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Advice on Spanish and French/German/Por..

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tarvos
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 Message 73 of 91
14 September 2012 at 12:18am | IP Logged 
It takes a little longer, but if it's just use you're going by, then you can get by with
English pretty much anyway????
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justonelanguage
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 Message 74 of 91
14 September 2012 at 12:27am | IP Logged 
I see what you mean Tarvos, but if something is 20% more difficult (German) versus 350% more work (Arabic, Mandarin, etc), there is a BIG difference. :)

It's not just a "little" bit longer.

I respect what everybody is saying about "do what you are passionate about" but I am *not* picky at all! It's really easy for me to like almost any language. Thus, I just care about ease, utility, etc.

Learning a third language would be more of an academic issue...I don't like only being able to read and converse in two languages. :( Three sounds right!



tarvos wrote:
It takes a little longer, but if it's just use you're going by, then you can get by with
English pretty much anyway????


Edited by justonelanguage on 14 September 2012 at 12:28am
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Serpent
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 Message 75 of 91
14 September 2012 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
justonelanguage wrote:
I see what you mean Tarvos, but if something is 20% more difficult (German) versus 350% more work (Arabic, Mandarin, etc), there is a BIG difference. :)
Arabic isn't as difficult as Mandarin, it uses an alphabet and doesn't have tones... Of course it has its quirks too but even Esperanto has them.

Have a look at this thread btw.
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justonelanguage
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 Message 76 of 91
14 September 2012 at 7:10pm | IP Logged 
Yes, but the FSI still places Arabic as 3-4 times more difficult than the easiest ones for a monlingual English speaker. I assume that Arabic would be somewhat easier than Mandarin but it's not going to be *close* to the romance languages for difficulty.


Serpent wrote:
justonelanguage wrote:
I see what you mean Tarvos, but if something is 20% more difficult (German) versus 350% more work (Arabic, Mandarin, etc), there is a BIG difference. :)
Arabic isn't as difficult as Mandarin, it uses an alphabet and doesn't have tones... Of course it has its quirks too but even Esperanto has them.

Have a look at this thread btw.

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
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 Message 77 of 91
14 September 2012 at 7:16pm | IP Logged 
But you're no longer a monolingual English speaker :-) If you ever decided to learn Arabic, your Spanish would help you a little. And more importantly, you know how to learn languages and it shouldn't take that much of an effort to really think in the new language. BTW 350% harder would correspond to 4-5 times longer, otherwise this would mean German takes 20% the time French takes :D

Edited by Serpent on 14 September 2012 at 7:18pm
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justonelanguage
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 Message 78 of 91
14 September 2012 at 7:41pm | IP Logged 
Oh, but I really don't think Spanish would help me. There are a lot of words (like 10%) in Spanish of Arabic origin but it's obviously a much smaller "discount" than studying another romance language.

Yes, I meant that German (if the FSI is correct) is about 20% harder than most romance languages. So if Arabic is 3.5 times (3.5X) harder than "easy" language and German is 20% (1.2X) harder than "easy" language, Arabic would be 3.5/1.2=2.92 times harder than German for a English monoglot. I think my calculations are right. Arabic sounds ok but I wonder how much the different "dialects" really inhibit comprehension? Don't Arabic students have to learn MSA AND the local dialect(s)?

Finally, it's been so long since I had to struggle through conjugations and learning a language that I'm scared how it would be again! It's not a comfortable feeling (my opinion) starting out all ignorant in a language. But you guys are probably more brave! :)


Serpent wrote:
But you're no longer a monolingual English speaker :-) If you ever decided to learn Arabic, your Spanish would help you a little. And more importantly, you know how to learn languages and it shouldn't take that much of an effort to really think in the new language. BTW 350% harder would correspond to 4-5 times longer, otherwise this would mean German takes 20% the time French takes :D

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
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 Message 79 of 91
14 September 2012 at 8:07pm | IP Logged 
Well, if German is 20% harder than French, Arabic would be "only" 250% harder.

As for the dialects, well, they just require exposure. But any new language will require plenty of exposure, whether it'll be mostly standard language or dialects.

Don't worry about the conjugations. If you don't mind working on your passive skills at first, they will make perfect sense. Remembering them (actively) will be easier after some exposure rather than at once.
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justonelanguage
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 Message 80 of 91
14 September 2012 at 8:16pm | IP Logged 
Wat? German is said to be 1.2X harder than French. Arabic is supposedly 3.5X harder than French.

Thus, Arabic is 3.5/1.2=2.92x harder than German. Unless I'm wrong...


Serpent wrote:
Well, if German is 20% harder than French, Arabic would be "only" 250% harder.

As for the dialects, well, they just require exposure. But any new language will require plenty of exposure, whether it'll be mostly standard language or dialects.

Don't worry about the conjugations. If you don't mind working on your passive skills at first, they will make perfect sense. Remembering them (actively) will be easier after some exposure rather than at once.



1 person has voted this message useful



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