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Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

Neqitan wrote:

@Talib: As for Universities in British Columbia, UBC doesn't offer it beyond the Lower-Intermediate level, and the courses are credit-less; SFU offers only an introduction.

Well that's something. Twenty years ago, they probably only had Indo-European languages and Japanese.

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And it's exactly this usefulness of MSA (or lack thereof) what sometimes puts me off... But I still continue!

It's about as useful as Mandarin, I always say.

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Yes, I love the sound and look of Basque, and especially it's grammar. It's grammar is awesome. 8-)

Don't you love split-ergative languages too?
And why do you think that?

Its grammar, including split ergativity, quite frankly scares me.

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Talib wrote:

Its grammar, including split ergativity, quite frankly scares me.

(Split-)Ergativity scared me, too. Then I learned some Hindi and was like, "What was the big deal?"

Aeetlrcreejl · Joined:Sat 18 Apr 2009 7:56 am Posts:72

Kotoba_Azul wrote:

Hola! Me llamo Matthew, o Kotobasan. Tengo trece años. Soy un estudiante del espanol, y tambien estadio japones. Mucho gusto!

Bolded is my correction.

Welcome to the forums, O Matthew! Guess who else is thirteen?

Neqitan · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 9:59 pm Posts:397 Location: Canada

Kotoba Azul wrote:

Hola a todos

Another correction.

linguoboy wrote:

el Buendio

lol...

@Talib: How is it useful as Mandarin? You need to explain that argument better, as well as why MSA is all what a foreign needs like you seed several weeks ago.

Talib · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 8:22 am Posts:768 Location: Canada

linguoboy wrote:

(Split-)Ergativity scared me, too. Then I learned some Hindi and was like, "What was the big deal?"

It's an alien concept, I guess. Like agglutination, which also used to scare me quite a bit.

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@Talib: How is it useful as Mandarin? You need to explain that argument better, as well as why MSA is all what a foreign needs like you seed several weeks ago.

Because it's the standard language which, although the population has different dialects, will generally understand.

All Arabs should know decent MSA, barring those in countries with poor education (which I wouldn't go to anyway) and perhaps most importantly they don't really expect foreigners to learn their dialects. MSA is the prestige language and most media and learning materials are in it.

Kotoba_Azul · **Posted:** Sat 25 Jul 2009 7:10 am

Aeetlrcreejl wrote:

Welcome to the forums, O Matthew! Guess who else is thirteen?

Jaja, ¿Usted?

Aeetlrcreejl · Joined:Sat 18 Apr 2009 7:56 am Posts:72

I don't claim to be no expert, but wouldn't it be "¿Jaja, usted?" That is my age.

I guess I should learn Tonkawa, Comanche, or Lipan Apache. Of those, the only one that isn't extinct is Comanche.

Neqitan · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 9:59 pm Posts:397 Location: Canada

Neither

: "Jaja, ¿usted?". Maybe "Jaja, ¿Ud.?" or "Jaja, ¿Vd.?" if you wanna look more old-styled.

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Neqitan wrote:

Neither :) : "Jaja, ¿usted?". Maybe "Jaja, ¿Ud.?" or "Jaja, ¿Vd.?" if you wanna look more old-styled.

¿Porqué tanta ceremonia? Somos todos compadres aquí, ¿verdad?

Neqitan · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 9:59 pm Posts:397 Location: Canada

Está bien, está bien...

"Jaja, ¿y tú?" is the best way to write it for a forum.