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You are not a real polyglot if... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4712 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 25 of 299 11 October 2013 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think it's just a semantic implication. I think learn is actually fine, as long as people know that it implies a process. And that people should say "I'm learning French/Basque/Navajo/Greenlandic/Korean". I haven't opened a Breton grammar book in weeks. And then only once to check I was writing something correctly in a letter. Not to study Breton verb conjugations... Edited by tarvos on 11 October 2013 at 2:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 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 26 of 299 11 October 2013 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hm, do you just mean that it's inappropriate for a Scandinavian who can watch TV etc in all three to claim fluency? I think it's certainly possible to be multilingual with these languages, if you can actually speak each of them or at least translate from them and convey the nuances. And if you're not capable of that you can still list them as passive knowledge, if your employer doesn't necessarily know how similar they are. Or if you're in an area where speaking one doesn't necessarily imply understanding the rest, such as Finland (and maybe Greenland?). BTW Serbians and Croatians claim the languages are more different than the Scandinavian ones ;) Edited by Serpent on 11 October 2013 at 3:13pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 27 of 299 11 October 2013 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
If I were to list my languages in a US setting, I might write that I had close to a 100% understanding of both Danish and Swedish, that I could not write and speak them, but that I could be understood by using my Norwegian. If you say your are multilingual in Norway listing English and the three Scandinavian languages you get laughed out of the country. Unless you are truly native in all three of course. But I have only seen that once, from a girl who had a Norwegian mother, a Swedish father and was raised in Denmark. Really good active skills in another Scandinavian language from a non-native will impress people though. Actually languages that you have a 100% passive understanding of but weak or non existant active skills in are difficult to categorize even here on HTLAL. When I first registered here I listed both Danish and Swedish, since I have a very high understanding of them both, but after a while I deleted Danish, because I saw that here, speaking a language entailed more than just passive understanding. I kept Swedish because I can speak it to a degree, and I used to sing a lot of Swedish when I was younger, but I knew that if I were asked to speak Danish I would have run to hide under my bed. Sadly I do not get much practise speaking Swedish. You feel like a clown if you speak Swedish to a Swede, and the only situations it has actually come in handy is when speaking to immigrants in Sweden. They sometimes have more difficulties understanding Norwegian. I am not able to judge from personal experience whether Serbian and Croatian is in fact more different than the Scandinavian languages. I have read that they are extremely close, but as I do not speak them myself, I cannot really tell. Are you referring to any specific study, or to the gut feeling of Serbs and Croats you have met? As to the Finland/Groenland thing I am afraid you lost me. :-) I have had a long, hard, trying day, ending with three hours of private lessons in Russian, and my brain is only operating at 20% of it's capacity right now. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 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 28 of 299 11 October 2013 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just meant that in Finland speaking Swedish absolutely doesn't imply a passive understanding of Norwegian and especially Danish. It might be like that with Danish speakers in Greenland too?
In practical terms, if I ever manage to move to Finland and learn Swedish while developing good passive skills in the two other Scandinavian languages (and hopefully some active skills in Danish), I would definitely put that on my CV. But in a clear and honest way, of course. As for BCSM, that's basically one of the arguments for them being separate languages: that they are less similar than the Scandinavian ones. Edited by Serpent on 11 October 2013 at 4:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4627 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 29 of 299 11 October 2013 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So if a Swede with a good passive understanding of Norwegian (but little practical experience of speaking it)
goes to Norway and meets a local who is in the opposite position, what would be their most likely method of communication? Do they speak their own respective languages, knowing they will be understood? Does the Swede attempt Norwegian because they are in Norway? Do they speak a mixture, or would they use English? Finally, can these issues be sensitive or is everyone happy to default to the easiest option? Edited by beano on 11 October 2013 at 6:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 30 of 299 11 October 2013 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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They will speak their respective languages knowing (hoping) that they will be understood. Swedes are one of
the largest groups of foreigners working in Norway, and I have yet to hear a single one of them make any attempt to speak Norwegian. You can hardly buy a beer in Oslo without hearing Swedish. Fortunately Scandinavians are generally good natured, pragmatic "insensitive in the best possible way" people, so nobody raises an eyebrow. I do not know what it is like in Sweden and Denmark, but here we routinely (as in every day) get Swedish and English on the Norwegian news channel on the radio, so we just take whatever they throw at us language wise. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4712 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 31 of 299 11 October 2013 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have met a few Norwegians online and in real life and I just spoke Swedish. They were
not against this. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4178 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 32 of 299 11 October 2013 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
It seems quite similar to a description of Arabic I heard in one of Benny Lewis' videos. Maybe there should be a Modern Standard Scandinavian for foreigners to learn? ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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