Tony Rocky Horror
Member
10 languages, listing both afrikaans and dutch is cheating!
Yeah, because they're totally the same. I'm Dutch and I find it pretty much impossible to follow half of what is being said in Afrikaans.
10 languages, listing both afrikaans and dutch is cheating!
Same, and I am a native Chinese speaker. Writing it, I definitely abandoned it.My personal issue with Chinese is I do english grammar lol.
I am picking up the written more than I am speaking.
Lord Ghirahim said:I read a piece by a Japanese author a few days ago, he wished death on a hypothetical fully anglophonised mankind.
It's still a dialect, not an entirely new language.Yeah, because they're totally the same. I'm Dutch and I find it pretty much impossible to follow half of what is being said in Afrikaans.
Chinese
I'm not really familiar with how big those differences are. The difference between Dutch and Afrikaans anyway is relatively minor, I mean, it's significant enough to justify it being a separate language, but that's about it. It might be more similar to Dutch than West-Frisian (which is a small language spoken in one part of the North of the Netherlands) even. Most Dutchmen should be able to follow what someone is saying Afrikaans no problem.Would the difference between Dutch and Afrikaans be similar to the differences between old world French and that spoken in, say, Montreal? I've always been curious about the distinctions and similarities. What say you, Kab?
Yeah, because they're totally the same. I'm Dutch and I find it pretty much impossible to follow half of what is being said in Afrikaans.
In terms of number of native speakers, Chinese is the best choice. If you're looking at number of countries in which said language is spoken, Spanish may be a wiser choice.
I'd recommend that you choose whatever language you're interested since passion and fun are going to be what keep you motivated if you're a casual learner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_languageChinese is distinguished by its high level of internal diversity, although all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) and Min (50 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and the Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms and some degree of intelligibility.
?New Zealander Harold Williams was listed by the Guinness Book of
Records as the world?s greatest linguist. He is said to have spoken
over 58 languages fluently as well as some of their dialects ?
Swahili, Hausa and Zulu among them. This amazing polygot was said to
"read grammars as others read detective stories". He was the foreign
editor of The Times; described as the "the most brilliant foreign
correspondent" his generation had known, he "knew everyone and
everything ? and was always at the point of greatest interest and
risk."
Most people use Chinese as a shorthand for Mandarin. Even in China.
Why not cheat and say you speak norwegian, and possibly danish, too?
I've been thinking about picking it up but, to be honest, I'm just not into the government over there. Maybe too much Red Corner, but if I'd be afraid that if I went over there they wouldn't let me come home.
I've heard the intonation is a real pain in the ass from a western standpoint. Is that true?
I've been thinking about picking it up but, to be honest, I'm just not into the government over there. Maybe too much Red Corner, but if I'd be afraid that if I went over there they wouldn't let me come home.
I've heard the intonation is a real pain in the ass from a western standpoint. Is that true?
Competent is very vague. Then again, so is fluent.
Wtf is the point. He is wasting his time, all that work and talent should be invested in STEM instead.
Why bother learning weird shit like Hebrew or Catalan?
He hasn't bothered with Mandarin?
I praise him for his ability, but I'd say he probably could have invested his time a little better by learning different languages than the ones he did. I'd say that these are some really good ones:
English
Mandarin
Spanish
Russian
Arabic
Portugese
Japanese
Sign Language
Who are you to dictate to him what he should consider important or what he should learn? Maybe he just finds those languages interesting. I can speak Cantonese but have zero intention to learn Mandarin because I hate it. And I get patronizing responses when I tell that to people every day. Where's the joy in learning something that is more "useful" if you simply don't like it?
I'm not really familiar with how big those differences are. The difference between Dutch and Afrikaans anyway is relatively minor, I mean, it's significant enough to justify it being a separate language, but that's about it. It might be more similar to Dutch than West-Frisian (which is a small language spoken in one part of the North of the Netherlands) even. Most Dutchmen should be able to follow what someone is saying Afrikaans no problem.
I can speak 3 languages.
You Americans and Brits have it easy as you don't have to learn other languages.. =/
11 languages though... impressive. I've wanted to learn Spanish and Mandarin due to my knowledge of Japanese and Tagalog, but time is so little.
I'm not really familiar with how big those differences are. The difference between Dutch and Afrikaans anyway is relatively minor, I mean, it's significant enough to justify it being a separate language, but that's about it. It might be more similar to Dutch than West-Frisian (which is a small language spoken in one part of the North of the Netherlands) even. Most Dutchmen should be able to follow what someone is saying Afrikaans no problem.
Really? They are mutually intelligible for the most part. I never have any problem understanding the language, just speaking it is difficult.
Here's an example: a Flemish tv reporter interviewing Charlize Theron in Dutch, she responds in Afrikaans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fYB9s0Nyzk
Oh, and Afrikaans is cool because it has so many neologisms that don't exist in Dutch.
Nope
Is Tagalog and Spanish that similar? I learned that it's a language tha takes some words from spanish but otherwise is not related to it.