Learning German - Video games

I like local languages and local culture. I like English as a universial language as well.
I even learn forgotten local languages like "Südwestfälisches Platt" and teach them to fellow citizens.

Example:
Platt:
Liäwe met Moate, liäwe klaug, wei wennig bruket, de hiätt genaug. (g sounds like ch)
Deutsch:
Lebe mit Maß, lebe klug, wer wenig (ver)braucht, der hat genug.
English:
Live with measure (keep it within bounds), live clever (wise), who consumes little has enough.

It seems to me that English has become the standard second language, to make it efficient for everyone to communicate, while still having their own languages, too. Seems a pretty good solution. Convenient for the likes of me, of course, but I think that learning a second language is a benefit, not a chore.

HiddenX said:

English:
Live with measure (keep it within bounds), live clever (wise), who consumes little has enough.

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Yeah, but anyone who speaks English would never speak like that. What we would really say is, "The wise person lives within their means and does not overindulge."

I think German would be cool to learn, but I'm a lazy American and expect the whole world to speak my language.

I know - but I wanted to keep it close to the original Old German saying.

Myrthos said:

The biggest problem is when to capitalize words and when to use der, die, das or dem.

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Simple rule : If you can put an adricle before the word, then write it in capitals.

The English language is somewhat reduced now, it did have several grammar cases, at least medieval and old English had.

der = grammatically male
die = grammatically female
es = grammatically neutrum

There are words which have a "grammatical sex" which is different rfrom that in other languages. The moon, for example : La Luna (female moon) in the Spanish language, for example, meanwhile "der Mond" (male moon) in German language.

Ships, for example, have been female in the English language for a long, long time, They went into neutrum not too long ago.

And Germans and speakers of other other languages have the serious problem that the English articles "the" and "a" do NOT IN ANY WAY hint the user towards what the "grammar sex" of the word might actually be.




I think Wikipedia might have an good entry article on the language, but on the other hand, it might be a bit complicated, too.



On-topic : The Ankh Trilogy was a huge success and might be avalable in English and in German languages.

Same with Drakensang : If you install it in different directories, it *might* be able to use both language versions … But it might also be that this won't work, because of modern "documents" folders accumulating EVERYTHING …

You could also use games without any spoken words at all, like the "Realms Of Arcania" Trilogy, for example …



Edit : Mr. Mark Twain (known from "Huckleberry Finn") once wrote an article on the German language, which - as far as I know - he absolutely detested.
I haven't been able to read this article so far.

Ripper said:

It seems to me that English has become the standard second language, to make it efficient for everyone to communicate, while still having their own languages, too. Seems a pretty good solution. Convenient for the likes of me, of course, but I think that learning a second language is a benefit, not a chore.

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It's been easy because the E nglish language is so much reduced. It is so much simple these days.

According to the book "The Loom Of Languages", the current English language is reduced in a similar way as the Chinese language is (minus its letters).

We will eventually need a universal translator in the future if we are able to start exploring the galaxy like in Star Trek, and meet other lifeforms who won't speak English or any of our Earth based languages.

Anyway - good post by Alrik. I forgot how many words have a different "sex" in foreign languages. That indeed makes things even more confusing for those trying to learn a different language.

I also sympathize with finding it difficult to learn a foreign language. I just don't have the ability or a talent or "gift" to do that. I tried to learn Spanish and German (ironically enough) in school, and failed pretty badly.

Yes, we did abandon the idea of arbitrarily gendered nouns, and that is something I would definitely recommend.

Maybe English is not the best choice for a universial language:

Only read first page of comments but here is my opinion.

Play the german games recommended, watch your movies with german subtitles, and watch Korandors reviews. He has a relaxed style of speaking that will be far more useful than taking a proficiency course.

Forget French. Its a terrible language in practice unless you are in Monaco, Congo, Haiti or a couple african places. Its least useful in France.

Darth Tagnan said:

It will probably take hundreds of years, yeah.

But it will help save lives and it will help prevent conflict and misery to a degree that I struggle to articulate.

So, I'm always a little sad to hear people actively supporting the misery that comes with the language and communication barrier.

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Don't get me started on government initiatives that pour millions of tax dollars into 'saving' dead languages. Worse part, it doesn't work. (In the studies that I've seen anyway.)