Google translate

[Hertsblue]

Especially when writing:

Your miniatures; you're going to paint them.

Or: there is a better way to paint their figures

[DanJ]

Or: which is the best way to paint witches?

Oh and thanks for the info about the Finno-Ugric languages

[Hertsblue]

Finnish is also related to Estonian, I'm told. A shopkeeper in Tallin told me that the Finns come across the Baltic on "booze cruises" because the stuff's so much cheaper there and they can make themselves understood.

[getagrip]

Met an Icelander once, that was a strange language.  REALLY difficult for an English speaker to get their tongue around (the language not the Icelander before Fenton asks   ).

[Ithoriel]

Yep, Finno-Ugric includes Magyar (Hungarian), Finnish and Estonian plus a scatter of languages spoken in the Russian Federation that I can't remember the name of. In my defence, it's forty odd years since I learned all this.

My "tell the group something they probably don't know about you" fact was that I'd written an article for a Games Workshop magazine that was translated into Magyar!

[Westmarcher]

Or: which is the best way to paint witches?

Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....

[FierceKitty]

Yep, Finno-Ugric includes Magyar (Hungarian), Finnish and Estonian plus a scatter of languages spoken in the Russian Federation that I can't remember the name of. In my defence, it's forty odd years since I learned all this.

My "tell the group something they probably don't know about you" fact was that I'd written an article for a Games Workshop magazine that was translated into Magyar!

I'm told (told) that linguists insist there are similarities to Korean too which can't be coincidental.

Really.

[Techno]

Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....

My TENS machine, for example ?
Cheers - Phil

[Ithoriel]

I'm told (told) that linguists insist there are similarities to Korean too which can't be coincidental.

Really.

Long time since I was seriously interested in this so the revisionists may well have been revised themselves in the interim but I thought the Macro-Altaic theory which lumped Finno-Ugric, Turkish, Mongolian, Samoyed, Korean and Japanese together had been discredited. Some night when I can't get to sleep I must have a rummage on the web and update my tattered memories of all this.

Meantime I need to remain focused on all things Sumerian to focus my painting on the project in hand*.

Damn! I hear the susurration of butterfly wings. So, who makes 10mm Samoyeds?

*Edit: A quick wikipedia search suggests there is a theory that Magyar and Sumerian are related!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.

IanS 

[FierceKitty]

Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.

IanS 

Paprika makes a very poor ink.

[Leman]

I seem to remember that the Hungarian for 'May I have a packet of cigarettes?' translates as 'Please to fondle my bum.'  Or was that a comedy sketch?

[Last Hussar]

I read that English is more difficult than you may expect, because it has so many homophones, synonyms and irregular verbs

[getagrip]

I read that English is more difficult than you may expect, because it has so many homophones, synonyms and irregular verbs

Or this:

Ghoti is a constructed word used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling. It is a respelling of the word fish, and is intended to be pronounced in the same way (/ˈfɪʃ/), using these sounds:

gh, as in tough
o, as in women
ti, as in nation

English is a vile language to learn.

Don't get me on prepositions either: You go into town on a bus in February.  Do you go uptown or downtown?

Ridiculous 

[GordonY]

it may be a vile language to learn, but all the Johnny Foreigners understand it.

Remember the Victorian maxim when dealing with the natives, "if they dont seem to understand, Shout Louder!!"