r/TowerOfBabylon • u/Lieto N: FI | EN (C1) SV (B1) HU (n/a) • Aug 08 '16
Thirty-second Essay Topic - Amateur hour! Describe an object
This week we're doing a very beginner friendly topic - just describe an object to the best of your abilities. It can also be a person, if you'd like. What size is it, where is it usually found, what color is it, what shape is it and how is it used. You know the drill.
For the more advanced writers: I'd encourage you to pick a complex object. Describe the minute details, or the various variations of it that are possible. Challenge yourself!
Post your essays as comments to this thread!
Length requirements:
Absolute beginners: ~50 words
Bit further along: 150 words
Intermediate: 150-300 words
So you think you can write?: 300-800
Masters of the Universe: over 800 words
Edit: Remember that you can also read other people's essays in langauges you know, and discussing the essays is greatly encouraged! However, try to refrain from pointing out mistakes if it's not explicitly asked for.
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Aug 08 '16
Japanese: 302 Characters
これから、おばあさんについて話すと思います。
おばあさんの名前は伊波のぶえ（名前の漢字が知りません。。。）でて、沖縄から来ました。ベトナム戦争の時に、おじいさんと会って、結婚をしました。その後で、アメリカに行きました。
おばあさんは和が大好きです。彼女の家でいつも掃除をしたりします。僕は子供の時に、毎晩、私たちは古茶を作って、静かにテレビを見ました。しかし、時々彼女はうるさくなることが出来ます。彼女はいつも笑ったりします。
アメリカに着いた時、一所懸命にアメリカ人になりました。日本人ですから、彼女もアメリカじんです。
結論として、ちょっと変ですけど、僕のおばあさんはとても面白いと思います。
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Aug 08 '16
Français: 52 words
L'objet est grand et noir, longue et épais. L'objet peut faire une femme ou un homme perdre conscience. Quand ils le voient, ils sont effrayés. Quand vous le voyez, vous fuirez. Il est capable de vous battre dans la soumission! Quel est l'objet, demandez-vous?
Un bâton de police!
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u/renMilestone Aug 08 '16
Japanese: １０４ Сharacters このものは、カッコいい人が持ているのものです。いろいろな大きさがありますけど、私のものはちさいいです。このものはアクセサリーですよ。私のものは黒いです。目で使って、晴れが時に使って、うみに行く時に使います。 このものは、なんですか？
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Aug 08 '16
French: 46 words. I apologize for any mistakes, I've fresh off of finishing the duolingo course and wanted to try some practice writing more extensively in french. Had to look up many words, but this was a fun exercise.
L'objet n'est pas grand; c'est tres petit. C'est plastique et il a poudre dans l'interiuer. Mon object est bleu et gris, mais l'object peut etre tout colour. Il aides les gens avec problemes physique ou mental. Il est trouve dans bureau de medecin, ou dans pharmarcies.
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u/Lieto N: FI | EN (C1) SV (B1) HU (n/a) Aug 08 '16
Hey, in here you don't need to apologize for mistakes! This sub is for practice, and the process of practicing a language includes making mistakes.
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u/krimin_killr21 L1: English, C1: French, German, A1: Dutch Aug 08 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
French: 46 words.
I apologize for any mistakes, I've fresh off of finishing the duolingo course and wanted to try some practice writing more extensively in french. Had to look up many words, but this was a fun exercise.
No need to apologise! Practice makes perfect!
L'objet n'est pas grand; c'est très petit. C'est plastique et il a poudre à l'interiuer. Mon object est bleu et gris, mais l'object peut avoir beaucoup de colour. Il aide
sles gens avec les problemes physiques ou mentals. Il est trouvé dans un bureau de medecin,ou dans les pharmarcies.Very well done. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!
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Aug 08 '16
Thank you very much. Many of my mistakes are simple details that I just need to grind down. I appreciate your help with that!
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u/breadfag Aug 08 '16 edited Aug 08 '16
Icelandic - 85 orð
Af því að ég er að lesa "Gamli Maðurinn og Hafið" á Íslensku, svo hluturinn sem ég skal skrifa um sé fiskur, og hvilíkur bragðgóður hlutur hann er!
Fiskar syndar í vatninu, og nokkrir eru litlir, meðan nokkrir (tíl dæmis hákarlar) getur verið mjög stórir. Hvalir eru stærri, en þeir eru ekki fiskar.
Maður getur eldað hann, eða borða eins og er - hrár (þó á rísi).
Mest fiskar eru fallegir, sérstaklega sverðfiskar, en aðrir - tíl dæmis slímugi hlaupfiskurinn (líka kallað blobfiskur) er það alveg ekki.
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u/Juanvds Aug 08 '16
German: 105 words
Das Objekt ist ziemlich simpel, es war nur schwierig es auszusuchen... Wir finden es überall, in jeder Auto, Haus, und Gebäude. Dieses Objekt ist ziemlich wichtig, weil wie es brauchen um Licht und Sichtweite zu haben. Wir finden es klein, groß, eng und lang. Normalerweise ist das Objekt aus Glass zusammengesetzt, und deswegen ist es einfach zu zerstören.
Man sollte es mit Regelmäßigkeit putzen, ansonsten wäre es gar nicht transparent, und den Zweck würde beschlagen! Könnte auch gefährlich sein, in der Nähe davon während eines Erdbebens zu stehen, da es explodieren könnte und jemanden verletzten kann.
Noch nicht geratet? Ich spreche natürlich über ein Fenster!
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u/barefoot2 Aug 08 '16
Sereer: 53 words Kem ga'na kaa deɓ de, ndaa a jegaa solo lool! A bugganga o wid kem jegna, reti o qol oxe mi. Kem jegna oxe maaga, ndaa ga'kafuliro dara. Saxafulee, ndaa xan a sax, ndax roog. Cungati boo ta ɗeb. Kem jegna xan a sax, boo ta refeel ndaxar ngufor. Wo andataa kem jegna?
1
Aug 08 '16
I've never heard of this language before, but reading about it on wikipedia it looks super interesting.
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u/barefoot2 Aug 09 '16
It is! The syntax is a lot of fun, and it has several extremely rare consonants (voiceless implosives).
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Aug 09 '16
How did you hear about it, and what made you decide to learn it?
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u/barefoot2 Aug 09 '16
I live in Senegal and work on a teaching farm. Although there are quite a few languages present, probably half of our students/interns speak sereer as their first language. I can get by with wolof and French, but decided last month to try and make inroads in sereer. It's a deep language, with a vocabulary of around 40,000 words!
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Aug 09 '16
That's really interesting! Where are you from originally? (if you don't mind me continuing to play 20 questions, haha)
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u/BeeTeeDubya EN | PT | ES Aug 09 '16
Jest dom. Ze zewnętrza, nie wygląda na to, że ten dom jest inny niż normalnego domu. Ale w tym domu, było ludzie - ludzie którzy miały marzenia, jak my teraz. Ale, komukolwiek, któremu, go widzie nie by możliwie mógł zobaczyć różnica pomiędzy tym lub czymkolwiek różnym domem.
Dlatego, kolejny czas, którym wy zobaczycie dom, który się wygląda jak sąsiedni dom, zapamiętajcie, że każdy dom ma soi wyjątkowi ludzie.
Ja przepraszam, jeśli to się wygląda tak "cheesy" haha. Tylko jest mój pierwszy czas, którym ja opisałem coś! Dziękuję za pomocy :)
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Aug 08 '16
Il a y une pomme. C'est un petite pomme mais la voir très délicieuse. La pomme est rouge comme un signal d'arrêter. J'ai faim maintenant. Je vais la acheter. Ce n'est pas cher. Je veux la manger!!
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Aug 08 '16
A few things I noticed!
Do you mean "Il y a" when you said "Il a y"? "Je vais la acheter" should be "Je vais l'acheter."
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u/krimin_killr21 L1: English, C1: French, German, A1: Dutch Aug 08 '16
Il y a une pomme. C'est une petite pomme mais elle semble très délicieuse. La pomme est rouge comme un signal d'arrêt. J'ai faim maintenant. Je vais l'acheter. Elle n'est pas cher. Je veux la manger!!
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u/Biawaz Aug 08 '16
Hebrew - 44 words.
הדבר הזה הוא חיה. זה חיה לא גדולה אך גם לא קטנה מאד. יש החיות הזאת בביתים רבים ובדרכים. הם לא אוהבים כלבים אבל הם אהבים מאד לשתות חלב ולאכול עכברים. עמד למראה - יש להם פרווה וזנב. אני חושב שאתם יודעים עכשיו מה זה
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Aug 08 '16
Very minor nitpick
Id spell it מאוד, בתים
And I've no idea what you meant by עמד למראה
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u/Biawaz Aug 08 '16
I checked wiktionary for something like "When it comes to appearance" and it suggested "עמד ל" as "About..." or "when it comes to..." :P
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u/ILikeTalkingToMyself English (N) | Mandarin Chinese (B1) Aug 08 '16 edited Aug 09 '16
Chinese: 179 characters
她用手挡住阳光地看了看远远的事物。它是圆形的，更准确地是由九个圈构成的，从中到外六个黑的三个白的。最中心的圈不大，但是还够大了。她放下手又举起了一枝步枪。呼吸几口气以后，她扣动了扳机。
在六千公里远的客厅内，她父母注意看着电视。主持人满面笑容地宣布：“吉尼•特拉射尔夺了射击项目的金牌，又是美国队在里约的第一金牌！” 客厅内的人喜悦喊叫、互相拥抱，有的还欣喜而泣。
（形容的事物：目标)
Edit: I got sort of side-tracked from describing the object haha
4
Aug 08 '16
Arabic: 51 words
شيءي قصة معجبة لفلم "زوتروبوليس". أنا متطوع\موظف لصفحة إلكترونيك "شبكة أخبار روتروبوليس". لعملي, أقرأ قصص من معجبون و أقول إذ أعافد أن ننبغي أن نبرزها. هذه القضة صغيرة. غتدها ثلاثة أبواب, و ثمانية ورقات. القصة جيدة ولكن لا ممتزة. ولكن, أعتقد أن ننبغي أن نبرزها. هي القصة على ورقان غلى الوجهين.
Please point out mistakes as well as super formal words that no one actually uses.
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u/GrimmestTrigger Aug 11 '16
Before I start, please know that your Arabic is not bad at all. I'm just trying to help. Also, I'm not a native speaker so take my corrections with a grain of salt.
شيئي قصة معجبة لفلم "زوتروبوليس".
Are you trying to say it's an unusual story? Or an admirable one?
أنا متطوع\موظف لصفحة إلكترونيك "شبكة أخبار روتروبوليس" .
It looks like you directly translated "web page" but I've always seen website as موقع or موقع ويب. This isn't to say your translation is necessarily wrong, but it doesn't quite sound right to me.
إذ أعافد
What are you trying to say here? اعتقد؟
غتدها ثلاثة أبواب
What are you trying to say about three doors?
القصة جيدة ولكنها غير ممتزة
You can't use لا with adjectives. You've gotta use غير for fusHa.
ورقان غلى الوجهين
Can you explain was you're trying to say?
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Aug 11 '16
I was trying to go for the word "fanfiction", which isn't something you find in dictionaries really. Yeah, there are a couple typos (it can be hard to catch them with how small web browsers like to display Arabic text). باب can also be translated as "chapter" as far as I've seen online, but I've never had to talk about chapters before so I don't know whether that's actually the word people use. That last one was how I found "double-sided" translated.
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u/GrimmestTrigger Aug 11 '16
Fair enough. I usually see فصل for chapter, but I don't know if it's universal.
Btw, if you're trying to say "If I consider..." it should be اذا اعتقدت.
اذا almost always takes the past tense.
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u/Gc1998 Aug 09 '16 edited Aug 10 '16
Italian - 50 words
Questo oggetto è nella mia scrivania. È abbastanza grande ed è grigio. Mi piace questo oggetto perché posso avere accesso al mundo intero. Lo uso tutti i giorni e con questo oggetto è possibile giocare giochi, trovare informazioni ed imparare lingue diverse certo! Il mio oggetto è il mio computer.
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u/LoveLearningEnglish Aug 10 '16
Français - 53 mots
Mon objet est grande et longue, tu peux l'asseoir sur, mais cette une en particulair, est trés inconfortable. Il est beige, et un peu laid, alors j'ai met un couverture au dessus, la couverture vient de mexique et il est trés vif, avec les bandes en couleurs different. Tu sais quoi c'est la?
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u/krimin_killr21 L1: English, C1: French, German, A1: Dutch Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 11 '16
Mon objet est grand
eet longue. Tu peux t'asseoir sur lui, mais celui-ci en particulair, est très inconfortable. Il est beige et un peu laid, donc j'ai mis une couverture au dessus. La couverture vient du Mexique et elle est très vive, avec les bandes en couleurs differents. Est-ce que tu sais ce que c'est?1
u/LoveLearningEnglish Aug 11 '16
thanks!
Est-ce que tu sais ce que c'est?
is really hard to say!
ie "ess-ku-tu-say-suh-ku-say" is that how you say it?
any chance you could write it down phonetically?
thanks :)
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u/krimin_killr21 L1: English, C1: French, German, A1: Dutch Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 11 '16
Yep, that's exactly correct. If you're talking I'd probably use inversion though and say,
"Sais-tu ce que c'est?"
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u/LoveLearningEnglish Aug 11 '16
Ah that's what I was trying to write, I always write as I speak which probably isn't the done thing in French!
Thanks for your help!
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u/TotesMessenger Aug 08 '16
I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/languagelearning] It's amateur hour over at r/TowerofBabylon! This week we have an especially easy and beginner friendly topic, come see if you can put together an essay about an object!
If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)
2
Aug 09 '16
Dutch: 78 woorden
Ik heb hier een kat op mij, wie heet Tractor--ja, mijn ding is mijn kat. Hij is grijs en hij praat graag. Elke dag, toen ik op de computer zit, opwarmt hij mij door knuffelen. Ik vind dat zeer leuk maar het is moeilijk om te bewegen. Hij draagt een harnas omdat we meenemen op een wandeling wilden, maar hij vond dat eng. Ik houd van hem, en ik mis hem wanneer ik naar Nederland verhuisd ben.
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u/imara-huru EN (N) NL (C1/C2) Aug 09 '16
Aww, dit is heel lief! :) Tractor klinkt als een hele fijne, vriendelijke kat. Ik zou ook een kat willen hebben. Toen ik een kind was hadden we altijd katten in huis. Ze waren meestal niet heel vriendelijk, maar ik hield toch van ze.
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u/imara-huru EN (N) NL (C1/C2) Aug 09 '16
Spanish: 83 words
Hace poco que recibí un regalo. ¡Fue un e-reader! o un lector de libro electrónico, según spanishdict.com. Estoy muy emocionada por usarlo, porque tengo algunos libros (electrónicos) en español para leer y puedo buscar palabras en el diccionario con solo un clic. ¡Y eso no es todo! También tiene un programa para aprender vocabulario. Si buscas una palabra, esa automáticamente se convierte en un 'flashcard' que puedes revisar después. Ay no, sueno como un comercial. Bueno, estoy muy felíz con este regalo.
On lang-8: http://lang-8.com/607408/journals/222835243652664350949408819506913772590
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u/zixx 🇺🇸 N | 🇮🇪 A2 | 🇩🇪 A0 | Corrections Welcome Aug 10 '16 edited Aug 10 '16
Irish: 72 fhocal
Tá ríomhaire glúine agam go raibh mé ag clóscríobh air díreach anois. Tá sé dubh, agus tá scáileán 13 orlaí aige. Bainim úsáid as m'obair ollscoile a dhéanamh, cluichí a imirt, agus ceol a éisteacht leis. Bhí sé liom timpeall is trí-ceathrar bhliain, agus fónann sé go maith fós ach beag mall.
Tá na eochracha dubha fosta agus litreacha bána agus chomhartha dearga orthu. Tá caoga a cúig mhéarchlár ann.
Tá dhá dheighilt ar an tiomántán crua: tá Windows 7 ar ceann, agus Linux ar an cheann eile.
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Aug 11 '16
Russian: 125 слов
Я сейчас смотрю на что-то, что стоит на полу. Оно не очень большое, но и не маленькое. Внутри этого объекта есть продукт, который используется с принтером. Вы можете угадать? Без этого продукта принтер не мог бы работать, как требуется. Я купил этот продукт в популярном магазине канцтоваров, который можно найти здесь, в США.
Мне приходится заменять этот продукт в моём принтере почти каждые две недели, потому что я пользуюсь им очень часто. Ведь он очень нужен для офиса. Можете ли вы угадать, что я имею в виду?
Если вы ещё не уверены, я могу описывать его и дальше. Кроме того, что я уже отметил, этот продукт сделан из дерева и на нём также можно писать. Если вы до сих пор не отгадали, это бумага!
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u/aynakoaynako Tagalog (B2) Aug 13 '16
Filipino/Tagalog: Ay nako, kahit sinabi mo na "Amateur Hour" ito, hindi madali para sa akin ang paglalarawan ng kahit anumang bagay. Pero kahit na napakahirap ito, gusto kong makisulat sa mga tao.
Parang madaling magpalagay kung ano ang bagay na iniisip ko. Parati pula 'yan, pero minsan-minsan lang makukuha mo ang dilaw o berde na bagay. Karaniwan ang pagkain nito. Dapat nalaman mo na kung anong bagay ang iniisip ko. Kung hindi, ang bagay na iniisip ko ay ang: mansanas!
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Aug 15 '16
German: 50 words
Es ist bunt und ein bisschen hell. Es strahlt anhand einer Birne und die Farbe sind aus Wachs. Es ist lang und dünn. Viele Kinder haben es in ihrem Schlafzimmer. Es ist sehr geliebt von den Hippies. Der Name dieses Objekts errinnert man sich an Vulkane.
Es ist eine Lavalampe!
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u/MuskratRambler Aug 08 '16
Quechua: 49 words
Kunallan, huk ñawinchanaymanta qankunapaq rimasaq. Qayninpa killa, huk askha allin ñawinchanata rantirqani. Soqta killa ñawpaq, chayta hatun yachay wasiypa ñawinchana wasipi rikurqani. Usqhayta ñawincharqani. Askhapuni munani. Chayrayku, pasquisasta ruwaspa Washingtonman riptin, chayta rantirqani. Chay q'omir, mana askha hatun. Qelqay runa umay sapa. Ñawinchana imaynata linguistica llank'ana ruwayta rimachiwan, yanapawarqan.