BF2S Forums Learning another language

I used to speak decent German. 4+ years of it in high school, tested out of German 2 & 3, spent 3 years in "German 4" (there was no German 5,6,7 in HS), and even had an Austrian exchange student for a girlfriend for a year.

Then the military sent me to Defense Language Institute to learn Korean.
Scramblefucked all my foreign languages, ended up speaking American English worse after I'd left there.
Serious allergic reaction to Korean, I guess.

My current wife also spoke German as a second language.
She says I've a seriously strange accent in German.
She says "Ich" as "Ik", meine as "mein-ah" - I say them closer to "Isch" and "Mein-eh" (very weak, "eh")

Rather curious where we picked up each of our accents, and which is which.
If I've got a lingering screwed up hybrid between Austrian, Bavarian, and Berliner, I should probably fix that...

For fun, I've been trying to get my German up to speed lately.

Last edited by rdx-fx (2012-01-15 13:27:13)

Sisco wrote:

The popular Ik or Ikke is a Berlin thing (or an american for that matter ). Don´t worry about a scrambled accent though. I was born native to the lightly accentuated high german they speak in the north, now living in Austria and whenever I go home they make fun of me for speaking jibberish as they make fun of me in Austria for clearly being German. lol
I started a hungarian course a few months back and that turned my head upside down

So, my wife probably learned Berliner German, and mine is from Bavarian teachers and Austrian girlfriend?

If I'm going to have an accent, I'd rather it be a consistent (understandable) accent.
To me, I'd rather not be the "ugly American" horribly butchering their language.
If you're going to visit a country, speak their language, as best as possible. Y'know?

Last edited by rdx-fx (2012-01-15 14:20:14)

rdx-fx wrote:

Sisco wrote:

The popular Ik or Ikke is a Berlin thing (or an american for that matter ). Don´t worry about a scrambled accent though. I was born native to the lightly accentuated high german they speak in the north, now living in Austria and whenever I go home they make fun of me for speaking jibberish as they make fun of me in Austria for clearly being German. lol
I started a hungarian course a few months back and that turned my head upside down

So, my wife probably learned Berliner German, and mine is from Bavarian teachers and Austrian girlfriend?

If I'm going to have an accent, I'd rather it be a consistent (understandable) accent.
To me, I'd rather not be the "ugly American" horribly butchering their language.
If you're going to visit a country, speak their language, as best as possible. Y'know?

I wouldn´t pinpoint your accents like that, especially without hearing them. The "ik" is a very popularly known as being "Berlin", but there are other parts of Germany that use it too.
It might also be a highly subjective accent, as everybody develops certain quirks and focuses when learning a new language.
Don´t worry about butchering. Germans, like French, are genuinely appreciative of any honest effort put forth to learning their language, even if it´s hard to understand sometimes.

wah1188 wrote:

m3thod wrote:

how good is your cantonese/mandarin Goatpuncher

Pretty basic and poor.

^This. Atrophies quickly.

Dilbert_X wrote:

M.O.A.B wrote:

Want to learn Russian.

So I know what they're plotting

Russian is fun, but complex - ish.

Its actually quite nice to listen to.

russian is very hard for an english speaker. it's not so much complex as it's without a clear system to be learned. russian is full of exceptions to exceptions and then there are more exceptions again. the only real way to learn it is to read and speak a lot.

p.s. don't pick russian - no reason to, unless you want to read original dostoyevsky or smthng.

Shahter wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

M.O.A.B wrote:

Want to learn Russian.

So I know what they're plotting

Russian is fun, but complex - ish.

Its actually quite nice to listen to.

russian is very hard for an english speaker. it's not so much complex as it's without a clear system to be learned. russian is full of exceptions to exceptions and then there are more exceptions again. the only real way to learn it is to read and speak a lot.

p.s. don't pick russian - no reason to, unless you want to read original dostoyevsky or smthng.

russian would come in quite handy @work.. you see russian people daily, most of them don't speak finnish or english so it gets a bit difficult every now and then..

Its not really any more complex than German as far as the grammar goes, I think.

Shahter wrote:

Eifa wrote:

Shahter wrote:

russian is very hard for an english speaker. it's not so much complex as it's without a clear system to be learned. russian is full of exceptions to exceptions and then there are more exceptions again. the only real way to learn it is to read and speak a lot.

p.s. don't pick russian - no reason to, unless you want to read original dostoyevsky or smthng.

russian would come in quite handy @work.. you see russian people daily, most of them don't speak finnish or english so it gets a bit difficult every now and then..

ummm... okay, if you are in one of those places where a lot of business with russia is done - which, basically, means "oil and gas trade" - then maybe russian would be of some use. still, in place of any native english speaker i'd pick spanish or chineese first, and any non-english speaker should of course choose english.

cars. need i say more? i know english already, and a lot of the customers are russian, estonian or from nigeria/zimbabwe etc.. and the last two mentioned speak either bad finnish or bad english, and i can cope with both of them.

Shahter wrote:

Eifa wrote:

Shahter wrote:

ummm... okay, if you are in one of those places where a lot of business with russia is done - which, basically, means "oil and gas trade" - then maybe russian would be of some use. still, in place of any native english speaker i'd pick spanish or chineese first, and any non-english speaker should of course choose english.

cars. need i say more? i know english already, and a lot of the customers are russian, estonian or from nigeria/zimbabwe etc.. and the last two mentioned speak either bad finnish or bad english, and i can cope with both of them.

your job is to sell cars to russians? not to offend, but i don't envy you at all.

nah, i work at a inspection station.. (mot test station)
we do the yearly check ups to the cars, change the owners and do all the stupid paperwork with the cars.
and you can't believe how unbelievably difficult it is sometimes with the russians.. not saying that it's easy with other people but still..
"have you taken an insurance for the car" "yesyes, i had in my old car" "but have you taken one for your new car" "yes yes the insurance in the old car" .. that's about where you want to start banging your head against the wall.

Shahter wrote:

lol, you know what? - it doesn't get any easier with those people even when you speak russian. a little suggestion if i may: next time start banging their head on the wall - that's 1) won't do any damage, because the heads are empty anyway and 2) much more likely to work.

well it seems a lot easier when a co-worker, who's russian, steps in and explains the situation to them.. the reaction I get is "oooohh.. " and i feel like the customers look at me like i'm a dumb fuck who can't explain simple things to them.

rdx-fx wrote:

Eifa wrote:

well it seems a lot easier when a co-worker, who's russian, steps in and explains the situation to them.. the reaction I get is "oooohh.. " and i feel like the customers look at me like i'm a dumb fuck who can't explain simple things to them.

Is said Russian coworker very large and very male?
For some reason, that helps the congnitive processes of some difficult people.

Very large, very male, very old and very russian.

Shahter wrote:

hey, looks like i'd fit right in. are you, by chance, hiring? i can speak russian, i can pretend i speak english and i certainly can bang people's heads against walls.

do you have engineers degree? and also, you should have to be able to communicate in finnish too.

Last edited by Eifa (2012-01-16 06:34:36)