Chinese and Japanese
Hey, guess what? Advanced societies stopped using ideograms three thousand years ago and for a very good reason: It's fucking stupid having to learn one symbol for each word. Get yourselves a fucking alphabet, you savages.
Chinese has the added retardedness that it can be ambiguously written in either direction.
English
The only thing more stupid than a language with ideograms, is a language with incomplete verbs.
Why is there no way to know if the written word "read" is in the present, past, or participle?
Why is there no past, future, or infinitive tenses for "can"?
And I can't forget the lack of distinction between singular and plural second persons.
>>46
Unless you are also an ancient and powerful wizard, I fear you're heading for a toading.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-05 11:30
>>47
What would be the respectful way to address him?
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-05 16:30
(Ho hum)
Second person singular was originally "thou/thee/thy/thine". The "you" was plural, also used for politeness (like in, say, French).
Ppl just started to over-use "you" to the extent that "thou" basically died out.
A lot of people here are complaining about languages being too difficult, like easy is supposed to be better for some reason. You might just be too stupid to learn the language
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-07 2:05
>like easy is supposed to be better for some reason
but it is so
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-07 9:39
I'd say english lacks proper levels of politeness.
In spanish, or japanese, sentences are quite different if you are speaking to a stranger, a friend, or your boss. (Ex.: Usted v/s Tu)
In english, it's almost impossible to tell the difference. You speak in almost the same way to anyone.
I wonder if this is the reason why western culture has lost all about respect and being polite.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-07 9:44
>>54
Well, I find this causes power rifts and awkwardness when someone doesn't use the polite form.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-07 12:23
>>54
Please and thank you, words that have died out in the US.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-07 15:31
>>54
"Polite" language reinforces class distinctions. It forces everyone to be aware of their own status in society and to be constantly judging others to see what their status should be. That English lacks such a distinction leads to more freedom of thought.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-08 1:49
>>57
What are you 15?
You don't think you should be polite to your elders?
I'm all for free thought but certain people warrant more respect than others.
>>40
Could is a past tense. Idiot. Subjunctives in English take the past tense, if in the present tense themselves.
Past Indicative:
They were over there.
Present Subjunctive:
Were I to go over there (but I won't)
You've been schooled, nigga. If I hadn't been banned for a week, you'd have been bitch-slapped with some grammar knowledge much sooner. You know nothing.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-09 19:48
btw, i have remembered else one reason why modern russian sucks. it lacks analogues for 'sir' and 'mister'. they are either extinct (сударь) or rare and have an additional air(господин, товарищ). so, practically if they don't know your name you are addressed as something like 'молодой человек' ('young man') 'гражданин' ('citizen', most neutral form) or even 'абонент' ('subscriber', by phone company operators for instance) etc etc. today i was addressed just as 'парень' ('guy') by a bus check-taker. and she was polite...
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-10 17:58
>>57
Not true for all languages.
I understand this is the case for Korean, but not so in, for example, Spanish. In Spanish, it may be considered rude to address a stranger as "tú/vos" (varies from person to person. In general, young people don't mind). This type of linguistic politeness is less to maintain social class barriers and more to maintain distance from whom you're speaking to. The opposite is also true. You may want to close distance to make the other person feel more comfortable.
In Spanish, the polite conjugation is not about classes, but respect. For example, I wouldn't address a professor as "vos" unless we were friends outside of class or something. On the same vein, I wouldn't address a stranger who was considerably older than me with the familiar form.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-11 3:49
Indonesian.
TOO DAMN EASY.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-14 11:00
>>65
Yes; respect isn't about being inferior to the person you're talking to. It's about keeping your distance in some situations, for example when people don't know each other.
Also you can expect people who don't use the polite forms when talking to you, to be rude in other aspects of their behavior. It communicates more about that person's state of mind.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-14 15:35
>>67 Also you can expect people who don't use the polite forms when talking to you, to be rude in other aspects of their behavior.
Thus rendering polite forms completely superfluous?
The plural is implied based on the situation, which is actually a smarter way of doing things.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-16 4:56
>>69
When addressing a crowd, you almost always say something to denote the plural.
"What is wrong with you people?"
"You slaves should work harder!"
But yeah, like you said, forcing the plural to have an adjective conveys more meaning, so smarter.
Name:
Anonymous2009-08-16 5:40
>>70
That is quite close to Japanese, except they don't use the "you" in "you slaves" and "you people".