Posting in local boards to improve language skills?

[jackg]

I leant German at school as few years ago and am thinking of posting and looking at posts in their local board but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. I know people much better at the language than me but I want to have a go and see if I can improve it a bit but I want to know peoples thoughts on this as my language skills may be a bit flakey since I'm a bit rusty... I'm guessing the rule against online translators are for entire sentences/ posts as it does get really annoying when you do that, I'll just be using an online dictionary (Collins) for random words I get stuck on - I have the book somewhere otherwise .

I'm not sure if I made this topic or one similar to this last time I wanted to post, however, I feel the environment here might have changed between now and then.

This might be useful for getting an answer for a few other members too, I think jet Cash was trying to have a go at Spanish for example.

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[The Sceptical Chymist]

I would say don't do it here just to practice your language skills, because the results on the German board might come across as what you see every day in the Bitcoin Discussion section, i.e., people trying to communicate in a language that they're not proficient in. 

On the other hand, you're not a shitposter so if you actually have something useful to say that would be of interest to the Germans--but that's only if your German is good enough to be understood.  Otherwise they'll have the same problem the native English speakers do, which is having to interpret a post that's poorly written.  It wastes people's time figuring out what someone means when they don't use words properly or their grammar is poor.

I know some French,  but I would never post in that section because it's very rusty.  And I wouldn't want to waste people's time just so that I can practice writing in French.  Bitcointalk isn't for that.

[pugman]

I leant German at school as few years ago and am thinking of posting and looking at posts in their local board but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.

:facepalm:

You can always try, you know. Its not like this forum is full of shitposters anyway. Take the pride in being a German shitposter, get your posts deleted, and eventually get banned and create a thread in the German board with clusterfuck German grammar. I just gave you the best fucking idea ever!

Or if you're really that nervous, you can try other online websites to learn German.

[vivavivu]

If you are not well educated/learned person on any specific language then you should not post on that local board. If you post on any local board and there is any mistake of your spelling, grammar etc then local people can report against you. And for this moderator can delete and/or ban you from the forum. So if you are not well learned then you should stay away from local board.

[jackg]

On the other hand, you're not a shitposter so if you actually have something useful to say that would be of interest to the Germans--but that's only if your German is good enough to be understood.  Otherwise they'll have the same problem the native English speakers do, which is having to interpret a post that's poorly written.  It wastes people's time figuring out what someone means when they don't use words properly or their grammar is poor.

I know some French,  but I would never post in that section because it's very rusty.  And I wouldn't want to waste people's time just so that I can practice writing in French.  Bitcointalk isn't for that.

Yeah, I guess it's probably a shit idea.

There are a lot of places in local boards filled with English threads (for some reasons they have a local board) it's probably best to see if there's anything I can contribute to those.

If you are not well educated/learned person on any specific language then you should not post on that local board. If you post on any local board and there is any mistake of your spelling, grammar etc then local people can report against you. And for this moderator can delete and/or ban you from the forum. So if you are not well learned then you should stay away from local board.

I mean I did spend 7 years on it so I'd hope to have some proficiency in the language however a more reserved approach seems to be adopted here so I shall go back and bury by head in the sand and be the ostrich that I should be .

[1miau]

I would appreciate it if you give it a try! Of course, it all depends on your language skills, especially if the discussion is a bit more technical, but if you feel comfortable to comment in German, just try it. I wouldn't have problems at all to read insightful posts even if the grammar and spelling is not 100% correct. And to be honest, some native speakers are also struggling sometimes. 
It's rather quiet in the German section right now and if you want to have a look you are always welcome.
You are not a shitposter at all and I think if you post something useful this would contribute to the discussion in general. If you don't apply for translating ANNs or advertise a new, shitty exchange in every thread it would be ok for me. (this is still a problem there) 

And unfortunately, we don't have an active mod, phantastisch was last active November 04 because he had some troubles (hacker attack). We hope he'll be back soon but it would also be nice from theymos if he can announce a backup-mod in cases like this. Maybe qwk or Lafu would do a good job.

<>

LOL 

I like the idea of jackg 

[theymos]

Ask the local moderators.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Looking at posts in the German board - definitely. Posting in the German board - maybe, maybe not.

It all depends on your level of proficiency with the language. I also have enough verbal German to hold a reasonable conversation, but I would very much doubt my writing skills are up to par as I use them far more rarely, and I'm sure I would struggle greatly talking about more technical topics such as bitcoin and blockchain. I think a reasonable first step would be to spend some time simply reading in the German board to see how much you remember and how good your comprehension is.

I have no problem reading posts which aren't 100% accurate in grammar or word choice, as long as they are understandable, but I hate reading complete word salad posts where I cannot make head nor tail of what the poster is trying to convey. Only native German speakers will be able to tell you where you stand in terms of being comprehensible. I'm sure there are forums/boards/apps/etc out there for people who want to practice their foreign language skills with native speakers, but Bitcointalk probably isn't it.

[1miau]

Ask the local moderators.

Phantastisch was last online 2 months ago

[jackg]

Thanks @1miau
As a backstory to this, I was browsing the German section and found a thread without a comment that is 6 hours old from a brand new account. People won't normally stay here if they don't get a response within a day and the newbies who come here no matter what the reason normally only stay if they can get some recognition on the forum and can start discussions, otherwise why else are we here. I had a reply written a few sentences long, went to write obwohl and thought I don't know the verb to put at the end (I deleted my draft, and then 30 seconds later thought "it's arbeiten"!)



I think theymos means any mods that are on that local board that are mods of other boards. I can wait for a new mod, that might be better... Just in case I write gobbledygook.



We allow Americans on the English boards, some of those can't understand the language .

[TheBeardedBaby]

I don't know if it's a good idea, but what I see in my local boards is mostly Google translated offers, which I often report. I'm sure this not gonna be your case.
As long as you contribute, I don't see a problem to practice there.
I would love to refresh my Spanish (dead for many years) but more appropriate place for me would be the Fit to Talk forum.

It's very easy to spot non-native speaker posting using translate. I guess it's the same for the English native speakers.

[jackg]

It's very easy to spot non-native speaker posting using translate. I guess it's the same for the English native speakers.

It looks sloppy a lot but Google are an English company so they try to make it work better with the grammar I think.

I wouldn't touch Google translate. If I did, they'd probably log the result and see it posted on here anyway (which I really wouldn't want). It would also mean my dictionary would remain collecting dust for the off words I don't know. I don't get why Google translate is used anyway, if you truly want to learn a language spending 20 minutes finding the word batteries or train station is going to make it much easier to remember for the time you wasted 20 minutes finding a word you already knew... That being said, I saw the German word for cryptocurrency in that board and decided that definitely won't be in my dictionary .



I was thinking as to where to put this thread and I'm not sure it's a metal topic. I think I have done too much in serious and ivory and a lot of the people in the German local board (who I actually wanted to hear from) won't have many merits.

Also @1miau, I'm on a side of saying the only thing I'll advertise is Bitcoin. I keep being asked to make my own altciin by a lot of people but I want to try to turn Bitcoin into a better version of itself, not make a $100 million ico although the money would be nice it's a bit outside of my comfort zone and my tax return is big enough as is...

[1miau]

Thanks @1miau
As a backstory to this, I was browsing the German section and found a thread without a comment that is 6 hours old from a brand new account. People won't normally stay here if they don't get a response within a day and the newbies who come here no matter what the reason normally only stay if they can get some recognition on the forum and can start discussions, otherwise why else are we here. I had a reply written a few sentences long, went to write obwohl and thought I don't know the verb to put at the end (I deleted my draft, and then 30 seconds later thought "it's arbeiten"!)

Do you mean this one? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5092372.0 (Newbie asking about crypto in general, like how to start etc.)
I just saw it 15 minutes ago and I will answer it anyways if I have enough time. But if you have something to contribute you can share your opinion. It's a very important topic to help newbies and maybe some other newbies read it later and start to like crypto.  

I think theymos means any mods that are on that local board that are mods of other boards. I can wait for a new mod, that might be better... Just in case I write gobbledygook.

Yes, this makes sense. But maybe one mod allows it, another mod doesn't. (although I don't know why they should be against it, if your language skills are not too bad and you are not spamming the forum with one-liners).
We still hope that phantastisch will come back soon, the discussion about it is here (in German: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5043836.0)

[o_e_l_e_o]

We allow Americans on the English boards, some of those can't understand the language .

We even allow some Welshmen in!

[suchmoon]

I mean I did spend 7 years on it

Me too. I hope your teachers were much better than mine because I never dared to use my school German IRL.

[jackg]

Thanks @1miau
As a backstory to this, I was browsing the German section and found a thread without a comment that is 6 hours old from a brand new account. People won't normally stay here if they don't get a response within a day and the newbies who come here no matter what the reason normally only stay if they can get some recognition on the forum and can start discussions, otherwise why else are we here. I had a reply written a few sentences long, went to write obwohl and thought I don't know the verb to put at the end (I deleted my draft, and then 30 seconds later thought "it's arbeiten"!)

Do you mean this one? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5092372.0 (Newbie asking about crypto in general, like how to start etc.)
I just saw it 15 minutes ago and I will answer it anyways if I have enough time. But if you have something to contribute you can share your opinion. It's a very important topic to help newbies and maybe some other newbies read it later and start to like crypto.  

I think theymos means any mods that are on that local board that are mods of other boards. I can wait for a new mod, that might be better... Just in case I write gobbledygook.

Yes, this makes sense. But maybe one mod allows it, another mod doesn't. (although I don't know why they should be against it, if your language skills are not too bad and you are not spamming the forum with one-liners).
We still hope that phantastisch will come back soon, the discussion about it is here (in German: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5043836.0)

Well hopefully he will but I think two local mods if you can get theymos to add them is always better than one .
And I did mean that thread. I know people hate those sorts of things but newbies are going to ask generic questions. It's the inquisition that I like about threads like that.

This thread is sort of a way to cover myself if a new mod comes in and hates the idea, they can send me a warning I feel before sending a ban, although I doubt it'll come to that anyway.

If I wake up (and remember) I'll try to add something to that topic and see if I can get the op to get their answers.

I mean I did spend 7 years on it

Me too. I hope your teachers were much better than mine because I never dared to use my school German IRL.

They weren't bad. I darent speak it to a German person, it might work but I tried it when jet lagged on holiday and it didn't go well (he just spoke in English although that also didn't work ).

Duolingo has sort of preserved what I learned too... I hope.

[1miau]

This thread is sort of a way to cover myself if a new mod comes in and hates the idea, they can send me a warning I feel before sending a ban, although I doubt it'll come to that anyway.

You can also open a thread in the German Forum, ask about the opinion of the community and add a poll. By doing this, everyone will be aware that you are no shitposter/translation-spammer or similar and avoid further problems. But it should be easy, I don't see big problems if you post in German. The German community is very communicative and they don't want to cause trouble.

And if you add a poll I'll most likely vote yes 

If I wake up (and remember) I'll try to add something to that topic and see if I can get the op to get their answers.

Would be nice! I already posted an answer but maybe you have to add something as a Legendary and more experienced member. 

[S_Therapist]

Back in the day, I was an active member of emoneyspace. I sometimes tried to learn some other language through the local section. I found them helpful and in that forum, there is not too much restriction on it. Don't know what the current situation is though. By the way, since Jet Cash has fit-to-talk project, you can give it a try there. Hope you will get some buddy there and it will be easier to learn and improve yourself.

[esmanthra]

Native speakers always can determine when someone just wants to shitpost spam/inflate the post counter in local boards or when he or she endeavors to bring in something useful to conversation. If you really do your best, it would be noticed. Also forums generally exist for communication, and communication presumes the growth of language skills during practice, so personally I don't see any problem if someone improves his/her skills, when it occurs within the rules.

[LTU_btc]

I learnt Russian as my second foreign language at school and I understand it quite well. So, in past I tried to post in Russian local board, but then I realised that speaking/writting skills are so bad and my text were written in broken Russian language. It was obvious that I not native speaker, so I stpped posting there. I don't think that local boards in Bitcointalk is right place to improve language skills because if your language skills aren't that good you just give a bad experience to readers. If you really want to improve your language skills, try to watch movies in German language with English subtitles, read books. Also, there is good thing called language exchange apps where you can talk to another person in foreign language, for example German, Spanish or French.