Buenos Dias, Konnichi wa, guten tag, hello!

[cutiepie]

I love collecting hellos in different languages! I think I'm up to 9. buon giorno, bonjour, halito, dobreya utra (Russian--phonetic spelling). Either hello, or good morning, just standard greetings. I did learn the Tagalog greeting, too, but forgot it.

 

I have a good ear for pronunciation, and I really would love to be bilingual, or multi-lingual--before we all get universal translators and don't have to learn languages anymore.

 

 

 

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

Welcome.
You should understand there is a nasty pitfall when using these universal translators:
1. They're grammar-unaware.
2. They don't take different meanings in mind.

So let's say we have the word "to find" in English.
In Japanese, it can be one of the following, depending on the context: 見つける ("to find" as in discovery), 拾う ("to find" as in items lying around), 捕まる ("to find" as in evidence), 兼ねる ("to find difficult to do"), just to name a few.

For example, when I type "I find something difficult." on Google Translate, I get "私は困難な何かを見つけます。", which actually means "I figured out something difficulty".
The other error is that "私は" is often omitted in Japanese entirely, because if the sentence would have been correct, it's clear enough you're talking about yourself.
Not omitting "私は" isn't necessarily wrong, it actually brings us to the 3rd pitfall: Japanese has lots of levels of politeness, online translators never take those in mind. So through Google Translate, your translated insult could sound quite polite for example.

[darkchild]

Hello @cutiepie it's great of you to collect hellos.

It is really inspiring to meet someone who is aiming at being multilingual.

Best wishes in achieving your language goals

[cutiepie]

On 5/30/2016 at 11:44 PM, Blaveloper said:

Welcome.
You should understand there is a nasty pitfall when using these universal translators:
1. They're grammar-unaware.
2. They don't take different meanings in mind.

So let's say we have the word "to find" in English.
In Japanese, it can be one of the following, depending on the context: 見つける ("to find" as in discovery), 拾う ("to find" as in items lying around), 捕まる ("to find" as in evidence), 兼ねる ("to find difficult to do"), just to name a few.

For example, when I type "I find something difficult." on Google Translate, I get "私は困難な何かを見つけます。", which actually means "I figured out something difficulty".
The other error is that "私は" is often omitted in Japanese entirely, because if the sentence would have been correct, it's clear enough you're talking about yourself.
Not omitting "私は" isn't necessarily wrong, it actually brings us to the 3rd pitfall: Japanese has lots of levels of politeness, online translators never take those in mind. So through Google Translate, your translated insult could sound quite polite for example.

How do you get around this problem? I guess you would just have to study the language enough to where you wouldn't need the translator app.

 

Can I ask another question as well--I noticed that in this post, you were able to type Japanese characters--how do you DO that? I don't have those characters on my keyboard. Thanks!

[宇崎ちゃん]

@cutiepie

Yes, I learn languages myself, otherwise I use either professional translators (which costs money) or friends who speak a language I don't speak (which sometimes takes some effort unless they just need to translate stuff like "I am a banana" to/from their own language).
If none of these work and the grammar isn't too different from the languages I already know, I use a dictionary and apply some common sense for the grammar.

As for the keyboard question, I would first like to know what OS you are using (Windows, Mac, Linux) and what version or distribution.
That way I can give you more precise instructions.
Windows and OS X have support for typing Japanese characters (+ a whole lot more) already pre-installed, so you would likely only need to activate it.
Same with all mobile OS's (Android, iOS, Windows 10).
Linux and *BSD on the other hand require some installation and configuration though.

[cutiepie]

Wow! I did not know that, but actually, it makes sense. I know the characters are already there on my cell phone, because I have accidentally hit that button more times than I care to admit--and then I'm hollering at my daughter--"How do I get these crazy letters off my phone and back into English?????!!" 

When I have a little more time, I will definitely check into this. 

[ailsaurus]

Halo! In Bahasa Indonesia and Malay that means Hello! Hallo in german, and 你好 （nǐ hǎo ）in Chinese! Also I think Salut is also used in French. You should collect these hellos too! :3

I am also aiming to be multilingual! But it's a tad bit hard because I always didn't have the time! But now that I have ample of spare time I'm going to study seriously! xD

Nice to meet you by the way!

[cutiepie]

Halito from Oklahoma! (That's Hello in Choctaw).  Thanks for ni hao--I'd forgotten that one. I used to have a habit of running through my list each morning of hellos and how are yous. It used to drive my co-workers crazy because they never knew how to respond. (chuckle)

But since I'm no longer in that office, I've gotten out of the habit. I need to write them all down, along with a few more, and start "practicing" on my kids--my daughter has been to Belize doing volunteer work, and she came back with a few Kreole phrases (yes, I was tempted to write Creole--but it really is Kreole). 

Besides knowing the actual words, I love working on the pronunciation and accent--making it sound as closely as possible to the way a native speaker would say it. I don't know why it gives me such a sense of satisfaction to learn another language.  Isn't it amazing what our brains are capable of?