/lang/ - language learning general

There is here a grave and mighty problem, beside (?) problem as a jest. For in this case, we have to deal not with childlike hero gorillas, but with yellow soulless enemas, with a pulse of carcasses house dangerous mental machines, where puts cariturisally(?), the single direction of material gain at any coast. I hope the end will be warfare.

voca.ro/1g4g8rSI4s3f

Have you ever thought of singing Blues?

Blues is dead and it's never coming back. Let go of it already.

What part of Canada are you from?

Nova Scotia

Ok mysterious man with the sexy voice, if you say so

Tell me where I can use the French language outside of France, Quebec, and Congo. What exactly are these diplomatic uses everybody talks about? It's a genuine question, /lang/.

You can shitpost on /fr/

New Brunswick. My ancestors were Acadian BTW.

I am learning it just to I can use it in Senegal and Congo

any tips for learning finnish?

Slowboy.

About two thirds of the population are English speaking and one third is French speaking.

Anon, I...
Meh.
Oh. Weren't you going to work in Geneva or Paris or something though or are you a different poster?

There are pockets of it. Entire towns that speak French. Even in Nova Scotia there are still some. Also Louisiana.

That's it, maybe Louisiana too, but I don't know if they really speak french there or is it just a larp.

Ilya, have you ever been outside Russia?

I'm visiting China this August, this will be the first time.

Louisiana

Eh no, it's a creole and nobody speaks it anyway. But what about diplomacy or something? Like I really wonder.

I'm visiting China this August, this will be the first time.

That sounds awesome.

But what about diplomacy or something? Like I really wonder.

Ilya, no offense but I am honestly not sure if you can understand it even if I give you a serious reply.
You're not here for genuine discussions, you're not here to learn.
You are here to have fights with people because, as you said, it gives you a weird excitement.
If you promise to reply like an actual human being and not a troll, I can give you an answer, but I am 99% sure you'll just reply with some answer about Africa and how they are bad. (I think you also have a weird obsession with Africans, which is very worrying)

There is here a grave and mighty problem. Beside we the negro problem as a jest. For in this case we have to deal not with childlike have gorillas, but with yellow soulless enemas. It was a bost of carcasses house dangerous mental machines. Who were p- cartuously a single direction of material gain at any coast. I hope then will be warfare.

I'm not claiming that it's an important language of diplomacy. Like everything else, it's english. I think it's a remnant from 200 years ago when french was the language of diplomacy. Also, french is an official UN language, so people think it's more important than it really is.

It's much much much more important in day-to-day work than you can ever imagine my man

In France, not where I live

sounds awesome

I had big plans for this travel, but my teeth went nuts (no, that's not why I slur) so I have to go to a small Northeastern town for slightly more than a week only. It's still something though.

as you said, it gives you a weird excitement

It was most obviously not me, dude. Like wtf.

you promise to reply like an actual human being and not a troll

Ok.

Africa and how they are bad

It's like quite literally the opposite of my argument though.

not claiming that it's an important language of diplomacy

Why? I've read that link in OP, it says it's very important.

Look at Macron, for example. He speaks with other world leaders in english, not the other way around.

What makes you think that I was talking about Poland? Are there any INGOs that have their HQ in Poland?

It's still something though.

It sounds really exciting, I hope you have fun <3

However, to reply:

In many organizations (especially the UN, EU, ICRC, NATO etc.), there's a formal requirement for working knowledge of both English and French.

Every document that is written has to be available in either (sometimes both) French and English. So, documentation, official correspondence, and internal rules must be in one of the two languages. Imagine if a document were only published in French and not English; this is why people working there must speak both languages.

Although English is dominant, there must be a de jure language balance because even though you belittle France, it is still a very powerful country that invests in promoting its language. The organizations I mentioned before work in countries where French is used. So, if you're working in development, humanitarian aid, election observation, or peacekeeping, you have to speak French. You can't expect your colleagues in those countries to speak English at all times.

So, if you want to work in this field, you don't have the luxury of saying, "I don't speak French because Africans also do."

TL;DR:

You won't work in this field, so these things don't concern you. You can just keep calling French a "bad language" because you're just an ignorant and arrogant person.

that invests in promoting its language

I hear a lot about that, but how do they actually do it? Outside of "the field" I mean, for a layperson like me.

saying, "I don't speak French because Africans also do."

Anon, listen finally, my argument was that French is largely spoken in only a single region of Africa (Central Africa) which is also the most backward one, opposed to the better parts of Africa (Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, a way bigger part of Western Africa) where English is spoken instead. The point is not Africa is bad, the point is that Africa is dominated by English.

I've found some materials and it seems there's no standard either:
english.stackexchange.com/questions/404515/do-americans-who-have-the-cot-caught-merger-pronounce-all-tall-paul-etc
reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/ak5lp1/the_cotcaught_merger_is_it_really_just_a_western/
reddit.com/r/asklinguistics/comments/vh8mhj/very_specific_question_about_exceptions_to_the/
But at least I understood that the merger is definitely the standard nowadays and the merged vowel is definitely an /ah/.

Frogs should just learn english like everyone else. They lost. Anglos won.

I guess I'll choose the full merger even before Anon Babble in the end. It's definitely not really dialectal it seems.

¿Dónde está el baño?

once again thinking about switching from French to Spanish. Even downloaded a 5k frequency deck.

You know what, you're right. I am by no means defending French. French is retarded. Instead, I chose quality over quantity. I learned the language to which /lang/ can't respond without sounding mad. NEVER consider the amount of speakers or country/land covered by a language as an important factor unless it actually impacts the learning process itself - that is to say, it is virtually impossible to learn a language with 10 speakers. The only actually "useful" language in English and you already know it. Every other one is equally useful to each other. I learned this the hard way. So many wasted hours - years - on popular languages, but especially French, Spanish & Russian. I even earned a scholarship to study "Latin American Spanish language & culture" - not a real language, shame that public universities are wasting resources on this. Precious lost time I could have spent on the right language. This is your sign to start Finnish or Icelandic or whichever language is lingering, waiting for you. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Caught is the same as "aught" - just ott
cott
cottage
you can say caught with the beginning of an a turning into an o but there's no need to
call
is more like
cü uhh oll
but said all together extremely quickly
but you can just say coll too close enough

the vowels will shift again tomorrow anyways

call

is more like

cü uhh oll

What the fuck are you talking about.

I've already made the same mistake but with Latin, anon. My advise is different though: learn languages you may possibly actually speak like in real life, person to person. That's what languages are meant for. If you're interested in a culture, read about it in English.
I'm mostly babbling about English in this thread, and am currently learning German for work. The only languages besides those I ever *consider* learning are Spanish (to resort in South America) and Hebrew (to become a Jew) and that's all.

learn languages you may possibly actually speak like in real life, person to person.

You can do that with virtually any living, non-endangered language. Just don't learn the language of a people you don't want to speak to and a country you don't want to be in.

If you're interested in a culture, read about it in English.

Cultures are inseparable from their native tongues. You will not get the whole picture without it. But if you are learning about a culture, you should also be speaking to these people in person.

hmm let me just omit the next line in my quote to start an insincere argument based on a misunderstanding I'm fabricating

Fuck off deranged idiot leaf

Still incorrect.

so it seems

You act like this is some dramatic difficult to find fact and not the spoken language of the United States

Hey, are you the same Turk I talked with yesterday?

Was gonna say re: the book I was discussing (the Turkish one, not the Greek one) here's the table of contents and intro. Apparently this guy teaches Turkish in London

files.catbox.moe/aicvuk.pdf

don't learn the language of a people you don't want to speak to and a country you don't want to be in

Legit, I guess.

are inseparable from their native tongues

No, not really. Language is just an instrument of communication that conveys ideas (and we're made of stardust btw), listening to a language or knowing some cool facts about it is helpful for immersion but you don't really need to actually understand it. Take the Chinese for example: it's cool to look at their hieroglyphs and try to read "ching chong" in pinyin aloud when you're reading about the dynasties, but do you really want to bother that much with learning Chinese instead of just reading the particular subject you like?

Just don't learn the language of a people you don't want to speak to

Guess that's why I can't do Spanish even living in California

Yes it is. See >but you can just say coll too close enough
So like cAHl you mean?

Okay, I'm gonna sleep. Tomorrow's morning will be the last time I open this site, this time for fuckin real. Everything's settled at last.

it's cool to look at their hieroglyphs and try to read "ching chong" in pinyin aloud when you're reading about the dynasties, but do you really want to bother that much with learning Chinese instead of just reading the particular subject you like?

Do you need to bother? No, not really. Would it add something to your understanding of the events and some cultural implications? Certainly. Especially if you're talking about historical events. Sure, all of them are just events that took place at some point and could be treated as just random facts, that would be fine. But a lot of these events have an important place in the culture of the country and/or nation and live on as folklore, or fixed expressions, or whatnot. Think of "Heдapoм пoмнит вcя Poccия..." Is it necessary to know this poem? No. Would it be important in certain contexts? Sure.

flag

uhmm.. vpn holhol?

He's a Polish Russian who hates Russia afaik
most white people hate Russia and support Ukraine btw
Anon, please just make your own deck from things you encounter as you go along. It's easy to get started doing this on a PC and much better than using someone else's deck

thought I had a good grasp of Spanish after sexting latinas for years

take an online course

get absolutely mogged by the numbers past 10

It's joever. I'll never colonize Latinx America.

You'll probably find that if you expose yourself to more varied material you will improve a lot

If you don't know something about a language, NEVER ask a (native) speaker for their input, just google it

No, not really. Language is just an instrument of communication that conveys ideas (and we're made of stardust btw), listening to a language or knowing some cool facts about it is helpful for immersion but you don't really need to actually understand it.

Cultures are defined by their people and one of the most distinct & rich features of a culture is the language. Furthermore, their cultural things, such as their literature & music, are in their language. Anyway, you are not genuinely interested in a culture if you don't wish to speak with them. And do you really want to speak with them in English? You're missing so much of a culture if you don't know the language.

Take the Chinese for example: it's cool to look at their hieroglyphs and try to read "ching chong" in pinyin aloud when you're reading about the dynasties, but do you really want to bother that much with learning Chinese instead of just reading the particular subject you like?

Worst possible example for your argument. Basically every Chinese icon is its own word/morpheme. If you're learning the pinyins while not learning the meaning, that's... very inefficient. You might as well just learn the meanings at that point.

duo plus bros...

Learn Finnish

Will Lily show me her pussy and give me a femdom JOI in my TL as I jork my peepee if I pay for it?

mit d'accord gehen

lel. What an unholy chimera.

How do we save these pay piggies? How do we teach them the power of self-directed learning and anna's archive?

Yeah, my tip is change the audio track and captions to Finnish and install Language Reactor.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRcHmntfmJ8CnSmj4C284-a1euH518aQa

wahh i don't like pokemon wahh it's too hard

Shut the fuck up and do it. The corporate gods have accidentally provided you with a killer language learning resource for your useless meme lang. Do you know how hard it is to find shit with matching subtitles? Of course you don't.