I studied master in Germany, but I was lucky to be in a join training program so the requirements were not too challenging.
Now I must also relearn English
Regarding learning foreign language, I think it is fun as long as you learn for fun
Yesterday I tried to learn a little Korean. That was interesting. Their alphabet is really a great invention.
(06-08-2011, 12:38 AM)Aficio Wrote: [ -> ]I studied master in Germany, but I was lucky to be in a join training program so the requirements were not too challenging.
Now I must also relearn English
Regarding learning foreign language, I think it is fun as long as you learn for fun Yesterday I tried to learn a little Korean. That was interesting. Their alphabet is really a great invention.
You're right about the fun part. I love to learn Russian just for fun, hopefully I'll start a course in the near future.
Asiatic languages look pretty damn hard to me.
From my experience German is a difficult language, at least more difficult than English. Both language are not my tongue language and I learned English first (since school time) and then German when I was studying in the university.
Like someone said, the order of the words in a sentence (and words combination) is confusing, not like in English. I find it very difficult to change from the order of words in English to German one especially in scientific books. Other thing which is difficult is that in German there are so many words to describe certain verbs (generally more vocabulary used in German than in English). The articles of nouns (masculine, feminine and neutral) are also confusing. The type of verbs in past tense is much more difficult to learn (to remember) than in English since in German only some verbs have rule how to change from present to past tense (many verbs don't have any rule and people have to memorize them). Plural form of nouns are also much harder to know, not like in English that we only need to remember some words which will be changed without rule from Singular to plural form (foot - feet for example).
There are same words in German and in English, this should be an advantage for people who speak English well in learning German. The tenses in German is not as complicated and as comprehensive as in English.
Back to mzk post. I am in Germany and have finished my study here. If you want to study in Germany, it is not a big deal if you don't speak German (IIRC people need to pass a certain level of German course, just to be able to communicate in important situation like buying ticket, food, etc.) since there many International programs offered by Universities in Germany. I personally suggest people who want to continue their study in Germany (not from the beginning of Bachelor degree) to take International programs since it should be much easier for them if they already know English. Studying something from the middle (like Master degree) in new language is much difficult than in a language we already know for years. The most difficult one IMO is that we need to know the German words and terms from our previous study in Bachelor and we only have limited time to adapt with the German language for our study (in German course people can't learn words and terms of the major they want to study since in German course people learn general situation, not a specific topic).
(06-08-2011, 12:21 AM)theaxeofpain Wrote: [ -> ] (06-08-2011, 12:08 AM)Aficio Wrote: [ -> ]Good luck, theaxeofpain!
IMO, German is not difficult but strange. For example, the word order is very confusing.
Out of curiosity, what kind of language exam did you take? TestDaF, DSH or made by the Uni?
Thanks Aficio. I took the admission exam for the Studienkolleg, it's kind of the last year of high school for foreign students, to learn the language better and the terminology used in the faculty the student chooses. It is a standard test made by all the state universities in Germany as far as I know.
I have found very hard the declination of the names and adjectives, and subjunctive 2. Also the word order is confusing.
I'll certainly won't apply in German universities anymore.
(06-08-2011, 12:12 AM)xudong Wrote: [ -> ]back in college, I tried to learn some German too, but dropped from the class only after two weeks. I was happy enough that I learned English well. German was way too hard for me.
English is very, very easy as far as I'm concerned (maybe only Italian is easier, not grammar-wise though). I have never done any English course/studying in my life, only what I learned in middle school and high school and watching movies. I scored 91 points in the TOEFL test I took a few months ago.
That's what I hear too. I also wanted to learn some Italian about 10 years ago (the only one that is easier than English according to you), but it was already too hard for me, so I gave it up after a few weeks also.
My native language is Chinese, so nothing is easy for me. And unlike you young people, learning a new language is not for me!
(06-08-2011, 12:45 AM)xudong Wrote: [ -> ] (06-08-2011, 12:21 AM)theaxeofpain Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks Aficio. I took the admission exam for the Studienkolleg, it's kind of the last year of high school for foreign students, to learn the language better and the terminology used in the faculty the student chooses. It is a standard test made by all the state universities in Germany as far as I know.
I have found very hard the declination of the names and adjectives, and subjunctive 2. Also the word order is confusing.
I'll certainly won't apply in German universities anymore.
English is very, very easy as far as I'm concerned (maybe only Italian is easier, not grammar-wise though). I have never done any English course/studying in my life, only what I learned in middle school and high school and watching movies. I scored 91 points in the TOEFL test I took a few months ago.
That's what I hear too. I also wanted to learn some Italian about 10 years ago (the only one that is easier than English according to you), but it was already too hard for me, so I gave it up after a few weeks also.
My native language is Chinese, so nothing is easy for me. And unlike you young people, learning a new language is not for me!
I have some problem (I am also Asian) and I heard that my native language (Indonesian) have some similar stuffs (like no tenses) like in Chinese which make harder for us to learn other language. In my native language the verbs remain the same, either used for 1st person, 2nd or 3rd person and also for past and future time. Like "I do, he does, I did, he has done". Wtf was that!
same in Chinese. it is all the same.
also, "he" "she" and "it" in Chinese all
sound exactly the same too, even though they write differently. that drives a lot of foreigners (who want to learn Chinese) crazy.
(06-08-2011, 12:43 AM)theaxeofpain Wrote: [ -> ]Asiatic languages look pretty damn hard to me.
Yeah. Even I am an Asian, I find it hard just to read the scripts.
(06-08-2011, 12:45 AM)xudong Wrote: [ -> ]That's what I hear too. I also wanted to learn some Italian about 10 years ago (the only one that is easier than English according to you), but it was already too hard for me, so I gave it up after a few weeks also.
My native language is Chinese, so nothing is easy for me. And unlike you young people, learning a new language is not for me!
Spoken Italian is very easy for me because I was grown with Italian TV when I was a kid. I also used to watch some German TV, but never learned it properly. The easy part in learning Italian is that, like in English, words ordering in a sentence don't have a proper rule, and words are very easy to remember. Grammar-wise, Italian is hard as it gets though, especially the verb tenses, boy they have an awful lot of tenses.
The most difficult language in Europe (from those who use a Latin alphabet) has to be the Albanian language.
(06-08-2011, 01:00 AM)theaxeofpain Wrote: [ -> ] (06-08-2011, 12:45 AM)xudong Wrote: [ -> ]That's what I hear too. I also wanted to learn some Italian about 10 years ago (the only one that is easier than English according to you), but it was already too hard for me, so I gave it up after a few weeks also.
My native language is Chinese, so nothing is easy for me. And unlike you young people, learning a new language is not for me!
Spoken Italian is very easy for me because I was grown with Italian TV when I was a kid. I also used to watch some German TV, but never learned it properly. The easy part in learning Italian is that, like in English, words ordering in a sentence don't have a proper rule, and words are very easy to remember. Grammar-wise, Italian is hard as it gets though, especially the verb tenses, boy they have an awful lot of tenses.
The most difficult language in Europe (from those who use a Latin alphabet) has to be the Albanian language.
a pretty famous video on the Internet. just for fun.
Thanks xudong for reminding me of that video. Funny as hell.