Language

Featuring a vocal sample taken from Tu Vuo Fa L Americano, licensed courtesy by EMI Australia

Duration : 0:3:13

(more…)

http://kentanakalovesyou.blogspot.com/
Visit Remi at

http://www.youtube.com/user/remifebruary

Remi and Ken teach some common Japanese abbreviations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Kitchen

Duration : 0:3:1

(more…)

Do people in Tokyo speak Kanji, Kana, Romaji or what? I know they speak Japanese but Whats the Difference between Kanji and Kana and Romaji? Which one do they speak? I wanna go to japan but I dunno how to speak Japanese

People in Tokyo speak Japanese! There is only one verbal langauge you need to learn for Japanese (although there are different dialects much how there is britsh english, australian accents, southern accents and slang used in all these areas).

Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana, and Romaji are all part of the written language and a Japanese person knows how to write Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana (I don’t think Romaji is taught in schools)

Kanji = The more intense symbols you will see which are based of the Chinese written language. These symbols represent one or multiple words rather than 1 or 2 letters. There are roughly 2000 official individual Kanji.

Hiragana = Closer to the english alphabet then Kanji. These are the phonetic sounds you will sound out verbally when you speak the language such as "a-ri-ga-to-u". There are 45ish of these.

Katakana = These are exactly the same as Hiragana only they look different. It’s very silly but the purpose of Katakana is for writing words are foriegn to Japan. Also food names are often written in Katakana.

Romaji = The roman letters that represent what the Hiragana and Katakana symbols stand for. If you see a word in japan with english letters, that my friend is Romaji. It is not terribly common but it only requires that you know what the word means.

If you would like to goto Japan I suggest taking some japanese college courses. 3-4 years worth should get you up to the ability of being able to make casual conversation where as 1 years worth will allow you to ask for assistance and do basic things. But fear not! While I was living in Osaka I had a friend who knew zero Japanese come visit me and he saw all the things he wanted to see. All you really need is some self confidence, daring, and a cute set of "please help me" eyes.

http://www.myspace.com/yolandabecool

Duration : 0:4:36

(more…)

How many languages do you speak? What is the maximum number of languages you personally know a person speak? What is the record for the most languages spoken by a single person?
SO CURIOUS: I speak three languages somewhat fluently and a little of two more.

- Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz born 1872, dead 1944, spoke 189 languages.
- Carlos Amaral, claims to speak 170 languages.
- Ziad Fazah born June 10, 1954, claims to speak 58 languages.
- Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774-1849), Italian ecclesiast, is reported to have spoken thirty-eight languages and fifty dialects fluently.
- Emil Krebs German sinologist (1867-1930). Spoke 68 languages fluently, and understood more than 50 further languages.
- Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val, was said to speak up to 63 languages and dialects.
- Kenneth Hale (1934-2001), MIT linguistics professor (over 50 languages)
- Rolf Theil Endresen, Norwegian linguistics professor (over 50 languages)
- Georg Sauerwein(1831-1904), German linguist (over 50 languages)
- The German Francis Sommer, who died in 1978, was said to be fluent in 94 languages.
- Carlos do Amaral Freire has mastered more than a hundred languages, published translations from 60 languages, but is a fluent speaker of 90. He still studies one or two new languages every two years.
- Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (1807-1874) reportedly was fluent in eighty languages.
- Uku Masing (1909-1985), an Estonian linguist, theologian, ethnologist, and poet who was fluent in approximately 65 languages and translated from 20.
- Istvan Dabi, Hungarian translator, translated from 103 languages
- Sir William Jones (1746-1794), British philologist – reported to speak forty-one languages.
- Robert Stiller – Polish, speaks about 60 languages
- Harold Williams, New Zealand journalist and linguist, spoke over 58 languages.
- Andrzej Gawroski (1885 – 1927) – Polish linguist, professor of Jagiellonian University and Lviv University, could speak and write in 40 languages, understood and could read in about 100.

paty 2 of speak
rating and comments would be appreciated

Duration : 0:4:29

(more…)

Is it just me or is it super frustrating to call customer service numbers and the people who you are trying to talk to do not speak English. Is there a site that shows all the companies that send work over seas. I want do business with companies that are mostly in the USA. Is it wrong to feel that way? There are so many HARD WORKING Americans that are looking for jobs while we are sending jobs to INDIA.

As far as I know there isn’t one, maybe you should set one up.

I want to speak spanish in like 4 hours, only the basics like places, foods,greetings and more?

youtube!! type Spanish lessons, Spanish survival phrases or basic Spanish words.
Email me i could help you too I speak Spanish!

Video for Speak Slow from Tegan and Sara’s So Jealous

Duration : 0:2:28

(more…)

I am curious about the legal issues involved with trying to keep employees from speaking foreign languages within an office setting. I recently came across a situation where an employer is threatening to reprimand employees that are heard communicating in their native language. If the conversations are not inappropriate with respect to content, can an employer legally require you to only speak English? Could such a policy possibly be seen as a violation of rights under the First Amendment?

That’s a very tricky legal issue because it’s a no-win situation. If an employer doesn’t require everyone to speak English, an employee can file a grievance based on a "hostile work environment" if he/she believes people are trying to spread rumors or talk about him/her behind his/her back in a foreign language. On the other hand, if an employer mandates that all employees speak English while at work, a minority member could sue for racial discrimination.

The big question to ask here is why someone would feel it necessary to communicate with others in a language other than English, and the first reason that leaps to my mind is they want to be able to talk about virtually anything (including office matters, other employees, personality conflicts, office policy/procedure, etc.) without anyone else understanding what’s being said. That right there is enough reason in my mind to require all employees to speak English at work. The only problem is if someone decided to file a complaint, the courts may not see it that way.

BOTTOM LINE: An employer can legally require all employees to speak English at work, but you can bet your bottom dollar that someone is going to challenge it on the basis of racial discrimination, so the employer would have to show just cause for such a requirement. And if the employer is not successful, the policy would be overturned.