Partida Rol por web

@saecel: soon we'll be playing some games in English:

PC (Player Character) = PJ

NPC (Non-Player Character) = PNJ

Hahaha, if someone somewhere tells me about a PC, even in an english game or Umbría related, I'll always think on a computer, never on a player character XD 

By the way.. Comunidad Umbría = Community of Shadows?? XDDDDD  (That would be literaly, i'ts a joke, it's better not no translate it anymore >_<)

Comunidad Umbría = Community of Shadows??

I'd actually say Dim Community... which doesn't sound much better either :P

Technically you could still say "Umbria Community" as it is, since Umbria also happens to be a region on the center of Italy, comprised of the provinces of Perusa and Terni.

If we don´t take that meaning, I guess we could go for "Community of Shadows". Or "A Community for Shadows", and we have the title for the next George R.R.Martin book XDDDDD (provided he doesn´t die before writing it).

Funny enough, I always had some trouble defining the meaning of 'Umbría' in Spanish. Never thought of it as 'Sombría', but rather as something in between 'darkened' or 'obscured'. Thus, 'oscurecida' instead of 'ensombrecida' or 'entre sombras'. Not an expert in philology whatsoever as you can see :P I belong to the true-science branch instead XD

But the geographical denomination is something to consider as well. Although, it should have read 'Umbria' without the accent mark on the 'i' to properly refer to the Italian region, right?

But all considered, I bet the most accurate term for this place would have been "The Community of Nerds" XDDD

@saecel  I bet the most accurate term for this place would have been "The Community of Nerds" XDDD

+100000  XDDD

just wait till we get the Custard Version ("Versión Natilla") All gets better and better in Umbría translations XD

@Melpo  My nickname is Melpo but I really don't like it. I use it because Melpomene was already taken, but I ask everybody to address me as Mel or Meli.

Did you know you can change your nickname if you don't really like it? Just ask for it using an incidence to the Crows explaining your reasons :)

I know, Milady, but... I... can't. I thought about it but then, when I wrote it down I feel guilty. All that stuff the crows are involved in and I will wasting their time only cause I don't like a nickname I chose.

Yes, yes, I know... I'm a bit stupid

The Big Bang Theory is a good example of a TV serie full of jokes that are funniest in English. My favorite is when Leonard is sad about being a nerd and he said that he has to be it cause he is a real nerd, a Leo-nerd XD

Funny enough, I always had some trouble defining the meaning of 'Umbría' in Spanish. Never thought of it as 'Sombría', but rather as something in between 'darkened' or 'obscured'. Thus, 'oscurecida' instead of 'ensombrecida' or 'entre sombras'. Not an expert in philology whatsoever as you can see :P I belong to the true-science branch instead XD

It is derived from Latin word umbra, which means "shadow", so if we follow etymology*, it is more correct. In modern Spanish, it's a term that delimits a space that falls under the shadow of a geological accident (e.g. hills, mountains, rocky outcroppings, etc.), so you could go with "shadowed" or "overshadowed" (although "overshadow" is more commonly used in a metaphoric sense).

But all considered, I bet the most accurate term for this place would have been "The Community of Nerds" XDDD

Flawless logic. I can´t really counter that with anything XD

 Now with boards!

* The science that studies the history and evolution of words and their meanings.

'science'????

I guess you mean...

science

Right?

XDDDDDDD

Nope. It follows the scientific method (observe/research, formulate hyptothesis, cross-reference findings, validate hypothesis, consolidate, observe/research) and cross-compares their results with other similar sciences (like semantics) which in turn are also based on findings from other sciences (neurology, psychology), hence, it is a science. 

Not all scientists do have white lab coats and flux condensers, you know ;)

Not all scientists do have white lab coats and flux condensers, you know ;)

In fact, Law is actually a science, too (jurisprudence). I wish I could wear that white labs in a trial. It would be awesome >.< DDXDDXDDXDXD

And, talking about Gernan, is it difficult? I would like learn, but I have heard about German all bad things that I am scared XDXDXDXDXD

Hi everybody! My name is Kingslayer, I'm [censored] years old and I have a First/B2 level. I want to improve my english so I joined this workshop so I can practice and feel ashamed. Thank you for letting me be here!

Moon, I've studied German (just a little), with no degree but about A2 or B1 level. When you have a high level of English, it's relatively easy. Both are similar languages, so it was easier for me to start learning German.

Ohhhh O.O I see, Branter ^^ Thank you :))) So, it's easier if you have any knowledge of English ^^ Gotcha :DD XDXDXD

Moon, I always wanted to learn German too. My father was working in Swizertland in the seventies and he bougth a book and radiocassettes to learn German (like and old version of CCC).
When I was at high school, every year, in the summertime I worked with it. Every year I began Lesson 1. Never past to lesson 2. ALL those years, I was listening the same lesson.

As a result, now I know 2 phrases:
- Ich bin gross und stark.
- The tee ist gut aber meine tasse ist zu kleine

Only two phrases but with the best pronunciation

XDDDDDDD

And, talking about Gernan, is it difficult? I would like learn, but I have heard about German all bad things that I am scared XDXDXDXDXD

It is complex, very heavily regulated and its syntax makes absolutely no sense at all. In general, you will spend a good deal of time memorizing tons of rules (like which verbs demand accusative, dative or both, which prepositions go with certain verbs, which elements alter the word order...), but the good news is that once you get the grammar down, it´s fairly consistent. German has mighty few exceptions, especially compared to e.g. English.

Facts about German:

- It has 3 genders: Masculine, Feminine and Neutral. Trying to use Spanish genders for the same words has mixed results, For example Mädchen (maiden), Kind (child) and See (sea, lake) are neutral. Fleisch (flesh) and Stühl (stool, chair) are masculine.

- As you might have noticed seeing certain words side by side, lots of German words sound like their English equivalents

- And also, ALL German substantives are capitalized.

- They also have those funny vowels with "¨" (Umlaut) on top of the regular vowels, and it changes the pronounciation of the original one- it´s more or less like trying to add an "e" to the sound and pronouncing it at the same time. Very funny.

- It has cases, like latin. Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, and Dative. Genitive is on a steady decline in favor of agrammatical use of dative. As they say  "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" (Something like saying "The dative is the genitive is the death of")-which illustrates exactly how they misuse the Dative to represent the Genitive.

- Cases apply not only to nouns, but also to the articles and adjectives that go with them, as well as certain pronouns (e.g. Possesives). Which means, you have to memorize the declensions for the 3 genders and 4 cases for articles, adjectives and nouns. Adjectives have strong and weak declensions, by the way. And there´s the plurals (luckily enough, there´s only 1 plural for all genders). Still, declensions are a major bitch, especially when you are trying to be fluent.

- ...that said, Germans usually don´t give a f*** if you use the wrong gender or mess the case. They will immediately know you are not German, but past that, little of consequence tends to happen.

- The verb usually goes at the end of the sentence, so you have to read the entire sentence before you actually know what is it about, or be good enough at spotting verbs. I say "usually" because certain elements (e.g. trotzdem, "however") might change the order of the sentence. And some verbs are trennbar, or separable, meaning they can "split" and appear in different parts of the sentence.
E.g: the verb "to unregister", abmelden. For saying "Please disconnect", instead of saying "Bitte abmelden Sie", you say "Bitte melden Sie ab"- because abmelden is separable.

- Some verbs are "ruled" by Dative and some are "ruled" by Accusative, meaning that when they appear, their subject must be in the case they are ruled by.

- It has prepositional verbs- verbs that only are correct with the correct preposition. E.g. "To be afraid of" ("sich fürchten") always goes with "von". No other preposition is valid.

- Lots of verbs will be made by a "base" and a different peroposition for a different meanind. E.g. "anmelden" (register) and "abmelden" (unregister), or "einsteigen" (go inside a bus, tram, etc.) and "aussteigen" (go outside of a bus, tram, etc.) Or for example, "einziehen", "ausziehen" and "umziehen" generally mean the same: to move to another place. But the meaning slightly differs because each of those prepositions means moving in a different direction (inside, out and around, repectively)

- Good news is that the verb structure is simpler than Spanish: it only has 1 present tense, 2 past ones, 1 future and passive voice. Most of those are equal for all verbs whether they are regular or not (e.g. the future is made by preceding the infinitive of the verb with the correct form of the verb werden, regardless of which verb is it.

- Germans love to subordinate sentences. They can cram 5 different sentences in one, and in writing, they often do. Speaking tends to have a simpler structure.

- German can create stupidly long compound words:

This is an exaggeration, but they do often create complex words. For example, some of the most important documents you´ll have living in Germany are the Meldebestätigung and the Sozialversicherungsnummer. Good news is, those words are made up of several simpler ones, and those are arranged in an order that makes sense: the Meldebestätigung is simply a Bestätigung (declaration, official confirmation) that you are gemeldet (registered). The Sozialsversicherungsnummer is just the nummer (number) of your Sozial (social) versicherung (insurance, from the verb versichern, to insure)

- The longest "natural" German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (law delegating beef label monitoring). You won´t see it much, because said law was rendered obsolete by the new food laws of the EU in 2013.

- German is good for understanding Rammstein songs.

- German makes absolutely no sense at all XDDDD

As a result, now I know 2 phrases:
- Ich bin gross und stark.
- The tee ist gut aber meine tasse ist zu kleine

Only two phrases but with the best pronunciation

Two weeks was the longest time I've tried to study German with a german teacher. I quit. So your 2 sentences are better than my entire german XD

As a result, now I know 2 phrases:
- Ich bin gross und stark.
- The tee ist gut aber meine tasse ist zu kleine

Only two phrases but with the best pronunciation

It´s "Der Tee", actually.

It makes me wonder why textbooks are so intent on using strange and not terribly useful sentences for examples. I don't see anyone saying those things quite often. Guess it´s something like "My taylor is rich" in English- it got popular somehow. That, or textbook makers are some special brand of sadists.

- Ich bin gross und stark.
- The tee ist gut aber meine tasse ist zu kleine

As a "I-have-tried-to-but-I-will-never-ever-speak-german" I have to ask.. What does they mean? XD

It makes me wonder why textbooks are so intent on using strange and not terribly useful sentences for examples

I always thought it was because of the pronunciation or the graphemes.. It's like in spanish "mi mamá me mima" to work with the M letter.. I think that's a reason why. But yes, the combinations of words and sentences are truly nosense most of the time XD

"I am big and strong" and "The tea is good but the cup is too small"... or something like that XD

Cita:

I agree. The way children learn English is based in phonetics. Even when they are learning to write the letters. For example, when they are learning to write "a", they sing "Round the apple, down the leaf", a meaningless phrase. But it is used for know to make... ¿trazos? (Anyone who knows the English word?)

textbook makers are some special brand of sadists.

I always thought everybody involved somehow and whatsoever in the sciences of linguistics were sadists, so no surprise there XD

And for those of you who are considering learning German, please, please, please, remember what Charles V said (or at least in common lore is misattributed to him)

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to Women, French to Men, and German to my Horse"

'nuff said...