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I was raised bilingual in German and English, growing up in Germany. For me both languages are very different and to this day I prefer English when I want to t

I was raised bilingual in German and English, growing up in Germany. For me both languages are very different and to this day I prefer English when I want to talk about ideas and areas where I explore while talking and I use German when I need to be precise. I could never pitch in German and really don't like talking about my projects in German, since everything needs to be exact and committed to.

radicalbyte 11y ago
English is my first language, I learnt Dutch (I'm fluent) as an adult. I have the same experience as you: English is extremely context sensitive, it's for "invention" - it's a very natural language. Dutch is more precise; there's less ambiguity. You have to think a little more before you speak (thanks to the differing subject-object-verb order). I've become a better engineer since learning it. We're raising our kids bilingual because the benefits are just so clear; and I figure that if they get English/Dutch for free then German is very cheap so they can learn an east-asian language too..
- fnord123 11y ago
  >Dutch is more precise; there's less ambiguity. Really? I would suggest that Dutch is plenty of ambiguity as you can omit a lot. e.g. "Ik moet naar de tandarts [gaan/rijden/fietsen/lopen/bellen/kijken/wijzen/zoeken]" ("I must [?] to the dentist").
  - EdwardDiego 11y ago
    If Dutch is anything like German, gaan means "go" and rijden/fietsen are along the lines "go by vehicle". In German at least, you tend to use "go by vehicle" where English would just use "go". That is the preciseness English doesn't have. Interesting that the "I must <x> to the Bla" construct exists in Dutch, English has it, but it's antiquated.
    - octatoan 11y ago
      "We must away / We must away / We must away ere break of day / . . ."
  - octatoan 11y ago
    Is that something like "Ich muss nach der Zahnarzt . . ."?
  - radicalbyte 11y ago
    Isn't that an irregular / shortened form of "naartoe gaan"? Dutch (like most natural languages) has some ambiguity, but nothing like English. For a start spelling is mainly phonetic (unmodified loan-words excluded). From the perspective of an English speaker it's a very clear language which is made slightly complex by making most common verbs irregular (i.e. to make speech flow) and having arbitrary genders (de/het).

radicalbyte 11y ago

English is my first language, I learnt Dutch (I'm fluent) as an adult. I have the same experience as you: English is extremely context sensitive, it's for "invention" - it's a very natural language. Dutch is more precise; there's less ambiguity. You have to think a little more before you speak (thanks to the differing subject-object-verb order). I've become a better engineer since learning it. We're raising our kids bilingual because the benefits are just so clear; and I figure that if they get English/Dutch for free then German is very cheap so they can learn an east-asian language too..

fnord123 11y ago
>Dutch is more precise; there's less ambiguity. Really? I would suggest that Dutch is plenty of ambiguity as you can omit a lot. e.g. "Ik moet naar de tandarts [gaan/rijden/fietsen/lopen/bellen/kijken/wijzen/zoeken]" ("I must [?] to the dentist").
- EdwardDiego 11y ago
  If Dutch is anything like German, gaan means "go" and rijden/fietsen are along the lines "go by vehicle". In German at least, you tend to use "go by vehicle" where English would just use "go". That is the preciseness English doesn't have. Interesting that the "I must <x> to the Bla" construct exists in Dutch, English has it, but it's antiquated.
  - octatoan 11y ago
    "We must away / We must away / We must away ere break of day / . . ."
- octatoan 11y ago
  Is that something like "Ich muss nach der Zahnarzt . . ."?
- radicalbyte 11y ago
  Isn't that an irregular / shortened form of "naartoe gaan"? Dutch (like most natural languages) has some ambiguity, but nothing like English. For a start spelling is mainly phonetic (unmodified loan-words excluded). From the perspective of an English speaker it's a very clear language which is made slightly complex by making most common verbs irregular (i.e. to make speech flow) and having arbitrary genders (de/het).