I are back

Hola again, various Dariaphilic life-forms. I've now returned from what's been quite possibly the weirdest three weeks of my entire life. And I'm going to do it again next year. I have the equivalent of a year of college-level Latin now, and the best thing I can say is, "Stercus accidit." And "Carpe servum." Oh yeah, and I know the grammatical origins and construction of "F*** you." I can also decline nouns and tell you the ending of verbs in the past perfect or pluperfect tense. More interestingly, I learned how to play AD&D and the exact point of it all, which from what I gathered is to make the DM feel really cool and give everyone else either a dose of humility or something to work up a healthy indignation about. Not to mention the lessons I learned about exactly how one goes about acquiring the right attitude to go with a pair of green polyester bell bottoms.

Don't be surprised if I don't say much for a while; I'll be catching up with what I missed while I was off at camp and trying desperately to re-arrange my life so it fits with my new picture of the way it should be.

-Mindy

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

In article , [email] (Mindy) wrote:

I tried to teach my self Japanese once, out of a book. I got as far as completing the first chapter, and never got around to working through the rest. About the only thing I can say is "Watashi wa [x] desu" ("That is my [x]"), where [x] is a newspaper, beef sandwich, green peas, or scotch on the rocks. Oh, and "Koitsu!" which I think is a swear word, but I can't remember what it means...

As a long time Role-player I'm interested in hearing newbies "first time" stories*, so I'd like to know all about what happened (mail me if you want to remain on topic [in this ng?!])

*Most seem to be along the lines of "[confused] I played a dwarf. I got killed by a stick of french bread. [still confused]"

O_o

We'll wait. That's what we do.

Hey, all I can say is Watashi wa Gokiburi... I am a Cockroach.

Dagny- cynic, general loony

http://urbanspacemen.arecool.net

"I'm not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself. I can't join your gang: you'd think I was a phoney and I'd know it." Vivian Stanshall

Dagny Scott wrote:

All I can say is "Sumie No Kuni E". And I have no idea what it means!

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez

N.P.:"Only The Beginning"- S e v e n t h W a v e / P s y - F i

Mike wrote in message news:[email]...

Mitsubishi sony, sushi nuku nuku. Aiwa!

Martin.

(Poking fun at his own ignorance of Japanese, not at the language, people, or culture!)

Hmm, you sure that isn't supposed to be "Watashi NO [x] desu". "Watashi wa [x] desu" means "I am [x]".

Which is very helpful if you want to say I am a newspaper, beef sandwich, green peas, or scotch on the rocks. Which I say all the time.

Dagny- cynic, general loony

http://urbanspacemen.arecool.net

"I'm not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself. I can't join your gang: you'd think I was a phoney and I'd know it." Vivian Stanshall

Oh yes of course, that does come in handy all the time. But don't forget to remember to say I am a vial of wasabi sauce, pottery accent, or beautiful green fern. Those little tricksters can mess you up in a foreign country.

;),

She who is definitely wise in Secret Oktober.

Dagny Scott, the cynic and general loony, wrote:

On 24 Jul 1999 12:03:46 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

I think "Watashi wa guriin piisu desu" does make sense. I guess it would be correctly understood as "I am a member of Greenpeace." :-) And "Watashi wa sandowichi desu" is actually what the sandwich's inventor would have said. So don't just forget those phrases. Everything might come in handy someday. MSB

I know some words but I don't really know what to do with them. Maybe the most useful are "moshi moshi" which is what you say when you answer the phone, and "dozo" which is one of those universal permissive words meaning "please do", "here you are", "have some more", etc. And contrary to what you might imagine from Monty Python, "ni" means "sun", hence "Ni-hon", land of the sunrise.

I can't remember what goodbye is so I'll have to make do with hello - konnichi wa!

-Shez.

Sayonara!

Hey, now we can have Beatles songs in Japanese: "Konnichi wa, Sayonara". I knew a girl who translated Beatles song titles into German... the coolest was something like "Warum machen wir es nicht in die Strasse?" ("Why don't we do it in the road?" which was probably also the most complicated German sentence I'd heard at the time since I was in German 1 at the time....

Dagny- cynic, general loony

http://urbanspacemen.arecool.net

"I'm not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself. I can't join your gang: you'd think I was a phoney and I'd know it." Vivian Stanshall

Saying hello is actually a bit more complicated than that as, like with German, there isn't a generic "hello" but rather "good morning", "good afternoon", etc. (Actually northern Germans have a generic hello - moin - but this is apparently just a dialect word and no-one in the south seems to use it.) Konnichi wa is good morning, and Konban wa is good afternoon or good evening, I forget which. A few years ago there was a "Japan Year" in Britain for some reason, and the BBC ran a whole TV series on the Japanese language and people, which is where I learnt all my Japanese from. One thing I recall was that the word used for modern teenagers (which sounded like jheen jingly or somesuch) meant "new species", as older people found modern youth to be totally bizarre with their punkish fashions and love of rock music.

Oh and the way you greet someone for the first time is to say "hajhimashti" (I don't know the official spelling using English letters), or if you're being more formal it would be "hajhimimashti". There layers of formality that have to be gone through where the parties recognise their relative status by using the appropriate forms of address. A BBC correspondent said that in a formal interview you could spend ten minutes just dealing with "hello", which made if very difficult to get information out of officials, politicians, etc, something that they were adept at using to their advantage to maintain the status quo. A rigid language structure helping maintain a rigid social structure (although internationalisation is gradually eroding this).

-Shez.

Shez wrote:

Actually, in the rural part of the Allgau (Southern Germany-- in the Alps-- where part of my family's from), a lot of people say "GruB Gott," which literally translates to "God greet you." It works there as a generic hello.

Bis spater, rich.

Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.

Daria: Screw 'em.

Reminds me a lot of the Spanish language, in which there are different ways of saying "hello" and greeting people. For example:

"Bueno dias" means "Good morning". It is the polite "hello" to use in the morning hours. "Buenas tardes" means "Good afternoon". It is the polite "hello" to use in the afternoon hours. "Buenas noches" means "Good evening". It is the polite "hello" to use in the evening hours.

And:

If you wish to address a friend, cousin, close acquaintance, or someone younger than you, it is polite to say "Como estas?" if you're inquiring about their state of being at this moment. If you wish to address a stranger, someone else you do not know, or someone older than you, it is polite (no...it's MANDATORY) to say "Como esta Ud.?" if you're inquiring about their state of being at this moment.

Not quite as complicated as Japanese I would imagine, but the same sorts of social manner regulations apply here.

She who looks sharp inside her pointed shoes.

p.s.: ObDaria: Ever notice how Daria has a REALLY gah-awful way of saying stuff in Spanish? Those of you who are like me and who've listened to the little snippets of "Ask Daria" Q&A on the MTV Daria site know what I'm talking about. She cannot pronounce Spanish to save her life. Ah well, no one is perfect.... :)

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999 19:32:33 +0100, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from Shez , and it said:

One thing about "Hello" that makes it a unique English word is that it was originally only used to hail riverboats. When the telephone was invented, they had to figure out some way to properly answer the phone, so they used the ship call word. Several other languages followed this convention, I believe Japanese was mentioned, but English was unique in that this word gradually became a general greeting, and not just something for ships and phones.

Don't know if I got all this right, but I heard it on either NPR's (National Public Radio) "Word for the Wise" or "Lost and Found Sound." Does German have an equivalent "phone greeting" that isn't used in face-to-face greetings?

I just looked in my dictionary and it notes hello as a way of calling attention or expressing surprise as well as an informal greeting. I'd always thought of the use of hello to attract attention being a sort of polite thing deriving from its use as a greeting, but it seems the opposite is the case (though there is no mention of river boats or telephones in the OED entry, it only mentions it being used by huntsmen to call their hounds.) Hello seems to have originated from a common root with the verb "holler", via hollo and hallo. The first listed use of hollo is 1598, but hallo and hello are much more recent, c.1850, which I guess must be contemporaneous with the invention of the telephone, so maybe there is something in that.

-Shez.

As I perceive it, "Hallo", "Guten Tag/Morgen/Abend"(Good Day/Morning/Evening) and "Gruess Gott" are all used for face-to-face and phone greetings alike. There are regional differences I think regarding "Gruess Gott" especially (literal translation "Greet God") which is probably more popular in Bavaria since it's a very Catholic state. Other greetings like "moin" (short for "morgen") are used almost exclusively in the northern part of the country. There is a goodbye phrase ("Auf Wiederhoeren", translates roughly to "Till I hear from you again") that is only used for ending phone conversations never for face-to-face. Face-to-face goodbye phrases on the other hand may be used for ending a phone conversation. Popular phrases for that pupose are "Auf Wiedersehen" (the "see you again" counterpart to "Auf Wiederhoeren") , "Tschuess" and "Ciao" (pronounce "chow", it's actually Italian). The last 2 are usually used among people who know each other well, the 1st one is more formal. MSB

Originally nobody quite knew what to say when they answered the phone - one idea that was tried was to say "Ahoy ahoy". Montgomery Burns (in the Simpsons) still says that.

On Thu, 22 Jul 1999 12:39:44 +0100, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from Tony Walton , and it said:

IIRC, that was actually Bell's idea.

The Beatles did a whole record of songs in German! Didn't include that song, though... this would be much earlier in their career.

Hey, why not? Monty Python did a whole episode in German, too!

Michael Pierry wrote:

"Komm, gim mir dein Hand" is the song that sticks in my mind, partially because they have really weird German accents.

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"I don't do emotions. I just sing notes." --Wendy Smith

N.P.:"Word Made Flesh"- T o d d R u n d g r e n (T R - I) / N o W o r l d O r d e r

Dagny Scott wrote in message news:[email]...

knew

One exercise at my old school, for sixth formers taking Latin, was to translate chart hits (into Latin, need I say?) retaining the original metre. The best got performed at the school concert. One Beatles fan, ISTR, managed to retain the metre *and rhyming scheme* of "She Loves You!" That got a performance, and, ISTR, encores.

Over to Mindy. <g>

Martin.

Alright! The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo (or whatever) chanting Beatles covers in Latin. I could see that. And I would definitely buy the CD. <grin>

Jess "Morgendorfer"

Daria: Do you believe everything adults tell you? Gupty Kids: Yes Daria: What if 2 adults tell you totally opposite things?

I know a guy who can write and read chinese characters. People are always asking him to write something on their notebook, arm, etc, and he always writes the same three characters, which translates into "I give good head."

:)
---
~Po

CROWDSURFERS WILL BE EJECTED FROM THE BUILDING. It can be harmful, and most of all disrespectful to climb on other people's heads. Crowdsurfing should only be done naked and in the privacy of your own home.

Thank you The Beastie Boys

On 19 Jul 1999 23:09:30 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

I favorite of mine is "Atashi wa hentai des'". Note that I am male, and speak with a distinct lilt while saying it... the looks I get are well worth it.

You've reminded me slightly about one of my best online friends, a girl named Laurie, known her since late '97, huge Simon LeBon fan, from Hawaii...she holds a bachelor's degree in Japanese, which I think is very cool. She once welcomed in a person to this message board we both post at with a long discourse in Japanese. We were all impressed.

And Mindy...might I ask how you got this poised a persona at the very young age you are? I don't remember being nearly as communicatory when I was your age.

Diane

Bear wrote:

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

WOW. Japanese is... really really hard by all accounts. All I can do is say ichi, ni, san. And konnichi wa, and sayonara, all remnants from in third grade when we studied languages of the world. I can also count to ten in Swahili, which is *real* useful.

Thank you :) And parental influence is my best guess. And peer pressure, don't forget that. By some fluke I acquired a bunch of friends who seem to defy as many conventional laws of maturity as a three-year-old CEO of a Fortune 500 company. (Which conjures an interesting mental image, if you think about it. "Cut the middle managerial staff by 50% and then GET ME A NEW BARBIE!!!") Daria herself has probably influenced me a bit, if nothing else from Quinn's negative example. And y'all at ATD, too. If you guys managed to live as long as you have being as intelligent as you are, there's hope for a Midwestern adolescent.

-Mindy

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ,fM,fO

Mindy said:

Hi, Mindy :)

Cool. I have some friends who are very much into Latin. One of them writes playlets in the language. Would you like an introduction some time?

Care to share them?

Roleplaying can be cool. WIth the right DM ...

And what attitude is this?

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man is a god in ruins" (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

On the mountaintop, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) spake thusly:

Only if I get a free sock.

Not particularly, since I've lost the notes I took during that particular discussion and I can't remember the details very well. If I can unearth them, I'll post 'em for ya.

[roleplaying]

A very, very strong one. As in, "The pants are fun, and you'd best like them or I'll wear my red and royal blue polka-dotted beach hat tomorrow and give the public eye conjunctivitis." By the way, the pants weren't mine, but actually were found at Goodwill by the very cool people I hung out with for the three weeks. The wearer of the pants is the same guy the mushroom quote's from. Yes, I have a minor crush on him. I'm 14. Stuff like that's supposed to happen to me.

-Mindy

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ,fM,fO

Mindy wrote:

     My, you're quite intelligent and witty for 14. I was intelligent, but not
witty, as I was afraid to show it, as in my high school, it seemed my
intelligence was less a boon than a liability...but I digress.
     The comment about the beach hat had me ROTFLOL! Ever consider a career in
comedy writing?

MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

make GEORYN disappear to reply

"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez

N.P.:"Only The Beginning"- S e v e n t h W a v e / P s i - F i

On the mountaintop, [email] (Mike) spake thusly:

Why, thank you *blush*. The only reason I'm not afraid to speak out if because my parents have always encouraged me to be m'self and I've got some cool friends who will act witty right along with me.

Comedy writing? Actually, no. I've been told quite a few times that I'd be good at stand-up, though. Then again, I've also been told quite a few times to sit down and shut up... My problem with writing is that what comes to me has to be spontaneous; I can't just sit around alone and have funny stuff pop into my head when I'm trying, which sucks when I'm trying to write pretty much anything, except on the Internet for some reason (Jeez, that sentence is longer than Bohemian Rhapsody!). I can take any exchange on the Internet as a conversation, and I'm at least coherent then. Now that I've told you waaaaay more than you need to know, I'll be running along.

-Mindy

"I think I'm a mushroom... I must be a mushroom! Everyone keeps me in the dark and feeds me bulls***!" -Ward Rubrecht

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ,fM,fO

Mindy wrote in message news:[email]...

going

thing

the

nouns

all,

one

polyester

with

my

I studied Latin in 8th and 9th grade. Well "studied" probably isn't the right word. I didn't do particularly well with it, but I did develop an appreciation for its contributions to our modern languages. If you want to know English, study Latin. Maybe it might have helped if I'd had better teachers. No doubt the teachers at college are much better than you find in a typical public school but I hear they don't even offer Latin anymore in the public schools.

Now when you get to Grove Hill you can engage in conversational latin in the dorm.

"That place where the fence in all the geeks?"

Just curious: what prompted you to want to study Latin?

you."

all,

So good to see you've made productive use of your time.

hello mindy :)