The Language Owl

Hi, I'm Dennis~ Languages I use comfortably: Dutch, English; Languages I'm currently studying: Japanese, Norwegian; Languages I have studied in the past: German, French, Arabic, Italian. (I follow from my main blog: @obsessedpolyglot)

[crazyaboutlanguages]

[langue-etrangere-deactivated201]

Buzzfeed says “if you can get at least 12 correct, you’re probably a genius.” Well, I think Langblr can get twelve, easily :P

[langue-etrangere-deactivated201]

I stand corrected. This quiz is hard. For example, what the hell kind of question is this? 

[jaythepolyglot]

13/19 right. I’m vaguely impressed with myself

[lila-cherryblossomtree]

11 out of 19

[woaihanyu]

Just for fun! I got 15

[richang-chinese]

你们有多少能正确回答？可以不可以超过17/19？🤓

[trying-to-be-langblr]

17/19点を得点した！^^

[kantarionovoulje]

me: *listening to a song in a foreign language*

me: *understands one line*

me: guess who’s fluent!

[mavenya]

Vocabulary List under the cut!

Lees verder

[movalentin]

Being at an intermediate level of a language is so difficult because I can understand someone’s general point but I still don’t get the details of the conversation and when I try to speak I sound slightly disoriented like I took a bad nap in the middle of the day and now everything is confusing and surreal

[trying-to-be-langblr]

It's also like the "friend zone" of language learning, it seems so hard to get past it and damn it, just accept my love, will you, Japanese?!

[nihongoaesthetic]

Hi, can you explain to me the difference between 親切 and 優しい? Thank you

A person who is 親切 「しんせつ」 is gentle, kind, compassionate. A person who is 優しい 「やさしい」 is polite and helpful. There is a more personal or friendly association with saying someone is 親切 , where as 優しい can be said about anyone in general or a stranger who is kind/helpful.

[trying-to-be-langblr]

Deciding between near-synonyms can be extremely hard, so all tips are welcome~

[a6]

me: [learns the meaning of a previously unknown word]

the word: [coincidentally starts showing up everywhere in the following days]

me:

[whatlanguageisthis1-deactivated]

How does one day "though" in Norwegian? As in "I think he's attractive, though." or "She's probably done, though."

Hi!

In English, “though” is used to add something to an already established context, almost like an afterthought, to contradict, question or nuance the previous sentence. In Norwegian, we usually add “da” to the end of a sentence to say the same, although this depends a little bit on context. Additionally, “da” has many other functions in Norwegian and doesn’t always mean “though”.

Han er ikke så kjekk, men han har en fin personlighet, da! - He’s not very handsome, but he has a nice personality, though!

Kanskje Eli ikke er på skolen i dag? Jeg så henne i kantina, da. - Maybe Eli’s not at school today? I saw her in the cafeteria, though.

Du sier du så noen snike seg inn i huset ditt? Er du sikker på at det ikke bare var mannen din, da? - You’re saying you saw someone sneak into your house? Are you sure it wasn’t just your husband, though? 

I hope this helps! 

[slowpokestudies]

Korean and Japanese words that sound the same

Gotta love that ‘learn one, get one for free’ deal korean and japanese have going on, so here’s a (small) list of words that sound exactly the same or are similar enough in both languages:

かばん - 가방 - a bag 時間（じかん） - 시간 - time 茶（ちゃ） - 차 - tea 約束（やくそく） - 약속 - a promise 家族（かぞく） - 가족 - a family 洗濯機 （せんたくき）- 세탁기 - a washing machine 無料（むりょう） - 무료 - free of charge 注意 （ちゅうい）- 주의 - caution 可能（かのう） - 가능 - possible 高速道路（こうそくどうろ） - 고속도로 - a highway 連絡（れんらく） - 연락 - to contact 有名（ゆうめい）- 유명 - famous 遅刻（ちこく） - 지각 - lateness 準備（じゅんび）- 준비 - preparation ラーメン - 라면 - ramen 雇用（こよう） - 고용 - employment 知恵（ちえ） - 지혜 - wisdom 到着（とうちゃく） - 도착 - arrival 理由（りゆう） - 이유 - reason 人気（にんき） - 인기 - popular 料理（りょうり） - 요리 - cooking 温度（おんど） - 온도 - temperature 簡単（かんたん） - 간단 - easy

[trying-to-be-langblr]

成果

言葉を一つも調べずに日本語で書かれた本を読んで、ほとんど全てを理解するのが最高な気持ちだ~

(Reading a book in Japanese without looking up any words and understanding most of it is just the best feeling)

[shitbrainlangblr]

“ask me to say something in Japanese… no not that, I don’t know that” a story written by me

[trying-to-be-langblr]

僕だ 🙃

[languagessi-deactivated20210423]

Chapter 1

マッネポ [mátnepo] - daughter ミチ [míci] - father ハポ [hápo] - mother タンペ [tánpe] - this プクサ [pukúsa] - Siberian onion ネ [ne] - to be, is (copula) ヤ [ya] - indicates a question (particle) ワ [wa] - indicates emphasis (particle) プクサキナ [pukúsakina] - Anemone flaccida ソモ [somó] - no, not スㇽク [súrku] - aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane アナㇰ [anak] - is (topic marker particle)   アシトマ [asitóma] - terrible, dreadful, terrifying, frightening ㇷ゚ [p] - thing ナ [na] - adds force or indicates command (particle) イテキ [itéki] - don’t ケレ [keré] - touch! ピㇼカノ [pírkano] - well パテㇰ [paték] - only, just ヌㇺケ [númke] - choose! select! エー [e] - yes (when told to do something)

[spanishsecondlanguage]

Vocabulary test

You can take the test here, and you can take it in the following languages:

English

Spanish

French

Italian

German

Polish

Russian

Portuguese

Korean

Chinese

Japanese

Thai

Danish

Dutch

Finnish

[dulect]

me: yes i speak that language

me: no not that part

[coffeshops-and-notes]

It’s finally Autumn so I thought I’d do a vocabulary list 

Oíche Shamhna - Halloween

Púca - Ghost

Fómhar - Autumn/Harvest 

Geansaí - Jumper

Duilleoga - Leaves

Cnónna -Nuts

Úll- Apple

Crann - Tree

Coill - Forest

Samhain -November

Deireadh Fómhair - October

 Dearg - Red

 Oráiste - Orange

 Buí -  Yellow 

[trying-to-be-langblr]

「Nemurinomori」Midnight Sun ／ Aimer 『眠りの森』MUSIC VIDEO YouTube

Song Vocabulary - 「眠りの森」(The Forest of Sleep) by Aimer

双眼鏡（そうがんきょう）　－　binoculars 騒めく（ざわめく）－　to be noisy 振り返る（ふりかえる）－　to turn around, to look back 弱音（よわね）ー　whiny complaint 置き去りにする（おきざりにする）－　to leave (somebody) behind 狂う（くるう）－　to go mad 方位磁針（ほういじしん）ー　compass 喧噪（けんそう）－　tumult 擦り切れる（すりきれる）－　to wear out 茨（いばら）－　thorny shrub 駆ける（かける）－　to run, to dash

[trying-to-be-langblr]

30 Days of Speaking Languages - Day 1: Introduce yourself

I found this challenge on @geschiedenis-en-talen‘s blog and thought I’d give it a go. Unfortunately, however, my phone saves voice recordings in a file format that Tumblr doesn’t recognise as audio. So I’ll probably make the recordings for myself and only slowly share some transcripts of them on here.

Transcript #1: 皆さん、こんにちは！今朝、３０日間の外国語チャレンジをTumblrで見て、えっと、これをやったらきっと上手くなると思いました。えっと、その、最初の質問は自己紹介という事です。じゃ、はじめまして。私はデニスと言います。えっと、２１歳のオランダ人です。えっと、今だいごく大学で言語学を勉強しています。えっと、あっ！それより、え～、大学じゃなくて、今、えっと、この今年の夏で大学を卒業して、９月に大学院を、えっと、にゅう大学院に入学しました。え～～、趣味とかも趣味とか話したらいいかな？えっと、それは多分他の質問だから、今は遠慮します。・・・では、以上です。

(As you can see, my speech is cluttered with hesitations and I made a few mistakes - I think で after 今年の夏 should have been に and を in 大学を卒業して should probably have been から, but I’m not entirely sure -, but overall I think I got my intentions across. I also hope that doing these kind of exercises will help me attain more fluency in speaking)