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littleredcookbook

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About littleredcookbook

  • Birthday 11/23/1989

Converted

  • Currently studying
    German, Japanese
  • Native tongue
    English
  • Fluent in
    German [semi-fluent]

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  1. I'm just going to say I hope you don't actually hit girls and expect them to fall in love with you because that's abusive. Also in your example you wouldn't even need to use "whom" because if you say "The girl I hit" the word order already indicates that the girl is the person you hit.
  2. Well, it's not a fictional language as it has no basis in media, like a TV show or book. But it is a constructed language, sometimes called "artificial" language.
  3. I'm glad you asked that actually, as it's something I've been wondering about too. I'm in a German class now reading modern short stories, and one of them was from the perspective of an exchange student from Germany going to a uni in Louisiana, and the thing she pointed out was our "R"s are too pronounced, sounding too much like growling, like a lion. Professor (native German) agreed. lol But I am curious. Also about the accents, I think Americans especially are really only introduced to spoken German with the southern accents which use more of the back of the mouth and the soft "ch"s and the r's are a bit harsher too. In the north it's more "ik" than "ich" if I'm not mistaken. And it's so strange listening to that sort of accent because it's not the German you grow up thinking of. Maybe it's just Americans, or just me, but you kind of grow up thinking other countries are this homogenous thing and they all talk the same way even though speech varies widely throughout your state and country. Might be a kid thing too.
  4. Sorry, I know I posted on this earlier but they've made a MAJOR update since I last posted, and it's like a million times better! Just letting everyone know. They're supposed to be putting in capabilities to make your own vocabulary lists to study (for like class or words you want to know) if they haven't already. I didn't use my tablet at all over break so everything's gotta update
  5. Ich meinte, ich werde auch lieber am Strand bleiben, wie die Kuhe. Am Strand ist alles jedenfalls besser. Außer des Sonnenbrands, naturlich. Ich wünsche mir jetzt, dass ich am Strand liegen könnte. Es ist hier Januar mit Schnee und Kalt und 'blech'. Nächstes Jahr machen meine Familie und ich eine Reise nach der westlichen Staaten. Ich kann nicht darauf warten. :3
  6. The reason it's spelled differently is because of Noah Webster. He basically changed the spelling and pronounciation of some words to further separate us from England. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/why-we-have-both-%E2%80%9Ccolor%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Ccolour%E2%80%9D It sounds a little capricious, but to be honest the revolutionaries did a lot of petty retaliatory things like this. I mean the revolution was justified. It's just, tiny little things like this and how many hundreds of years later has it made a gigantic change in the way we speak and spell? I can't tell if my mind is boggling or I'm still just really tired lol
  7. The call it Simlish, but yeah, it's just gibberish. You know, for all the people calling it a waste of time, though, there seems to be a fair bit of Tolkien fans who learn to speak and/or write Tengwar, which is interesting. Tolkien never finished constructing Tengwar in its entirety so there's only a certain point to go to. Constructed languages are actually a fairly prominent side interest of mine. Yes, you can learn a "real" existing language, but it may also hold deeper personal meaning for the creators if they make their own, especially done between friends or siblings. I think perhaps code alphabets/syllabaries might be more up the alley of the naysayers. You still use your "real" language but the writing system is different or made up.
  8. I've heard that genetiv is kind of going out of style, but it's still important to know how to use it and recognize it, especially in academic contexts. It's easiest to learn it by practice either in speech or writing. Memorizing tables has always been really hard for me. Der and das change to 'des' and you add an 's' to the end of the noun, or 'es' if the noun ends in s or a sound that makes just 's' difficult to pronounce, or is a single syllable in most cases "die Tür des Hauses" "die Krawatte des Mannes" So I lump der and das together for dativ and genativ. I think the 'der' words that get an -n ending in Akk. and Dat. also get the -n in genativ, but I'm not 100% sure. Die and die (plural) go to der. There aren't any ending changes as far as I'm aware. "die Bluse der Frau" "die Räder der Autos" it helps a lot if you can lump certain groups together with similar properties, such as the 'der' and 'das' going to 'des' and the 'die's going to 'der'. Helps with dativ as well with 'der' and 'das' going to 'dem'. And in akkusativ with 'die' and 'das' staying the same.
  9. Die Kuhe wird irgendwo gehen lassen. Die Leute zerstoeren sie nicht, und die Kuhe sind froh, und machen was sie wollen. Sie wollen klar lieber am Strand bleiben. Meiner Meinung nach auch.
  10. On windows computers there is an option to use a "german" keyboard, and the option to switch will be sitting either at the top of your screen or in your system tray by default. You'll have to add the languages you want manually, but I find using the German keyboard when I'm writing in German is infinitely easier than trying to input alt-codes or using the strange Microsoft-Word-symbol-inputs for the umlaute. It takes a bit of practice especially if you're used to a Qwerty keyboard as it's a Qwertz keyboard, but I find it very, very helpful.
  11. It was available to me as a high school freshman, and as I lived in and went to school in a tiny German Catholic town with a convent of nuns nearby, and my entire family lineage on my father's side is German in origin, I decided that would be the best option. Most of my friends ended up taking German too so that helped. I actually stopped taking German classes for a little bit in college; I tested into a 300 level class, passed it, and then was convinced to take the next level up, somehow a 468. It was torture and way beyond my abilities so I didn't take another german class until last year, starting back at the 203 level. I'm glad, though. I've always made the best friends from my foreign language classes.
  12. This made me giggle. If you really want to talk about a lack of vowels though you should check out Welsh! I think most people are probably exposed to the more stereotypical dialects of German spoken boisterously by deep-voiced men, drinking songs, etc. I was trained in singing for some years and sang a number of German songs and none of them sounded rough to me. It definitely depends on the voice of the person speaking and the volume and force behind it.
  13. You'd think more schools would, especially if they are emphasizing STEM and business courses. There are nine German-speaking countries in the EU, and right now the German economy is one of the stablest around. There is a ton of corporations who have bases both in Germany and America; not to mention it's quite similar to English and honestly I think it's easier to pick up for English speakers than it is to pick up Spanish. Yes, there are a lot of Spanish-speaking individuals in the United States and it is good to be able to communicate with them. But if you are not planning to work in communities or with people who would need spoken Spanish, and instead in international business, German is the way to go. So much of psychological, musical, literary work and developments have come from German-speaking countries, so it is very useful indeed to be able to access some of the source material in its original language. Something I've been able to enjoy is reading modern poetry by German authors like Bertolt Brecht. I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's very useful in most areas of study.
  14. Update: I tried out the Obenkyou app last night taking a break from my homework, and I love it! I wish it had a writing practice area other than the writing tests, but it looks like the developers are still adding features to it. I'm going to be working with it more this week(end) and testing everything out. Looks promising!! Thanks for sharing
  15. Most styli that aren't super expensive have really fat tips though, do they work alright? I invested (far too much money) in a slimmer tipped stylus for some idle drawing and sketching ideas on my tablet but I feel better using that one only at home. I really want to check all of these apps out. I really need a better study tool for Japanese vocab
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