What languages do we speak on OC.net?

[sestir]

I actually considered taking a dialect first, but Nika talked me out of it. [...] We never know what's in people's hearts.

I see. It's okay. I had an allergic reaction to the phrase "modern standard Arabic". I was surprised and wrote a post to find out what was in my heart.

 

[Volnutt]

That's true nowadays, but the Esperanto movement was very strange in its first years and still nowadays particularly in Brazil there are some "Esperanto is spoken in heaven" weirdos around.

Ah, ok lol.

 

[Volnutt]

Does anybody else find that memorizing texts in a language doesn't help your vocabulary as much as you feel like it should?

Like, you know the words in the context of that exact passage, but you have a hard time mentally plucking them out of that context and using them to generate unique sentences?

 

[RaphaCam]

Does anybody else find that memorizing texts in a language doesn't help your vocabulary as much as you feel like it should?

Like, you know the words in the context of that exact passage, but you have a hard time mentally plucking them out of that context and using them to generate unique sentences?

Fluency and knowledge are almost two separate areas in a language. On one hand there is the broken but fluent English spoken by illiterate immigrants, and on the other I've met people who could read Shakespeare but not handle a conversation (my grandpa included!)

So in terms of knowledge I believe memorising phrases, specially in contexts such as songs, poems or biblical excerpts, to be an amazing tool for knowledge. But fluency is another deal.

 

[Volnutt]

Does anybody else find that memorizing texts in a language doesn't help your vocabulary as much as you feel like it should?

Like, you know the words in the context of that exact passage, but you have a hard time mentally plucking them out of that context and using them to generate unique sentences?

Fluency and knowledge are almost two separate areas in a language. On one hand there is the broken but fluent English spoken by illiterate immigrants, and on the other I've met people who could read Shakespeare but not handle a conversation (my grandpa included!)

So in terms of knowledge I believe memorising phrases, specially in contexts such as songs, poems or biblical excerpts, to be an amazing tool for knowledge. But fluency is another deal.

Good points.

 

[RaphaCam]

Not sure if an appropriate place to ask, but I really need to understand the main points of two videos in Russian for my research (one lasting 20 minutes, another 4). Not a translation, just listing relevant information. Would anyone take a shot? I'm almost paying a professional translator.

 

[Sethrak]

Everything is taken ~ almost ~ but ~ Some English, Spanish, Italian yev Armenian ~ ya ~ let me add French, still remember a bit and Latin ```

 

[Dominika]

Does anybody else find that memorizing texts in a language doesn't help your vocabulary as much as you feel like it should?

Like, you know the words in the context of that exact passage, but you have a hard time mentally plucking them out of that context and using them to generate unique sentences?

Absolutely no, I have bad experience from the last year - it's been the first and I hope the last time in my whole education that I didn't sleep in order to learn something:

Again, thank you all for the prayer, an update:
tomorrow in the morning I'll have the last exam from Arabic. Unfortunately, it's recitation two texts about water crisis that should be learn by heart. Despite learning them this week (and I have 1 or 2 exams a day this week, so I'm really tirecd), every day, a few times  a day, I know for now only one of them. Through the whole life I was really bad at memorising texts word by word, I remember always the sens. Arab professors gave us normal exams, apropriate for the last year (giving 1,5 hour lecture in Arabic about a medicine topic, write an essay about sociological and historical stuff), but this Polish professor doesn't agree that e.g I can pass one text tomorrow and anotehr one on Monday, despite teh fact the exams can last until the end of June - he only agrees that I (and another friend) can pass it in September, but it's the second term. So, if I don't pass it, despite the fact my master is almost ready (400 pages A4), that I passed other exams from Arabic studies ant theology, all these things actually will be uselss, as my promoter of the thesis (if I don't give him the ready thesis on 26th June and I can do it only if pass all subjects) will be in October, so it means no Lebanon, no PhD and I'm almost 27, all these family problems... i just want to graduate and move on.

I suppose it depends on the person, though.

 

[Volnutt]

Yeah, we seem to be similar in that regard.

For example, I don't know hardly any Scriptures by chapter and verse, let alone verbatim. I just remember them as "That part where such and such happened..." and then I'll remember a snippet of a few words. I then always have to go and look them up to get the rest.

 

[WPM]

Right now I'm typing in English

 

[Orthodox_Slav]

Right now I'm typing in English

i see....

we all are right now

 

[Volnutt]

Nein. Jetzt bin ich auf Deutsch eintippe. ;D

"No. Now I'm typing in German."

 

[Volnutt]

Found a third degree burn found on page 31 of Mark Rosenfelder's Advanced Language Construction. Talking about whether "weird" non-English features are something to shoot for in your conlang-

If you're creating an auxlang, you don't want weirdness per se, but if your idea can be described as "Esperanto done right", be aware that Esperanto is blandly European and that its creator would have done well to learn a lot more about Amerindian or East Asian languages.

 

[Agabus]

Found a third degree burn found on page 31 of Mark Rosenfelder's Advanced Language Construction. Talking about whether "weird" non-English features are something to shoot for in your conlang-

If you're creating an auxlang, you don't want weirdness per se, but if your idea can be described as "Esperanto done right", be aware that Esperanto is blandly European and that its creator would have done well to learn a lot more about Amerindian or East Asian languages.

I have an acquaintance from college who constantly posts in Esperanto on FB. It took me several tries to figure out what it was at first because I kept mistaking it for other European languages.

 

[Volnutt]

Yeah, with every noun ending in -o, at first I always just think it's Spanish or Italian.

 

[Volnutt]

That's true nowadays, but the Esperanto movement was very strange in its first years and still nowadays particularly in Brazil there are some "Esperanto is spoken in heaven" weirdos around.

Btw, while the Conglang Critic is not always the highest quality, his war of words with a supremely rustled Esperantist is pretty hilarious to see (the top pinned comments- language of video and comments slightly NSFW). I suppose there are still some crazy Esperantists left lol.

Jan's original review of Esperanto.

Also, this lol. And the beautiful trainwreck that is Vötgil, since it kind of comes up.

 

[RaphaCam]

Btw, while the Conglang Critic is not always the highest quality, his war of words with a supremely rustled Esperantist is pretty hilarious to see (the top pinned comments- language of video and comments slightly NSFW). I suppose there are still some crazy Esperantists left lol.

lol, amazing... I really get why there are so many people in the Esperanto movement: it's by far the most successful auxlang (unless you want to troll Modern Hebrew speakers saying it's an auxlang too), and there's all this history behind it. But why on Earth would someone learn Ido, Interlingua or Volapük nowadays? Volapukajho... 

Jan's original review of Esperanto.

He mentioned PHOIBLE! I was looking like crazy for this site and so frustrated I couldn't remember the name... BTW, I use all of Esperanto sounds in my normal Portuguese speech.  8)  /x/ and /h/ are allophones (quite inconsistent, close to free variation), as are /tS/ and /dZ/ to /t/ and /d/; and /ts/ would only appear in loanwords; but still, this negates his point that none of the world major languages have a matching set.

Also, this lol

LOL

 

[rakovsky]

Yo puedo escribir primitivo(?) en espanol.
I cam write primitively(?) in Spanish.

 

[RaphaCam]

Yo puedo escribir primitivo(?) en espanol.
I cam write primitively(?) in Spanish.

*primitivamente

 

[rakovsky]

!Gracias!
¿Lo ves? Hablo "primitivo".

 

[WPM]

I speak Redneck English

 

[hecma925]

 

[Alpo2]

 

[hecma925]

When I visit Finland, I will make sure to know "Beer, please" and "Where's the toilet?" Anything else, I give up.

 

[Alpo2]

Nah, nobody actually talks like that so you would be fine. It might be grammatically correct but only in a very nerdy sense. Some Finnish language student probably just had too much time on his/her hands and making memes is more interesting that reading to exams.

 

[xariskai]

English, Greek, Hebrew (rusty), Spanish (very rusty)

 

[jemadux]

native language is greek .
i can speak english and i understand well

if God bless me to go africa , i will learn kiswahili .. so .why not

 

[RaphaCam]

I'm back at Italian and Russian through Duolingo, things are getting pretty seriously!

if God bless me to go africa , i will learn kiswahili .. so .why not

Very interestingly logical language. Duolingo also has a course.

 

[jemadux]

i know ..

 

[Fr.Andrei]

Finnish is actually one of the languages I have studied. Along with Hungarian, Irish, Greek, Norwegian, and French. However, besides English, I'm only fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and Slovak. I have kind of dabbled in every language of Eastern Europe from Finnish in the North to Greek in the South (except for the two Baltic languages). I aspire to learning the four surviving Celtic tongues....

 

[RaphaCam]

Finnish is actually one of the languages I have studied. Along with Hungarian, Irish, Greek, Norwegian, and French. However, besides English, I'm only fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and Slovak. I have kind of dabbled in every language of Eastern Europe from Finnish in the North to Greek in the South (except for the two Baltic languages). I aspire to learning the four surviving Celtic tongues....

Father, if you want to learn either of the major surviving "Romance Celtic" languages (Portuguese or Galician), hit me up. I'd be glad to help.

 

[Fr.Andrei]

Galician, yes!!!

 

[RaphaCam]

Galician, yes!!!

Não hesite em me mandar uma mensagem, Padre! Seria um prazer, sou apaixonado pela língua galega e seria bom misturar instruir alguém nela com falar com um padre. [Portuguese]
Non dubide en enviarme unha mensaxe, Padre! Sería un pracer, son apaixonado pola lingua galega, e estaría ben mesturar instruír alguén nela con falar cun cura. [Galician, RAG orthography]
Nom duvide em enviar-me umha mensagem, Padre! Seria um prazer, som apaixonado pola língua galega, e estaria bem mesturar instruir alguém nela com falar cum cura. [Galician, AGAL orthography]
Don't hesitate to message me, Father! It would be a pleasure, I'm in love with the Galician language, and it would be nice to mix instructing you on it with talking to a priest. [English]