Thread: Just Started

Wow I just started learning German yesterday b/c I am going to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland this summer

Where is your Russian at? Maybe you should concentrate on one thing at a time. Even the best language learners(ahem, Jasper, ahem) have trouble trying to learn more than one thing at a time. When they DO begin to learn something else, it's when they've already got a firm grasp on whatever they were learning earlier. Previously I was learning Arabic and Chinese at the same time but simply couldn't keep up(and got bored with one), so I threw Arabic out the window again and focused entirely on Chinese(to beat Jasper )

I haven't been doing Russian. My family spoke it when I was younger, so i knew so much more. The only reason I started it up again was b/c I didn't want my babuska to get mad b/c I would be forgetting my heritage. But I have only been focusing on German cuz of my trip. Actually, Spanish too, but I don't focus on that, b/c it's really easy, and I'm in Ap spanish IV, and I'm not worried about it @ all...I kind of disregard it

Scusi? Why do you think I have difficulty learning Chinese and Russian at the same time? OK, my Russian isn't as good as yours, but at least my Chinese is catching up nicely. And, well, you did start learning Russian four years before me...

If I recall correctly, you had a problem learning Russian, Arabic, and Chinese at the same time. And you're not really LEARning Russian anymore, are you? You're past the "let's learn about a new rule" stage, I think...

That's because I'm past the stage where there are any new rules to be learnt about. The only thing I can do is learn new words and idiom. Especially idiom.

it seems like it would be easier to learn 2 completely different languages, say Chinese and Spanish, at the same time, than 2 similar ones, like Italian and French. не правда ли? nicht wahr?

Certainly. Chinese is just so unlike any other language I've ever learnt, that it's actually easier than e.g. Norwegian, Romanian or Ukrainian.

Originally Posted by begemot

it seems like it would be easier to learn 2 completely different languages, say Chinese and Spanish, at the same time, than 2 similar ones, like Italian and French. не правда ли? nicht wahr?

I think it's easier to learn 2 similar languages at the same time. You
don't have to memorize certain words twice as the vocabulary is similar.
I'm learning Polish and Russian parallely and there's a progress
ever since. The big problem is that some words sound the same
in both languages but have the opposite meaning.
Example:
стул (rus. = chair) - stół (pol. = table) both pronounced the same

Learning two similar languages in parallel is a recipe for disaster. Look what happened to good ol' English when people started learning Old English and Old Norse in parallel...

Originally Posted by bad manners

Learning two similar languages in parallel is a recipe for disaster. Look what happened to good ol' English when people started learning Old English and Old Norse in parallel...

was heisst Old Norse?

Was denkst du? Alt-norwegisch, natuerlich. D.w.s., die "Wiking"-Sprache.

we learn three languages at school at the same time (and I learn Russisch too!) and I find it useful, particularly since Latin, German and Russian have some similar grammar points, so learning a case or whatever is easier, if you think "oh, that's like portavit and portabat in Latin" (yes, don't point it out, I know that isn't a difference of case)

Originally Posted by Oddo

we learn three languages at school at the same time (and I learn Russisch too!) and I find it useful, particularly since Latin, German and Russian have some similar grammar points, so learning a case or whatever is easier, if you think "oh, that's like portavit and portabat in Latin" (yes, don't point it out, I know that isn't a difference of case)

They are not quite as similar as Russian and Polish are. The differences between Russian and Polish are mostly in the unimportant things like genders, inflections and prepositions -- those same things that are the most difficult to learn. It was the same with Old English and Old Norse in England, and the result was that English lost all the genders and inflections.

I must say, I find German a lot like English. We have stolen so many words from the language. Arabic grammar rules remind me of Gaelic's.

Oh! ... which is right? Does the clause establish the case [ie. the verb], or can the preposition go off and do its own thing?
e.g. Ich habe einen Computer -- we know that haben gets the accusative
* Ich lerne Deutsch in[+dative] meiner[feminine suffix] Sekondarschule[feminine], or, should it just be: Ich lerne Deutsch in meine Schule, if lerne was to control the clause [Deutsch being the object -- accusative]. I'm really confusing myself as the days go by. I had to ask.

Thank you

Prepositions always control the ending of the words that follow. Well, I

We have stolen so many words from the language

I think that's not true. English and German have the same roots. So it is quite normal that both languages have a lot in coommon.

If anything then English has stolen a lot of words from French.

But English, as it is, is partly derived from (Norman) French so this is not "theft" either. If it is then most of our language is stolen from Latin.

Originally Posted by pernat

The big problem is that some words sound the same
in both languages but have the opposite meaning.

its a very big problem for ALL slavic languages(also watch the stress), the example which i like:
-polish - zapomnij=forget
-russian=запомни=remember

Example:
стул (rus. = chair) - stół (pol. = table) both pronounced the same

[/quote]
i am not very well at polish phonetics but ł is pronounced almost like W in english, so the pronounciation of the town Lodz(sorry i dont have polish letters on my keyboard) is Вутш

I think german language has stolen a lots of english words
most of them are the ew words. For example:
english:mobile phone german: mobile telephon but everybody says ,,handy"
when i meet english speaking people i am often using the word handy instead of mobile phone, and they can't understand.
And there are some french words, too in german.
bsp. rendez vous but we say date, too. we havent got a really german word for it.