Posted on 02/13/2024 7:21:59 AM PST by OneVike
A woman without her man is nothing.
Place some commas in there and you have the opposite meaning.
Pfft. I never in a million years would have uttered the sentiment that learning English was easy as a second language.
Never.
I have high respect for ANYONE for whom it is not their native language, yet speaks it intelligently.
Only an ignoramus would say English is easy.
I think he just got red in the face and corrected his inflection. I seem to recall the instructor’s nickname was the “Dragon Lady”, very hot. I wasn’t as lucky in Japanese. All the instructors were Japanese men, the first one named Kumayama (Bear Mountain), 4th degree Judo blackbelt, with a voice like a movie Samurai. Scary dude, but married to a petite American Jewish girl. Their baby would pound on his face while he held her. Hilarious.
Since its my native language I cannot judge this for myself but I do speak a couple of other languages and my friends who learned English and at least one other language tell me:
1. it is very very easy to learn to speak English at a basic level
BUT
2. It is far more difficult than with many other languages to learn to speak English at a really advanced level.
Not only is the spelling a disaster with lots of diphthongs, but it also has a lot more idioms than most other languages. The rules of grammar are not nearly as strict as in most other languages but this can actually make it more difficult when expressing complex ideas.
I speak Hungarian. It was unbelievably difficult to learn. It has certain structure/concepts I had never seen nor heard of in any other language - just wild. That is all in addition to the vocabulary being completely different. You can look at several billboards when you go to Hungary and not understand one single word. That will not be the case if you go to a country that speaks a Germanic or Romance language.
What English particularly excels at is the ability to describe very precise pieces of time. What do I mean?
In a lot of languages, there is no grammatical difference between "I go to the store" (in general) and "I am going to the store" (right this minute). There is no present continuous - no ing form - in many other languages.
It works in past and future tenses too. You could say something like "Bob was going to the store when he saw Cathy." That seems simple but in German for example, you would have to translate that as something like "As Bob was directly en route to the store, he saw Cathy". You have to go out of your way to specify in another way exactly what action he was doing at that precise moment because there is no verb form that allows you to easily do that like you can in English.
Yes....especially basic words. For example:
Finger = Finger, Hand = Hand, Arm = Arm, Schulter = Shoulder, Ribbe = Rib, Lippe = Lip, Auge = Eye, Haar = Hair, Ohr = Ear, Kinn = Chin, Nase = Nose, Knie = Knee, Fuss = Foot.
BUT
I warn you the grammar is completely different.
True. I used to be fluent in French (30 years ago) and took some Spanish.
My friend from Brazil gives me Portuguese language motorcycle magazines and I can get most of what they’re saying.
My daughter is half Hungarian and only speaks a little; she’s growing up in the US.
I am looking for a Spanish teacher for her as it is the only useful language in North America besides English.
yep.
in not so many words.
hehehe
Try the word “set”.
Actually English is a German language from the Angles and Saxons
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sometimes. Other times there are fine nuances of difference
When my ancestors stepped off the luxurious Cromwell Cruise Lines they somehow managed to learn the language of their new involuntary home land.
Everywhere I go now I hear the cacophony of Meso American invaders who are apparently incapable of STFU for more than a few minutes.
And yes I have come to resent them mightily.
My liberal brother is big on “immigration”.
I did a job where there was a Mexican guy helping me, and I told my brother about him (setting him up for the punchline).
“Yeah - it was a bit difficult sometimes. One of the helpers didn’t speak English except for a few words. But one of the other guys, from Samoa(!) knew English and Spanish very well so he would translate.”
“Well - you can’t expect them all to know English right away.”
“Yeah. Except this guy was the longest-working employee of the company - 27 years in the USA.”
“(One of my most valuable classes, along with Personal Typing, for the future.)”
My son did four years of Latin in 7th - 10th grade. It helped in science, biology, English and Spanish. In High School Spanish class he said he never even did the homework and he got A’s.
Oh - and mom made him take “keyboarding” or whatever it was called. He thought it was so stupid (as did I 45 years ago when my mom made ME take it.) Probably the most practical class my son or I ever took.
“Probably the most practical class my son or I ever took.”
Absolutely. I don’t have a college degree, so what got me in the door at some top companies (GE, Corning, etc.) was my 110 WPM. Then I quickly moved up up up.
Allow me to apologize for posting and running. Usually I try to participate in the discussions of my posts, but I am currently unable to respond as I wish for any extended period of time, due to surgery I had last Monday.
I posted this thread shortly before I had to get a ride to a doctors appointment in Boise yesterday, which is 50 miles away. See, I had reverse shoulder replacement surgery for my right shoulder last Monday on the 5th of February. Yesterday was my first follow appointment since the surgery. As I stated, it was my right shoulder, and I am right handed, so I am unable to use it for a few Months.Now I must count on my left arm, and it will take time to get used to doing so.
In preparation for the surgery and my healing period, I wrote some articles ahead of time and set them to automatically post at predetermined times in the future to my website, (trfmf.com). I also worked out HTML templates so I can post them to FR using minimal work with my left hand.
However, I cannot participate except in a minimum way once they are posted for obvious reasons. Just so you all know I truly enjoyed reading each and every comment. I have been saying it for over 26 years that Free Republic has most informed and educated people who participate in a forums on the WWW on the planet. Bar none.
God bless you all, and keep me in your prayers. Well, when you pray, please mention my wife, Sharee, to God before me. After all, she’s the one who has to deal with this stubborn one armed nut for the next few Months.
I do have other posts I will share as they come up in their prescheduled time. So until then, keep on keeping and God bless you all, Free Republic, and brother Jim.
No worries, get well! Enjoyed the thread!
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