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Photo made by Gottfried Helnwein | Found by pinkneptune
If you ever have the chance to learn a new language… use it! You might think you’ll be fine with your own language but believe me, there are wonderful, amazing things waiting for you to be discovered. Things which will never get translated into your language. French poetry, German music, Swedish films or Slovenian fagzines ;) You got your life to explore the world around you and a part of it is to discover how different things can be expressed in other languages than your own. Learning a language is something you will never regret, trust me.
I love learning new languages but only If I really have the chance to use it.
I learned English in school very fast because I could use it on the internet and so on, watched english movies and played video games on English.
But for example Spanish which I didnt have the chance to use in my everyday life, i just had no motivation to learn.
But I dont think Ill get the opportunity of learning more languages.
Merci, for taking the time to put a french song to a disturbing pic! Btw., what is up to the chat? Most times recently when I enter, nobody is there, no Skip, no Benji, nada!:-(
Oh god this very young boy is so pale …. , hope he’s alright.
With languages – i think it’s “the more the merry’er”.
But no amount of school learned skill can replace first hand experience , the everyday survival in a country of the language you are trying to become fluent in.
I myself can talk,write and read in Finnish,german and english – yet the 3 years of school french is still undeveloped.
I understand words and meanings here and there in french texts and talk, some frases have stuck with me …
But i’d really like to learn french properly – it’s such a beautiful language , that is spoken in many more countries than
mainland European France.
The obvious problem with foreign languages is their deliberate use of the wrong words. For example, a Spaniard may see a table, know it’s a table, and then call it a ‘mesa’ when he knows damn well it’s a table. Germans insist on capitalizing nouns in the middle of sentences. What’s THAT about? Throw in offensive gender-specific nouns that are soooo politically incorrect, strange and inscrutable pictograph alphabets used in Asia, and it is inescapable that foreign languages are simply too inconvenient for daily use. English has its issues to be sure, but at least it uses the correct vocabulary. In English, a table is still a table.
Funny you should say that, seeing as the English word “table” comes from the old French word “table”, which, in turn, comes from the Latin “tabula”, originally meaning board or plank.
Spanish’s “mesa”, on the other hand, comes directly from the Latin “mensa”, which originally means table.
So, in a way, mesa is closer than table.
:)
Regarding Bisounours, today’s “innocent angel,” isn’t that an SS style uniform he’s wearing?
I wouldnt be to sure about this being a boy…
http://www.helnwein-museum.com/article2303.html
Do you know the Bisounours anime ??? So cool xD
And i have to show you so much french poetry :D !!!!
OMG i love cocorosie :D :D :D: :D :D :D :D :D :D
We won’t get to learn that many languages if Josh keeps using CocoRosie all the time… ;-)
BTW, the original French lyrics and English translation can be found on sing365.com.
I like the almost inconspicuous reference to the “flower of innocence” (youth), and I am somehow very touched by “je me sens de taille”, this awareness of one’s unlimited strength, but I guess you don’t have to speak French to feel the music and emotion in “rien n’était éteint”, “si tant est que j’ai le temps”, or the repeated melancholy of the rhymes in “or/eur”, “ant/emps” that go so well with the music.
Benji, maybe the Bisounours French anime is cool, but as a song, it stands way below the poetry of l’Île aux Enfants (”the gay country of happy children“), Kiri le Clown (”we’ll bring the joie de vivre from town to town“) or the stoned Chapi Chapo (”biribibirabadadida“). Non, vraiment… ;-)
Slightly edited English translation of CocoRosie Bisounours:
There was a time when nothing was unlit
When only the gold of my heart would give the time
And then I was strong, but I have lost the flower and the innocence
In this setting I feel lost, nothing makes sense anymore
But I still have a few dreams and as long as i’m given enough time
I’ll go and caress their lips
I still have a few dreams
And as long as i’m given enough time, I’ll go and caress their lips
There was a time when nothing was unlit
When only the gold of my heart would give the time
And then I was strong, but I have lost the flower and the innocence
In this setting I feel lost, ’cause nothing makes sense anymore
If time is running too fast
I feel like I can do it
I am a child
I refuse time
I watch the sky and this rainbow alleviates myself
I watch the light and then I wander in my dreams
Forget the time
Keep being a child
Beautiful picture, josh . Chimel ,to learn a foreign language is a gate to a different culture ,one on one contact to know other people, open your horizon .
I am helping people in 3 countries to learn English. In return i am learning Russian,Turkish and Kazakh. I do get confused at times! over all a wonderful experiance for all concerned. I would love to travel to these countries but, lack of funds and American Government issues (go figure!) will make it impossible but, sharing photos,language and e-mails are a wonderful thing for us. i recommend haveing e-mail/chat friends wherever possible.
Learning Japanese at the moment.
It’s a whole new world to see when you can communicate cross-culturally.
@Hibou (French too?), totally agree. I actually learned bits of Spanish and Japanese outside school to get even closer to the friends and cultures I love, like music for Spanish, movies for Japanese (that was my first contact and motivation, wboy.) Got enough German to cry at Reinhard Mey’s Kaspar every time, enough English to live abroad for many years, pieces of Portuguese, Turkish, and hopefully enough French left to come back home next month… (horselips will be glad to know that in French a table is still une table… ;-)
As Josh says, it is great to learn a new language here and then, but it is really more to build your own mind and love of others. The culture is something that you will keep forever, even if the words and grammar fade out for lack of practise. I doubt that English and European bigots know much about mind-blowing Arabic, oriental and African languages and cultures. The drawback is that the “national news” and the daily concerns of your compatriots will seem pretty petty once you’ve broadened your mind to other cultures…
Apart from my own language I can make myself understood in 4 others. One reasonably, one poorly and two just the very basics. Having travelled extensively I find other countries and cultures appreciate the effort made when trying to communicate in their native tongues. Children can grasp languages very early and the older they get the harder they generally find it to learn.
Scholars and certain religions inform us that human language derived from one common source (although it is my belief it derives from 3). In a world where we strive for unity of nations wouldn’t it be far more beneficial if we were to use one universal language? Surely that would be a major step towards unity on a global basis. English would be a reasonable language for all to speak as – apart from Mandarin chinese – it is the most commonly used, but I have to point out to Horselips that spanish and german are not the only ones flawed english too has its pitfalls when put in the hands of different cultures.
Some examples:-
If an american asked for a ‘rubber’ here he would be given an ‘eraser’ (not good for birth-control).
In Australia ‘thongs’ are worn on the feet (not much good as underwear).
In England a ’sweet’ is called a ‘lolly’ in Australia and ‘candy’ in America.
‘Chips’ to Americans are ‘french fries’ and ‘crisps’ are ‘potato chips’.
‘Fanny’ in America is a ‘butt’ whereas in England its a vagina and a butt holds water.
Ok these probably aren’t the best examples on the spur of the moment but the list is endless and even the words the Americans get right they spell wrong!
AbeOrigine is right about English being an aceptable universal language – aside from its own surpassing vocabulary, it readilly adopts and incorporates key words from the others, ie: rendezvous, mirage, etc ad nauseum. Given the collpased birthrate of most indigenous European peoples – now almost irretrieveably below replacement, the Teutonic and Romance languages, sadly, will soon be quaint curiosities. The solution? Knock up your women! Do it today!
English is actually just an evolved form of old German with a few Greek and Latin words added. Or, to quote Wiki: “English is a West Germanic language which originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands.”
What’s about Latin as a universal language? Worked quite well for scientists for a couple of hundred years.
Well, esperanto is aiming at just that, a global universal language for communications. Latin is really a dead language with no updated vocabulary. It’s just good enough for scientific classification (plants, animals, etc.) and great to learn to roots of latin-based languages (still remember my amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant)…
One of my friend gives esperanto lessons, but I don’t really see a future in that, English seems to be the standard choice for today’s scientific, business and Internet communications. The “English as a second language” speakers recently outnumbered native English speakers, but they are not giving up their native language for that matter, thanksfully.
@Chimel
Latin is updated! We have a few guys in Germany who update it with every new word you’d need today.
BTW, one of the recent TEDTalks was about English as a global language (”Jay Walker on the world’s English mania”).
I use Miro to subscribe to these talks, Miro is an open-source product of the Participatory Culture Foundation.
Its all Gods fault with that damn tower of Babel
and sorry horselips but you just proved my point about american spelling and you didnt even mention through or colour
Thanks, Josh. I know Asterix, Tintin, Harry Potter and many other books for children have Latin translations, and I think it’s great for educational purpose, but this Living Latin thing seems even more artificial than Esperanto.
What I have seen mostly is litteral translations such as “emo puer”, or adopting and latinizing new (English) words, that did not seem very natural to me.
I doubt a few guys can keep up with the speed of English vocabulary development in all areas and countries.
I applaud the effort, though, and wish other languages would do the same, especially in the computers area, instead of just using the English name for lack of imagination, or creating translations too late, after the English name is already adopted by the community. I love the Icelandic, the story goes they recycled a “dead” word that was used for windows with oiled paper or skin instead of glass, to translate the English “window” term used in software.
Moody Monday: If “emo puer” stands for “emo boy”, find the translation for “what’s all this emo rage about?”
Tip: No, “rage” is not “rraghia” in Latin… ;-)
English just reached 1 million words today, with “web 2.0“! Among other entrants this week are “slumdog“, “nOOb“, and “octamom“. The Romans did not even have the Arabic notion of zero, would they say “Web II.nil” in Latin… ;-)