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I hate Foreign Languages
Topic Started: Oct 29 2009, 11:04 AM (481 Views)
New Harumf
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Bloodthirsty Unicorn
Well, I took three years of Russian in high school, and I'm glad I did. I have a very difficult time with languages, but when you study one, you learn a lot more about the structure of your own. It improves your grammar. I also took some linguistic classes in college, and if I didn't get my degree in English because I didn't want to work hard, I would have majored in it. Very cool subject.

Nag, f-you - we Americans are smart, duh.

When I went for my Master's one of my requirements was a program that did not require a profeciency in a foreign language!
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Telosan
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The Foremost Intellectual Badass
Lessons from Filo! :thumbup:

I find Italian rather easy compared to French. There's a little history behind it, too. Aragon (RD's playing it in NS2) used to own eastern Spain and southern Italy. This caused a good bit of a mix of the two languages and even today, the southern dialects of Italian are more similar to Spanish than that of the north. Then later, when America was discovered and the Spanish began conquering, many natives learned a bit of Spanish. When the US came around, they had many, many immigrants from the Italian city-states and quite a few from Spanish territories. The English language, or the American English language anyway, adopts tons of words from other countries. Add this to the influx of Mexicans, and many Americans have a basic grasp of Spanish. With Italian and Spanish being so similar, Americans will find it easier to learn these two than other Romance languages.
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Rhadamanthus
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Legitimist

Nice information, Telosan! :D

Don't forget though that English also has a heavy layer of Norman French.
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Telosan
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Rhadamanthus
Oct 29 2009, 06:32 PM
Nice information, Telosan! :D
Actually, that was all speculation. :shy: I know from my grandparents about the differences in dialects and by looking at maps over the years I knew what Aragon owned, but that is the only solid info I have. The rest was observation.
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Porcu
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"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

Atticus
Oct 29 2009, 05:15 PM
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I know at OSU, even pursuing a major in Psychology, I have to fulfill a "language requirement", which is most easily done through foreign language classes. It's kinda bullshit though, cause I took 1 year of German in middle school (8th grade) and then 4 years in high school. Granted, I only have to take the last class (German 104), which I'm taking now, to finish up but it is kinda ridiculous if all you're looking to do is wrap up that particular requirement for graduation.

That being said, I actually do like German and have always thought it was cool to know, even superficially, another language.
What area of the U.S. are you from, the only languages in southern California are spanish and french. :dry: I would die to take German or any other language.
Ohio.
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Rhadamanthus
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At my high school in NJ, I think we had French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish.
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Paradise
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For a French speaker, they say the easiest languages to learn are English and... Italian

I took Spanish courses during university, but I found it much harder than English. I wonder how Italian compares to Spanish in term of difficulty.
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Aelius
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At my high school, we had Spanish, French, German, and we got a one-semester course of Chinese my last semester of senior year. Sed went to a different high school in my town, I think they had Russian as well.
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Al Araam
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I think my high school had French, Spanish, and Japanese.
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flumes
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CLEVELAND ROCKS!
My high school had German, Latin, Spanish, and French when I went there... My brother is taking Chinese now though... I think I read they might be adding two of these as well: Italian, Russian, Arabic or Japanese soon...
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Tristan da Cunha
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Hmm I just realized the second best way to practice a foreign language is to join an internet politics forum in that foreign language. Other than live cultural immersion, there is probably no better way to practice a language than to debate politics/history/current events and to attack, pillory, harangue, exhort, and polemicize in broken Spanish/French/German/etc. in an internet forum.
Edited by Tristan da Cunha, Oct 29 2009, 11:18 PM.
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Ulgania
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A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 29 2009, 11:11 PM
Hmm I just realized the second best way to practice a foreign language is to join an internet politics forum in that foreign language. Other than live cultural immersion, there is probably no better way to practice a language than to debate politics/history/current events and to attack, pillory, harangue, exhort, and polemicize in broken Spanish/French/German/etc. in an internet forum.
Teens on the internet, discussing issues that matter.

However I think that those forums would be a little more useful in trying to learn a language, a little like this one may be for our non-English-as-a-first-language friends. You can usually fine better grammar/syntax/usage/et al. than in places like, well...

*does a Google search for 'emo forum'*

...than in places like this.
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Deleted User
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What the hell :furious: Why does every school offer a wide variety of languages except for those on the west coast?
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Ulgania
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A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse
Atticus
Oct 30 2009, 12:12 AM
What the hell :furious: Why does every school offer a wide variety of languages except for those on the west coast?
My high school in Vermont offered French and Spanish.

My college in Massachusetts offers French and Spanish.

^^
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Aelius
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Ulgania
Oct 29 2009, 11:46 PM
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 29 2009, 11:11 PM
Hmm I just realized the second best way to practice a foreign language is to join an internet politics forum in that foreign language. Other than live cultural immersion, there is probably no better way to practice a language than to debate politics/history/current events and to attack, pillory, harangue, exhort, and polemicize in broken Spanish/French/German/etc. in an internet forum.
Teens on the internet, discussing issues that matter.

However I think that those forums would be a little more useful in trying to learn a language, a little like this one may be for our non-English-as-a-first-language friends. You can usually fine better grammar/syntax/usage/et al. than in places like, well...

*does a Google search for 'emo forum'*

...than in places like this.
<threadjack>

Is it just me, or have emo kids become a cliche of themselves?
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Al Araam
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Demigod of Death & Inactivity

They've been a cliche for some time.
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Nag Ehgoeg
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The Devil's Advocate

Atticus
Oct 29 2009, 05:15 PM
Quote:
 
I've never had less respect for the US "education" system as I do now.
Well, Obama actually wants us to eat more of this crap sandwich by increasing the time we spend in school by 33%. Does more of a crap product make it any less crappier?
I have never had less respect for the Obamessia than I do now.

****

My experiences with learning French AND German (mandatory two languages) have left me unable to comprehend either. Frequent visits to France have left me with the rudiments of the language (much easier to translate from writing than to speak). Listening to a lot of music in German (Tokio Hotel, Rammstien, Megahertz, the Beatles) has given me an... odd spectrum of German vocabulary.

Wish I could have learned Latin and Russian in school instead of French and German. Hell, Japanese and a Chinese dialect would have been more practical than French and German.
Edited by Nag Ehgoeg, Oct 30 2009, 01:08 PM.
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Filo
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Oh yes well, Latin languages speaker will find Italian a lot more easy than speakers of other languages(Japanese for exemple, with i'm studing with profit :) )
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Nag Ehgoeg
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The Devil's Advocate

Actually, as a good 50% of the people I interact with speak either Polish or an Arabic language, maybe that would have been a better use of my education. :dry:

I firmly believe that everyone, everywhere should learn one "foreign" language. That language should be international sign language.

Even the blind can learn sign language. The deaf can learn sign language. Let's have one truly universal, non-discriminatory language and use that to communicate with.

The whole world already must use English for Air and Sea communications - doesn't seem like too much of a burden to get all foreigners to learn our language and we'll all learn a universal language in case their English sucks.
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Allesandra
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 *  *  *  *  *
My first high school offered French and Spanish.

My second high school offered French, Spanish, German, Latin and Japanese.

^^
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Tristan da Cunha
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Lansdallius
Oct 30 2009, 12:22 PM
Ulgania
Oct 29 2009, 11:46 PM
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 29 2009, 11:11 PM
Hmm I just realized the second best way to practice a foreign language is to join an internet politics forum in that foreign language. Other than live cultural immersion, there is probably no better way to practice a language than to debate politics/history/current events and to attack, pillory, harangue, exhort, and polemicize in broken Spanish/French/German/etc. in an internet forum.
Teens on the internet, discussing issues that matter.

However I think that those forums would be a little more useful in trying to learn a language, a little like this one may be for our non-English-as-a-first-language friends. You can usually fine better grammar/syntax/usage/et al. than in places like, well...

*does a Google search for 'emo forum'*

...than in places like this.
<threadjack>

Is it just me, or have emo kids become a cliche of themselves?
I once met a group of quasi-hipster emos from the Univ of Michigan who could not be perturbed from their emo-ness by heaven itself; they never smiled, grinned, or relaxed; their facial expressions betrayed not one ounce of joy, happiness, or any sort of lighthearted or spontaneous human emotion whatsoever in their social interactions within their group and with outsiders. Their minds were in totality fixated on their highly practiced affectations of blackness, darkness, and the negativity of human existence; you could not even catch them in one absentminded moment of breaking character even while they were digging into a tasty chicken wrap sandwich. It was a memorable, awe-inspiring performance. My hat was off to those phony upper-middle class suburban poser kids who expertly did not break character under any circumstances.
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New Harumf
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Bloodthirsty Unicorn
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 30 2009, 04:39 PM
Lansdallius
Oct 30 2009, 12:22 PM
Ulgania
Oct 29 2009, 11:46 PM
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 29 2009, 11:11 PM
Hmm I just realized the second best way to practice a foreign language is to join an internet politics forum in that foreign language. Other than live cultural immersion, there is probably no better way to practice a language than to debate politics/history/current events and to attack, pillory, harangue, exhort, and polemicize in broken Spanish/French/German/etc. in an internet forum.
Teens on the internet, discussing issues that matter.

However I think that those forums would be a little more useful in trying to learn a language, a little like this one may be for our non-English-as-a-first-language friends. You can usually fine better grammar/syntax/usage/et al. than in places like, well...

*does a Google search for 'emo forum'*

...than in places like this.
<threadjack>

Is it just me, or have emo kids become a cliche of themselves?
I once met a group of quasi-hipster emos from the Univ of Michigan who could not be perturbed from their emo-ness by heaven itself; they never smiled, grinned, or relaxed; their facial expressions betrayed not one ounce of joy, happiness, or any sort of lighthearted or spontaneous human emotion whatsoever in their social interactions within their group and with outsiders. Their minds were in totality fixated on their highly practiced affectations of blackness, darkness, and the negativity of human existence; you could not even catch them in one absentminded moment of breaking character even while they were digging into a tasty chicken wrap sandwich. It was a memorable, awe-inspiring performance. My hat was off to those phony upper-middle class suburban poser kids who expertly did not break character under any circumstances.
I know a sure-fire way to break the composure of emo kids . . . . but I can't give the secret away here!

(hint - it has to do with s. e. x.)
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Tristan da Cunha
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Telling them their trust funds were stolen would also break their concentration, though it would probably plunge them into a genuine, and not affected, grief.
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Ulgania
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A better Zarathustra has never rode a horse
Tristan da Cunha
Oct 30 2009, 05:10 PM
Telling them their trust funds were stolen would also break their concentration, though it would probably plunge them into a genuine, and not affected, grief.
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/anti-emo-riots/

This is relevant because I say it is.
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Tristan da Cunha
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That is highly relevant.
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