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[Avis-Mergulus]

Am I actually severely mistaken in thinking that English has more than Russian, Spanish and/or German?

Again, I can only vouch for Russian, and even then, only by how I feel about it because I didn't really count all the synonyms in it, but yeah, you're sort of mistaken, I think. Russian does have as many direct synonyms as English, and then there's the ambiguities that come from a loose word order and case choice. I'm pretty sure that is true for the other Indo-European languages as well, and probably most living, functional languages in general.
I guess dying languages do have less because nobody uses them in the full range of contexts.

Also I don't know who has the most idioms. English has more than you can shake a stick at though.

I'm pretty sure all languages have lots of idioms. Finnish has them completely as a pig, so don't leave it out like a percussion cap on a rock. That'd be stupid as a boot. You have all your owls in the tower, right?

Obviously I have everyone at home. Even a hedgehog could understand that! Obstruct your mitten, y'hear!?

[acetech09]

Am I actually severely mistaken in thinking that English has more than Russian, Spanish and/or German?

Again, I can only vouch for Russian, and even then, only by how I feel about it because I didn't really count all the synonyms in it, but yeah, you're sort of mistaken, I think. Russian does have as many direct synonyms as English, and then there's the ambiguities that come from a loose word order and case choice. I'm pretty sure that is true for the other Indo-European languages as well, and probably most living, functional languages in general.
I guess dying languages do have less because nobody uses them in the full range of contexts.

Also I don't know who has the most idioms. English has more than you can shake a stick at though.

I'm pretty sure all languages have lots of idioms. Finnish has them completely as a pig, so don't leave it out like a percussion cap on a rock. That'd be stupid as a boot. You have all your owls in the tower, right?

Obviously I have everyone at home. Even a hedgehog could understand that! Obstruct your mitten, y'hear!?

And there's a monk out back, with a ladder!

[IcyTea31]

Obstruct your mitten, y'hear!?

Pfft, rowanberries are sour. I'm not going to put ice in my hat, for I have every reason to rip my game-pants!

[Rose]

My baby had her first solid food today!

Carrot puree. I had some as well. Was delish.

[Arx]

My baby had her first solid food today!

Carrot puree. I had some as well. Was delish.

I'm told my mother used to steal baby food from me and my siblings all the time. You are not alone!

Obstruct your mitten, y'hear!?

Pfft, rowanberries are sour. I'm not going to put ice in my hat, for I have every reason to rip my game-pants!

Don't put a spoon in your eye over it.

[Rolan7]

Netflix has "audio descriptions" now!  At least for the latest season of White Collar, I didn't check any others yet.  But it must be a recent change, and also it turned off the text subtitles, so I bet they just rolled it out.

Considering I like to listen to TV while playing games or driving, this could be very very useful and nice!

[Tack]

Are you comparing English chatspeak to professional Japanese voice acting? Of course the latter is more artistically appealing. Put a Japanese teenager's text history next to House of Cards or something and I'm sure you can make English look way better.

To completely spell it out again:
I was watching The Great Gatsby- A movie which is surprisingly filled with a cavalcade of English prose.
I was lamenting the current decline of the English language. (The chatspeak you mentioned, plus our dropping of various synonyms).
Then I began to watch some anime.
That caused me to realize that despite our language becoming More basic, it is still not as basic as some other languages.

You completely missed my point. But seeing as I needed about three posts (four now) to clear up exactly what I was saying, my point can't have been great to begin with.
That being said, Don't compare House of Cards to Gatsby. It's flowery metaphors compared to flowery prose.
Basically apples vs oranges except oranges are better.

[miauw62]

Somebody complimented me with my pullover

c:

[SirQuiamus]

But Tack, anime dialogue has absolutely nothing to do with any language spoken by actual people. You can watch three episodes of subbed Nuhroodo, and you'll completely understand the fourth episode without subs. When I started watching animu back in 2004 or whatever, it took me less than two years to "master" the language to the extent that I could join the Raw Master Race with all the smugness and audacity of a teenage nerd. It did not, however, mean that I could suddenly speak Japanese, or even understand the actual Japanese spoken by Japanese people. I had simply memorized all the hackneyed stock phrases, and that was enough because those phrases constitute 99.9% of animu banter.

[KingofstarrySkies]

We finished our goddamn character sheets for Rogue Trader. Plus, the ship is finally ready. Now we wait on the GM and one other person, before finally playing.
so, so fucked

What type of character are you?

I am our GLORIOUS LEADER, the Rogue Trader.

[pisskop]

I think BD has implemented factional loyalty

A reverant's fireball damaged one chaingunner, and his shotgun buddies reacted by shooting at the skelington.

[Sirus]

We finished our goddamn character sheets for Rogue Trader. Plus, the ship is finally ready. Now we wait on the GM and one other person, before finally playing.
so, so fucked

What type of character are you?

I am our GLORIOUS LEADER, the Rogue Trader.

Whoa. Good luck

[SealyStar]

I mean, German has a lot of handy words which English has either bastardized or romanticized in turn (Schadenfreude anyone) ^{Because it's so hard to say 'Cathartic Sadism'}.

"German has a lot of overly specific words", like "Eskimos have 50 words for snow", is kind of wrong, but moreover, it's wrong for the same linguistic reason, namely that both Inuit languages and German like to mash together words to make concepts that most languages (e.g. English) either have unique words for or express through several words with roughly equivalent meanings.

[Comrade P.]

Personally, I will never forgive English language for not having a separate word for 24-hour cycle. Alternatively, if someone could tell me that word, I would be very grateful.

[Arx]

It's 'day'.

What do you mean that's the same word as 'day'?