Hello and welcome back to my channel!
Today I thought I would make a video on
five things I have learnt or discovered
or come to appreciate about my own
language, English, since embarking on
learning new languages, so yeah! For
those of you who don't know I've been
learning German in school and now
at uni for about eight years and I'm in
my first year of university and I've
started learning Italian for my degree
so yeah I hope you enjoy this video and
let's get into it!
[upbeat introductory music]
Okay, so the first thing isn't to do with different
languages as such but it's more to do
with variations between different
versions of English so um I think that
since I've been learning another
language I've sort of come to appreciate
more the grammatical structure of everyday
conversation, which may not make any sense at all, but let me explain!
[laughs] so for example I know that the difference
between American English and British
English is in American English you would
say, "see you Saturday", whereas a British
person would be more likely to say,
"see you on Saturday" at least that's what
I've concluded from speaking to
Americans and another example is like
different prepositions are used for the
same meaning almost so um for example
whilst a British person would say, "at the
weekend" I did this, an American person
would say, "on the weekend I did this", so
yeah that's just a little subtlety
between two different forms of the same
language and yeah I'm curious to know if
this sort of thing happens between
different forms of other languages so
yeah if any foreign language speakers
out there have an example of that then he's
comment down below! Another thing I've come to
appreciate is how foreign words have
become incorporated into the English
language so just used
like as they are without any translation
as an actual English word so for example
the German word spiel in English I've
heard if like a salesperson came out
to your house and like I don't know
tried to sell you a fridge then they
could like do a whole spiel about like
how it's so great but this fridge and
like all the features that has and stuff
and then like before they give you
a quote and stuff and tell you how expensive
it is they rely on this spiel to like do
the job of like advertising and I've
written like a whole list of German
words which I didn't actually realise
were in the English language like I just
thought that people being slightly strange
like using German words in the English
language like when speaking English but
they are actual legit words because I've
looked them up in the dictionary and
they haven't just appeared in their
German dictionary but also in an English
dictionary which yeah I just find so
bizarre but so great at the same time
that it's actually become like part of
the English language, so for example,
Schadenfreude which means like
pleasure taken in something like
malicious or unpleasant for someone else; Doppelgänger, I think that's quite a
common one. Some of these things I did
know were legit terms it's just that it's
quite like yeah just amazing to like
actually appreciate that it's part of
our language
and kaput but that's spelt with one
T I believe in the English language at
least according to the dictionary on like
Apple but like yeah in German it start
with two T's um Wanderlust I think I'm
saying that right I'm still so bad at
pronunciation as I'm sorry guys!
So yeah or 'wander lust' as we say in
English because English people like me I
guess aren't good at speaking German
and verboten I didn't actually know at
all that this was an actual English word
but yeah um I think they do have
slightly
subtle differences in each language I
guess it's kind of like when any work
gets incorporated into a different
language it originates from like there's
bound to be some kind of tiny alteration
of meaning but yeah I think essentially
the imports have roughly the same kind
of meaning but feel free to correct me
if you know otherwise.
I'm not actually
sure if spiel has that meaning in
German at all, the meaning I just
described, but um yeah!
So another thing
that I've discovered which I guess seems
kind of quite basic and like obvious
to
people who have already like learnt a
different language to their own but I'll
say it anyway for the benefit of people
who perhaps don't know a foreign
language in depth in order to like
compare it, is how much of our everyday speech
revolves around idioms and phrases which
can't be like directly translated or if
they are they just sound so weird in a
foreign language that like the whole
meaning becomes lost so for example I
will tell you a little anecdote!
When I
was doing GCSE German so I was like 14
at the time because I had only just
started I...
we had to like write an essay as you do
well not like exactly an essay but like
something for this thing that we would
get tested on and they were like oh
you're loads of marks for sounding like
a native speaker if you use idioms
so I was like, "right I'm going to write it's
raining cats and dogs in German!" and it
just didn't occur to me that the Germans
would use like a
different kind of phrase to what we
would say so I literally said,
"Es regnet Katzen und Hunden"
and yeah!
It just sounded so bad and my
teacher was like no that's just not how
it works!
So yeah little naive fourteen-year-old
me just yeah just just didn't know but
um yeah the actual German
translation is, "in Strömen regnen", so yeah, that's
completely different. It literally means
like, "to rain and streams", I believe or
like... and the phrase instrument I
believe in German is used for like other
things as well other than like the
context of rain so it means like
anything that happens like a lot or like
or in a big way I guess you would say so
yeah that's just another thing!
I just love idioms!
It is like really fun to just like translate them
as they are like the component words and
then like see what it's like!
And this
brings me quite nicely into my next
point and that is how much a language
can tell the person learning it about
how other people who speak that language
like native speakers of that language
see the world so I guess that Germans see
like streams of rain rather than like
cats and dogs like falling from the sky!
[laughs] not that that actually happens but yeah
it's like if you know what I mean it's quite
interesting to like see how different
people from different cultures and such
like see the world differently from
ourselves and not only idioms are good
at showing this but also just words in
general so I mean we don't have this in
English but like the other languages
that I've learnt like in any depth at
all so that would be German, Italian and
French but not really French they all
have like genders for their nouns so in
German there are three genders: masculine
feminine and neuter and in Italian and
French it's just masculine and feminine
but yeah it's just interesting!
I was talking to someone recently who was
discussing how in different languages
you would have for example for an object
so like for a non abstract noun,
like a concrete noun
[in a high-pitched voice] *that's a technical
term I think - I'm pretty sure it is!*
For a concrete noun like one which is actual... yeah an actual object,
they would have not any different words
obviously for different languages
for that noun, but they would also have
different genders for the word so for
example bridge in German its 'die Brücke'
which if it's 'die' it means it's feminine
whereas in Italian it's 'il ponte' and
that's masculine.
This person who I
was discussing this word said that like
Germans will be more likely to describe
the bridge in a sort of feminine way so
like quite elegant and like I don't
know helpful with like bringing people to
the other side of the water whereas like
an Italian might describe the bridge
more like something that's strong and
can hold you until you have crossed to the
other side, so I mean that's
extremely stereotypical with gender roles and stuff but like you know I mean I guess
it kind of shows how people of different
cultures see the world differently with
idioms and the words that they use and
such so yeah!
And lastly, since being
exposed to so many people speaking other
languages even languages which I don't
understand so certainly since I've
started uni I've seen this more is
how many English terms or phrases have
become universal pretty much so I
guess that because American media
certainly is like global like things
have become westernised I guess with
globalisation more and like with the
rise of hashtags and things I certainly
think that this is all like proliferated
the use of English even like among a
sentence which would otherwise all be
in a different language.
So since a
couple of years ago I felt my German has
been good enough to be able to like
watch a youtuber in German or like a TV
programme in German to like hopefully
improve my German and like perhaps like
learn more about how German is used in
like everyday life not just like
'textbook German' so yeah I've been
watching certainly quite a few German
YouTubers, and yeah I've noticed that like
mid-sentence if they were like talking in
German they would randomly say in
English phrase or word so for example
I've written a list of things I've heard!
So things like, "turns out", "super excited"
"sit-down video", "are you ready?", "I'm so
sorry"
"must-have" and like other like expletive
phrases like I've also learned that like
swearing in English is quite universal
so like when I've been to Germany I've
heard like people talking to each other
like in cafes or restaurants or
something and like when they've sworn
it's just been in English so I was like
even if it wasn't in German like even
when I went to like Scandinavia over
the summer, I just heard like them
saying the F word for example!
And I was like, "I don't understand any of that, but I certainly understand THAT!"
So yeah, I guess it's just been quite interesting erm...
yeah that erm our language has become the language
of yeah swearing! [laughs reluctantly]  I guess!
I don't know where
I'm going with this but yeah basically
yeah it's just like it's just quite
crazy that that's happened!
so yeah I
hope you've enjoyed this video and
please let me know if you've like
noticed any of these things also or if
it's just like.. I'm not sure if this has
arisen like as a result of becoming like
more aware of the world like with
growing up or if it's actually come as a
result of like learning a foreign
language but I think it might have been
because of the latter but anyway yeah if
if you've like had any similar
observations I'd love to know them so
please comment them down below.
I'm not sure
if this is just how my brain works or if
like other people think about language
in this way but yeah I'd love to know
and like even though I don't know that much
about it like I just find linguistics
so fascinating um so yeah this is such a
nerdy video but
[low-pitched voice] I don't care!
So yeah hopefully I will like discover more things as I
continue to learn German and Italian at uni
and like hopefully other languages later
on, who knows, but yeah any suggestions
for future videos either like this or
like along my general themes I'd love to
know them and I'd be happy to do them
within reason so yeah thanks so much for
watching and please subscribe if you
haven't done already and give this video
a thumbs up and yeah I will talk to you
guys soon, bye!
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