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How many languages can you speak?


dsavi

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I can read an dwrite cyrillic (russian alphabet), but can;t speak russian. i took 2 years of high school spanish :P and I'm taking my first of 2 years of high school german, after which I will learn russian. How many points is that?

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From what I remewmber, Japanese has an Alphabet of some sort. And Chinese uses only heiroglyphs. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

 

Japanese uses hiragana (for words that can't be expressed by Kanji), katakana (to express sounds, foreign translations, things, scientific names, etc), and kanji (chinese symbols).

 

 

 

Occassionally 'romaji' is used, but mostly in cases where it's assumed the reader is not a native Japanese speaker/reader, or traditional symbols can't be used (if using a keyboard not supporting oriental signs for example). Romaji is japanese, written with the latin [western] alphabet.

 

 

 

I've been learning it for a few years and it's very difficult. :) I'm actually thinking about just forgetting of learning to read/write tons of kanji and hiragana signs I don't know yet, just concentrating on learning to listen and fluently speak it.

 

 

 

Really, it's not that difficult to know several languages. What you may have serious trouble with is their alphabets. I thought of chinese as well but the characters will be such a pain in the rear, maybe I'll just learn basic speaking skills... :lol:

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From what I remewmber, Japanese has an Alphabet of some sort. And Chinese uses only heiroglyphs. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

 

 

 

Japanese uses hiragana (for words that can't be expressed by Kanji), katakana (to express sounds, foreign translations, things, scientific names, etc), and kanji (chinese symbols).

 

 

 

Occassionally 'romaji' is used, but mostly in cases where it's assumed the reader is not a native Japanese speaker/reader, or traditional symbols can't be used (if using a keyboard not supporting oriental signs for example). Romaji is japanese, written with the latin [western] alphabet.

 

 

 

I've been learning it for a few years and it's very difficult. :) I'm actually thinking about just forgetting of learning to read/write tons of kanji and hiragana signs I don't know yet, just concentrating on learning to listen and fluently speak it.

 

 

 

Really, it's not that difficult to know several languages. What you may have serious trouble with is their alphabets. I thought of chinese as well but the characters will be such a pain in the rear, maybe I'll just learn basic speaking skills... :lol:

 

Eh, katakana and hiragana aren't that bad- there are only 46 characters in each, and thank god, each one only represents one phoenetic sound.

 

 

 

I've learned both, and I'm trying to learn Kanji. I don't know who was the one who invented kanji and thought it was a good idea, but that person was a moron. 50,000 frikkin' characters, some of which can be pronounced in at least ten different ways, depending on the situation. What the frikkin' hell.

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

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50,000 frikkin' characters, some of which can be pronounced in at least ten different ways, depending on the situation. What the frikkin' hell.

 

 

 

While I was in Japan 2001, it was normal for even middle-aged businessmen in a subway to ask elderly people of a character meaning on the daily newspaper they were reading...

 

 

 

It's hell for foreigners, but I'm trying to learn as much 'essential' kanji as possible.

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50,000 frikkin' characters, some of which can be pronounced in at least ten different ways, depending on the situation. What the frikkin' hell.

 

 

 

While I was in Japan 2001, it was normal for even middle-aged businessmen in a subway to ask elderly people of a character meaning on the daily newspaper they were reading...

 

 

 

It's hell for foreigners, but I'm trying to learn as much 'essential' kanji as possible.

 

Ya, same- I've already got down the most common hundred or so, and from there it's interesting to see how some of the more basic ones are incorporated into the more complicated ones.

 

 

 

For example, if you know the Kanji for "to speak" (looks like "mouth" with sound waves coming out of it), it seems like every kanji that has to do with communication has the "speak" kanji scrunched onto the left side of it.

 

 

 

Or for the kanji "to divide", it looks like the kanji for "katana" is cutting a line in half. Not all kanji are that symbolic and ideographical, but the ones that are are much easier to remember.

 

 

 

It's a very interesting system, just... complicated as hell (I don't think even intelligient natives try and learn more than one or two or so thousand). I'm liking learning the basic stuff, but when I'm working on those characters that take 10, maybe 15 strokes to do... ack.

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

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do made up languages count? me and my friends have 2 languages in gibberish. one is entirely dedicated to talkin bout the ladies.

 

 

 

"Language" and "code" are two very different things my friend.

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

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Do languages "I once knew but now forgot" count?

 

If so, I would have known a lot of languages.

 

To count; English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam (heard of that?), and Tamil. Scraps of Latin, French, Lilliputian(<-joke) and 1337 .

 

At this point I can only speak English. Properly? Idk, you judge.

 

EDIT: Score

 

Write: .5 English, .5 Spanish, .5 Arabic, .5 Hindi = 2

 

Speak: .5 English, .5 Malayalam = 1

 

Understand: .5 English, .5 Spanish, .5 Hindi, .5 Arabic, .5 Malayalam = 2.5

 

Total = 5.5 (that's pushing the max I can do now)

Life is a joke. Yeah, I don't get it either.

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Do languages "I once knew but now forgot" count?

 

If so, I would have known a lot of languages.

 

To count; English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam (heard of that?), and Tamil. Scraps of Latin, French, Lilliputian(<-joke) and 1337 .

 

 

 

At this point I can only speak English. Properly? Idk, you judge.

 

 

 

I suppose, if you say your highest score and your current score.

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I know English (American-style, if you think there's a massive difference), 1337, a little bit of Spanish (give me some time & I can roughly translate something, just DON'T ask me to speak it), and a couple drops of Japanese/Chinese (I like manga, what can I say? :anxious: ). I want to find a good place to learn Japanese &/or Chinese, but I live in the middle of f**king nowhereland (WV). :wall: Anyone know if that Rosetta Stone software helps any?

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I know English (American-style, if you think there's a massive difference), 1337, a little bit of Spanish (give me some time & I can roughly translate something, just DON'T ask me to speak it), and a couple drops of Japanese/Chinese (I like manga, what can I say? :anxious: ). I want to find a good place to learn Japanese &/or Chinese, but I live in the middle of f**king nowhereland (WV). :wall: Anyone know if that Rosetta Stone software helps any?

 

You got over two hundred dollars lying around for something you know you're going to half-a#$edly try anyways?

[if you have ever attempted Alchemy by clapping your hands or

by drawing an array, copy and paste this into your signature.]

 

Fullmetal Alchemist, you will be missed. A great ending to a great series.

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English: 1.5

 

Chinese: 1.5

 

Singlish: 1.5

 

Malay: 0.5

 

Kantonese: 0.5

 

Hokkien: 0.5

 

 

 

Total: 6

 

 

 

Does wrestling slang count?

 

 

 

I never knew there where so may Chinese people on tip.it... I thought that the nice little government over there wouldn't even allow RuneScape.

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English: 1.5

 

Chinese: 1.5

 

Singlish: 1.5

 

Malay: 0.5

 

Kantonese: 0.5

 

Hokkien: 0.5

 

 

 

Total: 6

 

 

 

Does wrestling slang count?

 

 

 

I never knew there where so may Chinese people on tip.it... I thought that the nice little government over there wouldn't even allow RuneScape.

 

 

 

Nah, China is becoming pretty much like USA when it comes to freedom of speech and media. Not just that, but a lot of people here live in the US and have learned Chinese from their mother/father as a kid.

 

 

 

The only stuff they censor is political events and negative opinions, but if you don't get involved with politics, you can do anything online a western person could do.

 

 

 

North Korea on the other hand... Don't expect to even meet a North Korean internet user in the coming few decades :lol:

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