God kväll!

[nerd_do_well]

Hi! I'm Beth, super-bouncy and more than a little bit silly, and I have to confess that I'm crazy when it comes to languages. I have a list of, at the last count, thirteen (Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Greek, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic) on top of the three (English, French and German) which I

Comments

[jannuh]

I can help you with your Dutch (I'm a native speaker). I'm not sure why you're interested in learning it, but it's a very difficult language to learn (so maybe you like the challenge?). I think to me it's like learning Japanese: the sentence structures don't make any sense :)

[nerd_do_well]

I do indeed like a challenge where languages are concerned, hence the reason why I'm struggling on with German this coming school year despite finding French much easier. I confess that my interest in Dutch was born entirely from visiting Amsterdam this Easter, which was absolutely fantastic (if a little... er... awkward, when my mum 'accidentally' took us to the Red Light District - I'm an easy blusher), and I love being able to talk to people when I'm visiting other countries in their own language.
And anyway, Dutch looks cool. :D

[jannuh]

Fair enough :) Just know that Amsterdam isn't really the same as the rest of the Netherlands ;)

I also like to be able to talk to people in their own language when I'm visiting other countries! In the Netherlands pretty much everyone speaks English, a bit, so if you try to speak Dutch to them, say, in a store or supermarket, they will switch to English automatically. It's nice for many tourists, but it sucks when you want to practice your Dutch ;)

[biascut]

But - but -but at least with German grammar you can learn the rules and then use them! French is like "here's a rule, well, we call out a rule, actually you use it about 3% of the time and here's all the exceptions that you just have to learn". :) That's what I found, anyway.

Have you looked at Leeds for language degrees too?

[nerd_do_well]

Ah, but the knack is LEARNING the grammar in the first place! It's that that I have trouble with! LOL
But hahaha, yes, you're one hundred percent right about the French! -giggle-

Leeds is actually very close to home! It's, what, maybe an hour away in the car. I have flicked through the Leeds prospectus briefly but I'll have to give it a second look!

[angelachristian]

Actually, most Germans won´t use the proper genitiv "der Hut meines Vaters" when talking, but only in written language. The usage of "der Hut von meinem Vater" is more coloquial.

[nerd_do_well]

I know, but we're not allowed to do that (on threat of being sent to the college xD) so I've been conditioned to ALWAYS use the proper genitive, whether speaking or writing.