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[NNNNNN]

Anyone know the name of the chik that sings that one song on vice city radio?it songs like German or French or something...

[merylsilverburg]

I think the song you're looking for is "99 Luftballons" by German artist Nena. It was a really popular song in the 80's, although everyone only knew and sang the chorus. Hope this helps.

[Berserker]

Hast du etwas zeit fur mir, denn singe ich eine lied fur dir(99 luftballons)

Is that the one? Better pick up on your foreign languages if you can't make out the difference between French and German. Cause the difference is quit big.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Berserker

Hast du etwas zeit fur mir, denn singe ich eine lied fur dir(99 luftballons)

Is that the one? Better pick up on your foreign languages if you can't make out the difference between French and German. Cause the difference is quit big.

Although it's very true that German and French are noticeably different, I think some people's ears and brain do not have that quality, or quick registration, that discerns languages easily. This can be argued the same way with any languages that are noticeably different but not so widely heard unless those ethnic groups are predominate in your area; case in point, Korean and Mandarin/Chinese - completely different (if you said Korean and Japanese, more understandable) but some people just can't tell the difference. Either it's being completely ignorant, unaware of foreign languages (which I admit, I probably can't tell many different languages except for major ones because I have not been exposed to much...I'm sorry) or just not lacking the attentive ear, until knowing which case is which, I think it's difficult to judge. Sorry Berserker, not trying to start an argument or anything, okay?

[Berserker]

Partially agreed, I watch a lot of asian-movies and the difference for me between the japanese, kantonese/mandarin, korean, thai and indian language is really big IMO. And that's only from watching some movies, not even understanding a word they say. I suppose you guys in the us get some foreign languages in school? Probably french, spanish etc. So when you have only a little knowledge about the french language you should be able to tell the difference between that and german in a song like Nena's?? I don't know I just find it strange...and I don't want to sound high-horsed(is that even correct??)
And Meryl I never mind discussing anything with you...

[jjmoohead]

and if you can't understand it and want to sing along, just get teh english version simple known as "99 Red Balloons".

Also being in Canada, and having to offical languages, French and English, I do know a bit of French, and can normally recognize a difference, from other languages. However if you are not in a situation where different languages are present, it could be very different. Stupid example, but think of saying visiting a new planet where we have discovered life and attempting to communicate with in a room full of people. Never having heard you or you any of them, are you going to be able to know the difference between 1 person and the next? Just think about that.

In todays world there is enough TV shows out there and ways to communicate that for the most part it shuold be easy to detect, but if your not surrounded by it, then it is easy to be mis lead. The same can be said for the different types of accents, go into England for example and surround yourself with an Austrialian, American, Canadian, English, New Zeland and Scottish and point out who is from where. Although thats a different debate, it works on the same idea.

[Berserker]

But I mean you guys do get foreign languages at school right? Or can you only chose them later on? Cause we are obligated to learn at least one foreign language at school in order to graduate. Traditionally those were English, German and French. Nowadays the kids can also follow Spanish, Italian, Arabic etc.(it depends on the school what extra languages you can follow).

Maybe it's because I'm from Amsterdamn that I grew up surrounded with all kind of nationalities, or that the dutch tv also shows german, french, italian, spanish, chinese, turkish etc. channels. I even manage to get an almost perfect score on roughly telling where tourists are from by their looks or behaviour

And about the accents, come on english is waaaaaay different than northern american. Agreed that it's sometimes difficult to tell, but australian is way different than scottish etc.etc.
The way canadian talk, they got this strange way of saying words like "out", a bit the Avril Lavigne way
Even the difference between people from northern england(for example the "scouse" accent) and the ones from London(for example "cockney" accent) is worlds apart.

Don't mean to offend anybody by the above stated, cause I know that it is very generalising(???).

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Berserker

I suppose you guys in the us get some foreign languages in school? Probably french, spanish etc. So when you have only a little knowledge about the french language you should be able to tell the difference between that and german in a song like Nena's??

Yes, we do have to learn a language. In middle school, we had to take one language (French, German, or Spanish) and when we get to high school, we had to take one of the same selections (French, German, or Spanish). And you're not wrong - seeing how every school, I assume, in the US requires their students to take at least 1 foreign language class, people should generally tell the difference between German and French like Nena's song. However, there are also people who simply just don't care because all foreign languages are exactly that: foreign...what's the need to tell the difference? This type of attitude aggravates me, but what can you do?

Originally Posted by Berserker

Cause we are obligated to learn at least one foreign language at school in order to graduate. Traditionally those were English, German and French. Nowadays the kids can also follow Spanish, Italian, Arabic etc.(it depends on the school what extra languages you can follow).

Same here, as answered above. I think schools nowadays in the US are trying to get alternate languages other than Spanish, German, and French because a friend of mine who's currently going to college/university is taking Japanese (I curse him everyday ). Although I clearly see no point since Spanish is the language to learn nowadays anyway, hehe. I wouldn't be surprised if a policy required us to learn it.

Originally Posted by Berserker

Maybe it's because I'm from Amsterdamn that I grew up surrounded with all kind of nationalities, or that the dutch tv also shows german, french, italian, spanish, chinese, turkish etc. channels. I even manage to get an almost perfect score on roughly telling where tourists are from by their looks or behaviour

LOL, that's pretty neat man. I would love to be able to do what you do (the tourist thing). Although, it's for this reason why it may seem easy for you to tell the difference between nationalities...because of your large exposure of it. I'm alright with telling the different Asians apart (although the mixed people are screwing me up) but other people would throw me off unless they have really strong qualities that they're from a certain country. And the reason why I'm good with Asians is because the town I'm living in has a predominate majority of Asians...it goes like this: Asians, Americans, Spanish, then Blacks. Before I moved here, I had no exposure to Asians at all because I grew up in an all white town...then I moved and got hit with all the Asians which resulted how I can tell Asians apart.
And you're lucky that your TV programs show a variety of foreign shows...we don't have that in the US.

Originally Posted by Berserker

And about the accents, come on english is waaaaaay different than northern american. Agreed that it's sometimes difficult to tell, but australian is way different than scottish etc.etc.

I have to agree. It doesn't take a whole bunch of Americans to live in, for example, France in order for the French to tell the accent difference between the Americans and the English. Although I admit that sometimes I'm thrown off between the Australians and the English, so yes, feel free to call me stupid.

[NNNNNN]

Ye thnx. That helped a lot. i just love that song,always got me in the mood for a good cop chase or rampage.

[jjmoohead]

See at one time I would agree with you that the English language is easy to point out, until having lived there myself. Canada/America is so close that you really couldnt point it out unless you asked is to say certain words. And to say all of us say the word "out" is a little stereotypical, even if I am guilty of it.

When I lived in England I was ALWAYS thought to be from USA. I was forever having to tell people I was Canadian. You may have a benifit from being in a area thats highly visited by people all over the world (I have been there myself), but what about the people who have never even been out of their state or province in North America. It doesn't make them not care about the rest of the world, but it may be the simple fact that they can't afford to go anywhere. I recently took a friend of mine on an 8 hour drive into the USA from where I am to Minnisota...it was his first time out of Canada or North Dakota his entire life and hes 25. It wasn't cause he didn't want to go, but because he came from a large family and was out on his own at an early age. A trip to England or Amsterdam would never be on his mind cause its just not something that he can put his mind around.

Anyway, picking out different forms of english dialect is not that simple. And i still say that if you put all those people in a room, you would have a hard time and in some cases you would make a 50/50 guess (especially between the Amercian and myself and more so if the American was from North Central USA.

As for other languages, yes I had to take French growing up and there was not other options at that time. I believe there are others in some other schools. Once I reached highschool there was no manditory French classes however. Just cause i didn't take other languages doesn't mean I don't care about them, and the same can be said about the people that might come across as not caring. I have always wanted to learn Japanise, but there has not been a medium for which allowed me to do that. Sometimes the people that "don't care" just don't have the options to learn. Yes I could learn from a tape or CD or something, but my learning style is hands on, doing things not reading or listening. Damn you 6 learning styles, why can't you be more like 1 giant learning style.

[Berserker]

I partially agree, but it's not like you need to learn a language in order to be able to tell the difference between that one and some other language.
I agree that the dialect difference between Canadians and Americans is the difficult. But all the others IMO are easy: scottish, welsh, irish, australian etc.

Nowadays not crossing the border isn''t really an excuse seeing that with internet you can practically meet the world.