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Slovak or Esperanto

  Tags: Slovak | Esperanto
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18 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
davidwelsh
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5289 days ago

141 posts - 307 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French
Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin

 
 Message 9 of 18
23 May 2010 at 10:12am | IP Logged 
If you're interested in both, why not learn both? I'm studying Polish at the moment, which is very similar to Slovak, so I know that learning your first Slavic language can feel like an uphill struggle. Much of the grammar, phonology and vocabulary is so unfamiliar...

I'd focus on Slovak, but take a break once in a while and have some fun with Esperanto. I've got a lot out of learning and knowing Esperanto. It's a beautiful, playful language and it really is very easy to learn. You will make progress many times faster in Esperanto than in Slovak, which might help to keep up your motivation for language learning in general and counter some of the discouragement you'll inevitably feel when learning Slovak.

Another benefit of doing both is that you'll find plenty of Slovak Esperantists online. These are people you can be fairly sure will be interested in languages and international communication in general, and I'm sure you'll find many who will be glad to help you with your Slovak.

Best of luck:)
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Euphorion
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
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106 posts - 147 votes 
Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, EnglishC2, GermanC1, SpanishC2, French

 
 Message 10 of 18
23 May 2010 at 10:12am | IP Logged 
Slovak_anglo wrote:
Thanks to all the responses. I probably will learn both eventually. I think I'll probably stick to Slovak and keep working at it. Hopefully I can find some native speakers to help correct me.

D'akujem!


Rado sa stalo :)

Edited by Euphorion on 23 May 2010 at 10:13am

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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6199 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 11 of 18
23 May 2010 at 10:42am | IP Logged 
davidwelsh wrote:
If you're interested in both, why not learn both? I'm studying Polish at the moment, which is very similar to Slovak, so I know that learning your first Slavic language can feel like an uphill struggle. Much of the grammar, phonology and vocabulary is so unfamiliar...

I'd focus on Slovak, but take a break once in a while and have some fun with Esperanto. I've got a lot out of learning and knowing Esperanto. It's a beautiful, playful language and it really is very easy to learn. You will make progress many times faster in Esperanto than in Slovak, which might help to keep up your motivation for language learning in general and counter some of the discouragement you'll inevitably feel when learning Slovak.


Reasonable advice. Also, Esperanto will help a bit with Slovak words and conceptual divisions. English has "to know", Germanic and Romance languages tend to divide it up into two categories (scii/koni in Esperanto; cognate in some Romance languages), and Slavic languages tend to have a three-way distinction, which Esperanto mirrors with scii/koni/scipovi.

davidwelsh wrote:

Another benefit of doing both is that you'll find plenty of Slovak Esperantists online. These are people you can be fairly sure will be interested in languages and international communication in general, and I'm sure you'll find many who will be glad to help you with your Slovak.


Yes, the Slovakian Esperanto speakers are quite friendly. One of the ones involved in Lernu.net has branched out into Slovak online, which has some free learning material for Slovak for non-profit use.

Personally, I'd study Esperanto, and spend a few weeks or months listening to Slovak and trying to get the hang of its phonology, in your shoes.


Edited by Volte on 23 May 2010 at 10:42am

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John Smith
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 5802 days ago

396 posts - 542 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish
Studies: German

 
 Message 12 of 18
23 May 2010 at 11:36am | IP Logged 
Hmmm. Probably Slovak. It's real. Plus it's so close to Czech you'll understand both languages by just learning one. 2 for the price of 1. Two beautiful countries. Around 17 million speakers.

I don't think you need to use Esperanto as a stepping stone on your way to Slovak. It's a waste of time in my opinion. It's like telling someone who wants to learn the piano to learn the violin first because it will teach him how to read music. Well guess what?... so will playing the piano. Thinking that you will get good at some activity by doing completely different activities doesn't make sense to me.

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davidwelsh
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5289 days ago

141 posts - 307 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French
Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin

 
 Message 13 of 18
23 May 2010 at 3:09pm | IP Logged 
John Smith wrote:
I don't think you need to use Esperanto as a stepping stone on your way to Slovak. It's a waste of time in my opinion. It's like telling someone who wants to learn the piano to learn the violin first because it will teach him how to read music. Well guess what?... so will playing the piano. Thinking that you will get good at some activity by doing completely different activities doesn't make sense to me.


Actually it's more like learning the recorder before learning the piano or the violin. Music teachers the world over use precisely this method to help their students develop basic skills and confidence with a simple instrument before moving on to something more advanced.

As a language teacher myself, I find it odd that this principle should be difficult to understand. Did you not find learning your second foreign language easier than learning your first? I know I did!

Edited by davidwelsh on 23 May 2010 at 3:11pm

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Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
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4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 14 of 18
23 May 2010 at 4:38pm | IP Logged 
Personally I would go for Slovak, but it sounds like a sensible idea to study both. Then you can just go with the flow and study whichever you feel like working on that particular day. If it then turns out that you want to do more Esperanto, then, hey, that was the language you learn first. If your fancy turns towards more Slovak, then Slovak it is. You can eat your cake and have it too :-).
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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6916 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 15 of 18
23 May 2010 at 6:42pm | IP Logged 
Slovak_anglo wrote:
I would like to know if anyone can help me out here.

I'm basically stuck deciding between two languages of study. Slovak or Esperanto. Now this may seem like a weird combination, but I would eventually like to learn both of these and here's why.

Slovakia is where my ancestors hail from. I already know some words and have the book "Beginning Slovak" I've started it already. My problem with Slovakian is that there is not any native speakers near me, none that I know of at least. After going through the first lesson I realize Slovak is going to be very hard and I'm a little discouraged. I've been having trouble even pronouncing the alphabet(which I want to know correctly so I can begin to pronounce the words correctly). I will learn Slovak eventually, but it is a matter of when, because I also would like to learn...

Esperanto. I'm eerily intrigued by this language, but I also love how it is another common language of communication. The other perk is that since I am a native English speaker, it shouldn't be too hard for me. My brother is also interested in learning Esperanto, but I believe he just thinks it will be easy(He doesn't share the same love of languages that I do)

Okay so now I was just wondering what you people think. Essentially I'm wondering whether I should continue with slovak or learn esperanto before slovak?
I don't want to sound like that's the only reason I want to learn Esperanto though!


Since you've already started with Slovak, I'd just continue learning it (or at least complete "Beginning Slovak" before deciding on what to do next). It seems that you have enough motivation for it. By the way did you get the audio that comes with "Beginning Slovak"? If I were you I wouldn't use a textbook for a foreign language without access to its accompanying audio unless my goal were to attain only knowledge for reading.

I see that you're already learning German per your profile. Taking on two more languages at once can be tricky unless you follow a strict schedule (e.g. German for today, Slovak for tomorrow, Esperanto for day after tomorrow) to lessen confusion and allow you to make measurable progress in learning each language.

Some time ago I began studying Finnish with "Teach Yourself Finnish" but after the second chapter I gave up because of lack of time and lack of motivation. When I restarted learning Finnish I had to start from scratch as my mind had been effectively "wiped clean" in the interim (although my background in the closely-related Estonian has been sometimes handy this time around for Finnish).

On the subject of native speakers, you'll probably need to use the internet to find them for either Esperanto and Slovak judging by your post. Neither Esperanto or Slovak can be confused for languages such as Spanish or Russian which suffer from a virtual embarrassment of riches in the number and distribution of native speakers.

As we say in Slovak: Drž sa! (it can literally mean "Hold on!" but it also is used as a counterpart of "Keep it up!").
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Slovak_anglo
Diglot
Groupie
United States
facebook.com/deliver
Joined 5105 days ago

87 posts - 100 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Italian, Slovak

 
 Message 16 of 18
23 May 2010 at 7:46pm | IP Logged 
No I didn't get the audio tapes. I actually could not find it with the tapes. I figured the book is better than nothing. A friend also told me that I don't really need the tapes, but then again his mother is slovak. So that helps. I just know it will be hard to practice the dialogues correctly if I do not know how it is actually said. I'm very good with imitation(as that I speak German with a native accent. It's easy for me to mimic sounds so for example when I was learning "D'akujem" I was confused, then I listened to a recording online and I can say it just like the native speaker did. So having those tapes would probably be a huge bonus for me.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I appreciate it.


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