Languages
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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 08:14:47
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They are one of my favourite things and I have spent much time learning them and not becoming fluent. I'm also, to my amazement, studying linguistics in university. I've been learning Spanish for almost eleven years now, though it's not my favourite language. My favourite languages are English, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Persian, Irish, Sesotho, Hebrew, Spanish (I suppose), and Basque. I've tried to learn many, some of which are the ones above (sans Sesotho), Japanese, Mandarin, French and German. Current focuses are Spanish and Russian, with Mandarin sneaking up on them.

So, tell me about language/linguistic things(, Foolz).

Edited: Thu, 21 Mar 2019 21:08:44


By Miu Watanabe.

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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:07:15
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Well, I'm Belgian, living in the Dutch speaking part of our nation. Up to the 60's French was the language of the upper class and to this day a lot of our dialect is based on French translations of certain words.

Exciting!
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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:13:52
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French infiltrating a language through the upper class sounds familiar. What do you think of Afrikaans?


By Miu Watanabe.

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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:55:01
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That it's basically a funnier version of Dutch.

But hey, the Dutch are to blame for that, not us. All we did was screw up Congo.
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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 21:08:27
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I seem to remember something with Rwanda as well. Where I live Afrikaans is the second most common language. There are a lot of South Africans around, so I hear it on occasion. I prefer it to Dutch, but Belgian Dutch has some appeal to me.


By Miu Watanabe.

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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 22:00:07
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Great "Persian" poetry is almost unbearably beautiful. I'm not sure I'd like to spoil it by understanding it, though.

Forrough Farrokhzad

I also recommend her beautiful documentary about a leper colony, The House Is Black. I think it's on YouTube with English and French subtitles, if not more as well.

Hafez

Rumi

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Thu, 21 Mar 2019 22:26:39
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Té_Rojo said:

I seem to remember something with Rwanda as well. Where I live Afrikaans is the second most common language. There are a lot of South Africans around, so I hear it on occasion. I prefer it to Dutch, but Belgian Dutch has some appeal to me.



You're referring to the incident where Belgium withdrew their UN forces, which lead to the Tutsi genocide.

Africans is a nice language, very pleasant on the ears, but it's also very literal in its vocabulary, which gives it this innocence that often seems amusing to Dutch speaking people. The Dutch of the Netherlands is rather ugly to me, although some individuals prove it can be very pleasant as well.
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Fri, 22 Mar 2019 19:28:27
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I studied German for 5 years and came out no wiser.

Thanks, school.

The other half of the school learnt French for 5 years. At least they could woo the girls.

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Sun, 24 Mar 2019 01:53:13
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I was out of school before I had any interest in learning another language. My brother did Spanish in high school, but it didn't take long for my Spanish to be better.

SupremeAC said:

You're referring to the incident where Belgium withdrew their UN forces, which lead to the Tutsi genocide.



Africans is a nice language, very pleasant on the ears, but it's also very literal in its vocabulary, which gives it this innocence that often seems amusing to Dutch speaking people. The Dutch of the Netherlands is rather ugly to me, although some individuals prove it can be very pleasant as well.

I've read of similar things happening with certain Slavic languages. Or even Dutch as compared to German. Simpler, more "child-like" (for lack of a better term) supposedly.


By Miu Watanabe.

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