Ice Hockey World Championship 2009
It's time to see who's best, again.
Finland's first match was yesterday, against Norway, and Finland owned them 5-0. It's what everyone was excepting, pretty much, even though Norway has been improving in recent years. Finland played well, though their defence was kind of lacking. The main reason Norway didn't get a single point was the goalie, Pekka Rinne, who was great.
What's going to happen this year? Who's gonna win?!
Finland's first match was yesterday, against Norway, and Finland owned them 5-0. It's what everyone was excepting, pretty much, even though Norway has been improving in recent years. Finland played well, though their defence was kind of lacking. The main reason Norway didn't get a single point was the goalie, Pekka Rinne, who was great.
What's going to happen this year? Who's gonna win?!
Is anyone watching these besides myself? 
Anyway, Finland just lost against Belarus. Belarus. Belarus.
Anyway, Finland just lost against Belarus. Belarus. Belarus.
I don't quite watch ice hockey, but Scratcher, are you from Finland, since you talk much about Finland, but you haven't set your country's flag in your profile.
Nah, I'm not from Finland, I'm from Sweden. I just rightfully acknowledge Finland as being far more awesome and better at ice hockey, that's why I talk so much about them.
I thought Swedish guys didn't think too much of Finlandishers (wtf do you call them?!)... Anyway, Finnish (the language...ooh! is that also what you call them?) doesn't make sense to me at all, I like the Swedish language better. But that doesn't really relate to Ice Hockey at all... Oh well 
Ahh, but not making sense is the whole charm of it. It's needlessly confusing and even if you learn it it's still easy to tell who's a native speaker... But it's a nice language to know.
I am really from Finland, I just thought it was a good chance to lampoon the swedes. =) In hockey and sports in general, there's a friendly rivalry thing between the two countries, losing to Tre Kronor is not something to be taken lightly so the matches are usually pretty intense.
I am really from Finland, I just thought it was a good chance to lampoon the swedes. =) In hockey and sports in general, there's a friendly rivalry thing between the two countries, losing to Tre Kronor is not something to be taken lightly so the matches are usually pretty intense.
Uudessa-Seelannissa, emme oikeastaan katsomaan jääkiekko. Pidämme kiinni, mikä on tärkeää, RUGBY!
And no, New Zealanders don't generally speak suomi. I just felt like it lol
And no, New Zealanders don't generally speak suomi. I just felt like it lol
Scratcher, I think there's a little rivarly all the time with Finland and Sweden.
And ExDeathevn, you didn't spell it perfectly right, but that's okay, since finnish is the 3rd hard language in the world.
And ExDeathevn, you didn't spell it perfectly right, but that's okay, since finnish is the 3rd hard language in the world.
"finnish is the 3rd hard language in the world"
Really? What're the first two?
Really? What're the first two?
Hmm... I imagine English is pretty hard what with all the weird spellings and lots of similar words meaning the same thing. But then it's my first language, so I wouldn't really know
Anyway back on topic: I know next to nothing about ice hockey because it's not exactly a huge game here, but I do (or did) have this which was incredible fun.
Anyway back on topic: I know next to nothing about ice hockey because it's not exactly a huge game here, but I do (or did) have this which was incredible fun.
Well, I think english is one of the easiest languages.
And, heh, I have NHL 09, which I have no idea how it got to my house.
And, heh, I have NHL 09, which I have no idea how it got to my house.
Really, English is quite easy to learn. Some benefits:
- English has no genders, compare that to for example French and Dutch which have 2 and German which has 3 (Well, technically Dutch has three too, but the Dutch never bother about the difference between masculine and feminine words. This means that in practice Dutch has only the masculine/feminine gender and the neuter gender...)
- English has no cases, compare that to 4 for German and 7 for latin...
- English has an alphabet containing only 26 letters. Compare that to Japanese which has three different writing systems (plus latin characters). Never bother how much letters you'll need to learn...
- Simple conjugation, not quite as simple as Swedish, but still.
- English doesn't distinguish between a 'formal' pronoun and an 'informal' one. In Dutch you can address someone as either 'u' or 'jij', depending on how formal you want to speak to him/her. In English you can always use 'you'. There is still a thou-form in English, but it's hardly used (compare to the Dutch 'gij', which is used in normal speech only in Belgium). And don't even bother trying Japanese...
EDIT: Actually the difference between 'u' and 'jij' is less of a difference between formal and informal (as it is with the German 'Sie' and 'du')and more of a difference between respectful and informal. This is a little difference that actually leads to some interesting things. For example Dutch children often refer to their parents as 'u' (respectful, but not necessarily formal) while in German children would say 'du' (informal).
And there are probably quite a few others things which I have missed, but in general English is grammatically a very easy language to learn. Obviously I still make lots of mistakes, but that's because I suck...
- English has no genders, compare that to for example French and Dutch which have 2 and German which has 3 (Well, technically Dutch has three too, but the Dutch never bother about the difference between masculine and feminine words. This means that in practice Dutch has only the masculine/feminine gender and the neuter gender...)
- English has no cases, compare that to 4 for German and 7 for latin...
- English has an alphabet containing only 26 letters. Compare that to Japanese which has three different writing systems (plus latin characters). Never bother how much letters you'll need to learn...
- Simple conjugation, not quite as simple as Swedish, but still.
- English doesn't distinguish between a 'formal' pronoun and an 'informal' one. In Dutch you can address someone as either 'u' or 'jij', depending on how formal you want to speak to him/her. In English you can always use 'you'. There is still a thou-form in English, but it's hardly used (compare to the Dutch 'gij', which is used in normal speech only in Belgium). And don't even bother trying Japanese...
EDIT: Actually the difference between 'u' and 'jij' is less of a difference between formal and informal (as it is with the German 'Sie' and 'du')and more of a difference between respectful and informal. This is a little difference that actually leads to some interesting things. For example Dutch children often refer to their parents as 'u' (respectful, but not necessarily formal) while in German children would say 'du' (informal).
And there are probably quite a few others things which I have missed, but in general English is grammatically a very easy language to learn. Obviously I still make lots of mistakes, but that's because I suck...
Well, there is no Ä/ä or/and Ö/ö, which finnish language has. Well, we techincally have Å/å, but it's never used, because it's from Sweden.
Also, finnish never uses her/him it's always the same even if it's man and/or woman.
Also, finnish never uses her/him it's always the same even if it's man and/or woman.
Well, there is no Ä/ä or/and Ö/ö, which finnish language has. Well, we techincally have Å/å, but it's never used, because it's from Sweden.
Haha, we have something similar. The Dutch language union meets every once in a while to discus the spelling of new words. And the Dutch don't want it to look German and the Flemish don't want it to look French.
Leads to interesting discussions... For example I once met someone who thought I shouldn't use the word 'royaal' (meaning abundantly) and instead use 'koninklijk' (which means royal, but can apparently also mean abundantly in Flemish...)
Haha, we have something similar. The Dutch language union meets every once in a while to discus the spelling of new words. And the Dutch don't want it to look German and the Flemish don't want it to look French.
Leads to interesting discussions... For example I once met someone who thought I shouldn't use the word 'royaal' (meaning abundantly) and instead use 'koninklijk' (which means royal, but can apparently also mean abundantly in Flemish...)
Totally agree, English is supposed to be one of the easiest languages to learn!
I think Dutch might be in the top 5 of hardest languages though... I dare to say 95% of all native speakers cannot speak proper Dutch, since there are thousands of annoying little rules no-one can remember. (for all the Dutchies, classic mistakes are for example: 'groter als mij', 'in de brand', en de totale onregelmatigheid van kan en kunnen, die exact hetzelfde betekenen, doch semantisch niet geheel hetzelfde zijn: ik kan/kun, jij kan(/kunt in dialecten), wij kunnen. jaaaaaja)
I though Chinese was harder than Finnish, because their words don't relate to our (Roman) system at all.
I've learned Old-Irish is one of the hardest languages is the world, since they have double forms for ALL verbs. Modern Irish is better, though
I think Dutch might be in the top 5 of hardest languages though... I dare to say 95% of all native speakers cannot speak proper Dutch, since there are thousands of annoying little rules no-one can remember. (for all the Dutchies, classic mistakes are for example: 'groter als mij', 'in de brand', en de totale onregelmatigheid van kan en kunnen, die exact hetzelfde betekenen, doch semantisch niet geheel hetzelfde zijn: ik kan/kun, jij kan(/kunt in dialecten), wij kunnen. jaaaaaja)
I though Chinese was harder than Finnish, because their words don't relate to our (Roman) system at all.
I've learned Old-Irish is one of the hardest languages is the world, since they have double forms for ALL verbs. Modern Irish is better, though
English may be easy to learn, but it's probably the hardest language to master, mostly because it's so freaking big and constantly evolving (faster than any other language).
I think the country you are from effects your learning of different languages very much. E.G: English people may not know how to speak finnish at all, but swedish guys do, so... I've pretty much proved my point.
English is evolving faster than any other language? I doubt it. There are just to many speakers for the language to evolve very fast. If the English language would evolve rapidly it would more likely spread out, leading to more variety. The chance of American English, British English, Australian English and all the forms of English I now ignore will evolve in the same direction is... Small. The English language doesn't have any official regulation, which makes evolving in one direction troublesome. And if it's just evolving in a lot of directions... Well than in the end any version of English is mostly correct, making it even easier.
And English hasn't really evolved a lot in the last 400 years. Just try reading some Shakespear, then read some early 17th century Dutch texts. You'd be surprised how similar the Shakespeare texts are to modern English.
I think small languages tend to evolve a lot faster...
English is very big though. But even though I'm certainly not a native speaker I only occasionally come across totally new words. So by far most words are only used in specific circumstances, in which case often other languages than English don't even have a proper substitute. (Since a lot in the engineering/sciences is done in English anyway...) I must admit that English does have a lot of synonyms though.
Oh, did I mention that my favorite English word is "defenestrate"?
Fun things...
And English hasn't really evolved a lot in the last 400 years. Just try reading some Shakespear, then read some early 17th century Dutch texts. You'd be surprised how similar the Shakespeare texts are to modern English.
I think small languages tend to evolve a lot faster...
English is very big though. But even though I'm certainly not a native speaker I only occasionally come across totally new words. So by far most words are only used in specific circumstances, in which case often other languages than English don't even have a proper substitute. (Since a lot in the engineering/sciences is done in English anyway...) I must admit that English does have a lot of synonyms though.
Oh, did I mention that my favorite English word is "defenestrate"?
Fun things...
With evolving I mean new grammar rules and new words.
Do you know how many new words are created every day in the English language? Many more so than in all other languages combined. To keep track of all the latest grammar constructions and words takes a lot more dedication than for any other language.
Do you know how many new words are created every day in the English language? Many more so than in all other languages combined. To keep track of all the latest grammar constructions and words takes a lot more dedication than for any other language.
No one's interested in ice hockey, but grammar differences is the most exciting subject ever? Ducking Dink Network. 
Well, you should have started the topic by talking about grammar. And it would probably have turned into speaking about ice hockey somehow. That's just how TDN works.
By me changing the subject to something totally different by using Google Translate... lazy ducktard I am
