Wordmonsters - Monsterwords

I know the long Italian word you've mentioned here because Italians always mention it when the topic is 'long words'. But you can't combine several words and form long words yourself as you can do in German and other people will understand you. You can't say 'casaporta', 'lettocoperta'; 'nottecamicia' --- to mention a few which have just crossed my mind.

@MALUSE We have some, not those you mentioned but: caffelatte, pescecane, compravendita, altopiano, galantuomo, apribottiglie, lavastoviglie, oltetomba, benpensante, sempreverde, manomettere. Just a few that comes to my mind.

@LadyDuck Do you mean 'olt r etomba' with an 'r'? I had to look it up. I've never seen the word before.

@xFiacre I was thrown out of a few classes my senior year

@MALUSE Nor me, but I thought you deserved a treat.

@MALUSE Here Mexicans take Spanish to learn and they can not pass Spanish's because they are not speaking the proper Spanish.

@jstory07 It is disputable what is 'proper Spanish'. Of course, it's no the same as the Spanish spoken in Spain just as American English is not the same as British English any more. It has developed some pecularities of its own over the centuries.

I taught English as a foreign language to German pupils at secondary grammar schools. They don't have to learn only how to understand and use it, they also have to know something about the language as such. When I came to this topic, I always began with the question, "Why is English the world language No 1?" From there I wanted to move on to the topic of colonialism etc. In the 40 years of my teaching career I only ever got the answer, 'Because it's easy to learn." They compared it to French and/or Latin, the other foreign language they had to choose. Some pupils even learnt three foreign languages. According to the school they had chosen that could be Spanish, Italian or Russian. Quite a lot of pupils in Germany come from immigrant families, mainly Italians, Spaniards, Greeks or people from the former Yugoslavia. They often can't write these languages well, but they can understand and speak them. The top pupil I've met was a girl whose native language is Aramian, the language Jesus spoke. Her family lived in Iraq where Arabic is the official language. Then they emigrated to Germany which meant three languages for the family. The girl attended a secondary grammar school where she had to learn English and French. What? Only five languages? In her spare time she worked as a waitress in an Italian ice-cream parlour and learnt basic Italian in no time. The mind boggles!

You could put ...ausbildung' (training) (10 more letters!) at the end of your word. How come this word has come to your mind? Have you got a German background and do you have such a person in your family?

@spiderdust Sollte ich vielleicht meine Kommentare auf deutsch schreiben zur Übung?

@MALUSE My mother spoke German fluently (although taught us very little) and I've been learning some conversational German on my own over the last two years.

Are you saying that English is difficult to master? With which other languages are you comparing it? I was a teacher of English at secondary grammar schools in Germany. The older pupils have to study the history of English, too. I always started the topic with the question, "Why is Englsh the world language No 1?" From there I wanted to get to the topic of colonialism etc. In my 39 years as a teacher I only ever got one answer and it was always the same, namely, "Because it is easy to learn." This is nonsense of course, the reason lies in the history of colonialism, but it shows you that they didn't consider Englsh as difficult. All pupils at secondary grammar schools in Germany have to learn two foreign languages. The pupils can compare English with French, Russian and Latin. Some schools also offer Spanish. They all have to learn two foreign languages at secondary grammar schools.

@Gilljane Yes, that's right. Wherever they go in the world, they're likely to find someone who can talk English.

@MALUSE Many British people are ;lazy when it comes to learning other languages

@MALUSE Danke schön

Ein frohes neues Jahr for you, too!

@MALUSE yes, I'm very lucky.

You're lucky that English is your native language. So you aren't lost wherever you go. You'll always find someone who speaks your language.

Heehee. I'm sure you can impress your country people with this. You wouldn't be able to do so where I live which is less than 50 km from the Mercedes works. Everyone and their grandmother has a Mercedes here.

@MALUSE Just as long as I have mine

@MALUSE Oh wow! That is really something.