[Black Knight]

Can anyone here speak German? Either fluently or taking it as a class? Post here in german if you wish.

Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen. I habe Deutsche Zwei.

[Enarwaen]

There are several people here that come from german speaking countries (myself -> Austria; DarkAngelBGE -> Germany; janwas -> Germany; Fire Giant -> Germany) spring to mind. So that's the 'native speakers' if you want.

Schöne Grüsse nach Kentucky!

[av_nefardec]

Ja, Ich spreche ein Bisschen. Ich habe seit sechs Jahre Deutsch studiert, aber kürzlich habe ich mich nur Latein und auch Attisches (Altes) Griechisch engagiert.

[Sukkit]

I'm trying to learn Gothic, if that counts

[Fire Giant]

Hui, ich glaube, dies ist das erste Mal, dass ich im WFG-Forum etwas in Deutsch schreibe

Da ich in Deutschland lebe und aufgewachsen bin, spreche ich Deutsch, seit ich überhaupt sprechen kann.
Ich finde es sehr interessant, dass anscheinend eine ganze Menge Personen hier im Forum sich mit Deutsch als Fremdsprache beschäftigen (oder beschäftigt haben) - uns wird hier immer erzählt, dass kein Mensch Deutsch lernen will, weil die Sprache so schwer sei... aber anscheinend ist die Annahme falsch
Falls irgendjemand Hilfe mit Hausaufgaben oder so in Deutsch brauchen kann, bin ich gerne bereit, zu helfen... natürlich auch, falls jemand nur einmal ein bisschen "sprechen" will. Ah, und falls ich Fehler korrigieren soll, sagt es...

Und, @Adam: Du sprichst nicht nur ein "bisschen" Deutsch, sondern ziemlich gut für einen nicht-Muttersprachler !

---

Translation:
Wow, I think this is the first time I'm writing something in German into the WFG forums

Since I'm living in Germany and have been born there as well, I'm speaking German ever since I'm able to speak.
I think it's very interesting that obviously quite some people in here are studying (or have been studying) German - we are often told over here that nobody wants to learn German because the language is quite hard to learn.... but it seems like that assumption is wrong.
In case anyone could use assistance with German homework, coursework or something like that, I'll gladly offer to assist him/her... of course, also if someone only wants to "speak" a little German for fun. Ah, and if you want me to correct your mistakes, tell me...

And, @Adam: You're not only speaking "a little bit" of German, but rather good for a non-native speaker !

[CrazyThumbs]

Ja ich spreche deutsch, aber es ist nicht so gut. Ich habe deutsch fur drie jahren gelernt. Ich muss meine deutsch fur dem regents....um wie spricht man "practice" auf deutsch. Das regents gefallt mir nicht!

[Curufinwe]

(

I learnt German when I was at school, but that was too long ago
I can remember a few things though ... and I enjoy watching the news on German channels ... bliss morgen and when I went to Switzerland, I could understand quite a bit of what was said ...

[Fire Giant]

CrazyThumbs, on Feb 9 2005, 09:31 PM, said:

Ja ich spreche deutsch, aber es ist nicht so gut. Ich habe deutsch fur drie jahren gelernt.  Ich muss meine deutsch fur dem regents....um wie spricht man "practice" auf deutsch. Das regents gefallt mir nicht!

What do you mean by "regents" ("Regenten" means rulers like kings or dukes in German, but I believe that's hardly what you want to say )? "Practice" is "Übung" in German.

Curufinwe, on Feb 10 2005, 12:21 PM, said:

I learnt German when I was at school, but that was too long ago
I can remember a few things though ... and I enjoy watching the news on German channels ... bliss morgen and when I went to Switzerland, I could understand quite a bit of what was said ...

Hehe, nice to hear that. When I went to France during the last autumn vacation, I met some people who spoke some German. Some of them were older people, some were younger students; but the majority did only speak English and Italic or Spanish.
Besides, I guess your German is probably better than my French

[CrazyThumbs]

The regents is a test that I think only New York takes, they have it for every subject and if you fail you have to take the course over, its really dumb.

[Argalius]

Ich lerne Deutsch vor mehr als 2 Jahren, in Holland das ist bindend. Wir lernen aber nicht so viel, nur der Basis...

[Black Knight]

Um meine Schule haben wir Deutsch, Französisch und Spanisch. Ich habe das Französisch ist blöd gedenkt. Und ich mag Spanisch nicht. Also, ich habe Deutsch genommen.

P.S. Please correct my german. It's not very good.

[Fire Giant]

CrazyThumbs, on Feb 10 2005, 09:35 PM, said:

The regents is a test that I think only New York takes, they have it for every subject and if you fail you have to take the course over, its really dumb.

I see. Well, tests aren't an uncommon pratice at school, but it sounds like that one is a centralized check of your achievements?

Black Knight, on Feb 11 2005, 05:53 PM, said:

P.S. Please correct my german. It's not very good.

It's quite good considering you're not a native speaker. Still, as you wish, I'm correcting your mistakes:

Quote

Um meine Schule haben wir Deutsch, Französisch und Spanisch.

Only a spelling thing - it's "An meiner Schule" ("at my school", indicating the location here), not "Um".

Quote

Ich habe das Französisch ist blöd gedenkt.

Sorry, I had to laugh on that one. Don't make it that difficult - it's much easier to say "Ich dachte mir, dass Französisch blöd ist." (simple "Imperfekt" tense, also note the pronoun "mir", which indicates who thought it).

Quote

Und ich mag Spanisch nicht.

Bravo, correct!

Quote

Also, ich habe Deutsch genommen.

Word order - this sentence isn't wrong in a sense of language, but nobody would say it like that. Rather, we'd say "Also habe ich Deutsch genommen.".

@Argalius: Well, at least something

[av_nefardec]

Warum denkst du, Black Night, dass Französisch 'blöd' ist? Hast du irgend einen Grund?

[Black Knight]

Ja, Adam. Ich kenne den französisch Lerher und er ist blöd und hat viele Haare. Als ein Affe hat!

Quote

Also, ich habe Deutsch genommen.

Our German books have these interviews with "native speakers" and the example had the person being interviewed saying " Also, ich..."
I bet you find this as funny as I find the "Learn to Speak English" programs on the Spanish channel.

This post has been edited by Black Knight: 12 February 2005 - 01:11 AM

[Fire Giant]

Black Knight, on Feb 12 2005, 03:00 AM, said:

Our German books have these interviews with "native speakers" and the example had the person being interviewed saying " Also, ich..."

Hehe, well, it isn't grammatically wrong - the problem is that "also" can mean a lot of things in German. In this case, you wanted to express a consequence of something, and in that case, you do not seperate the "also" and the rest of the sentence with a comma. You can do that if you want to say something to the direction of "Well, it happened ten years ago..." and you start to tell a story. It's a "starting word" for a longer explanation like "well" in that particular case.

Oh, and another little mistake in your last post (the whole first sentence is correct):

Quote

Als ein Affe hat!

"Als" is a word of comparison here ("than"), so you either need "mehr" ("more") or you need to say "Wie ein Affe." ("Like a monkey").

[Black Knight]

Fire Giant,
Can you give me some examples of your dialect versus Hochdeutsch. I was reading a book and the one charachter was speaking Schwäbnisch and it was nothing like what I've learned.

[Vingauld]

Ich hatte dieses jahre mein deutsch examen, dan muss ich deutsch reden uber ganz uninterresante sachen

By the way isn`t the title of this topic suppost to be; sprechen Sie deutsch?

This post has been edited by Vingauld: 15 February 2005 - 01:36 PM

[Black Knight]

I was being informal, which I felt was more fitting of this forum.

[av_nefardec]

Ja, hier kennen wir jemand.

und es ist das Internet

[Fire Giant]

Black Knight, on Feb 14 2005, 10:35 PM, said:

Fire Giant,
Can you give me some examples of your dialect versus Hochdeutsch. I was reading a book and the one charachter was speaking Schwäbnisch and it was nothing like what I've learned.

Hmm, that's a little problematic, since I'm not a dialect speaker - in fact, I've grown up with Hochdeutsch, which is considered to be slowly superseeding the local dialects in our modern society. Also, I've no real idea of what's the difference between "Schwäbisch" and my language - since I've never been to an area where people speak that dialect.
I can tell you, though, that the Bavarian dialect is quite different from our language in the norther parts of Germany - they have a very different pronounciation down there and also use different words for many things (like "Semmeln" instead of "Brötchen" [means: roll], "Grüß Gott" instead of "Moin, Moin" [a greeting formula, the first literally means "Greet God" while the second is just an abbreviation for "good morning"] and "Matura" instead of "Abitur" [which both mean the German final exam after 13 years of school]; yes, they even have words which we don't have an equivalent for up here: "heuer" [meaning: this year] is just one example). Also, there is a dialect called "Platt" in the northern coastal areas of Germany, which is a colorful mixture of German, English, Dutch and Scandinavian languages, but only few people are still learning and practicing that dialect.

Vingauld, on Feb 15 2005, 03:33 PM, said:

Ich hatte dieses jahre mein deutsch examen, dan muss ich deutsch reden uber ganz uninterresante sachen 

Hehe, but I wouldn't consider my english exams to be too interesting, too

Quote

By the way isn`t the title of this topic suppost to be; sprechen Sie deutsch?

Black Knight, on Feb 15 2005, 05:50 PM, said:

I was being informal, which I felt was more fitting of this forum.

As said, the difference between "Sie" and "Du" in German is much of a matter of politeness and formality - "Sie" is being used for talking to (other) adults and people you don't know too well, while "du" is used for personal conversations and also became the general way of speaking in German speaking areas on the Internet. Besides, I personally prefer "du" over "Sie", since I'm not yet that old and it always gives me a shudder if someone refers to me as "Sie" - I simply don't feel like that right now

av_nefardec, on Feb 15 2005, 06:54 PM, said:

und es ist das Internet

Exactly.