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Urban legends about languages... | ||
Tags: Stereotypes | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4715 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes  Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 17 of 81 15 July 2012 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think this is the fourth time I've quoted this passage on the Internet.. 21 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4565 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 18 of 81 15 July 2012 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you go to country X and speak their language, you will always be answered in English.
You are too old to learn a language. People who speak other languages found it easy because of their special talent. Hungarian is the hardest language in the world 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6022 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 19 of 81 15 July 2012 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Norwegian is the hardest language to learn in the world - or at least a really hard
language to learn. A ranking of some sort is often referred to where Norway apparently came fourth. Obviously nonsense. For English speakers, Norwegian is one of the easiest. I'm still surprised by how prevalent this idea though. My dad, who's generally a very sensible sceptic, brought it up when we were talking about my English girlfriend learning Norwegian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4952 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 20 of 81 15 July 2012 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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1. quite anywhere in the world: Our language is the most difficult to learn.
2. "modern" textbooks and teachers: explaining grammar is harmful for learning 3. Learning a language is just about memorising. (usually followed by something like "I'm bad at languages because I am clever and I prefer to think logically than to memorise) 4. German is the easiest language for a czech to learn. 5. English is the easiers foreign language to learn. 6. It's useless to learn (add any other than the most popular or the second most popular language in your area). 7. You can't teach yourself a language to a high level. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4581 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 21 of 81 15 July 2012 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It is indeed true that Arabic has a very wide range of synonyms for most terms, and this has played a role in how dialects work as well: from one regional variety to another, there might be a different word for an everyday item, but many times each of the different words is a synonym meaning the same thing, derived from Classical Arabic. Also worth mentioning is that loan words from other languages into dialects may also make the vocabulary seem larger. Another difference is that many of these synonyms are not merely composite words or words built upon other words. The root system and the subtleties of the verb system also make some texts quite complex. However, I don't think this necessarily means Arabic has more words than any other language. It's all relative, and as someone stated earlier, it sometimes depends on how the dictionary decides to count a word in English. Furthermore, it's not like a student planning to reach a C1 or C2 level in Arabic has to know all the various synonyms of the words. Similar things can be said of Persian and other languages, however. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5636 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 22 of 81 15 July 2012 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Basque is a dialect of Spanish.
(According to my Catalan professor, it was none other than Franco himself who started this "urban legend", when he officially classified all Spain's regional languages as "Spanish dialects".) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5534 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 23 of 81 15 July 2012 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's not an UL. It would actually need serious effort to not pick up anything at all if you are surrounded by people who speak the language. [/QUOTE] You make a good point. Of course you would pick up some words, expressions, etc. I was referencing the idea of total command/fluency just by exposure. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6852 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 81 15 July 2012 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
The same thing is going on in China... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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