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Unrelated to the core teaching of the article, but German is a reasonably easy gateway language to Europe. If you know German and English, it will be easy to pi
by caseyy 3y ago
Unrelated to the core teaching of the article, but German is a reasonably easy gateway language to Europe. If you know German and English, it will be easy to pick up Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. Also Luxembourgish and Afrikaans. It’s easy because it’s quite regular, as far as European languages go.
Russian is another great gateway language because it unlocks the Cyrillic and Slavic worlds.
Italian then completes the picture, as it has many similarities with Spanish, French, and rare Latin-roots languages like Lithuanian.
I used to travel around Europe with my university friends. One knew Italian, another one Russian, I knew German. It’s quite interesting how you can get around most places in Europe with these languages, and consume a lot of culture.
Of course, everyone speaks English these days. But it’s a richer experience to travel when you understand what the people say and can read the signs, etc.
I recommend trying German and I can’t imagine how most people would still apologize about their Deutsch skills 10 years in — the language is really easy. Of course, the article author mentions perfectionism, which is a separate topic.
- mxuribe 3y agoI think "gateway language" is a really powerful concept indeed! My knowing Spanish has made it much more approachable for me to pick up Portuguese, Italian, and French phrases. Also, while I'm not a native German nor Dutch speaker, when i worked for a Dutch boss and picked up a few phrases, it made it so much easier for me to pick up some German when on another job i gained a German boss.
- pixelpoet 3y agoAs an Afrikaans native speaker, I can wholeheartedly recommend against wasting time learning it. Coming from Pretoria, I don't think I've ever used the language to communicate with someone who isn't a massive racist, and purely objectively speaking Dutch is far more practical in Europe.
- Biologist123 3y agoAfrikaans is basically low German, spoken in much of northwest Europe. Although Afrikaans throws in a few peculiarities (eg piesang - also Bahasa Indonesian). I know school history likes to pretend Afrikaans is Flemish, but really Flemish is just another low German dialect. I’d also say I’ve liked most Afrikaners I’ve met, didn’t encounter much racism, and Jan Smuts is a fascinating character.
- pixelpoet 3y agoAs it happens I also used to speak Indonesian, although I unfortunately forgot that somehow, despite learning it very early. German, Dutch and Afrikaans stuck since they're basically the same as you say. I guess the racism is mostly due to growing up in Pretoria while apartheid was ending, and my stuffy old family and everyone around me was still using the k-word and stuff like that :/ Getting out of SA was my first real act of self-agency and I haven't regretted it for a second. On the contrary, when I look on social media at how the people who never left my hometown are doing... it's so grim over there. Left a sour taste for sure, and I don't mean to say that all Afrikaners are racist.