Thread: Nach Berlin

Antono,
Yeah, I'm not sure if I ever want to try settling in any country other than the US or maybe Canada, from what I've read it is incredibly difficult to get the proper status.(I was recently talking to a canadian teacher of mine who just got his usa citizenship about our system and evidentally it is incredibly easy)

Who knows though, if I used contacts I have thanks to my trip and the local sister-city club I think my settling in deutschland would be a lot smoother than someone who just decided to try and move there.(I live in an old german town in Texas, our "german-ness" is just now starting to fade in the last few years...stupid city-folk moving in from Austin...heh)

--Plastic

Oh, I once read a nice story by Bill Bryson. There he showed the difficulties his Bristish wife had as she wanted to have the US citizenship. Although the couple had children, they had to run from one office to another and write many letters...

Are you able to speak German?

I'm able to speak enough German to get around... if I'd ever sit down and start memorising vocabulary I would be better off though

Actually during my visit to germany, my host family like wouldnt let me speak german, lol! They needed to practice their english..heh... Of course I got mistaken for a native a few times, even by fellow americans....who came from the same town as me...crazy...anyways...

When it comes to languages I run into the problem that i want to try and learn too many at once! It is quite unfortunate for me, because I can't seem to focus on a single language long enough to really LEARN it.

At the moment I'm trying to decide if I want to focus fully on german, or focus fully on russian(although ive barely started with russian, and it seems QUITE difficult to pronounce a few of the words in my course book), or last of all to try and learn both russian and german at the same time.

Oh, I said I lived in a very german town, but it doesnt help if you are trying to learn todays german language... they speak(in my town) a very archaic german from around ~1846(and from what my old german teacher told me, it hasnt developed much since then).

Would you have any advice when it comes to choosing a language to focus on? or would you say to work on both?

--Plastic
---I love Doener!

You should choose the language you like the most, but I wouldn't recommend trying to learn more than one language at a time, unless you already have a solid foundation of one language and have ended the "active" learning process for it. By this I mean that you've finished reading grammar and working in textbooks and you learn the language through contact with native speakers, reading, etc. At this stage you could probably start picking up another language. But to try to learn the basics of both languages at the same time is rather difficult.

Thanks for your reply Pravit!
I think that I have a fairly good base with German, all thats left really is expanding my vocabulary, and solidifying my understanding of the grammar.

here is a problem with russian though:
How do y'all write in russian? Do you prefer print or cursive? if you prefer print how do you write д? Personally I cant seem to get it right... and for cursive I guess it just takes some time getting used to writing in it if you've never used cursive in any language?

Oh, is there any Russian industrial//gothic rock? Something on par with Rammstein, OOMPH!, or L'ame Immortelle?

--Plastic

I write in cursive, and as I've already mentioned 84958903 times, I don't write it very well, but at least it's readable. About Russian gothic rock I'm sure there is some band that will fit your tastes. Unfortunately I have a very crude understanding of the divisions of rock music. Perhaps you would like Ариа? They're kind of like Iron Maiden...

hmmm I don't really know much american music, despite having grown up here...lol... so I dont remember what iron maiden sounds like! BUT, I will look for Aria and see ^_^

THANKS
--plastic

Originally Posted by Pravit

You should choose the language you like the most, but I wouldn't recommend trying to learn more than one language at a time, unless you already have a solid foundation of one language and have ended the "active" learning process for it. By this I mean that you've finished reading grammar and working in textbooks and you learn the language through contact with native speakers, reading, etc. At this stage you could probably start picking up another language. But to try to learn the basics of both languages at the same time is rather difficult.

Personally, I don't find learning multiple languages at once too difficult. I learn French and German in school, then study Russian on my own. I find it neat to see the worlds that are the same in both languages. Like the French and Russian word for store, etc.

Hey, neat, I used to do that. I did not find it too hard to learn a language in school and a language on my own time, but I found it difficult to learn two languages on my own time.

I really find it difficult to learn one language on my own time, because I can never settle on a language I want to learn..constant switching really isn't very conducive to learning

For some reason the same week I decide on "the one" to learn first, I find a reason why a different language would be more worthwhile in finding a career. I switch from german to russian to japanese often, and normally only long enough to remember what ive already learnt the last time around(for japanese and russian thats really just extremely basic things).

If anyone reads this: Which language do you think would be more useful in the Computer Science(programming/linux) "world"?(Out of German, Russian, and Japanese)

--Plastic

Yeah, so many interesting languages to learn, so little time. If you want to go into CS, the most important language to know is English. So you're already ahead of all the Russian and Indian programmers out there(well, maybe not the Indian ones). I don't really think there is any other language that would be helpful to a programmer, since a lot of foreign programmers comment their code in English, esp. if it's going to be worked on by other programmers. So I guess it depends on whichever country you plan to work in(I really doubt a US-based programmer would need to know a language other than English).

Yeah I figured as much, but was hoping that maybe I was wrong(it would be easier to settle on a language if It would help me career wise)!

Well, I guess its back to the "which is most interesting" question, which has an ever-changing answer(at least for me..lol).

--Plastic

Basically pick the language of the culture/country for which you have the most interest. You should have a strong desire to learn a language, and learning more about the culture would only make you want to learn it more.

Thanks for the advice Pravit! Although quite simple advice, I never really thought of how much I like each culture/country(in any depth anyways).

After much thought I think Russian actually offers the most(for me) from being able to read(later) some great works such as Tsiokalvsky's early work on aeroscience, and later Korolev's(if any is available) to learning about the USSR(in more depth than english commentaries or translations) and being able to watch the centre of the USSR's continueing recovery from its collapse("first hand").

Whereas my only real motivation for japanese was being able to watch un-subtitled Anime. As for German...never really a reason beyond reconnecting with heritage.

Again, thank you!

--Plastic

I'm glad you've made such a good choice.