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English vs. Swedish vs. German? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6122 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes  22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 9 of 14 06 March 2008 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yet another reason I really wish I had learned Latin. I think our school system in the US has made a big mistake not requiring Latin and Greek. Someday I will learn it, I guess it would be easy for me given my background in romance languages... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 10 of 14 06 March 2008 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think you're correct. Having the "big three" romance languages, as you study Latin, you'll be saying to yourself "Ah, that's where this word came from!" The same sort of triangulation has helped me in studying Norwegian - having English and German makes Norwegian much simpler...
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| Palmettofighter Newbie United States Joined 6132 days ago 29 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 14 06 March 2008 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wouldn't say its a horrible mistake. The mistake schools are making with languages is starting serious language studying in High School. If you are going to be multi-language person, sure Latin makes sense when your dealing with Romance languages. However, that is not the focus of language learning for everyone. In this country it is lucky to find a non-immigrant who speaks 2 languages. Expecting people to study a dead language to fluency so they can learn others easier is not very realistic. Since I speak German and English and a little bit of Spanish (the Modern day ingredients for Dutch), reading Dutch is not a problem. Like Earle said about his Norwegian, I see a link between those languages with almost every word in Dutch, BUT if I had to write in Dutch I would not be able to write if I had to, let alone speak it or even listen to it without additional self-study. That is what I am doing now and I will admit that my progress is Dutch is blazing fast. I hope I didn't discourage you personally, because obviously if your on this website you want to be some form of Polyglot including several Romance languages, so Latin probably would be to your advantage. I am just justifying the decision of the Education system. Its a shame in my opinion that all of our Ancestor's languages here in America were dumped during assimilation. Had it not been for that I would be speaking Norwegian German and English from birth :D. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 12 of 14 06 March 2008 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I respectfully disagree, and we will have to agree to disagree. If you haven't studied Latin, then you can't see the issue from the perspective of one who has, since you don't really understand the relationship of Latin to English and German. OTOH, if you've studied Latin, and you don't think there's any utility to it other than, perhaps, with the romance languages, then you would be the first person I've run across who is not delighted that he/she studied Latin as the first "foreign" language. Latin has a major impact on English and German, as well. In fact, and I meant what I said, the inflections in German are practically the same as in German. Latin made learning German far simpler. Now, would I encourage JW, for example, to learn Latin, just to help in learning other languages? "No" would be the answer. However, if JW wants to learn Latin for deeper insights into the romance languages AND English and German, then I'd be the last to discourage him. I've never heard anyone who's actually studied Latin as a youth disparage the advantage it granted in learning other western European languages later in life. Maybe you're the first...
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| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6122 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 13 of 14 06 March 2008 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Good luck on your Dutch studies. I love Dutch, such a fun language. You'll be part of a very small group of "Buitenlanders" that can speak it. It's basically a very easy language for speakers of English or German and when you can speak both, you can indeed make very rapid progress. I was lucky enough to study it in college. My university had a very strong German dept and they offered Dutch courses. I loved the language from the second I heard it.. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 14 of 14 06 March 2008 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've not gotten past playing with Dutch, but I enjoy the pronunciation, because it's somewhat difficult, at least for a lot of people. Germans are fond of calling it a "throat disease," just as Norwegians like to name Danish the same...
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