Grab Bag Of Random Posts

[SPL]

As I am posting this 2 of the 5 players above on the Ajaxtalk heading have left. May I suggest Ryan Babel and Hedweges Maduro replace De Ridder and Raffie.Both are local boys so all 5 will be local, which of course is important as Ajax is known throughout football for its local youth policy.( and of course the small matter of winning the European Cup 4 times)

[DanK]

I've been told that Danish is a bit more of a 'pure', old skool language than Swedish. But I'm not sure.
K.

Ko, after my recent stint in Sweden (and a couple of trips over to Copenhagen) and from my (pretty basic) understanding of Dutch, I would say that Danish is much, much closer to Dutch than Swedish.

In Denmark, I could even read (very, very slowly) some sentences by comparing the words and structure to Dutch...in Sweden, I had no hope.

Luckily for me Swedish people (and also the Danish people), where incredibly friendly and spoke english better than me. I had no problems ordering beer which was extremely important.

Actually, I am hoping I get to get over to Sweden again...loved it! Although it was "slightly" colder than Melbourne!

[Rembrandt III]

Seriously, where did you find those scentenses (they're quite good actually)?

(I've been told that Danish is a bit more of a 'pure', old skool language than Swedish). But I'm not sure.

K.

My Swedish friends keep on telling me that the Danes are fucking up the Swedish language. Although the written languages are quite the same, the spoken Danish is pretty far away from Swedish, since the Danes are speaking like farmers...

(Could be that that particular view is a little biased... But at least it's fun to hear the Swedes arguing against the Danish, while they consider their Norwegian friends as big brothers)

[jakobg]

The Danes pretty much speak Swedish, but for some reason they do it with a invisible potato in their mouths - or that's how it sounds anyway. Weird kind of people ;)

Don't really know the origin of the Danish/Norwegian 'ø' though, but it's the same as the Swedish 'ö'. It has probably left from the ancient nordic languages.

[aveslacker]

Out of curiosity, how many languages does everybody here speak? :offtopic:
:dancing: (Man, I love this emoticon)

[Per]

Out of curiosity, how many languages does everybody here speak? :offtopic:
:dancing: (Man, I love this emoticon)

Yeah, Danish.....isn't that a pastry??

I speak three languages when sober and neat (Swedish, English and German) and then add Danish and Norwegian once a few beers slipped down (badly and kind of Swedish-like, but still)

[SoliloQuy]

I can count to 10 in French and German!

I know some Dutch words from playing online games mostly.

[Kowalczyk]

Out of curiosity, how many languages does everybody here speak?

1. Dutch
2. English
3. Frisian
4. German

In that order.

These are the four languages that I can speak. I listed them in the correct order, based on how well I speak them. Dutch is my mothertongue. English is not, quite obviously, but my English is essentially fluent. I speak English every day: to people in the music industry, to my many British friends (both U.K residents and expats in Amsterdam) and I do at least a couple of musician interviews in English every month. When I speak English I also think in English: there is no translation process going on in my head.

I speak Frisian because I grew up in the province of Friesland and heard the language around me every day (mind you: Frisian is an official language in The Netherlands, not a dialect). However, I was 'imported' to Friesland, as the Frisians say. I'm not a real Frisian and was brought up in Dutch. Frisians can tell instantly that I'm not a 'real one'. My English is considerably better than my Frisian, just to put it into perspective.

My German is... well, alright, I guess. If I keep it simple and if people can forgive me for the fact that I have absolutely no clue about the different 'falls' (die, der, dem, das, des, den... etcetera). I get them all mixed up, but I can have a conversation in German and my pronounciation is alright.

That's it.

My fifth language would be French. I had French at school, but it's shocking how little I've actually learned from that, probably because Dutchies are almost never exposed to French (whereas English is everywhere in this country). My French vocabulary is okay, I can build simple phrases, read a newspaper article and if a Frenchman speaks slowly I will understand him. But that's about it. I really can't say that I speak French, because I couldn't have a real conversation in French.

I would love to learn Spanish and Swedish. Spanish because it's the most 'international' language in the world after English -- and Swedish because I love Scandinavia and have always had this strange, totally irrational 'thing' for the Nordic languages.

K.

[English Eagle]

I can speak English very badly &....................well thats about it but i know a few swear words in various languages at a push. :bis:

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Spanish and English for me, i can understand and speak some portuguese and can spit out some french(not much).

I actualy learned both english and spanish at the same time, i was born in Venezuela but was raised in USA, i would speak english at school and spanish at home with my parents.

[Cedric]

I speak french, and a bit of english. In fact, I read english easily, but I don't speak and write it enough to be fluent. I learnt spanish for 2 years, but I can't say anymore I speak that language... But I really like to learn languages, If I had the time (and the faculties), I would like to learn (or improve) English, Spanish, Dutch, German, Arab, etc.... Languages are something thats fascinate me. Too bad I don't have the time to speak some of them correctly....

[Feest]

Fluent:

Dutch
English
Spanish
Portuguese

Proficient:
French
German

Poor:
Italian

[Philippe]

fluent : English, just like Clouseau.


by the way, Steef, who is that guy on your avatar ? he looks like some former undercover KGB spy, your Russian teacher maybe ?

[jakobg]

Out of curiosity, how many languages does everybody here speak?

Swedish is my mothertongue. My second language would be English (kinda odd since I live in Finland) and Finnish as my third. This since I'm born and raised with Swedish speaking parents and living in a Swedish speaking village in Finland. I've never really had to speak Finnish, therefore I haven't relly learned it that well. Add to that the 6 years of German that I read at school, that doesn't mean I speak it that well though. Of course I'd be able to communicate in Norway and Denmark as well, but that's more because of the similarity of the languages.

I'd like to learn a few more though. French, Italian and some kind Chinese would be very interesting.

[Feest]

fluent : English, just like Clouseau.


by the way, Steef, who is that guy on your avatar ? he looks like some former undercover KGB spy, your Russian teacher maybe ?

Bert van Marwijk. The world's best coach. :pukey:

[paladinby]

Fluent:
English
Russian
Belarusian

Poor:
French

[FlaFlu]

Fluent:

Dutch
English
Papiamento

Proficient:

Spanish
French

[SE6Ajacied]

Fluent:

English
Lundun

Not Fluent
French
Dutch

Terrible
Spanish

When I was on holiday in Sweden a couple of years back I actually found Swedish and Dutch very similar, at least written down. I know they're not really but it was things like train station signs and the like that were - can't remember exactly but just the sort of stuff you see signposted around town.....can anyone confirm this or had I been drinking too many Spendrups?

[Per]

Whem I read dutch I see a mixture of Swedish, English and German. So I would say that wuite many words are similar.

Good night boys, the temp. teacher ( :eusa_naughty: ) is tired and worn from his schooladventures today :sleepey:

[Kowalczyk]

Terrible
Spanish

That list is not very impressive, young man. My list of languages that I am absolutely terrible at is lot longer than yours and it includes Icelandic, Japanese, Swahili, Hungarian, Arabic and Polish (to name but a few).

K.

[SE6Ajacied]

Terrible
Spanish

That list is not very impressive, young man. My list of languages that I am absolutely terrible at is lot longer than yours and it includes Icelandic, Japanese, Swahili, Hungarian, Arabic and Polish (to name but a few).

K.

Ko, now if you're including absolutely terrible I can include Gaelic; Swedish; German in that order and probably many more...all depends on the scale really - if being able to say "$*&%@*% !!" and "1 beer please" counts as speaking some of the language then I'm well away......

[DanK]

1. Australian - in its true sense is so far from English it has to be listed as its own language. Its the only language I know where you can say a whole sentence as 1 word.
2. English - this is what I use when I am overseas (to a degree) or speaking to non Aussies. Bascially its a slowed down version of Australian. (or as we say in Australia - Austraiyan)
3. Dutch - OK...I can read and understand (most) dutch...and given a few beers can speak Dutch. But given that my parents moved away from Holland in the 50s the new slang etc means nothing to me. Oh and Dutch doesn't include Limburgs...man what sort of screwed up dialect is that!

[SPL]

English and I can still understand french.

When it comes to languages we Brits are very poor at wanting to learn others .

Maybe it is the island thing about us and the old Empire thing the world should all speak english ??

I was in Brugge a year or 2 ago and the young waiter spoke Flemish, French German and English as they were all taught at school and due to working in a famous tourist area he spoke Spanish and Italian. Obviously Belgium is a bit different as it has 3 official languages .


I have to admit when I met Ko ( Menno) in Nottingham a couple of years ago his english was so good he would pass as a native.

[aveslacker]

When it comes to languages we Brits are very poor at wanting to learn others .

Obviously Belgium is a bit different as it has 3 official languages .


I have to admit when I met Ko ( Menno) in Nottingham a couple of years ago his english was so good he would pass as a native.

Yes, we Americans aren't that good at the language thing either.

There are three official languages in Belgium? I'm only familiar with two.

Ko's english kicks serious ass. I'm even more impressed by his ability to write it, because writing is much harder than speaking, IMO.

My own languages, in order of proficiency:

English (though not according to my British wife)
Dutch
Greek
French
...and a little Spanish and a teensy weensy bit of German.

[carcajou]

1. Australian - in its true sense is so far from English it has to be listed as its own language. Its the only language I know where you can say a whole sentence as 1 word.
2. English - this is what I use when I am overseas (to a degree) or speaking to non Aussies. Bascially its a slowed down version of Australian. (or as we say in Australia - Austraiyan)

French
Swiss French
Belgian French
Canadian French
African French
West Indies French

Cause well you know, they're all different languages....