What languages do you speak?

[Scrapheap]

Well, the first three are no problem since I use them every day. German is a bit of a problem since I use it so rarely, but it turns out that I forget languages fairly slowly. Spanish I'm actively studying.

As for the rest, I hear them often enough to retain some skills.

I thought that German and Swedish were pretty close? 

german and swedish are as close as german and english

both are "germanic"
both can be vaguely understood of read carefully

house, haus, hus
water, wasser, vatten
etc, etc, etc

Ah, gotchya! 

How close are Swedish and Norwegian? how close are either of those to Danish? Flemish?

[Queen Victoria]

I'm surprised that no one has claimed to speak the Language of Love.  I guess that although we're intense, we're also autistic in that language.

[Loupgarou]

Ah yes, that language alludes me.........as wonderful as it sounds, your majesty!

I love in my own way......just hard for other people to understand it

Loup

['andersom']

It's a language I can speak with a few people.

Pissed me off big time, in the report about me being an Aspie. Said something like me having no real notion of love. Quite offensive I think. They may not get the way I express it, but, the people who matter, they do get it. That's what counts.

[odeon]

Funny thing is that I need to be in a mindset for a language.

A couple of years ago, I heard people talk in the train, and I had no idea what language it was. It wasn't German, it was no Scandinavian language. But, the rhythm of the words and sounds indicated somewhere to that direction. I did not understand a word.
Then something triggered me recognising it. The dialect my Mother has been raised in. And, I could understand everything they said. And, give me a day, I can speak it fluent again too. (Was fluent enough for people to wonder if it was my mother tongue or not)

If I have been thinking and talking in English for too long, I find it hard to talk Dutch. And, nowadays I use the spell-checker more for Dutch than for English, I hardly write in Dutch, and I make all kinds of English mistakes in my own language.

I heard a language being spoken on the bus one day, and it wasn't familiar at all. I asked one of the speakers, and she told me it was Albanian.   



I had a Haitian roommate in college, and at the same time she was struggling with English, she noted that when she called home and spoke Creole,
her relatives told her she was making mistakes there too. My father spoke German as well as English growing up, but forgot it due to lack of use. 

An emigrated aunt and uncle of mine are starting to talk more and more Dutch, now the kids have left the home. Their daughter regrets not knowing Dutch, she worries about one day her parents not being fluent in English any more.

There have been times that you'd find ads in Dutch magazines for employees in old folks homes overseas, because of people losing other languages than the one of their origin.

I always wonder how multilingual people maintain all their languages. I had a history professor, years ago,
who spoke English, German (the Swabian dialect, according to the book he wrote), French and Arabic.   

Reading helps. These days the net is sometimes enough to boost a language.

[odeon]

Well, the first three are no problem since I use them every day. German is a bit of a problem since I use it so rarely, but it turns out that I forget languages fairly slowly. Spanish I'm actively studying.

As for the rest, I hear them often enough to retain some skills.

I thought that German and Swedish were pretty close? 

german and swedish are as close as german and english

both are "germanic"
both can be vaguely understood of read carefully

house, haus, hus
water, wasser, vatten
etc, etc, etc

Ah, gotchya! 

How close are Swedish and Norwegian? how close are either of those to Danish? Flemish?

Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are fairly close but Danish to me is harder than Norwegian because of the way they pronounce it.

[Loupgarou]

It's a language I can speak with a few people.

Pissed me off big time, in the report about me being an Aspie. Said something like me having no real notion of love. Quite offensive I think. They may not get the way I express it, but, the people who matter, they do get it. That's what counts.

Loup

["couldbecousin"]

It's a language I can speak with a few people.

Pissed me off big time, in the report about me being an Aspie. Said something like me having no real notion of love. Quite offensive I think. They may not get the way I express it, but, the people who matter, they do get it. That's what counts.

Offensive indeed! Sounds as if they speak DUH! 

[Scrapheap]

Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are fairly close but Danish to me is harder than Norwegian because of the way they pronounce it.

Something reeks in Denmark...


 

[TheoK]

Norway was in a forced union with Denmark for more than 400 years. Thus the spelling is more similar between those two languages, but spoken Norwegian is much more similar to Swedish.

The most funny thing of all is that in theory Swedish and Danish are closely related (East Nordic languages) and Norwegian an Icelandic are also closely related (West Nordic) but in reality Danish is always harder to understand for a Swede and Icelandic is just a bit more understandable than English or German for any other speaker of Nordic languages.

[odeon]

Icelandic is pretty hard to understand for me, but if they speak it slowly I tend to get the big picture.

Still interested in learning Czech. I, erm, acquired some mp3 files off the net the other day so we'll see.

[TheoK]

Icelandic is pretty understandable if you read it and/or if you have some knowledge of Old Swedish.

The Czechs are 

["couldbecousin"]

Icelandic is pretty hard to understand for me, but if they speak it slowly I tend to get the big picture.

Still interested in learning Czech. I, erm, acquired some mp3 files off the net the other day so we'll see.

I hope you didn't have to spend too much money!   

[odeon]

Icelandic is pretty understandable if you read it and/or if you have some knowledge of Old Swedish.

The Czechs are 

Yes, I can read it fine. Not as well as I would want but I get by.

And yes, the Czechs really are . I like them.

Icelandic is pretty hard to understand for me, but if they speak it slowly I tend to get the big picture.

Still interested in learning Czech. I, erm, acquired some mp3 files off the net the other day so we'll see.

I hope you didn't have to spend too much money!   

I managed to keep the costs down.

[eris]

i peaksa igpa atinla rettypa oodga