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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5349 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 25 of 48 18 May 2012 at 2:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
As I said though, understanding of them all to a high level should be attainable. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 26 of 48 18 May 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you take B2 as fluency, than learning all Slavic languages to it is, in my opinion,
well possible for someone with one Slavic native language (but QiuJP might prove it is possible even for someone with completely different language background, if his enthousiasme stays for long enough). I won't do the experiment myself and I know people who are fluent at most at four Slavic languages but I trully believe it can be done and I can guess several paths to it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5349 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 27 of 48 18 May 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess it's another definition problem. I think you can get to a B2 level in several of them and then be understood in the others by using one of the ones you already know, but I can't imagine myself or most people being able to switch between say Polish, Slovak, Czech and Sorbian and actually using true Sorbian and not just some sort of mash of Polish and Czech.
The other big problem will be resources in Sorbian and Rusyn, I guess QiuJP would have to spend a good period of time in a Sorbian and then Rusyn speaking area to really learn those languages to a B2 level. If someone could do it, then they would probably need to be able to move around Europe living in different Slavic countries for extended periods or be very, very active on skype. I've met one half Czech/half Slovak guy who speaks Czech, Slovak, Russian and Macedonian fluently and says that he understands most of all Slavic languages. The nearest thing to QiuJP's dream we have here on HTLAL is Chung; do you think it's possible Chung? Anyway, I don't mean to be negative, I really hope you prove me wrong QiuJP, go for it! Edited by hribecek on 18 May 2012 at 5:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 28 of 48 18 May 2012 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If we assume that the goal would be fluency as set at B2 or better, then I think that it's possible although difficult to acheive. Apart from the problems of the limited distribution and amount of materials for each of Rusyn and Sorbian (remember that "Sorbian" covers two literary languages: Lower and Upper and these differ from each other roughly as much as Czech and Slovak), Iversen's point about weighing depth versus breadth will creep into QiuJP's mind eventually. Is it better to refine the knowledge of the languages that you already know or simply to learn kindred languages to a certain level until the family is "complete"?
To make the process more interesting rather than just an exercise of simple absorption of what's in the textbook or on the internet, I'd strongly recommend long-term visits to areas where the languages are used and making friends (not just online) in person and hanging out with them regularly and frequently. All of this would take money not just for travelling costs but to cover the opportunity cost (i.e. instead of working regularly for a paycheck, he'd likely have periods of downtime where he'd draw down his financial reserves without any cash coming in). On top of this, he'd run the risk of mental burnout by circling in a group with many intra-similarities. I've felt this way already with Slavonic as I'm unable to summon much motivation to take on Belorussian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian and the Sorbian languages seriously (i.e. learn them to B2 or better) or even improve my basic BCMS/SC and Slovenian. I'm more than satisfied to aim for basic fluency in Czech, Polish, and Slovak while something a bit less than fluency for Ukrainian would be just fine for me. Edited by Chung on 19 May 2012 at 2:48am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4749 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 29 of 48 19 May 2012 at 3:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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If you learn Russian, Slovak and SerboCroatian, you will understand most other Slavic languages.
Czech can be difficult because of diglossia (the spoken and the written languages are very distant, just in the case of Swiss German, Brazilian Portuguese and Finnish). Edited by Camundonguinho on 19 May 2012 at 3:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 30 of 48 19 May 2012 at 7:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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My exemple of four slavic language speaker can speak Czech, Ukrainian, Russian and Slovak
(and English of course). Sure, to get more languages, the best would be to live in each country for a time but it would be possible under some circumstances. Don't take out the Czech diglossia thing. It is really overestimated. Of course there are some differences between writen and spoken form but not much more than in French for exemple. If you learn the correct Czech, you won't have a serious trouble understanding (and learning to speak) the spoken form or any dialect with some practice. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 31 of 48 19 May 2012 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for your support! It is very much needed because the people around me are often ridiculing me on why am I learning the Slavic languages. People have "recommended" me to learn Korean and other "popular" culture languages which no matter how I tried, doesn't stick with me as well as the Slavic languages. hribecek, do you know whether there are methods avaulable in the Germany where Sorbian is spoken? I have managed to find some materials in Rusyn in Russian, but no leads on Sorbian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 32 of 48 19 May 2012 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
It is indeed very nice of you! However, I think we are in different time zones that would make Skyping really difficult. If I did not remember wrongly Singapore is ahead of most part of Europe by 6 hours in Summer and 7 hours on Winter. That means, by the time I reached home from work, most of you are still working or studying... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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