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Which latin language is better to learn? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6383 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 25 of 44 11 September 2015 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, definitely keep the fun stuff in other languages as a bonus for when you're frustrated with Italian or just too tired to do anything but music (and maybe movies/series with subs - it's definitely better to watch something in any of your Romance languages than in Russian;))
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| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3531 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 26 of 44 12 September 2015 at 2:45am | IP Logged | |||||
Hi Iguanamon! Yes, definitely ))) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3531 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 27 of 44 12 September 2015 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Now my choice is narrowed to Spanish vs Italian ) Some Portuguese and Italian friends suggest to learn Spanish )
Today I was listening to Paul Noble Spanish :-| 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4675 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 28 of 44 12 September 2015 at 4:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've studied all three, and I don't think one is better than any other as an entry way
into the Romance languages. However, there are far more resources for French and Spanish, so if you are aiming for an intermediate or higher level I'd start with one of those. All three have good Assimil, Pimsleur, and Michel Thomas courses. If your goal is to reach an A2 level then start with the one that calls to you the most. It's more challenging to find materials to move to an intermediate level of Italian. Spanish & French have great FSI Basic courses. Italian doesn't Spanish & French have tons of great literature. Italian lit is more limited. Good Spanish & French tv and movies are more easily available than for Italian. Assimil Perfection for French has an English base. Assimil Perfection for Italian and Spanish have a French base. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3531 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 29 of 44 12 September 2015 at 5:15am | IP Logged | |||||
That's the reason I think about Spanish
I have Assimil Using Spanish 1996 (Advanced level aka Perfection) in English Edited by Enrico on 12 September 2015 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Enrico Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 3531 days ago 162 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Italian, Spanish, French | Message 30 of 44 12 September 2015 at 7:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I have found very interesting opinion from other topic ))
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4795 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 31 of 44 12 September 2015 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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From my limited experience:
Good knowledge of French gives awesome boost at writen Spanish and Italian comprehension and a bit at Spanish and Italian comprehension Good knowledge of Spanish gives awesome boost at both spoken and writen Italian comprehension Some background in Latin often comes handy. You can use Spanish to communicate with monolingual Italians, at least in some situations (preferably not a deep philosophical debate and so on), and it is gonna work. Even good knowledge of any of the romance language won't make you perfectly understand all the natives, though. I cannot speak about the other way around though. I'd say knowing one and getting some experience with the others could work fine for you(like songs, to get used to the different pronunciation. Basically, with a bit of exageration and simplification, I'd say romance languages are mostly various ortographs of the same language with very different pronunciation.) But a point I find weird in many threads like this is something else, even though already mentioned. Each of the romance languages gives you access to a lifetime of opportunities and you could easily travel to each of the respective countries every year for decades and still have lots to see. They are so large and rich in culture and nature most natives do not travel abroad much anyways. There is no reason to, when you can travel to the sea, the mountains, nature, various old towns and cities, several distinct cuisines and lifestyles, all in one package. I know people from afar may feel the need to "see it all", when they're paying their flight. But by going to several countries during one journey, you are not necessarily gonna experience more, quite the opposite. So, you have time, you don't need to hoard all the possible bonuses asap. So, I'd recommend you picked a language you like the most (so far, it looks like Italian is the Chosen One) and enjoy learning it and travelling to the country. You will get a significant bonus in the others even without having studied them, but I don't think you'll avoid English this way. You will learn a second romance language MUCH faster, being already intermediate at another. That is actually one thing all the romance learners around here seem to agree on. But you might still like to begin with the one you'd miss the most, should you not have the time for others in future. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3838 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 32 of 44 12 September 2015 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
With respect to the FSI Italian courses, I have the following comments, which I recently posted on an entirely separate discussion thread: There are two/three FSI Italian courses that I am aware of. Oddly, it seems that the FSI never got around to publishing an FSI-Basic-style of course for Italian, as had been done for German, French, Spanish, and etcetera. There is, or used to be, a PDF file on the ERIC website, that seems to be the precursor of an FSI Basic-style Italian course. Comments here on the HTLAL seem to be of the order of "Oh, that looks interesting, it's a shame that we cannot locate the audio." After several previous unsuccessful attempts, I finally forced myself to complete the "FSI Programmatic Italian" course earlier this year. I dare you -- no -- I double-dog dare you to do likewise! What astonishes me the most about this course is, given that (a) the FSI Programmatic courses for Spanish, Portuguese, and German are all fairly well designed and are quite useable, provided you adapt to the teaching method, the (b) unsoundable depth of misapplication of the programmed style of teaching by the author of this text, and that (c) someone, somewhere in the FSI hierarchy, actually approved it for publication! I CAN recommend this course, but ONLY as a replacement to "water-boarding". I have begun, but have not yet completed, the "FSI Italian FAST" course. Most of the FSI FAST courses that I have come across are elementary and cursory. The FSI Italian FAST is an exception in that it is vastly more extensive. Furthermore, it has much more exercise material than was included in the FAST courses for the other languages. I get the impression that this course is (just about) the equivalent of the combined Living Language Ultimate Italian courses (Beginners-Intermediate-Advanced) in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and etcetera. The only element missing, given that the course was designed for classroom use, would be fuller explanations of Italian grammar, but that can be overcome through the purchase of a simple grammar. NOTE CAREFULLY: The FSI Italian FAST course DOES NOT employ the massive sentence-pattern drills as used in the FSI BASIC courses. Yes, it does include a lot of exercise material, but it is of a somewhat different nature. Also, the dialogues are delivered at-what-must-be very close to native-speaker speed, which can be a little jarring, at first. This course is most definitely worth considering! 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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