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Native (Low) German speakers are welcome | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Elijah Diglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4575 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, Swedish | Message 1 of 26 05 February 2013 at 7:48am | IP Logged |
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Some prehistory. Among the languages I've ever started to learn but shortly thereafter dropped the first was German. I was fascinated not only by German itself but rather language learning in broad sense. However later I found several reasons (or excuses - maybe it more suits the truth) to discontinue its learning, first of all due to preparing for exams. After successful passing I got more interested in French and cast German away completely, though I still knew German reading rules and counting up to 12. ;)
Roughly half a year ago I started attending free Swedish course offered by Svenska Institutet. I hadn't been before a big fan of Sweden or Scandinavia generally, honestly speaking, but step by step I got loving Swedish history and the language. I noticed of course a big similarity in vocabulary between Swedish and German as I still kept the remainder of my three years old basical knowledge; moreover I had known about the great share of common words earlier - from different sources - and was even more ensured in their similarity by my coursemate whose second language is German. By the time I had developed more-or-less stable system of concepts concerning language studying/learning - need in regular practice, motivation, constant working, determination of the suitable proficiency level and purpose - for the hobby or professional activity etc. The last one is surely not for me as three quarters of my fellow students already studied German; even though the large part of them hardly could (or desired; especially as a translator/interpreter) to make living by their skills it's still too big competition in job market. Maybe I'm mistaken but I suppose that widespread undergraduate studying of German somehow devaluates its worth in an employer's eyes. Later there occurred a substantial shift in my personal life and I found my beloved whose desire is a trip in Germany, specifically Berlin or Dresden (yes, I do know it's area of High German dialects, please, proceed). Actually I haven't been especially fond of this - I always have more affection for the Netherlands and the sea (though I've never been there), and I'd like to get in Kiel or Hamburg as a compromise, though his desire is more important for me. I read some articles in Wiki and began enjoying the idea to acquire some command of Low German awakening my long time slept demon of polyglossia ;). I googled another sources (surprisingly there're a lot of them, although mostly in German) on the subject, even encountered on YouTube a podcast of Plautdietsch. Given my old love of German and sympathy for Dutch and some other Germanic languages I find it possible to acquire it at the basic level. Also it encourages me that there're a lot of borrowings from Middle Low German in Swedish that can definitely facilitate the whole process. But on the other hand I'm not sure if it'll be of use. Should I work on it (even a little) or Standard German (that's I suppose closer to High German dialects) is quite satisfactory for Northern Germany? Thanks for patience. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4690 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 2 of 26 05 February 2013 at 10:13am | IP Logged |
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Low German won't be of any use to you, because it's only spoken by old people in rural areas of Northern Germany. The official language of Germany, which is spoken everywhere and by everybody, is High German. If you want to, you can of course learn some Platt, but there won't be many opportunities to use it in real life.
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| nuriayasmin70 Diglot Senior Member Germany languagesandbeyoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4367 days ago 132 posts - 162 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: SpanishB1, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian | Message 3 of 26 05 February 2013 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
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My grandma spoke Platt and as a child I probably understood a little. However, I never
learnt to speak it and to be honest, I've never seen any use in learning a dialect (that doesn't only apply to German). However, there are quite a few organisations/communities which aim to keep Platt alive, they organise meet-ups and they're also quite active on the internet. So if you're really interested, you'll find opportunities to use the language. Platt has more in common with Dutch than High German and in general the pronunciation in the Northern part of Germany resembles more Dutch and Scandinavian pronunciation. It doesn't harm to learn some Platt but it's not necessary, either. When you speak standard German, you will be understood in the whole country. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6549 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 26 05 February 2013 at 2:00pm | IP Logged |
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I have watched TV in Low German from NDR, but these days it is extremely rare to see anything on TV in Platt, and even on the internet the content on for instance Youtube is fairly limited and not very exciting. If you visit any town in the Northern part of Germany hardly anyone there will be able to speak it - even some native Germans I have spoken to claim they can't understand it (for instance a lady in a bookstory in Hamburg said this when I bought some books). There are a limited number of printed books in Platt plus a version of Wikipedia, but without having its special 'sound' ringing in your ears it won't be very interesting to read anything written in any language or dialect.
So like the preceding members I would advise you to take up your standard High German again and push it to a level where it can be used for something sensible. Or learn Dutch instead, if that's more attractive for you. Edited by Iversen on 05 February 2013 at 2:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elijah Diglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4575 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, Swedish | Message 5 of 26 05 February 2013 at 2:46pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks guys, you greatly cleared up the situation for me. I'll abstain from dialects and try basics of standard German. In any case it wouldn't be convenient to learn a new language with materials available for the most part only in another one you don't know. ;)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6118 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 6 of 26 05 February 2013 at 3:00pm | IP Logged |
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I hear very little dialect in Germany, though I do detect some variations in accent. I tend to visit big cities in Germany - dialect might thrive better in the countryside. Non-standard dialects seem to be more widespread in Austria.
There is a lot to be said for education, but one thing it does that is perhaps negative is to encourage standard languages at the expense of dialects. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elijah Diglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4575 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, Swedish | Message 7 of 26 05 February 2013 at 3:14pm | IP Logged |
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>Non-standard dialects seem to be more widespread in Austria.
Is it based upon live experience? If so, have you been to Vienna? I'm curious about Viennese German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4534 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 8 of 26 05 February 2013 at 5:53pm | IP Logged |
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I lived in Bavaria, and I think that's an entirely different story. In the local Gasthaus you would always hear people
speaking Bayerisch, and I definitely could not understand it. However, basically everyone between the ages of 5 and 50 could speak perfect Hochdeutsch, as well (though perhaps with a very distinctive accent). I don't recall ever thinking that people in Vienna were hard to understand, and in general my experience was that I had a much easier communicating time once I left Bavaria and went over into Austria. It very well may be that the difference was that I mainly ran into people who were more conscious of "hiding" their local dialect so as not to scare away tourists, whereas in Bavaria I was seeing what people talk like in their day-to-day lives. So yes, you can get around Vienna just fine with standard German, from what I recall. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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