Let´s talk English!

Absolutely...

what do you want to talk about?
Are there any native-speakers around?

It would be helpful to improve our all English, I believe...

Best regards,

Andreas

:edit:

How about I just kick it off...
I would like to talk about foreign languages. Which languages do you speak and why did you learn them?

I had English in high-school and always hated it until I started studying Business and Management, as I could realize for the first time how useful speaking foreign languages is...
Now, I want to improve my English, because I am going to write my graduation assignment in English next year.

I also had French in high-school and continued it during my university-studies, but I am not so into it yet - it is not so much the grammar, but the lack of vocabulary that prevents me from speaking fluently.
Furthermore, I don't like languages that conjugate and decline extensively and without simple rules, so, to cut it off here: French is not one of my favourites, allthough I believe the language itself is very beautiful.

Now my current passion is Mandarin-Chinese, which is nice as it does not conjugate and is built-on very logically; but it is tough of course because of the many characters, which I momentarily skip and just study it as a spoken language.

How about you? and the others?

Best regards,

Andreas

Hi there!

Nice idea mate. I'll join the club tomorrow and state to the thread creators suggestion and the topic kicked off by Andreas.

Let's roll.

Regards

Markus

nice idea mate...
i'm posting in some english forums for about a year.....at the beginning i had some diffculties and had to use my dictonary almost every time, but after some time you're really getting used to write in english and to explain things....

great job, mates!!!

The best way to get known to an alien is to swap jokes with annother :goodpost:

A mathematician, an accountant and an economist apply for the same job.

The interviewer calls in the mathematician and asks "What do two plus two equal?" The mathematician replies "Four." The interviewer asks "Four, exactly?" The mathematician looks at the interviewer incredulously and says "Yes, four, exactly."

Then the interviewer calls in the accountant and asks the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The accountant says "On average, four - give or take ten percent, but on average, four."

Then the interviewer calls in the economist and poses the same question "What do two plus two equal?" The economist gets up, locks the door, closes the shade, sits down next to the interviewer and says "What do you want it to equal?"

Talk is cheap. Supply exceeds Demand.

A true story:
"I heard from one of my professors. To protect him, no names will be revealed. This professor was about to get married. He went to the jewelers to get a wedding ring for his fiancee. The jeweler told him that he can have the inside of the ring engraved with the name of his fiancee for an additional $20 (remember, was a LONG time ago). He said, "But that will reduce the resale value!" The jeweler was aghast. He said, "How can you say such a thing. You are a butcher!" "No," replied the professor, "I am an economist"."

Three econometricians went out hunting, and came across a large deer. The first econometrician fired, but missed, by a meter to the left. The second econometrician fired, but also missed, by a meter to the right. The third econometrician didn't fire, but shouted in triumph, "We got it! We got it!"

from the preface to Paul Krugman's book, "Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations" (1994, page xi): An Indian-born economist once explained his personal theory of reincarnation to his graduate economics class. "If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist," he said, "you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist."

Heard at the workshop of evolutionary economists at IIASA:

Q: How has French revolution affected world economic growth?
A: Too early to say.

Two economists were walking down the street when they noticed two women yelling across the street at each other from their apartment windows.

Of course they will never come to agreement, stated the first economist.

And why is that, inquired his companion,

Why, of course, because they are arguing from different premises.

NATURAL RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT
Newlan's Truism: An "acceptable" level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.

When Albert Einstein died, he met three New Zealanders in the queue outside the Pearly Gates. To pass the time, he asked what were their IQs. The first replied 190. "Wonderful," exclaimed Einstein. "We can discuss the contribution made by Ernest Rutherford to atomic physics and my theory of general relativity". The second answered 150. "Good," said Einstein. "I look forward to discussing the role of New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation in the quest for world peace". The third New Zealander mumbled 50. Einstein paused, and then asked, "So what is your forecast for the budget deficit next year?" (Adapted from Economist June 13th 1992, p. 71).

Light bulb jokes are always in...

Q: How many Chicago School economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: None. If the light bulb needed changing the market would have already done it.

Q: How many mainstream economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A1: Two. One to assume the existence of ladder and one to change the bulb.
A2: Two. One to assume the existence of latter and one to change the bulb.

Q: How many neo-classical economists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It depends on the wage rate.

Q: How many conservative economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A1: None. The darkness will cause the light bulb to change by itself.

A2: None. If it really needed changing, market forces would have caused it to happen.

A3: None. If the government would just leave it alone, it would screw itself in.

A4. None. "There is no need to change the light bulb. All the conditions for illumination are in place.

A5. None, because, look! It's getting brighter! It's definitely getting brighter !!!

A5. None; they're all waiting for the unseen hand of the market to correct the lighting disequilibrium.

Q; How many central bank economists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Just one -- he holds the lightbulb and the whole earth revolves around him.

Q: How many marxists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: None - the bulb contains within it the seeds of its own revolution.

Q: How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Seven, plus/minus ten.

definately some good ones...

for those who are not economists...

So, I am in too. Foreign languages - what's that? Just kiddin'. My repretory of speaking foreign languages is quite indigent. I started learning English at high school as the first compulsory foreign language. The second one was Latin. I hated it. People who like conjugating, declining and learning a logical but died out language would have had real fun with it, me not. Improving English day by day is essential but most personal premeditations were quashed away after few days. Fortunately business students are forced to read some foreign literature and to write exams in an elective language. Plans for the future - referable learning foreign languages - have been made by myself but i cancelled it just as well as is started about that. Maybe i'll start learning Spanish but that's a question of time and mood. Learning an Asiatic language could be really helpful referring refurbishing someones CV and imho is for me the only reason for learning a completely unknown language.

smithers:

Posting in communities from the UK / US / AUS is quita good, but a bit too much collocal. Should I start slanging around here? I won't do it mates.

Wastel:

You're right. Reading and understanding jokes is helpful to get into an foreign language.

Joachim:

Off course I know Heidelberg. A friend of mine has started to study medicine at Heidelberg University October. I'll move near H. next spring.

Regards

Markus

Within my studies I have a lecture called International Management which is held in English language. Our professor told us about a very fundamental and essential book to read about management. It is called "Scientific Management" by Frederic Winslow Taylor, which is free to download at: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/6435

Moreover I've a good dictionary in the net: https://www.study-board.de/www.askoxford.com

I think these links are very interesting.

Regards Ingo

yesterday i was in a funny movie

Coffee and cigarettes

Zitat

Original von Wastel
yesterday i was in a funny movie

Coffee and cigarettes

Original version or synchronized ? :aetsch: :aetsch:

MleKroq: Thx for the hint.

Regards

Markus

@ tekk

it was a so called "OmU". What´s "OmU" in english? No doubt: i don´t know =)

Subtitled

Anyway, nice topic.

Concerning foreign languages I know there's more or less only English. I also had a second foreign language at school which was French but as somebody a bit earlier already mentioned it's not very structured. I hated it (and still do, although I have to admit I still know way too much about it). I should have chosen Latin instead because I could have more use for it. I don't care about French nor do I know any French people. Latin however is at least useful for bragging about it

However I love English, such an easy language. I started learning it in 3rd grade and liked it from the beginning. I watch most movies in English now and also read English books (which is seldom, but still more often than German books).

Also I wanted to start learning Esperanto, which is also pretty easy (if not the easiest language ever). However there's still a lack of motivation since not many people speak it and there are quite a lot of prejudices because it's an artificial language.

Oh, I forgot I also know PHP, JavaScript, a bit Java, C/C++ and so on...
SCNR

moin,

excuse my local coloure, but here´s a public festival, called freimarkt. That effects a lag of sleep an recovery during the night

I´m working in the corporate branch and enjojing my sparetime with studying. Some guy´s might say, that i even have no friends

I regret that i can´t help you in gramar matters. Like you´ll see, it isn´t my favorite.

best regards

Wastel

edit: Geniale Verarsche

Is it just me or are english moves more fun to watch than german ones?
I always have the impression that they are somewhat cooler than german ones.

Btw. does anyone feel the same about the volume of english movies as opposed to german ones: Its always feels like that the voices in the english ones are somewhat lower than those in the german ones.
Its like that the the sound of like explosions or cars is louder in comparison to the orginal voices.
My host familiy in the states was complaining about the fact that I had to watch those english movies a little louder than they do. Otherwise though, I wouldnt have been able to understand them the way they did.
They also said that their daughter who spent 1 year in Germany was talking about the same thing happening to her with german movies.
So my guess would be that voices in movies of a foreign language seem generally to be lower in comparison with the native language or the surrounding sounds within the movie itself.