Sir_Snooze

No, it's a quote, dude. When you wrote it, I thought it was the funniest thing ever, so I went with it.

That's disappointing. Upon thinking about it, wouldn't having something engaging like a game help to teach more effectively? I mean, you can't find two things more polar than a stereotypical boring history lecture (i.e.: the ones I got in university, with only two notable exceptions) and a video game. I'd imagine that, if it was accurate and researched, a video game would be a more effective teacher than 3/4 of the professors I endured.

Just a quick question:

You mentioned in one of your (fantastic, by the way) videos a game called 6 Days in Fallujah. After Konami bailed on it, is it still publisherless? What about the Nintendo one, with all the nightmares and stuff?

Done and done. I kinda guessed at the size - is it okay now?

That's the idea - you basically learn backwards. That's what I do; say, for example, that we understood no Latin at all. I would probably learn its most modern incarnations (Italian/Romanian/Spanish) and listen to various dialects near where Latin was a strong language (say, Rome). Based on how common certain sounds and phrases are (say, if Sicily says nuevo and Rome nuovo, and Florence neuava, I know that the letter 'a' is not in the Latin word because Florence is far from the source and Sicily and Rome, which are closer, are way closer together).

If it works in reverse, it can work the other way, too. I can take my Latin language skills, sample audio of Italian, and understand modern Italian that way. It's an awkward process, but absolutely awesome.

Yo man! I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your new album. Really chill stuff; it's right up my alley, and it sounds really awesome. Thanks for sharing!

What sort of Latin? There is a connection between Latin and Italian (although it doesn't make much sense to learn it - it's kind of like learning French as a way to better one's English), but Latin's a really broken language.

It's probably High Latin that you learned. Still, that's rather unusual - thanks for sharing! Personally, I didn't much like Latin, either - it's wickedly complicated and the vocalizations (the syllables) are hard. It's still important, though.

Meh - no worries. Flemish is utterly useless for travel - it's spoken in its non-Dutch variant by about...15-20,000? The only reason I know it is family. In order to do language, you have to be right stuck in it. I did my university education partly in French; I hang out at community centres and listen for language tics and stuff (think like Canada's 'eh').

And no worries! Flemish is my first language - I learned English only after I went to school as a kid.

Edit because I forgot to mention that by no means does monolinguality mean slow learning. I'm sure if you had the same upbringing as I did, you'd be multilingual too. It has its downside, too - I can't count well in English, because I learned my numbers in Flemish...

The language in the "Sex and Relationship" thread is Flemish - my family's Belgian, so we all speak it to some degree. Being born to a first-gen immigrant mother, it's only natural I picked some of it up. It's very similar to Dutch, but it's spoken in a way that makes them almost mutually unintelligible. You can read them in either language, though.

If you want a sample of the language, here's the website of the brewery my cousin worked for, De Halve Maan (the half-moon). It's wonky.The only reason I posted it in here is because I don't want to derail the thread.

http://www.halvemaan.be/index.php?id=13

Do you speak Dutch, per chance?

Heh - true enough. I'm working on a pile of languages (I'm a linguhistorian by profession - that means I research old languages and try to preserve them): Mayan, Buryat, Khalkha, Navajo, and, believe it or not, Klingon. Yep - Star Trek's Klingon. It's a linguist's nightmare, which means that we want to try to figure it out.

Trouble is, nobody writes in my 'in-training' languages. Parlez-vous francais? Kannen U sprechen Vlaams?...Those are my only European languages. I intend to pick up German, Italian and Danish at some point, but, with the way research is going, that'll be when I'm retired...

Dude - no worries! Your stuff is thirty flavours of awesome. And that's exactly the mix, too - Cradle. Although it's still a kickin' tune, you've gained a ton of skill, too. Props, dude!

Thanks, man! Now that I see it, it makes a lot of sense.

That's actually a really good idea - my family's from Belgium, and we all speak Flemish to some degree. Thing is, my Flemish is really weak, and I'm always having trouble understanding things on the phone or in letters or whatever. I never thought to use forums - good call! Your command of English is impeccable in writing - is English common in Italy? I'd imagine not so much as in Belgium (almost everyone speaks it to some degree).

Hmm...now that's more familiar to Canada. Our Premiers get 4, PMs 5 (in theory), and they can call an election by asking the Governor General for one. He/she's never refused, to the best of my knowledge.

That's odd. So, does anything govern term limits or something for the executive? Or is it more like the ridiculously scattered English system, where everything's 10-million years old and set as precedent so many times it's immortal, but it's not actually in one place.

Seriously? Nothing? Then what checks your executive branch? Are there no safeguards at all?

I'm sorry for being inquisitive: it just sounds really weird. Case law is the entirety of your civil rights? Whoa.

Hey Wacky - out of curiousity, what covers Australian rights and freedoms? Canada has the Charter; the States the Bill of Rights et al., France has the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (or whatever) - what do the Australians get?

I frickin' love that box thing in your sig, man. It's awesome! Is that thing real?

Hey man! Outta curiousity, did you make a GoldenEye song, once upon a time? I was digging through an old computer and I saw a neat GoldenEye song with your name on it and the title 'O2ff52fqsg2', or something (in other words, it had no title because old computer is crap).

Did you make said song, or is it mislabeled? I don't trust the computer (for obvious reasons) to have it right. Your tunes are awesome, by the way!

No problem, man! Dunno quite what I did, but I'm happy to be of service.

Yo man! I have a comment and a question for you:

First, since it says you're from Italy (and thus, I assume you speak some form of Italian), how do you say happy birthday in Italian? A friend of mine in Italy is having his birthday there, so I thought it would be good fun.

Also, I was reading your post about the 3DS - the past tense of the word 'buy' is 'bought'. It's a stupid irregular verb, like 'see' (which becomes 'saw') and feel (which becomes 'felt'). I don't mean to sound arrogant - your English is amazing for it being a second (or third, or fourth, or whatever) language - but I just thought I'd let you know for the future.

Hey man! Can't honestly say I have, I don't think - why?

I love the new theme song, man.

...Solid talent...including David Wise, Robin Beanland and Grant Kirkhope? Wha...? Is this for serious? I'm pretty sure that sets a precedent, man. Now I'm DEFINITELY skipping my daily activities for the day this comes out.

It better be, or I'm blowing up Japan, Geno-style.

Ah, I kid - OCR does no wrong, especially musically. And you've got solid talent on this album.

Thanks for the link, man! I'll be firing up each one when I got the time. As in, working on my bloody paper for Russian Studies Post-Stalin. There's only so much you can write on Solzhenitsyn without music.