Why should we pay you in full if the work provided by ourselves sucks?

[wagegoth]

My high school German teacher was Lithuanian. He was a master of rolling his r's. Two years of the mad Lithuanian was enough. But by the middle of the second year I was thinking and responding in German (although it's pretty much gone now, at least the vocabularly ).

I took a year of conversational Japanese and I loved the simplicity of the grammar and lack of gendering. The spelling, the spelling, though. smh

[Fudgethatkay]

I speak Japanese and study Korean, Sign Language, and currently Gaelic.

I don't have the talent for German, but as someone who wants to be a translator/interpreter, I suppose this topic prepares me xD

[Words4theWorld]

Mildly but kind of related (and fun!) I just stumbled across this link to a poem about the sheer breadth of English pronunciation idiosyncrasies.

http://www.tickld.com/x/90-of-people...his-whole-poem

I stumbled at "Terpsichore" but managed the rest. Anyone managed the whole thing?

Haha, I know that one. When I went to university in my first year the instructor for one course about American English made everybody come into his office individually and read out the poem. If you got it right, you instantly got the pass-note for the course, otherwise you had to attend the course for the whole semester. Most students taking his test (about 25) stumbled at "Sword and sward" if they even made it that far and only one girl passed - barely. She had been living in the States for about two years prior to attending university in Germany.

@wagegoth
I'm sure it would all come back if I forced you to talk German to me.

[sms001]

I speak Japanese and study Korean, Sign Language, and....

I've often thought it would be wonderful if international sign language was taught in primary schools around the world. Everyone would have at least a starting point of communication when they traveled. (Not to mention how much quieter so many places could be: job sites, buses, trains, restaurants, etc.)

the instructor for one course about American English made everybody... read out the poem.

Good idea. A graphic of the poem is making its rounds on FB lately. I learned a couple of correct pronunciations just from context in it. My big problem is my reading vocabulary is far larger than my spoken one; I've literally never heard some words I know pronounced (which I'm sure is true for many of us) and English, at least, is a touch ambiguous on phonetics.

I'm sure it would all come back if I forced you to talk German to me.

Sounds like the opening to a bad spy movie.

[Words4theWorld]

Sounds like the opening to a bad spy movie.

If you're ever going to use that line, I'm expecting royalties!

[wolfie]

I've often thought it would be wonderful if international sign language was taught in primary schools around the world. Everyone would have at least a starting point of communication when they traveled.

Fun fact: One piece of dogma in Islam is that the original Arabic version is the definitive Koran - translations are merely for the convenience of people who don't read Arabic. Contrast this with the holy book for certain other religions, which has been translated many times, and is the subject of "what did the author REALLY mean?" debates.

A side effect of this is that any two Moslem merchants, regardless of their native tongues, would have a language in common - both having learned Arabic so they could fully appreciate their holy book in its original form. They might need to write notes to each other if one (or both) were literate but not fluent, but they could still communicate. Needless to say, this gave them a competitive advantage over merchants of other religions, who would not necessarily be able to communicate directly with the locals when on a trading voyage.

[mathnerd]

I've often thought it would be wonderful if international sign language was taught in primary schools around the world. Everyone would have at least a starting point of communication when they traveled. (Not to mention how much quieter so many places could be: job sites, buses, trains, restaurants, etc.).

Sign language varies between countries, as evidenced by a friend's struggle to communicate, even within the deaf community, when her husband was transferred to Japan.

[Fudgethatkay]

Sign language varies between countries, as evidenced by a friend's struggle to communicate, even within the deaf community, when her husband was transferred to Japan.

This. Its a pain in the butt. I know know two words in Japanese sign language, so I'm screwed XD

[Monterey Jack]

Sounds like the opening to a bad spy movie.

"I know a little German. He's standing right over there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSZwlMDSOvY

[Jetfire]

Personally I have massive respect for anyone who is fluent in more than one language, such as the op. My worst score at GCSE was a D for Spanish, and I slogged my guts out to get that (I'm partially deaf, so I don't always catch minor pronunciation differences).

Mildly but kind of related (and fun!) I just stumbled across this link to a poem about the sheer breadth of English pronunciation idiosyncrasies.

http://www.tickld.com/x/90-of-people...his-whole-poem

I stumbled at "Terpsichore" but managed the rest. Anyone managed the whole thing?

I think I got through it all. But the line "Souls but foul, haunt but aunt" catches me because I say "aunt" not "ant" like it seems to be preferring.

[Kal]

Mildly but kind of related (and fun!) I just stumbled across this link to a poem about the sheer breadth of English pronunciation idiosyncrasies.

http://www.tickld.com/x/90-of-people...his-whole-poem

I stumbled at "Terpsichore" but managed the rest. Anyone managed the whole thing?

Love that poem, and actually read the whole thing through correctly. I'll grant that the muses' names were pure guesswork but I seem to guess quite well (looked them up online later).
I gave a copy to the english teacher at uni and she showed it to the class. It's a great way to demonstrate the comparative difficulty of children learning how to read simple language compared to adults with that poem.

[greek_jester]

Love that poem, and actually read the whole thing through correctly. I'll grant that the muses' names were pure guesswork but I seem to guess quite well (looked them up online later).

OK, that's a hearty from me. I am officially impressed (and that genuinely doesn't happen often).

[sms001]

Sign language varies between countries,

Yes, hence my specifying 'international' and using the phrase "at least a starting point." ISL is a pretty limited pidgin, but I bet it'd get you to a bathroom at least.