German speakers!

[Corry]

I have to ask you a question . . . WHY must you confuse me with all of your REEEEAAAAAAALLY long compound words?

I occasionally use babelfish to help me get the gist of things when I'm doing my homework for German class, or studying for the oral portion of my test (what I'm doing right now).

So, tomorrow we have to talk about high school, what we liked and what we didn't, and also do a sentence or two comparing Schooling in the US to that of Germany.

I went to try and translate a sentence about not liking that I failed first period history class . . . and it gave me this word as part of the translated sentence:

Zeitraumgeschichtenkategorie

Really? I mean, seriously! How much more can we compound it? LOL!

 

[Slaphead]

Zeitraumgeschichtenkategorie

That's a small one

Seriously I know what you mean. I can be reading the newspaper with the grace and fluidity that a year ago I could have only dreamed of, only to be brought to a screeching halt by one of these monstrosities.

I still have to read the word carefully and split it down - as you already know, a compound word is just other words jammed together.

So:-

Zeitraum = Period
Geschichte = History
Kategorie = Category

Thus Period history category.

Funny thing is that when hearing German my brain doesn't identify compound words, it automatically hears them as separate words, which means I have no difficulty at all when hearing.

I think asking a native German speaker why this is so is a bit like asking a native English speaker why so many english words sound nothing like how they're spelt.

In short, it's just the way it is.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, in short: the word the Babelfish spat out does not exist in German. Seems like someone programmed him to "think": 'German? Oh, they create compound nouns out of EVERYTHING, so that's what I do!'

Seems like you "fielst durch in Geschichte im ersten Halbjahr". I think that's what you want to say.

 

[Slaphead]

Well, in short: the word the Babelfish spat out does not exist in German. Seems like someone programmed him to "think": 'German? Oh, they create compound nouns out of EVERYTHING, so that's what I do!'

Seems like you "fielst durch in Geschichte im ersten Halbjahr". I think that's what you want to say.

My problem is that, not being a native German speaker, I have no idea if the compound word I'm reading really exists or not. I'm sure there must be rules to as and when you can form a compound noun but I have no idea about them.

 

[Corry]

Well, in short: the word the Babelfish spat out does not exist in German. Seems like someone programmed him to "think": 'German? Oh, they create compound nouns out of EVERYTHING, so that's what I do!'

Seems like you "fielst durch in Geschichte im ersten Halbjahr". I think that's what you want to say.

That word doesn't even EXIST in German! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Good thing I changed my sentence! LOL!

I wasn't going to use that word, anyway, because it always gives me "Kategorie" for the word "class," and we didn't learn that as the translation for "class."

Then I realized I probably didn't need the word class in there anyway.

And I do realize that telling a native German speaker that thier compound words are befuddling is like someone coming up and telling me that our English spelling and grammar rules are ridiculous . . . but . . . then again, I KNOW English rules are ridiculous!

I bet it would be much harder if I were trying to learn English as a second language at the age of 26, than German.

 

[Slaphead]

I bet it would be much harder if I were trying to learn English as a second language at the age of 26, than German.

Ha, try learning another language when your 40 like me.

 

[doenoe]

and when you're done with German, start with Dutch. That should really make you go totally mad :crazy:

 

[LaFoto]

So, Corry, tell me: what did you write in the end?
And when's the oral test going to be?

 

[Corry]

So, Corry, tell me: what did you write in the end?
And when's the oral test going to be?

The test was at 9am. What I ended up writing I knew was probably a little awkward at best, but I couldn't figure out a better way to say it while still keeping it short and memorizable.

I wrote "Ich mochte nicht Geschicte bei acht morgens verlassen."

I didn't like failing History class at 8 in the morning. (Figured I'd make him laugh . . . part of the reason I struggle so much in German is because it's my first class of the day, and I struggle with insomnia so badly that I have a very hard time getting up in the morning and making it to class on time)

He corrected it with a better way of saying it, but I can't remember if he said it was completely wrong or not. He did say that I did well overall on the oral portion of my test.

 

[Corry]

and when you're done with German, start with Dutch. That should really make you go totally mad :crazy:

Ideally, after I get an ok grasp on German, I would like to learn Spanish. I took a year of it in Highschool my freshman year, but I was an extremely poor student at the time, and failed one semester of it . . . I think I got a C the other semester. AND . . . Freshman year was . . . oh . . . 12 years ago? So it's not exactly fresh in my memory.

 

[MikeBcos]

and when you're done with German, start with Dutch. That should really make you go totally mad :crazy:

I lived with a Belgian girl for a while, I picked up some Dutch, I actually found it relatively easy. At the same time we had a bunch of South African friends, it was interesting listening to Dutch, Africaans and English all being spoken in the same conversation.

 

[LaFoto]

I'm sure that after having learnt German, you will find learning Spanish a piece of cake. It is ever so much easier to learn than German. Though don't consider Finnish. I hear that's a "beast" of a language for foreigners. 20 or so cases? Something like that. Every time you mean to say something different, the words change, or at least their endings do... dear-o-dear! Tough one, that!

Though foreigners say German is a tough one to learn, too ... don't know. I've always known it .

 

[Corry]

I know a teensy bit of Spanish already . . . and what's funny . . . when I came back to school after Christmas break, since I didn't really practice my German during that month . . . I found that I kept accidently saying numbers in Spanish when I meant to say them in German! LOL!

I've actually heard that doing things like that is common when learning languages!

The only thing that really gets me with learning languages is how much rote memorization that's involved. After repeating the same things over and over again just to try to get it to STICK in my head . . . I feel like I'm goin crazy sometimes! Particularly when it's things like last night . . . trying to memorize several sentences in one evening.