I'm not in the mood of posting about DVDs right now. I'll do that tomorrow or something like that.
Instead some things about languages...completely random. I love random things...and talking about languages...enjoy.
- Our Nederlands History teacher at university comes from the Nederlands. Her German isn't perfect and she makes some funny mistakes, but she is really good at talking German. Today she read a short part of a poem (or something like that) in English. After reading this poem she continued talking in English.
First we were a bit confused, then some students started to giggle. After a while a students said to our teacher (in German):"Um...sorry...you know...you are not talking German anymore."
She stared at him and was confused.
She haven't noticed that she was talking English. So funny! :D - I went shopping with Ines before Christmas and I told her about a movie and I didn't know how to say what I wanted to say. And I said (In German):
"In English you would say "creepy". You know what I mean?"
and she said"No."
- First reaction: How can someone not know what creepy means?
- Second reaction: What's the German word for creepy? (still don't know it...)
- Situations like the one above happens to me all the time. Two years ago I had to search words if I wanted to say something in English, now I always forget German words.
- I use English words in the middle of sentences in my journal. It's a bit bilingual :D
- Watching English movies in German is odd.
- The German voices are always higher than the original English ones. If you know the original voice it sounds completely stupid. But it seems to be true. German people have higher voices. For example kids.
- I can't hear accents. Let's explain that.
I can hear it when somebody's mother tongue is not English. The German accent is horrible, terrible, awful ;)
I can hear it (most of the time) when somebody's from Scotland (it always sounds like the pronounce all the words the German way...it's cute :) )
I think I can hear it when someone's from England. I watch some British vloggers on YouTube and in the comments I often read "Love you accent". And I always thought "Accent? What are they talking about?" Now I can hear it a bit better....a tiny bit ;)
All Americans sound the same to me...sorry... - I hate grammar. I hardly ever use the word "hate", but I really hate grammar. No matter which language it is.
I'm a user, I don't have to know how it is like it is. It's like using a computer. I use it, I don't have to know what's going on inside. - People in Germany and Austria (and many other countries) listen to English music all the time, but they hardly ever listen to the lyrics. People don't care what songs are about...
- I don't like German music. It's boring.
- I DO listen to the words. ;)
- My brother sent me this today. It's German, but watch it. It's funny :)
lol! Languages are soo funny! :D :D
ReplyDeleteIn German "gruselig" means creepy or weird. I googled it. haha!
ReplyDeleteI like your accent! :) How can you not hear accents? That's odd. Everywhere I go I hear accents. Maybe it's just me, though.
I didn't understand a word of the video, except that "kuchen" must mean pie, cake, dessert or something like that. haha!
Shaynie: Yes, they are.
ReplyDeleteHope: Haha, thanks! :D
It's easy to explain why I don't hear accents. When you start learning a language everything sounds the same. You are not familiar with the sound of a language and you don't really have a feeling for it. At least that's how I think it is ;)
After 10 years I get a feeling for accents.
The story in the video is about a woman called Barbara. She likes to make rhubarb pie (Rhabarberkuchen), that's why she's called "Rhabarberarbara" (rhubarb Barbara). She opens a shop and calls it "Rhabarberbarbarabar" and there are three barbarian (Barbaren) who love her pies and that's why they're called "Rhabarberbarbarabarbarbareben" etc. In German you can put all words together and build endless words :)
Maybe if you come to America for a long period of time you'll start to notice some of the different accents. And now that I think about it there's quite a few... people who live in the south, west coast, New Jersey, and then in New York city there's several depending on which county you live in. :D
ReplyDeleteI find accents interesting.. here in the states you have so many its sometimes confusing ;) lol
ReplyDeleteGotta love our different languages ;)
Natalie: Yes, I'm sure about that.
ReplyDeleteSamantha: Accents are interesting (if you can hear them ;)). I love German accents and dialects...
I love grammar, but only when it comes to my language! I like knowing the rules and inner workings, because I love to read and write, but I hate learning the technicalities and exceptions for a language I am not as familiar with. Haha, that is so funny about your teacher! And that really is great that you are so familiar with both German and English-I was taught Latin, which is not practical for speaking (though it is great for etymological purposes), and am now TRYING to learn Spanish…
ReplyDeleteHmm, about not hearing accents-I kind of understand. I occasionally have problems distinguishing some beyond the basic 'uhh… it was foreign?', and on my GPS the Australian and (British) English accents sound about the same (though, I normally know the difference between those two… I LOVE Australian accents ^_^). As for accents in the States, I think if you could listen to my paternal aunt who lives in Ohio, and my maternal aunt who lives in Georgia, you would definitely hear a difference! Those two women both embody the accent of their regions well, I think, and it would be pretty hysterical for me to hear them (try to)talk to eachother! Also, the Jersey accent is fairly distinct, as is the Boston accent (I wish I could find you a vid that compared the different sounds…). Yeah, I'm going to stop rambling about it now :).
YAY for someone who cares about lyrics!!! :D. And LOL, I think I was actually able to understand the gist of that hysterical video (I'm going to guess at each basic 'step') Barbara makes rhubarb pies, sells them, barbarians eat them, they have beards, there is a barber who deals with their beards?, beer at the bar, and that dude named Barbel (does he work at the bar?) That was fun to watch either way :) lol. And I'm so glad that your first day back went well!!!
Elizabeth: Thanks a lot for your comment! :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear your aunts talking :D And if you find some videos, please let me know.
You definitely got the story of the vid. The dude at the bar actually is a woman named Bärbel ;) And she's the owner of the bar.
Oh, and I have to learn Latin this year... :( Don't want to. Latin is all about grammar...