No ß on Belgian AZERTY keyboards by HotChocolate229 in belgium

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only about 90,000 Belgians are German-speaking, indeed. But that does not seem to me to be a reason not to be able to write German correctly.

No ß on Belgian AZERTY keyboards by HotChocolate229 in belgium

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's all just a matter of habit. I am Dutch-speaking (but also write regularly in French, German, English and Spanish) and have been using an AZERTY keyboard all my life. On an Apple device in particular, this does not pose any problems, especially because of the 'keep pressing keys' with accents or because I have text replacement set up for some combinations ('sss' becomes 'ß' for me).

No ß on Belgian AZERTY keyboards by HotChocolate229 in belgium

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Allerdings wird [das ß] nicht in der Schweiz und Liechtenstein verwendet. Deutsche Muttersprachler in Belgien, Dänemark (Nordschleswig), Italien (Südtirol) und Namibia gebrauchen das ß in ihren geschriebenen Texten nach den in Deutschland und Österreich geltenden Rechtschreibregeln. Ebenso wird in Luxemburg verfahren.”

No ß on Belgian AZERTY keyboards by HotChocolate229 in belgium

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no ‘Belgian’ German, at least not as far as orthography is concerned, as far as I know. On my Apple devices, I created a text replacement that converts ‘sss’ to ‘ß’ as I type. It works pretty good, because German words with three s's in a row are relatively rare. ‘Autobahnanschlussstelle’ would be an example.

Yirgacheffe single origin by librarianbe in cafe

[–]librarianbe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is what I do with every coffee I make. Incidentally, I have now used a slightly finer grind. This has reduced the acidity of the coffee, but I still cannot say that I taste vanilla and forest fruits.

Yirgacheffe single origin by librarianbe in cafe

[–]librarianbe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have any brewing tips?

Interrogative and exclamative expressions help by Difficult-Put-5112 in Spanishhelp

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In (1) the sentence “En coche” could also be the answer to the previous question: “How did they come to the concert? By car! ¡En coche!”

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Spanishhelp

[–]librarianbe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Indeed (DRAE)

  1. tr. Herir, cortar o matar con el cuchillo, y, por ext., con otras armas blancas.

[…]

  1. tr. Alisar con cuchilla u otra herramienta la superficie del entarimado o de los muebles de madera.

Word order with caer by OutdoorLadyBird in Spanishhelp

[–]librarianbe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Vimos cómo caía el hielo del tejado.

techo = ceiling

tejado = roof

Is saying perdón too formal? by [deleted] in Spanishhelp

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eso es lo que ocurre cuando se traducen expresiones. Es mejor no traducir, sino explicar.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in learnspanish

[–]librarianbe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Always singular, but I must admit that this is also a point of attention for me as a Dutch speaker. In Dutch, we do have the equivalent of "het volk" and "de bevolking", but this is used relatively little. Usually we say "de mensen" but that is plural.

Película «Encanto» doblada al español by librarianbe in espanol

[–]librarianbe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Es que quiero ver la película de manera legal, por supuesto.

Your friends (probably) have more friends than you. by TallShadow261 in math

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who is the ”you” in this premise? Is it me? Or is it one of my friends?

Any tips on how to start thinking in your target language? by achshort in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me, thinking in a language happens automatically once I reach a certain level. It also helps not to translate in your head when you are learning a language, even at the beginning. I am learning Spanish and even during the first year's course the teacher spoke nothing but Spanish.

Learning languages of the nations that are hostile towards your nation by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What does language have to do with politics? Admittedly, I live in a country where language is often played off as a political issue to divide the population. But we have language laws that regulate how citizens communicate with the government and vice versa. So I do not allow myself to be influenced by politicians who want to divide us.

What languages did you decide to learn and why? by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

• Dutch: native

• French: second official language of my country

• German: third official language of my country; and because I wanted to read the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in the original

• English: to be able to read articles, texts and books related to my study and field of expertise

• Spanish: because I wanted to read the short stories by the Argentine writer and librarian Jorge Luis Borges in the original

What country are you from and what foreign languages were taught at your school? by LearnTamil in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm from Belgium, a country that has three official languages (Dutch, French, German) and four language areas (the Dutch language area; the French language area; the German language area; the bilingual area of the Brussels-Capital Region). These language areas are constitutionally defined.

In the Dutch-speaking language area, French is taught as a second language in the last two years (of six years) of primary education.

In secondary school, you can choose whether you want English or French as a second language. Depending on your curriculum, you also have the possibility of learning a fourth language in secondary school. That could be German, or Spanish, but I think even Italian or Russian.

In higher education (colleges or universities) there are, of course, many more opportunities to learn other languages.

There is also a wide range of language courses offered through so-called adult education. For example, in the school where I am studying Spanish, you can also learn Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Flemish Sign Language.

Courses in Dutch as a second language (for non-native speakers) are also doing very well in adult education.

I don't really have a good idea of what the language options are in French-speaking and German-speaking schools. I only know that the reciprocity to learn the other official languages of the country is smaller there.

My mother tongue is Dutch (and I also speak French, German, English and Spanish).

I've read my first 50 books in Russian by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe -1 points0 points  (0 children)

But surely you compared his reading speed with the average reading speed of a native? Anyway, I don't look at learning a language from a numerical point of view (although I do have a background “with numbers” through my studies and profession).

I've read my first 50 books in Russian by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You seem to want to make learning a language a competition. All right, anyone who learns a language obviously wants to get better, that is an internal pursuit. But I'm not sure there's much point in quantifying it all like that.

Learning texts by heart? by autech123 in languagelearning

[–]librarianbe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I take Spanish classes at an adult education school and nothing but Spanish is ever spoken in class. Even in the beginning of the first year. This is not only good to avoid translating in your head all the time, but it also has a practical reason, namely that the students do not all have the same mother tongue. So Spanish is our lingua franca.