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Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:05 pm
by Shadowstar23
Radio Blue Heart wrote:Here is some very basic, easy to remember Japanese words:

kore = this
sore = that
dore = which

koko = here
soko = there
doko = where

koitsu = this person
soitsu = that person
doitsu = Germany

I thought I'd add on to this list words I've learned from watching Japanese anime.

baka = idiot/stupid
nani = what
hebi/orochi = snake
taka = hawk
yosh = yes/yeah/alright
aye = yes sir/mam
katana = sword
ichigo = strawberry


I don't know all of it, but I want to learn.

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 12:30 pm
by ArcWolf
I speak Honduran










*party*

Re: Languages

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:31 pm
by Jacey
I speak English, and a very small amount of American Sign Language.

I actually did so poorly with Spanish class in high school, that the school counselor suggested I try another language. Though German was full for the second semester. And now I can sign.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:04 pm
by kurowolfe
Heh, I'm necro-ing a post again. Yay~ *shot*

I found this site a few weeks ago, and it lists out several Japanese anime and manga character stereotypes as well as their common phrases and idiosyncrasies. It's pretty cool if you watch subbed anime a lot. I do know some of these, but I never really know how to translate back to standard Japanese, which is a bummer.

Also, I found this video outlining the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese, a spoken dialect in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and even Malaysia. Thing is, most Westerners assume that people of the Chinese lineage all speak Mandarin, whereas Mandarin is only the national language taught in schools, and is not even spoken in most parts of China and countries with Chinese lineage. Personally, I like to hear Cantonese a lot more because it's much more expressive and fun, and they have a LOT of slang terms. If you guys want to learn some basic Cantonese phrases and slang terms, there's a channel where this American guy who had been staying in Hong Kong for 2 years teaches them. His dialect is legit, which really surprises me!

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 8:10 am
by Invisan
Well im jumping in on this one ^^

I speak German as main Language.
And who wouldve guessed? I speak decent english. At least i guess i do xD

I can understand a few German dialects and different languages like Dutch and swiss german.

I also understand a few words in french, japanese and spanish but not nearly enough to communicate ^^.

Re: Languages

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:36 pm
by EKJC
My main lenguage is Spanish (México) even though I read more web-comics in English.
I can read, understand and talk english but i can't translate a text without orthographical errors :oops:
I know a few things in japanesse (can't read kanji). The only words I know in Italian are from Assassin´s Creed 2 and Valerio's translations :lol: And the only word I know in Russian is "spasibo"(Thank you) :roll:

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:54 am
by kurowolfe
So yeah, question about English.

When I RP or write a story, I usually use the past tense and past continuous tense. However, when describing a universal fact or a fact that would not likely to change, I tend to write it in the present tense.

Example:
The lion sat on the floor, feeling dejected and lonely. Fate is a cruel and harsh mistress, he knew. He wished it was not so.

Is the grammar correct? Like is this acceptable? I always go with my gut feelings when it comes to English grammar and syntax, but this one's a grey area to me.

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:16 am
by JeffCvt
Yes, your English does seem to be correct there Kuro.

Past/Present tense is a tricky thing when writing things like stories or RPs. Technically, either one is acceptable as long as you stick with it. However, most people use past tense because they are used to it. I actually once tried to use present tense and I just couldn't do it.

From what I've seen Kuro, your English is very good and sticking with your gut on it has served you well. Much better than even some native English speakers I've seen. :?

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:41 am
by kurowolfe
Thanks for the check Jeff. Mixing past and present tenses in a sentence could really throw me off on a spin, especially when English is not your native tongue. But I assumed that since a fact is most likely to stay true regardless of time frames, it should stay in the present.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:17 am
by GreatKitsune
Japanese language is "Nihonjin"
"No" in Nihonjin is "iie" and sounds a bit like "yeah"
There are no spaces in Japanese writing.
Japanese letter system is "konji"
Shadowstar23 wrote:
I thought I'd add on to this list words I've learned from watching Japanese anime.

baka = idiot/stupid
nani = what
hebi/orochi = snake
taka = hawk
yosh = yes/yeah/alright
aye = yes sir/mam
katana = sword
ichigo = strawberry


I don't know all of it, but I want to learn.
Here are some of the Japanese words I learned from anime:

******=**** it",
********=****,
****=****,
****=****,
****=*******,
Etc.

Formal "Yes" is actually "hai", by the way.

Oh, and I speak English, Japanese, and some Spanish. Some others too, but nowhere near fluently.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:29 am
by SuperStar
Actually Greatsune, it's spelled Kanji, and it's just one of the systems used. Kanji is taken from the Chinese(Han) language. Hiragana and Katakana are the common syllabary, with Hiragana being the default unless I'm mistaken.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:25 am
by GreatKitsune
SuperStar wrote:Actually Greatsune, it's spelled Kanji,
Typo. :oops:

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:29 pm
by Amazee Dayzee
One of these days I should probably learn some Italian since I'm part Italian.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:55 pm
by kurowolfe
GreatKitsune wrote:Japanese language is "Nihonjin"
"No" in Nihonjin is "iie" and sounds a bit like "yeah"
There are no spaces in Japanese writing.
Japanese letter system is "konji".
Heh, I thought GreatKitsune was making a pun with 'konj'i, like the 'kon' in 'konkon', a fox's bark. So 'konji' might mean 'fox's alphabets' xD

Still, 'nihonjin' is actually Japanese people. 'Jin' means person. Japanese language is 'Nihongo'. Like how English is 'Eigo'.

Anyway, in formal language, an American would be referred to as 'Beikokujin'. A person from England would be an 'Eikokujin'.

Most prominent countries has their own special kanji characters to represent their countries.
  • America has 米 (bei). (Also could mean rice)

    England had 英 (ei). (Also could mean hero)

    Canada can be abbreviated as 加 (ka). (Also could mean addition)

    China has several, like 中 (chuu) and 漢 (kan). (Chuu usually means middle)

    Russia can be abbreviated as 魯 (ro). (Could mean foolish, which is rather unfortunate =w=)

    Japan herself has either 日 (ni, nichi) or 和 (wa). (Ni means day, and wa means harmony)
Do note that for Canada and Russia's cases, the kanji only represents the ateji reading. Using obscure kanji characters to represent only the sound of the word. The 'ka' in 'Kanada' and the 'ro' in 'Roshia'.

Re: Languages

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:07 am
by GreatKitsune
kurowolfe wrote:
GreatKitsune wrote:Japanese language is "Nihonjin"
"No" in Nihonjin is "iie" and sounds a bit like "yeah"
There are no spaces in Japanese writing.
Japanese letter system is "konji".
Heh, I thought GreatKitsune was making a pun with 'konj'i, like the 'kon' in 'konkon', a fox's bark. So 'konji' might mean 'fox's alphabets' xD

Still, 'nihonjin' is actually Japanese people. 'Jin' means person. Japanese language is 'Nihongo'. Like how English is 'Eigo'.
...Maybe I should just stop posting so late. :|

Re: Languages

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:15 am
by kurowolfe
Again, I'm perplexed by how the Japanese use other languages to make the characters look cool.

I was watching the Puyo Puyo Tetris and Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary gameplays, and each character has their own spell sets which revolves around a certain theme. Some of the spell names kinda put me in a tizzy.

- Stella Inerrans. It means 'fixed star' in Latin?
- Vis Attrahendi. The translator said it means 'force of attraction' aka gravity in Latin, though I'm not that sure.
- Fossa. A small depression in the ground
- Forêt Noire. Black forest in French. So the French calls the Black Forest cake Foret Noire?
- Tachyon. Means a hypothetical particle that's faster than light.
- Aktína, or ακτίνα. 'Light ray', 'sunbeam' or 'x-ray' in Greek.
- Neige. 'Snow' in French
- Feu d'Artifice. 'Fireworks' in French
- Ciel Arc. 'Sky arch' aka rainbow in French
- Horary. Relating to the hour, also an ancient form of instant horoscope reading by astrologists
- Benefic. Relating to the planet Venus or Jupiter, usually having a favourable influence in an astrologist's readings
- Significator. The planet or tarot card that signifies the inquirer or subject of a reading
- Glaçage. 'Icing' in French
- Monter. 'To go up' in French.
- Aloha iʻa au oe. 'I love you' in the Hawaiian language
- Makalapua. 'Beautiful' in the same language
- Vento. 'Wind' in Italian
- Uragano. 'Hurricane' in Italian.
- Tifone. 'Typhoon', same
- Tuono. 'Thunder', same
- Arco Baleno. 'Ranbow', same
- Solfège. 'Music theory' in French
- Craie Lance. 'Chalk Lance', same
- Fin d'Etudes. 'End of study', same
- Anima. 'Soul' in Spanish and Italian
- Rubor Vinee. 'Red vines' in Latin?

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 4:12 am
by Dahan
English (native), Thai (native, but probably 9th grade vocabulary), Mandarin Chinese (native, but probably 3rd grade vocabulary... or worse), French (basic), Japanese (very basic).

My parents are Thai and Chinese, and I grew up speaking those languages (hence native speaker) and don't speak with a foreign accent. But since I grew up in the US, I have the usual second-generation immigrant problem of having a limited vocabulary due to speaking to my parents only about everyday parent/child stuff. E.g., my parents aren't into computers, so I don't really talk about computers with them. And so I never learned the Chinese words for keyboard, monitor, and other computer-related terms.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:15 am
by kurowolfe
You can always learn about them, especially since you already have the basics and probably the tones right. Chinese languages and Thai are notorious for their complex tones, and I never really got even the Mandarin ones down pat when I studied it briefly last time. And Thai have six @_@

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 11:04 am
by tsMKG
Argentinian Spanish is my native.

I also know Mexican and Spain Spanish. Mainly because I used to watch Mexican translations and play videogames in Spain Spanish.

Can read English very well. Also write very well in English.
But I cannot speak and hear English very well. English Vocabulary is also limited.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 11:44 am
by deepskycyan
kurowolfe wrote:You can always learn about them, especially since you already have the basics and probably the tones right. Chinese languages and Thai are notorious for their complex tones, and I never really got even the Mandarin ones down pat when I studied it briefly last time. And Thai have six @_@
Interesting how Asian languages place emphasis on tonality, making it quite distinct from typical western languages. I can't imagine how horribly frustrating it must be to learn Asian languages if you're non-native.
Also pretty sure Thai has only five tones. I know Cantonese has six, though.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:36 pm
by tsMKG
Well, Spanish does also put some emphasis on tones.

Acute accent letters: á é í ó ú

Si means if while means yes


(And what's with "read" in English? Two tones for the same word!)

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 1:56 pm
by Obbl
DeepSkyCyan meant that Asian languages tend to use the tone (or pitch) of a vowel instead of using emphasis. ("They put an emphasis on tone")
So a vowel with a high tone (or pitch) is distinguished from a vowel with low tone.

And yes, "read" is a wonderful example of the peculiarities of English vowel sounds at times :D

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:01 pm
by Dahan
kurowolfe wrote:You can always learn about them, especially since you already have the basics and probably the tones right. Chinese languages and Thai are notorious for their complex tones, and I never really got even the Mandarin ones down pat when I studied it briefly last time. And Thai have six @_@
Yeah, I could learn the words, and kinda want to... but on the other hand, I have other stuff I want to do, and improving my Chinese isn't going to be very useful for me. I really only use Chinese to talk to my dad, and my Chinese is good enough to do that with no problems (and both of my parents also speak English fine :)) And I think my Thai is good enough--plenty of native Thais living in Thailand have a 9th grade education :) I guess if I ever did find a need to improve my Chinese, I'll do it at that time.

And as deepskycyan said, Thai has 5 tones... I'm kinda surprised that tones seem to be such a big problem for non-native speakers, since English uses tones too--not for the same purpose as in Thai or Chinese, but for example, English speakers can distinguish between "Really?" and "Really." Or between "No!" and "No?" So I didn't expect it to be such a big deal to distinguish between at least some of the tones. What I'm not surprised about is the difficulty with Thai's three-way distinction between unvoiced unaspirated "p" and "t", unvoiced aspirated "p(h)" and "t(h)", and voiced "b" and "d". English doesn't have the unvoiced unaspirated versions of those consonants; the "t" in "two" is unvoiced aspirated, and the "d" in "do" is voiced.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 4:32 pm
by Amazee Dayzee
I just realized that my grandparents probably taught me some choice Italian swear words. Not that I'll ever use them though. :mrgreen:

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 5:03 pm
by GreatKitsune
I staring learning Japanese because I was bored one summer and Joey (a Japanese-Australian friend of mine, and yes, he's an Australian named Joey. :lol: ) was trying to get mot to play some MMO's on Japanese servers.

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 9:53 pm
by Douglas Collier
GreatKitsune wrote:I staring learning Japanese because I was bored one summer and Joey (a Japanese-Australian friend of mine, and yes, he's an Australian named Joey. :lol: ) was trying to get mot to play some MMO's on Japanese servers.
Just don't play any games by the names of Sword Art Online or Elder Tales. ;)

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 9:57 pm
by GreatKitsune
Douglas Collier wrote:
GreatKitsune wrote:I staring learning Japanese because I was bored one summer and Joey (a Japanese-Australian friend of mine, and yes, he's an Australian named Joey. :lol: ) was trying to get mot to play some MMO's on Japanese servers.
Just don't play any games by the names of Sword Art Online or Elder Tales. ;)
Honestly, that first one wouldn't be so bad. :lol:

Re: Languages

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:00 am
by kurowolfe
I guess I should rephrase that as 'tonal languages', languages where different tones changes the meaning of the word itself instead of just the emotion conveyed with the word like English. I guess I misremembered the number of tones the Thai language has, but it's still a lot to chew in.

@GreatKitsune: Just make sure you learn formal Japanese first before easing yourself into the different dialects, and speech colloquisms and mannerisms. It might also help to learn a bit of Japanese chatspeak like 'w' meaning 'lol' and '4649' which is shortform for 'yoroshiku' which means 'please' or 'pl0x'

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 5:13 pm
by Furryface18
I guess I'm supposed to speak Spanish since my parents are Mexican and I do speak it, pretty well actually but I am much better at English and I'm always correcting people's grammar. I also know a little French just because I wanted to learn it.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:11 pm
by GreatKitsune
I've noticed Japanese BBS and chat rooms have fewer trolls.

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:15 pm
by Amazee Dayzee
That might be because they can't speak enough Japanese to troll then. :lol:

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 11:27 pm
by D-Rock
I think I'm an odd case. Spanish is my mother tongue, but English is my primary language. Turns out that that's a real danger to spending four years learning English as a child, and for a long time, I could barely speak Spanish. Over the years, I've made great improvements in it, though still not at the level that English has become. I can at least hold a basic conversation.

What's weird is that lately, I freely alternate between the two, often in the same sentence. My workplace is predominantly Latino, so a proper grasp of Spanish is a necessity, but at least they all know English as well, so not all is lost when I forget a word. I am helping this one guy learn more, as he came in from Mexico somewhat recently. He often comes to me for help in the language. We both quickly acknowledged that English is overall a weird language compared to any other language, following what is often a completely different set of rules regarding sentence layout and even how things are pronounced.

Also, at home, one of my parents might ask me something in Spanish, and I tend to respond in English. Or vice-versa, even!

I dabbled a bit in French in college, but never practiced it outside of class, so of course nearly all of it ended up unlearned. I think I only have some numbers memorized.

Re: Languages

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:43 am
by CosmicCoyote
Ein bisschen Deutsch and un peu Français.

In high school, we were obligated to learn a foreign language. The selection was... a bit lackluster, however. Only French, Spanish and Latin. Having grown up in Texas that meant like 90% of the people took Spanish. I considered Latin, considering how much pops up in science, but I decided I wanted something I could try and speak rather something that pretty much always comes up in written form (unless you go to the Vatican ;) ). Since I'd gone to France a couple times with my parents, as well as once or twice up to Montreal in Quebec, just a bit north of upstate New York, where most of my family lived, that made French the option I picked. It's forever since I've used it though - I don't think I could keep up very well at all today. Did end up going to camp up in Canada though over one summer because my parents wanted to immerse me in the language - that was an experience.

Once I got to college and switched to a Liberal Arts major (Economics, for those wondering) I was once again obligated to take a foreign language. However, the university was huge and offered and pretty much every major language under the sun, and so instead of continuing with French, I took German which... I would've taken in a heartbeat had my high school offered it. My grandmother was born in Germany, and it's where she met my grandfather, who was an American studying abroad back in the 60s. While she moved to America, her sisters stayed - add on to the fact that grandfather had no siblings and it meant that half of the family was almost all German. My mother learned German as a kid and took us there a few times (indeed, all the trips to France mentioned earlier were brief visits where the main purpose of the trip was to visit family in Germany). So of any country outside my own, Germany's the one I feel the most connected to. Being able to actually understand the majority of my cousins was also a pretty big draw (though pretty much all of them know English). :P Unfortunately, I also haven't used it much since graduating, though I've tried much harder to occasionally practice it.

Re: Languages

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 3:14 pm
by WhopWhopWhopWhop
I natively speak English, I'm mostly fluent in Esperanto -- I've been studying it for ~2 years -- and I am being forced to learn Spanish in school (only option in my small school.) I've always wanted to learn either Chinese or Japanese.

Re: Languages

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:18 pm
by Amazee Dayzee
Very rare to see someone trying to learn that language. That is definitely interesting! Good luck learning Esperanto!

Re: Languages

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 7:19 pm
by Harry Johnathan
Every Hebrew word I know (kinda)

TORAH (Scripture)
YESHUA (Jesus)
TANKAH (Bible)
AVIV (Spring)
NISAN (April)
ABBA (father)
YAHWEH (The Lord who Creates)
ELOHIM (Gods)

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:32 am
by Amazee Dayzee
Can you actually speak sentences in Hebrew? That would be really cool.

Re: Languages

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:20 pm
by Sleet
Oh wow, quite the bump. :O But between the earlier posts and now, I'm trying to learn more languages! Estudiaba español para siete años, 一年半一年間日本語を練習しました、我也学习过汉语一年半。

Re: Languages

Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:13 am
by Amazee Dayzee
So I assume those languages right now are Spanish and Chinese?

Re: Languages

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2023 2:45 pm
by IsraeliDisneyFan
I study Japanese so I know Hebrew, English and Japanese