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Romance language mutual intelligibility | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| arnz Newbie United States Joined 7206 days ago 38 posts - 44 votes | Message 1 of 23 29 March 2005 at 5:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I meet many spanish and italian people who cannot talk to each other in those languages, they have to talk in english. They are similar languages certainly, but still takes work to learn one from the other
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| jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7208 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1 | Message 2 of 23 29 March 2005 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, that's true. Whenever I meet an Italian or a Brazilian I have to talk in English to communicate (I'm a native Spanish speaker). I even had a Brazilian flatmate in London and we only used English to talk, though we talked very seldom (1 or 2 times in 6 months, less than 2 minutes each time). However I must point out the sheer number of Brazilian footballers in Spain (Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos), Italy (Kaká, Cafú, Dida, Adriano) and Spanish-speaking Latin America and how they communicate very easily in Spanish or Italian. I remember a football match of the Libertadores Cup when Cruzeiro of Brazil visited Santos Laguna of Mexico and at the end of the match Mexican reporters were asking a lot of questions in Spanish to the Brazilians and these were answering in Portuguese. I was not able to understand what they said but for loose words. I think Brazilians must be used to watching Spanish speaking TV. I also remember Diego Armando Maradona (D10S) being interviewed in Italy a few years ago and how he kept mixing Spanish and Italian during the conversation. It was funny to watch how he started a sentence in Italian and when he got excited he ended it up cursing in Spanish. Edited by jradetzky on 29 March 2005 at 7:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7377 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 23 29 March 2005 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I saw the other day a couple of Spaniards speaking in Spanish in a shop in Milan and the shopping attendand answering in Italian. Both parties seemed to understand what the other said (I followed the whole conversation).
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| Eric Senior Member Australia Joined 7229 days ago 102 posts - 105 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 4 of 23 30 March 2005 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
Now that would have been a great experience! My comments aren't worth much because I only know a handful of Italian words and a little more of Spanish, but virtually all the inquistive words are the same or similar in both languages, and just that point right there puts them on a level of 'caveman' understanding by knowing the most important part of a question besides the object, which will usually have a universal name or be gestured towards in many situations. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| guillaume Pentaglot Groupie France Joined 7182 days ago 59 posts - 57 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 23 30 March 2005 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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When I lived in a host family in Spain, the family used to watch the Italian TV if there was nothing interesting in Spanish. They understood it without any problems...
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| manna Groupie Kyrgyzstan Joined 7259 days ago 94 posts - 112 votes | Message 6 of 23 30 March 2005 at 4:51am | IP Logged | ||
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As with many related languages, I think most of it is in the mind. If you want to, you can understand much more than if you are not se keen to. The proof is often in young people falling in love... you'd be amazed how quickly they pick up each other's language.
Often not 'understanding' one another has also to do with identification. I've met many middle-aged Poles who could not understand a word of Russian. Younger ones, however, not having experience the same history to the same extent, did not have such difficulties... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| arnz Newbie United States Joined 7206 days ago 38 posts - 44 votes | Message 7 of 23 30 March 2005 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just want to put my original post in context. I originally posted it under the Polyglots section when someone posted that Ziad Fazah was somewhat less impressive because three of his languages were so similar (Italian, French, Spanish). Never mind that he knows 55 other languages after those. I daresay that any speaker of a romance language needs to put in a few months of studying to learn another romance language. It may be easier, but its still a lot of work. Ziad Fazah definitely deserves the credit.
If you need proof, our site admin, Francois, who is a native French speaker, needed 6 months to master Spanish, and then 3 months to learn Italian after that. And I consider his abilities as quite above average. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7319 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 23 30 March 2005 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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You know, even to this day, I still haven't really come to believe Francois' story of 6-month Spanish, 3-month Italian - it seems such a short time. It must have been a lot of work with diligent study and constant practice.
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