What language (other than English) do you speak?

[Bidoofdude]

I slacked off a lot in my first 5 years of Japanese (since Prep). I didn't bother learning all the hiragana until Grade 5. I'm pretty down pat now and I'm heading to Japan in September. Hopefully I can use some conversation skills.

(Planning to get TFs too though, and hopefully a Japanese Pokemon Emerald game with the Old Sea Map)

[GoktimusPrime]

Attempting to transcribe the lyrics for the Multilanguage version of Frozen's "Let It Go." Please let me know if I've made any mistakes.

Anything changes made as per advice from others is marked in green.

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(ENGLISH)
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
(FRENCH)
Un royaume de solitude
Ma place est là pour toujours
(GERMAN)
Der Wind, er heult so wie der Sturm
ganz tief in mir
(DUTCH)
Het werd mij te veel
hoe'k mijn best ook deed
(CHINESE, Mandarin)
别让他们进来看见 bié ràng tā men jìn lái kàn jiàn
做好女孩就像你的从前 zuò hǎo nǚ hái jiù xiàng nǐ de cóng qián
(SWEDISH)
Visa ingenting, vad du än gör,
allt är förstört!
(JAPANESE)
ありのままの姿を見せるのよ ari no mama no sugata miseru no yo
(SPANISH, Latin American)
Libre soy, libre soy, ¡libertad sin vuelta atrás!
(POLISH)
Wszystkim wbrew na ten gest mnie stać
(HUNGARIAN)
Jöjjön száz orkán, és közben a szívemen ül a jég
(SPANISH, Castilian)
Desde la distancia,
¡qué pequeño todo es!
(CATALAN)
I les pors que em dominaven
per sempre han fugit
(ITALIAN)
Non è un difetto, è una virtù
e non la fermerò mai più
(KOREAN)
내맘데로 자유롭게 살래 nae mamdaero jayulobgae sallae
(SERBIAN)
Сад је крај, сад је крај sad je kraj, sad je kraj
На крилима ветра сам na krilima vetra sam
(CHINESE, Cantonese)
誰亦要隨心歌 shui yik yiu tsui sum gor
忘掉昨天悲歌 mong diu jork tin bei gor
(PORTUGUESE)
Estou aqui, e vou ficar
Venha tempestade
(BAHASA MALAYSIA)
Kuasaku buat hidup bercelaru
(RUSSIAN)
Подвластны мне мороз и лёд, podvlastny mne moroz i lёd,
ну что за дивный дар nu čto za divnyj dar
(DANISH)
Og som krystaller star
en tanke ganske klar
(BULGARIAN)
Ще спра да бъда аз shte spra da bada az
на миналото плен na minaloto v plen
(NORWEGIAN)
La den gå, la den gå
Jeg skal stige lik solen nå
(THAI)
ปล่อยออกมา เลิกซ่อนเร้น pl̀xy xxk mā leik s̀xn rên
เด็กดี ไม่เห็นมีค่า dĕk dī mị̀ h̄ĕn mī kh̀ā
(FRENCH, Canadian)
Je suis là, comme je l'ai rêvé
(FLEMISH)
En de storm raast door...
De vrieskou, daar zat ik toch al niet mee

[GoktimusPrime]

I was talking to a Year 7 class today about language dominance shift -- which is what can happen if someone stops speaking a language for a long time and/or vigorously speaks a new language in a sustained manner. Obviously people can become more fluent in a language w/ continual practice, but they can also become less fluent in a language if they reduce or stop practising it.

Here's an example: Barack Obama vs Kevin Rudd (note: this is NOT a political discussion, I'm purely using two public figures to demonstrate the acquisition and deterioration of language; please do not deviate from this focus)

Barack Obama
As a young boy, Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and step-father where he lived for several years of his childhood, and attended a local school. As a result, he learnt to speak Bahasa Indonesia. Forty years later, Obama returned to Indonesia, however his Indonesian only appears to be partially conversant. In this short excerpt of Obama's 2011 speech at the University of Indonesia, we can see that Obama is predominantly speaking in English, with a few Indonesian sentences and words here and there. Presumably Obama may not have spoken much Indonesian (if at all) since moving out of Indonesia, thus the deterioration of this proficiency in that language may likely be a result of those decades of disuse. Compare this with...

Kevin Rudd
Learnt to speak Mandarin Chinese as a university student, so he was already a young adult -- and learning a language in adulthood is considerably harder than in childhood. Then of course, Rudd went on to live and work in China. It is widely known that Rudd is perfectly fluent in Chinese.

[Spiritprime]

Well, not very good at speaking the language directly, but I can type and understand some Swedish words and make a sentence or two because I have a friend who teaches me. The language is so much fun!

Even know a tinsy bit of japanese and italian as well, but again... not good at speaking them.

[GoktimusPrime]

I find just having conversations with fluent speakers of a language really helps to improve one's own proficiency. Although being able to read/write is also extremely useful too.

Swedish: Jag hav svalde mina nycklar til bilen
Italian: Ho ingoiato le chiavi della mia macchina
Japanese: 車の鍵を飲み込みました

[GoktimusPrime]

From here:

what's latin for KAPOWWW!?

My guess is that there isn't one. The Romans didn't exactly have comic books. Also, some onomatopoeic words in Latin (or any language) can differ quite drastically from English. e.g. "Eheu!" is Latin for "Oww!" There are certain words which simply don't exist in Latin, because the Romans never had a concept of it.

e.g.
* Volcano. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted, the people of Pompeii, Herculaneum and other nearby cities were absolutely astounded. Their language literally lacked a word to describe the phenomenon. Admiral Gaius Plinius Secundus, who was also a keen naturalist, was amazed by the eruption and wanted to observe it up close. He took his naval fleet on an attempted rescue mission (and was subsequently killed). But people could only describe it as the "fire mountain."
* Latin lacks a word of 'adventure.' I was once attempting to translate a motto which had the word 'adventure' in it, but it wasn't possible to do a direct translation since the Romans had no concept of this. So I translated it as "thrill" (alacritas).

Conversely there are many words or concepts that exist in other languages which doesn't exist in English.
e.g.
* おととい (ototoi) [Japanese] = The day before yesterday
* abbiocco [Italian] = drowsiness experienced after eating a heavy meal
* Verschlimmbessern [German] = to try to improve something but actually make it worse

[GoktimusPrime]

From here:

They didn't have onomatopoeia?!

They did, but I'm not familiar with too many of them. I'm just guessing that Latin wouldn't contain as many onomatopoeia as English, but I don't know for sure. English certainly doesn't contain as many onomatopoeia as Japanese (ビックン!※) Onomatopoeia is a Greek word. The Romans called it fictio nomĭnis ("word/name making"). A few examples of fictio nomĭnum include:
* baubor = 'woof woof,' 'bow wow'
* bee = 'baa' (sheep, goats bleating)
* bua = the sound of an infant asking for a drink
* bubo = 'hoot hoot' (owl)
* cachinno = cackling
* cocococo = 'cockle-doodle-doo'
* crocio = 'croak croak,' 'ribbit' (frogs/toads)
* flo = blowing sound
* glut glut = gurgling noise
* hahae/hahahae = 'ha ha'/'ha ha ha'
* hinnio = horse noise ('neighing'); not to be confused with hoarse noise
* minnurio = cooing noise
* raucus = hoarse noise; not to be confused with horse noise
* papa = sound of an infant asking for food
* stloppus = 'slap'
* susurrus = sound of whispering
* tax = 'whack,' 'crack,' 'smack' <---possibly the nearest match for 'KAPOW!'
* tinnio = ringing or jingling sound
* zinzala = 'buzz' (insect buzzing)

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※ bikkun! The sound of feeling surprised

[CHILENO20]

Speak, read & write spanish 😊

[GoktimusPrime]

Speak, read & write spanish ��

Muy bueno, amigo!

For anyone wanting to brush up on their Huttese:
http://otca.com.au/boards/showpost.p...4&postcount=20

[CHILENO20]

Muy bueno, amigo!

For anyone wanting to brush up on their Huttese:
http://otca.com.au/boards/showpost.p...4&postcount=20

Gracias Gok