Beta... (Oh yea, you know it.)
- Thread starter WatchMaker
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Dirk Gently
Cadet
Well, I was actually thinking more in a historical context.
The 100 years war.
Crusades,
French and Indian,
Napoleonic
WWI
WWII
Franco-Algerian
And Hammer, being a retired Navy Seal, holds some of the French Special Forces units in rather high regards. And generally he is pretty damned accurate in his assessments.
The 100 years war.
Crusades,
French and Indian,
Napoleonic
WWI
WWII
Franco-Algerian
And Hammer, being a retired Navy Seal, holds some of the French Special Forces units in rather high regards. And generally he is pretty damned accurate in his assessments.
Azdel
Cadet
Dirk Gently said:
Seriously. I mean, even their bread can kill you. One time, my friend threw a baguette at me. It's fortunate that I sidestepped it, because when it hit the cabinet behind me, it smashed the door right off its hinges. Granted, the loaf had been stale for weeks, but honestly, no bread should EVER be that hard, no matter how old it is!
Dirk Gently
Cadet
Heh, that's some tough bread.
Gate
Cadet
Leo said:
Agreed, agreed, and agreed.
Though I have to point out that the Japanese have enough alphabets to make your head spin. Hiragana, Katakana, Romaji, and lets not forget the thousands upon thousands of Kanji. Throw in the more Chinese-like variations and newer variations of the Kanji and any American's head would implode.
The Chinese are just as, or even more, insane with their myriad of sub-languages and... 5 I think, variations of each individual character.
Grammatical complexity, alphabet complexity, or simple linguistic drunkeness... take your pick. You'd think that after so many thousands of years of "civilization" we'd finally have invented a language that made sense in all respects.
Leo_CinVin
Cadet
Aye, the Chinese are an OLD culture, but I suppose they are used to certain things in their language by now. As for Kanji, it's a total rip off from the Chinese language but it's a wonderful tool once learned. Writing things in hiragana and katakana is ok for awhile, but when you can simplify two sentences into five kanji symbols.. it makes life a lot easier! And yeah, on the surface it does look hard to learn but so is any language at first glimpse, honestly, I've had an easier time learning Japanese then I did with Latin (spent five years on that). Our language has so many exceptions whereas not many other non-romance languages do, everything makes sense, at least to them.
I love learning new kanji, even if I am reading something full of kanji symbols I have not seen before I can usually see some radicals that I've seen elsewhere and it's like solving a puzzle if you know the origin of the radical (like if it is tree, mouth, woman, whatever) and seeing how it combines with other radicals/characters to create a new word. It's a great way to see into the logic of the Japanese, to see how they associate things together. Like the word for love, suki, is the symbols child and woman put together. Isn't it neat?
I love learning new kanji, even if I am reading something full of kanji symbols I have not seen before I can usually see some radicals that I've seen elsewhere and it's like solving a puzzle if you know the origin of the radical (like if it is tree, mouth, woman, whatever) and seeing how it combines with other radicals/characters to create a new word. It's a great way to see into the logic of the Japanese, to see how they associate things together. Like the word for love, suki, is the symbols child and woman put together. Isn't it neat?
Gate
Cadet
I made a few abortive attempts at learning Japanese, and I took 3 spanish classes in high school. I gave up on both because my brain takes to foreign languages like a fish to lava. I just end up feeling burned out. Damn the American school systems way of teaching languages long after our linguistic development period.
HJ-Navarre
Cadet
Interesting info, Leo.
Japanese are fascinating to me. I love their culture. I plan to teach myself their language one of these days. Just for fun.
Japanese are fascinating to me. I love their culture. I plan to teach myself their language one of these days. Just for fun.
WatchMaker
Cadet
I went to japan once. Cool stuff, I tell ya. I would also like to pick up the language, but I hear it's not an easy one. One thing I would have a hard time with is all the formality.
Pietoro
Cadet
Its harder to learn to write than it is to speak, imo. When people say its hard to learn, I really think its mostly the writing, because its so different than western phonetic alphabets.
English is such a mishmash, our grammar and spelling and pronounciation are inconsistant and arbitrary, and I couldn't even imagine how hard it would be to learn if you weren't born to it.
English is such a mishmash, our grammar and spelling and pronounciation are inconsistant and arbitrary, and I couldn't even imagine how hard it would be to learn if you weren't born to it.
Pietoro said:
In my job, I come across folks from all over the world, and they all know english. Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, Czech, etc... I got the nerve up to ask how one customer got to know english so well, even some of our slang, and they said they had to learn English as a second language early on, when they were around 7 years old... and they kept being taught until they left school, and then again in their college.
I think I'd almost rather be in that type of society, where you're taught from an early age, and it just becomes natural, like it is for a person born in an english speaking nation.
~ Jar
Leo_CinVin
Cadet
Yeah about the only language they offer to us in those young, crucial years other than English is Spanish, some schools are lucky and offer French. It'd be awesome if Latin was taught early, so people could pick up the romance languages pretty quick. For being a nation of diversity, we do limit the choices of our children pretty well.
Gate
Cadet
I didn't have the option to learn any foreign language until 8th grade and my choices were Spanish, French, or German. Optimally kids should be taught a second language from elementary school onwards, just as Jaraeth said. There is a developmental period when the human mind just wraps around it easily. That period is not 8th grade and up *sigh*
That being said, Japanese or Chinese are on the top of my list to eventually beat into my brain.
That being said, Japanese or Chinese are on the top of my list to eventually beat into my brain.
WatchMaker
Cadet
At least they haven't figured out the importance of double posting like we have! Oh wait... what? DAMNIT!
(Just kidding.
)
[ADMIN]- Double Post gone - Navarre
(Just kidding.
)[ADMIN]- Double Post gone
- Navarre
