Oh, believe me, I don't speak German. German and Dutch are closely related (a bit like French and Spanish), but I myself only speak German like Jean-Marie Pfaff, which is to say, badly (Dutch with a slight German accent, basically). I do, however, know two very great Bavarian phrases (well, threats, really), but I have no idea how to write them down.
I know "Du bist ein Arsch mit Ohren" and "Du gestreifte Sau!". Thanks for learning both goes to Sven Hassel (and my Onkel for generously translating those, and any other ugly sentences my heart desires).
Oh, that one's just too funny! And kinda cute also.
Well, I guess I might as well share my threats with you now.
I hope they make sense, cause not only are they Bavarian, but they also are phonetical, but not in any sort of standard way: "a Packerl Watschen is glei aufgrissn" and "da Watschenbaum is glei ungfoin". Leave it to those Bavarians to come up with crazy stuff like that!
They're great though. (Bavarians, but also Germans in general.)
I used to have a very stereotypical view of Germans until I actually met some and realised that out of all our neighbours (the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France) I like them best! (Not that that in itself is an accomplishment, cause the Dutch, the English and the French are just so very ugh, but still!)
So how many languages do you speak then? Cause so far we seem to have Finnish, English, German and French--and if I'm right, probably also Swedish (and if you know Swedish, you probably understand Norwegian too), and damn, I'm jealous.)
Umh, I pretend to know a lot more than I do. I suppose I have a good head for languages too, but I'm a little too lazy to learn myself new things. I speak finnish, swedish and english fluently. Although when I actually speak english I tend to hesitate and forget words because I have to use it in writing a lot more than in speach. German, trying to learn, understand a LOT more than speak. I'm a very good guesser though. French I studied for 4 years in high-school, but then I dropped out of the class because I couldn't stand my teacher. I don't speak any, I understand even less because the frenchies always speak so damn fast, but I understand the context of things most of the time when I'm reading, because I have time on my hands.
Yeah, norwegian gets in the mix as far as understanding goes, but I don't speak any since they get swedish just as well as I get norwegian.
So no, I don't speak that much, but I guess even more. Plus, I know the dirty words to almost any language on earth.
I've been meaning to ask you that same question, coz you seem to have english, flemish (how do you spell it?), french, dutch and german. Not so shabby either!
The only languages I speak fluently are Dutch and (I like to flatter myself) English, really. French I don't feel comfortable speaking, but after studying it for eleven years, I guess I could definitely hold my own in France (though I might have to hit some people if they make fun of my "Belgian" accent).
I can understand Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Italian and Portuguese, well enough, since I took Latin (and Greek, geek that I am) for six years, but a dictionary would definitely come in handy. I also took Russian for a couple of years and Icelandic for a semester, but don't remember much of either. And then there are some Germanic languages, like German and Afrikaans, that are relatively easy for me to understand, but that I don't really speak.
So I'm not as big of polyglot as I would like to be. Trilingual is the best I can do. I can mimic along with the best of them though!
("Flemish" doesn't really exist. It's used to describe the various dialects in Flanders, but the official language here is (standard) Dutch. Usually people speak either their own dialect, a mix of dialects or some kind of inter-language. As far as I know, only people teaching Dutch speak proper standard Dutch.)
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Ja! Ich bin gans sicher das ich in Düsseldorf will wohnen!
Or whatev'. :)
Cases give me a headache, so I'm not bothering with them!
Deiner deutschkentnisse gibt mir Angst.
I wish I was that good at it too!
Haha, kind of sounds like how I started off my german. My friends at high-school who already studied it back then taught me all the naughty phrases :D
Threats in any language are always good to know. Just as are a few of your basic curses too :P
I know "Du bist ein Arsch mit Ohren" and "Du gestreifte Sau!". Thanks for learning both goes to Sven Hassel (and my Onkel for generously translating those, and any other ugly sentences my heart desires).
But those sound really aplicable too! Thanks!
Well, I guess I might as well share my threats with you now.
I hope they make sense, cause not only are they Bavarian, but they also are phonetical, but not in any sort of standard way: "a Packerl Watschen is glei aufgrissn" and "da Watschenbaum is glei ungfoin". Leave it to those Bavarians to come up with crazy stuff like that!
Those Bavarians... :P
I used to have a very stereotypical view of Germans until I actually met some and realised that out of all our neighbours (the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France) I like them best! (Not that that in itself is an accomplishment, cause the Dutch, the English and the French are just so very ugh, but still!)
So how many languages do you speak then? Cause so far we seem to have Finnish, English, German and French--and if I'm right, probably also Swedish (and if you know Swedish, you probably understand Norwegian too), and damn, I'm jealous.)
I speak finnish, swedish and english fluently. Although when I actually speak english I tend to hesitate and forget words because I have to use it in writing a lot more than in speach.
German, trying to learn, understand a LOT more than speak. I'm a very good guesser though.
French I studied for 4 years in high-school, but then I dropped out of the class because I couldn't stand my teacher. I don't speak any, I understand even less because the frenchies always speak so damn fast, but I understand the context of things most of the time when I'm reading, because I have time on my hands.
Yeah, norwegian gets in the mix as far as understanding goes, but I don't speak any since they get swedish just as well as I get norwegian.
So no, I don't speak that much, but I guess even more.
Plus, I know the dirty words to almost any language on earth.
I've been meaning to ask you that same question, coz you seem to have english, flemish (how do you spell it?), french, dutch and german. Not so shabby either!
The only languages I speak fluently are Dutch and (I like to flatter myself) English, really. French I don't feel comfortable speaking, but after studying it for eleven years, I guess I could definitely hold my own in France (though I might have to hit some people if they make fun of my "Belgian" accent).
I can understand Spanish and, to a lesser extent, Italian and Portuguese, well enough, since I took Latin (and Greek, geek that I am) for six years, but a dictionary would definitely come in handy. I also took Russian for a couple of years and Icelandic for a semester, but don't remember much of either. And then there are some Germanic languages, like German and Afrikaans, that are relatively easy for me to understand, but that I don't really speak.
So I'm not as big of polyglot as I would like to be. Trilingual is the best I can do. I can mimic along with the best of them though!
("Flemish" doesn't really exist. It's used to describe the various dialects in Flanders, but the official language here is (standard) Dutch. Usually people speak either their own dialect, a mix of dialects or some kind of inter-language. As far as I know, only people teaching Dutch speak proper standard Dutch.)