Language

[serum]

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/japanese/gifs/hira15.gif

http://www.englishtreejapan.com/images/Katakana.gif

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/art/chinese.jpg

http://user.chollian.net/~jis0523/Images/language.jpg

http://solair.eunet.yu/~janko/thai1.gif

http://www.xenotypetech.com/images/dbumed_sample.gif

http://www.gurukul.edu/images/about_vision_pronounce_001.gif

http://members.aol.com/yikhmongol/monduu.jpg

http://www.plumsite.com/palace/arabic/hassan%20massoudytiger.gif

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/literature/pictures/allah.gif

http://www.lingvozone.com/languages/Language%20Information7_files/image001.gif

[serum]

To get away from the typical crossfire threads of copying/pasting news articles
i wanted to discuss language. from any angle.

language to me is a pretty weird thing. being an american we are pretty much raised to just speaking english. my first day in juniour high there were like 50 russians that basically invaded the school. i never really knew any fresh off the boat russians before and had no qualms about them. i guess the only thing i could think off was gorbie and the scary communists. well these russians basically stuck together and would try to run the classroom. well most of my friends took an instant distaste at the sound of their language and the arrogance that they carried. so we told them to speak fuckin english. they responded with shut up you stuuupeed amereecans. so we ended up having a huge battle royal in the middle of the class. but the thing that strikes me odd thinking back on this situation is that the people on the american side were korean, black, white, puerto ricans etc. the only thing that bonded us together wasnt our race but our language. i mean all the koreans involved spoke only korean at home, and the puerto rican spoke spanish, but in school it was english.

i got the idea for the topic when thinking about how some schools teach english and spanish because of the large majority of spanish immigrants in the school system. im not against learning other languages ofcourse but i dont think american schools should be conducted in spanish. english only and foreign language classes starting from elementary school age. hopefully with a variety of choices. we only had hebrew and spanish at my school and i wasnt interested in either at the time. if there was chinese or japanese i would have been all over it.



so whats your take on language? anything. something that pisses you off about it, people speaking in another language in front of you, school, learning a second language, english as the international language. whatever. open ended.

[the.crooked]

language is all important.



it is how we classify, regulat, and structure knowledge. learn more languages and you will be a better person.


plain and simple.

[serum]

in terms of learning another language the key, though i don't think its ever too late, is to start young.
toddler age is the best and decreases from there. kids are like a sponge and it doesnt take much
for them to absorb anything.

im jealous of europeans that are trilingual. i would feel apart of this international world.
maybe if americans learned more languages we wouldnt try to mess with other countries so much.
learning language properly also means learning culture which is something i love.
i can pick apart japanese and their culture and still be humble enough to say i have no clue about
japanese people.

anyone going to stress learning another language to their kids? if so what?
my kids are definitely going to be required to learn english and japanese.
from there id like them to learn a third.

for myself i can speak japanese but i still have a ways to go on the reading. i just chose talking to others over reading but not being able to speak.

since chinese is pretty close in the reading department id love to learn mandarin but since that is such
a colossal task and i dont think i would move to china i may have to give that idea up.
spanish would come in handy since id love to travel across south america.

[fatlaces]

I wish i knew my own language. Its something i plan on rectifying in the near future.

[yumone]

i find it interesting how hard/impossible it is to make a sound that is not comprised of a letter or combination of letters.

[serum]

westerners that look at japanese pornographic comics often laugh
at what is actually going on. tentacle going into every hole in the womans body etc
but the thing that japanese most find funny is the unique sounds that they give
to each action.
the sound of a finger going into a vagina = kyu kyu kyu
the kanji for kyu means to suck in, inhale, absorb,
pretty funny

[Blood Feast Island Man]

coca cola in welsh is cola coca.

[Juan Fuentes]

mandarin chinese most spoken in the world, due to the number of people in that country
then comes spanish in second place...
i thought it was english first...

[Blood Feast Island Man]

it's chinese, hindi, english/spanish 3rd place tie. I think.

[the.crooked]

coca cola in welsh is cola coca.

proper names adopted from other languages are rarely changed in structure.

[the.crooked]

oops, i just read actually what you just said...




im a lile tipsy. but that is interesting.

[NoeWhan]

Have you herd of the Rosetta Stone?

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html

Crazyyyy.

And this...

http://www.piney.com/Babanzu.html

Eku's child, leader of the Anunnaki, focus of Eninnu,

Anunnaki is another name for Reptilian... I think.

Then again... its called 'The Myth of Anzu'. Was the words 'Myth' translated or perceived incorrectly?

[serum]

this is taken from a larger article but i thought this was interesting

Born in 1979 in Oregon, Fargo grew up in an American family obsessed with language that habitually reveled in etymology jokes.

For example, when the Fargos would have an avocado salad, the father would point out that the word "avocado" originates in the Aztec "ahucatl" meaning testicles and his mother would happily tell everyone that the word "salad" comes from salt and hence they were eating "salted testicles."



then i came across this on chinese swear words. i have no clue what it says but
i think the english version alone is funny


???????? (He is an idiot raised by dogs)

?????? (He is a crazy person)

????????? (His Mom’s brain has poop in it)

??????? (**** 18 generations of his ancestors)

?????????? (His body is full of poop insects)

???????? (His private part was eaten by pigs)

??????????? (What kind of b**** raised poop insect is he?)


i dont think the chinese characters will show
heres a link to hear what is being said for each phrase link (http://www.thechinaexpat.com/bad-chinese-words/)

[Blood Feast Island Man]

when you translate swear words they usually sound comical in english.
argentines are very into using pelotas(balls) as an all-purpose profanity.

[Dawood]

While I was living in Egypt I was studying Arabic. I was there for 4 months and the teacher never uttered a word of english to me in the class. Not to anyone. The class was 5 days a week, 6 hours a day so it was very intensive. It was crazy for the first few days sitting in front of him listening to him speak a foreign language (that I already had a little familiarity with) But realizing that I can't understand at least 70% of what he's saying.
By the time I left I could understand at least 70-80% of what he was talking about.
It was a very humbling experience.

[fermentor666]

I think one of the reasons that Americans aren't as fluent in other languages as their European counterparts are (assuming this is true) is because we are so isolated from everyone else. The only other language spoken in our continent is Spanish, and if you want to count Quebec, also French. A country in Europe can be surrounded by four or five other countries that speak different languages, so there is more opportunity to learn new languages and motivation to learn languages in order to participate in trade.

When I got to see my relatives for the first time in 16 and 19 years in Poland this summer, it was almost embarrassing for me because I only know about four words in Polish. Their neighbor, who speaks English fluently, came along to help translate, thank goodness. But there was no way I could follow their conversations. I spent two weeks in Poland and the Czech Republic, and it is amazing how many people there speak at least some English, as well as other languages.

There is a class at my school about the origins of the English language that I want to take, but it would be an elective and I don't have the time to take it. From what I remember, Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" theorized on the origins of language quite a bit. I haven't read that book in almost 10 years, though.

[Theo.Huxtable]

mandarin chinese most spoken in the world, due to the number of people in that country
then comes spanish in second place...
i thought it was english first...

i think english is the most international language though. you go to most countries, its either the native language spoken or english... international airports, etc.

[Dawood]

Definately, English is the most international language. wherever I've been, all over the world people speak english, not to mention the directional signsage is usually, the native language of the country and....english. Damn, Mcdonalds everywhere spreading America's clogged artery unhealthiness..

[serum]

we're definitely blessed to be from an english speaking country and can travel anywhere
in the world and be understood. the thing that irritates me are certain groups of people that come to
america and refuse to learn english. i dont feel that we need to learn spanish in order to
communicate with mexicans. working alot in restaraunts as a kid the thing that always bugged
me was that the cooks expected me to ask for shit in spanish. fuck that. but i also think that
people that travel to other countries should learn a few phrases to talk to other people
and not expect them to understand our international english. my parents love all inclusive bullshit
hotels out in mexico where they sit around the pool with a bunch of other white people ordering their drinks with little umbrellas in them in english. i refuse to join in on family vacations because
they want to be safe in their little hotel on an island with military guards standing at the enterance.
if i go anywhere i walk around just like the locals do. the only places i wouldnt go are countries that
america has recently fucked over like iraq or afghanistan. but no place really scares me.
when its my time to go its my time.

[Harpo Marx]

Right, study up on your Chinese kiddies, English is on its way out...

Easily the most important discussion on language to date:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOIM1_xOSro

Though on the Chomsky bit, anyone read the article talking about the amazonian tribe that challenges Chomsky's theory of univrsal grammar:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all

ta-da!

[Juan Fuentes]

that piraha language, wanted to listen to how it sounded, found some bible readings in that language.

weird language


http://globalrecordings.net/audio/c/mp3/C23291A.m3u

[IOU]

Maybe a stupid question, but are braille and sign language universal or do they vary from race to race??

[serum]

well i know that in that movie Babel
the japanese girl got the part because she knew japanese sign language
im not really sure about other countries though

[Dawood]

beautiful arabic recitation of the quran (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LUZxx0czuCA)

[Dawood]

oops (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LUZxx0czuCA) double post

[Juan Fuentes]

has anyone not heard quran recitation yet?

it would be important to mention it is 1400+ years old, never changed, because if it did it couldnt be rhyming like it is, and that's why it survived untouched till this day. and there has never been nothing like it, ever.
it contains laws, examples, reminders, punishments, stories, advices, warnings, praise, and everything else, complete, enough for a human being.

[Dawood]

I never heard the quran recited before I was a muslim. (not that I remember)
The first time I heard the Adhan, my heart melted.

And Juan, it survived unchanged to this day because it was a promise from Allah that it would be preserved.