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Agreed. English is my native language, but I know German almost fluently - Norwegian and German are so close! I started teaching myself Norwegian.
I have Italian relatives and I tried studying Italian... but the relatives that spoke Italian have died. I know some French as well and I can speak and write Arabic... but the Germanic languages have always been my favorite.
Agreed. English is my native language, but I know German almost fluently - Norwegian and German are so close! I started teaching myself Norwegian.
"So close" is a bit of an over exaggerating... You would have to be extremely talented with languages to understand Norwegian via (basic to intermediate) German as a native English speaker...
Personally, I'm not able to understand anything currently on the front page of http://www.aftenposten.no
"So close" is a bit of an over exaggerating... You would have to be extremely talented with languages to understand Norwegian via (basic to intermediate) German as a native English speaker...
Personally, I'm not able to understand anything currently on the front page of Forsiden - Aftenposten
I can basically get the point. It's all about Oslo withdrawing their bid from the Winter Olympics 2022 because of the new right-wing Norwegian government that thinks it's too expensive and IOC is too restrictive (which is true, btw)
"Fikk OL-drømmen knust av sine egne"
OL=Olympics
drømmen is dream (Dutch: droom)
sine egne is their own (Dutch: zijn eigen)
So that means something like Oslo's Olympic dream gone because of own choice of Norway.
That's my level, just guessing by recognizing words.
"So close" is a bit of an over exaggerating... You would have to be extremely talented with languages to understand Norwegian via (basic to intermediate) German as a native English speaker...
Personally, I'm not able to understand anything currently on the front page of Forsiden - Aftenposten
That's my level, just guessing by recognizing words.
Yeah, I mean I also understand (well...) some words, but I have no idea what the articles are really about. I know what "Det er patetisk" means, I know what the IOC is, now that you mentioned it I also recognize "drømmer" (even though I would have never guessed that one myself), but I'm certainly not able to understand the context in which these words are used.
I'm just surprised that someone who isn't even a native German speaker claims to "understand" Norwegian, because he knows German. Not saying that that's impossible, but I'm genuinely surprised since I'm not able to properly understand Norwegian even though I'm pretty sure that my German is a bit better than his.
The thing which was "pathetic" was that the bid isn't even brought to the parliament (stortinget), and the Høyre (right) party was split on the issue. That is what Støre said.
I am also very surprised by foreigners who have learnt German and somehow claims they understand Norwegian, or vice versa. As a native speaker of Swedish (which is almost the same as Norwegian) I understand many basic words of German due to similarity, and a few sentences, but come on, understanding it as a language? As in being able to read a whole article in a newspaper? As in being able read a book written in German? I can understand the basic context of an article at best. Same as with Dutch, Afrikaans and Frisian.
Maybe there is a few rare exceptions to that who are extremely good in guessing words and getting past.
Through learning Norwegian you will likely be able to read and more or less fully understand Danish and Swedish, at least in written form.
Through learning German you might be able to understand Dutch, Afrikaans and Frisian a little bit, somewhat. But Norwegian? Swedish? Maybe for a few exceptions who are extremely good in guessing words and grammar...
To be clear, Jess didn't say she can understand Norwegian, she has only said she is learning it. She has also stated that German and Norwegian are close, which is quite true. German is kin to Norwegian because they both belong to the family of Germanic languages, and there have been several posts highlighting the remarkable similarities between these languages.
I don't see any claims of being able to understand Norwegian thanks to a knowledge of German.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jessxwrites89
Agreed. English is my native language, but I know German almost fluently - Norwegian and German are so close! I started teaching myself Norwegian.
I have Italian relatives and I tried studying Italian... but the relatives that spoke Italian have died. I know some French as well and I can speak and write Arabic... but the Germanic languages have always been my favorite.
I can understand German fully (both written and spoken) and can speak 80% right from the start and get to 100% if I am a few days in Germany and get used to it. Mainly because German TV (ARD, ZDF and NDR) was the only foreign TV we had until we got cable TV and zillions of English channels. So I learned German from Die Sendung mit der Maus, Hallo Spencer and Sportschau and later on Derrick and Der Alte. And then at 12 German was compulsory at high school so another minimum of 4 years (I did exam in it so 6 years).
With that knowledge, it is possible to understand words and some context but to really learn Norwegian, Swedish and Danish I would still need a full course.
Yes it is. 40% of English words are French in origin due to the Norman conquest in 1066.
Try these words instead:
Anticipation
Satisfaction (indeed most of our T.I.O.N. words)
Table
Restaurant (in several languages but entered English through French)
Nation
Unique
Boutique
Machine (The ch sounding line sh is the clue here)
Buffet
Large
affair
Fiance
Bureau
Theater
Boutique
Many more common English words have French origins so not all are so obvious.
Most of those words also exist in Dutch - albeit with a slightly different spelling - and probably other Germanic languages as well. Anticipatie, tafel, restaurant, natie, uniek, boetiek, machine, buffet, affaire, bureau, theater. Yes, English is obviously the most influenced by French but some people (not you specifically) act like the other Germanic languages are these "pure languages" devoid of foreign influences. Go read any German, Dutch or Scandinavian news article and try to pick out the non-Germanic words, you would be surprised how many there are. Dutch in particular has a ton of French words, many of which aren't even used in English. Just a few examples off the top of my head:
I could go on and on. Besides, many of the French words used in English are actually of Germanic origin so it all comes full circle
Last edited by LindavG; 10-02-2014 at 01:47 PM..
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