three favourite languages

secevocevo   Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:50 am GMT
Frisian
Dutch
Low Saxon


In my view, they are the ugliest languages in Europe
lluis   Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:00 pm GMT
British English
Italian
Greek
Germanic illiteracy   Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:08 pm GMT
Redneck English
Bavarian German
Afrikaans
belgophile   Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:11 pm GMT
French
Flemish (not Dutch)
Walloon
to secevocevo   Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:41 pm GMT
<<In my view, they are the ugliest languages in Europe >>
Do you like ugly languages?
Pidhdo Kari   Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:18 am GMT
French - for half naked women,
Polish - for gay men,
German - for lesbians,

English - for the rest.
J.C.   Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:09 am GMT
"It is difficult to find completely secular learning material for Arabic.
This is understandable because Arabic and Islam are deeply entwined. On the other hand, the difficulty in finding "neutral" materials is off-putting for some learners.

Will you accept the culture and the language, or just the language?
That's the question, not just for Arabic, but for many languages."

@LL:

Very interesting posting and question. That's also another problem for me to learn Arabic. I don't feel comfortable saying "I'm fine" in Arabic because it means , if I'm not mistaken, "I'm well by Allah's grace". I know that there are muslim countries that are more open like Tunisia and Morocco for instance but if I ever go a muslim country I fear I won't be able to attend a service at a church or say freely that I'm a christian. I have already read many cases of christians persecuted in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and other muslim countries and don't feel motivated AT ALL to learn the language.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Saudi_Arabia
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2008/08/christians-in-muslim-countries-saudi-girl-burned-alive-for-being-christian/

I also heard from an Iranian friend, who became a christian, that he might get killed back in Iran if he says he became a christian and doesn't change his mind.

On the other hand, however, I have a great motivation to learn Hebrew since it judaism shares so much with christianity and I started reading the old testament, which was originally written in Hebrew (Aramaic).

Before people might start thinking I'm a muslim HATER I'd like to say I have a good muslim friend from Morocco who used to say I look like the people from Morocco (I might fit in very well in Northern Africa). Besides, my boss in my former job was from Pakistan and I never had a problem with him.


שלום!

p.s I didn't post here to start a religious discussion, attack Islamism or to offend people who are non-christian and/or atheists.
pora   Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:44 am GMT
"It is difficult to find completely secular learning material for Arabic.
This is understandable because Arabic and Islam are deeply entwined. On the other hand, the difficulty in finding "neutral" materials is off-putting for some learners.

Will you accept the culture and the language, or just the language?
That's the question, not just for Arabic, but for many languages."


Since Islam and Islamic countries are so intertwined, anyone who is put off by non-secular learning material will certainly also be put off by the non-secular countries and the non-secular society... Thus I don't think it's a problem.
KLAX   Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:53 am GMT
Hebrew (Aramaic)

These are two different languages!
J.C.   Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:06 am GMT
"Hebrew (Aramaic)

These are two different languages!"

What I meant is that it was written in both. I guess I didn't write "Aramaic" in an appropriate way. Either way, aren't Hebrew and Aramaic related?

Cheers!!
sanskrit   Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:54 am GMT
As an atheist I'm much more interested in Arabic than Japonese or Chinese. I've learnt some Arabic and I have to say that most books are not related to religion, at least at University. In addition I'm keen on languages, they're my hobby and most of the time I'm mainly interested in a language and its elements: grammar, morphology, phonetics rather than a specific country or culture. Even though this is not always the case.
We are in 2009 and wars of religion ought to come to an end!
Doña Urraka   Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:13 am GMT
Basque
Iberian
Tartessian
J.C.   Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:49 am GMT
"I'm keen on languages, they're my hobby and most of the time I'm mainly interested in a language and its elements: grammar, morphology, phonetics "
@Sanscrit:
This is an awesome answer. I should be able to see Arabic this way, too.
Actually I took an intensive course some time ago and was fascinated with the alphabet. I was also amazed to understand many words since Arabic is related to Hebrew. Speaking of which, I thought that the Hebrew letter ש(sh) is similar to the Arabic letter ش. I also thought that the Hebrew letter ל (l) is similar to the Arabic letter ل. Well, that's not surprising since both Arabic and Hebrew alphabet have the same origin. And speaking of origins, I wonder if the Russian letter ш came from Hebrew...

However, the biggest barrier for learning Arabic is that I don't know anybody who speaks/studies Arabic and probably won't have any chance to practice it even if I want.

سلام
12345   Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:06 am GMT
1. Low Saxon. The speed it's spoken at in my area is surprising, and because of that it's a very effective language. Short sentences can mean a lot already.
2. French, has a nice sound to it :)
3. Italian, gives me some dance/musical feeling
smile   Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:05 am GMT
Spanish
French
Italian