What foreign languages do you know/are you interested in?

[farouk]

Okay so I obviously speak English as my second language.

I also learned French at school (3rd language) and I was very fluent at it. But I don't dare speak it any more. After so many years of not practicing it I really got rusty. Oh well, I should practice it. Est-ce que quelqu'un veut parler francais avec moi?

Also I learned modern Greek (4th language?) because my parents dragged me there for every vacation, twice a year, so it made a lot of sense to start learning the language. Forgotten all of it since. I tried to refresh my knowledge of it some time this year but didn't get very far.

Had to take Latin at the university and loved it. I still understand it very well and can almost read it fluently, but I keep struggling with the grammar.

Recently I've been dreaming about learning Japanese. I'm into Japanese martial arts and history. But their letters look like they are impossible to learn. :-(

You and questdriven ought to learn Japanese together...

 

[reba]

Pizzaguy has a Japanese daughter in law... I think he said something about picking up some of the language

 

[farouk]

Pizzaguy has a Japanese daughter in law... I think he said something about picking up some of the language

Interesting; I think learning Japanese depends a lot on mastering the scripts; the indigenous Haragana or whatever, and the Chinese 'loan' words. I wish I was younger and had the clarity of mind to start such a learning process...

Blessings.

 

[Claudya]

Interesting; I think learning Japanese depends a lot on mastering the scripts; the indigenous Haragana or whatever, and the Chinese 'loan' words. I wish I was younger and had the clarity of mind to start such a learning process...

From what I heard the grammar of Japanese is almost non-existent, it's much less complicated than English, and English does already have a very simple grammar.
But Japanese has many similar sounding words with very different meanings and you'd have to figure out the meaning from context.
And the script is very different from ours so it's hard to master.

 

[farouk]

From what I heard the grammar of Japanese is almost non-existent, it's much less complicated than English, and English does already have a very simple grammar.
But Japanese has many similar sounding words with very different meanings and you'd have to figure out the meaning from context.
And the script is very different from ours so it's hard to master.

It's a combination of scripts, in fact, I think.

It's also supposed to be an agglutinative language; i.e., word endings keep being added to the word, to mean something specific, in a way English or German might use different and many words.

 

[farouk]

Had to take Latin at the university and loved it. I still understand it very well and can almost read it fluently, but I keep struggling with the grammar.

Claudya: the Latin bit I liked was:

bellum, bellum, bellum,
belli, belli, belli,
bella, bella, bella,
bellorum, bellis, bellis.

(Or something like that; it's been more than 30 years...)

 

[jasoncran]

Okay so I obviously speak English as my second language.

I also learned French at school (3rd language) and I was very fluent at it. But I don't dare speak it any more. After so many years of not practicing it I really got rusty. Oh well, I should practice it. Est-ce que quelqu'un veut parler francais avec moi?

Also I learned modern Greek (4th language?) because my parents dragged me there for every vacation, twice a year, so it made a lot of sense to start learning the language. Forgotten all of it since. I tried to refresh my knowledge of it some time this year but didn't get very far.

Had to take Latin at the university and loved it. I still understand it very well and can almost read it fluently, but I keep struggling with the grammar.

Recently I've been dreaming about learning Japanese. I'm into Japanese martial arts and history. But their letters look like they are impossible to learn. :-(

the kenji? Chinese and Japanese are the same. japan is well weird. one of these days I will post my poking at that Japanese .

To understand how to fix Nissan car one must do kata! oy!

 

[farouk]

the kenji? Chinese and Japanese are the same. japan is well weird. one of these days I will post my poking at that Japanese .

I've seen Japanese writing under the hood of a Nissan, yes...

Blessings.

 

[jasoncran]

farouk, no this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_pine

these are great windbreakers and the dummy snowbirds removed them all when they built in my county. so when the hurricanes came they were sitting ducks these are very flexible and will bend but not break not even if they are over 100ft tall!

 

[jasoncran]

I've seen Japanese writing under the hood of a Nissan, yes...

Blessings.

lol. ya should its Japanese but its worse. its owned by the French government. gasp its a socialist car maker! eek. I supported socialism!!!!!!

 

[farouk]

cyberjosh: Up here in Canada, the Hutterites and Old Order Mennonites speak a form of German, similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch, which is really more German than Dutch...

Blessings.

 

[Nick]

Well, you guys in Australia can alwasys learn and speak German in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, right?

LOL I've heard SA has a high number of Germans, but people almost always speak English here. We have a lot of people that speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic and Persian, but almost all of them speak English.

 

[Nick]

lol. ya should its Japanese but its worse. its owned by the French government. gasp its a socialist car maker! eek. I supported socialism!!!!!!

Nissan? I think you need to get your facts straight, buddy!

Renault own 45% of Nissan. Nissan owns 15% of Renault. The French government owns 15% of Renault.

The French Government doesn't own Nissan.

 

[jasoncran]

Nissan? I think you need to get your facts straight, buddy!

Renault own 45% of Nissan. Nissan owns 15% of Renault. The French government owns 15% of Renault.

The French Government doesn't own Nissan.

that was according to Wikipedia. either way it doesn't matter. gm isn't owned by the government of the us alone buy by Canada, and the us government and partially the union.

 

[jasoncran]

besides Nissan is terrorist organization. Nippon InSurection Striving Against Non Japanese. hahahahahaha. war no over. we won.

 

[Nick]

that was according to Wikipedia. either way it doesn't matter. gm isn't owned by the government of the us alone buy by Canada, and the us government and partially the union.

Just because Wikipedia says so doesn't mean it's wrong. Wikipedia usually doesn't pull statistics out of thin air.

Here is the source of that part of the Wikipedia article. They got it from the Nissan Global website. A reliable source. http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/COMPANY/PROFILE/ALLIANCE/RENAULT03/

 

[jasoncran]

I looked at Wikipedia a while ago. It was about two years ago. its ok. nick. while I wont be buying a Nissan for some time again. they don't make the mini-truck anymore. I will still make fun of them and Honda and Toyota and all those rice burners. its what I do.

 

[farouk]

I looked at Wikipedia a while ago. It was about two years ago. its ok. nick. while I wont be buying a Nissan for some time again. they don't make the mini-truck anymore. I will still make fun of them and Honda and Toyota and all those rice burners. its what I do.

General Motors rules okay, eh?

 

[farouk]

PS: Maybe we're a bit offf topic, from languages...

Blessings.

 

[jasoncran]

General Motors rules okay, eh?

nope. Got Mechanic Coming,General Mess of Crap. Gubberment Motors Corporation. now then back to topic.