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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 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 9 of 48 15 May 2012 at 10:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I have done more or less the same with the Germanic and the Romance languages. However I have reached a point where the last few languages (Sardic, Romantsch, Frisian, Faroese) don't really attract me because there are few study materials, few speakers and few chances to hear those languages. Besides I can already more or less read texts and to some extent understand speech in them (when clearly spoken and about things I know) so there would not really be a point in further study - better spend the time on keeping those languages I already know in tip top condition and adding new ones from other families.
The only area where I feel that I lack something is the old forms, like Anglosaxon and Old High German (and maybe Gothic). In the Romance family I have studied Old French and Old Occitan long ago, and the other old forms are fairly easy to understand. Besides my Latin functions as a link back in time. So while I appreciate your effort to study all Slavic languages I predict that you at some point will ask yourself: Is there really any compelling reason to study language X,Y, Z when I already can read and understand them through A, B, C, D, E and F? Edited by Iversen on 15 May 2012 at 12:10pm 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4931 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 10 of 48 15 May 2012 at 11:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I think your idea is wonderful!
Learning all of the languages in a particular family is a very attractive and worthwhile goal. The only advice I could give, as someone who is on the same path, is to study the main language first to at least B2 level. If you try to learn many related languages at the same time, the possibility of interference is quite high. That's not to say you can't do more than one at the same time. It just means that one language should be your primary focus while you are investigate or get up to speed on the others in the family. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5336 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 48 15 May 2012 at 11:32am | IP Logged | ||
I am certainly not planning to learn all the Slavic languages to fluency, but I would like to learn Russian (B2 at least) then Polish and Ukrainian (to B1) and then possibly Croatian. I also have a Slovak course waiting for me on my bookshelf. According to my calculations I will be somewhere in my 80ies by the time I have managed that, so I'll postpone further planning until then, but I am hoping that I will be able to read some of the other Slavic languages absed on the ones I already know. Just the thought of my kids no longer needing me, and my grandkids being old enough to take care of themselves, and me heving all that free time on my hands - oohhh. I like the way you think though. In principle I agree with Serpent that the plans you make tend to change after a while, but hey, you will have had fun just making them! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 12 of 48 15 May 2012 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sure, detailed and really long term plans have the tendency to fall apart but even if you
managed to learn "just" the first three, it would be surely rewarding. Some will be easy (such as Slovak after Czech) but still, you have a lot before you. Good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eilis91 Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie France Joined 4578 days ago 28 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, French, Italian Studies: German, Yoruba | Message 13 of 48 15 May 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find learning languages from the same group a very pleasant experience, because as you add more and more
languages they create this beautiful web of words in your head and you can see all these connections between them that you would never have known about. I speak fluent French and Italian, some Spanish (which I intend to brush up in the near future) and I plan to learn Latin, Portuguese, Romanian and Esperanto. I suppose one can't really describe Esperanto as a true romance language, being a constructed language, but there are undeniably huge romance influences on the vocabulary of Esperanto, and I feel as though my group of romance languages would be missing something without it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5857 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 14 of 48 15 May 2012 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
For me, I am sort of a "perfectionist", who likes to learn the entire package, even though I may be able to know them passively. Besides that, each language represent a different form of Slavic cultures which I am fond of since young for some unknown reason. Hence, I do not feel the "burnout" after learning many Slavic languages. And it is also the very same reason why I learn Slavic languages in Singapore, despite the ridicules from "normal" people. (I would be in better relations with people if I placed emphasis on Japanese, Korean and even Thai, but I persisted to stick with Slavic languages) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5857 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 15 of 48 15 May 2012 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
If that's the case, I would have been running these 6 languages in parallel now: Russian, Czech, BCS, Slovak, Ukrainian and Polish. However, due to my commitments, it is almost impossible for me to do so, and a plan will at least install me with a sense of discipline to reach my target. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 16 of 48 15 May 2012 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with that.
I think, as a Slav, that learning any Slavic lang can be hard for the non-slav due to the verbs, but I may be simply wrong, due to the fact I have never learned it formally. At least you don't have to worry about the gender, like in German, most of the nouns can be identified right away from its ending (there are exceptions, but... ). I believe still, that once you have mastered one, the rest will be really easy, as our languaegs are quite close: I can recognize a lot of vocabulary in every Slavic language, and somewhat understand some simple sentences (not all, and only written, but vocabulary tends to be alike). The funny things is the false friends, and many Poles find Czech language very funny sounding, and vice versa. for example Polish word 'szukać' (to search) sounds like Czech verb meaning 'to have sexual intercourse'. Some links about funny Polish-Czech-Serbo-Croatian misunderstandings (in Polish): http://www.polskieradio.pl/7/158/Artykul/500401,Rozmowki-cho rwacko%E2%80%93polskie http://r24430.ovh.net/szlakiem/czeski/jez-humor.htm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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