atlantel reminded me that she had a NaNo blog for the month of November last year. Posting every day, and most of the time it was about something interesting
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My german teacher something similar but only about the way we tend to change the verb-subject order. It does feel that the more language you learn, the less you're able to speak them. I've been speaking swenglish for ages, just caus I tend to forget swedish words sometimes. (Pretty embarrasing when I once exlaimed "ohh look a christmas tree" in swedish..). Atleast the active part, I tend to have difficulties remembering words in all my language but would understand when written. It's a shame, because I'm really into to learning Russian at the moment. But I do love all my languages (hah i love saying "all my languages" but they're just adding up. swedish,english,french,spanish, german and now arabic..). How can one limit oneself to just one language? oh i'll never understand. So the question is, if it's better to excell in on or two lanuages or suck in a multitude of others.
In theory it should be getting easier to learn a new language the more languages you have already learned. I think the key word is learned, though, because if you only half-learn them, you get more confused when you try to learn new languages. I used to want to learn all the languages there are in the world (aside from chinese, which scares me - it is something about the tones). Now I'm aiming at learning Italian and German well before anything else. But it depends.. I mean, there is a value in being able to say basic things in a lot of languages - you can get by in a lot of countries.
I think we all have moments like that! I constantly say things in the wrong language or use bad direct translations (en gång sade jag "Jag sköt en film" istället för "Jag spelade in en film", det gav upphov till mycket skrattande) - because it's quicker to say what first comes to my mind.
By the way, what are you doing nowdays? I take it you never made it to Italy.
It does get easier in a way, with the grammar. I've noticed that a lot when I talk to people who went Natur or something and didn't learn a third language. They're having lots of trouble understanding the grammar now in arabic. While for me, all the acusative and stuff is just second nature, because I've learnt it already. So it gets easier to understand. Also of course, especially with indo-european languages so many words are the same, so it also helps knowing more languages
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And you know what, I wonder why, sometimes, I do mix English and French. And the smae things is happening to a friend of mine who is practicing a lot French these days (she's an American living in the US)
I mix Swedish and English too.. I have my own theory about that, that the more languages you learn, the more you realize what is missing in your own language. You want to use phrases or words that don't have an exact translation in your own language. And then sometimes it's just because it's easier to say the word that comes to you instead of looking for the right one in the language you were speaking.
Of course this is not explained by this theory that I presented above. Never the less, it's very common, I think.
Two years, though it seems like a long time, really isn't when you try to learn a language from a distance. And I also know how almost impossible it is to learn Swedish since people basically refuse to speak it with you. It's too much work trying to make a foreign person understand.
I think it could almost be easier for you trying to learn a language totally different from English if the native speakers hardly spoke any other languages.. That has certainly made my learning Italian easier :)
It's also nearly impossible to find tuition of any level in Swedish. Becuase it's not a majorly spoken language it means that there are few people to teach it here and those that do charge a lot!
That too. But I expect there should be Swedish exchange students over there. Maybe you could try to get in touch with someone to practise Swedish with you? I'd help you, but there is only so much you can do online, and I know you have other Swedish online and real life contacts.
That's interesting about our native language being in one part of our brain and foreign languages in another. I know in teaching English there is a difference between teaching it as a "foreign" language and as a "second" language. Second language meaning that eventually you will be able to process new information in the new language rather than just a few phrases here and there that you still translate in your head.
I also find I have a default foreign language. I speak two other, French and Spanish, but if someone says something to me in another language, even one I don't speak at all, my brain wants to answer them in French. It used to Spanish because I studied that the longest, but then I moved to France for nearly a year and it switched over. I'm studying Japanese now, so I wonder how long before it overtakes the French.
I didn't think about separating "second" from "foreign" languages - but I guess a second language, would be a "second first language", for what children of immigrants have? Or have I misunderstood.
That is funny, that you have a default foreign language. I do to some extent have Italian as my default (English being too familiar to be bunched together with the rest, although it's not a first language for me), but not so much as you, wanting to respond everyone in French.
Let's see if the Japanese will overtake French - it's an interesting process learning languages..
I'm exactly the same way! I've never heard it described like that - but whenever I hear something in any non-English language I automatically want to respond in German.
I didn't think about separating "second" from "foreign" languages - but I guess a second language, would be a "second first language", for what children of immigrants have?
That's sorta the idea. People who learn two languages as children would have two "first" languages and educators are trying to replicate that process as much as possible with older students so that they stop thinking of it as a "foreign" language and more as just another way to communicate. Almost like trying to get it to move to the part of the brain where the first language is processed. Is that even possible do you think? Or once you process it in one side of the brain, that's where it stays?
That's interesting. I've noticed it myself, when I start speaking, say, Spanish, and putting it in German syntax, which ends up just not making any sense at all. I wonder how well a language can be learned.
I wonder that too. I think I've been forced to realize that at my age it's not possible to learn it perfectly, but maybe it can be learned well enough to fool people in some situations?
But I also find it very fun to mix languages, like you said, so maybe there is an up side to all this confusion.
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It does feel that the more language you learn, the less you're able to speak them. I've been speaking swenglish for ages, just caus I tend to forget swedish words sometimes. (Pretty embarrasing when I once exlaimed "ohh look a christmas tree" in swedish..).
Atleast the active part, I tend to have difficulties remembering words in all my language but would understand when written.
It's a shame, because I'm really into to learning Russian at the moment. But I do love all my languages (hah i love saying "all my languages" but they're just adding up. swedish,english,french,spanish, german and now arabic..). How can one limit oneself to just one language? oh i'll never understand.
So the question is, if it's better to excell in on or two lanuages or suck in a multitude of others.
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I used to want to learn all the languages there are in the world (aside from chinese, which scares me - it is something about the tones). Now I'm aiming at learning Italian and German well before anything else.
But it depends.. I mean, there is a value in being able to say basic things in a lot of languages - you can get by in a lot of countries.
I think we all have moments like that! I constantly say things in the wrong language or use bad direct translations (en gång sade jag "Jag sköt en film" istället för "Jag spelade in en film", det gav upphov till mycket skrattande) - because it's quicker to say what first comes to my mind.
By the way, what are you doing nowdays? I take it you never made it to Italy.
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And you know what, I wonder why, sometimes, I do mix English and French. And the smae things is happening to a friend of mine who is practicing a lot French these days (she's an American living in the US)
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Have updated your email addy.
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:)
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And then sometimes it's just because it's easier to say the word that comes to you instead of looking for the right one in the language you were speaking.
Of course this is not explained by this theory that I presented above. Never the less, it's very common, I think.
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I think it could almost be easier for you trying to learn a language totally different from English if the native speakers hardly spoke any other languages.. That has certainly made my learning Italian easier :)
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I'd help you, but there is only so much you can do online, and I know you have other Swedish online and real life contacts.
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I also find I have a default foreign language. I speak two other, French and Spanish, but if someone says something to me in another language, even one I don't speak at all, my brain wants to answer them in French. It used to Spanish because I studied that the longest, but then I moved to France for nearly a year and it switched over. I'm studying Japanese now, so I wonder how long before it overtakes the French.
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That is funny, that you have a default foreign language. I do to some extent have Italian as my default (English being too familiar to be bunched together with the rest, although it's not a first language for me), but not so much as you, wanting to respond everyone in French.
Let's see if the Japanese will overtake French - it's an interesting process learning languages..
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That's sorta the idea. People who learn two languages as children would have two "first" languages and educators are trying to replicate that process as much as possible with older students so that they stop thinking of it as a "foreign" language and more as just another way to communicate. Almost like trying to get it to move to the part of the brain where the first language is processed. Is that even possible do you think? Or once you process it in one side of the brain, that's where it stays?
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But I also find it very fun to mix languages, like you said, so maybe there is an up side to all this confusion.
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