littleredcookbook

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I had a hard time making my own flashcards though. You need to have the picture downloaded that you use for the kanji or hiragana/katakana unless you have an international keyboard app or switch your keyboard language. Idk I find Studyblue to be the most useful when it's languages that use the roman alphabet, or at least the same alphabets/syllabaries/characters. It's such a pain for me to make my own flashcards (because we have specific vocabulary to learn), so I don't use it for my japanese flashcards.

I think it's a powerful tool to be used alongside regular methods of learning a language. Of course, you can pick some up here and there (I picked up a few useful and common phrases in Japanese from watching anime.) but you can't learn the entire language from just movies. It provides a great external source of culture, context and new vocabulary, but you really need a teacher or book/internet source to help explain and direct your study.

Eeeeexactly. Saying that "women talk more" is a generalisation and hurtful to your point. I barely speak in real life. I don't like talking to people; it makes me anxious especially because my mouth moves far slower than my brain thinks. Learning a language well only requires the capacity to remember words, parse the parts and connect words with families, stems, cognates, etc..... and most importantly, the willingness and motivation to learn. "Where there's a will, there's a way," am I right?

I hate using my mouth to speak. My brain runs ten times faster than my mouth can and I fumble my speech all the time. I prefer using my fingers on a keyboard or my fingers/hands/arms with sign language. I have been doing all sorts of drawings and crafts, since I could first pick up a crayon, and expanded from there. My fingers are very quick, articulate and accurate and faced with a decision between my tongue stuttering uselessly inside my slow-motion lips, and my fingers flying over the keyboard to keep up with what my brain is doing? It's a no-brainer. Sign language, while not an actual foreign language unless you're learning like... German sign language and you speak English natively, does open up millions of avenues of communication with people you may not have been able to speak with before. Many deaf people can read lips, but not everyone forms their words the same; and sign language is made up of precise hand movements and often includes simplifications of the spoken language so personally I'd find that easier if I couldn't hear and/or speak. (sign language is another thing I want to learn and study! I think it's hard for deaf and/or mute persons to be fully-included members of society, mostly because a lot of people are afraid of interacting with disabled persons, and instead of making effort, simply run away or ignore them. And that's awful. They're still people with opinions, thoughts, and dreams that are worth sharing, and they're worth getting to know.) I would definitely miss singing, though. I love singing along to my favorite songs.

Huh. That's a really good point to make. Is it similar to dyslexia, except with speech? I mean I never thought he was a particularly bright man and mostly got into office because his father had been a decent president, but people only really recognize speech impediments like stutters and inabilities to correctly pronounce a letter sound or phoneme. And Denis, you do make a good point about employers looking for "native english speakers only". But there are a lot of us "native english speakers" who pay attention in grammar class and know the language very well and have both that fluency and attention to proper grammar that the employer is looking for.

I love doing that. I made up my own syllabary for English that read right-to-left and was inspired a bit by the Sanskrit writing system. I wish I knew where the key was. I'd love to get around to writing in it again.

Yes.... for past tense. In the subjunctive, "were" is the go-to. It doesn't get conjugated in the subjunctive, it's just "were" for pretty much everything. "Were I a sailor..." "If she were me..." "If they were a bit taller..." If X were Z, Y would/could A. Generally speaking. "If I were taller, I could reach the top shelf." "If they were here, they could have a piece of this delicious pie." "If he was my dad, we could play catch on Saturdays."

Ugh, Oxford commas. Generally outdated but this is a debate that is NEVER going to die... so.... if you like commas, Laura, go for it. If not, leave 'em out.

People do all the time. "Whom" is the dative or indirect object, i.e., "to whom" "of whom" you don't say "to who" or "of who". "Who" is the subject and direct object, "whom" is the indirect object, and "whose" is the possessive.

You mean it's preceded with "an" for a vowel sound. You don't stick two syllables of vowel sounds right next to each other. If you have to pause between them "a ' hour" then you need an n. It really comes down to pronunciation.