How many languages do you speak? (top 10, child, cancel)
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Well that depends on your priorities. Personally I found Cyrillic easy to learn, and it fits the language extremely well. Meanwhile, even though Polish uses the Latin alphabet, the orthography is complicated, full of odd symbols and digraphs (sz, rz, cz, szcz, etc) that can confuse a person coming to it for the first time. Also I think Polish grammar is more complex than Russian, and Polish (with its nasals and sibilants) is harder to pronounce!
On the other hand - spelling is consistent and phonetic, a bit more so than with Russian.
I find Polish to be much easier to read and write than Russian. If I look at the digraphs as units (which is technically what they are), they become much less intimidating.
I also find the Russian palatals just as hard to master as the Polish sibilants.
That's interesting. I found the Cyrillic alphabet to be relatively easy. Pronunciation and Russian grammar/vocabulary on the other hand, makes me want to cry, which is why I haven't gotten very far on teaching myself Russian.
The whole unvoiced/voiced, stressed/unstressed stuff drives me nuts, and that dreaded ы sound is so hard for me to pronounce properly.
also grammar and vocabulary is difficult and strange for someone who is used to western languages. a small example: they don't use the verb "have" they use "with me/you/him there is". of course ONLY if you use the propper word termination... they also don't have "the" "a" etc.
The alphabet is very easy to learn, the hard work starts later...
You're basically right. If you know one Slavic language, it gives you a whopping advantage when you start learning a new one. The distance between Russian and Polish, for instance, is about as great as between Italian and French.
that's true. Polish is more similar however to Czech and Slovak, while Russian is more similar to Bulgarian. (due to old slavonik influence in Russia)
I am forced to speak at least four languages everyday. Africa, what can I say!
The funny part is when I never know which language I am speaking, without thinking I change from one to another. I rely on the looks I get or the odd silence when it happens.
1. Dutch - my mother tongue.
2. English - my language of instruction (I go to an international school).
3. French - I studied French for 6 years in secondary school, after that I took a French course at advanced level (B2+) at University and in two weeks I will move to Namur (French-speaking part of Belgium) for 6 months to study and hopefully improve my language skills further.
4. German - I studied German for 5 years in secondary school and I grew up in the very east of the Netherlands, a few minutes from the German border. The city I live in now (Maastricht) is also very close to the German border so there are a lot of German students here with whom I try to speak in their native tongue. Plus, my three roommates are all German.
I use English and Spanish every day. In fact, I prefer English and Spanish are more likely to use it more. I use around my Japanese friends, they try to learn everything ....
English (native speaker)
Spanish (pretty good)
Tagalog (not the greatest.... but I can get my point across)
I forgot how to speak French (except for a few random things - learnt it as a child in school) but I can read it and Portuguese sometimes
I do use all 3 languages pretty much every day! Tagalog is the hardest to learn/speak correctly because I feel like there are fewer resources for it and it's just harder than any latin based languages in general. Obviously I would love to be completely fluent in both Spanish and Tagalog but it takes a lot of time & practice it's hard to get there when I just dont have the time right now... I figure the least I can do is speak in these languages everyday and learn new words things here and there. =)
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