Scandinavian learners and German learners (Skandinavisk & Nordisk) Language Learning Forum

Scandinavian learners and German learners
Tags: L3 via L2 \| Scandinavian Languages \| Poll \| Foreign Languages \| German
Language Learning Forum : Skandinavisk & Nordisk

Poll Question: Do you know German?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Yes, I’ve already learnt German	29	[63.04%]
No, but I’m learning it in tandem with my Nordic language	11	[23.91%]
No, I have never studied German	6	[13.04%]
No, but I know Dutch	0	[0.00%]
You can not vote in this poll

20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

laban
Triglot
Groupie
Israel
Joined 5822 days ago
87 posts - 96 votes

Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian
Studies: Norwegian, German

Message 17 of 20

29 December 2012 at 4:22am | IP Logged

Serpent wrote:

The point was basically that the OP was wondering why there are far
less English-based resources for them, e.g. Assimil, and I said it's probably because
most Scandinavian learners are also learning German.
although I also don't understand the exclusion of native speakers.

as for interference, there are tons of threads about it though mostly with the Romance
perspective. IDK, if your Norwegian is not affecting your English, I think you simply
need to continue studying Italian (and German).

just
take it as feedback. if it's difficult for you to switch between languages, your
skills probably aren't as good as you think (generic you here, and it's certainly
possible to have basic fluency and not be good at switching...but maybe not advanced
fluency)

Thanks Serpent, I reread the OP's question, just to make sure I wasn't missing
anything, and I still can't seem to figure out how you derived any purpose behind his question, let alone the one you mentioned?

I remember reading some threads about this "interference" but none was specific to my
case, as you mentioned. So, I figured I might as well add my interpretation of what
this question's all about, plus get my specific answer :) I still wonder what was the
OP's true intent here. Ohh...and btw, that's a nice thread you gave me - very
interesting, and the OP there summed the problem up real nice.

I never said my Norwegian was effecting my English :) but that's another good point. I
think that all the languages I know and speak effect each other in one way or the
other. I might not mix words but I certainly "borrow" from one to the other, sometimes,
I don't even catch myself after :)
I suppose your general advice was to just keep on studying simultaneously, and btw, I'm
not really studying Italian anymore.

Switching languages has never been a real problem for me, I think the severity of this
"interference" has more to do with the attention you give each language and the usage
of it. When I was living it Italy, my Italian fluency was superb. But now, it fades
away slowly, and with other language studies introduced, I'm getting more and more
"interference" - which surly is not adding to my previous Italian skills. So, maybe
I've answered my own question here, but I'm always interesting in hearing other
people's opinions and experience :).

So thanks :)
1 person has voted this message useful

hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 5130 days ago
1871 posts - 3642 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish^C2, Italian^C2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

Message 18 of 20

29 December 2012 at 9:10am | IP Logged

laban wrote:

I still wonder what was the OP's true intent here.

I just took it as simply asking how many people have studied both, as opposed to one or
the other. They're both on his study list, so I imagine that's where the interest comes
from.

I've never studied German, but have studied Norwegian, for what it's worth. As a non-
German speaker, I've never had any trouble finding Norwegian study resources with
English as a base, so I doubt that factored in his poll either, but who knows.

R.
==
1 person has voted this message useful

Miguel_MO
Diglot
Newbie
Spain
Joined 4296 days ago
1 posts - 1 votes
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: German, Norwegian

Message 19 of 20

20 February 2013 at 10:32pm | IP Logged

I took the second option: I've been learning German for 5 years and I started with Norwegian last summer, so my level is quite basic at the moment. In my case was just a natural step. I love German, so when I had a reaseonable level of this language and was willing to start with the Scandinavian languages, I looked for a Norwegian course and started to learn it.

In my opinion it's really helpful to have a good base of English and German to learn any Scandinavian language because of the similarities between them.

All the Norwegian resources I've been looking for were in English as a base.
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6597 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 20 of 20

21 February 2013 at 8:18pm | IP Logged

laban wrote:

Serpent wrote:

This was in a different thread.

if your Italian is "fading" it's better to revive it, at least by practising.

Edited by Serpent on 21 February 2013 at 8:21pm

1 person has voted this message useful

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