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Disliking English

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
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Papashaw1
Newbie
Australia
Joined 4031 days ago

30 posts - 35 votes

 
 Message 65 of 73
12 November 2013 at 6:12pm | IP Logged 
To Tarvos: Isn't Dutch word order more varied? V2 and SOV? I still think you make great points.
To: Tastyonions: I see your point, interesting way to look at it whether it is so or not so.
Edit: To finish, I am just bugged when I hear people claim English felt effortless. I could reassure myself
when I find something tough in German that a learner of English would feel frustrated too, but it doesn't look like
that at first. Folks I've met in person or on the net who've called English so simple outnumber those who admitted
to frustration (except native Asian speakers), and it bites. German just looked mightier than English nearly every
way, so I mentioned a lot.

Edited by Papashaw1 on 16 November 2013 at 7:47am

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tarvos
Super Polyglot
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Senior Member
China
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Joined 4707 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 66 of 73
12 November 2013 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
It allows SOV only in subclauses under certain circumstances - word order changes in
Dutch are actually fairly rigid. You can play with complements somewhat more freely to
render emphasis though. And it doesn't really matter anyways.

English allows things Dutch doesn't.
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Papashaw1
Newbie
Australia
Joined 4031 days ago

30 posts - 35 votes

 
 Message 67 of 73
14 November 2013 at 2:32pm | IP Logged 
I hate to go off topic but can you quickly elaborate on English syntax compared to Dutch?
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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 7156 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 68 of 73
14 November 2013 at 4:53pm | IP Logged 
Stolan wrote:
zografialep wrote:
Also, being spoken by so many people has filled
english with many foreign words and acceptable accents and many ''wrong'' uses of the
language have become correct, because they are widely used (for instance ''this
ain't mine, I want dat etc ). It feels like it has become violated, and
everything is acceptable.


Ain't is not wrong in my opinion. Would you say Bayerish speakings are speaking incorrect German? It's a regional
variation in English.


Nor is it in mine. I actually find the phobia around 'ain't' screwy since it leads to the ungrammatical tag, "aren't I?" (would you say "are I not?" as a converse to "I am not"?) 'ain't' is ungrammatical to me when the subject is not the 1st person singular. "ain't I?" and "I ain't" are helluva lot better than "aren't I?" let alone "I aren't"
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tarvos
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China
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5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 69 of 73
14 November 2013 at 5:25pm | IP Logged 
Papashaw1 wrote:
I hate to go off topic but can you quickly elaborate on English
syntax
compared to Dutch?


I quickly worked out the solution
I worked out the solution quickly

Ik heb de oplossing snel gevonden.

Adverbs cannot roam in Dutch like in English - it can't come in front of the verb.
Furthermore you have to put the participle at the end no matter what.

Flexibility is just so context-dependent that it doesn't really matter. It's arbitrary.



Edited by tarvos on 14 November 2013 at 5:26pm

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Papashaw1
Newbie
Australia
Joined 4031 days ago

30 posts - 35 votes

 
 Message 70 of 73
15 November 2013 at 3:01pm | IP Logged 

Anyway on topic:
There is refusal to learn by some older folks. When you reach a certain age it may be harder, but we've seen many
past their 50s on this forum who continue to learn languages. Maybe one needs to already have learned another to
have the confidence. But I've seen some young children as young as 12 translating for their still middle aged and
not elderly parents in some trips to the US and naturally some elderly immigrants here in Perth relying on their
children to translate. Is it really the fact that they believe they can't learn as old people? Dislike?

Edited by Papashaw1 on 16 November 2013 at 7:40am

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lecavaleur
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4777 days ago

146 posts - 295 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 71 of 73
19 November 2013 at 6:52am | IP Logged 
I'm not sore about having English as a first language, though if I could choose any language to have been my first, it
would be Irish. Why? Not only because I've struggled with it for years, but also because it's like a 2-for-1, since all
native Irish speakers my age are profoundly bilingual in Irish and English.

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Tollpatchig
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4007 days ago

161 posts - 210 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Maltese

 
 Message 72 of 73
06 December 2013 at 6:47pm | IP Logged 
I'm glad to have English as my native language simply because I don't have to learn it the hard way. I don't find English trendy or cool like people in other countries may see it. I just consider it a neutral language, not beautiful but not ugly. I think our slang is pretty lulzy <-----(see what I mean?)

But knowing English makes it hard to get the desire to learn a foreign language. I mean you could get around perfectly well in Europe and the tourist traps of other countries but what's the fun in that? I'd much rather be able to go see the REAL country and talk with the natives and learn some cool things. I can't do that if all I know is English.


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