Humodour Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Has anybody noticed that Germany isn't getting any smaller or less important? I suspect European culture led by Germany (yes, this is a generalisation) is starting to supplant British culture as the dominant one in the world. All I can say is, Germany has an awesome language. It's so similar to English, but makes a lot more sense! And yet, it's so foreign in some ways because many of those amazingly useful Romance words are missing from the alien-looking vocabulary. No doubt English and German will start to strongly feed into each other yet again as they did hundreds of years ago, although interestingly this time I suspect it will be German which will have to accommodate a large number of new words and speakers.
Morgoth Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 No doubt English and German will start to strongly feed into each other It already does. Walk around in Berlin and start get talking to some average younger German, trust me, he wouldn't me able to finish a single sentence without using English words. Rain makes everything better.
Raithe Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Hm I vaguely remember some documentary on linguistics talking about the fact that English is one of the few languages that will out-n-out invent new words from whole cloth. The majority of languages will combine current words or re-use old phrases to mean new things. Apparently that's one of the chief reasons there are so many English words in modern Japanese... There was more to it then that.. but dang it.. I should remember not to make a comment if I can only half-remember the subject source.. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Monte Carlo Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 German is a difficult language to learn, apparently Arabic is easier. Germany is important because of it's economy and size.
Kaftan Barlast Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Germany is a crappy country and all germans are loud, obnoxious and obese. DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself. Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture. "I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "
Niten_Ryu Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 All I can say is, Germany has an awesome language. Germany is one of ugliest languages I know (and speak.. a bit), but that probably because of those 80's german porn films (for some reason those were much more common then US films). In EU Germany is sill extremely important. I'd argue that if your nation is in the euro, german politics mean much more then your local politics. What Germany choose to do, the rest of us have to follow. Like right now currently we loan money to PIIGS, but we first have to loan it for our nation, in order to save german (and english, US) banks. After the banks are saved, we can let nation states to default and yet pay some more... a lot more Germany, especially those who own stocks of the german companies, benefit greatly from the surrounding "free" market zones. They export their good all over the EU (and beyond), almost singlehandedly keep euro strong (too strong for just about everyone else in the monetary union) and force interest rates higher, even when (southen) half of the euro zone would still need low interest rates. German goods (in general) are really high quality too and their workers real wages have dived about 1% in last 10 years (meaning that in inflation adjusted, they earn less then 10 years ago), raised minium retirement age and did other moves that gave 'em competative advantage. It's all good for 'em, but unfortunately because they are so important in europe, rest of the EU nations have to follow 'em and thus creating situation known as "race to the bottom". Germany is still important - Too important IMO. Let's play Alpha Protocol My misadventures on youtube.
HoonDing Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Don't mention the war. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
Humodour Posted June 19, 2011 Author Posted June 19, 2011 To be honest, I think parts of the Eurozone concept are a bad idea (while the EU itself and free trade in general are good ideas). From what I know about inflation, unemployment, exchange rates (i.e. strong dollar vs weak dollar), and central banking by observing Australia and the fact that what is good for some of our states hinders some of the others: tying a bunch of countries together and making them all use the same currency and interest rate is ludicrous. At least for such disparate economies. Because when Greece needs to go one way, Germany needs to go another, and the biggest economies get to govern the direction in the end, to the detriment of the smaller ones. That is: centralisation and unification of currencies may not a good idea in general. Could have future ramifications for federations of states such as Australia, the EU, Russia and the USA. The USA for instance - what do you think is going to happen if California's population and economy keep outpacing the other US states (as is projected)? What kind of conversations will people start having? No surprise I read about a similar problem in Russia - Moscow's economy is beginning to warp things for everywhere else in Russia.
Labadal Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 I hate German. I have some family there, so I learned German because of that. I like the people, but the language with all the gramnar, ugh.
Raithe Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 One of the big reasons why we've been kicking and screaming to keep the Pound and not get fully dragged into the EU... And the politicians from all parties seem to keep trying to get us in through the backdoor while the public resists.. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Morgoth Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Germany is one of ugliest languages I know Location: Finland Look who's talking. Rain makes everything better.
Niten_Ryu Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Germany is one of ugliest languages I know Location: Finland Look who's talking. There's only about 6 million finnish language speakers and it being part of the Uralic (with such "popular" languages as Hungarian, Khanty, Mansi, Mari, Mordvinic, Permic, Sami, Samoyedic) language tree, it might very well be the most hideous language for those who ain't native speakers... if they happen to hear it somewhere. I see and hear the world from the other side of the coin, where proto-indo-europen language tree is the odd one. And german happens the be ugliest out of all those indo-europen languages that I know. I'm sure that something like proto-tocharian language might be even more ugly Let's play Alpha Protocol My misadventures on youtube.
Gorth Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 I speak Danish, German, English and understand a bit of French (used to be way better at the latter). English has sounds that are way harder for non-native English speakers to learn than German. Oh yeah, and French is really a waste of good letters, they barely pronounce more than half of them “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
Squall Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Germany is starting to supplant British culture as the dominant one in the world. The United States called...
Humodour Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 Germany is starting to supplant British culture as the dominant one in the world. The United States called... REALLY?! Because the 1990's called for you! Get with the times mi amigo.
Humodour Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 I speak Danish, German, English and understand a bit of French (used to be way better at the latter). English has sounds that are way harder for non-native English speakers to learn than German. Oh yeah, and French is really a waste of good letters, they barely pronounce more than half of them Tried taking a look at Spanish? It's a whole lot more enjoyable, logical, consistent and phonetic than French. And English.
Purkake Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 (edited) Germany is one of ugliest languages I know Location: Finland Look who's talking. There's only about 6 million finnish language speakers and it being part of the Uralic (with such "popular" languages as Hungarian, Khanty, Mansi, Mari, Mordvinic, Permic, Sami, Samoyedic) language tree, it might very well be the most hideous language for those who ain't native speakers... if they happen to hear it somewhere. I see and hear the world from the other side of the coin, where proto-indo-europen language tree is the odd one. And german happens the be ugliest out of all those indo-europen languages that I know. I'm sure that something like proto-tocharian language might be even more ugly Thanks for omitting Estonian from the list I like German and it was relatively easy to learn it after English, for me anyway. Oh and Australia, why don't you deal with your own problems? Edited June 20, 2011 by Purkake
Kaftan Barlast Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Has anybody noticed that Germany isn't getting any smaller or less important? I suspect European culture led by Germany (yes, this is a generalisation) is starting to supplant British culture as the dominant one in the world. I suspect that Germans will just continue to cocoon themselves away from the rest of the world with their dubbed tv-shows and specialized germanic internet-subnet. And just to emphasize my loathing of this country and it's people, here is a photograph of a typical german family on summer holiday in Sweden: "Jaaaa, zen vee vill go to ze beach und occupy all ze good spots wiz our obese germanic bodies jaa. Zen ve vill buy all ze schwedisches summer houses driving ze prices up to zilly levels zat ze schwedische cant afford, haha!" DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself. Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture. "I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "
Morgoth Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 That could be like any typical family from any country. Stop being a racist, Kaft. Rain makes everything better.
Kaftan Barlast Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Only Germans behave like that when they're on holiday here. British people fill up the beaches in an orderly fashion left to right, while the jerries always just smack down right in the middle. Not to talk about their manners around restaurants or hotel areas, they just blitzkrieg right in and annex the best seats with their horrible beach towels. "Oh mein gott! Zat is racist!!" DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself. Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture. "I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "
Walsingham Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Germany is starting to supplant British culture as the dominant one in the world. This is a blatant attempt to curry favour for your drug legalisation program. Because I now want some of whatever you're smoking. "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.
Malcador Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Hm, and I thought it was only the English that were so bitter about the Germans. Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
Raithe Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Hm, and I thought it was only the English that were so bitter about the Germans. It's kind of surprising the sheer amount of Love/Hate that goes on within Europe.. "Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."
Purkake Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 That's why it's so great to live in the smaller states that no one has heard of. No real prejudices and you can pretty much make up anything you want.
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