3 ms·
While learning to read an alphabet isn't at all the same as learning to read the actual language, I strongly encourage learning an alphabet if possible before v
by jhbadger 3y ago
While learning to read an alphabet isn't at all the same as learning to read the actual language, I strongly encourage learning an alphabet if possible before visiting somewhere -- even if you don't know the language written in it, it is often possible at least in places like Greece and Cyrillic-using nations to understand a lot of street signs and shop names which often have names recognizable to English speakers if you can get past the alphabet issue.
- friend_and_foe 3y agoAn interesting thing, I learned to phonetically read Cyrillic many years ago and still mostly can read it even if I don't know the meaning of most words, and one day I was looking at something someone wrote in Greek and realized I could read it! I had no idea that Cyrillic was derived from the Greek alphabet, it was pretty surprising to look at something that should look like Klingon and to just spontaneously know what it says.
- anotheruser13 3y agohttps://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/reference/cyrillic.html https://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/reference/cyrillic.htm...
- sfmike 3y agoif you want to get meta learn some han zi and then go to japan and read the kanji and trip out 買一送一
- mettamage 3y agoI second this. Being able to pronounce names in Greece helped me a lot in communicating certain things while I was there
- bschne 3y agoSeconded! As an add-on to just navigating things, my native language is German, and when I first learned to read Cyrillic I was extremely surprised to realize how many words in Russian are similar to German. It's not like you get reading comprehension "for free", but I understand more than I would have expected given the totally different alphabet.
- flyinghamster 3y agoI taught myself the Russian variant of Cyrillic when I was in college after I had finished my Spanish courses, and I found that the other variants aren't that difficult to pick up. One thing I noticed was there are a lot of English cognates as well. Then again, borrowings happen in both directions. I'm pretty sure the English word "hooey" has a Slavic origin. :) I never would have properly guessed the pronunciation of the Serbian city of Subotica had I not seen the name rendered in Cyrillic: Суботица. "C" in South Slavic Latin script has no relation to "C" in English.
- stuckkeys 3y agoCongrats on picking up the most useless skill ever. I did the same but it was forced upon me by the (cough). Anyway, congrats again. We are so lucky.
- blastonico 3y agoAgreed. Visiting Tokio after learning a bit of Kanji is much more interesting.