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The Bulbagarden Conversational Chat Thread Vol 4

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Goodbye Blue Monday

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So how do you say it?

"Du kannst mich mal." We were using it as an example of idioms where the important verb (küssen - to kiss) is omitted.

(The word for ass is also omitted here, for some reason. Deutsch ist eine seltsame Sprache.)
 
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Jolene

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I love how the German language sounds for some reason. That and Portuguese.
 

Hunter Blade

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Me gusto alemán, pero yo hablo español... mi secundaria no enseña alemán, pero ahora yo asisto universidad tan puedo aprender alemán ahora.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Je parle français aussi, pour l'enregistrement.

En fait, je suis beaucoup mieux au français que l'allemand.
 

Hunter Blade

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I took French when I was in preschool 4 and kindergarten. Why? Louisiana, yo. Since we moved when I was 6, I haven't taken French since then. I still understand some of it somehow, I just can't speak it.
 

Jolene

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My French officially sucks. Can't speak it to save my life. The only hope I have for becoming fluent is to move somewhere where French is spoken.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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My French officially sucks. Can't speak it to save my life. The only hope I have for becoming fluent is to move somewhere where French is spoken.

FTR my spoken French is pretty terrible, but yeah, I feel like I'd pick it up quickly if living in a French-speaking country so I don't worry (much) about it.

I'm better at reading and writing French, which is really all I need as a grad student anyway. Unless I decide my particular research interests include Francophone stuff, but right now, I'm more focused on German classical music and Anglophone popular music.
 

Hunter Blade

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I'm okay at speaking Spanish, my accent is amazing apparently, but I'm best at reading and translating.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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I'm okay at speaking Spanish, my accent is amazing apparently, but I'm best at reading and translating.

My accent in French is good, I just can never remember enough vocab to speak it on the fly. (My German accent, on the other hand...)

And if you're good at reading and translating, hey, you'll be awesome if you go to grad school! Assuming you go into a field where they have a lot of scholarship in Spanish, of course. (Mine doesn't, although that will probably change.)
 

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I play Pokedex 3D Pro strictly in German just to hear the accent. I also watch the German channel a lot.

Does anyone wonder how English speakers sound to foreigners? Do we sound like Germans or the Dutch? Those are English's closest relatives.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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I play Pokedex 3D Pro strictly in German just to hear the accent. I also watch the German channel a lot.

Does anyone wonder how English speakers sound to foreigners? Do we sound like Germans or the Dutch? Those are English's closest relatives.

English is technically a Germanic language that is closely related to those two languages, but it also has a strong French/Latinate influence thanks to the Norman conquest in 1066. So I'm pretty sure it just sounds like a hot mess.

(And yet, French and German have cognates that they don't share with English. SO WEIRD LANGUAGES ARE WEIRD.)
 

Jolene

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Either way, English is the sexiest language ever. Due to us importing nearly all our vocabulary, we have more synonyms than any other languages, which means more innuendos.

I fucking love innuendos.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Either way, English is the sexiest language ever. Due to us importing nearly all our vocabulary, we have more synonyms than any other languages, which means more innuendos.

I fucking love innuendos.

Eh, I think English is pretty un-sexy because we just sound like a weird hybrid of so many other languages, not having the distinctive character you get with something like French or Italian or German.

Then again, maybe everyone's native language sounds boring to them. The Japanese certainly do like inserting random English words into their pop songs, for instance.

And the French can be pretty frickin' creative with their innuendos and slang. German has some good ones, too. Don't sell them short!
 

Hunter Blade

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I play Pokedex 3D Pro strictly in German just to hear the accent. I also watch the German channel a lot.

Does anyone wonder how English speakers sound to foreigners? Do we sound like Germans or the Dutch? Those are English's closest relatives.

When my family was in Germany and Austria last August nearly everybody who asked where we were from first asked if we were British. They learn English nearly every year they attend school (if I remember right, that might be old and they don't do it anymore, I dunno), so most of them speak it or at least understand enough to help out when needed.

So basically it's like if you heard somebody speaking Spanish from Mexico vs Bolivia vs Cuba vs Spain, unless you're trained to recognize accent differences you wouldn't be able to tell where they're from. That's basically what Germans think of English speakers: England's closer than America, so England's the first guess.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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I play Pokedex 3D Pro strictly in German just to hear the accent. I also watch the German channel a lot.

Does anyone wonder how English speakers sound to foreigners? Do we sound like Germans or the Dutch? Those are English's closest relatives.

When my family was in Germany and Austria last August nearly everybody who asked where we were from first asked if we were British. They learn English nearly every year they attend school (if I remember right, that might be old and they don't do it anymore, I dunno), so most of them speak it or at least understand enough to help out when needed.

So basically it's like if you heard somebody speaking Spanish from Mexico vs Bolivia vs Cuba vs Spain, unless you're trained to recognize accent differences you wouldn't be able to tell where they're from. That's basically what Germans think of English speakers: England's closer than America, so England's the first guess.

When I was in Sweden, and had trouble reading some sign in Swedish, the girl who helped us correctly guessed that my sister and I were American. So, it's not always true that they can't recognize accent differences.

Then again, in Sweden, pretty much everybody is fluent in English by age 10 or so.
 

Jolene

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Proto Indo-European. Best language ever. No language can beat that.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Unrelated: I'm in the BU student union right now, and I passed by this Kaplan test prep promotional thing and it first hit me that I NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT STANDARDIZED TESTS EVER AGAIN.

(At least, unless I wait until fall 2016 or later to apply for my Ph.D., since GRE scores last five years. But I probably won't.)
 
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Hunter Blade

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People always freak out over standardized tests, but I've never had any trouble with them. They're just filling in circles or rectangles, so I dunno what the big deal is.
 
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