3 ms·
I don't know if you're multilingual, but some concepts are just legitimately easier to express in some languages; and the different grammatical structures that
by ViscountPenguin 1y ago
I don't know if you're multilingual, but some concepts are just legitimately easier to express in some languages; and the different grammatical structures that languages have can be useful for emphasising certain things, or to express subtle relationships between concepts.
I'm not a particularly fluent speaker of Japanese and Russian, but I still find it helpful to drop into them sometimes when speaking with someone who understands them.
- Escapado 1y agoI have to second this. I study Japanese myself and the entire way the Japanese communicate is reflected so deeply in the language. There is so so much nuance to pretty much every sentence they speak and there are certain grammar points that carry more meaning in three syllables than what can be expressed in English or German in a full sentence. And ok turn this way of communicating shapes their culture too I believe. If I were to translate a German conversation into Japanese, even if I did so idiomatically it would most likely come off as a rude exchange, because of all the unapologetic directness in the source language.
- coderatlarge 1y agoI’ve tried to learn Mandarin and failed because of lack of memory and practice. mostly i’m shocked at how ambiguous it appears to an english-trained mind - you have to fill in a lot of fine article/pronoun detail from custom and common understanding. which is why i think a lot of automatic translations are poor.