Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: texasmom on June 04, 2008, 08:33:03 AM
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I was very pleased to have seen this. I'm going to use the Rosetta Stone product to learn this language.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10357963
(story is on the 'listen now' portion of the paragraph shown)
How many of you are on your 2nd or 3rd or 4th language?
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My German used to be a lot better when my Grandmother was still around. :(
But I think that Rosetta Stone needs to do this one also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language)
That way, I can tell what they are really saying when I watch "The Gods Must Be Crazy"
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Working on spanish.
I was simply amazed on my trip to Europe in the Netherlands where it seemed everyone spoke at least 4 languages! They spoke Dutch, English, German mostly but I met many people who also spoke some Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian! Talk about feeling like a real dummy. When a bum can ask you in 5 different languages for a buck fairly fluently you've really got to start wondering why they are a bum!
The hardest person to understand was in a pub where we made some drinking buddies who were over from England. One was a welschmen and besides knowing it was some kind of English, I couldn't understand any of it. Later that night after more drinking his buddy leans over and comments "even I don't understand half the crap he's speaking now". Good times.
A co-worker says that Rosetta Stone thing is pretty handy btw!
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Grew up bilingual (Catalan and Spanish), studied English and French, and I'm trying to find time to learn Russian.
Daniel
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Most European countries start teaching other languages at an early age in school. (4th grade?)
I know my cousins in Germany started learning English in 4th grade.
The saddest part is that most people with English as their second language, speak it better than most folks speak English as their native language.
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I'm going to try and take German next year, and I REALLY REALLY want to learn Finnish! :rock
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Most European countries start teaching other languages at an early age in school. (4th grade?)
I know my cousins in Germany started learning English in 4th grade.
The saddest part is that most people with English as their second language, speak it better than most folks speak English as their native language.
Usually you start learning one foreign language in 5th grade, though there are a few primary schools (Grundschulen) that teach it earlier.
Depending on your choice of school type, you keep learning that language for about 5 to 7/8 years.
Many students take a 2nd foreign language (mandatory on Gymnasiums, required for Abitur= highest school graduation level) around 7th grade. Most of the time you can choose between Latin & French at that point, though some schools offer additional choices like Spanish, Russian etc.
If staying on Gymnasium and going for Abitur, you might chose a 3rd language in 11th grade, but only very few students actually do.
All the above varies abit from state to state.
I had 8 years of English and 4 1/2 years of Latin in school and a little bit of Italian & French on University.
But while I can still read Italian with difficulties, the little Latin I actually learned is almost gone...
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Working on spanish.
I was simply amazed on my trip to Europe in the Netherlands where it seemed everyone spoke at least 4 languages! They spoke Dutch, English, German mostly but I met many people who also spoke some Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian! Talk about feeling like a real dummy. When a bum can ask you in 5 different languages for a buck fairly fluently you've really got to start wondering why they are a bum!
A co-worker says that Rosetta Stone thing is pretty handy btw!
I saw the same thing while in Europe, bongaroo. Another thing I saw (which was very disheartening) was what seemed to be an American arrogance in the community that I lived in regarding language. "We're Americans ~ speak English," without much effort on the part of the Americans to make an effort to speak the language of the country they were in at any time they were out & about. I'm sure that was, at least in part, due to the fact that I was a child... Hopefully the adults in the community made more of an effort than what I saw in the children (teenagers).
And so many times here, I saw others speaking broken English (as their second language) suffer ridicule for having said something incorrectly. I never did get that: if they're smart enough to be speaking well enough in a second language for you to understand them, how does that make them worthy of ridicule?
One of my kids speaks sign language (not "fluently"), but that's it. Now that the oldest is already a teen, I'm regretting not having learned/taught them a second or even third language yet.
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I saw the same thing while in Europe, bongaroo. Another thing I saw (which was very disheartening) was what seemed to be an American arrogance in the community that I lived in regarding language. "We're Americans ~ speak English," without much effort on the part of the Americans to make an effort to speak the language of the country they were in at any time they were out & about.
This isn't a American phenomenon. For example many people in the Netherlands do speak the language of it's far bigger neighbour, German, to some extend.
Now most Germans driving to the Netherlands do virtually expect them to do so and are some kind of annoyed when it's not the case...
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In France, in my high school days, the number of languages u had to master was determined by what your speciality was. I was math/physics so I had only 1 foreign language mandatory. My GF in writing/literrary had to cope with 2 foreign languages, and 1 dead one (Latin).
I started to learn english at 12, started to get really proficient around 17 when all I dead was translating video game manuals in French to play the dam thing, as well as watching my favorite movies in English, rather than dubed in French.
I'm softly working on Spanish, French/Spanish/English really gives you a wide array of countries where you can get by.
I think the habit of Europeans to learn several languages rose by necessity. It's quite a babel tower over there, you have to know a couple languages to do business with your neighbors, as well as the increasing number of inter-countries mariages, such as my cousin coming from a French dad, and Austrian mom. She speacks fluent French/Austrian/German from the get go, learned English fluent, and Spanish broken on the top of that. USA in the other hand, is kind of a self suficient country where the need of communicating with foreigners is not a prime necessity. (Althrough spanish should be mandatory, as you can get a lot more done if you can speak it).
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Did Spanish in High School. Hated it...not may Spanish people in New Jersey at that time.
German for awhile at a young age, Grandfather was German. Then was stationed in Germany for 3 Years.
Tried Farsi. That suk'd.
2 Years of Hangul (Korean) Univ of Maryland... did good.
1 Year of Cantonese (Chineese) Univ of Maryland... finally burned out.
Now I just speak Cat and Dog, cuss in Raccoon, Oppossum and give the wifey an occasional nod when she's buzzin in my ear.
Gave up on becoming the Pope. Looking towards the day when I just wear diapers, smile and drool at everyone.
:P
Mac
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Here's an area in education where the US really lags behind. I understand there maye geographic reaosns for this, perhaps, but the euro's really are way ahead of us in this area.(multi-lingual ed)
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I think most high school grads in the US would be ahead of the curve is they just spoke english well ...
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You mean 'speak American well', Eagler.
Yanks will never learn to speak English properly. :D
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My oldest wants to learn German and Chinese, both are offered at his middle school that he will be going to this fall. He has been in Spanish classes since kindergarten at 5 years old (now 11 and has to take one more year.) and is pretty good with it. My middle child has been learning simple Spanish words and phrases for one year now and I speak enough German to order food, beer and find my way to the hotel and hospital when I am in Germany. I am working on German with Rosetta Stone now and want to learn Italian and some Chinese phrases since I have customers in both countries.
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I saw the same thing while in Europe, bongaroo. Another thing I saw (which was very disheartening) was what seemed to be an American arrogance in the community that I lived in regarding language. "We're Americans ~ speak English," without much effort on the part of the Americans to make an effort to speak the language of the country they were in at any time they were out & about. I'm sure that was, at least in part, due to the fact that I was a child... Hopefully the adults in the community made more of an effort than what I saw in the children (teenagers).
And so many times here, I saw others speaking broken English (as their second language) suffer ridicule for having said something incorrectly. I never did get that: if they're smart enough to be speaking well enough in a second language for you to understand them, how does that make them worthy of ridicule?
One of my kids speaks sign language (not "fluently"), but that's it. Now that the oldest is already a teen, I'm regretting not having learned/taught them a second or even third language yet.
While in Germany I met quite a few people who were able to help me with some basic German that spoke English themselves very well. Many know a lot of English but wouldn't use it for fear of messing up and embarassing themselves. Cultural differences. The ones I spoke with had a great grasp on the language and helped me out a lot
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Here's an area in education where the US really lags behind. I understand there maye geographic reaosns for this, perhaps, but the euro's really are way ahead of us in this area.(multi-lingual ed)
Heck - half the population needs to learn English - or do you not notice the first option when you make a call to an automated attendant is the choice for Spanish or English?
Newbs
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Europe here ;)
beside german, i speak & write in english & croatian (my parents roots are from croatia)
its very interesting that i started to learn english when i bought my first computer
around 1982, an ATARI 400, every manual & book was in english and ofcourse
the programing language BASIC. I had no choice, learn english or never understand computers ;)
This days i try to learn a little french, at work we have a few from france so i usualy start the day
with a "bonjour" when seeing them ;) but its a very very difficult language to learn if you ask me,
especialy talking, not so much the writing...n'est pas facile.
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but its a very very difficult language to learn if you ask me,
especialy talking, not so much the writing...n'est pas facile.
For every articulate frenchman, there was a wiry old lady teaching the hundreds of rules of first grade grammar and spelling and memorisation exercises for endless hours, with starchy manners and bare butt spankings, hand- and finger-whipping 30cm ruler and other sophisticated means of discipline.
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For every articulate frenchman, there was a wiry old lady teaching the hundreds of rules of first grade grammar and spelling and memorisation exercises for endless hours, with starchy manners and bare butt spankings, hand- and finger-whipping 30cm ruler and other sophisticated means of discipline.
or Chuck Norris ?
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Ohhh Great, Just Thanx....
Having bad visions of Chuck Norris in a plaid skirt, white blouse and black shoes Catholic School girls uniform with knee high socks.
This is just wrong!
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or Chuck Norris ?
As a matter of fact, the CM2 teacher was a lot like that :lol He'd eye me constantly thinking I cheated to get 19-20/20's on every single dictation, and the one time I did it on purpose to screw with him, he put me up on a giant closet and shaked the thing till I fell off. Other bad students were hung to coat hangers by the back of their collars, etc. He was a great sports teacher, though... After the closet thing, I'd sandbag his fav students and beat em across the line at the last few moments :D
I was really proud of the flawless forgery I'd made during "correction" of that particular dictée, where only the last line was obviously botched and gave it away.. i.e. he was fooled and only caught me cause I let him.. IIRC a few years later, he was disqualified from teaching for favoritism. Michel Doisneau was his name I think.
Here's the tall bastard :
http://image-parcours.linternaute.com/image/750/2/1508142353/439806.jpg
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I tried that rosetta stone program and to me it is worthless in teaching a new language. I seen some software at best buy that teaches other languages that I might check into next time im there
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My father learned Russian, German and Japanese in a hurry, and still speaks them today.. I think the language program he used was called Assimil.
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my first langauge was hebrew
my second was spanish-
my third was english-
I can almost hold a conversation in arabic depending on the dailect i understand alot more.
im learning french this summer.
My family speaks dutch,hebrew, arabic(alot) my grandparents rather watch arab tv station over hebrew
ladino(lost language) french(morracan dialect) some mandarin, polish, and alot of other languages, we are very multi-cultural.
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Tried Farsi. That suk'd.
Mam di tomam tomchimigi! kubide
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Ive been taking German for 3 years and i am skipping German 4 and taking Advanced Placement (college credit coarse) next year. I took a intro to Spanish class a couple years ago, I probably could have taken the placement test to get a credit but i forgot pretty much everything :rolleyes: I want to visit Germany and maybe Austria some time and put my german to the test. Ive been told the dialects are radically different between north and south.
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I just finished German 1 with the highest grade in my class :aok (not that that's an accomplishment, in my class :lol )
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I read and write german. Not quite quick enough to speak it yet.
As for other languages? I've been working hard, but I'm still unable to read english. Speaking it and writing it aren't so bad. The reading part is killing me though.
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its very interesting that i started to learn english when i bought my first computer
around 1982, an ATARI 400, every manual & book was in english and ofcourse
the programing language BASIC. I had no choice, learn english or never understand computers ;)
LOL.. it's almost the same here. I didn't really learn my English in school (I was a very bad student) , but my hobbies (computers and wargaming) forced me to read English all the time
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As for other languages? I've been working hard, but I'm still unable to read english. Speaking it and writing it aren't so bad. The reading part is killing me though.
:)
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The problem with being a native English speaker is that you really don't have to learn another language as most of the world speaks English in one form or another. In fact as often as not when you attempt to speak the local language. They interrupt you with their English. Worse still, many want to practice their English on you. In Vietnam we were constantly accosted by people and many children who wanted to practice their English.
So it's the English speaking countries that are the worst for the lack of another language among their citizens. We Irish are just as bad as the rest. Worse still our own native language isn't widely spoken except in parts of the country. I barely speak any Irish even though I live in a part of Ireland where the Irish language is often spoken. My wife on the other hand speaks Irish well as do most of her family.
I remember explaining to an African man once that I didn't speak my own native language. He was genuinely shocked. at the idea. I was seriously embarrassed by that. We are intending to send our son to an Irish (language) school where the entire curriculum is in Irish. This will result in them being able to talk about me in front of my face. So the time is long overdue when I should improve my own language.
Besides it's also very useful overseas because nobody understands Irish and you can say what you like in front of foreigners. :lol
But my lack of a second language is embarrassing when you realise like Bongaroo that even the beggars in the street sometimes speak several languages.
It isn't that difficult in truth. It just requires persistence to learn a language. I found that after just two weeks in the South of France that I was essentially understanding what people were saying even though I could barely reply to them. My ambition is to upgrade my Irish and improve my French and learn Spanish. That should cover most situations.
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I have my 5...but in the last 2 my spelling sucks.
My kids (2 & 4) have 2....bilingual so to say.
The best is getting the kids into languages early, and IMHO EVERYBODY should learn English. It would be a better planet in that way. Well, it's happening...
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I remember explaining to an African man once that I didn't speak my own native language. He was genuinely shocked. at the idea. I was seriously embarrassed by that. We are intending to send our son to an Irish (language) school where the entire curriculum is in Irish. This will result in them being able to talk about me in front of my face. So the time is long overdue when I should improve my own language.
Same here, the reason I'm going to try to learn my native language. Several years ago a student from a Texas college lived with my Ana & Attata for a year to detail life in their village (& with them in particular). I was horrified that the stranger wound up knowing more about my grandparents than I did, especially regarding their wishes for their children, grandchildren & great grandchildren. One of those was a desire to not see our language die out.
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I grew up in a very diverse city (Waukegan, IL) and it turned out to be a GREAT thing.
If you didn't know some German, Lithuanian, Russian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, or Greek you would definitely be the last kid picked for a team to play. My next door neighbors were Lithuanian. Across the street, 2 German and 2 Polish families.
My German teacher in high school was a HOTTIE from Slovenia. She also taught us some Serbian & Russian after school. Her dad survied the camps.
We had a few families move into the area from Yugoslavia. The kids knew ZERO English, but were chucked into a class where a teacher knew their language. My German teacher also knew Serbian so when a kid from Macedonia came to town, he sat right in front of me in class. I would sneak the Serbian-English dictionary from his book stack and make strange sentances just to crack him up. He always seem so scared and overwhelmed--so he appreciated some humor.
I have always felt that if you are going to another country "Learn to speak before you go". My experiences in Germany were awesome! One family I stayed with their grandfather was an WWI artillery sergent--and he was a HOOT to talk with! He couldn't hear worth a darn and (over a warm Becks) kept asking what my father did for a living. I told him my father was a skilled factory worker---he would keep saying...."Ahhh, ok...so how long has your father been playing the piano?"
On the train on the way back to Frankfurt for the way home, I woke up, and in our car there was a Middle Eastern looking man reading the Bible (in English). I asked him in German if he was going to Frankfurt, and he said yes (His German was quite good, better than mine). I asked him what his favorite part was and he said he loved it all--but was reading about "The Prodigal Son". He asked if he could continue in English, and told me he was flying back home to Pakistan for the first time in years. The leader who had driven he and his friends out of Pakistan (Bhutto) had died. He met some friends at the Frankfurt main train station had asked if I would stand with he and his friends because--"I was the tallest man he had ever seen...and folks wouldn't believe him without a picture". Go figure.
I also met the von Richthofen family gardener on the way home. Since we had checked in very early, our luggage was the last off the plane, and we stood together at the back of the really long line at customs at O'Hare (she looked to be in her early 90's and had the heaviest steamer trunk I had ever carried).
I asked (making small talk) where she was from. "Oh...you wouldn't know where it was anyway." "Really?...you must be from Silesia then". She almost turned ghost white..."None of the young people in Germany know Silesia, how come you do? "Are you from Schweidnitz", I asked? At first she looked frightened, "How did you know I am from Schweidnitz? (she even looked a liittle PO-d for a second). I explained that I didn't know...I had assumed she was and that I had had done a lengthy research paper for a history class the previous year on Manfred von Richthofen and his influence on air force tactics.
She then told me that her name was Anna, and that she had been the von Richthofen family gardener.
She also told me that while on leave from the front, Manfred would sneak up on her while she was working in the garden and "goose" her on the backside--she said she was 17 back then. She also said the von Richthofens gave her a ride to the West when the Russians were only a few miles away.
If I hadn't learned German before I went, I would have missied out on all those wonderful experiences.
My List:
1) English
2) German
3) Dutch (conversational) Thanks to Radio Nederland Wereldoemroep on short-wave.
4) Lithuanian (I only remember all the curse words, sorry)
Learn a second language THEN GO THERE and immerse yourself in it! You will have the time of your life! Ya never know who you might meet!
ROX
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We Brits are every bit as bad as the Americans when it comes to foreign languages, but its all the foreigners fault for learning English so bloody well.
And even where the natives grasp of Her Majesty's English is slightly rusty (Southern California for example), everyone knows if you just talk slower and louder, Johny Native will get the message:
WHERE....CAN....I.....GET.... .A.....CUP.....OF......TEA. TEA....I....SAID....TEA.....
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LOL, "goosing", - ...well would you explain that in ...detail?
:devil :devil
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LOL, "goosing", - ...well would you explain that in ...detail?
:devil :devil
Well...I only adapted what she said to a more "American" audience, for which I apologize.
The word she used was "pinched" on her backside...and then she said "...he would laugh, having caught me unawares."
I asked her about Lothar von Richthofen...(he was supposed to be the practical joker of the family), but she reinterrated that it was Manfred. She then smiled and I let it go. I was 18 back then and she was in her early 90's...that was 30+ years ago...we tried to have a semblance of manners back then ;)
My then girfriend (now wife) was waiting for me with my father after customs. I introduced her to my girlfriend (who did speak some German) and she confirmed to her that she was indeed the von Richthofen family gardner. My father was clueless as to what was going on.
As she was quite elderly I offered to carry her monsterously huge steamertrunk through customs until her son-in-law could take over (her daughter & grandchilfren lived in Evergreen Park, IL). I asked why it was so heavy...."gifts for my grandchildren," she says.
It felt as if she must have brought them all bricks!
ROX
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LOL, that was cool.
While doing some train travels in Germany in the 80's, I frequently wound up carrying trunks or loaded them upwards for elderly ladies. I was stunned with how big and heavy a baggage those little old women were pulling along!
It would never have occured to me back then that I would end up marrying a German woman, her family getting through WW2 narrowly by events like Dresden and Wilhelm Gustloff for instance.
And some months ago, I got a book sent, from my wife's grand-dad. It is called "Mein Fliegerleben", written by Erst Udet and published in 1933...
Anyway, quite some experience there ;)
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English is my third language. Might actually be the one I'm best at though. Sad to see so many people who only speak English, yet they wouldn't pass a basic grammar test. I'm gonna try that rosetta stone application out, downloaded some japanese files so that I can yell insults to The shinsengummi bears.
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Sad to see so many people who only speak English, yet they wouldn't pass a basic grammar test.
All pilots must now pass and ICAO English language proficiency test. There are six grades. You can only fly with a grade 4, 5 or 6. The Irish Aviation Authority automatically awarded a grade 4 to all current pilots including me. Which means I must have my English tested within three years. I need to attain a grade 6 to be exempt from further tests. Apparently from what I hear so far quite a few native English speakers have already failed to obtain a 6. Which tells you a lot about the standard of English you can find even among pilots. I can think of a few Irish pilots whose accent is so fearsome, I would imagine they will never pass the test :lol
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Bonjour. Je m'appelle 68Wooley, j'ai douze ans.
There ya go. 18 years since I left high school and I've still got it.
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(http://s41.photobucket.com/albums/e269/zaidenwinters/th_airplane7a.jpg)Excuse me..I speak jive!
Second Jive Dude: 'S'mofo butter layin' me to da' BONE! Jackin' me up... tight me!
Randy: I'm sorry, I don't understand.
First Jive Dude: Cutty say 'e can't HANG!
Jive Lady: Oh stewardess! I speak jive.
Randy: Oh, good.
Jive Lady: He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help him.
Randy: All right. Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine?
Jive Lady: Jus' hang loose, blood. She gonna catch ya up on da' rebound on da' med side.
Second Jive Dude: What it is, big mama? My mama no raise no dummies. I dug her rap!
Jive Lady: Cut me some slack, Jack! Chump don' want no help, chump don't GET da' help!
First Jive Dude: Say 'e can't hang, say seven up!
Jive Lady: Jive prettythang dude don't got no brains anyhow! Hmmph!
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:lol :aok