Other Languages

Started on this thread https://teenscoveredforthelo.forumotion.com/t10-i-need-some-answers#152.

To recap:

me: By the way, 'kindergarten' is a German word made from the two seperate words 'kinder' (children) and 'garten' (garden). Just in case you're interested.

Jordyn: i know some penncilvaina dutch.
Mamm= mother
Daed= father
Bruder= brother
Kinder= children
kapp= headcovering
English= non amish

me: Okay, the same words in Hochdeutsch (High German, the 'official' language rather than a dialect like Bavarian and Pennsylvania Dutch):
Mother: Mutter (Mutti is 'mummy')
Father: Vater pronounced 'farter' (Vati is 'daddy')
Brother: exactly the same 'Bruder'
Sister: Schwester pronounced 'shveshter'
Children: the same, Kinder
Hat: Hut (this is the closest I can think of...)
Non-Germans: Englisch pronounced eng-lish not ing-glish (English), Americanisch (American), Australien prnounced ow-straah-lee-en (Australian), Franzözisch pronounced fran-zer-zish (French), and of course countless others.

Well, I've been learning German for three years and French for three years, but I'm *much* better at German than French... I think because I've spent some time in Germany and Austria and the language got in my head even if I couldn't understand it.

I'm about to start my second year at Schule der Deutsche Sprache (School of German Language) which is run by the German community for their children on Saturdays. It was really difficult when I first started there because everyone else in my class spoke German at home! It's really helped my speaking though, even though my German abilities are about level with a seven-year-old in Germany.

My teacher last year kept trying to 'fix' my accent - she doesn't care what I sound like as long as it's not Australian! After having several German teachers trying to 'cure' me of the Austrian accent I picked up from my father (who speaks fluent German from having lived in Austria), it was quite a relief... but I don't know what my accent sounds like now! It's probably a weird mix of Austria (from my dad), Hamburg (from my teacher) and Rhineland (from my cousins who live there and from my best friend at German School who's from there).

I'd be really interested in going to Pennsylvania one day and seeing whether I can understand Pennsylvania Dutch! Apparently it's *very* similar to a dialect spoken in the Rhinelands. I was thinking about this because one of my cousins is working as a nurse in Marburg and has to learn a local dialect called Hessisch which is only spoken by the older people there... I was wondering if that could be similar to Pennsylvania Dutch!

You can probably see I get excited about languages easily... I love learning languages!

Anyway, I'll just leave you with some of my favourite Bible passages, taken from my little German New Testament & Psalms. See if you can guess which passages they are! Also, 'β' is pronounced like an 's'

Johannes 3:16 - Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daβ er seinen eingebornen Sohn gab, auf daβ alle, die an ihn glauben, nicht verloren werden, sondern das ewige Leben haben.

Johannes 14:7 - Jesus spricht zu ihn: Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben: niemand kommt zun Vater denn durch mich.

Der 23. Psalm -
Der Herr ist mein Hirte; mir wird nichts mangeln.
Er weidet mich auf einer grünen Aue, und führet mich zum stillen Wasser;
Er erquicket meine Seele; er führet mich auf rechter Straβe um seines Namens willen.
Und ob ich schon wanderte im sinstern Tal, sürchte ich kein Unglück; denn du bist bei mir, dein Stecken und Stab tröften mich.
Du bereitest vor mir einen Tisch im Unesicht meiner Feinde. Du salbest mein Haupt mit Öl, und schenfest mir voll ein.
Gutes und Barmherzigkeit werden mir solgen mein Leben lang, und werde bleiben im Hause des Herrn immerdar.

from Rachel.

Hey, I was just wondering, where did you learn Pennsylvania Dutch, Jordyn? Just curious.
from Rachel.

School starts tomorrow. Officially.

Anyway, this year, as far as languages go, I'm going to be learning German (at Schule der Deutsche Sprache, in Year 11, with the actual German children. I'm nervous), French (which I've been learning for 3 years now), Spanish (never learnt this before! Very excited), and hopefully AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language, I can already speak a little Signed Australian English which uses many of the same signs but the language itself is different). I'd like to learn Russian at some point (I can already read Cyrillic!) but it probably won't be this year. Oh, and I've got to do English because it's compulsory to get a high school certificate. . I already speak English! Hello! I *am* English!!

Sorry, I just get a little annoyed about that.

About AUSLAN: It's very different to ASL (Americal Sign Language). ASL is sort of similar to LSF (French Sign Language) and is completely unrelated to most other sign languages. AUSLAN, however, is almost identical to NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language), and is a member of the BANZSL Language Family (British, Australian, and New Zealand Sign Language). The BANZSL alphabet uses two hands, as opposed to the ASL one which has just one hand (I personally think one hand is confusing).Some people say that the three languages are actually just dialects of BANZSL. They have the same alphabet and grammar, and most of the same signs. South African Sign Language, Maritime Sign Language, Northern Ireland Sign Language, and possibly Swedish Sign Language (and by default, Portugese, Finnish, and Danish Sign Languages), are also a member of the BANZSL Language Family.

I just thought that was interesting. You mightn't.

from Rachel.

That sounds fun!!!! I wish i could do it with you!
Jordyn

Well, learning AUSLAN *was* fun. My teacher, Barry, was pretty crazy and very fun. He's profoundly deaf and it was cool learning from him.

The Deaf Society had to cut down on the classes they teach because of a lack of interest (or something). There used to be five levels of classes and now there are only three. I've done the first two but I can't do the third because it's on at the same time as French School. I think that's pretty sad as I'd love to continue learning.

I might start taking Spanish classes.
Jordyn

That sounds fun. May I ask, why Spanish? Just curious.

When I start high school, the school I was attending offered French, German, Japanese, and Chinese, at a Year 8 (first year of high school) level. Since I had no interest in learning a language without an alphabet, and my father speaks fluent French and German, I chose those two.

This year I wanted to start another language, and the correspondence school I'm with now offers French, German, Indonesian, Spanish, and Japanese. I was torn between Indonesian and Spanish. Indonesian would have been good because it's very different to French and German as it's a non-European language. I want to become a linguist one day maybe, so that would have been good. On the other hand, Indonesian is only useful in Indonesia and Malaysia, whereas Spanish is useful through all of South America. Also the enrolment counsellor wasn't happy with me learning three language (apparently it would stress me too much) so I chose Spanish and convinced him it wouldn't stress me as it's so much like French. So that's why I chose Spanish.

Turns out, Spanish and French are almost identical most of the time. Sometimes I get a little confused and speak French in my Spanish class which is all right as my teacher speaks French. It makes it easy for me! Spanish is a pretty cool language, though. Have fun leaning it!

You know, I think it is good to learn other languages so if you ever go on a mission trip to a diffrent counrty, maybe you will already know the launguage!
I don't know why i wanted to try Spanish. Do you have a reason for all of you choices or are they for school or for fun?
Jordyn

Well, when I started Year 8 (first year of high school), the school offered French, German, Japanese, and Chinese. I didn't really want to learn Japanese or Chinese because the thought of learning something without an alphabet freaked me out a little, and also my father is fluent in both French and German.

I wanted to start learning another language this year, and the school I'm at now offers French, German, Spanish, and Indonesian. Obviously I'm already learning French and German, so I had to choose between Spanish and Indonesian. I basically worked it out like this:

Indonesian: non-European language, and thus a good one to learn as I want to study linguistics. But only spoken in Indonesia (Australia's closest country, I think), although Malay is quite similar.

Spanish: European language (rediculously similar to French...). But it's spoken in Spain (obviously) and most of South America (except Brazil).

Since most of the time I learn languages for travel purposes (I travel a lot, particularly in Europe as my family is mostly in England and I don't need a visa for Europe), Spanish seemed the better option because there's more than twenty countries I can visit with that language!

I want to learn Russian at some point. I think it would be a very useful language to learn. It's spoken in Russia (obviously) which is the biggest country in the world, as well as a lot of countries in the northern Middle East, which used to be part of the USSR. Apart from that, quite a lot of the languages spoken in eastern Europe are very similar to Russian, or Russian is co-official. So that would be a very useful language for travelling with.

I guess the only thing would be that none of those languages would be good for missions trips. Especially German and French. I guess with Spanish, I'd be able to go to South America as there are lots of people groups there who are 'unreached'. Also Russian; I know some people who are going on a long-term mission to Kazakhstan later this year, and the two official languages there are Russian and Kazakh.

I think if I ever do go on a missions trip (and I want to!), I would spend some time before leaving learning the basics of that language, even if it's only enough to communicate basic phrases.

from Rachel.

I want to learn how to speak portugese. If i ever go to Brazil, then i will beable to talk to people!
jordyn

I'm not sure, but I think that Portugese and Spanish are very similar. If you get good enough at Spanish, you'll probably be able to understand Portugese, or at least learn it very quickly.

I can also write in elvish! And speak some too!
Jordyn