Foreign Languages

[alyceclover]

I do not have to translate casa because I know a casa is a house. Spanish is one of the Romance languages that came from a "vulgarized" (common person) form of Latin. US English has a lot of foreign words such as the Frech garage. Usage, such as gender words (amiga, amigo) and adding stuff like "the" in the proper order make it hard for me to understand other languages.

[freesouljah]

yeah...and sometimes words that are so similar to each other can have really different meanings...that can get you into trouble... 8P

[taumm]

There is truth is what you say. I would like to point one thing out: synonyms may refer to the same object (jug, bottle) but by their different sounds and associations they that object a different taste and color--the object gets an attitude so to say.This doesn't take away from your point.

[OPfour]

Yes, everything can be reduced to vocabulary. This lexical approach helps to make the idea of leaning foreign language less daunting. however it hasn't helped me enough. foreign lands are just parts of one big HERE.

[sergio944]

This man hasn't the slightest idea what he is talking about. What the hell is he trying to say. He has to be on something.

[seh97001]

Spanish and English is said to come from the same parent languge:IndoEuropean. One can not help but describe the same things, because we all live on this earth- the same type of environment. We are the same, human.  English is a relatively new language on earth, yes we came to speak English because our language-ancestors were isolated, then taken over by other languages and then isolated etc. The result is a new language.

Sorry this is so long.

[boschetto]

Hey,

It's an interesting investigation. Why did you wrote: "the nature of foreign languages" ? Do you mean that foreign languages are separated to natural language ?

A question which comes to me: how do we understand what a person communicates to us, or to other people ?

I think we are deeply identificated to some languages, (languages we know); so what is the nature of languages ? I think languages are not separated to knowledge of some bricks of signification: it is memory.

[boschetto]

In an other hand, the way of how language evolves itself, moves itself, it is characteristics of the mind, independantly of different languages. We have all the same mind, the human mind; The content of thought can be representated into differents "synonyms", like you say, which corresponds to differents meanings according to our own culture or way of life, and these referees are pretty the same for neighbors cultures.

[justosalsero04]

that's a cool way to think about learning vocab...i'm going to have to see if it helps. You have to remember language is cultural and means different things in different contexts. This is one of the hardest things for people who are learning English. I think you are only scratching the surface of learning another language...

[freesouljah]

I am definately only scratching the surface...but it was a pleasant epiphany that I came to...and it makes it less of an uphill battle...

[murphy96]

Dear sir:

I was just starting to get into what you were saying

when vid cut out around minute 2... is it me or YT that

is the problem... really wanted to hear what you had to say.

[freesouljah]

its youtube...sometimes it doesn't load the entire video...when that happens just refresh the page and it should work out fine...

[tincolor]

I've been enlightened. I never considered that those wetbacks were just using synonyms to describe the same thoughts and emotions that the rest of us have. I mean, they've been isolated for SO LONG... brilliant!

[freesouljah]

I see you have studied sarcasm. It is a valuable tool when wanting to piss somebody off. Use it wisely.

[lisasimpson]

best. comment.  ever.