Le Learning Le Language
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verkenningspos? I think kolonie would be a better word. ;p
The trouble with apathy these days is nobody cares. Capital Punishment means never having to say "you again?" As easy as 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169
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Three words: Practice, practice, practice! I know some Spanish - I wouldn't say I'm fluent but I can usually carry on a conversation. I had formal Spanish education in high school, and a little in college. However, I kind of let it languish for a few years, but now am getting back into it by going to a conversational class on the weekends. If I were you, I'd try to find a class - either a class from a local college (although you will have to pay for that), or some other random class (like the one I'm in.) Talk to people in German when you can (of course, you already have one person you can talk to... :) ) and just keep practicing. Reading and writing in German would be a big help, too. Can you find books/newspapers/web sites in German? If your nose runs and your feet smell, then you're built upside down.
Back when I was working in SAP, I found at reading the German help became easier and easier, and I actually found it quite helpful after about a year, and that with only infrequent reading as most help was in English. Hallelucination - when you think you see God
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I cheated :-D I asked the guy sitting opposite me :-D You're not doing too bad yourself. ;P Oh ya, and another thing I wanted to ask... Surely growing up in Kwazulu you should know more than one Zulu word? (And why potato??)
The trouble with apathy these days is nobody cares. Capital Punishment means never having to say "you again?" As easy as 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169
Nic Rowan wrote: Oh ya, and another thing I wanted to ask...... Hoekom het jy gestop? Weer 'n bietjie Afrikaans praat is lekker... Ek het dit lanklaas gedoen :rolleyes: Paul ;)
That demands capital punishment!! Death by a herd of marauding Bobs! - Ryan Binns
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Better tell her Parents "Ich möchte Ihre Tochter schlachten und sie mit Sauerkraut essen." That's much more impressive :rolleyes: A course, for starters, is good. German is a fairly complex language, to learn it "the grammar way", you probably have to be a math/lingo whizz. So for the rest of us, talking is important. If you have a reasonable foundation, reading: short stories, poems, song lyrics.
"Vierteile den, der sie Hure schimpft mit einem türkischen Säbel."
mlog || Agile Programming | doxygen -
What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Just do like tourists: Speak. Very. Slowly. And. Loudly. In. English.:doh: I have a Berlitz German for Travellers book. Warum lachen Sie? Ist mein Deutsch so schlecht? I try to think but nothing happens.
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Ok: I'm a bit of a language nut (polyglot?), so here goes: English: Read/Write/Speak French: Read/Write/Speak (haltingly) Spanish: Read German: Read/Speak (phrases) Japanese: Read/Write/Speak (very slowly) Latin: Read Dutch: Read/Speak (phrases) Greek: Read (very little) Arabic: Read/Write/Speak (very little) Jeremy Kimball
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
:laugh: Probably not a wise move saying that. I just bought a few books to brush up on my German, since I'm going over there at the end of November. Books 1,2, and 4[^] These aren't useful for beginners, but I like his style, so without having read it, I'd say look at Book 6 in the list above. "Master The Basics: German", He's got a CD set further down as well.
"The beat goes on.. da-da-dum dadum dum"
BW
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Just do like tourists: Speak. Very. Slowly. And. Loudly. In. English.:doh: I have a Berlitz German for Travellers book. Warum lachen Sie? Ist mein Deutsch so schlecht? I try to think but nothing happens.
Richard Jones wrote: Warum lachen Sie? Ist mein Deutsch so schlecht? Is that actually in the book? :laugh:
"The beat goes on.. da-da-dum dadum dum"
BW
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Being in Texas for 20 years results in knowing MidWestern US version of English with some Texan variations thown in. My biggest problem is having tried to take German in High School for lets just say the teacher was not respected left me with little desire to continue. Which is very disapointing and my fault for not just doing something on my own. What is really poor is both my kids initially took Spanish (something usable here) but none of their teachers made it past the 1st year. One teacher (who could speak 6 or 7 languages) never remembered what language she was teaching and after a few weeks the kids gave up trying to remind her. So that was a waste. The next year was a nice lady that spent the whole time explaining Mexican customs. Ok nice but little benefit to saying anything. Ok enough of a rant. "For as long as I can remember, I have had memories. Colin Mochrie."
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Richard Jones wrote: Warum lachen Sie? Ist mein Deutsch so schlecht? Is that actually in the book? :laugh:
"The beat goes on.. da-da-dum dadum dum"
BW
In the making friends section. Sind Sie heute abend frie? Kann ich eine Freundin mitbingen?:cool: I try to think but nothing happens.
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
Paul Watson wrote: Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. Loosely translated, this means "I want to screw your daughter's brains out on a bed of spoiled cabbage in the living room." You might want to consider rephrasing that... "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot." -
>I would like to slaughter your parents and eat her with saurkraut OMG! David Wulff said I was saying "You daughter is very beautiful and I like your wife's saurkraut very much". Well, there goes my chances.... :rolleyes: regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
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Better tell her Parents "Ich möchte Ihre Tochter schlachten und sie mit Sauerkraut essen." That's much more impressive :rolleyes: A course, for starters, is good. German is a fairly complex language, to learn it "the grammar way", you probably have to be a math/lingo whizz. So for the rest of us, talking is important. If you have a reasonable foundation, reading: short stories, poems, song lyrics.
"Vierteile den, der sie Hure schimpft mit einem türkischen Säbel."
mlog || Agile Programming | doxygenpeterchen wrote: Better tell her Parents "Ich möchte Ihre Tochter schlachten und sie mit Sauerkraut essen." That's much more impressive I am dissapointed in Paul, I told him the difference between Eltern and Tochter. :mad: Still, I think "Ihre Tochter ist wie ein rotes Pferd sehr schön" is way nicer. :) (btw, what is the alt+ code for ö? I hate having to have Character Map open every time insult help people in german.)
David Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Putting the laughter back into slaughter
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Just do like tourists: Speak. Very. Slowly. And. Loudly. In. English.:doh: I have a Berlitz German for Travellers book. Warum lachen Sie? Ist mein Deutsch so schlecht? I try to think but nothing happens.
"You... speaky... english? Ja?" :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
David Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Putting the laughter back into slaughter
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peterchen wrote: Better tell her Parents "Ich möchte Ihre Tochter schlachten und sie mit Sauerkraut essen." That's much more impressive I am dissapointed in Paul, I told him the difference between Eltern and Tochter. :mad: Still, I think "Ihre Tochter ist wie ein rotes Pferd sehr schön" is way nicer. :) (btw, what is the alt+ code for ö? I hate having to have Character Map open every time insult help people in german.)
David Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Putting the laughter back into slaughter
David Wulff wrote: Still, I think "Ihre Tochter ist wie ein rotes Pferd sehr schön" is way nicer. "Their daughter is very beautiful like a red horse":confused: I try to think but nothing happens.
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Nic Rowan wrote: Oh ya, and another thing I wanted to ask...... Hoekom het jy gestop? Weer 'n bietjie Afrikaans praat is lekker... Ek het dit lanklaas gedoen :rolleyes: Paul ;)
That demands capital punishment!! Death by a herd of marauding Bobs! - Ryan Binns
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What languages do you know and how did you learn them? e.g. French, German, Portugese and ancient Greek, not Perl, C++, C# or Progress. I am interested in learning German (for obvious reasons) but for the life of me have no clue where to start. Are the computer based tutors any good? The only language I can honestly say I know enough to get by in, is English. Afrikaans I can offend with or ask for a beer, I can also say potatoe in Zulu. I still reckon my Afrikaans teacher put me high up on the bell curve in school so that I would pass, poor bloke obviously could not stand one more year of Paul Watson mangling his language. David tells me that when I meet Lena's parents I should say the following to her; Ich möchte Ihre Eltern schlachten und sie mit saurkraut essen. :-D regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote: "Cynicism has it's place in life - but it should be kept well away from your inner self." Crikey! ain't life grand?
I started learning a little Thai (for obvious reasons!) but that got cut rather short when I got the much earlier date for my surgery...:rolleyes: It's a fascinating language though - definately worth a look. :cool: Aside from that my language skills stumbled and died at secondary school - although we studied French and German the teaching/environment was awful and I've forgotten just about all of it. Anna :rose: Homepage | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work. Trouble with resource IDs? Try the Resource ID Organiser Visual C++ Add-In
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Being in Texas for 20 years results in knowing MidWestern US version of English with some Texan variations thown in. My biggest problem is having tried to take German in High School for lets just say the teacher was not respected left me with little desire to continue. Which is very disapointing and my fault for not just doing something on my own. What is really poor is both my kids initially took Spanish (something usable here) but none of their teachers made it past the 1st year. One teacher (who could speak 6 or 7 languages) never remembered what language she was teaching and after a few weeks the kids gave up trying to remind her. So that was a waste. The next year was a nice lady that spent the whole time explaining Mexican customs. Ok nice but little benefit to saying anything. Ok enough of a rant. "For as long as I can remember, I have had memories. Colin Mochrie."
Your experience at school sounds exactly like mine Michael. Our German teacher was obviously totally incompetant and his pupils had absolutely no respect for him as a result. After a year of that I didn't enroll for the 'O' level as I orginally planned, which turned out to be just as well as virtually the whole class failed! How teachers like this guy stayed employed is anybody's guess. X| Anna :rose: Homepage | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work. Trouble with resource IDs? Try the Resource ID Organiser Visual C++ Add-In