Hello,
I'm a student from Germany and I'm passing my university-entrance diploma (I don't know whether there's a shorter word (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)).
My hometown is, I guess nobody knows it, Geesthacht, near Hamburg. I'm 20 years old and very interested in magic things.
I mostly like: divination, magic/esoterism, parapsychology, entities etc. My other, more profane, hobbies are: languages, dancing, making music, having fun.

I'm not good in English, so I'm sorry for it. I've never been good in that language, but by this forum, I want to improve my english skills (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

So, I hope for interesting discussions, entertaining conversations and a couple of information that'll broaden my horizon.

Greetings,
Kevin

This post has been edited by Zylbath: Apr 17 2009, 08:50 AM

Greetings Zylbath!
Welcome to the Forum! Please don't be anxious about your usage of English, you're in good company!
We have a great membership here and there are some very helpful and insightful members. Please take time to familiarize yourself with the guidelines (located in upper left of homepage) I hope that this forum will satisfy your needs and we all look forward to interacting with you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Welcome!

"Greetings" is usually only used at the beginning of an address, like "hello." But it's cute to see it used this way, and it's understandable, so no worries. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Ich liebe Deutsch (und Hamburg!) aber mein ist nicht so gut (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Hey, (or Greetings =P)
is it common to say "love"? I've got the feeling, that it is too personal than formal.


Wow, not bad. Up until recently I haven't meet any anglophone, that wants to learn German. I always thought, that German is totally boring, uninteresting and not necessary.
By the way, do we, the Germans, have an accent, when talking?? I'm wondering about that still quite long and when I pay attention to our pronounciation, it always just sounds like a vacuum/deficit of accent. (knowing full well, that the saxons or bavarian are talking a lot of uncomprehensible accent chunk. But the bavarian, and some may wonder now -.-', is NOT the proper culture, and also not tongue culture, of Germany. Actually, the Germans think, Bavaria doesn't belong to Germany ^^)

... (whatsoever)
Kevin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

No, it isn't very common unless it's for people you actually love. :-)


What! Not at all! It is definitely my favorite language, and I would have been fluent long since if there was actually a German class in my tiny, worthless town... but all we have is Spanish. :-P It doesn't seem too common to find anglophones who like German, but I do meet a fair amount - my best friend, for instance!

I have always liked the sound of Germanic languages much more than the Romantic ones. They seem much more... solid.


Yes, most do. Obviously, some learn to speak Englisch so well that they don't, but most Germans I talk to have a distinctive "German" accent... although not, I'll note, as strong an accent as speakers of most other languages.

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Apr 17 2009, 06:56 PM

Haha, is our accent half of the strongness of the russian one? Or isn't comperable?

But I still haven't got an answer for what to say for leave-taking ^^

Yes, it's not as strong as the usual Russian one... half sounds about right. :-) It's milder because German is closer to English, I think... do the Swedes or Dutch who speak German have a noticeable accent? And sorry, I forgot to answer your question!!

"Goodbye" (or "good day"/"have a good day") , "bye", and "see you later" (or just "later") are all pretty common. I also see "cheers" and "ciao" used on forums a fair amount. Or, if you're writing a letter or post, you can just end in your name, like I see you doing above; you could also add "sincerely" (like "Sincerely, -Kevin") or anything else that seems appropriate.

I hope this is at least a little helpful. I've always felt English lacked good farewell terms. "Auf wiedersehan" or "tschuss" is much better!

This post has been edited by Vilhjalmr: Apr 20 2009, 03:14 AM

Yeah, thanks that are good examples. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yes Dutch and Swedish are quite different to german. You can sometimes understand some words, but the accent is typical scandinavian; the tones as well.
And yes, the German and English actually have still some similarities.
In 450 the anglo-saxons conquered England. Their language have been a dialect of the western germanic. But under the influence of the celtics, that have been on the british islands and Ireland the language changed a bit. Later there have been wars of the picts and the french and so the anglo-saxon language had a lot of foreign influences. In Germany from the western germanic the old high german was built. Later this became our todays high german language. So we have the same sources. The northern germanic sector already went much earlier to the north, but didn't made the transformation like the english language.

Welcome to our forum. You will find many types of people here. You will find many to be very cynical, while others to be more optimistic. Debates are usually held in the "Fight club" area. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sport_boxing.gif)

Feel free to ask as many questions as you like. You will get many views to support/refute whatever topic comes to mind. Scientific and mystical perspectives come here to intermingle. Have fun! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Haha, Thanks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) My study of this forum is a bit slow; so it'll last a bit til I'll get to some topics or ask several questions. But what I see is that it is quiiite big! And that's good, so I have always somethink to read =P