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Computer and Human languages. I can write software in 8 computer languages. If you need something translated from one to another, no problem I can do it. Once you know what you want to do, its all just Syntax and grammar after that. One day about 10 years ago, I realized that Human languages are basically the same. We determine WHAT we want to say like "Good morning !" or "Where is the bathroom ?" then once you know what you want to say, picking the language to say it in just revolves around syntax and grammar. For instance, just about anyone can think of multiple ways to say "Good Bye" like "Sianara", "Auf vietersein" or "Au Reviour." Most people have a fairly firm grasp of a single language. you already know WHAT you want to say. The obstacle is trying to figure out HOW to say it. that's grammar and syntax. Once I realized this, I decided that I want to learn to communicate in as many human languages as possible. I started this endeavor by teaching myself a little Spanish. how does a person teach themselves ? I did it by reading a BI-lingual, English/Spanish, Bible. Spanish on the left side of the page, English on the right. I started "In The Beginning".... In Genesis. I would read a line on the left, then read that same line on the right. Next sentence.... same thing, Read a line on the left, read the line on the right. After a while I started recognizing similar patterns, words, words of importance (capitalized) and the structure that the sentences were put together. After a few weeks I found I could read some Spanish somewhat easily. Then I noticed a problem... I could not speak a word of it. I did not know how to actually pronounce the words. I was reverse illiterate being able to read but not speak it. 20 years ago I took German in high school. Even though I didn't think I actually learned anything back then, 20 years later I still have some of it in my head. and it was funny, practicing Spanish actually rekindled some of the German. Since that realization 10 years ago, I have made some minor attempts to learn multiple languages. Now, I am in no way fluent in any of them (yet) but I have made it a life goal to exercise this capacity and continually develop it. So far I have tackled German, Spanish, French, Latin, American Sign Language and the latest is Japanese. I think I am actually doing best at Japanese. Likely because of a bit more experience with the learning process. Japanese is made up of 3 primary character sets. Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji. Katakana and Hiragana are almost the equivalent of the US alphabet, except the characters are phonetic pronunciations. Both Katakana and Hiragana have 71 unique characters each, however, the phonetically pronunciation of both character sets are the same. A = A even though it is written different. Most English or foreign words (to Japanese) are made up of Katakana characters. Hiragana is more decorative and elaborate and used more for Japanese words. The 3rd character set, Kanji, is much more complicated and each character represents whole words or even sentences. Japanese is neat in that once you understand how to pronounce the phonetic characters, you can read and speak the language. I have memorized all 71 characters of Katakana in a period of about 3 weeks. next is Hiragana. I am going to post a sheet here to show the characters of each. Also, In learning Japanese I have discovered why many Japanese people consistantly pronounce english words wrong. There are certain english phonetic sounds that simply do not exist in the Japanese language. For instance, in Japanese, there is no equivelant for the letters : C, F, J, L Q, V and X, and therefore why a simple word like "Jello" gets ugly real quick. One of my friends told me that when she started to learn English, she had to basically forget everything she knew about Japanese in order to get it right. |
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