You know you're a language nerd when…

General discussion about learning languages
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Serpent
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Serpent » Tue Aug 22, 2017 5:56 am

When you google "pie cases" and get pastry boxes...
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:11 pm

When you desperately try to open the old HTLAL over and over again like I do from yesterday.
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Teango
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Teango » Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:28 pm

When you encounter a sales pitch for learning Czech ...

What would you say if I told you that you could put an accent on an R?
  • Not possible! ?
  • Accents are only for vowels! ?
Think again! The Czech language has been doing it with ease for years. You can breeze through the highlands of Central Europe once you master the beautiful sounds of the Czech language.

How many grammatical cases do you need? German, spoken by tens of millions on the planet, has only 4. Some languages offer 5 or even 6. But Czech can offer you 7, that's right, I said 7, grammatical cases! Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative cases will keep you guessing for hours which form of the word is proper to use.

What about gender? English offers just 1, while French and Spanish lag behind at 2. German makes it up to 3. But what would you say if I told you the Czech language can offer FOUR gender cases for your declension needs?? That's right; Czech breaks it down for you so you can be assured people won't be confused as to the gender of your inanimate chairs and tables. Czech offers neutral, feminine, masculine animate, and masculine inanimate genders (coming soon: transgender case).

Do you like plurals? Excellent! Czech has plurals for all the cases above, so you can mix and match between neutral, feminine, masculine animate, and masculine inanimate words in singular and plural in each of the 7 cases! (Terms and conditions may apply. Plural functionality not guaranteed after the number 5).

Vowels can be such a drag, requiring your mouth to be open and engaging your vocal cords. Why not try a sentence with no vowels? You can impress your mate with phrases that roll off the tongue, such as "strč prst skrz krk".

Once you master the beautiful Czech language you will immediately be able to understand a plethora of related Slavic languages, including:
  • some Slovak and Polish
Learn Czech today!

Edit: díky za zlato, hodný cizinče!

(source: reddit/languagelearning, makerofshoes, "You are now a language salesman. Choose a language and convince everyone in the thread to learn it.", August 2017)

... and your first thought is: I'm in! :shock:
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neofight78
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby neofight78 » Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:29 am

Teango wrote:"You are now a language salesman. Choose a language and convince everyone in the thread to learn it."


When that's all you ever do, without the need for there to be a challenge or instruction....

...need I mention that Russian is an awesome language and you all need to learn it?..... :P
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby William Camden » Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:33 am

...When for you the most interesting thing about the Liam Neeson film Taken isn't Neeson being a bad-ass, or the plot of girl-in-peril, Albanians in Paris running a white slave racket for evil wealthy Arabs etc. etc. It is that at one point Neeson obtains an Albanian-English dictionary.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby William Camden » Sat Aug 26, 2017 5:46 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ3Bt6x65qo&t=640s

Dictionary moment spotted at 6:54 ...
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Sun Aug 27, 2017 1:55 pm

When you practise reading some script through spam posts.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby William Camden » Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:19 am

Monox D. I-Fly wrote:When you practise reading some script through spam posts.


That is desperately nerdish, unless there are no non-spam language resources.
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Monox D. I-Fly
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Sat Sep 02, 2017 11:26 am

William Camden wrote:
Monox D. I-Fly wrote:When you practise reading some script through spam posts.


That is desperately nerdish, unless there are no non-spam language resources.

Well, it was in My Math Forum where non-spam posts are only in English and LaTeX.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby MiaLaGagoo » Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:36 pm

...you stop asking silly questions :lol:
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