Uniting the World through Language

Hey. I just ran into this community, but am slightly doubtful of how active it is! If you're reading this, say hello so we know who's still around. :)

Сервис для пополнения запаса иностранных слов WordSteps предлагает поучаствовать в простом и интересном конкурсе. Активные участники получат полный доступ на год ко всем 5ти онлайн курсам. Данные курсы позволят эффективно подтянуть словарный запас на различные темы.
Условия конкурса таковы.

Первая акция. В течение ближайшего месяца, команда будет размещать внутри некоторых публикуемых статей блога WordSteps в ЖЖ 3 промо-кода, которые можно активировать на странице покупки онлайн курсов. Каждый код может быть использован только один раз и дает право на бесплатный доступ ко всем 5ти курсам. Просто следите за новыми публикациями в этом блоге и участвуйте в обсуждениях.
Вторая акция. Для участия в этой акции пользователям необходимо иметь аккаунт в социальной сети FaceBook и подписаться на  страничку по адресу: http://www.facebook.com/WordSteps. Ежедневно, в течении 2х недель, начиная с 15 августа, команда WordSteps будет выдавать по одному промо-коду для доступа ко всем онлайн курсам. Единственное условие - оставить на стене странички на FaceBook позитивный отзыв о том, какую пользу вы получаете от изучения слов на WordSteps, насколько интересно учить иностранные слова, как вам в этом помогает сервис. Вы можете также оставить пожелание по улучшению функционала, либо разместить картинку своего профиля, в котором будет существенное количество выученных иностранных слов. Креатив остается за вами! За лучший и интересный пост или пожелание участникам будет выслан на почту личный персональный доступ ко всем курсам.

Heip,

in with a question on Japanese this time... I'm trying to plough my way through a manga album but am having difficulties wrapping my brain around the meaning of 勝手 (katte) (or especially katte ni). The dictionary has a ton of examples without furigana and it seems to mean a different thing in every sentence.

So if anyone could explain to me what the following means (or give any guidance as for how the word is most often used), I'd be very happy. :)

それをよ！１０年前アメリカはなけなしの山を勝手に売って
そのお金もって勝手にアメリカへ飛んだのよ。

Thank you!

Hi,

I'm sorry to bother you with a homework assignment. I had to make up for a lecture I couldn't attend and write a short piece of text based on an article given by the teacher. I kept pushing it until later... and now I find myself doing a period of exchange studies in Japan studying Japanese and being far from all of my good dictionaries back home. e.e I would like to know where the worst problems and most hideous mistakes are, I'm so ashamed of how much I've forgotten during these six months... So it's really not necessary to go out of your way thinking what would be the best way to say something, for me it's enough to know that there aren't any mega-sized blunders, or some phrases that can't be understood at all. :)

It's under the cut. Help appreciated, but in a way I do feel like getting what was coming to me all along...

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I've looked and looked but is there a translation for the word:

Bariviant?
Beriviant?
Biriviant?
Birivient?

"Buree-vee-aunt" or "ant" at the end.

That sort of thing. I know that by searching google I came up with nothing for those in English, but I am hoping someone could please suggest/define. That is definitely how it was said/pronounced. Perhaps something in old English? Perhaps something of a spin off of "Bereave"?

Hey, I'm a Norwegian girl currently working my way through my first semester of English grammar at University level. This is a bit of a long shot, but I'm wondering if someone here could help me unravel what it is I'm asked to do in a task for my obligatory paper :x I'm not asking for help with the task itself, I'm asking for help understanding the task xD

The task goes like this;

"She has tried to show that what you would have to assume in order to acquit my client is simply beyond our normal understanding of what is reasonable."

- Analyze the underlined that-clause in terms of its functional clause elements.

- The underlined clause is itself the object of another clause which in turn functions as the object of the complete sentence. Demonstrate the hierarchical clause structure of the sentence it occurs in. (Not a full syntactic analysis)

I've analysed the that-clause (identified its subject, verb, direct object, etc.), but the second part of the task has me stumped. I can see that the underlined clause is the object of another clause (it's the object of the preceding clause). But I'm not seeing how that other clause can be the object of the complete sentence @_@; What am I missing?

Help would be appreciated, but so would new friends :) As mentioned, I'm Norwegian so I could help out people who're learning Norwegian. I've studied Japanese at University level for three years, so it would also be interesting to get in touch with someone who'd like to practice that.

Hallo! (:
I'm Alyssa (but you can call me Geof), and I just joined this community less than a minute ago. I mainly joined because I'm in dire need of help:

I'm writing a story, and I don't want to get translations wrong, in fear of being flamed by the readers (if you're a writer, you know just how terrifying they can be!): what does "Ira pro alius" (Latin) translate to in English?

Thank you times a billion.

hello! my name is lyndsey, i'm twenty-one years old and i live in in the tampa bay area in florida. i've just started studying dutch on my own and i was wondering if anyone could help me out with two things.

first, can anyone recommend any online learning courses or programs for dutch?

and second, if anyone posts to their journal in dutch (whether occasionally or all the time) would you like to be friends? :D

I was wondering if anyone could help me. A friend of mine bought a sword and it has oriental (not sure) writing on it. I have a friend that knows Japanese and I was going to ask him what it said but I haven't been able to get a hold of him. I don't know where else to find out what this sword has written on it so I thought I would try asking this community. Here is a picture of the sword:

If anyone can help me with this I would truly appreciate it.

Edit: I was told the picture was upside down so I flipped it.