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Are you bilingual?
JoonasTo:
No it isn't.
English sucks. There's exceptions to exceptions exceptions.
German is lovely. Even their irregulars are regular!
moonlight:
Fluent:
Dutch
Vietnamese
English
Decent:
German
Survivable:
Japanese
Only up to the level of understanding insults:
French
My aim is to at least speak 5 languages fluently, almost there XD
harpy:
--- Quote from: JoonasTo on January 31, 2011, 10:22:08 AM ---No it isn't.
English sucks. There's exceptions to exceptions exceptions.
German is lovely. Even their irregulars are regular!
--- End quote ---
I found German to be a lot harder, the grammar itself and the use of the regular and irregular thingies and other little stuff is insane.
(click to show/hide)Yes English do have loads of exceptions and so on, but then again there are so little of word forms, verbs do have time dimension but nothing much else, like gender regarding if it is female or male speaking, not in the sense if it is a female or male gender word (I do not remember anything like that in English).
Yes English do have loads of little annoying rules made by the huge usage and history of the language, but as a language that should be learned it is simple. Well if it would not be as simple as it is it would not be used so widely, true we do have huge number of countries that use English, but we do have huge number of countries that use French, Spanish and even German.
The hard factor (the only one I can find) is the history of different use of the same words em expressions and such stuff. The culture of the language is hard.
I kind of regard the language to learn to my native one (Latvian). German is closer to my native and it is quite hard language to learn. My native language is really really new language as written language (it does have huge history as spoken language) so my native written language is more then anything based on German, Latin and later on on Russian languages. English have it's own history and huge dependence on how aristocrats used it so it do have these little totally random rules, but most of them (not all of them and most of these little random rules) are dying out and most of the time can be ignored (I know British people would kill me for saying this, but fact is fact). So I know more then anything that German grammar is a nightmare comparing to English
to put it simple - German have schematic grammar, that is really hard and should be learned as a complex system that can not be changed and is insanely picky on details so that the meaning would not be lost. English grammar is really random and the language itself is based on emotions and usage, it does have grammatical structure (no language that is not a private language and existence of a private language is close to impossible). Language can not exist without grammatical structure, but as a language it is simple, it does have huge history and just loads of expressions, but still as beautiful as it is it is rather simple language.
I do know English grammar and I do know loads of grammar stuff, but I fail to use it......
JoonasTo:
That's why I find German easier than English. There are more rules yes. But when you learn the rules that's it.
You don't have to go remembering every little exception's exception's exception. It's simply more logical language.
You learn the rules, you learn the words. In English you learn the rules, learn the words, then you start learning the exceptions, then the exception's exceptions. Dives one crazy.
Really embeds itself into your brain when you try to teach it to someone. Teaching German you can just tell them when and why to use it. Teaching English to someone you can just say, that's just the way it is. You use this with this. Why? Oh, I don't know, because someone once thought it sounds better? You just got to know these, there's no logic.
So in short, there's just less to learn in German.
harpy:
English sounds like one feels it and grammar comes after that :D
German you can not speak it without grammar.
I just fail at grammar just like I fail at mathematics formulas
I think I started English with learning exceptions in regard to words (like word forms in past future and present and that stuff) and then came grammar part of it :D To think of it I can not remember any exception things unless the usage of capital letter and some verb forms, but that's just me
I do not think that English is most used in the world because it sounds nice (did not say it before), it is most used because it is easy to use, there was many people using it already and most pop culture is in English...
To tell the truth I still do not understand we people say that French is beautiful language, I do not find it pleasing to the ear with all these "r" sounds and throat sounds.
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