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[Vector]

That looks like fun.

Has anyone reminded you recently that you're strange?

Now they have >:D

[SniHjen]

Really?  There aren't even like... genders attached to the words?

There is no such thing as genders.

[RedKing]

There is NO rule.
None.
You just have to go with what sounds correct.

Which is pretty much the only hard rule in English.


Consider the following sentences for comparison:

English:
I see the airplane.
I saw the airplanes.
I have seen the airplanes.

German:
Ich sehe das Flugzeug.
Ich sah die Flugzeuge.
Ich habe die Flugzeuge gesehen.

Mandarin:

Wo kan daole feiji. (我看到了飞机)
Wo kan daole feiji.
Wo kan daole feiji.


It's genderless, lacks plurals, lacks noun-verb agreement, lacks tense....it's a beautiful thing. Until you're on the receiving end and have to figure out exactly when the hell they saw a plane, and how many planes.

If languages are a road map: German is a GPS. English is a map drawn badly in pencil. Mandarin is some guy saying, "Yeah, go up the road a ways, then turn left at the tree."

[MetalSlimeHunt]

German is a GPS.

A horrifically painful to learn, hard to remember, evil global positioning system, yes.

[Vector]

And this why I'm learning German this summer and Mandarin many years from now.

<3 <3 <3

[Darvi]

I dunno, the only thing I think german has over english is the fact that all nouns are capitalized.

[Vector]

And the ability to sound outrageously angry with almost no effort.

[Something Evil]

A horrifically painful to learn, hard to remember

Never seemed like that to me. It's actually very well structured, with few pronunciation inconsistencies, and everything pretty much makes sense in the grammar aspect. The only annoying part are all the noun genders. Those you have to learn by heart. And when your own language has the habit of giving all nouns gender, it really gets fun when they don't coincide.

[Darvi]

Eh? I wouldn't know the difference. But then again swearing is part of my normal vocab so whatever.

[Mindmaker]

I think the german=evil/angry is just a leftover from WWII...

[Darvi]

Upon rethinking it, I am better at swearing in german than in english. Huh.

[RedKing]

It occurred to me that this is a great example of the problems of tone.

If I say, "Wǒ xǐhuan de dà fēijī," it means "I like large airplanes."
If I say "Wǒ xǐhuan de dǎ fēijī," (the only difference is the tone in "da"), it means "I like handjobs." 



And yeah, I think swearing in Russian is a lot nastier sounding than German. Getting excited and yelling in German has been parodied in too many cartoons to carry the swagger anymore.

[Cthulhu]

If languages are a road map: German is a GPS. English is a map drawn badly in pencil. Mandarin is some guy saying, "Yeah, go up the road a ways, then turn left at the tree."

Going from what you said, it sounds like English is a  map and mandarin is a piece of paper with an arrow that says "this way"

[SniHjen]

"I like large airplanes."
"I like handjobs."

This is the best thing ever.

[Darvi]

If languages are a road map: German is a GPS. English is a map drawn badly in pencil. Mandarin is some guy saying, "Yeah, go up the road a ways, then turn left at the tree."

Going from what you said, it sounds like English is a  map and mandarin is a piece of paper with an arrow that says "this way"

Ya, and french is the same, but encrypted with an enigma and without you knowing how the machine was built like. Or at least that's how I feel >_>