German as a foreign language

1. offizieller Beitrag

    Hello I hope it's ok to write in English, because my German isn't good enough yet. Therefore it was hard to register.
    However, I'm a 14 year old Slovene boy and I have to take a second foreign language in school now. I can't decide between French and German. I don't know, if I'm right. I just looked for "deutsch forum" on Google in order to find a Forum with German native speakers. Unfortunately I don't know Germans.
    It would be nice if you could tell me something about your language in order to make my decision easier. First I have some questions.
    What is the weird letter, which looks like a B, but isn't a B?
    Why do you capitalize so many words? It seems to be random.
    If I look at a German text I see a lot of very long words. Why are there so many awful long words in German?
    How difficult is German and what are the most difficult issues?
    What do Germans think of Slovenia?

    danke schon

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Hi,
    you are talking of 'ß', aren't you ;) This letter is quite similar to 's' and is used in certain words.
    In German all nouns, names and the first words in a sentence are capitalized.
    I don't really think there are more long words in German than in other languages... Would be a new information for me...
    Being a native speaker I can't really say how difficult German is. Nevertheless I've heard German isn't really easy, there is a lot of thinks a person learning German might struggle with. All this might be the same with French, however.
    I would recommend you to choose the language you personally feel more attracted to or might be of more use for you. Learning a new language is always a challenge :)

    My knowledge of slovenia is rather small to be honest, I know it's geographic location, it has the euro, and ... that's it.

    Extra tipp: Find some "native speaker"-mailfriend to write with in the language you want to learn. Learning is more fun then :)
    LG nif7

    Menschen, die etwas wollen, finden Wege. Menschen, die etwas nicht wollen, finden Gründe.

    Thank you for your nice answer.

    Zitat von nif7

    Hi,
    you are talking of 'ß', aren't you ;) This letter is quite similar to 's' and is used in certain words.


    Yes that's what I meant.
    And why don't you use just a simple 's'?

    Zitat


    In German all nouns, names and the first words in a sentence are capitalized.


    Why do you capitalize all nouns?

    Zitat

    I don't really think there are more long words in German than in other languages... Would be a new information for me...


    Some examples I took out of my dictionary.

    English German
    sorry Entschuldigung
    speed limit Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung
    ambulance Krankenwagen

    You see. The German words are much longer.

    Zitat

    My knowledge of slovenia is rather small to be honest, I know it's geographic location, it has the euro, and ... that's it.


    Yes we are very unknown. Many people confuse Slovenia and Slovakia, but you can go on holiday in Slovenia, it's a nice country with nice people. I was already in Berlin, Hanover, Hamburg and Munich.

    Zitat


    Extra tipp: Find some "native speaker"-mailfriend to write with in the language you want to learn. Learning is more fun then :)


    But there are not many people, who want to learn Slovenian, so I can't give anyone some language skills in exchange.

    Actually I prefer German, because it sounds better than French, but it is said that it's much more difficult than french. Besides we only have one German teacher and I don't like our German teacher.

    5 Mal editiert, zuletzt von Matevž (28. Februar 2014 um 02:51)

    Zitat

    And why don't you use just a simple 's'?


    Well, each language has its unique way of spelling; as a German I'd never put an upside down "^" above a "z" as you've done ; Spaniards put a ~ above an "n" to point out the "nasal" pronounciation, we have vowels like ä,ö,ü; the Danish cross out the "o" with a "/" and think of the French signs like `or ´or ^.

    Zitat

    Why do you capitalize all nouns?


    in old /medieval texts the monks and later the first printers did use these capital letters; when our way spelling was made obligatory in the 19th century this way of spelling was maintained.

    Zitat

    The German words are much longer

    I even could give you much longer examples, as there is:

    "Mekkamuselmannenmassenmenschenmördermohrenmuttermarmormonumentenmacher" or

    "Constantinopolitanischerdudelsackspfeifenmachersgesellschaftspräsident"

    (Mark Twan, an American author, invented these words in order to make fun of the German language.)
    We can read these, because we divide the words into sylllables and -- the syllable endings tell us when a new word in these long wordchains begins.

    Zitat

    I was already in Berlin, Hanover, Hamburg and Munich.

    watch out your use of tenses: In your sentence you didn't use a keyword such as "yesterday, last year, in 2011" etc which denotes the past tense. You should have written correctly: " I have already been in ..."

    Zitat von Flo

    as a German I'd never put an upside down "^" above a "z" as you've done ;


    That's not a '^'. It's a letter, which differs from 'z'. z is pronounced like the German s in 'sie'
    ž is pronounced like the end of the French word garage.
    You see it totally makes sense.

    Zitat

    I even could give you much longer examples, as there is:

    "Mekkamuselmannenmassenmenschenmördermohrenmutterm armormonumentenmacher" or

    "Constantinopolitanischerdudelsackspfeifenmachersg esellschaftspräsident"


    And you can read this?:shock:

    Zitat

    watch out your use of tenses: In your sentence you didn't use a keyword such as "yesterday, last year, in 2011" etc which denotes the past tense. You should have written correctly: " I have already been in ..."


    Thank you for your correction. It's embarrassing that my English is so bad :oops:.