Learning curve: (dis)similar languages

[Richard W]

I'm yet another one who seems to have a slot for 'foreign' in my mind. Again, I grew up a monoglot. The competing languages were Thai and French, and I very rarely have occasion to speak French.

[ol bofosh]

Gave myself the challenge to read Catalan out loud (despite not having a clear idea of how it is spoken), and found both French and Spanish interfering (probably because I don't have a clear idea about how it's spoken). In words with "-cions" I find the <n> almost becoming a French nasal.

Despite that, I notice that when I see a word that's in one language or another my mind pronounces it in that way, without any interference. Maybe only a bit of confusion if I start thinking in Spanish because there's a "Spanish" word" in a Catalan sentence.

[installer_swan]

Just as a data point, I've never had trouble keeping languages separate. It's easy enough to keep Russian / French / Quechua / Mandarin apart, but I don't have trouble with Spanish / Portuguese / French / Italian either.

This. Plus, I think that acheiving native-fluency is fetishised too much in language courses. If you're willing to occasionaly sound a bit strange or archaic then pulling in cognates from related languages you know is a great way to boost vocabulary acquisitions, and when you want nuances and connotations exactly right use a dictionary for god's sake. I try hard to mix in and play with words from similar languages when I'm beginning a new language. More than anything else, it just makes the whole process so much more fun.

[Left]

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