How do you say “We speak German” and “We learn German” in your language?

March 7, 2009 5:44 AM

I am making a door-sized poster for my classroom that will have two phrases in fifteen languages: “We speak German” and “We learn/are learning German.” I have German, French, Russian and Romanian covered. I need eleven more.

The poster is designed to reflect the linguistic diversity of the school. Here are the other languages I'd like:

• Serbian
• Ukrainian
• Polish
• Modern Greek
• Spanish
• Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
• Cantonese (or Mandarin)
• Italian
• Turkish
• Hindi
• Arabic (Levantine/Mediterranean)

Bonus round:
• Rumansh
• Georgian
• Armenian
• Belarussian

posted by vkxmai to Writing & Language (41 answers total)

Best answer: Spanish: Hablamos alemán. / Estamos aprendiendo alemán.
posted by rokusan at 5:51 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Italian: Parliamo il tedesco / Impariamo il tedesco (stiamo imparando il tedesco).
posted by katemonster at 6:07 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Greek:

“We are learning German”: Μαθαίνουμε Γερμανικά

"We speak German": Μιλάμε Γερμανικά
posted by taz at 6:21 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Turkish: Almance biliyoruz. / Almance öğreniyoruz.
Pron: al-MAHN-juh BIL-i-yor-ooz. / al-MAHN-juh er-ren-i-yor-ooz.
Lit: We know German.* / We are learning German.

*In Turkish, one generally doesn't say "I speak X language." One says "I know X language." So, if your students want to be really correct, they might say (individually) "Bir az almance biliyorum" (I speak a little German) or "Bir az almance biliyoruz" (we speak a little German).

My Turkish is rusty—anyone who knows better, please speak up.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:26 AM on March 7, 2009

If no one else does it, I can get you Georgian and Belarussian on Tuesday. Do we get brownies or gold stars for bonus round languages?
posted by whatzit at 6:29 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: I know you didn't ask for it, but in case you can't find one of those languages and you'd like something to sub in, here's Japanese:

私達はドイツ語が分かります。(We know German. [literally])
私達はドイツ語を習っています。 (We are learning German.)
posted by miraimatt at 6:38 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Mandarin

We speak German.
Women hui shuo Deguohua.
我们会说德国话。

posted by geekyguy at 6:54 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: We are learning German.
Women xue Deguohua.
我们学德国话。
posted by geekyguy at 6:56 AM on March 7, 2009

Georgian:

ქართულად ვლაპარაკობთ [kartulad vlaparakobt] 'We speak Georgian.'

ვსწავლობთ ქართულ ენას [vstsavlobt kartul enas] 'We are studying/learning Georgian.'

I'm curious: if the poster is designed to reflect the linguistic diversity of the school, why aren't the people who speak these languages at the school providing the translations?
posted by languagehat at 6:59 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Woops, sorry, I automatically used "Georgian" instead of "German"! Corrected versions:

გერმანულაგ ვლაპარაკობთ [germanulad vlaparakobt] 'We speak German.'

ვსწავლობთ გერმანულ ენას [vstsavlobt germanul enas] 'We are studying/learning German.'
posted by languagehat at 7:05 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Norwegian should be:
Vi snakker tysk, Vi lærer tysk.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:15 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: ocherdraco is right on the Turkish, except that "German" is "Almanca, not "Almance." Thus:

Almanca biliyoruz - "We know German"
Almanca öğreniyoruz - "We are learning German"

Should be perfectly fine for the poster. If you want to be totally technically correct, you should add the accusative "-yı" ("Almancayı biliyoruz" and "Almancayı öğreniyoruz"), but in common use it's usually dropped.
posted by ecmendenhall at 7:58 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Standard Arabic (usually something written is going to be Standard Arabic, rather than a dialect):

نتعلم اللغة الألمانية
nataʼallam al-lugha al-almaaniyya

'We learn German.'


نتكلم اللغة الألمانية
natakallam al-lugha al-almaaniyya

'We speak German.'


(Yes, there is only one letter difference.)
posted by kosmonaut at 8:12 AM on March 7, 2009

I was going to ask what languagehat did: why not ask the kids?

Maybe because it's likely that you'd end up with "I like to fart" and similar instead of the requested phrase?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:13 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Polish

We speak German: Mówimy po niemiecku.

We are learning German: Uczymy się niemieckiego.
posted by capsizing at 8:16 AM on March 7, 2009

Disagree about the Mandarin offered above; it's almost always 德语 rather than 德国话 and I'd say 我们会讲德语 and 我们学德语 for the two phrases, though using "we" alone in that sentence seems a bit unnatural. Maybe a native speaker will have better.
posted by Abiezer at 8:39 AM on March 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I was going to ask what languagehat did: why not ask the kids?

There are 2,500 kids in the high school alone and the guidance dept. doesn’t keep track of their heritage/nationality. The majority don’t need or take ESL classes, either. I see, at most 170, of them in a given year.

The poster is designed the attract their eye as they pass my classroom and perhaps spark their interest in learning German.

Most students (especially the internationals) are recommended to take Spanish or world language “because it’s easier,” which obviously isn’t true for everyone.
posted by vkxmai at 8:51 AM on March 7, 2009

Even if it were logistically feasible, the answers might be compiled in a few days instead of a few hours. Plus, of course, the poster doesn't have to justify his/her question, really; It's not like it's some bizarre or suspicious request.
posted by taz at 8:58 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: In Malay/Bahasa Indonesia:
We speak German = Kami cakap Jerman
We learn German = Kami belajar Jerman
posted by serunding at 10:56 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: more tentative, going back to high school Swahili:

Tunasema kijerumani=We speak German
Tunajifunza kijerumani=we learn/are learning German.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:04 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Correction to Miraimatt's answer in Japanese:

私達はドイツ語が話せます。- We speak German (which is closer to the source phrase)

私達はドイツ語を学んでいます。 - We are learning German (this sounds much more natural I think)
posted by Vorteks at 11:57 AM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: @geeky guy:

What you wrote sounds off to me. You wrote

我们学德国话
We learn germany language.

vs.

我們在學德文
We are learning german.
posted by wongcorgi at 12:27 PM on March 7, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you for the responses! Please do keep them coming. I’ll post a picture of the completed sign/poster soon!

The grammar and syntax of my last post was awful, sorry.
posted by vkxmai at 1:15 PM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: Hungarian:

Németül beszélünk - We speak German
Németül tanulunk - We are learning German
posted by atmosphere at 2:08 PM on March 7, 2009

Best answer: We speak German:

Eastern Armenian: Մենք գերմանական խոսումենք:
:Western Armenian: Մենք գերմանական կ'խոսենք:

We are learning German:

Eastern Armenian: Մենք գերմանական սովորումենք:
Western Armenian: Մենք գերմանական կ'սովորենք:
posted by k8t at 8:23 PM on March 7, 2009

wongcorgi: "@geekyguy:
What you wrote sounds off to me. You wrote

我们学德国话
We learn germany language.

vs.

我們在學德文
We are learning german."

Ok, how about,
Women xue dewen.
我们学德文。

Note, for the original poster, that you have used traditional hanzi while I have used simplified.

I'm not at all certain how you've used zai/在
posted by geekyguy at 3:43 PM on March 8, 2009

Response by poster: • Serbian
• Ukrainian
• Polish
• Modern Greek
• Spanish
• Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
• Cantonese (or Mandarin)
• Italian
• Turkish
• Hindi
• Arabic
• Georgian
• Hungarian
• Armenian
• Norwegian
• Serbian
• Ukrainian
• Rumansh
• Belarussian
• Hindi

Thanks for your help!
posted by vkxmai at 4:33 PM on March 8, 2009

geekyguy - the 在 implies an ongoing state similar to the original "we are learning..." but I avoided it in my offered version as it seems too immediate - we are doing it right this minute or it is the main content of what we're doing. Also, wouldn't use 德文 for the first phrase, as it's less appropriate for referring to the spoken language - I chose to keep the same 德语 in both to be consistent but can seen that 德文 goes naturally with an academic setting.
Still like my versions best so far though (you'll be shocked to hear :D) and Googling the various possibilities like the look of those who share my view, e.g.
posted by Abiezer at 4:54 PM on March 8, 2009

Response by poster: To clarify, I still need Serbian and Ukrainian. I didn’t intend to cross those ones off!
posted by vkxmai at 6:05 PM on March 8, 2009

Best answer: Serbian:

Pričamo njemački -- We speak German
Učimo njemački - We are learning German
posted by Ljubljana at 1:28 AM on March 9, 2009

Best answer: Belarusian:

Мы гаварым па Нямецкi - "We speak German" = [Myi gavaryim pa Nyametski]
Мы вучым Нямецкi - "We learn German" = [Myi vuchyim Nyametski]
Зарас мы вучым Нямецкi - "We are learning German" = [Zaras myi vuchyim Nyametski]
There is no [verb] like -ing verb in English, so I add "Zaras" which is equal [to] "Now".
posted by whatzit at 6:03 AM on March 11, 2009

Best answer: This is late but hopefully you are still checking it.

Ukrainian:

We speak German.
Ми розмовляємо німецькою мовою.
My rozmovljajemo Nimets'koju (movoju)


We are learning German.
Ми вивчаємо німецьку мову.
My vyvchajemo Nimets'ku (movu)


(I don't speak Ukrainian but I got this from a Native speaker.)
posted by kosmonaut at 11:22 AM on March 13, 2009

Response by poster: • Serbian
• Ukrainian
• Polish
• Modern Greek
• Spanish
• Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
• Mandarin
• Italian
• Turkish
• Hindi
• Arabic
• Georgian
• Hungarian
• Armenian
• Norwegian
• Belarussian
• Serbian
• Ukrainian
• Swahili [Not spoken, but thanks!]
• Rumansh [Not spoken, but would be awesome]
• Hindi
posted by vkxmai at 5:58 AM on March 23, 2009

Response by poster: I have had some comments (mostly negative) about my door at school. I don’t like to run down others, but I will say that a non-Chinese-speaking colleague commented that I should put the more “popular global” languages (she pointedly referred to Spanish, French, and Chinese) in “a bigger font” to represent their “importance and influence.” I didn’t try to explain my position, because it would be immediately interpreted as a bitter German teacher defending his program, not his weltanschauung.

A few Russian kids mockingly asked why I put “Soviet languages” on my door. They pointed, laughing, to Ukrainian, Georgian, and “moldavskij” (Romanian) and then asked where “kazakhskij” (Kazakh) would go.

Here is a picture of it. It is a work-in-progress.
posted by vkxmai at 6:12 AM on March 23, 2009

Thanks for the picture, and please continue to ignore idiots like the "bigger font" maniacs.
posted by languagehat at 7:40 AM on March 23, 2009

Best answer: You didn't ask for them, but I'll oblige anyway with Czech and Slovak (in that order).

Mluvíme německy.
Učíme se německy.

Hovoríme po nemecky.
Učíme sa po nemecky.

You know, we were friends during the war : ) And we like your cars.
posted by Laotic at 4:07 PM on March 23, 2009

It looks really cool! And I'm astonished that you've gotten negative comments. Maybe I'm naive, but I never would have expected that.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:43 AM on March 24, 2009

Response by poster: It looks really cool! And I'm astonished that you've gotten negative comments. Maybe I'm naive, but I never would have expected that.

There is a trend in public education towards mediocrity. This has been accelerated by NCLB. Most middle and high school pupils in the US learn Spanish or French. In Ohio, the numbers are roughly: 250,000 Spanish, 65,000 French, 25,000 German, 12,000 Latin, <1>
As a younger German teacher with IT work experience outside of the classroom, (I can also teach French and I speak Romanian and Russian), my presence on a faculty is often antagonistic to some teachers.

The fact that Spanish (or Chinese) isn’t in my repertoire often raises an eyebrow, as well. Now and then I have to explain why I picked German (“Does anyone still speak that?”). Admitting that you speak French or “Rooskie” in a former red-state can be a delicate matter.

The dominance of Spanish in some schools means that it has been simplified and distilled into the simplest possible components and sugarcoated for ease of instruction/training.

There is also the racist trope spread by guidance counselors that kids ought to learn Spanish or Chinese, because it will somehow help out in the job market. To feed a fifteen year-old the lie that someone with four years of HS Spanish or three semesters of college Spanish will help them stand out in college or job applications from the other 249,999 kids or somehow out-perform a native-speaking US citizen with an analogous state-school background is asinine.

I focus on how German or French can improve English literacy, written expression, and verbal communication skills.
posted by vkxmai at 5:04 PM on March 24, 2009

Response by poster: <1> should have been: and < 1,000 Chinese.
posted by vkxmai at 5:06 PM on March 24, 2009

I don't understand why Russian kids would consider those languages "Soviet languages" -- the languages that you have written in cyrillic are still written in cyrillic in post-Soviet times.
posted by kosmonaut at 9:09 AM on March 27, 2009

Response by poster: I don't understand why Russian kids would consider those languages "Soviet languages" -- the languages that you have written in cyrillic are still written in cyrillic in post-Soviet times.

The two are seniors and have that mentality that the Armenians, Georgians, Romanians, and Ukrainians are inferior to Mother Russia and her diaspora. It’s a pretty common stereotype.
posted by vkxmai at 4:56 PM on April 1, 2009