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Languages and Colors | ||
Tags: Synesthesia | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| CamineComet Newbie United States Joined 4780 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Sign Language, Russian, Persian | Message 1 of 24 13 April 2011 at 6:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed that certain colors seem to be present with certain languages. For example, I see orange with Spanish things. I also think of Spain when I see orange things. This is just one example, but has anyone noticed this with other languages? Also, does this affect the resources you buy? (I'm more likely to buy an orange Spanish book than an orange French book because I associate French with the color blue, so seeing orange just doesn't look right). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 2 of 24 13 April 2011 at 6:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Yay, another synaesthete on the forum. :)
This has been discussed a few times before: Language Colors Most Enjoyable Language "Seeing" the words when you speak I don't think the aspect of having reluctance towards buying a language book of the "wrong" color has been discussed yet though. I share in this feeling -- one of my favorite Polish books is green and I can't stand looking at the cover because the colors don't match up at all with that language. And I wouldn't want to buy an orange French book either. ;) Edited by ellasevia on 13 April 2011 at 6:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6255 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 3 of 24 13 April 2011 at 6:41am | IP Logged | ||
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ellasevia, close the eyes, buy the book if it's good, and ask a friend to make a new book cover for you. Choose your favorite colour.
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| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6114 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 4 of 24 13 April 2011 at 9:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I associate Spanish with orange as well, and Russian with red, but I'm not sure I'm a synaesthete; I think the orange comes from the red and yellow of the Spanish flag, and the red comes from the former communist/Soviet Union logo. Not incidentally, I tend to associate red with Chinese as well.
Italian is purple, though that may be because Italy is purple on the world map I have. Oddly, this does affect to some extent the resources I buy. I'd be more likely to buy a red-coloured Russian dictionary or textbook than blue or green, although I contradict myself somewhat in saying this, since I do own the Collins Russian dictionary, which is blue! Edited by ChristopherB on 13 April 2011 at 9:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6380 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 24 13 April 2011 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not a synaesthete, but I certainly associate countries with colors, and thus also the languages of those countries. Some of these have to do with politics (China: Communist red), some have to do with landscapes (Mexico and Spain: Sandy orange), some have to do with movies (French: Musketeer blue) and some have to do with the color of the country on the map of the Diplomacy game I had when I was younger (Italy: Green).
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| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5133 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 24 13 April 2011 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd never thought about the colors of my language books before but that may be the reason why I can't warm to my Arabic book; it's just too blue! Another synaesthetic pet-peeve of mine is that Esperanto is always associated with green when there's not a single green letter in the name. Apart from small things like these I really enjoy the extra dimension my synaesthesia adds to my languages.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6070 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 7 of 24 13 April 2011 at 11:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I like Langenscheidt products but don't like the ghastly yellow covers they usually have.
Colour perception varies among languages. I notice that quite a few languages do not make a clear distinction between blue and green. On the other hand some make sharper distinctions among colours than English does. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6237 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 24 13 April 2011 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||
Is "lingvo internacia" greener? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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