De lingua Germanica
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manThought the first: German would be so much easier if it just had an ablative... (I.e., I wouldn't have to remember what takes the accusative, what takes the dative and what the genitive if anything that didn't clearly fit into one of these categories intuitively just took the ablative like Latin.) Though German sometimes breaks what for me is intuitive about these: In all other languages I know, the dative is pretty much defined as being to or for someone or something, but in German, für takes the accusative.
Thought the second: When I was in the first year of senior school, I was near the top of my class in many subjects. Then, in the second year, I had a couple of teachers, who took me for three subjects between them, who picked on me. They made my school life a misery, and I plummeted downwards in not just their but all subjects. One of them told my parents I would fail my GCSEs in Biology and Chemistry.
The following year, I got free of them, rose back towards the top of the class; and ended up receiving the third of my form prizes for my third year. I also went on to gain A's in both Biology and Chemistry at GCSE, A's again at A-Level (this was before A*s existed in either case), and a first in both subjects in my first year at university. Unfortunately, though, this was too late for me when it came to languages. Because of my poor performance in school in the second year, my parents were advised against my taking a third language in the third year. So if it hadn't been for your bullying of me, Mr Leake and Mr Lane—yes I damned well am going to name and shame you—I might have already known German for nearly twenty-five years now, rather than be struggling through the learning process as an adult.*
Or maybe I'd have decided to take Ancient Greek instead. (I was poised pretty much unable to choose between them at the time.)
* Bitter? Yes, I still am, even twenty-five years later.
And finally, thought the third:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aviva_m got me a book on the relationship between Old English and other contemporary Germanic languages for Chanukah; and I have every intention, when I've read it, of updating the icon for this post to include Old High German evolving into modern German too. ;^)
Thought the second: When I was in the first year of senior school, I was near the top of my class in many subjects. Then, in the second year, I had a couple of teachers, who took me for three subjects between them, who picked on me. They made my school life a misery, and I plummeted downwards in not just their but all subjects. One of them told my parents I would fail my GCSEs in Biology and Chemistry.
The following year, I got free of them, rose back towards the top of the class; and ended up receiving the third of my form prizes for my third year. I also went on to gain A's in both Biology and Chemistry at GCSE, A's again at A-Level (this was before A*s existed in either case), and a first in both subjects in my first year at university. Unfortunately, though, this was too late for me when it came to languages. Because of my poor performance in school in the second year, my parents were advised against my taking a third language in the third year. So if it hadn't been for your bullying of me, Mr Leake and Mr Lane—yes I damned well am going to name and shame you—I might have already known German for nearly twenty-five years now, rather than be struggling through the learning process as an adult.*
Or maybe I'd have decided to take Ancient Greek instead. (I was poised pretty much unable to choose between them at the time.)
* Bitter? Yes, I still am, even twenty-five years later.
And finally, thought the third:
aviva_m got me a book on the relationship between Old English and other contemporary Germanic languages for Chanukah; and I have every intention, when I've read it, of updating the icon for this post to include Old High German evolving into modern German too. ;^)
