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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6699 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 32 29 June 2006 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Perhaps it would be a good idea to start with any language you find "difficult", knowing that everything will become much easier later on. I think there is a progression with better "discount". <side note> I don't follow this idea myself when studying languages, but when playing music (or rather practicing) I sometimes choose a challenging piece or even a "difficult" instrument. By practicing fiddle (a relatively "new" instrument for me), I don't "have to" practice mandolin or tenor banjo. You put the fingers in the same places, and on the fretted instruments you get the positions "for free". So, I prefer challenge. :) </side note> Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 29 June 2006 at 5:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6651 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 18 of 32 03 July 2006 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | ||
This is my perception of these four languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Grammatically: French seems more similar to Italian and Spanish is more similar to Portuguese: For the first two languages share common elements as partitive (cfr. French "en" and Italian "ne". Those particles don't exist in Spanish nor in Portuguese. The past tenses: "Passé Simple" and "Passato Semplice" are seldom used in French and Italian respectively (mainly in writing), but their equivalents in Spanish and Portuguese are quite used. Phonetically: French is more similar to Portuguese and Spanish is more similar to Italian. For the first languages have nasal sounds that we don't find in Spanish nor in Italian. Vocabulary: Spanish is more similar to Portugues, and maybe French is more similar to Italian (?). For example, the verb "to eat" is "comer" in both Spanish and Portugues, meanwhile "manger" (French) looks like "mangiare" in Italian. "Afternoon" is "tarde" both in Spanish and Portugues, and "soir" (French) looks like "sera" in Italian. This is a personal view. Maybe it's not so precise, I'm afraid. Edited by Alfonso on 02 August 2006 at 11:00pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 6907 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 19 of 32 04 July 2006 at 1:56am | IP Logged | ||
The oddest thing happened the other day. I was at a bookstore looking for Paris Match, one of the few French magazines that are sold in the USA. While I am digging through the foriegn magazines, I see a Spanish magazine and I could get a rough idea of what some of the articles were about. Some of the words in the headlines looked very simular to French words. I then digged deeper and found an Italian magazine and I flipped through the pages. While I could not read it, once again I could kinda figure out what some of the articles were about by noticing words which looked simular to French words. For example, one article had "formaggio" in the title, and that looked awfully close to "fromage". It didn't hurt that there was a picture of cheese to go along with the article. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 6907 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 32 04 July 2006 at 2:07am | IP Logged | ||
You can't go wrong with French. It is the most important romance language. France has the largest economy of nations which speak romance languages. There is more academic literature in French than other romance languages. If for some reason you were to quit after learning only one romance language, you will not regret having learned French. After French, I would say learn what you like. Personally, I like cultured people so I would choose Italian. They have excellent art and resturants. Next to France, I can't think of a nation with higher culture and taste than Italy. By the time you learn two, it probably won't be important what order you learn the rest because they will come very quickly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6680 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 21 of 32 04 July 2006 at 2:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Magnum that French probably is the best choice due to its widespread use and the amount of literature available. It is one of the most taught languages in the world so finding classes or learning materials should not be a problem no matter where you are.
As a second choice, I would suggest Spanish. It's probably one of the easier Romance languages and is widely spoken in Spain and the Americas. Spanish-language films are becoming increasingly popular so these can be a fun way to develop your Spanish language skills. I would definately recommend Spanish to anyone with an interest in the pre-Columbian cultures of Latin America as a lot of material is published solely in Spanish. For those who want a bit of a challenge, I would suggest Romanian. It's allegedly the Romance language with the greatest similarity to Latin and has a few grammar features that set it aside from the others. The vocabulary can be quite fun as a good portion of it is very similar to the Latin and there's a good number of Slavic loanwords present. Romanian is probably one of the less commonly learnt Romance languages but it certainly comes across as a fun and interesting language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| winters Trilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6834 days ago 199 posts - 218 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian*, Russian*, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Greek, French, Hungarian | Message 22 of 32 04 July 2006 at 6:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Go here
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| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6658 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 23 of 32 04 July 2006 at 9:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I've only gone through a little bit of it, but it looks fun. I am a bit disappointed though that they just have the forms for just vosotros, though. But I'm biased, I speak a Mexican variation of Spanish. ;-)
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| Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6651 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German | Message 24 of 32 31 July 2006 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I want to complete another post (see above) that I wrote in this thread about the similarities/differences between Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Orthographically: French and Italian keep in many words the double consonants as in their original ortograph in Latin. For example, the word "grammar": grammaire (French) - grammŕtica (Italian) - Cfr. grammătica, -ae (Latin). Notice the double "m" in all of these three cases. Spanish and Portuguese, in contrast, have dropped most of these double consonants in the same cases: gramática (Spanish) - gramática (Portuguese). So, in this aspect, Italian and French are closer, meanwhile Spanish and Portuguese are more closely related. EDIT: I changed the example I first used for the four languages because it was wrong in one of them. The new example (grammar) works perfectly to prove my supposition. Edited by Alfonso on 02 August 2006 at 11:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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