Any cunning linguists here? (German)

[TheELF]

It's been a long time, couldn't remember if there'd be more beyond that. One of my least favorite language features 🙂

You can add a lot more politeness and such, but then again that's the same in any language.

 

[I'dluv2]

I only know how to say a couple words in German.

bra...... overdershoulderboulderholder

virgin......... gudentight

 

[mikeymikec]

As far as grammar, Duolingo doesn't teach it in the main lessons. You have to read the unit "Guidebook" to get exposure to some of that.

Apparently guidebooks are only available for some languages in Duolingo, and apparently not this one?

 

[igor_kavinski]

bra...... overdershoulderboulderholder

stoppemfrumfloppen

 

[kage69]

Comics for me, Asterix and Tintin helped me immensely with French when I was a kid. In college I leaned heavily on manga for conversational Japanese and getting a hand of hiragana and katakana.

 

[kage69]

Don't have to just do Peppa Pig though, even JAV (Japan Adult Video) has some great comprehensible input. I remember early on watching this JAV movie where they're at a pool party and one guy is fingering this girl and his friend taps him on the shoulder and says 'konero' to which he really starts going in on her. Koneru is a verb that means to really get into and mix/knead something with your fingers and the -ro instead of -ru at the end means he's telling him to do it like a command. It's a word I will never in a million years forget.

For me it was kansho.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

For me it was kansho.

You're not thinking kancho? Spelled カンチョ～！

 

[kage69]

That's the one, sorry insomnia gettin me sloppy

 

[sdifox]

That's the one, sorry insomnia gettin me sloppy

This just in, Kage likes to get his bunghole fingered.

 

[nakedfrog]

 

[Muse]

Wie geht es ihnen?

I studied German in the early 60's, 3 semesters when I was a physics major at the U. Said to be a good language if you majored in physics. I remember a lot but don't remember rules per se. I remember a lot of the vocabulary but have forgotten a lot too. I like to think I'm good at pronouncing German, something that's pretty rare among Americans (as a DJ, I have played a lot of music by German composers or bands, don't hack it when I back announce).

Problem is that living in America I almost never encounter situations where knowing German comes into play, other than as a DJ. Same with my Spanish (pronouncing Spanish isn't as difficult as German, but to my ears proficient Spanish speakers' accents in Spanish are tougher to imitate)... studied Spanish about the same length of time in high school as German at the U. While almost no German is heard around here, plenty of people speak Spanish, almost all of them having roots (probably grew up in Spanish speaking households) or having grown up south of the US border. I hear them talking, understand some. They often talk so fast I can't pick it up. I lack a lot Spanish vocabulary, but understand plenty of the more common words and phrases. I sometimes spill a few words in Spanish to Spanish speakers in an effort to impress them or in an effort to break the ice, be friendly or similar. They very seldom answer in Spanish! I figure it's because if you don't ruitinely speak Spanish they absolutely don't feel like talking to you in it because we're in an English speaking environment. It's kind of odd. I'd like to be fluent in Spanish but figure the only way I can do that is live south of the US border for a while or maybe (this has occurred to me), make a deal with a Spanish speaker to teach them ESL if they'd do the reverse for me! 😉 My grasp of English is pretty damn good and I have a very good ear!

 

[igor_kavinski]

They seldom answer in Spanish! I figure it's because if you don't ruitinely speak Spanish they absolutely don't feel like talking to you in it because we're in an English speaking environment. It's kind of odd.

I think maybe it's a regional Latino thing. In the Philippines, if you talk in Tagalog in Manila, people love it and show more interest in talking to you in Tagalog. If you do the same in the Visayas region, they get annoyed and won't respond.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

This just in, Kage likes to get his bunghole fingered.

Here's a good explanation of it:

Also ROFL at Filthy Frank's ニガスインパリス banner (nigasu in parisu), always cracks me up watching reaction videos to him and someone reads that banner out loud.

 

[Muse]

I think maybe it's a regional Latino thing. In the Philippines, if you talk in Tagalog in Manila, people love it and show more interest in talking to you in Tagalog. If you do the same in the Visayas region, they get annoyed and won't respond.

I think I actually know what it is but it's not easy for me to articulate it. I'll try...

As members of a large subclass of the citizenry who probably prefer to speak a language other than the dominant English they feel they are disparaged on some levels. I mean, racism abounds, it's been maintained (and it's arguably true in some degree) that everyone's a bigot. Anti-immigrant sentiments in the USA have been incited considerably in recent years and Latinos have gotten plenty of the brunt of it. So, if I speak Spanish to them and they sense that I am only doing this to show them I know a bit of their preferred language, their reaction is "why should I reveal my true self to this guy, the side of me that feels more comfortable in relating to people, i.e. by speaking my mother tongue?" He's not part of that, actually. Thus they are not even tempted to respond in Spanish. I am pretty much always embarrassed when this happens so I don't even try. I suppose I'll never get proficient in Spanish unless I live south of the USA for a while.