Re: Q & X

-----Original Message-----
From: Tero Vilkesalo <teronpostilaatikko@...>
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU <CONLANG@...>
Date: Friday, January 12, 2001 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: Q & X


>>From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
>>
>>En réponse à Tero Vilkesalo <teronpostilaatikko@...>:
>>learning Indo-European languages like English or French? What do you find
>>difficult? What surprises you and what do you find original when you're
>>first
>>put in contact with a foreing language?
>
>Ok. My first foreign language was German, which I began to study in the
>school when I was nine years old. English came two years later. I also
speak
>Swedish and Spanish, but I haven't studied them that much. Basically I've
>learned foreign languages only in the school. Fortunately the education was
>first-class.
German before English...sounds like the right order.  =^)  At least, my
first German instructor (a grad student) claimed that Germans he's known
seem to find English rather pathetic in comparison to their own tongue.

As an English-speaker, I didn't find German *that* bad...but after 15 min.
of choking out those r's and ch's I get a sore throat.

>I wonder what effect one's first language teacher can have. At least my
>first German teacher was very inspiring. My mother has told me (she
>remembers better) that I was really fascinated by German lessons. I think
>that it's not very difficult to learn your first foreign language if you
>begin early enough. Even if it's distant grammatically. Of course that may
>depend on a person. However, after two years of German lessons English
>seemed very easy... Spanish was really not difficult either although I
>hadn't studied Romance languages before. Its phonology is also very easy to
>learn for us Finns.
I suppose it depends on the person, what languages they already know,
whether they even like the language, the teacher, the text...<wry g>  After
1 college-year of German my grammar is better than my boyfriend's (he took
four years in high school plus a semester of German literature at Cornell
U.), even though he's half-German.  Probably partly greater motivation on my
part, and greater facility for languages.  OTOH he kicks my butt in physics.

I've had a lot of people tell me that Spanish is an "easy" Romance language.
If I do end up going to grad school in California I'd like to try it.  I
didn't find French that bad, but I won't speak for my accent.  :-)

>The next Indo-European languages I'd like to study are Dutch, Danish and
>Catalan. I like the way they are spoken.
You are fortunate to have heard lots of languages.  :-)  I did know a couple
Dutch and a Dane at my high school, but I haven't a clue about Catalan.  The
Danish girl laughed at us in philosophy of religion (kindly, of course) when
we were reading creation myths and struggling through the names of the Norse
gods....

>I can tell about difficulties in English... I mean, I can tell YOU about
the
>difficulties in English. :) The use of different prepositions is difficult.
>Dependent on, independent of. Gosh! Leave Paris for London. Irregularities
>are always difficult. The basic grammar is easy but once you become more
>involved in it, it sometimes becomes mind-maze. German is more logical in
>that sense. Learning the rules may take more time but once you can handle
>with them you don't have to think about them that much.
:-)  I've seen native speakers get confused, at least at the college level,
so you're not alone.  I think of verbs that take prepositions as separable
verbs à la German--the preposition as *part* of the verb (even though I
imagine most English-speakers don't think of them that way) and therefore to
be memorized with it.  I think some dictionary I had called them "phrasal
verbs" or something.

I can now get mixed up about prepositions in English, German and French, and
mixed up about postpositions in Korean....

>Because the world is full of English terms, I am more fluent in English
than
>in German. I should be learning German vocabulary...
I suppose it depends on what you want to do.  One of my housemates told me
Latin was useless, which for him it might be (and he's a biology/English
double major!!)--but I want to read Tacitus, Vegetius, and Caesar in the
original.  If you're interested in the Romance languages or in Roman
military history, of *course* Latin is useful.  But he doesn't seem to get
that.  <sigh>

Besides, learn what's fun.  :-)  I want to learn Polish someday, and the
last time I met someone Polish was in 6th grade.  Perhaps it's lingering
guilt over not being able to pronounce her name properly....

Yoon Ha Lee
dabbler in languages and happy about it