(no subject)
Jun. 27th, 2012 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeThe simple past tense, like the present perfect, is used to refer to events in the past. However, the simple past and the present perfect are used in different circumstances:
Simple Past
Als ich zehn Jahre alt war, wohnten wir in Berlin. Da stand die Mauer noch. Die Leute aus Ostberlin konnten nicht zu uns in den Westen kommen. Das verstand ich nicht.
When I was ten years old, we lived in Berlin. The wall was still standing then. The people from East Berlin couldn't come to us in the West. I didn't understand that.
The simple past tense is often called the narrative past because it narrates a series of connected events. Used in formal writing: literature, newspaper articles, directions.
Sein, haben, and modals in the simple past.
MONIKA: Jürgen konnte am Freitag nicht kommen.
DIETER: War er krank oder hatte er keine Zeit?
MONIKA: Er war leider krank.
The simple past tense forms of sein (war), haben (hatte), and the modals (e.g. konnte) are used more frequently than the present perfect tense, even in conversation.
Present Perfect
MONIKA: Hast du gestern Abend ferngesehen? Did you watch TV last night?
Dieter: Nein, ich habe ein paar Briefe geschreiben.
The present perfect tense is also called the conversational past because it is used in conversational contexts and in informal writing, such as personal letters, diaries, and notes, all of which are a form of written "conversation"
... Apparently, I was either wrong or very misleading about where I was in the German textbook. Either that or I sufficiently forgot these exercises enough that they don't look familiar. Either way.
I need to stop freaking out about [redacted]. I know I'm skewed as far as perspective on studying, learning, or reading and writing in other languages goes. I know this. I am literally incapable of remembering a time when I was unable to understand more than one language. My freaking pre-school was bilingual English/Spanish, all the signs were English/Spanish, we spoke it in the home. Both of them. So my gut reaction is to ... well, for one thing, to use the word 'visceral' instead of the word 'gut', which is a whole other reflex, but my gut reaction is to approach reading something in another language as, oh. There are words here. I lack the information to understand what the words are and this is annoying, but there are words there. I have no idea what it means to see otherwise.
Hey, the rest of the world, if there are any people on my flist who only speak one language. What's it like when you see a website in Spanish or German or Russian? What's your first thought or reaction?
So, no. Reading up to, we'll call it six languages since my Kanji vocabulary can be measured in the very low triple digits. Speaking four or five languages, that's not something any old person can do, self. It is a skill and should be valued as such. You wouldn't call it unimpressive in your friends, would you?
(The sad part is, that's true. It's cool when my friends do it. WHen I do it, it's nothing to write home about.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 08:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 08:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 08:37 pm (UTC)Just saying. I can appreciate the work you've put in, but you are still very much ahead.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 08:40 pm (UTC)It's funny... actually it's also funny that half the people responding to this post are people who DO speak multiple other languages. I'm just trying to understand what it feels like to not be someone who speaks multiple languages and takes it for granted that the funny noises other people are making are words instead of funny noises.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 09:23 pm (UTC)*nods* Which is why I didn't really answer that.
On the other hand, my brain is trying to refuse to tackle Japanese. Which I should start doing something about. *makes a note for tomorrow after work* And yes, while I can now at least partially tackle European languages (maybe not Nordic ones or Hungarian, but generally), Asian and African tongues still sound pretty incomprehensible to me. It's not exactly 'funny noises' - and while not since preschool, I have been used to studying languages since wee little lass - but I don't have enough data to start sorting through it properly, so it sort of counts? And I have almost no exposure to Native American languages.
... maybe I should stop to try putting words together in any language and call it a day. But. There are still dark areas where only stars are shining?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-27 09:34 pm (UTC)*nods* And, huh. That's actually something I hadn't thought about, language families. Asian... okay, now that you bring it up, I'm trying to think of how it sounds to me. Chinese dialects definitely have that sound of, there are words here but I don't understand them. Which is a whole other frustration, it's like I'm groping around in the dark to try and see with my hands. I don't know other Asian languages by sound, though. Native American languages are similarly comprehensible to Chinese in some respects, but only with Cherokee or Sioux. Which are the dialects that crop up most in movies, I think, or at least, that's my exposure. African... Swahili makes sense to me, but I don't think I've ever heard much of any other African dialects, I don't know if it'd be comprehensible or not.
And that comment was pretty comprehensible. :) It's good for me to get outside my own head a bit.
Oh, and there was the bit watching Caprica where everyone was speaking Homeric Greek, and Anna and I picked out certain words from repetition and subtitles. So I guess Greek is another one of those where the individual words are easier to pick out, but I suspect that's from all the studying Indo-European family languages.