| Most Recent Messages of Each Discussion |
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Re:What would you choose? Why?
1.) Cats or Dogs?
Neither. I prefer to have a pet only if the pet prefers to have me. If I am forced to pick one, I will take the cat, as it is easier to keep, and with no loyalty to its keeper it is probably better equipped to make itself comfortable with human beings.
2.) A female [...] or a male president meeting your requirements?
What is wrong with emperors? :-)
We could also try a government with no single leader.
3.) A car or a truck?
A truck. It can serve as a car, while a car cannot serve as a truck. A helium blimp might be yet better.
4.) To study abroad, or in the U.S?
Abroad. "Abroad" is many countries, while U.S. is only one country.
5.) To learn 20 languages [...] or just 1 language [...] ?
20 languages, provided I have time to learn them. In practice I already have to satisfy with less.
6.) To go back in time and fix a mistake, [...] or leaving the past behind [...]
A third option would be to create something beneficial in the present time to compensate for the mistake.
7.) Reading or writing?
8.) Teaching or learning?
These cannot and should not be mutually exclusive alternatives.
9.) Indoors or outdoors?
My hobbies are indoors, but if I were forced to choose, I would feel like a prisoner in both.
10.) Enjoying what you have in life, or enjoying life itself?
"Life itself" contains plenty of "having". Do you mean to contrast material things with immaterial ones? This world is made of materials even though its people may have immaterial values. Therefore the choice cannot be made in a pure, absolute form.
Puti
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Language pair: English; German
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Juha-Petri T.
March 2, 2005
# Msgs: 5
Latest: March 30, 2005
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Re:Something to think about.
These things can be decided by a simple
agreement. If we cannot tell for sure that
the letters C, A, and T stand for the
sound of "cat", we can always declare
that from now on they will stand for "cat".
Most of the time ortography develops
all by itself, without anybody paying
too much attention to its details, but
if the correspondence between written
and spoken words becomes too complicated,
quite soon there will be a committee who
creates a better ortography and declares
that "this is how we will write from
now on".
Korean language got a completely new
alphabet a few centuries ago. Irish
ortography has been renewed, and a few
years ago there was some fine-tuning
done with German, too. There has been
some discussion about renewing English,
too, but English is so widespread that
changing it globally would be a very
difficult task.
My mother tongue is Finnish, in which
each letter can be read in only one way.
Therefore it has never really occurred
to me that I could be unsure about the
words I read. The reasons why a certain
letter is read the way it is, can in
most cases be traced to the history of
the surrounding languages, all the way back
to the dawn of writing.
Puti
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Language pair: English; German
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Juha-Petri T.
March 1, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: March 16, 2005
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Re: a second language?
Please, Amanda, do not be so hard to Dwyn. Willingness to study foreign languages and concern for others are admirable traits, whatever the level of previous skills.
While English is not my mother tongue, I am still bold enough to mark my level "good" on every questionnaire landing on my desk, even though I find grammatical errors in my own postings afterwards.
I agree with you in the sense that if a person offers his tutelage to others, he is especially obliged to avoid errors in his own writing. What comes to other purposes, people might feel happier with several adequate or just passable languages rather than only one polished to shining perfection.
Puti
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Language pair: English; German
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Juha-Petri T.
February 17, 2005
# Msgs: 28
Latest: February 27, 2005
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Re:a second language?
I think it is very hard to make a truly universal language, as there are so many different concepts and thinking patterns in the world. An universal language would be very large and hard to learn, unless somebody finds a really clever way to design it. It is a good idea that there are many different languages, as each of them is adapted to different way of thinking, and is small enough to be mastered. Together the languages cover a large spectrum of cultures.
There has been attempts to make an universal language; Esperanto and Novial are good examples. However, these languages are "universal" only in the Western world. A better universal language would consider at least African and Asian speakers, too.
Puti
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Language pair: English; German
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Juha-Petri T.
February 14, 2005
# Msgs: 28
Latest: February 27, 2005
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Thank you !
Hi everybody,
I just wanted to say that I'm very happy about finding this site. It was by chance. I've got very nice new friends with the help of this exchange.
It's great ! Thank you !
Nic
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Language pair: German; English
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Nicole
December 11, 2003
# Msgs: 1
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