Reasons for my inactivity lately and Uranium stuff I still sometimes do...

[MonkeyLord83]

So as you all know, I haven't been very active lately. Here's why:
In addition to spending some of my time getting sucked back into Marvel Heroes again, I've recently started a new internship and am still taking German lessons to prepare for my Master degree in Germany, and as it's getting a tiny bit harder now, I also have to spend a bit more time on that as well. So my typical day revolves around German class or homework, translating an Environmentally related paper/article from English to Vietnamese, Marvel Heroes, catching up to TV series, and a bit of Uranium if I still feel like it... Some of which are being done at the same time if my laptop can take it. Also, Vietnamese Tet holiday is coming up, so there's that. For everyone who doesn't know, Tết is basically Asia's New Year. Everything's going great, except for the things that aren't, but I'll get them sorted out eventually. And if you're wondering, I've already sort of started breeding the Punks, still randomizing nature for now because I'm in no hurry, but I did already have some small success IVs wise, nothing concrete yet, and I probably won't be around for the next WT event, BUT I'll be back and giving away some Neopunks on my Giveaway thread "soon", so stay tuned!
Monkey out!

[Lord Windos]

I figured you were busy, Monkey, but I am glad you are alrigth, if a bit stressed out from everything. Hopefully, your grasp of the German language will far outstrip my Spanish (God, I suck at foreign languages...)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

You know, Monkey, several times yet I caught up complains from foreign people about "how unpleasant", "complex" and something that way the German language and its grammar is. I cannot estimate that on an objective base, so what are your thoughts/experiences so far?

[MonkeyLord83]

[...]so what are your thoughts/experiences so far?

Well, bright side, it's a freakin' gold mine for lame English puns and jokes.

off the top of my head

Dwayne "der Rock" Johnson
"hell" being German's equivalent of "bright"
"wetter" being German's equivalent of "weather"

Meh side, der/die/das can be so simple and so complicated/confusing at times...

As in,

why is "skirt" masculine? As well as why is (woman's) "breast" masculine while (man's) "chest" feminine?

Downside, even though I've already passed the assessment, and moved up to A2, I feel like A1 description is not me at all, like I don't feel like I know all the stuff they claim I know. Yet at the same time, I can still pretty much do everything in A2 with relative ease as long as I'm not half-asleep, and sometimes even when I'm so... So it's kinda makes my judgement of myself seem wrong/weird, and I usually have a pretty good assessment of myself and abilities...

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Meh side, der/die/das can be so simple and so complicated/confusing at times...

As in,

why is "skirt" masculine? As well as why is (woman's) "breast" masculine while (man's) "chest" feminine?

About the first thing, I have no idea, that's some weird logic there (^^ );
About the second, isn't it actually the other way round... Because the first is a simple/single word and assigned as feminine. The second is an assembled word, and the second part determines it as masculine. At least when I translate it... dunno, either you or me are getting something wrong here.

Uh, anyway, glad that you're doing well and getting along so far, half-asleep or not~

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Okay, now that I thought about the issue a bit more and finally got what you mean, I admit that you are right – the German article for … *cough* that particular thing is indeed genderswaped. I was puzzled at first because I translated both with what you determined as the male-exclusive translation, that was the reason.

Sorry if I caused any confusion in you or something that way, wasn’t intended ._.

[Lord Windos]

As someone who has about as much knowledge in german as a Yakuza member has of the inner working of the mafia, can you explain what issue was? While foreign languages hurt my poor brain, I'm still interested in them, much to growing headache's displeasure.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

As someone who has about as much knowledge in german as a Yakuza member has of the inner working of the mafia, can you explain what issue was? While foreign languages hurt my poor brain, I'm still interested in them, much to growing headache's displeasure.

Oh, I'll try not to mess up with your precious brain cells too much, if you are interested in that issue~

Okay... eh... Thing is, the German language has actually three articles, unlike that single "the" in English that suits for every noun. That article determines a (German) noun as either masculine, feminine or neutral. Don't ask for any rule in which case a specific word gets exactly and certaily a particular article out of the three choices... I realized there doesn't seem to be any, and that's what likely causes confusion in those who don't speak it natively like I do.

That must have also been a reason why I failed in French as a foreign language, while having somee basic understanding of Polish just by listening to my father... ( they don't seem to have any articles at all C: )

[Polaris]

I haven't had any issues with Germanic languages so far (I know no German, but I read Norwegian passably well). The main weirdness I run across is the way there are different endings for definite and indefinite pluralizations ("house" = "hus," "the house" = "husen," "houses" = "huset," "the houses" = "husene"). As Phantom says, it's also different for different genders (-et is a neutral gender pluralization, -er is for masculine and I forget how feminine pluralizes...might be the same). But it makes for some interesting insights into English for sure ("strafe" comes from germanic word for punish, "doom" for judgment, etc).

[MonkeyLord83]

"Strand" means "beach" in German, gives you a whole new view to English "stranded", doesn't it?