What Other Languages Apart From English Do You Know?

Discussion in 'Evolution of Language' started by Helene Lawson, Jul 9, 2015.

  1. Helene Lawson

    Helene Lawson Veteran Member
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    Is Romanian a tough language to learn?
    You will get there finally with Japanese, it isn't an easy language to learn, although German was quite easy to learn for me. :D
     
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  2. John Donovan

    John Donovan Veteran Member
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    I've often heard people saying that Romanian is really hard to learn. Why? Because for (almost) each verb, its form is different on (once again, almost) each person (while English only sees changes in the 3rd person of the verb, singular). For example, the verb "eat":

    I eat
    You eat
    He, She, It eats
    We eat
    You eat
    They eat

    Meanwhile, the same verb in Romanian:
    to eat = a mânca

    Eu mănânc
    Tu mănânci
    El, Ea mănâncă
    Noi mâncăm
    Voi mâncați
    Ei, Ele mănâncă
     
    #17
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  3. Helene Lawson

    Helene Lawson Veteran Member
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    Oh, sounds like a tough language to learn, but nothing is impossible.
    Especially if you start learning languages while your a child or teenager then you learn it way quicker.
    Polish my mother tongue is also a very tough language to learn too.
     
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  4. John Donovan

    John Donovan Veteran Member
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    Yeah, when you are young, you learn languages way faster. That's why I was able to learn English as pretty much a second mother tongue once I moved in the States with my family.
    As for Polish being hard, yeah, pretty much all European languages are hard to learn, because of the sheer diversity they offer.
     
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  5. Tom Locke

    Tom Locke Veteran Member
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    Apart from languages, there are so many different dialects in Europe that it's not uncommon that people in one part of one country find it different to understand people from another part. Even different accents can be hard to understand. Using the UK as an example, the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland are only ten miles apart, but it's very easy to tell the accents apart.
     
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  6. Jennifer Graves

    Jennifer Graves Veteran Member
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    I know sign language.I don't know anyone else who knows it. But if I'm going to have a resource like the internet available to me, then I'm going to take full advantage of it. I learned morse code and how to build solar panels, as well.
     
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  7. Carlota Clemens

    Carlota Clemens Veteran Member
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    This explains why most US government websites and organizations have now a Spanish version for the content they publish. In fact most reputable websites run by large companies have a Spanish version now; Godaddy, Sears, Macy, 1&1, About.com, so on and counting.
     
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  8. Jennifer Graves

    Jennifer Graves Veteran Member
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    That doesn't bother me as long as I'm not going to get penalized for only speaking English. The day it becomes a serious disadvantage is when you'll read my posts cursing and screaming about it.
     
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  9. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    I speak english, french and spanish.
     
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  10. Jennifer Graves

    Jennifer Graves Veteran Member
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    oh wow! I had enough trouble bumbling my way through german. It always so impressive when someone can learn an extra language. But 2? very nice!
     
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  11. Brittany Houser

    Brittany Houser Veteran Member
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    Bravo Yvonne! Right you are! We'll either all be speaking Spanish or Farsi if the powers that be have anything to do with it! :(
    I used to speak pretty decent Latin. It was the only language they offered in my high school that I could tolerate. I haven't kept up with it, but I kinda wish I had. It might come in handy since America seems to also be overrun with ancient Romans. ;)
     
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  12. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
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    English only for me.;)
    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Angel J More

    Angel J More Veteran Member
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    Being born in the Philippines,my native language is Filipino and we are called Filipino citizens--as simple as that.:) Tagalog is the dialect widely known in Filipino but since our country was an American colony in World War I era,we have been exposed to American influences,including language. Thus, among young people,there is now such a thing as "Taglish" , short term for Tagalog and English combined which is generally accepted in colloquial terms.However, in the formal education system, English is still being taught as the universal language with all its rules. This is why Filipinos easily get jobs in the global community.
     
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  14. Jennifer Graves

    Jennifer Graves Veteran Member
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    I've heard about how many islands are in the Philippines, and that there are so many dialects. Do they typically use one certain dialect for filipino movies? I've seen a couple, with subtitles. And I've noticed a lot of english scattered throughout. Is that common?
     
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  15. Tom Locke

    Tom Locke Veteran Member
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    I was partly amused and partly astounded to read of the New Zealander who won the World Scrabble Championship. Nothing too surprising there, but this was the French version and the winner does not speak French. He managed to memorise the French dictionary in nine weeks and win the title. Quite an extraordinary feat and one that I, as a Scrabble aficionado, can only marvel at.
     
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