The International Thread

[miss_blue]

Trust me, Romanian has nothing in common with English :lol: Romanian is a Slavic language as opposed to English which is Anglo-Saxon and Germanic. My mom put me through an English course since I was 5 :lol: I hated it when I was little, but growing up I fell in love with the language and majored in English in high-school Sometimes my Romanian friends and I speak in English to each other (just a few words thrown around) and I do use the F word too much :lol: Other languages I already said: French (I know it, I just choose not to speak it, I hate it :lol, Italian, Spanish and Russian (just a bit). I've learned Japanese when I was taking Tradional Karate lessons, but it has been more than 2 years since I've quit so the only Japanese I remember is how to count to 20 and name few parts of the human body :lol:

 

[_Hush_]

Actually, Romanian is a Roman language. (yeah, I know, nice deduction )
It has the same basic language as French, Spanish, Italian etc. namely Latin.
Slavic languages like Czech, Polish etc. have Indo-European roots. I'm not saying Romanian has no Slavic influences, but it's a Roman language.

Just saying

 

[carolina]

I was about to comment on it, but Hush got ahead

I may remeber it so well because I actually flew out of an exam saying Romans had Slavic origins. which is not true but thats what I wrote down in my notes

I didnt like French either. I only took it to avoid German - which I understand just fine but is too hard to learn for me. not that French was any easier

 

[miss_blue]

Actually, Romanian is a Roman language. (yeah, I know, nice deduction )
It has the same basic language as French, Spanish, Italian etc. namely Latin.
Slavic languages like Czech, Polish etc. have Indo-European roots. I'm not saying Romanian has no Slavic influences, but it's a Roman language.

Just saying

Yes, it is derived from Latin, since the space inhabited by Romanians was conquered by Romans in 106 AC. That space was inhabited by indo-european people called Daci (I do not know the translation) but the armies retreated in 271. And the biggest influence on the language we are using today is Slavic, because of the Russian domination we felt. It's a mixture of vulgar Latin (non-literary Latin), Slavic and a bit of Greek, especially in the technical terms. It's only in the 18th century when we introduced the Latin alphabet. Until the 18th century we were using the Slavic alphabet, just like the Russians are using today (of course with the modifications made in the time).

Actually it is a great controversy on this subject, since there are at least 3 different theories on how the language was formed. All of them start with a Latin base, but they differ in the contents. Romanian linguists are arguing with each other. Centuries have passed, and there is still a big question mark on how our language was born. I will not get into details, but if someone asks me to, I will be more than happy to plead my case.

Recently Romanian is meeting with a very big English influence, since we borrowed words that we left completely unmodified. I assure you that the grammar of Romanian has little in common with Italian, French and Spanish. I can say that Italian and French resemble a lot. Hush, are you from SE Europe?

I may remeber it so well because I actually flew out of an exam saying Romans had Slavic origins.

Romans are a different kind of people from Romanians. Romans are the ones that have been inside the Roman Empire Yeah, I know the names are quite similar

 

[_Hush_]

I assure you that the grammar of Romanian has little in common with Italian, French and Spanish. I can say that Italian and French resemble a lot. Hush, are you from SE Europe?

Nope, check the list. I'm Belgian
But I study linguistics. We have a class called History and Typology of Roman and German Languages where we study the origins of languages. Somewhere between Arabic influences on Latin and Germanic invasions, we studied Romanian. We didn't see a lot, but I remember the numerals being loan translations. (segmented numerals like in Slavic, but litteraly translated into Latin...or at least something like that )

Just because languages aren't similar doesn't mean they can't have the same roots. If you'd compare dutch with english or swedish, you wouldn't say they have the same roots either.

 

[miss_blue]

It has Latin roots, but due to the fact that we were taken in by the populations that migrated in the land, we somehow ended up using for centuries Slavonic alphabet and writing, and that didn't help our cause. Some people see us as Latins, some as Slavic. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Me? I should be ashamed of myself but I don't really care :lol:

In Belgium they study Romanian at University? wow! That is unexpected :lol:

I know that Dutch has roots with English, English has a great deal of Germanic influence. I won't get in any deeper for the English part, as I have studied in high school and I am a bit rusty and I am afraid that I won't recall it correctly.

 

[_Hush_]

Don't get me wrong. I don't study Romanian, but we did study certain aspects of it, how the Latin evolved under different circumstances than French or Spanish, all due to a different history.
My professor speaks Romanian though, but that's not a surprise since that dude can speak 14 languages.

But you can study Romanian here. My uni's the only one in Belgium where you can study East European languages and cultures. First you get Russian and Old Slavic, then in the second year you can choose Romanian. A friend of mine studies it, but there no way on earth that you would get me to take that course

 

[Deirdre]

^Krhhmm, we have Finlandia Vodka, the #2 expensive vodka in the world (ah yes, it was sold to americans tho :sad: )

I once talked with Polish girl and she said Wroclaw is better city to visit than Krakow.

5 reasons to visit Finland

1) nature (yes, don't go to Helsinki area)

2) nature... seriously, north for example

3) summer, (doh, nature) esp in north where sun doesn't set and it isn't too hot (mosquitos tho)

4) People, who actually talk more than their own language

5) art, and jewels like Kalevala jewelry (http://www.kalevalakoru.fi/yritys)


My English friend was mostly amazed with trees, how much have have those

'bout vodka, we're on the same side... don't you think?

Maybe Wroclaw is better... but you know, Szczecin is the best to visit

oh and the point 4) - Suomi ei ole vaikea kieli (I hope I didn't make a mistake)

 

[Ducky]

oh and the point 4) - Suomi ei ole vaikea kieli (I hope I didn't make a mistake)

Nope, it was perfect sentence

I am still having some grrrs about visiting Brussels and those goddamn people speaking only French (or Turkish in turkish area )
But we are used to that we need to learn other languages as well so...

 

[_Hush_]

I am still having some grrrs about visiting Brussels and those goddamn people speaking only French

I'm having the same grrrs whenever I go to our capital. I have the advantage of speaking French, but it would've been nice if those people knew at least 2 of the 3 national languages.

Plus, if you visit Belgium, you should go see Ghent or Antwerp. They're much more beautiful then Brussels.

Which brings me to a top 5 of why to visit Belgium

1) Beer! We are proud to say that we have the finest beer in the world.

2) French fries

3) History. If you like history, Belgium's the place to be. We've been conquered by Spain, Austria, The Netherlands... (not necessarily in that order but you get the point ) Tons of history to discover here thanks to cathedrals, churches, castles, etc.

4) Culture! Some of the greatest artists are Belgian. Rubens, Margritte, Ensor... You name 'em. We got 'em

5) Erm.. Did I mention the beer? :guffaw:

 

[Gaelen]

Oh I'm glad I can at least speak 2 of the official Malaysian Languages. Actually, I'm not even sure if English is official yet.

Now that I think about it, I've never really been to a non-english speaking country. I need to schedule a world trip

 

[Brinchen]

I'm glad we have only one official language here in Germany. Most teachers already have problems teaching us this.......

Although I'd love to speak Engish instead of German. There are so many things in German that are so complicated, and in English you use one word for it. German is a complicated language in my eyes, and I also think English sounds much better. At home I sometimes speak English, just for fun, and I write in English. I once visited a German site about CSI:NY and it sounded pretty funny to me.

Btw, posting on boards and writing fics is the best practice ever! When I posted my first post here (my first English post ever), I was so afraid to make mistakes. And now? Now I can't stop. :lol:

 

[Deirdre]

I'm glad we have only one official language here in Germany. Most teachers already have problems teaching us this.......

Btw, posting on boards and writing fics is the best practice ever! When I posted my first post here (my first English post ever), I was so afraid to make mistakes. And now? Now I can't stop. :lol:

German...brrr... it's a black magic! I have it in school for 8 years and now I can tell only what's my name (sorry, I'll not write it:lol.

You're German and you don't like to speak this language? Well, of course English is nicer Oh, and the one thing which I hate the most 'bout German - dubbing on TV! You know what I mean (Nick speaking in German voice...brrrrrrr, scary).

Who cares 'bout mistakes in posts? Everyone's making, sometimes you're just tired or something and you have mistake. I'm sure I'm making some errors just don't care. If everyone can understand what you're writing is ok

And yeah, if you start to post in English, you just can't stop

 

[Gaelen]

If I may ask Deirdre, where are you from?

I went for a little trip to attend a diplomatic function last week and I was bumming in the hotel room for a while when I stumbled upon a few German channels (Sat 1 and RTL). It was hilarious because what else could've come on but CSI! And I am sorry but I cannot take Grissom seriously with the dub voice he has :lol: I think I laughed more than anything - no idea why.

Dubbing sucks!

 

[carolina]

I actually think that German dubbing is really good. you havent heard some of the stupidities they let air in Slovak or Czech versions.

we rarely get here the original sound. mostly on the artistic movies. they sometimes put dubbed versions only into cinema too. I hate it when they do it. but the part I hate the most is when they dub over singing.

you cant imagine how surprised I was when I heard Erics voice for real for the first time. or Carmines. or Josh Hartnetts for that matter.