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Dutch vs Scandinavian languages | ||
Tags: Scandinavian Languages | Dutch | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 17 02 December 2005 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Several people on the forum have learned Dutch, or a Scandinavian language, after having learned German. Are there any Dutch speakers that have learned a Scandinavian language (or vice versa) without first having had experience with German? I am curious what your experiences were like. Can a Dutch speaker look at Swedish text and understand most of it? How about the converse?
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| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 7159 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 2 of 17 02 December 2005 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I have flirted a little bit with Swedish, as a native Dutch speaker, and was suprised to find out that it is a lot more difficult to understand than German.
So to answer at least one of your questions: no, a Dutch speaker can't look at any Swedish text and understand most of it without having studied the language. Edited by Bart on 02 December 2005 at 2:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7182 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 17 02 December 2005 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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As a Swedish speaker I can't look at a Dutch article either and understand most of it. I can understand a sentence here and there though. Even though a lot of words are shared between swedish and German, grammar is a bit different, which can most likely make comprehension more difficult.
Swedish has different word order, no case system and definite form is created by adding an ending instead of using the definite article. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 17 02 December 2005 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bart and maxb, thanks for your insight. I am a native English speaker and have had some experience with German (not fluent by any stretch of the word). I can look at Dutch newspapers, and listen to spoken Dutch with a general understanding of whats going on. This does not seem to be the case with Swedish.
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| ferdi Tetraglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 7074 days ago 41 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Turkish, Dutch*, English, German | Message 5 of 17 02 December 2005 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Which language do you think is easier , Dutch or Swedish ?
And how long do you think it takes for a Dutch person to learn Swedish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 6 of 17 03 December 2005 at 12:21am | IP Logged | ||
For who? For me Dutch is easier, maybe because its more similar to German. I dug out some old Norwegian tapes I had around here. It doesn't seem that it would be THAT hard for an English speaker to learn. I think I read somewhere that English is more similar to Dutch than to any other modern language. If this is true, maybe an English speaker and a Dutch speaker would need about the same amount of time to reach a similar level of skill in a Scandinavian language. OK, which would be easier for a Scandinavian speaker, English or Dutch? This is assuming they had not studied German first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7020 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 17 03 December 2005 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, by the way, why are there no Swedish or Dutch profiles? How about it maxb, ferdi, and Bart? :)
Maxb, can you understand Icelandic? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ferdi Tetraglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 7074 days ago 41 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Turkish, Dutch*, English, German | Message 8 of 17 03 December 2005 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I think English would be easier because they get it like Dutch people since they were little , and there is more possibility to speak English with all the material available then Dutch , however when i see Scandinavian soccer players come to The Netherlands they always speak perfect Dutch in less then a year, so i guess English is easier but Dutch is not far behind .
p.s. as you can see in the Collaborative writing there are a Swedish and a Dutch profile it just isn't lounched yet with the other profiles on the site i don't know why. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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