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Language confusion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| celebi Triglot Newbie Turkey Joined 6014 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English, German Studies: Italian | Message 9 of 27 14 June 2008 at 9:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My answer is "Yes", the "cousin languages" confuse people. When I was attending Italian course, there was one of my classmates, who started to learn Spanish a while ago and when he talks he was always adding some Spanish words instead of Italian. He couldn't get over this problem in the time of the course.
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| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6043 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 10 of 27 14 June 2008 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yes!!! Once in Spanish class I asked the teacher for something and said please in Italian by mistake! Per favore, oh I mean por favor, don't know what got over me :)
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| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6679 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 11 of 27 14 June 2008 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I tend to mix languages. When I have to speak Swedish, English and French at the same time (when I have a french friend visiting and speak French with him, Swedish with my boyfriend and English when speaking to the two of them) I tend to mix things up. Also, very often when I think in French or Russian, I mix the languages (never with French and English and Swedish though), like I will go "mozhet bujt', je vais..." [I can't transcribe Russian properly, sorry].
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| celebi Triglot Newbie Turkey Joined 6014 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English, German Studies: Italian | Message 12 of 27 14 June 2008 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Obviously it isn't a very big problem. Our Italian teacher also said that the Italians don't have big problems by understanding Spanish, and also for Spanish people the Italian language. But my point is that my friend was confusing all of the time! Of course with a good concentration we can solve the problem if we want to learn two "cousin languages", we, human beings are that capable. Nevertheless I don't recommend that, just give a break of that language family or learn another one for a while. It sounds better for me. Edited by celebi on 14 June 2008 at 3:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| pookiebear79 Groupie United States Joined 6031 days ago 76 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian | Message 13 of 27 14 June 2008 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In general I haven't had trouble confusing two related languages. Many years ago, I took 2 related languages in college in the same semester and didn't have trouble (one semester it was French and Italian, the next it was French and Spanish.) Though, if it had been Italian and Spanish together, I may have found it a bit confusing.
In general, I've had 2 things that happen. When I can't remember the word for something in one language, the equivalent in a related language pops automatically into my head. Sometimes this is a problem, as it blocks me from remembering the correct word, but other times the similarity is enough of a trigger for me to work out the right word. The other thing that happens hasn't really been the case with Italian/French/Spanish, but I find it now that I have started trying to learn Swedish, when I already have a decent knowledge of Dutch. I love it when I find a Swedish word and I can clearly see its relation to a Dutch word. It helps me remember the Swedish word, and it's strange, but often when I am doing vocabulary flashcards, for example, it's not the English word that pops into my head, but the Dutch word instead. Strange. But, it helps me remember the Swedish word better and, it keeps the Dutch word active in my mind too. Obviously I probably wouldn't do this with sentences because of the different grammar. Luckily, the spelling and pronunciation of Swedish and Dutch are far enough apart that there's no danger of me confusing the two or substituting a Swedish word into Dutch, for example. But I can imagine there would be confusion if one were learning, say, Czech and Slovak at the same time. Because of the extreme closeness of those two languages, I could easily see myself confusing things and throwing Slovak words into Czech and vice versa. On the other hand, if you learned one of them first and later the other, you'd have an easy time learning the second one. But I think Czech and Slovak are actually a perfect example of when learning two related languages together could be very confusing for some people (including myself.) :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 27 14 June 2008 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm sure that ProfArguelles can speak for himself, but in case he hasn't seen this thread (or you haven't read all of his), he said in Language Learning Series thread that he speaks a Scandinavian mish-mash nowadays. As a native Swede I would have difficulties "learning" Norwegian (either of them) or Danish, since they are so close, both to each other and to Swedish. Probably something like Czech and Slovakian (just guessing here). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6043 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 15 of 27 14 June 2008 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
As a Czech speaker I'm afraid of learning Russian let alone Slovak! The biggest problem for me doesn't seem to be mixing up words but noun endings. They are very similar in slavic languages with a difference here and there. One of the reasons English has lost its noun endings is because it came into contact with a very similar language in the past I think it was a scandinavian one and becuase the two languages had similar noun endings people got them confused and ended up using word order more and more. It was a little more complicated than this but it shows that similar languages can get confused. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6316 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 16 of 27 14 June 2008 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think the thread was really about one person getting languages confused in his head. However, you're proposing synthesis between languages resulting in loss of inflection and moving towards distributive grammar. I think there's some truth in what you're saying. The main influence of Norse on English is vocabulary and place names - parallel words like "shirt" and "skirt," originally the same word, different in North and West Germanic. And place and family names like "Thorsby," etc. However, Dutch, cheek by jowl with German, has also lost a lot of its inflection...
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