Heart of gold

Morning Novita

novita77

Wauw.. Armenian??? Is not Armenian similar with Russian? I have friend here, she is from Azerbaijan and she speaks Russian.

Chinese??? Hehehe.... I am Indonesian chinese... and infact I don't speak chinese. My mom used to hire a mandarin teacher to come to our house to teach me. Learnt a bit... but since I got married I don't used it much. Still understand a bit, but can write the bloody thing... If u learn chinese but u don't use it I don't think it will worth it.

Persian and Hebrew? I think hebrew have different kind of letters right? How abt Persian?

What you gonna do with all those languages when u graduate?

DanMarsden

Well, not really.. Armenian is not a Slavic language. It's a different branch of Indo-European languages by itself. Most people in Armenia know Russian because of the Soviet regime.

lol, I don't think I'd ever "get" Chinese..

Hebrew has different letters yes, but it's not that hard, as most of it resemble Arabic letters. I can already read Hebrew, and I can understand some words/sentences because they are pretty close to Arabic.

Persian uses the Arabic letters. So I know how to read Persian as well haha.. Persian is close to Armenian in the tree of languages. They come from the same root, that's the Armeno-Aryan branch, which in turn comes from the Armeno-Greco branch.

I am thinking about pursuing a career in war reporting. And since we're close to armageddon with the re-election of Bush, I'm on the safe side knowing all those languages, especially Persian.

Palm Tree

Oh Novita. I speak 10 and they come in really handy, even if I don't need them for business anymore. It is good fun to listen in on other people's conversations, especially when they haven't got a clue that you might understand them and so easy to get by when on holiday.

Farsi (Iranian/Persian) is pretty easy by the way, sounds nice and has so many beautiful phrases and expressions. Farsi by the way, has a similar spelling like Arabic but sounds nothing like it.

Palm Tree

I am thinking about pursuing a career in war reporting. And since we're close to armageddon with the re-election of Bush, I'm on the safe side knowing all those languages, especially Persian. [/QUOTE]


I agree about your opportunities rising with the re-election but don't get your hopes up too high with Iran, they won't be such an easy target.

Palm Tree

I agree about your opportunities rising with the re-election but don't get your hopes up too high with Iran, they won't be such an easy target.[/QUOTE]


Forgot to mention, Iran beeing sandwiched in between worn torn countries already, you can just imagine the mess in there. Changes there would surely be appreciated but to implement any, the infiltrators from right and left would just have too much of an easy job.

DanMarsden

Oh I know what you mean!!! lol. Love doing that on the subway. Hahaha.. I was seriously thinking about studying Chinese, just cos there are so many Chinese speakers here in Toronto, and it would be tons of fun to understand what they're saying when they have absolutely NO clue that I might actually know the language. Hahaha..

I am actually not a huge fan of Farsi pronounciation.. I prefer Arabic, it's much softer on the ear. Or maybe that's cos I've heard it much more than I have heard Persian. Hmm..

I took German this year because I was thinking about specialising in Philosophy in grad school, and it was a requirement for some schools, and it sounded like a good idea to be able to read the original texts in German, but then along came my usual "changing-my-mind-every-2-minutes" disease, and I decided I would major in Middle Eastern Studies. Go figure.. But it won't hurt to know German, would it.. It's good that I know Arabic, because it's impossible to do middle eastern studies without knowing it, and knowing it also provides the basis for learning Persian (since they have the same letters). Knowing Arabic eventually pays off. So all of you should start learning Arabic.

DanMarsden

Well, there will be a war, that's for sure. I don't support Bush. So that makes me pro-Iran, I guess. Ahh, journalistic objectivism down the drain!!!

Palm Tree

You are not letting youself in for an easy career, I can promis you that. Well, no doubt you know that yourself. Very challenging indeed. Keep practicing.

Uebung macht den Meister!

Palm Tree

I am actually not a huge fan of Farsi pronounciation.. I prefer Arabic, it's much softer on the ear. Or maybe that's cos I've heard it much more than I have heard Persian. Hmm..

You are kidding! I feel it is just the other way round. Swiss German and Dutch has kind of some similarities with Arabic, where you feel you are just about to be sick. KKHHHH. If you know what I mean. Farsi doesn't have that.
Mind you saying that, there are differences between Arabic pronunciations and some really rub in that sickness feeling which as others can just nicely soften it down.


I took German this year because I was thinking about specialising in Philosophy in grad school, and it was a requirement for some schools, and it sounded like a good idea to be able to read the original texts in German, but then along came my usual "changing-my-mind-every-2-minutes" disease, and I decided I would major in Middle Eastern Studies. Go figure.. But it won't hurt to know German, would it.. It's good that I know Arabic, because it's impossible to do middle eastern studies without knowing it, and knowing it also provides the basis for learning Persian (since they have the same letters). Knowing Arabic eventually pays off. So all of you should start learning Arabic.[/QUOTE]

Forget about German. It's so hard to learn. I was lucky to grow up with it but having to study from scratch. No chance.

I have just started tackling Arabic but I must be getting old, I can't even remember 10 numbers in one week and the pronunciation really makes me sick. Sorry, as much as I am keen to learn, it won't come easy.

DanMarsden

Sprichst du Deutsch? Ich spreche ein bischen...

Danke für das Karma.

DanMarsden

It doesn't??? Funny because I was thinking the exact OPPOSITE.

Have you heard the Lebanese dialect? It's really soft and nice.

Huh? I don't find it hard at all. Now speaking of hard to learn - Arabic. Well, the letters anyway! Although if you learn it as a kid, then you won't have as much difficulty. If German is difficult, then I don't know what isn't. lol.. I don't know.. ?? I never got a hold of French, mind you...

Ahhhh!!! Wahad, ethnein, thalatha, arba3ah, khamseh, sette, sab3a, thamaniya, tis3a, 3ashra. There.

Palm Tree

Gern geschehn. Hab ja auch eins von Dir.

Palm Tree

Thanks for the recap!

DanMarsden

hahahaha... the grammar IS crap. I agree. :scared:

Nooooo :scared: Never got a hang of the conjugations.. je suis, tu es, il est??? etc. ??? ugh

Yup, most of the non-native speakers do have problems with pronounciation more than with letters.