Is it taught as a foreign language?

What else would it be taught as?

It is obligatory to take English though, if that's what you mean...

[QUOTE=Superpear]What else would it be taught as?[/QUOTE]

Well, obviously.

I was mostly curious at how you would learn the verb rules and sentence structure and such, as it is very fu[size=2]cked up in our language[/size].

[QUOTE=Superpeer]What else would it be taught as?

It is obligatory to take English though, if that's what you mean...[/QUOTE]

I also wondered that. I used to think the forums were translated, and not everyone knew English.

/ignorance :upset:

[QUOTE=Illmatic]Well, obviously.

I was mostly curious at how you would learn the verb rules and sentence structure and such, as it is very fu[size=2]cked up in our language[/size].[/QUOTE]

Heh, we get exposed to it at an early age. We don't dub any programs, so it's all subtitled so we pick up quite a bit of English, also through the internet.
We start getting it in school at the age of 12, I think. Dutch and English are both Germanic languages too, so it's easier for us to learn than say: Italian.

Don't be misled though, not everyone speaks it as good as I do. A lot of people are really bad at it, but almost everyone knows *some* English, even if it is crappy.


[QUOTE]I also wondered that. I used to think the forums were translated, and not everyone knew English.

/ignorance [/QUOTE]

You thought Jeremy himself would translate every post? :p

mx is a very smart person, Superpear.

[QUOTE=Illmatic]Well, obviously.

I was mostly curious at how you would learn the verb rules and sentence structure and such, as it is very fu[size=2]cked up in our language[/size].[/QUOTE]
English has very few regular verb patterns, and theres all the words spelt similarly or the same, but with completely different sounds and meanings. eg:
bow, bow, bough, though, cough, rough, etc.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]
You thought Jeremy himself would translate every post? :p[/QUOTE]
Ever heard of an internet translation site? gg.

[QUOTE=sack-man]English has very few regular verb patterns, and theres all the words spelt similarly or the same, but with completely different sounds and meanings. eg:
bow, bow, bough, though, cough, rough, etc.[/QUOTE]

Which is what I was getting at.

Plus we have a lot of trivial grammar rules. I don't know any offhand but I learned a lot of them while preparing for the SATs.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]Heh, we get exposed to it at an early age. We don't dub any programs, so it's all subtitled so we pick up quite a bit of English, also through the internet.
We start getting it in school at the age of 12, I think. Dutch and English are both Germanic languages too, so it's easier for us to learn than say: Italian.

Don't be misled though, not everyone speaks it as good as I do. A lot of people are really bad at it, but almost everyone knows *some* English, even if it is crappy.




You thought Jeremy himself would translate every post? :p[/QUOTE]

I thought the forum program translated or something. It didn't occur to me that other people would also speak English.

Hey, English is a rather important language.

[QUOTE=Illmatic]Hey, English is a rather important language.[/QUOTE]
I thought it was the second most spoken language. Anyone know if this is true?

[QUOTE=Another Emo Kid]Ever heard of an internet translation site? gg.[/QUOTE]

Ever heard of the fact that internet translation sites suck horribly... :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Woodstock]I thought it was the second most spoken language. Anyone know if this is true?[/QUOTE]

Well, technically not, I think. But it is probably the most widely spread language along with French and Spanish. But in numbers it isn't second I think, because of China and India.


[QUOTE]Plus we have a lot of trivial grammar rules. I don't know any offhand but I learned a lot of them while preparing for the SATs.[/QUOTE]

Trust me, a lot of languages have their part of totally random rules. Not just English, although English can be pretty chaotic. That's the problem with English, it seems easy at first, but when you study it at Uni, like me, it's very difficult.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]Ever heard of the fact that internet translation sites suck horribly... :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Right. Usually, it just translates every individual word. It doesn't take into account the grammatical rules.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]Ever heard of the fact that internet translation sites suck horribly... :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Well I would think that's what was being used before I assumed Jeremy was hand translating all posts. Dunce. :)

I always thought people on here spoke at least some English, enough so that they could type in it.

Translation sites suck. They are the main reason why I didn't do well in Spanish.

Not my complete apathy towards the language, of course.

English speaking people in general have developed apathy towards all languages that aren't English. :p

The 'Meh, I know the most important language in the world, why would I learn any other? Let them learn ours' feeling.

Combined mostly with the inability to properly learn a different language. :p

/bashes

[QUOTE=Superpeer]English speaking people in general have developed apathy towards all languages that aren't English. :p

The 'Meh, I know the most important language in the world, why would I learn any other? Let them learn ours' feeling.

Combined mostly with the inability to properly learn a different language. :p

/bashes[/QUOTE]

I would attempt to come back, but it's so completely true that I'm just going to admit defeat.

Eh, I don't blame you.

It was 99% the teacher's fault, though.

In middle school my teachers were ok, freshman and sophomore year my teacher was great, junior year my teacher was horrible, and because she was going to teach Spanish for seniors I decided to drop the language.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]English speaking people in general have developed apathy towards all languages that aren't English. :p

The 'Meh, I know the most important language in the world, why would I learn any other? Let them learn ours' feeling.

Combined mostly with the inability to properly learn a different language. :p

/bashes[/QUOTE]

Sounds like the common arrogant attitude many Americans have.

I took four years of French, but I don't remember much now...

I'd rather learn German, Italian, or possibly Spanish.

Yeah, you should totally blame your Education system. :)

Languages I've taken over the years : Dutch (Flemish if we want to be chauvinistic), French, English, Latin, Old Greek and Spanish.

In so much as I like any education system, I rather like my education system. I like to think I came away with a decent knowledge of German.

EDIT: my list would be; English, German, French and Latin.

[QUOTE=Superpeer]Yeah, you should totally blame your Education system. :)

Languages I've taken over the years : Dutch (Flemish if we want to be chauvinistic), French, English, Latin, Old Greek and Spanish.[/QUOTE]

That hurt....

/points to chest

...right here.

[QUOTE=Bartender]In so much as I like any education system, I rather like my education system. I like to think I came away with a decent knowledge of German.[/QUOTE]

I think British and American education system are more specialised, whereas we get a very broad education. I think that's why sometimes *you people* come off as ignorant, because some things are not addressed in certain educations, while we can talk about this and that, because we get a bit of everything.

Yeah.

A specialized education that won't help us out in the real world.

[QUOTE=Illmatic]That hurt....

/points to chest

...right here.[/QUOTE]

It's quite simple to explain though. Dutch is my native language, obviously I have to take that. English has become such an important language that there's no way around it, we have to take it. In South Belgium, everyone speaks French, so to get along with them Walloons, we have to take French, also Obligatory.

Latin or economics? The choice was easy for me, I had to take it for 2 hours per week and that was more than enough for me, it is soooo incredibly boring.

I only took Old Greek for one year, just to learn the crazy alphabet.

Then I had the choice: extra math or science or an extra language: I suck at maths and science, so yeah, Spanish it was.

/words

I was talking more about the "blame your education system" part.

And "maths"? Silly Europeans.

[QUOTE=Illmatic]I was talking more about the "blame your education system" part.

And "maths"? Silly Europeans.[/QUOTE]

Well, I felt like telling a story, anyway.

What's wrong with maths? I thought that was the cool thing to say? :upset: