Her Accent

[Robert_Hall]

Have friends who  speak the language with you.  Failing that,  hang out with others that do.

[thelastimpofrussia]

Yeah, our French teacher spoke to us in nothing but French the entire year. Except for a couple of fire drills, she kept speaking in French! It helped a lot to understand the sentence arrangement.

Back to topic;
Now, isn't a German accent hard on your throat?(my English friend who's learning German told me this) Wouldn't Alexandra have had sore throats if she had an extremely noticeable German accent?

[carkuczyn]

I have often thought the same thing about German.  It is such a harsh, gutteral language.

[RealAnastasia]

German is not a harsh language. It's very sweet and it prnunciation could change froma region to another. Bavarian and Tyrolean-Austrian German sounds not harsh at all and its "r" are very similar to French.

RealAnastasia.

P.S: We have some Germans at the Forums,and I think they wouldn't be pleased if they reads they speaks a "harsh language".

[Sunny]

German is NOT a harsh language, but it could sound so to people who speak romance languages (french, italian, spanish, portuguese) or english, because antic germanic was a lpanguage so different in sounds from latin. You'll wonder why i put english into the list if it's a german language. Well, of course you know english was a different evolution from germanic and was largely influenced by french in the middle ages, so now is more similar in sounds to romance languages.
I like german so much and i have studied it because i loved it, but i can't deny german sounds are different from those of romance languages. Not "harsher" simply different. 

[Astraea]

Well, German is a West Germanic language, and I suppose in comparison to the Romance languages it may sound harsh at first. But then again, English is also a West Germanic language (although one influenced by French) and I've heard some people who don't speak English describe it as a hard and not very elegant language. I must say though that if one always has a sore throat from speaking German, then that person has gone wrong somewhere! Of course if the person is just learning to produce the sounds (particularly the different "ch" and "r" sounds) then naturally one would get a sore throat from too much practice, but no, generally speaking, German isn't really any harder on the throat.

[Sunny]

I must say though that if one always has a sore throat from speaking German, then that person has gone wrong somewhere! Of course if the person is just learning to produce the sounds (particularly the different "ch" and "r" sounds) then naturally one would get a sore throat from too much practice, but no, generally speaking, German isn't really any harder on the throat.

So well said, Lady Astraea! My german techer said the same. I have never found anything difficult in german pronunciation (at the contrary) but most of my classmates did, and i really couldn't understand it.

[carkuczyn]

I apologize for any hurt feelings over my description of the way German sounds.  I meant no disrespect to the German people.  And I have often wondered what English may sound like to the foreign ear.  Don't worry......no matter what you say, it will not hurt my feelings.  I want to hear honest answers.  lBy the way.....my ancestors came from Germany and I am very proud of that.  : )

[Sunny]

I apologize for any hurt feelings over my description of the way German sounds.  I meant no disrespect to the German people.  And I have often wondered what English may sound like to the foreign ear.  Don't worry......no matter what you say, it will not hurt my feelings.  I want to hear honest answers.  lBy the way.....my ancestors came from Germany and I am very proud of that.  : )

For me, you stats weren't a problem at all. You know, i majored in linguistic, so i'm proud when i can explain linguistica matters! 

[Sarushka]

You know, i majored in linguistic, so i'm proud when i can explain linguistica matters! 

Me too. :^)

[Sunny]

You know, i majored in linguistic, so i'm proud when i can explain linguistica matters! 

Me too. :^)

Yep i read in your interviews! Unfortunately, my "linguistic" course didn't have lessons about things like ASl or fingerspelling as yours, Sarah. I would really have liked it. I don't know if they exist in italy, but in my college they didn't - classes like yours, i mean. My linguistic classes dealt with phonetic and the evolution of european languages from Indoeuropean. Very interesting, but i would have liked something a little more specific on human comunication.

[aleksandr pavlovich]

I apologize for any hurt feelings over my description of the way German sounds.  I meant no disrespect to the German people.  And I have often wondered what English may sound like to the foreign ear.  Don't worry......no matter what you say, it will not hurt my feelings.  I want to hear honest answers.  lBy the way.....my ancestors came from Germany and I am very proud of that.  : )

  Thank you for your kind clarification. No offense taken. Your attitude is commendable. 
  Still on the topic, I speak the German language (an undergraduate minor in my case) and have taught German language familiarization to students in an "enrichment program".  Not a SINGLE complaint of a "sore throat." What a hilarious comment!  IMO, it's amazing how gullible some people are in things that they hear (from a single "friend") AND REPEAT.  But at least by doing so, they will stand properly corrected.  
  By the way, I don't know if you've ever visited Russia?  You would be AMAZED how many Russians speak/understand German. I have used it frequently on my trips there.                                                                                  Regards,  AP.                                                                            

[thelastimpofrussia]

From the sore throat question, I meant that it was harder on my friends throat which does not mean it will happen to every single person, and I wrote that because I wanted to know. Also, please stop trying to ridicule me, it's getting old. ("Not a SINGLE complaint of a "sore throat'.")  For your information, this is a TRUSTED friend, who has better things to do than make up lies about his throat. He told me that he got a bit of a sore throat after trying to make some of the (is the word gutteral?) sounds of the German language, and I believe him. And besides, if we do not repeat what we hear, how do we learn?

(One last thing, who is it that speaks German? The young, the old, the middle aged? My father's Russian friend Sergei grew up in Communist Russia, and went to school there, and her took Spanish which shares surprisingly a good amount of words with Russian. He made no mention of German ever being offered anywhere.)

[aleksandr pavlovich]

I am delighted to reply to your question about the German language in Russia!  I have found it unerringly among the university-educated Russian populace. (Perhaps your family friend, "Sergei," did not have the opportunity to attend "school" at the university level of language availability?)  One professional Human Resources-type individual studied it in university, and told me that he had not really spoken it in "twenty years," yet he retained a very "workable" knowledge. We even video-taped a conversation in German in his office near Moscow. I personally know of Russian families who have sent their daughters to friends in Germany for summer German language experiences. (As you may/may not know, many Russian university students go abroad in a work/language study summer experience.  There are a number just here in my area of the USA, improving their English. There are also Student Exchanges with various countries.) Although I have found French spoken in Russia as well, I don't think that I have ever once encountered the Spanish language.      Regards,  AP.

[Sunny]

My father's Russian friend Sergei grew up in Communist Russia, and went to school there, and her took Spanish which shares surprisingly a good amount of words with Russian.

Yes, that's right! Not only with Spanish, but with all romance languages in general. We did a work with my russian teacher once, trying to find out all Italian/romance words used in Russian, and we were truly surprised to HOW MANY they are!

From the sore throat question, I meant that it was harder on my friends throat which does not mean it will happen to every single person, and I wrote that because I wanted to know.

I had never had this problems with german, but i don't think "having a sorethorat" is impossible. At the contrary. I don't know why but german sounds came easily in my mouth, but i saw my classmates having problems... i think it's perfectly normal having a sorethorat when starting learning German - then, when one understands how exactly pronounce the sounds, it becomes much easier!

He made no mention of German ever being offered anywhere.)

That's interesting, Talya! Thanks! It's so interesting to me!
You know, here's quite different. Here in Europe German is one of the most spoken and requested languages, one of the officials in the European Union, so a lot of student take it (i'm the first!)
But, thinking about it, i understand you are right: i can understand that out of Europe it's not a useful language!
But how strange... here you HAVE TO know german if you want a good job (even to work in a bank), and outside europe it's not so useful! How things change, changin country!