Multilingualism

[Prometheus]

Can you speak any other languages? Which ones? How fluently?

Is English your native tongue, or something else?

Compare and contrast the languages you know. How do they differ from English, what do you prefer about each, etc.

I am in the process of learning Italian, and once I feel I can call myself fluent, I'm going to begin learning German. So far, I find Italian much more musical than English. I have heard German-speakers say that German allows more room for specificity in communication, and that it is a more expressive language.

Che dici?

[highwhey]

i'm working on my English.

[kennethgriffen]

i can sort of understand french and speak some basics

[Prometheus]

i'm working on my English.

I'm assuming Spanish is your native tongue... what I am interested in is your comparison and contrasting between English and Spanish - which do you prefer and why, are there any interesting differences, etc.

One thing I find is that when I head someone recite the alphabet in Spanish, the English verson sounds so tight and awkward by comparison - all the long "e" sounds... "bee, see, dee, ee," it sounds ridiculous compared to "bay, say, day, ay"

[DCL]

no need to.

phone translates almost everything.

shit, i even went on a couple dates with a girl in a foreign country just by using a translator app. it didn't feel awkward at all.

[Prometheus]

no need to.

phone translates almost everything.

shit, i even went on a couple dates with a girl in a foreign country just by using a translator app. it didn't feel awkward at all.

There's no need to do almost anything. But do you not see the value in it?

[DCL]

There's no need to do almost anything. But do you not see the value in it?

yes, of course there is value.

just like needing to know how to do math while already having a calculator. that is important.

but languages take a loooooooong ass time to learn. for me, i just need to communicate and get ideas across, and if there's a device that does that for me, then i'm fine with not knowing the language unless i have to deal with it everyday.

[Prometheus]

I'm not trying to persuade anyone that they should learn more languages. I wouldn't discourage it, but I'm not out here preaching it. Just looking for some input from people who actually are multilingual.

The strongest motivator for me with this is the desire to read foreign works in their original languages. Translation is not always an exact science.

[DCL]

i took spanish for 2.5 years in high school. at one point, i could read a children's book. that's as far as i had reached despite giving partial effort in trying to learn. and then i gradually forgot a whole bunch.

but today... i can read contents of a website written in german or russian or whatever because there's an instant translator. and i spent zero seconds in learning these languages. so my perspective in learning languages probably isn't very inspiring.

but i wouldn't discourage anybody from wanting to learn anything. if you have the motivation and dedication, go for it!

[highwhey]

I'm assuming Spanish is your native tongue... what I am interested in is your comparison and contrasting between English and Spanish - which do you prefer and why, are there any interesting differences, etc.

One thing I find is that when I head someone recite the alphabet in Spanish, the English verson sounds so tight and awkward by comparison - all the long "e" sounds... "bee, see, dee, ee," it sounds ridiculous compared to "bay, say, day, ay"
i prefer english bc i learned it formally vs learning spanish socially. but as far as my personality goes, spanish is it, i can express feelings, emotions more easily in spanish then in english.

i used to read a lot when i was in school, but i didn't learn how to pronounce "c'mon" until like 4th grade when we were reading aloud and i heard someone finally say it, it was like a revelation. i know it sounds so simple, but keep in mind english was a language i only spoke in the classroom. at lunch or recess, i would speak spanish with my mexican friends, same at home.

as far as interesting differences, well spanish words are sex based, i.e the following sentence in english: Alan is handsome

would translate into spanish: Alan esta guapo

but the following english sentence: Brittany Renner is hot

would translate to: Brittany esta guapa

usually a female would mean the word ends in 'a' and male ends in 'o'.

[Prometheus]

i prefer english bc i learned it formally vs learning spanish socially. but as far as my personality goes, spanish is it, i can express feelings, emotions more easily in spanish then in english.

i used to read a lot when i was in school, but i didn't learn how to pronounce "c'mon" until like 4th grade when we were reading aloud and i heard someone finally say it, it was like a revelation. i know it sounds so simple, but keep in mind english was a language i only spoke in the classroom. at lunch or recess, i would speak spanish with my mexican friends, same at home.

as far as interesting differences, well spanish words are sex based, i.e the following sentence in english: Alan is handsome

would translate into spanish: Alan esta guapo

but the following english sentence: Brittany Renner is hot

would translate to: Brittany esta guapa

usually a female would mean the word ends in 'a' and male ends in 'o'.

I'm probably at the literacy of about a three-year-old Italian. It's exactly the same in terms of the genders of words. I'm not sure it isn't even more genderized than Spanish...

"My new hat is red and white" would be

"Il mio capello nuovo e rosso e bianco"

but if instead you simply changed it to "My new shirt is red and white", now you have:

"La mia camicia nuova e rossa e bianca."

Literally every word in the sentence other than "e" (the English "and" or the Spanish "y") gets a different form just because of the gender of the noun in question. That's where the stereotypical speech pattern of the Italian-American comes from: "It's-a my-a pizza pie-a". It's also the main reason I find the language to be so much more musical.

I have heard from fluent Spanish-speakers that the two are similar enough that they can have a full conversation with an Italian and only face minor difficulties. Is this true for you?

[highwhey]

I'm probably at the literacy of about a three-year-old Italian. It's exactly the same in terms of the genders of words. I'm not sure it isn't even more genderized than Spanish...

"My new hat is red and white" would be

"Il mio capello nuovo e rosso e bianco"

but if instead you simply changed it to "My new shirt is red and white", now you have:

"La mia camicia nuova e rossa e bianca."

Literally every word in the sentence other than "e" (the English "and" or the Spanish "y") gets a different form just because of the gender of the noun in question. That's where the stereotypical speech pattern of the Italian-American comes from: "It's-a my-a pizza pie-a". It's also the main reason I find the language to be so much more musical.

I have heard from fluent Spanish-speakers that the two are similar enough that they can have a full conversation with an Italian and only face minor difficulties. Is this true for you?
i understood the italian sentences you posted because they are similar, for instance:

"mio" in italian means "mine, or my" in spanish, actually spelled the same too.

"capello" sounds similar to "cabello" which is hair in spanish.

"nuovo" sounds like "nuevo" which is new

"rosso" sounds like "rosa" which is pink

"bianco" sounds like "blanco" which is white

so yeah, they are similar enough that i could understand someone speaking it. lot of similar latin roots i'm assuming.

[Prometheus]

i understood the italian sentences you posted because they are similar, for instance:

"mio" in italian means "mine, or my" in spanish, actually spelled the same too.

"capello" sounds similar to "cabello" which is hair in spanish.

"nuovo" sounds like "nuevo" which is new

"rosso" sounds like "rosa" which is pink

"bianco" sounds like "blanco" which is white

so yeah, they are similar enough that i could understand someone speaking it. lot of similar latin roots i'm assuming.

Yep, and they are the two which retain the most similarity to Latin in terms of phoenetics. French and English are fascinating blends of both Latin and Germanic influence... English is actually a Germanic language, but the Norman invasions and subsequent history gave English a ton of Latin and French vocab... the result is this odd hybrid of Germanic language structure and common words, with primarily French and Latin vocabulary for terms beyond ordinary conversation. Then French is a descendant of Latin just like Italian and Spanish, but its phoenetics were so heavily influenced by German bc of the geography of Europe, that it got its unique sound shared by no other Romance language. Italian and Spanish though - just variations on good old vulgar Latin.

[fiddy]

no need to.

phone translates almost everything.

shit, i even went on a couple dates with a girl in a foreign country just by using a translator app. it didn't feel awkward at all.
Just came to say that i feel sorry for the peasants that dont speak another language other than English, which i dont even consider as a real one.

[Prometheus]

Just came to say that i feel sorry for the peasants that dont speak another language other than English, which i dont even consider as a real one.

What else do you speak, and why are you snobby about English?

[DCL]

What else do you speak, and why are you snobby about English?

he's from bulgaria... did someone say peasants?

[fiddy]

What else do you speak, and why are you snobby about English?
Native Bulgarian, English, a bit of German, and can understand some of our neighbors languages such as Serbian, Croat, Bosnia, Russian, Ukrainian, know a few Greek words, and some Turkish, as well.

My main issues with English:
-genderless
-too random in some regards


he's from bulgaria... did someone say peasants?
z fokin yokel noes moe lingos den u.

Btw you got the dumbest excuse not to speak another language. The machine does it for me...knowing and speaking more languages really develops your brain as you construct thoughts and sentences in another language, which at least in my case gives me different perspective about stuff. What the point of being a basic bitch that relies only on technology.

[Prometheus]

Bulgarian: 9 million native speakers, insignificant number of L2 or foreign speakers

English: 400 million native speakers, 400 million L2 speakers, 700 million foreign language speakers, premier lingua franca of the entire world

Total # of speakers:

Bulgarian: 9 million
English: 1.5 billion

English >>> Bulgarian. Stupid South Slavic language

[Prometheus]

Jokes aside, I want to know, from those of you who are bilingual - have you ever read a piece of literature in another language as well as the english translation so that you could compare them?

I want to learn German and read Nietzsche without translation.

[fiddy]

I want to learn German and read Nietzsche without translation.
suicidal...


Bulgarian: 9 million native speakers, insignificant number of L2 or foreign speakers

English: 400 million native speakers, 400 million L2 speakers, 700 million foreign language speakers, premier lingua franca of the entire world

Total # of speakers:

Bulgarian: 9 million
English: 1.5 billion

English >>> Bulgarian. Stupid South Slavic language


Proves my point. Thanks for the effort.

[Prometheus]

suicidal...

Wtf do you mean?

[DCL]

Native Bulgarian, English, a bit of German, and can understand some of our neighbors languages such as Serbian, Croat, Bosnia, Russian, Ukrainian, know a few Greek words, and some Turkish, as well.

My main issues with English:
-genderless
-too random in some regards


z fokin yokel noes moe lingos den u.

Btw you got the dumbest excuse not to speak another language. The machine does it for me...knowing and speaking more languages really develops your brain as you construct thoughts and sentences in another language, which at least in my case gives me different perspective about stuff. What the point of being a basic bitch that relies only on technology.


get real, dummy.

you are from a third world shit hole.

it's mandatory that you have to learn the international language, which is english.

it's not a necessity for anybody else to learn your shit hole country dialect though.

all those drugs have screwed up your entire perspective.

[fiddy]

get real, dummy.

you are from a third world shit hole.

it's mandatory that you have to learn the international language, which is english.

it's not a necessity for anybody else to learn your shit hole country dialect though.

all those drugs have screwed up your entire perspective.

You want to get real? Bring your illiterate ass over here.

And please never mention the word perspective and quote me in the same post.

Whats your point? You are superior american because you stole the English language from the British, which in turn stole it from the French and Latin people. You are taking pride in an arbitrary label language, which can be perfected in a year. You and the OP proved my point over and over again. English is a joke of a language, this is the reason why it has the status it has of an international language. Its simplicity make it accessible hence its popularity. You think pride in lack of value... Im not sure if you will understand what i mean, but for comparison if you start learning Bulgarian you will NEVER be 100% proficient. Going back to your simple mind logic, "if the language is hard, why learn it, lol ". Well, my simple minded friend, a language is a tool, complexity means more versatility and utility.

Dont have any more patience or time for you tbh.

[DCL]

You want to get real? Bring your illiterate ass over here.

And please never mention the word perspective and quote me in the same post.

Whats your point? You are superior american because you stole the English language from the British, which in turn stole it from the French and Latin people. You are taking pride in an arbitrary label language, which can be perfected in a year. You and the OP proved my point over and over again. English is a joke of a language, this is the reason why it has the status it has of an international language. Its simplicity make it accessible hence its popularity. You think pride in lack of value... Im not sure if you will understand what i mean, but for comparison if you start learning Bulgarian you will NEVER be 100% proficient. Going back to your simple mind logic, "if the language is hard, why learn it, lol ". Well, my simple minded friend, a language is a tool, complexity means more versatility and utility.

Dont have any more patience or time for you tbh.

you had to learn english because that was supposed to be your ticket to take you out of the shit hole third world.

if you didn

[dunksby]

Jokes aside, I want to know, from those of you who are bilingual - have you ever read a piece of literature in another language as well as the english translation so that you could compare them?

I want to learn German and read Nietzsche without translation.
I speak three languages and my favourite is English, it has a huge advantage when it comes to resources from YT videos to scholarly articles.

And good luck reading Nietzsche in German, a small number of native Germans even attempt to read it and fewer understand it. I have read Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good an Evil plus a companion (A Nietzsche Reader) and I think I got most of what he wanted to say. Meaning it's not that necessary to learn German for it, but if you have the conviction to master German that much then your ultimate goal in doing so is not that important anyway.

[Uncle Drew]

Fluent in Dutch, English and Spanish. Basics of French and German. Japanese and Latin are on my wish list.

[Rolando]

Jokes aside, I want to know, from those of you who are bilingual - have you ever read a piece of literature in another language as well as the english translation so that you could compare them?

I want to learn German and read Nietzsche without translation.

I am from the States but live in Germany now.....You DON'T want to learn German. It sucks. You have to deal with genders and the chaos that causes with word endings, articles and a host of other crap. English is a natural and healthly evolution of the German language.....To learn German is to regress.

Additionally, no hot babes are impressed with German. After all the years it takes to learn, YEARS, it is such a shitty, non-romantic language as to render all the time spend learning it as useless.

[dunksby]

I am from the States but live in Germany now.....You DON'T want to learn German. It sucks. You have to deal with genders and the chaos that causes with word endings, articles and a host of other crap. English is a natural and healthly evolution of the German language.....To learn German is to regress.

Additionally, no hot babes are impressed with German. After all the years it takes to learn, YEARS, it is such a shitty, non-romantic language as to render all the time spend learning it as useless.
Not to mention it sounds wrong and feels wrong.

[Rolando]

Not to mention it sounds wrong and feels wrong.

This too. Fck German.

[Prometheus]

You want to get real? Bring your illiterate ass over here.

And please never mention the word perspective and quote me in the same post.

Whats your point? You are superior american because you stole the English language from the British, which in turn stole it from the French and Latin people. You are taking pride in an arbitrary label language, which can be perfected in a year. You and the OP proved my point over and over again. English is a joke of a language, this is the reason why it has the status it has of an international language. Its simplicity make it accessible hence its popularity. You think pride in lack of value... Im not sure if you will understand what i mean, but for comparison if you start learning Bulgarian you will NEVER be 100% proficient. Going back to your simple mind logic, "if the language is hard, why learn it, lol ". Well, my simple minded friend, a language is a tool, complexity means more versatility and utility.

Dont have any more patience or time for you tbh.

What? :lol

You're an idiot, dude. I regret attempting to have a good conversation with you.

[Prometheus]

I am from the States but live in Germany now.....You DON'T want to learn German. It sucks. You have to deal with genders and the chaos that causes with word endings, articles and a host of other crap. English is a natural and healthly evolution of the German language.....To learn German is to regress.

Additionally, no hot babes are impressed with German. After all the years it takes to learn, YEARS, it is such a shitty, non-romantic language as to render all the time spend learning it as useless.

This is funny. First of all, yes, I most certainly want to learn German. That has been decided already, I'm 100% going to learn it after another six months or so of Italian. Italian is genderized as well - that doesn't frighten me.

Also, English is not an evolution of German. That's factually wrong - like calling us descendants of chimpanzees. In each case, the two simply evolved separately from a common ancestor. And English couldn't be seen as a "natural" evolution even if it was a descendant of German, because it was so heavily transformed by the French invasions a thousand years ago. It's still technically a Germanic language, but has more Romance than Germanic vocabulary. A very unique, hybrid, mutt of a language. "To learn German is to regress" is a really silly thing to say, like I'm going to forget English in the process or something.

Second paragraph is hilarious. I couldn't possibly care less if "hot babes are impressed". Aside from the fact that I'm practically married, it would just be pathetic anyway to learn a language just to impress women. Also super inefficient... there are far easier ways to boost your stock that way.

I enjoy learning. If it's hard and complex, that makes it more of a challenge and therefore more fun.

[Prometheus]

Fluent in Dutch, English and Spanish. Basics of French and German. Japanese and Latin are on my wish list.

Okay so apparently you are the best person on this site with which for me to have this conversation, yet you didn't read the OP. Just listing what you speak is boring, tell me a little more.

[Rolando]

This is funny. First of all, yes, I most certainly want to learn German. That has been decided already, I'm 100% going to learn it after another six months or so of Italian. Italian is genderized as well - that doesn't frighten me.

Also, English is not an evolution of German. That's factually wrong - like calling us descendants of chimpanzees. In each case, the two simply evolved separately from a common ancestor. And English couldn't be seen as a "natural" evolution even if it was a descendant of German, because it was so heavily transformed by the French invasions a thousand years ago. It's still technically a Germanic language, but has more Romance than Germanic vocabulary. A very unique, hybrid, mutt of a language. "To learn German is to regress" is a really silly thing to say, like I'm going to forget English in the process or something.

Second paragraph is hilarious. I couldn't possibly care less if "hot babes are impressed". Aside from the fact that I'm practically married, it would just be pathetic anyway to learn a language just to impress women. Also super inefficient... there are far easier ways to boost your stock that way.

I enjoy learning. If it's hard and complex, that makes it more of a challenge and therefore more fun.

Well then good for you. I don't wish to argue. Go for it, especially if you understand that it will be challenging.

I just don't like German.

[Prometheus]

Well then good for you. I don't wish to argue. Go for it, especially if you understand that it will be challenging.

I just don't like German.

That's more like it

:applause:

[pastis]

@ROLANDO: wo arbeitest bzw wo lebst du denn in Deutschland? Ich m

[greymatter]

yes, of course there is value.

just like needing to know how to do math while already having a calculator. that is important.

but languages take a loooooooong ass time to learn. for me, i just need to communicate and get ideas across, and if there's a device that does that for me, then i'm fine with not knowing the language unless i have to deal with it everyday.

Languages tell a lot of things about the culture that created the language.

[Uncle Drew]

Okay so apparently you are the best person on this site with which for me to have this conversation, yet you didn't read the OP. Just listing what you speak is boring, tell me a little more.
What is there to say? European schools bro. Half these things are mandatory and/or are quite similar. Any person who grew up speaking Dutch knows at least some basics of German - no clue if it works vice versa though. Both languages are really ugly and uninteresting I should add. If you were to pick up another language, for the love of God, don't pick these. I think 2/3 of the Dutch population has no clue how their own language works.

As far as Spanish goes... I've lived in Madrid for quite a while. Went into the whole thing speaking just a few words. Just by having to use it each and every day, you pick up a little more each time. Practice >>> theory, always. At first I really struggled with both masculino y feminino and personal pronouns, but once you get the hang of it it's the easiest thing out there. Got to say, I actually prefer it now.

Satisfied now?

[Akrazotile]

I am from the States but live in Germany now.....You DON'T want to learn German. It sucks. You have to deal with genders and the chaos that causes with word endings, articles and a host of other crap. English is a natural and healthly evolution of the German language.....To learn German is to regress.

Additionally, no hot babes are impressed with German. After all the years it takes to learn, YEARS, it is such a shitty, non-romantic language as to render all the time spend learning it as useless.

You really dont HAVE to, especially as a non native speaker. People will understand you whether you use der die das correctly or not. I agree that to our english sensibilities it seems utterly pointless to give genders to non-biological objects and concepts. In the end just say “**** it, im not using em” and youre good. People will still understand you. And yeah, dont get bogged down/discouraged by den dem etc it’s really not important for foreigners.

Doesnt matter what a language sounds like tbh, for every additional language you know, humidity increaseth in the pantaloons of the chickenheads.

[Akrazotile]

Languages tell a lot of things about the culture that created the language.


Quite right, in fact I muse on this issue when recalling my cursory forrays into learning Chinese while living in LA, as described in my recently published memoir My Rise To The Top of the middle part of the bottom third IN HOLLYWOOD.



Available now on Amazon....

[Lebowsky]

Native speaker of Spanish and Catalan. Fluent in English, French and Portuguese, I can also speak Italian, although not as well as I'd like to. Living in the country is the best way to get to conversational level quickly, although you really need to study if you ever want to speak properly. I managed to get to every day conversation level in my time in Slovakia, but i never managed to speak close to decently. Same for Greek when i lived in Cyprus, although everyone speaks English there anyway, as opposed to Slovakia. Now I've been in Indonesia for two years and I'm intermediate level in Bahasa Indonesia. I started talking proper lessons twice a week about 4 months ago and it's really helping. Easy language, really flexible and free-flowing, but it gets confusing due to the huge number of synonims and different layers of formality in the language, in addition to how similar many words with totally different meanings are.
Slavic languages are my favourite overall. Difficult to learn and not that useful, but rewarding from an intellectual point of view nonetheless. It's also cool to see the similarities among languages: Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, Croatian, etc... Those same similarities can also get you in trouble quite easily, though lol.

[TheMan]

My native tongue is Spanish but I'm more fluent in English.

I was born into a Mexican family where Spanish was our main language but through all my learning years, I went to American schools and spoke in English everywhere but home, even with my Mexican American friends, it was exclusively English.

When my family moved from Chicago to MX in my late teens, I learned the hard way that my Spanish was very limited and I sucked at it. Through the years it has gotten much better, I'm now fluent in Spanish but people here can tell I'm not from here, they instantly say "you got an accent, where are you from?"

As mentioned before, I can listen to Italian and Portugese and make out what they say because of the close proximity between the three languages.

As a teen, I wanted to learn French, even bought a French/English book.

[Prometheus]

Native speaker of Spanish and Catalan. Fluent in English, French and Portuguese, I can also speak Italian, although not as well as I'd like to. Living in the country is the best way to get to conversational level quickly, although you really need to study if you ever want to speak properly. I managed to get to every day conversation level in my time in Slovakia, but i never managed to speak close to decently. Same for Greek when i lived in Cyprus, although everyone speaks English there anyway, as opposed to Slovakia. Now I've been in Indonesia for two years and I'm intermediate level in Bahasa Indonesia. I started talking proper lessons twice a week about 4 months ago and it's really helping. Easy language, really flexible and free-flowing, but it gets confusing due to the huge number of synonims and different layers of formality in the language, in addition to how similar many words with totally different meanings are.
Slavic languages are my favourite overall. Difficult to learn and not that useful, but rewarding from an intellectual point of view nonetheless. It's also cool to see the similarities among languages: Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, Croatian, etc... Those same similarities can also get you in trouble quite easily, though lol.

One thing I am very curious about...

Have you ever read a book or poem in its original language, and also a translated version? Translation is not always an exact science, and there may be cadences in a statement in one tongue which do not transfer to another. For instance, if something rhymes in English, it might not rhyme once you translate it. That's a tiny example, but I think you get what I mean.

Any experience with that?

[Lebowsky]

One thing I am very curious about...

Have you ever read a book or poem in its original language, and also a translated version? Translation is not always an exact science, and there may be cadences in a statement in one tongue which do not transfer to another. For instance, if something rhymes in English, it might not rhyme once you translate it. That's a tiny example, but I think you get what I mean.

Any experience with that?

Yes, and a lot gets lost in the translation. I used to read everything in its Spanish translation up until I was 18/20 years old. In some instances, because I didn't care to read in the original language (English), and in some others because I didn't quite have the required level of proficiency yet (French classics that I really like, Portuguese authors like Saramago, etc...).

As I grew older I started to realise that, no matter how good the translator, a translation is always to some extent someone else's interpretation of a text, so you're adding an extra layer of distortion between the author's artistic expression and your own comprehension of it. The first time this became very apparent was with The Lord Of The Rings, which was a challenging read in English back then. As you know, it's full of songs, quirks and beautiful and particularly English language. I found that a lot of the musicality, rhyme and overall folkloric feeling was either lost or severely altered in the Spanish version. From that moment onwards I've always read novels in the language they were written (for those languages I speak, that is). Poetry suffers the hardest when translated, as you rightfully pointed out. For other literary genres I don't really care, I will read it in the language I have more readily available at the time.

The hardest is still French classics. Reading a page of Proust in Spanish can already take a few minutes, let alone in its original French. Even French people have a hard time with it. I want to think he's quite the outlier, though.
I can't even fathom a non-native speaker being able to read Nietzsche in German.

[warriorfan]

Failed Spanish and got kicked out of the sign language class after school because I would make fun of the deaf teacher during class all the time. Yelling stuff out when she wasn’t looking because she was deaf and couldn’t hear. Me and my homies found it hilarious, others didn’t and I guess and I got snitched on. Looking back at it, it was pretty messed up.

[pauk]

Fluently:

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin (identical really, its a poor attempt at trying to hide it with a hint of dialect & some words/slang perhaps but really its all the same shit, 99.99% identical, like if you just learn any of these 4 "different" languages you will be able to completely understand eachother) hence a bit of Slovenian/Macedonian/Bulgarian aswell but definitely not fluently....

Danish/Swedish/Norwegian (they are actually almost identical especially Swedish & Norwegian, well, you definitely will understand eachother, its only the heavy dialect of Danish that requires some concentration, its very different dialect to Swedish/Norwegian and very ugly sounding imo, sounds arabic almost, lots of throat/choking/tongue... a Danish dude understands Swedish/Norwegian better than vice versa... but if you live/grow up here you can learn to understand it all)

English

[tpols]

i speak american solamente brother.

[Kblaze8855]

Always struck me as odd when people complain about Americans only speaking one language. America is thousands of miles of mostly English speakers. If I could drive 100 miles and be in a whole other country full of people who speak a different language perhaps id have learned it. There are countries in europe the size of like....Delaware. If half the people in my city spoke only Spanish and I had to interact with them id have learned more Spanish. Do the people in the middle of russia tend to speak chinese and Korean because a couple thousand miles away thats what people speak?

[Prometheus]

Yes, and a lot gets lost in the translation. I used to read everything in its Spanish translation up until I was 18/20 years old. In some instances, because I didn't care to read in the original language (English), and in some others because I didn't quite have the required level of proficiency yet (French classics that I really like, Portuguese authors like Saramago, etc...).

As I grew older I started to realise that, no matter how good the translator, a translation is always to some extent someone else's interpretation of a text, so you're adding an extra layer of distortion between the author's artistic expression and your own comprehension of it. The first time this became very apparent was with The Lord Of The Rings, which was a challenging read in English back then. As you know, it's full of songs, quirks and beautiful and particularly English language. I found that a lot of the musicality, rhyme and overall folkloric feeling was either lost or severely altered in the Spanish version. From that moment onwards I've always read novels in the language they were written (for those languages I speak, that is). Poetry suffers the hardest when translated, as you rightfully pointed out. For other literary genres I don't really care, I will read it in the language I have more readily available at the time.

The hardest is still French classics. Reading a page of Proust in Spanish can already take a few minutes, let alone in its original French. Even French people have a hard time with it. I want to think he's quite the outlier, though.
I can't even fathom a non-native speaker being able to read Nietzsche in German.

THANK YOU, brother. That is what I desire, to be able to read poetry and prose in French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc. and appreciate it for how it was originally composed. It's helpful to hear that it might actually be worth it.

[Prometheus]

Always struck me as odd when people complain about Americans only speaking one language. America is thousands of miles of mostly English speakers. If I could drive 100 miles and be in a whole other country full of people who speak a different language perhaps id have learned it. There are countries in europe the size of like....Delaware. If half the people in my city spoke only Spanish and I had to interact with them id have learned more Spanish. Do the people in the middle of russia tend to speak chinese and Korean because a couple thousand miles away thats what people speak?

This is obvious to anyone willing to think about it. It's like living in Pennsylvania except the people in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Virginia all speak different languages. And then Ohio people speak Pennsylvanian, Michiganian, and Indianan as they have been conquered by different neighbors for centuries.

[pastis]

Always struck me as odd when people complain about Americans only speaking one language. America is thousands of miles of mostly English speakers. If I could drive 100 miles and be in a whole other country full of people who speak a different language perhaps id have learned it. There are countries in europe the size of like....Delaware. If half the people in my city spoke only Spanish and I had to interact with them id have learned more Spanish. Do the people in the middle of russia tend to speak chinese and Korean because a couple thousand miles away thats what people speak?

the Englishmen have the same problem learning a different language.
But we have to emphasize, that your school system is more or less trash in the USA. Your teachers dont have the same qualifications as our teachers in Europe and their foreign language theaching is more or less poor (maybe except spanish). And this applies for the langauge competence as well as the pronunciation.

[Prometheus]

the Englishmen have the same problem learning a different language.
But we have to emphasize, that your school system is more or less trash in the USA. Your teachers dont have the same qualifications as our teachers in Europe and their foreign language theaching is more or less poor (maybe except spanish). And this applies for the langauge competence as well as the pronunciation.

You entirely missed his point. How did you manage to complete your elite European education with such poor reading comprehension?

[pastis]

You entirely missed his point. How did you manage to complete your elite European education with such poor reading comprehension?

app. you have poor reading comprehension. Try to read and understand the first sentence of my comment.

[Prometheus]

It's hardly comparable. GB is an island the size of Florida. We live on this giant expanse of English speakers for hundreds and hundreds of miles in every direction. It makes a lot more sense for someone in the USA to avoid learning a second language than it does someone in the UK.

If they have the same problem, it's for a different reason.