Sometimes we get questions here about the advisability of studying languages like Italian and Spanish together. Are they TOO similar?
J.C. made me think about this again-particularly about certain languages that may pose this kind of challenge. Basically the challenge is to keep the languages separate or compartmentalized, but still borrow on what you know to acquire the new language.
I'd like to hear from people who learned languages with a high degree of lexical similarity or anyone who would like to opine/give an opinion about this.
Portuguese and Spanish: One good thing for Spanish Speakers is the free FSI book "From Spanish to Portuguese". You can probably buy it from Audio Forum or a used book source, too. Alibris is a good source.
Ukrainian and Russian: Ukrainian definitely has pitches that sing in a way that is distinct from Russian, but honestly I have no idea how to learn it as a separate language to a high degree of fluency except to study it with a TY/Colloquial book and note the differences with vocabulary building materials. Any books out there in English on the subject?
I've heard that other Slavic languages are challenges to separate neatly.
I wonder what the inhabitants of Belarus think? One lady told me that it's difficult to separate the language of Belarus from Russian, so she just speaks Russian.
Italian and Spanish-Personally, I think it would be better to learn one really well, then learn the other.
Cantonese and Mandarin: For westerners (and I am guessing), I think it would be better to learn Mandarin first unless the learner is going to live in Hong Kong. But then again, are there really Westerners who learn Mandarin and Cantonese at the same time? I think they sound rather different from each other, but the confusion of learning characters AND learning the distinct tones would be too much.
BCS/Serbo-Croatian: This language makes me (sorry to sound weak) sad. It's beautiful, but now it's fragmented in BCS, Montenegrin and maybe even some other language. I can't give any advice. My way is to learn old S/C. There is a big beautiful book on the language now, so maybe help is on the way for those of you who want to learn the language as BCS.
Dutch/German: Dutch is in the middle between German and English. If you know German, it will help you not only with Dutch, but Norwegian and probably the other Scandinavian languages, but what about learning Dutch? Unless you grow up with a Dutch family or in a Dutch Speaking area, I think it's probably better to learn German first, then Dutch. There are more materials for German, imo, so you'll get a vocabulary base that you'll be able to transfer often to Dutch. If you go from Dutch to German, maybe you'll think, "Too hard, I have to learn all those genders now, why bother?"
Just my opinion. What other languages pose this kind of challenges?
J.C. made me think about this again-particularly about certain languages that may pose this kind of challenge. Basically the challenge is to keep the languages separate or compartmentalized, but still borrow on what you know to acquire the new language.
I'd like to hear from people who learned languages with a high degree of lexical similarity or anyone who would like to opine/give an opinion about this.
Portuguese and Spanish: One good thing for Spanish Speakers is the free FSI book "From Spanish to Portuguese". You can probably buy it from Audio Forum or a used book source, too. Alibris is a good source.
Ukrainian and Russian: Ukrainian definitely has pitches that sing in a way that is distinct from Russian, but honestly I have no idea how to learn it as a separate language to a high degree of fluency except to study it with a TY/Colloquial book and note the differences with vocabulary building materials. Any books out there in English on the subject?
I've heard that other Slavic languages are challenges to separate neatly.
I wonder what the inhabitants of Belarus think? One lady told me that it's difficult to separate the language of Belarus from Russian, so she just speaks Russian.
Italian and Spanish-Personally, I think it would be better to learn one really well, then learn the other.
Cantonese and Mandarin: For westerners (and I am guessing), I think it would be better to learn Mandarin first unless the learner is going to live in Hong Kong. But then again, are there really Westerners who learn Mandarin and Cantonese at the same time? I think they sound rather different from each other, but the confusion of learning characters AND learning the distinct tones would be too much.
BCS/Serbo-Croatian: This language makes me (sorry to sound weak) sad. It's beautiful, but now it's fragmented in BCS, Montenegrin and maybe even some other language. I can't give any advice. My way is to learn old S/C. There is a big beautiful book on the language now, so maybe help is on the way for those of you who want to learn the language as BCS.
Dutch/German: Dutch is in the middle between German and English. If you know German, it will help you not only with Dutch, but Norwegian and probably the other Scandinavian languages, but what about learning Dutch? Unless you grow up with a Dutch family or in a Dutch Speaking area, I think it's probably better to learn German first, then Dutch. There are more materials for German, imo, so you'll get a vocabulary base that you'll be able to transfer often to Dutch. If you go from Dutch to German, maybe you'll think, "Too hard, I have to learn all those genders now, why bother?"
Just my opinion. What other languages pose this kind of challenges?