Been messing about with google translate where you point your phone camera/tablet at the text and it translates it for you. Looks like it works really well. Just need to learn a foreign language now to make sure its translating it correctly
I have a Hungarian Phrasebook by M Python if you're interested.
;D ;D
My Centurion is full of eels
Hungarian does not translate well no matter what site you use, even our Hungarian friends carn,t work out some of the translation options given ;D ;D,
kev
Quote from: kev1964 on 29 January 2015, 11:18:02 AM
Hungarian does not translate well no matter what site you use, even our Hungarian friends carn,t work out some of the translation options given ;D ;D,
kevn
I was talking to a Hungarian taxi driver here a few months ago, and he reckons its the hardest language in Europe if not the world to learn
Quote from: Fenton on 29 January 2015, 11:24:29 AM
I was talking to a Hungarian taxi driver here a few months ago, and he reckons its the hardest language in Europe if not the world to learn
Europe probably, world dunno? Reckon Mandarin Chinese must come close in the written language stakes?
I would never stoop to using Google translate. :^o
[Malbenitaj ! Aspektas kiel mia sekreto estas ekstere ! [-(]
Quote from: Westmarcher on 29 January 2015, 12:41:46 PM
I would never stoop to using Google translate. :^o
[Malbenitaj ! Aspektas kiel mia sekreto estas ekstere ! [-(]
ĝi certe estas!
QuoteI was talking to a Hungarian taxi driver here a few months ago, and he reckons its the hardest language in Europe if not the world to learn
I seem to remember that somewhere back in the mists of my youth I was told that Hungarian and Basque are related to each other but have a completely different root to all the other Indo-European languages which is why they are so hard to learn.
No I suspect that was Hungarian and Finish.
Basque is one of the Cletics that our near neighbours insist on painting on road signs.
IanS
Quote from: ianrs54 on 30 January 2015, 10:09:07 AM
No I suspect that was Hungarian and Finish.
Basque is one of the Cletics that our near neighbours insist on painting on road signs.
IanS
Celts in basques; that would have made Braveheart a DAMN site more interesting.
The Basque language and the Finno-Ugric languages (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, etc) are unrelated to each other and unrelated to the other languages in Europe and are supposedly more difficult to learn as a result.
There's a piece of my university education I never expected to use again!
As a typical Brit, I find all foreign languages difficult to learn :)
Quote from: Ithoriel on 30 January 2015, 10:24:34 AM
As a typical Brit, I find all foreign languages difficult to learn :)
Agreed, but there's always speaking slower and louder :)
judging by my work colleagues, I suspect a lot of people struggle with English as their first language :-X
Quote from: SerialLoser on 30 January 2015, 10:33:40 AM
judging by my work colleagues, I suspect a lot of people struggle with English as their first language :-X
Especially when writing:
Your miniatures;
you're going to paint them.
Quote from: getagrip on 30 January 2015, 10:40:20 AM
Especially when writing:
Your miniatures; you're going to paint them.
Or:
there is a better way to paint
their figures
Or: which is the best way to paint witches?
Oh and thanks for the info about the Finno-Ugric languages
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.
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 :) ).
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!
Quote from: DanJ on 30 January 2015, 11:16:24 AM
Or: which is the best way to paint witches?
:-\ Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....
Quote from: Ithoriel on 30 January 2015, 11:37:48 AM
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.
Quote from: Westmarcher on 30 January 2015, 11:39:14 AM
:-\ Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....
My TENS machine, for example ?
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: FierceKitty on 30 January 2015, 02:55:45 PM
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!
Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.
IanS :d
Quote from: ianrs54 on 30 January 2015, 04:12:26 PM
Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.
IanS :d
Paprika makes a very poor ink.
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?
I read that English is more difficult than you may expect, because it has so many homophones, synonyms and irregular verbs
Quote from: Last Hussar on 02 February 2015, 03:13:34 PM
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 tou
gho, as in w
omen
ti, as in na
tion
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 >:( >:( >:(
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!!"
A man is told by his father that he will never get anywhere in the world unless he can read , write and speak fluent English because not enough people speak their native language. His father tells him to go to England to learn English and not to come back until he is fluent. He is soon reading fluently but he just cannot work out the seemingly random pronunciation.
Rough and bough, row, roe and though thoroughly confuse him so he enrolls in a college course and after months and months of frustration and despair eventually thinks that he has mastered the language.
Satisfied that he has mastered the language and can return home he meets his friends on the station platform and bids them a fond farewell. He steps across to the newspaper kiosk and picks up a copy of the local paper, looks horrified, produces a pistol from his pocket and shoots himself dead.
As the friends rush to his side one glances down and reads the headline,"Fete pronounced success!"
It's OK fsn, the shaggy dog is already chewing my coat ;)
Come friendly bombs and rain on Slough
It is time to say "Hold, Enough!"
;D ;D ;D
The Problem with Speaking English
Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
Either that or it's all the shouting that's to blame.