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Ever criticized for learning German? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5036 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 9 of 68 20 May 2011 at 9:49am | IP Logged | ||
My apologies. I often suffer from the "everyone on the internet is male" misconception. :) I think the ideas of a language being masculine or feminine just betrays that one has little experience with the language. What does your friend think German women speak? French? A German speaker can sound every bit as feminine as an English speaker. Although I guess you don't need any convincing of that. As to how to convince your friend, I do not know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LebensForm Senior Member Austria Joined 5000 days ago 212 posts - 264 votes Studies: German | Message 10 of 68 20 May 2011 at 6:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh I know.. well my friend speaks some French... and ya I give him crap and say that French is a "feminine" language just to get under his skin lol. But I do know French men speak French lol. But yes I agree, I don't think he knows much if any abiut other languages... I just find the whole thing funny.
And it's all good, it's hard to tell someone's gender on the internet,but ya I'm a chick :) Edited by LebensForm on 20 May 2011 at 6:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5284 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 68 20 May 2011 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, if we look at economic power, German is a very good choice, at least if you live in Europe. I would think it might be very useful for business purposes also for Americans. German used to be the compulsory language after English, so everyone of my age and older will have learnt some of it at school.
Nowadays we have too few people who learn German, taking into consideration how important Germany is to us as a trading partner. For those who need to be emotionally convinced I would try with "Mignon". It is one of the most beautiful poems I know. 1. Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn, Im dunkeln Laub die Goldorangen glühn, Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht? Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! Dahin möcht' ich mit dir, O mein Geliebter, ziehn. Or for those who need the drama, go for "Erlkönig" - my sister used to play the recording for me, and it made me cry even before I fully understood what it meant. And then there is music, engineering and a lot of other fields where it is useful. As for learning languages in general, and comments about them, I usually don't get too much negative feed back, because I can use most of the ones I'm learning in my job. The ones I can't use in my job, I usually have some other use for. As long as you can give people a plausible reason, they usually leave you alone. I'm not exactly broadcasting the fact that I am trying to learn a little Greek though, it has too high a weirdo factor - sadly enough, as I find it to be a language of infinite beauty. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5716 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 13 of 68 21 May 2011 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
This has made me curious. Greek is indeed a lovely language. It is the only script I've learnt to read that hasn't at all lost its charm once I'm able to read without too much hesitation. So I agree with what you've said there, but I'm curious why Greek has a weirdo factor at all, let alone too high of one? :] Jack EDIT - Thanks for posting part of Mignon. I learnt two new words (Laub and Lorbeer) just from those few lines - maybe I should read more poetry? Or more to the point, maybe I should *start* to read poetry... Thanks again :] Edited by LanguageSponge on 21 May 2011 at 2:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5284 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 68 21 May 2011 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am afraid once you go outside English, German, French, Spanish and Italian you are bound to get strange looks. Greek has the additional disadvantage of having a different alphabet and is used in the expression "That is Greek to me (Det er gresk for meg)" expressing that something is impossible to understand. Plus we have almost noone who study Greek - ancient or modern. I know one single person who had done ancient Greek and he died 30 years ago. The only ones I know of (whithout knowing anyone personally) who study Ancient Greek are the ones who want to become ministers of the Church. Modern Greek is not studied at all apart from a couple of private language schools. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 21 May 2011 at 3:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5716 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 15 of 68 21 May 2011 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, I thought you were referring to something especially negative about Greek that I perhaps wasn't aware of - yes, obviously when we choose less common languages, we're likely to get a few strange looks. When I told my family I wanted to go to uni to study Russian, everyone was astonished - and even more so when I told them I was studying Slovene (a language none of them but my father, who is from Italy, had heard of, and they thought it was the language of Slovakia.. I put them right very quickly). I did Attic Greek in school and began it simply because the script is beautiful. I began Russian for similar reasons, too. My family are used to my learning "weird" languages by now, and my friends expect it of me.
Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5284 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 16 of 68 22 May 2011 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you Kuikentje, this was exactly the recording I heard as a young girl, and it still gives me the shivers, particularly at the "Mein Vater, mein Vater" parts, where you can hear how the child is growing more and more frantic, and at the same time the music makes you see the father riding hard through the dark forrest in rain and wind in a desperate attempt to save his child. It is one of the most moving songs I know. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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