Serbian and Montenegrin are practically the same thing. If you speak one, you also speak the other, plus the Bosnian and Croatian.
Well, Andy Murray spent a bunch of time in Barcelona, training w/ Emilio Sanchez, so I'd bet he at least speaks Spanish. And de Minaur is of Spanish heritage, and, according to Wiki, is fluent in Spanish and speaks some French. Kyrgios claims to be able to "get by" in Greek and Malaysian.
Pretty sure Isner and Johnson received degrees as they played 4 years. Not sure if Anderson got a degree.
They don't call me the Albert Einstein of tennis for nothing.
You’re missing the point. So what about all the Vietnamese and Chinese people I have met here in Australia that could barely speak any English, even though they have been here for 10, 20 or 30+ years? Or those expats that have been living in Thailand or Philippines (just to name a couple) for over 20 years, yet can’t speak their language despite being surrounded by it? The reason is because they‘re not putting in the effort to learn that language. Those immigrants to Canada that you mentioned, like you said, put in the effort to LEARN the English language. They don’t just simply do squat and expect the language to be absorbed into their brains simply because they are surrounded by it.
He's not fluent, but not bad at all. Actually, he speaks better than me, who went to an almost French Immersion school in our country, and now live in a country where French is 2nd official language...
I can guarantee you that he doesn’t. He can put together a couple of words spoken in an atrocious accent. That’s all. His level is probably that of a 2 years old, and that’s being kind to him.
The problem is, all those that don't know French think Novak is doing great and are immediately impressed, thinking that he's got a good command of the language. Only those that speak the language fluently, know it's not the case. I remember when I was still at pre-intermediate level in Italian and I was speaking basic stuff to a native Italian, my two Aussie mates listening in were so impressed lol thinking I'm fluent in the language. I was still so far from fluency...but what did they know haha.
and in turn, only 1 kidney
Absolutely. He's very expressive, and an extrovert, which are great qualities if you want to learn languages.
But you put an effort into studying a new language. And to me that’s the big difference. In order to learn a language, first, you have to study, second, you have to listen and practice. The second part alone works for children, but adults need the first part. It’s like me and German, I studied it for over 7 years and I became very fluent. But now for lack of practice, I don’t even dare to say that I can speak it. I am a fluent listener and reader, but I probably speak it like Novak speaks French
Curves cause the social distancing in this case. Damn this sounds like the tribute thread now.
Wahaha! 3 years ago I was in Rome, with my 11 year old son. I was making up my own "Italian", out of few words that I know and my horrible French. My son was wondering how I knew Italian so well
How are you at writing German?But you put an effort into studying a new language. And to me that’s the big difference. In order to learn a language, first, you have to study, second, you have to listen and practice. The second part alone works for children, but adults need the first part. It’s like me and German, I studied it for over 7 years and I became very fluent. But now for lack of practice, I don’t even dare to say that I can speak it. I am a fluent listener and reader, but I probably speak it like Novak speaks French
Better than speaking, probably because I have time to remember the correct words, and also because I have studied it formally so I don’t make grammatical or spelling mistakes.
I am the same, but I think part of the problem is that we live increasingly in a text world where we don't speak. Think of this forum. I've spoken to people for years here in several chat groups, but I've never seen or heard any of these people. Writing puts us in a different world. Some people avoid emails and forums like the plague. My brother never writes. The rest of the people in my family almost never write other than short texts.
You make some very interesting points. It’s true that nowadays we speak much less and we text much more. Also English is becoming the international communication norm. The last time I had to speak German was like 5 years ago, when I was traveling in Freiburg, and as soon as people realized I’m a tourist, they replied to me in English so I didn’t even have to speak German in Germany itself. I was a bit grateful because the local dialect was totally unintelligible to me.I am the same, but I think part of the problem is that we live increasingly in a text world where we don't speak. Think of this forum. I've spoken to people for years here in several chat groups, but I've never seen or heard any of these people. Writing puts us in a different world. Some people avoid emails and forums like the plague. My brother never writes. The rest of the people in my family almost never write other than short texts.
I'm assuming you make LESS (fewer) mistakes in German, because the grammar is enough of a nightmare that I think all non-natives betray themselves now and then as "Ausländer"
I was in Berlin in 1989, right before the Wall came down, but I was in a bit of a different situation. I was with a group and a young student spoke no German in a family where the mother spoke no English, so I was translating. I met several young Germans who were intimidated by my fluency until I got them to loosen up. Their English was actually pretty good, but they were frightened by school into thinking that if they made mistakes that meant they were not communicating.
I visited west Berlin in August 1989 and had the chance to spend one day in east Berlin as part of a student group excursion from the summer course at Erlangen university. We crossed checkpoint Charlie and I remember the East German officers barking some questions at me that I didn’t understand
I had no idea that the wall would come down just a couple of months later.
Would you say Hochdeutsch is the most powerful language that you have heard in your life? It's to me! Also as a persian born in 1989 I would say studying and learning languages (English in my case) during the 90s was tougher than now for me. Maybe due to new technologies, teaching methods and the Internet? Back then you couldn't check everything on the internet since it was non-existant in our country and I am sure it was not the ubiquitous thing which is right now in other countries.
All? I doubt it.
How do you decide if a language is powerful or weak? It probably has more to do with stereotypes about the people and country native to the language than any aspect of the language itself. I don’t know if linguists judge and rate languages in terms of power. Most languages sound soft and mellifluous if a young girl speaks it as opposed to listening to loud people in a bar. Japanese can sound very harsh if you watch a samurai or war movie whereas if you are in Japan listening to most people speak and in particular women, it sounds much more peaceful and pleasing.
It was just my personal feeling. To me German doesn't sound like the most romantic or pleasing or poetic language out there, but it seems amazingly powerful to my ears. It gives me some inner satisfaction!
I think that languages that sound more guttural (articulated in the back of the mouth or throat) sound less pleasing in general even in a romantic context or in song. French sounds easier to my ears than English or German. Italian opera sounds easier to my ears than German or English opera/musicals. I would agree about German sounding less pleasing than romantic Latin languages because it sounds more guttural, but I don’t know if it sounds more powerful to me.
as do many of Schubert’s vast repertoire of lieder (songs).
German can be very soft and musical. It depends on the pronunciation. If you’re in the army barracks or at the opera, you will hear different tonesI think that languages that sound more guttural (articulated in the back of the mouth or throat) sound less pleasing in general even in a romantic context or in song. French sounds easier to my ears than English or German. Italian opera sounds easier to my ears than German or English opera/musicals. I would agree about German sounding less pleasing than romantic Latin languages because it sounds more guttural, but I don’t know if it sounds more powerful to me.
On the other hand, my wife is from Germany and she sounds pretty romantic and poetic to me
Well, the only word from the above that actually means a hospital is the German one. All the others mean a place for guests.
German can be very soft and musical. It depends on the pronunciation. If you’re in the army barracks or at the opera, you will hear different tones
I would think so compared to Latin languages. I find most Slavic languages to be even harder sounding than German.
German can be very soft and musical. It depends on the pronunciation. If you’re in the army barracks or at the opera, you will hear different tones
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier I was yelled at by the East German soldiers at checkpoint Charlie. That wasn’t very pleasant I assure you. I was peeing in my pants tbh
I think you missed my point. As a person who is intensely interested in other languages it's been very hard for me to find places to practice a second language because of the dominance of English. I'm not arguing for it as a superior language. I'm simply assuming that if we have some kind of international meeting and we have to choose a common language in which to communicate, English is much more likely to be that language than Chinese.
