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Languages you can read based on others? | ||
Tags: Linguistic relationships | Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5326 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 46 23 April 2012 at 11:26am | IP Logged |
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An aweful title - I know, but I'll explain myself. I speak English, Spanish, French, and to a certain degree Italian and German. I can also read Swedish and Danish and understand 99%.
Based on that knowledge, I have managed to read a couple of Agatha Chriesties in Dutch (based on my English, German and Norwegian) and in Portuguese (based on my French, Spanish and Italian). I do however not speak a word of Dutch or Portuguese. I am also studying Russian, and when I feel confident reading Russian, I am wondering whether it would be possible to read Belorussian and Ukrainian - and possibly any of the other Slavic languages, or whether I would need to learn say Polish first, to be able to get to the others. I am also wondering whether there are any more languages I could get to with the languages I already know - Catalan and Galician are the ones that first spring to mind, but I do not know enough of those languages to know whether it is feasible. Since there are so many clever people on this forum, I thought it would be worth it to ask. And have you yourself tried to read languages you do not speak? I am generally not much for bragging, but I have got to admit that I like the sound of "I have read Agatha Christie in 11 languages" :-) Never mind the fact that I only speak half of them. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 23 April 2012 at 5:37pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4699 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 46 23 April 2012 at 11:54am | IP Logged |
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I've tried to read Danish or Swedish or Spanish things every once in a while, just short online texts, and I comprehend a lot more than I expect but I don't speak Spanish (I can even pick up words in speech when it comes to Spanish, especially with subtitles). But since I don't formally know anything about them, the equivalent of where's the toilet and Hi! are all I manage to utter in them. Edited by tarvos on 23 April 2012 at 11:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 46 23 April 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged |
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I waited for a long time to activate my Swedish and even longer to activate Norwegian (primarily as a written languages with the complication that I prefer New Norwegian). And I still speak Danish to other Scandinavians if they appear to understand Danish because I fear they would see it as patronizing or mockery if I tried and then couldn't speak their languages to perfection. And the same thing applies to Danish dialects.
But after some years of studying I'm close to the point where I can read all old and new Romance and Germanic languages ... with the help of a dictionary, that is (or a machine translation). Within the Germanic family Frisian is the only acknowledged modern language I haven't tried to write and speak, but I can read homepages in Frisian. My passive skills in Old English and Old High German are slightly worse, maybe because the available texts mostly are poetic. Within the Romance languages I haven't learnt Aromanian, the dialect bundle known as Romantsch, the North Italian dialects, Sardinian, Modern Occitan and Galician and I never will, but I can read home pages and other texts in those languages and dialects, and I know from experience that I can understand TV Galicia and a little bit of Sardinian. And I like that things are like that. It is a warm feeling akin to the reassurant knowledge that I know how to make a pizza. My level in the Slavic languages is far lower, but based on my (mostly passive) Russian and some general knowledge about the other languages in that family I can more or less read easy texts in them. Listening is however out of the question except for isolated words here and there, but I'm thinking about subscribing to a Polish TV station and that might change the situation.. I haven't studied Irish and Indonesian for very long (and I have not spent nearly enough focused time on them), but already now I can recognize many things when I see texts in Scottish Gaelic and in Bahasa Malaysia. So all in all I may have been reading stuff in at least thirty languages, and I have written stuff and made videos in more than twenty of which I only speak somewhere around 10-12 at a usable level. But knowing that I can pick up a newspaper in for instance Faroese is enough - I don't need to speak every Germanic and Romance language. My time is better spent on learning new language families. Edited by Iversen on 23 April 2012 at 12:34pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4764 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 4 of 46 23 April 2012 at 12:34pm | IP Logged |
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I can understand written Belarusian much better than Ukrainian, although I'm not sure whether this is due to the former's greater similarity to Russian or due to my greater passive exposure to Belarusian (my music collection has plenty of Belarusian music, but hardly any Ukrainian). Regardless, a decent command of Polish should be of great assistance with both. You can also check your understanding of Galician, Catalan and other languages by browsing their versions of Wikipedia.
Slightly off-topic, but recently I watched this video and understood the French bit in the beginning pretty much perfectly, even though I've never studied any Romance languages. At first I attributed this to my English vocabulary with its abundance of Latinate cognates and French loanwords, but then I noticed that a presumably native English speaker asked for a translation in the comments. Now I'm really puzzled.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 46 23 April 2012 at 12:39pm | IP Logged |
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Well, written Belarusian is basically Russian with a instead of o all the places where even the Russians say /a/.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4836 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 6 of 46 23 April 2012 at 12:42pm | IP Logged |
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As a native German speaker, I have made the experience that Dutch is very transparent. I can understand nearly all of it when written - and still a lot when spoken. You just have to know some words that are not similar to their German equivalents. Understanding Dutch becomes even easier when you know English and/or Low German. That's the reason why I stopped studying it: I could understand everything and didn't feel challenged by it. Of course, learning to speak Dutch correctly would need some effort but I simply don't feel like doing it.
Moreover, I can understand Spanish quite well based only on my knowledge of French, Italian, and Latin. Again, there are only a few words you have to know which are peculiar, the rest is simply 'Romance'. I sometimes try to read Norwegian and Danish based on my knowledge of Swedish and Icelandic. In simple texts it goes quite well, but difficult texts are way over my head. Edited by Josquin on 23 April 2012 at 12:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6589 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 46 23 April 2012 at 12:49pm | IP Logged |
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Cristina, I'm sure you'll understand Galician! If you speak Spanish, it should be easier to understand than Portuguese. I understand it too and really love it, and the lack of resources is a blessing for now :D
Understanding really teases me, sometimes in a lovely way (Italian, Dutch), sometimes in a bit annoying (Spanish). If I can have regular contact with the language I end up learning it, as you can see from my list :D I also understand Estonian, Karelian, Czech, even French when I really need the information... As for the Slavic languages - a lot of what I understand in Polish is based on my knowledge of Belarusian, Ukrainian and old/dialectal Russian. You know, words that appear in old fairy tales/poems but that modern kids don't understand without explanations, etc. Russian+Polish would certainly enable you to understand far more than just Russian, but if you're interested in a specific language, the more contact you have with it the better you'll understand. Also, are you interested in linguistics? I've read a book on Romance philology and it has helped immensely, I think the same thing should help you get a picture of the Slavic languages as a whole. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lindseylbb Bilingual Triglot Groupie ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4924 days ago 92 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, Cantonese*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 46 23 April 2012 at 2:41pm | IP Logged |
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(I think) I can read french text quite well even though I am just a beginner. I have learnt a lot of medical and mechenic terms, so I am familiar with Latin roots. It's frustrating to learn that in though I spend most of my language time focusing on listening and speaking, I can do better in reading.
Besides, sometimes a Japanese text with a lot of kanji is comprehendable. The more formal the text is, yhe more we can understand. I remember before I started to learn Japanese, I encountered a text talking about a profession and global issue and understand every single word. However, I cant even finish the first paragraph of a Japanese novel yet. So It's based on what kind of text it is. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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