Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

ClarissaMach · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:20 am Post subject: Languages similar to yours

Are there languages similar to your native language?

My native language is Portuguese; I can understand everything I hear or read in Spanish, and a little when it comes to French and Italian. These languages are very similar because all them come from Latin.

What about your mother tongue? Are there languages similar to it, which you can easily learn?
_________________
Stormy Weather.

CP · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 2875 Location: California

My native tongue is English. I am taking German right now, a language that I always avoided in my youth, for some reason. Not surprisingly, it has a lot in common with English.

Even in first semester, it was easy to understand a lot of German because of the cognates with English.

Der Mann hat neun paar Schuhe =
The man has nine pairs of shoes.

Sonnenschein ist gut fuer uns =
Sunshine is good for us.

Das ist meiner neue Wagen =
That is my new car.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

ClarissaMach · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:50 am Post subject:

I always thought German was very simmilar to English! When I first listened to the German song "Seeman", by Nina Hagen, I was able to understand the first sentence because it sounded very similar to English: "Komm in mein Boot" (Come in my boat). When I'm trying to read something in German and I can't understand, I use Altavista Babel fish translator (I know it's cheating, but it works... Embarassed

), but instead of translating from German to Portuguese, I translate things from German to English, cause the "logic" of these language is similar.

By the way, here goes a hint: if your mother tongue is English and you speak Spanish as a second language (for example), you'll be able to understand things in French, Portuguese and Italian if you choose to tranlate texts to Spanish instead of translating them to English. Of course you must be able to read really well in Spanish...

Portuguese is almost identical to Spanish, and its similarity to French must be like that between German and English. Take a look:

Fran�ais: Les Trois Mousquetaires est un roman d'Alexandre Dumas, initialement publi� en feuilleton dans le magazine Le Si�cle de mars � juillet 1844.

Epa�ol: Los Tres Mosqueteros es una novela de Alexandre Dumas, publicada por primera vez en forma de series para la revista El Siglo entre marzo y julio de 1844.

Portugu�s: Os Tr�s Mosqueteiros � um romance de Alexandre Dumas, inicialmente publicado em folhetim na revista O S�culo de mar�o a julho de 1844.

(The three muskiteers is a romance written by Alexandre Dumas, first published in serial form in the magazine Le Si�cle between March and July 1844).
_________________
Stormy Weather.

CP · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 2875 Location: California

Where I live, lots of people speak Spanish, but very few speak either Portuguese or French. I took Latin in high school and French in college, so I can catch a good deal of what is said on Spanish radio or TV, of which there is a lot in Southern California. But a movie in Portuguese is impossible to follow, because the pronunciation is so different from the Spanish that I am used to hearing.

There is a lot of Latin in English, by the way, most of it through the French that was spoken by the people who ruled England for so long after the Norman Invasion of 1066. Any Roman of 2,000 years ago would learn English nearly as fast as Italian or Spanish if he were alive today.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

RedRose · Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 2735 Location: GuangZhou, China

Maybe that's why a Europerb person can learn english very fast. similar languages.

ad-miral · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 1488

CP, it should be: Das ist mein neuer Wagen.
Wagen is masculine and in nominative the personal pronoun is "mein"
(I don't like German grammar, neither)
_________________
If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

ad-miral · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 1488

Japanese and Korean are similar to Chinese
_________________
If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

Edoardo · Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 111 Location: Venice, Italy

CP · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 2875 Location: California

ad-miral · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 1488

or for example "labor" in latin means "work" or "labour" in Englisch
_________________
If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

Oriani · Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 208 Location: Venezuela

Well, my native language is Spanish, so those languages which are similar to mine are the Latin ones, such as French, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese....

befree69 · Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Slovakia

Hi, my mother tongue is Slovak. It�s one of the Slavic languages which are absolutely similar.

There are three groups of Slavic nations:
West Slavics - Slovakia, Czech republic and Poland
East Slavics - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
South Slavics - Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia and nowadays independent Montenegro and Serbia

I understand mostly Czech language cause it�s like my second mother tongue. Each Slovak understands Czech and almost each Czech understands Slovak. It�s because of our common state Czechoslovakia in the past. The second easiest Slavic language is Polish. I have never been talking to any Polish in English. It�s for me absolutely stupid to speak with them in English. Cool

Another languages are similar too, just a big barrier for me is their Cyrillics alphabet which some of them have and it sometimes makes me crazy Laughing

(because I try to learn Russian)
But I�m sure that West Slavic nations understand each other very well and Slavics from East and South too.

Here is a little example: I understand
Slovak - Rozumiem
Czech - Rozum�m
Polish - Rozumiem
Slovenian - Razumem
Croatian - Razumiem
Serbian - Razumem
Ukranian - Ya rozumiyu
Russian - Ya ponimayu
Bulgarian - Razbiram

and so on...I have to say SORRY to other nations but I wasn�t able to find this phrase in all languages and also SORRY because I didn�t use Cyrillics...

I�m very happy I speak the language thanks which I understand many other languages but it�s unfortunately different language from English, French, German and other more spoken languages in the world. It�s really very difficult to learn them. (You can see how many mistakes I did and how simple sentences I used in my reply.)
_________________
...every man is the architect of his own fortune...

ClarissaMach · Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject:

ClarissaMach · Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject:

CP · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 2875 Location: California

Thank you, Clarissa M.

You won't believe this, but just this week my German teacher sent an e-mail to all the students with this same link, and we all had a good laugh in class.

She dedicated the e-mail to me, because I have several times complained that the Romance languages are more logical and elegant than German. And several of my classmates speak French or Spanish, and they agree with me. (I have quit complaining, because I think it is getting the teacher irritated.)

I asked the teacher for permission to read the whole piece in class -- in part because it's so funny and in part to put off taking a test -- but she wouldn't let me.

Vielen Dank! (Muchas gracias!)
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb