Language Learner's Thread - Cunning Linguists Welcome.

[thefreemann]

I was always taught simplified, although traditional makes more sense I cba to memorize more characters especially when I really don't have a practical use for traditional.

[fauxpark]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/tNRCkrJ.jpg[/IMG]

Found some chopsticks to practice with. Can anyone help me figure out what these say? I'm pretty sure the right one says 百年好合, but since this is Chinese, not Japanese, and I only know a handful of kanji anyway I can't even begin to recognise most of the radicals on the left one. I think the last two characters might be 呈详 though.

EDIT: Got it. Apparently it's 龍鳳呈祥 / 百年好合. They're all kanji too, I just couldn't make out the radicals because it's "handwritten" :v:

[bradleigh]

just some quick questions concerning learning japanese.

for those that are currently learning or are already fluent in it, how difficult is it to learn?

how long does it take to become fluent, and is it possible to become fluent if we don't have the ability to travel abroad and study in japan and naturally practice that way?

[Alex_V]

Sorry for interrupting your post spree of kanji but,

can anyone recommend me a good way to learn Swedish? I'm fluent in Estonian and English, and I've got an almost basic knowledge in Swedish.

I tried Rosetta Stone, but I don't feel like I made much progress with that, way too slow and doesn't have enough info on grammar. I pick up languages easily though, especially grammar. I'm really good with Russian grammar, but have next to no vocabulary knowledge.

[fartparty]

i know japanese is probably regarded as the most difficult language, which i agree with, but i have a feeling that it's all because the writing system is so fucked (probably the same with chinese and other asian languages)

ignoring writing and kanji and all of that, how difficult is japanese as a strictly spoken language?

[AxeI]

完善好。法国人比中国人很大。

[thefreemann]

[QUOTE=_Axel;48189607]完善好。法国人比中国人很大。[/QUOTE]

Do you mean, 晚上好？

And you can't use 大 to describe people like that. Do mean tall? In that case it's: 法国人比中国人高。

大 can be used for:

那个兔子很大。

那个人的肚子很大。

我明年要上大学了。

[CheezyCheeze]

[QUOTE=inebriaticxp;48188612]i know japanese is probably regarded as the most difficult language, which i agree with, but i have a feeling that it's all because the writing system is so fucked (probably the same with chinese and other asian languages)

ignoring writing and kanji and all of that, how difficult is japanese as a strictly spoken language?[/QUOTE]

Japanese in my opinion is maybe easier than English. Why? It has very little irregularities(except kanji). The grammar is very different but it has clear rules and almost never stray from them. Pronounciation and listening is really easy compared to other languages. I don't know why people say Japanese is the "most difficult language".

[fauxpark]

[QUOTE=CheezyCheeze;48191924]I don't know why people say Japanese is the "most difficult language".[/QUOTE]

Kanji, pretty much. People take one look at it and just see thousands upon thousands of nonsensical squiggly lines. Once you get into it you realise it's only ~2000ish that you have to learn, not "50,000 OH MY GOD THESE PEOPLE ARE INSANE" (still a ton though). It probably doesn't help that some Japanese people apparently say that themselves. They like to mention how they have three different writing systems when hiragana and katakana are basically like uppercase and lowercase in English :v:

[AxeI]

[QUOTE=thefreemann;48189757]Do you mean, 晚上好？

And you can't use 大 to describe people like that. Do mean tall? In that case it's: 法国人比中国人高。

大 can be used for:

那个兔子很大。

那个人的肚子很大。

我明年要上大学了。[/QUOTE]
Well fuck.
This is the result of 5 years of Chinese classes, ladies and gentlemen.

[Gnomerz]

I'd like to learn a language, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any reason to learn a particular language, would you guys recommend a certain one?

[thefreemann]

[QUOTE=Exigent;48193955]I'd like to learn a language, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any reason to learn a particular language, would you guys recommend a certain one?[/QUOTE]
Obviously I'm a bit biased but if you're up for the challenge learn Chinese. Do whatever interests you though. Honestly I'm only learning Korean just because I'm interested in k-stuff and it looks cool :v:

[JaspertheDoxie]

Are there any fellow German learners here? I speak with a B2-C1 level but I'm starting to get rusty after not talking in a while.

[Meme It Up]

[QUOTE=Exigent;48193955]I'd like to learn a language, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any reason to learn a particular language, would you guys recommend a certain one?[/QUOTE]

Farsi, It has the cool Arabic letters with none of the horrific grammar. It's Indo-European, so you'll catch onto it faster.

[peep]

[QUOTE=JaspertheDoxie;48194310]Are there any fellow German learners here? I speak with a B2-C1 level but I'm starting to get rusty after not talking in a while.[/QUOTE]

[url=http://facepunch.com/member.php?u=590838]Berkin[/url] isn't in this thread, but he's learning German.

[peep]

[QUOTE=Exigent;48193955]I'd like to learn a language, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any reason to learn a particular language, would you guys recommend a certain one?[/QUOTE]

only pick a language youre really excited about is what i have to say.

[editline]aa[/editline]

sorry, automerge expired i guess

[fartparty]

ich lerne auch deutsch
es gibt auch ein deutsches thread hier, es ist ziemlich staendig aktiv

vermutlich war das richtig schlecht aber wenn man mich verstehen kann, dann ist alles gut

[editline]13th July 2015[/editline]

[QUOTE=Exigent;48193955]I'd like to learn a language, but I have no idea which one. I don't have any reason to learn a particular language, would you guys recommend a certain one?[/QUOTE]

i started with German because i want to go to germany, but i'd suggest esperanto
since you don't really have a specific language you want to learn, esperanto would be cool, albeit not all that useful, and it was designed to be really easy to learn. learning it would make it easier on you when you want to move on to a different language

but esperanto is still useless

[smfE]

I speak
Danish
English
German and
Spanish.
I would like to learn korean one day as well

I took spanish on B level and completed with above average score, after that i went on to travel 3 months alone in Colombia becaus i didn't know at the time what i wanted to do with my life exactly but learning spanish really made me want to get even better and use it in practice, therefore traveling to an exotic spanish speaking country. I then improved massively traveling around praciticing alot and after coming home, i've found out i want to study it in university next year, i just have to complete A level before i can enter. It's a beautiful language, the grammar is easy with basic rules, the way you spell words how you say them is also extremely convenient.

Anyone else here who's experienced with spanish who might be able to give me some recommendations or anything that will get me easier through my coming A level courses before university. Thanks in advance. Amo español muchisimo!

[donny]

[QUOTE=thefreemann;48189757]Do you mean, 晚上好？

And you can't use 大 to describe people like that. Do mean tall? In that case it's: 法国人比中国人高。

[/QUOTE]

You can use 大 if you're using it in certain context :~) [sp]dong[/sp]

[editline]14th July 2015[/editline]

actually come to think of it 大 can be used to describe people being bigger as well you're more descriptive of it like 法国人比中国人大個子

[thefreemann]

[QUOTE=Super2Donny;48199516]You can use 大 if you're using it in certain context :~) [sp]dong[/sp]

[editline]14th July 2015[/editline]

actually come to think of it 大 can be used to describe people being bigger as well you're more descriptive of it like 法国人比中国人大個子[/QUOTE]

Yea I'm saying you can't actually directly apply it to the word by itself without adding something with it. You can't just say someone is '大' it doesn't work.

Unless you're using it in that way you said? I'm not really familiar with that type of slang stuff :v:

[editline]13th July 2015[/editline]

Actually now that I think about it, there's a case where you can use 大 like that. If you're talking about ages in a conversation it's ok to use it like that in context:

person 1: 小李比小白大一岁。

person 2: 不对！小白比小李大！

小李 and 小白 are just names btw

[JaspertheDoxie]

I have no idea how you guys have such patience for Japanese. Respect.

[thefreemann]

[QUOTE=JaspertheDoxie;48204190]I have no idea how you guys have such patience for Japanese. Respect.[/QUOTE]

It's Chinese :v:

Unless you're talking about the top of this page lol

[JaspertheDoxie]

[QUOTE=thefreemann;48204502]It's Chinese :v:

Unless you're talking about the top of this page lol[/QUOTE]

I'm referring to the top, I'm not [I]that[/I] stupid.

[DaCommie1]

[QUOTE=JaspertheDoxie;48204583]I'm referring to the top, I'm not [I]that[/I] stupid.[/QUOTE]

日本語は難しいよ！

[JaspertheDoxie]

[QUOTE=DaCommie1;48205236]日本語は難しいよ！[/QUOTE]

I stuck this in Google Translate, but for some reason it was default set to Chinese.
[IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dglZrFgfnRA/VaVdZ9H-YbI/AAAAAAAAZYM/xO-JuQ2rGRI/w369-h200-no/seriously.png[/IMG]
[I]japanese was difficult shit yo[/I]

[hakkoru]

[QUOTE=inebriaticxp;48188612]i know japanese is probably regarded as the most difficult language, which i agree with, but i have a feeling that it's all because the writing system is so fucked (probably the same with chinese and other asian languages)

ignoring writing and kanji and all of that, how difficult is japanese as a strictly spoken language?[/QUOTE]

nothing's difficult if you put your mind to it [img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5168294/p/two_thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[3mpty]

[QUOTE=DaCommie1;48205236]日本語は難しいよ！[/QUOTE]

違うよ
日本語のたくさんの漢字あります。
だから勉強の時間はたくさん要ります。

[editline]15th July 2015[/editline]

[QUOTE=elitehakor;48143386]50 fucking times in your motherfucking notebook[/QUOTE]

I hate to break it to you, but 50 isn't enough
[thumb]http://i.imgur.com/hObxdFo.jpg[/thumb]

I've filled 27 pages of my current notebook and I still don't know that many.

[reevezy67]

对啊
[t]http://i.imgur.com/6cVz8mb.jpg[/t]

Double sided.

[editline]15th July 2015[/editline]

I think he means 50 times each in a notebook though. Which is about right.

[editline]15th July 2015[/editline]

Speaking of, I hate 餐 it's so fucking hard to remember.

[donny]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n_yvfH1UjQ[/media]

if you have the knowledge of canto you will be blessed by the entertainment that is thai

[sp]basically the words in the two language sound alike and common words like 'rainbow-color' in thai become 'pooping your pants' in canto :v[/sp]

[thefreemann]

Man

ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ
ㄷ/ㄸ/ㅌ
ㅈ/ㅉ/ㅊ
ㅂ/ㅃ/ㅍ

are so confusing, I'm still having a hard time with them, I don't think anyone who's stopped by here knows Korean though :/