule level.
My Cantonese friend just said I was "well off" in terms of pronunciation, feelin pretty good~
[QUOTE=Disseminate;38720114]My Cantonese friend just said I was "well off" in terms of pronunciation, feelin pretty good~[/QUOTE]
I had a french native speaker compliment my accent. I was so fucking happy. It's so great, especially since i've only been learning for three years.
[editline]6th December 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;38718244]Anyone got reccomendations for german books to read?
late elementary-middle school level.
Not grundschule level, i suppose lower-age hauptschule or realshule level.[/QUOTE]
The original Brothers Grimm? Make sure to get the ones after the spelling reforms in German. Otherwise it'd be a clusterfuck.
[QUOTE=peterson;38697988]Do you get a lot of practice with Hebrew?[/QUOTE]
Not really outside of classwork. I don't have enough of a vocabulary to really talk about anything, for the most part. I do listen to a lot of music and try to read Hebrew news though.
[QUOTE=The Aussie;38720316]I had a french native speaker compliment my accent. I was so fucking happy. It's so great, especially since i've only been learning for three years.
[editline]6th December 2012[/editline]
The original Brothers Grimm? Make sure to get the ones after the spelling reforms in German. Otherwise it'd be a clusterfuck.[/QUOTE]
Im Moment lese ich „Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen“.
Es ist eine lustige Lektüre und errinert mich immer an:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijf-LG-FjwY[/media]
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