Learning German?

[ChibiDusk]

Gah, I agree. Wanting to learn a language makes it a lot easier than for someone who is forced to do so. And what IS with all this german bashing? Anyways, Biohazard has offered to help me learn some in his spare time, so I thank him *thanks* lol.

Languages are quite fun lol, hard to learn but fun...I find. I'm taking English (duh), French and Spanish in school. I wanted to learn German on the side and possibly Japanese/Chinese. I'm told learning Latin prior helps immensly since you can recognize the root word since many laguages are derived from latin.

[_Sin_]

Originally Posted by ChibiDusk

I'm told learning Latin prior helps immensly since you can recognize the root word since many laguages are derived from latin.

Well, I'd say the similarities are not that great compared to Roman languages (obviously, duh ) or English (about ~50% of the vocabulary). And what is the point in learning Latin vocabulary (ugh!) just to be able to learn German vocabulary better if you could just learn the actual German words?

Like ato already said German isn't that hard if you've mastered (memorized) the namefalls (takes some time), the genders (quite easy since they are all categorized, i.e. all noun ending on -heit are feminine gender (i.e. "die Gesundheit")) and some other random stuff .
The sentence structure is not that different from English either.

[neEd'Le]

learning the genders and and namefalls,aswell the sentence construction is a piece of cake,it just takes some time...but things as Passive,Konugtiv I und II are just horrible to learn...the other thing that makes the damn language so hard(atleast for me) is that i have to know a minimum of 1200 words to lead the most idiotic conversation,and around 2000 word in order to lead somewhat civilized and inteligent conversation....and it takes a hell lot of practise...i dont know about you guys,but for me english is maybe 5 to 8 times easier to learn than german is

[Lord Raiden]

Originally Posted by ???

Why German ? Why not Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese ? Did adolf hittler conquer the world ?

I actually grew up in a german speaking family and learned it there, but since then have found little if any use for german since then. As it stands my german is slowly going the way of the dodo while my japanese skills get better.

I say, learn japanese. You'll thank yourself.

[subcool]

i took 3 yrs of highschool german, but i dropped it as soon as i could lol.
I only know basic german and words that are similair to dutch, although i can understand german easier when reading/hearing than i can speaking/writing it.

And its not really german bashing, its just that german can be a pretty annoying language sometimes =P
esp with the weird words they use...

I started learning english when i was 8, i think im pretty fluent now =P
i could almost pose for a native english speaker lol (im told i have a british accent when talking english o_O)

ps: As 99% of the people here i watch anime too, but im not actively learning it, i just know random words i picked up from hearing japanese lol. I have no interest in learning japanese either =P

[Sun_Tze]

Uhhh? How the hell is Portuguese only speaken by 160 million? I do remember that It was around 200 million a few years ago. Do they even count African countries? (Yes, portuguese is a main language there)

BTW: Here in Portugal, you can choose between French and German on Highschool

[Gevurah]

Shoot, I've been living here in Germany for 3 years now and I can barely complete a coherent 3rd grade level sentence. All the Germans do around me is speak English to me so I haven't really got anywhere. Great, thanks a lot MTV, you're ruining my European experience by brainwashing the minds of these guys.

[_Sin_]

Umm..., in which direction is this thread going?

PS: I'm pretty sure that subcool meant the pronounciation when saying that he has a British accent (like that (IMO) awfully pronounced 'o' in words like phone (phooowwn) if you get what I mean)

[Roots]

Someone earlier said something along the lines of "you should learn Chinese because half the world speaks it!". I would like to point out the weaknesses in that argument.

First of all, learning Chinese (or any other heavily used language) is useless if you don't plan to ever live in or go to a Chinese speaking country. Let's say I plan to go live in Africa because I'm a totally selfless person and I joined the PeaceCorps. Investing the time to learn Swahili (which a very minor percentage of the world speaks) compared with a "standard" language would be much more advantageous to me. In summary, you need to consider the specific demographics of your environment(s), not the demographics of the world as a whole.

[Stofzuiger]

omgz, german

I honestly could not think of a single reason to want to learn German at all. I've had German for 4 years at school, finished it last year... and boy was I glad to get rid of it

I mean, I myself am Dutch, and (if I'm right) German is the language most related to Dutch (leaving out that silly accent they speak in Belgium )... and it was a friggin pain in the ass.

Although the vocabulary itself isn't all that hard (for me, I don't know about native English speakers), you just take a Dutch word, and add a German tone to it, and *poof*, 90% of the times you have an actually existing German word. Wether it's used in the same context is another thing ofcourse

The part of German that most people have lots of difficulties with is their grammatical system. Even though I'm Dutch, which is very much like German in terms of grammar, it was tough alright. I mean, namefalls (is that a correct English word? )... ARG ... We quit using those 50 yrs ago for a reason you know! They're friggin impossible . Although in theory, they're not all that hard, but when you're actually talking to someone, try to use the right one then

Ok, enough German bashing for one day, ofcourse it does count a lot that you actually want to learn the language, instead of me being forced to learn it. However, as always, having a teacher is much better then using books since you learn to have actual conversations. Hope I didn't scare you though, or offend anyone German or Belgian

So, that's all the help I can give to someone wanting to learn German...
or perhaps:
der-----die-----das-----die
des----der-----des-----der
dem----der-----dem----den
den-----die-----das-----die

[Tenken's Smile]

Anyone who knows German, could you please translate the German on these two pages? ^_^ --> http://www.onemanga.com/Fruits_Basket/8/14/ and http://www.onemanga.com/Fruits_Basket/8/15

[Furuno]

Uh oh... I'm also interested in German (because it sounds so cool, you know ). So, how hard is it? I believe that Bahasa Indonesia (my native) is also a hard language, with all of these word forms ("imbuhan").

So, rather than suggesting other language pr talking about the language's complexity, why don't we just start with the basic "Hello, World!" ?

[Dreamtale]

Tenken's Smile
I think online translators (e.g. google) would be enough for this

[Slice of Life]

Originally Posted by Dreamtale

Tenken's Smile
I think online translators (e.g. google) would be enough for this

There are at least two critical typos that will confuse machine translators. I PMed him a translation already.

[LeoXiao]

I love German. I am taking it in high school for three years and the class is awesome. So awesome in fact that I learned the grammar in a year and a half and skipped to the forth year. That being said, I've never talked to a single German in my life and my American accent is probably terrible. I can read it pretty well though and being stuck in Deutschland wouldn't seem too bad.

I don't understand all the people who say "German is useless." People learn German because they want to. Because it's cool. Only 10% of the kids at my school take German, and that's why. There are already enough people learning all the "useful" languages. Personally I like German because it sounds a lot better than those stupid Romance languages (except french) and is probably easier, given that English is also a GERMANIC language.

I already know fluent Mandarin and English anyway, so it's not like I'm starved of useful tongues.


EDIT: Better talk about the language itself.

I like the cases, especially the ones that English doesn't have, which are dative and genitive. I think it's kinda cool how the articles get changed so then you can take the subject and the objects and switch their positions while still having a good sentence.

The prepositions are kinda frustrating sometimes since they don't work the same as in English all the time, but again they are fun to learn and use. Conjunctive is harder when you get into the past tense but "hard" for me meant like two weeks as opposed to three days for learning/memorizing each case.

Now the hardest part about learning this language it getting the pronunciation right and learning vocabulary. I have a good memory, but also a short attention span and it's hard to memorize long lists of words and retain them permanently. It's also tedious to read German texts when there's other fun things to do (like watch anime!). The pronunciation is not hard to learn, but I find it difficult to make everything sound right when actually speaking. The "ö" and "ü" (though Chinese has "ü" so it's not that bad) are also difficult, particularly when put in between certain letters. The biggest obstacle is that I simply don't have enough chances to speak the language.

[Tenken's Smile]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

There are at least two critical typos that will confuse machine translators. I PMed him a translation already.

I got your translation! Thank you so much!! XD

I choose to learn a language because I like it. When I decided to take Latin in high school, my aunt said: "Nobody uses it nowadays. Take Spanish!" but I took Latin anyway .
In college, when I took Japanese, my mom asked, "what for?" (what for indeed)

I listened to some basic German phrases on Youtube and think it's quite cool! Hmm... may become my next target XD

[-KarumA-]

But remember kids, if you speak German you can easily pick up Dutch and I think some other eastern European languages also

also about the Chinese thing, it is logical since there are so many Chinese but seriously what is the chance of a normal person to actually go to China, for me it is certainly around 4%
This while I live near Germany, so it is obvious that learning German has better use for me, it depends on where OP lives

[windstar!~]

I could imagine the grammar being quite tricky to learn but overall it's certainly doable - if you are interested enough and ready to work hard.

[Hs Vi Germania]

Hm, interesting thread.
Of course German has its tricky parts, but it is the same with all other languages.

There also things in German which are more difficult in English and vice versa.
I guess it is simplier than the Japanese language, though.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by Tenken's Smile

Anyone who knows German, could you please translate the German on these two pages? ^_^ --> http://www.onemanga.com/Fruits_Basket/8/14/ and http://www.onemanga.com/Fruits_Basket/8/15

Heh... well, the mangaka didn't know much German either, it's a bit faulty...

"Sieh do! Welch ein Glück!" (should most likely be "Sieh da!")
==> Look there! What bliss!

"Ich freue mich, Sie zu sehen! Sehr angenehm!" (this is extremely formal-polite German)
==> I'm glad to see you! Pleased to meet you.

"Sehr hübsch!" (peculiar use... you wouldn't use "hübsch" when talking to someone directly, since it has a belittling connotation. A grandma could use this on a small kid. Obviously, he wants to say that she's pretty/beautiful, though...)
==> Very cute!