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Which latin language is better to learn?

 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
44 messages over 6 pages: 13 4 5 6  Next >>
Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6607 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 9 of 44
08 September 2015 at 7:13am | IP Logged 
Well, geographically Portugal is not a Mediterranean country ;D

How are you learning? As I said before, there's no need to distribute the time evenly, especially with passive study (ie comprehension only).

Enrico, we've had this conversation before. More than once, even. (click your post count and then threads started)

May I ask you how much Russian you have in your life? If you want to learn several Romance languages, fight for your dream. Cut down on L1 as much as possible. Also, learn L3 through L2 as much as possible, at least through English.

You obviously long for more than one Romance language. Dropping a language is your default solution to everything, but there are other ways too. When you're not choosing a brand new language, the best is to go back to square one and explain your situation.

BTW you're right about understanding French thanks to Italian. But honestly there's a huge difference between deciphering a related language and reading it comfortably, and bridging this gap doesn't take much effort at all (when you already understand one Romance language well). If you have no immediate travel plans, maybe it's better to keep this for later, but I strongly recommend you to devote at least a month to the language of each Romance country prior to travelling there. (I don't mean you should cut off other languages for a month unless you really have no time)
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Enrico
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 3755 days ago

162 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Italian, Spanish, French

 
 Message 10 of 44
08 September 2015 at 11:05am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:

How do you learn languages?


I believe in Michel Thomas or/and Pimsleur + Assimil way.
After topic you mentioned to decide what language to choose

For Italian
I went thru Paul Noble (it' something like MT Foundation) then 25 lessons of Assimil Italian

For French
Paul Noble + 25 lessons of Michel Thomas

For Spanish
Pimsleur 1CD + 25 lessons of Learn Spanish Like Crasy

It didn't help )))
1 person has voted this message useful



Enrico
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 3755 days ago

162 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Italian, Spanish, French

 
 Message 11 of 44
08 September 2015 at 12:39pm | IP Logged 
And now I think I have time for two languages only - English + Romance language
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garyb
Triglot
Senior Member
ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5217 days ago

1468 posts - 2413 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 12 of 44
08 September 2015 at 3:25pm | IP Logged 
From my experience of French, Italian and Spanish (I've learnt the first two to around high B2, Spanish to around A2), Italian seems like the "middle ground". In terms of grammar and vocabulary it feels very much in between the other two and shares various elements of both. The verb endings and dropped pronouns are closer to Spanish, much of the rest of the grammar is closer to French, and the vocabulary is a mix.

However, spoken French isn't very transparent to someone who knows Spanish or Italian, until they spend a bit of time learning how the pronunciation works. Whereas it's easier for a French speaker to understand Spanish or Italian with their more phonetic spelling. I've never studied Portuguese, but even with my three related languages I can barely understand a word of it when spoken, so the situation seems similar to French.

Afraid I can't give a straight answer, because pronunciation complicates things. My choice would be to just learn the one that interests you most, then if you plan to travel in a country where another is spoken, do a bit of work on that. In terms of listening comprehension, a little work can go quite a long way with related languages.
4 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6607 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 13 of 44
09 September 2015 at 12:01am | IP Logged 
Enrico wrote:
Serpent wrote:

How do you learn languages?


I believe in Michel Thomas or/and Pimsleur + Assimil way.
After topic you mentioned to decide what language to choose

For Italian
I went thru Paul Noble (it' something like MT Foundation) then 25 lessons of Assimil Italian

For French
Paul Noble + 25 lessons of Michel Thomas

For Spanish
Pimsleur 1CD + 25 lessons of Learn Spanish Like Crasy

It didn't help )))

This sounds like a good beginning. I think the best would be to do one Assimil course and have fun with the other 2-3 languages. Have you tried GLOSS, lyricstraining? Have you read my link on learning from native materials? :)

Didn't help for what? Of course this won't make one fluent, and I think this wasn't your expectation either. You also can't expect perfect comprehension, but you may be able to tackle something easy with a dictionary (especially popup).

I think the biggest danger for you is being stuck in the beginner loop. Don't keep going back to lesson 1. Pick up more or less where you left off, then revise specific things you're not confident about.

Also, I recommend you to go through "Spanish vocabulary: an etymological approach", regardless of which language you choose as your main one. It often compares multiple Romance languages, and with some adjustments it'll help you for all them. I also thoroughly enjoyed this textbook, though as a non-linguist you might find some parts difficult. Liberum-center also offers some great Italian materials.
3 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6607 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 14 of 44
09 September 2015 at 12:11am | IP Logged 
garyb wrote:
I've never studied Portuguese, but even with my three related languages I can barely understand a word of it when spoken,

You'd understand much more with some minimal learning, or by listening with an accompanying text. (*cough* lyricstraining*cough*)
Lesson 1: in Brazilian Portuguese de and di are pronounced with (roughly) an English j; te and ti with an English ch :)
1 person has voted this message useful



garyb
Triglot
Senior Member
ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5217 days ago

1468 posts - 2413 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 15 of 44
09 September 2015 at 1:14pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:

You'd understand much more with some minimal learning, or by listening with an accompanying text. (*cough* lyricstraining*cough*)
Lesson 1: in Brazilian Portuguese de and di are pronounced with (roughly) an English j; te and ti with an English ch :)


Yep, that was my point about a little work going a long way. Sometime I should sit down and spend a bit of time learning the pronunciation. I have so little exposure to Portuguese that I've not bothered yet, but a basic understanding of a whole other language for a few hours' work is definitely low-hanging fruit that I should grab sooner or later!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Enrico
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 3755 days ago

162 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Italian, Spanish, French

 
 Message 16 of 44
09 September 2015 at 3:08pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:

This sounds like a good beginning. I think the best would be to do one Assimil course and have fun with the other
2-3 languages.


I have come to this conclusion before starting this topic, the main issue is WHAT language to choose to go thru
Assimil )))

Serpent wrote:

Have you tried GLOSS, lyricstraining? Have you read my link on learning from native materials? :)


Yes, thank you, they are very useful.

Serpent wrote:

Didn't help for what?


Didn't help to choose which language to learn deeply.
I tried to choose one language by test learning all three during one month.

Serpent wrote:

I think the biggest danger for you is being stuck in the beginner loop. Don't keep going back to lesson 1. Pick up
more or less where you left off, then revise specific things you're not confident about.


Oh, this is a word in season because I already started to think about starting a course from the beginning ))

Serpent wrote:

Also, I recommend you to go through "Spanish vocabulary: an etymological approach", regardless of which language
you choose as your main one.


Interesting thing I will check it out




2 persons have voted this message useful



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