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St. Jimmy

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The standard way of teaching languages is teaching Estonian as first (because it's the native/official language), English as the secondary/B language, and then one tertiary/C language, which is either one from a selection or a strictly determined one depending on school (in my school, you could choose between Russian/French/German, some schools will only have Russian, or only French, etc, with some allowing to pick a 4th language). So you will end up learning at least three languages in any case.

Estonian-English-Russian is common. (In this order - I recall the number of proficient English-speakers in people 30-50 was higher than those of Russian-speakers, and drastically higher among those between 20-30 or up to 20, according to some survey a couple of years back.)

 

For the sake of comparison, my university (TÜ) had a mandatory English class, and some classes which were entirely taught in English (especially later on), but no mandatory Russian, and non-language classes in Russian were not even an option.

 

You tell me... I don't think there is any family here without horror stories of that time. My entire father's side of family was sentenced to death at one point, and was only saved by the neighbours getting executed on the spot in their stead, either due to laziness or administrative errors (my family was away at the time), just to mention one thing.

It is very important to make the distinction between the people and the government. USSR is by no means equal to Russian people (especially since they weren't always too much nicer towards their own people than ours - protest what your country's doing, and you'll take the bullet for treason and sympathizing with the enemy yourself). Wars, occupations and cruel dictators are terrible things in general... The Russians were victims almost as often as we were.

 

OT: I think the Estonian in your signature should read, "Olen loonud ilusaimaid asju kõige pimedamatel aegadel" to match the English?

 

I learnt both English and Russian as secondary/third language. but not so much as I was only in school in Estonia until I was about 8, so It's all a bit fuzzy to me, as from 8 - 14 I was in Finland, and then 14-16/17ish in Germany xd.png

 

Estonia during soviet occupation sounded absolutely terrifying to me. I know that my great uncle on my grandfathers side was executed.

 

I know that the USSR, and Russia now, are entirely different, but its still a terrifying thought >.<

 

And yeah, both my signature and

"Olen loonud ilusaimaid asju kõige pimedamatel aegadel"

mean pretty much same thing, but what you said does match the English a little better.

I'm ashamed to admit I'm bad with some grammar still, after having lived all over the place but I am getting better. It's especially confusing when my mother throws in more Southern dialect which can be different even from the Tartu dialect. >.<

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I speak English almost perfectly.

 

Ik praat perfect Nederlands, dat is ook mijn moedertaal.

^ I speak Dutch perfectly, it's also my native language.

 

Je parle français assez bien, mais il y a quelque difficultés. Mon vocabulaire, par example, n'est pas très grand.

^ I speak French pretty well, but there are some difficulties. My vocabulary, for example, isn't very big.

 

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, aber ich brauche es vielleicht nicht.

^ I speak a bit German, but most of the time I don't need it.

^^ This is because in middle school in the Netherlands you will always have to follow classes in Dutch and English, and you're allowed to pick one more language that you already have a basis for. The exact way it works differs for each of three levels. Both vmbo and havo will have you first learn 4 languages (Dutch, English, German and French) then, in vmbo after 2 years and in havo after 3 years, you will be forced to continue with Dutch and English, and you'll be allowed to pick either German or French to continue learning, or both, or neither. In vwo, the highest level, you will start with three years learning Dutch, English, French, German, Greek and Latin. After these three years you have to continue doing Dutch, English and at least one of the four other languages, although you can in fact take 3 of them... but not less than one! Along with choosing what languages you're in fact picking an entire "profile" for the rest of your middle school study. One of those profiles, economy and society, forces you to learn one modern language besides Dutch and English, so you will be bound to either French or German. Yet, these are only the languages schools are obligated to teach, besides those, a school can teach any language they want to, like Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Indian...

 

However, I'm in the 4th year of havo, currently the last week of the year and next year will be my last year. Because I want to continue with vwo after finishing havo I decided to also learn French. I picked French because for German we have a horrible teacher... X(

 

I actually intended a short post... lol.

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And yeah, both my signature and "Olen loonud ilusaimaid asju kõige pimedamatel aegadel" mean pretty much same thing.
Not quite - your signature is actually saying something along the lines of, "I have created more beautiful things at the darkest into order". ("korda" is either the ordering form of the verb "repeat" or accusative form of the noun "order" in official Estonian, "ilusam" means "more beautiful" whereas "ilusaim" means "most beautiful", and "darkest" should be pluralized in this context, thus "kõige pimedamatel" or "pimedaimail")

 

I myself have spent my life (excluding brief stints in other countries, especially Finland and Germany) in Harjumaa, Rakvere and near/in Tartu and Jõgeva (also living thereabouts now). So my typical casual Estonian is some combination of the "official" northern Estonian and middle-Estonian.

 

Heh, and Estonian isn't known for being one of the most difficult languages to master without a reason. If you feel like having more native Estonians around to talk to / practice with, then I suppose I'm usually around. :-)

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Not quite - your signature is actually saying something along the lines of, "I have created more beautiful things at the darkest into order". ("korda" is either the ordering form of the verb "repeat" or accusative form of the noun "order"  in official Estonian, "ilusam" means "more beautiful" whereas "ilusaim" means "most beautiful", and "darkest" should be pluralized in this context, thus "kõige pimedamatel" or "pimedaimail")

 

I myself have spent my life (excluding brief stints in other countries, especially Finland and Germany) in Harjumaa, Rakvere and near/in Tartu and Jõgeva (also living thereabouts now). So my typical casual Estonian is some combination of the "official" northern Estonian and middle-Estonian.

 

Heh, and Estonian isn't known for being one of the most difficult languages to master without a reason. If you feel like having more native Estonians around to talk to / practice with, then I suppose I'm usually around. :-)

 

Oh gawddd..you're right. xd.png

Now I feel dumb. I've never been too good at writing, ect in any language. I'm always better at more spoken things.

 

I was confused, re-reading it, and said it at loud and then "oh yeah"

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I should go change it now.. >.<

 

My mother originally spoke Võro, though speaks a Tartu/standard now. I myself. was actually born in Pärnu, in a hotel of all places..then lived in Tallinn until I was about 8, and me and my father moved to Finland. then at 14, Germany.Then I myself went to the UK.

I only moved back to Estonia around september time last year, and am in Elva. Though currently back in the UK atm. We seem to have had similar travels, haha.

 

So sometimes my languages get a little mixed up, sorry about that. I'm getting the "Kord" and "Aega" mixed up.

 

Kord is more "procedure, order and occasion" right? which may be where I got confused with "occasion/time" perhaps. if I remember correctly. It hasn't been very long since I started regularly speaking Estonian again, so yeah, I get confused.

Though I should have known since my cousin had me listening to "Meil on Aega Veel" on repeat for freaking ages... xd.png

I just hate to admit that i get confused because i think. "I'm Estonian. I was born here. My mother is Estonian. I should know the freaking language without being confused"

 

But ah well, I know now. And once I head back there again, which will hopefully be late this year, I can be on the road to not being so confused with some words. :3

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Kord is more "procedure, order and occasion" right? which may be where I got confused with "occasion/time" perhaps.
Order, occasion, repeat (such as in "Korda, palun?" == "Repeat, please?") ... procedure, too, but in a rather narrow sense. In general, the relation between words tends to be not quite 1:1 - such as you can use "kord(a)" in speaking about how many times something has happened (on how many occasions it has happened, or how many repetitions it has), but not when you speak about in what case (on what occasion) something is or isn't true/applicable/etc (on that occasion - *ahem* -, you'd use "juhul" or similar).

 

The finer nuances of words. The various languages will never agree on what is tall and what is high, what is long and what is far (and sometimes, long is tall, for a good measure). biggrin.gif

Edited by Shienvien

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English, mainly.

 

I can also speak a bit of Japanese and Chinese... I love asian countries for some reason. I think its the cultures.

 

Also a bit of Russian, French and Spanish.

 

I hope to completely master a second language someday though.

I'd say I'm strongest in Japanese out of those, so perhaps that.

 

Oh, and I also know some Irish curse words. xd.png

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I am Polish, so I speak Polish rather well smile.gif It is said to be one of the hardest languages, and I am so happy I don't have to learn it from scratch tongue.gif Both my parents are English teachers and translators, so my English is also quite good, but still it's easier for me to speak than to write. I was learning German in school, but I honestly wouldn't say I know a lot righ now. I was able to use it pretty well though, that's a bit sad. And, since they have a lot of similarities, I can understand Russian and Czech.

 

I would love to learn Lithuanian in the future. This language sounds so... elvish?

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Everyone is talking about my neighbors and i feel a bit lonely about it. No one talks about latvia buuut i get it. There isn't anything to talk about.

 

Oh yee. uhh i speak english and latvian. Latvian is my native language but somehow i still suck at it. God those word endings sometimes confuse me. At least we say what we write. I'm looking at you english and your weird writing.

 

When i read Lithuanian somehow i can understand a bit. Latvian and Lithuanian are related so maybe that's why. If there are fellow latvians here PM me or anyone can PM me in any language and confuse me.

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English is my first language. I also do some interpreting in American Sign Language. I know a tiny bit of Russian, and I can pick out a few words in Spanish (better at reading than listening or speaking).

 

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English, how boring...

 

Mein Deutsch ist genug, um mich durch zu bekommen. (albeit pretty awful, but I think I know enough German to hold basic conversations, it's probably more accurate to say I am fluent in Rammstein Lyrics, though)

 

mi español es bastante malo. ._.

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I love studying languages. I am a native Portuguese speaker, and I also speak English pretty well; it's so often present in my head and daily life that I consider myself to be fluent. Sometimes I will know a word in English but not in Portuguese, or generally express myself better in English. I only learned it in my teens though so I have a bit of an accent.

 

I can understand written Spanish and Italian due to their similarities with Portuguese, all being Latin languages. I can write okay too, just not speak/listen.

 

I have basic understanding of Dutch, enough to maintain a basic conversation, order stuff, ask and give directions and all that. My reading is pretty good too, the only thing I suck at is writing. Oh, those humongous words rolleyes.gif But I believe that if you master English writing, anything else should come easy enough. laugh.gif

 

I know a few words in Russian, Polish and.. Sindarin. I can read the Cyrillic and Tengwar alphabets am not a nerd at all tongue.gif

Edited by guuvii

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I know a few words in Russian, Polish and.. Sindarin. I can read the Cyrillic and Tengwar alphabets am not a nerd at all tongue.gif

Awesome! biggrin.gif I want to learn Quenya and Sindarin one day. At the moment, I want to reach a certain mastery for German first. I studied both German and Italian at the same time back in university and it seemed that my brain prefers the intensive study of one language at a time. (I would show up in German class pronouncing Euro as "EW-ro" and I would show up in Italian class pronouncing Euro as "OI-ro", for instance.)

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Everyone is talking about my neighbors and i feel a bit lonely about it. No one talks about latvia buuut i get it. There isn't anything to talk about.

 

Oh yee. uhh i speak english and latvian. Latvian is my native language but somehow i still suck at it. God those word endings sometimes confuse me. At least we say what we write. I'm looking at you english and your weird writing.

 

When i read Lithuanian somehow i can understand a bit. Latvian and Lithuanian are related so maybe that's why. If there are fellow latvians here PM me or anyone can PM me in any language and confuse me.

I totally get you.

 

Queue: Write down 5 letters, only pronounce the first.

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I just hate English pronounciation too, and I can only speak English. Being DHH (Deaf/Hard of Hearing, I fall into both categories depending on if I have my Naida cochlear implants in) I tend to speak very phonetically and blend my rs and ls. I get a LOT of nagging for it, to the point where I want to say "(CensorKipz) you all, let me talk how I hear you!". Really. dry.gif

 

I wish I could learn another language though. Fun fact: I played Pokémon X in German and discovered I can understand written German a little. Maybe because both English and German are Germanic languages?

 

However, I am actually technically an English Language Learner - my first language was ASL, but I sadly have forgotten most of it. I only remember 20 letters of the alphabet. I'm also learning Universal (? - They recently changed the name...) Braille. Fairly proficient, but not fluent as I cannot understand any punctuation but !, ,, ., and ?. I do know a lot of the contractions though. And the alphabet of course.

Edited by Dusky_Flareon

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I wish I could learn another language though.  Fun fact: I played Pokémon X in German and discovered I can understand written German a little. Maybe because both English and German are Germanic languages?

Perhaps! A lot of English and German words sound alike. At least for me, I think that I had a head start on German vocabulary as an English speaker. For instance, "wort" is "word" while "buch" is "book" and "wörterbuch" is just "dictionary" (or literally "word book"). Of course, it is not always this easy. I was in Berlin two years ago and I bought the book "The Hobbit" in German. I still cannot read it without checking a dictionary or translator every few sentences. laugh.gif

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Korean and English are my two mains. c:

 

I had learned some Chinese at school, but I forgot most of it.. I can write/speak the simplest Spanish sentences(also school-taught) and I'm trying to teach myself Japanese. I was surprised to find that I could understand more than what I had expected!

 

I'm eyeing sign-language, Braille and French but I probably won't be able to learn those properly for a long time x0

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Actually, Braille is pretty easy as long as you have a nice teacher who understands how sighted people naturally want to read it. Yes, I'm talking from experience - I have a genetic disorder that slowly eats away at my vision, but right now I have central vision with 20/30 acuity, so like you would, I want to read it the sighted way. That gave me a lot of grief til a couple years ago when I changed school districts. Or you can use a book.

 

ASL... been too long since I used it. Best I can offer is maybe try to order a few books on the signs that appear. I'll warn you, there are a LOT. Braille has many contractions, but not as many as ASL. Plus some Braille conractions can be part words and ASL only does whole word contractions.

Edited by Dusky_Flareon

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Perhaps! A lot of English and German words sound alike. At least for me, I think that I had a head start on German vocabulary as an English speaker. For instance, "wort" is "word" while "buch" is "book" and "wörterbuch" is just "dictionary" (or literally "word book"). Of course, it is not always this easy. I was in Berlin two years ago and I bought the book "The Hobbit" in German. I still cannot read it without checking a dictionary or translator every few sentences. laugh.gif

Well "Wörterbuch" litterally translates as "words book", "wörter" is plural. wink.gif

 

I understand Dutch, English German and French pretty well, altho for German and French I may occasionally check google translate and then figure out what would best fit in the context.

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Well "Wörterbuch" litterally translates as "words book", "wörter" is plural. wink.gif

Yes! I apologize for the error. One would think that after years of knowing basic German, I would not make such a careless mistake. xd.png

Edited by Natevaelle

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Yes! I apologize for the error. One would think that after years of knowing basic German, I would not make such a careless mistake. xd.png

don't worry. I make too many mistakes, both careless and................the other mistakes in both english and latvian.

 

I suck at everything. Even basic talking. Sometimes acting like a human being. Languages are weird

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English, how boring...

 

Mein Deutsch ist genug, um mich durch zu bekommen. (albeit pretty awful, but I think I know enough German to hold basic conversations, it's probably more accurate to say I am fluent in Rammstein Lyrics, though)

 

mi español es bastante malo. ._.

 

 

Is it boring? I've always found it difficult. German is a fine language in that it's so much more logical than English.

 

French is my first language but I speak English primarily. Also know some Italian and Finnish, a bits of other languages, just bits and phrases.

 

I love hearing about people studying fantasy languages, and hearing them. Like Na'vi or Sindarin.

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My native language is English, the only other language I've formally studied is Spanish, which was terrible, but my grandparents are native Spanish speakers so I do understand some.

I picked up some Gaelge (Irish Gaelic) from playing Duolingo and listening to Celtic Women hahaha. I know some Swedish and German from Duolingo but it's not as good as my Gaelic.

My boyfriend's family is Finnish and he tried to teach me some but it's so freaking weird. Peruspalveluliikelaitoskuntayhtymä is an actual word!!!! HOW DO PEOPLE SPEAK FINNISH? I'm "Finnished" with that language.

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On 6/30/2016 at 12:40 AM, Natevaelle said:

English isn't my native language but it is the language I understand best and use all the time.

 

In school, I learned Spanish. In university, I learned German and Italian. But of those three languages, it is only German that I still get to review to date.

 

Four years later, I am reviewing German, Italian, and Spanish and learning Japanese! 

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Well, German (native) and English (obviously). I'm also supposed to know Latin (I have a certificate about this), but it's been about 2 decades since my last lesson. I hardly ever get to use it. Oh, and I had French for two years at school and still know the occasional word or phrase. Not much, and definitely not enough to get around...

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