Τι κάνετε?
Greek, Greek, Greek. A language of the gods, Athens, Thessaloniki, Santorini, and more gorgeous places that have stood the test of time. It is a BEAUTIFUL language, and I'm glad I'm getting the exposure to it, because honestly, when I was younger, I had no idea what Greek sounded like. Here I am, years later, speaking it, as well as writing it.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my previous Greek entry, but in this language, there are a lot of s, k, th, and l sounds that sometimes trip me up like a tongue twister. It happens because in English, we typically don't have a 'th' sound close to a 'k' sound with another word using similar sounds right after that. I'm not complaining at all; it's just something I have to work at, ξέρετε?
I got to work more on conditional phrases like "where" and "when" (πού και πότε), "now" and "later"(τώρα και πιο αργά) , "not now" and "not later" (Όχι τώρα και Όχι πιο αργά) , etc. I also got to work on locations, like your place (Σπίτι μου) and my place (Σπίτι σας).
The biggest thing (though some of you might think it to be small) I got to learn is how to say "restaurant" (Εστιατόριο). This will be heavily important, especially to me, because when I go to Greece, I plan on getting fed CONSTANTLY with my girlfriend right by my side. I'll need to know where every single restaurant in a 5 mile radius is. It's mandatory, lol. So some of you may have guessed by now, that because I learned how to say "restaurant", that I learned how to say some words of things you'd find in a restaurant, like beer (μπύρα) and wine (κρασί). That doesn't help me because neither she or I drink, but hell, I guess it's good to know, ναι?
I learned that the word for wine is a neutered word, meaning that the article that precedes it is not masculine (I think I got that right). So:
Some wine: Λίγο κρασί
Some beer: Λίγη μπύρα
Writing in Greek has become a ton easier. I had already known the Greek alphabet because I knew a bunch of people in fraternities and sororities, and they would need to know the alphabet, so consequently, I would hear it. A lot. Now that I think about it, I could probably read the letters on their shields if they were words, or if I really wanted to delve into their secrets, which I don't lol. I've got enough to deal with. Back to the initial thought, though. I'm putting together words in Greek without looking at a dictionary, and only using Google Translate to check my spelling, which so far has been almost spot on. I'm not cocky, but I am so proud of myself for making it this far. I love Greek, and I hope that when I travel there, that the people see how much I appreciate their language!
Constructive comments, tips, and advice are always welcome!
Aντίο,
Your Favorite Polyglot
@Twitter: mistercapoeira
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
русский II
Доброе утро! Как дела? Я очень хорошо.
I love the Russian language. I realized recently that I'm almost as far in Russian as I am in Italian, which is a crazy reminder of how much I've put into this.
My lesson this time around dealt with numbers, and how to deal with buying situations. It's the same as the previous lesson, only that this time I learned MORE numbers and how to ask if someone has Russian money and how much I owed. I really appreciated the practice, especially since I haven't gotten numbers down pat yet, but I'm kind of waiting to learn something more engaging. Whenever I go to Russia, I don't think I will want to focus for too much on how much I owe someone. If I need to buy something, I'll get what I need, READ the numbers, and pay. All of which can be done silently, lol. However, I do think that one needs to know how to handle themselves.
One of the things that I learned is that in Russian, instead of asking, "How much do you have?", you ask, "How much exists in your place?"
English: How much do you have?
Russian: Сколько у вас есть? (Skolko u vas yest?)
But in Russian, if someone asks you that without including "есть" in the question, you don't need to include it in your answer. So basically, you can say "Skolko u vas?"
The numbers in Russian are starting to get bigger, and I'm learning how to ask for thousands of things because Russia uses the Ruble (just like Italy used to use the Lira). So for and example, something could cost fourteen thousand rubles (Четырнадцать тысяч рублей/Chetyrnadtsat tysyach rubley), instead of like, five dollars in America. The hardest part for getting the numbers down is remembering where the accent is. It's tricky, but doable, and sounds great for such a lovely language.
Of course I'm still writing down the Russian script as I'm going, and it is getting so much easier. Practice is definitely paying off.
I wish I had more to talk about from this lesson, but like I said, it was mainly about numbers and handling monetary situations! I'm really excited to learn the past-tense, but I know that won't come until later :/.
I will say this though. Being a polyglot has brought me in contact with a TON of speakers of foreign languages. I tweeted something about Russian the night before I did this lesson, and I got a response from another person who is interested in learning the language. We struck up a conversation, and just like that, now I have a person to practice with via Twitter who seems to know what he's talking about.
Languages are a beautiful thing.
Constructive comments, tips, and advice, are always welcome!
до свидания,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I love the Russian language. I realized recently that I'm almost as far in Russian as I am in Italian, which is a crazy reminder of how much I've put into this.
My lesson this time around dealt with numbers, and how to deal with buying situations. It's the same as the previous lesson, only that this time I learned MORE numbers and how to ask if someone has Russian money and how much I owed. I really appreciated the practice, especially since I haven't gotten numbers down pat yet, but I'm kind of waiting to learn something more engaging. Whenever I go to Russia, I don't think I will want to focus for too much on how much I owe someone. If I need to buy something, I'll get what I need, READ the numbers, and pay. All of which can be done silently, lol. However, I do think that one needs to know how to handle themselves.
One of the things that I learned is that in Russian, instead of asking, "How much do you have?", you ask, "How much exists in your place?"
English: How much do you have?
Russian: Сколько у вас есть? (Skolko u vas yest?)
But in Russian, if someone asks you that without including "есть" in the question, you don't need to include it in your answer. So basically, you can say "Skolko u vas?"
The numbers in Russian are starting to get bigger, and I'm learning how to ask for thousands of things because Russia uses the Ruble (just like Italy used to use the Lira). So for and example, something could cost fourteen thousand rubles (Четырнадцать тысяч рублей/Chetyrnadtsat tysyach rubley), instead of like, five dollars in America. The hardest part for getting the numbers down is remembering where the accent is. It's tricky, but doable, and sounds great for such a lovely language.
Of course I'm still writing down the Russian script as I'm going, and it is getting so much easier. Practice is definitely paying off.
I wish I had more to talk about from this lesson, but like I said, it was mainly about numbers and handling monetary situations! I'm really excited to learn the past-tense, but I know that won't come until later :/.
I will say this though. Being a polyglot has brought me in contact with a TON of speakers of foreign languages. I tweeted something about Russian the night before I did this lesson, and I got a response from another person who is interested in learning the language. We struck up a conversation, and just like that, now I have a person to practice with via Twitter who seems to know what he's talking about.
Languages are a beautiful thing.
Constructive comments, tips, and advice, are always welcome!
до свидания,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Thursday, September 27, 2012
普通话
Ni hao, ni hao ma? Hen hao?
Hi again, my friends. I hope you've been doing well. This one might run a little on the longer side, but we'll see what happens.
I honestly think this might be my first entry on Putonghua, or as we Americans know it: Mandarin Chinese. First and foremost, there's a common misconception that everyone from China speaks "Chinese". This might be true, but we need to be more specific as there are a few dialects. Just as I spoke about it in my previous entry on Creole, you can't label the language(s) of China as just "Chinese". The two big ones are Putonghua (Mandarin) and Cantonese (Guangdong hua).
So the next time you want to ask if someone speaks Chinese, you'd better ask if they speak Mandarin or Cantonese instead.
Now for my thoughts on the language. I fucking love it.
Chinese is spoken all over the place. I just so happen to live in a city with a lot of Asian restaurants, from Chinese ones to Japanese ones run by Chinese people (yes, I know it's weird, but it happens). Have you ever wanted to know what they're saying? If they're saying nice things, or how Americans are greedy, fat bastards? Well if so, this is the language to know.
In all honesty, learning Mandarin (I'm studying Cantonese also) has been a JOY to practice with. Every time my girlfriend and I go to a Chinese restaurant (two in particular), I have to attempt speaking to the servers. The first time I did it, I got the "O_O" look. You know, the one that says, "Hol...y." And from then on, I was on a first name basis with everyone. At the restaurant closest to us, the server actually brought out her iPad and showed me how she was learning English and gave me some tips on how to read Pinyin (the Romanized pronunciation of Mandarin/Cantonese). Not even gonna lie, it HAS gotten me discounts on food. Yes, it's a perk, and if it keeps happening, I'd be a fool to try and stop it. To me, it seems like a token of gratitude for attempting a language as difficult as Mandarin.
That leads right into the seriousness of the matter. Mandarin is NOT easy. It is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with an incorrect tone, despite proper pronunciation, it could make the difference between cursing at someone, or giving them a compliment (Take Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 2).
The characters are pretty much like Japanese, in that you have to KNOW what they mean by looking at them, because there aren't many clues as far as punctuation goes. In addition to knowing what the characters mean, which can number in the thousands, you also need to be able to use the Pinyin system. It uses the Romanized alphabet, and has lines distinguishing which tone you need to use to get the proper pronunciation for whatever word you're trying to say.
Mandarin takes a lot of practice. In this last lesson, I learned how to express desire, learned "your place", "my place", "when", "now", and "later". It's tough. I definitely have to go back and practice the pronunciation. I AM also working on the Pinyin and Character system. I am writing out every phrase to get a good grip on writing in both ways. Of course the Pinyin system is easy because it's pretty phonetic, but the characters are really where it's at, despite their difficulty. Characters can have multiple strokes, which can make it seem more like a picture instead of a word. I'm using a Chinese-English/English-Chinese Webster's Dictionary to help me out. The book's print is pretty small, but I'm making it work. I've found that once you've written a character, it becomes muscle memory very quickly, and you can write them from memory. I've already gotten "ni", "bu", and "wo" without needing the book.
I do have a gripe, and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the language. Everyone who follows me knows that I love tweeting in foreign languages. My BlackBerry actually has a decent number of international keyboards for me to work with. I tried to tweet in Chinese, but there were THREE keyboards for it, and I had no idea what in the hell I was doing. It was really tricky. That being said, I cannot WAIT to get my iPhone 5, because there is a way to use your finger and "draw" the characters you need to use, which would be fantastic.
I love Mandarin, and you should to.
Constructive comments, questions, and tips are always welcome!
再见,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Hi again, my friends. I hope you've been doing well. This one might run a little on the longer side, but we'll see what happens.
I honestly think this might be my first entry on Putonghua, or as we Americans know it: Mandarin Chinese. First and foremost, there's a common misconception that everyone from China speaks "Chinese". This might be true, but we need to be more specific as there are a few dialects. Just as I spoke about it in my previous entry on Creole, you can't label the language(s) of China as just "Chinese". The two big ones are Putonghua (Mandarin) and Cantonese (Guangdong hua).
So the next time you want to ask if someone speaks Chinese, you'd better ask if they speak Mandarin or Cantonese instead.
Now for my thoughts on the language. I fucking love it.
Chinese is spoken all over the place. I just so happen to live in a city with a lot of Asian restaurants, from Chinese ones to Japanese ones run by Chinese people (yes, I know it's weird, but it happens). Have you ever wanted to know what they're saying? If they're saying nice things, or how Americans are greedy, fat bastards? Well if so, this is the language to know.
In all honesty, learning Mandarin (I'm studying Cantonese also) has been a JOY to practice with. Every time my girlfriend and I go to a Chinese restaurant (two in particular), I have to attempt speaking to the servers. The first time I did it, I got the "O_O" look. You know, the one that says, "Hol...y." And from then on, I was on a first name basis with everyone. At the restaurant closest to us, the server actually brought out her iPad and showed me how she was learning English and gave me some tips on how to read Pinyin (the Romanized pronunciation of Mandarin/Cantonese). Not even gonna lie, it HAS gotten me discounts on food. Yes, it's a perk, and if it keeps happening, I'd be a fool to try and stop it. To me, it seems like a token of gratitude for attempting a language as difficult as Mandarin.
That leads right into the seriousness of the matter. Mandarin is NOT easy. It is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with an incorrect tone, despite proper pronunciation, it could make the difference between cursing at someone, or giving them a compliment (Take Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 2).
The characters are pretty much like Japanese, in that you have to KNOW what they mean by looking at them, because there aren't many clues as far as punctuation goes. In addition to knowing what the characters mean, which can number in the thousands, you also need to be able to use the Pinyin system. It uses the Romanized alphabet, and has lines distinguishing which tone you need to use to get the proper pronunciation for whatever word you're trying to say.
Mandarin takes a lot of practice. In this last lesson, I learned how to express desire, learned "your place", "my place", "when", "now", and "later". It's tough. I definitely have to go back and practice the pronunciation. I AM also working on the Pinyin and Character system. I am writing out every phrase to get a good grip on writing in both ways. Of course the Pinyin system is easy because it's pretty phonetic, but the characters are really where it's at, despite their difficulty. Characters can have multiple strokes, which can make it seem more like a picture instead of a word. I'm using a Chinese-English/English-Chinese Webster's Dictionary to help me out. The book's print is pretty small, but I'm making it work. I've found that once you've written a character, it becomes muscle memory very quickly, and you can write them from memory. I've already gotten "ni", "bu", and "wo" without needing the book.
I do have a gripe, and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the language. Everyone who follows me knows that I love tweeting in foreign languages. My BlackBerry actually has a decent number of international keyboards for me to work with. I tried to tweet in Chinese, but there were THREE keyboards for it, and I had no idea what in the hell I was doing. It was really tricky. That being said, I cannot WAIT to get my iPhone 5, because there is a way to use your finger and "draw" the characters you need to use, which would be fantastic.
I love Mandarin, and you should to.
Constructive comments, questions, and tips are always welcome!
再见,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Kreyol Ayisyen
Bonjou!
I took the leap of faith and tried Haitian Creole, and in all honesty, I love it. Why do I love it? Because I know French!
For those of you who don't follow, here's what I mean. Haitian Creole sounds like a dialect of the French language. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of borrowed words taken from French. Part of me wonders if someone who knows is fluent in French and knows zero Haitian Creole could survive in Haiti based on their knowledge of the French language. I honestly want to say yes.
Here are some examples of the similarities.
Hello/Good day
French: Bonjour
Haitian Creole: Bonjou
Good evening
French: Bonsoir
Haitian Creole: Bon aswè
I understand
French: Je comprends
Haitian Creole: M/Mwen konprann
So as you can see, there are lots of similarities, and I won't even get into the rest of them, as there are many. But if you already have a base in French, I think Haitian Creole would be a breeze. Once I become semi-efficient, I'd love to take a trip to Haiti and try speaking to the people there in their language. I can't wait for my next lesson...In the meantime, here's hoping there are some Haitian people in my city that I can practice with or some followers on Twitter who can hit me up in Haitian Creole!
Before I conclude, there's a reason why I always try to say "Haitian Creole", and that's because there are a few different kinds, such as Louisiana Creole. I wish I could name more, but I'm not able to right now. I just know that the various Creole languages are mixes, so to try just say Creole would require me to be more specific! Kreyol Ayisyen!
Orevwa,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I took the leap of faith and tried Haitian Creole, and in all honesty, I love it. Why do I love it? Because I know French!
For those of you who don't follow, here's what I mean. Haitian Creole sounds like a dialect of the French language. There are lots, and I mean LOTS of borrowed words taken from French. Part of me wonders if someone who knows is fluent in French and knows zero Haitian Creole could survive in Haiti based on their knowledge of the French language. I honestly want to say yes.
Here are some examples of the similarities.
Hello/Good day
French: Bonjour
Haitian Creole: Bonjou
Good evening
French: Bonsoir
Haitian Creole: Bon aswè
I understand
French: Je comprends
Haitian Creole: M/Mwen konprann
So as you can see, there are lots of similarities, and I won't even get into the rest of them, as there are many. But if you already have a base in French, I think Haitian Creole would be a breeze. Once I become semi-efficient, I'd love to take a trip to Haiti and try speaking to the people there in their language. I can't wait for my next lesson...In the meantime, here's hoping there are some Haitian people in my city that I can practice with or some followers on Twitter who can hit me up in Haitian Creole!
Before I conclude, there's a reason why I always try to say "Haitian Creole", and that's because there are a few different kinds, such as Louisiana Creole. I wish I could name more, but I'm not able to right now. I just know that the various Creole languages are mixes, so to try just say Creole would require me to be more specific! Kreyol Ayisyen!
Orevwa,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Monday, September 24, 2012
Nederlands II
Goedemiddag!
I'm falling in love with the Dutch language. Seriously. It's ease and massive amounts of English cognates make it a breeze to pick up.
This third lesson first gave me the male and female ways to say American (Amerikaans and Amerikaanse) and the male and female ways to say that a person is Dutch (Nederlander and Nederlandser).
I have to spend the rest of this entry discussing the importance of the next two words I learned, and also that these were the only other two words that I learned.
"Ik ben" and "en"
"I am" and "and"
Super simple, but super important. Think about how many times during a conversation that you tell someone "I am......" or use "and" as a conjunction. Now that I have these simple and small, yet enormous words, I can actually start being to "Show ownership of my feelings" like they tell you to do when handling confrontations.
This helps a lot because I try to follow people from the various foreign languages that I'm studying, and of course I have some Dutch speakers on my timeline, and quite frequently I see "Ik ben....." Now that I know what it means, I can focus on what's coming AFTER the "ben". I guess what I'm trying to say is that knowing how to use the various forms of "am" and "be" can unlock a massive door. You might not be able to say much initially after learning how to say I am, but all you need to do after that is to just learn adjectives, verbs, and conjugations (and we all know what joy that is..lol).
I just realized that I learned how to say "but" also..(Maar). That word is is just as important, because now it allows you to form a response to someone or something.
Out of all the languages out there, I never thought I'd be liking Dutch this much. It's awesome. I can't wait to learn more!
Constructive comments, tips, advice, and whatever else are more than welcome!
Tot ziens,
Your Favorite Polyglot,
Twitter @mistercapoeira
I'm falling in love with the Dutch language. Seriously. It's ease and massive amounts of English cognates make it a breeze to pick up.
This third lesson first gave me the male and female ways to say American (Amerikaans and Amerikaanse) and the male and female ways to say that a person is Dutch (Nederlander and Nederlandser).
I have to spend the rest of this entry discussing the importance of the next two words I learned, and also that these were the only other two words that I learned.
"Ik ben" and "en"
"I am" and "and"
Super simple, but super important. Think about how many times during a conversation that you tell someone "I am......" or use "and" as a conjunction. Now that I have these simple and small, yet enormous words, I can actually start being to "Show ownership of my feelings" like they tell you to do when handling confrontations.
This helps a lot because I try to follow people from the various foreign languages that I'm studying, and of course I have some Dutch speakers on my timeline, and quite frequently I see "Ik ben....." Now that I know what it means, I can focus on what's coming AFTER the "ben". I guess what I'm trying to say is that knowing how to use the various forms of "am" and "be" can unlock a massive door. You might not be able to say much initially after learning how to say I am, but all you need to do after that is to just learn adjectives, verbs, and conjugations (and we all know what joy that is..lol).
I just realized that I learned how to say "but" also..(Maar). That word is is just as important, because now it allows you to form a response to someone or something.
Out of all the languages out there, I never thought I'd be liking Dutch this much. It's awesome. I can't wait to learn more!
Constructive comments, tips, advice, and whatever else are more than welcome!
Tot ziens,
Your Favorite Polyglot,
Twitter @mistercapoeira
Gaeilge
Dia duit!
I know it's been a while since you've gotten an update, but better late than never.
You might be wondering, "What the hell is Gaeilge?" I wouldn't fault you for one second if you did. You probably have heard the accent a million times, but you probably never knew that it had its own language.
Gaeilge = Irish!
I had some common misconceptions before I got started. I thought that Irish would be like French is to Haitian Creole, in that I thought Irish would sound like English, but only with some slight differences. Another example would be American English versus UK English. We can completely understand each other until it comes to slang, such as petrol. That was a horrible paragraph, but you get it!
Anyway, I could not have been more wrong. Irish is its OWN language, and sounds like nothing I've ever heard. It was fun and weird at the same time, because I've never been able to pull off an Irish accent, but after this lesson, I know that it's not impossible, being that you have to try to imitate what you're hearing and say it exactly like the speaker.
The weirdness comes from the silent letters. Telling someone that you don't understand is "Ni thuigim", but phonetically it's said, "Nee hihim". The "t" gets left out. Also, saying yes is spelled like "Ta" but pronounced like "Sha". And my last example would be the Irish language itself. Americans would see the word "Gaeilge" and try pronounce it like "Gaylg", but it's actually pronounce "Gaylin" with a kind of glottal g at the end.
I don't really know what to say about Gaeilge..I won't totally discount the language, even though there aren't many people who speak it, but I know that this one will be a little bit tougher to get into my list of favorites.
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
I know it's been a while since you've gotten an update, but better late than never.
You might be wondering, "What the hell is Gaeilge?" I wouldn't fault you for one second if you did. You probably have heard the accent a million times, but you probably never knew that it had its own language.
Gaeilge = Irish!
I had some common misconceptions before I got started. I thought that Irish would be like French is to Haitian Creole, in that I thought Irish would sound like English, but only with some slight differences. Another example would be American English versus UK English. We can completely understand each other until it comes to slang, such as petrol. That was a horrible paragraph, but you get it!
Anyway, I could not have been more wrong. Irish is its OWN language, and sounds like nothing I've ever heard. It was fun and weird at the same time, because I've never been able to pull off an Irish accent, but after this lesson, I know that it's not impossible, being that you have to try to imitate what you're hearing and say it exactly like the speaker.
The weirdness comes from the silent letters. Telling someone that you don't understand is "Ni thuigim", but phonetically it's said, "Nee hihim". The "t" gets left out. Also, saying yes is spelled like "Ta" but pronounced like "Sha". And my last example would be the Irish language itself. Americans would see the word "Gaeilge" and try pronounce it like "Gaylg", but it's actually pronounce "Gaylin" with a kind of glottal g at the end.
I don't really know what to say about Gaeilge..I won't totally discount the language, even though there aren't many people who speak it, but I know that this one will be a little bit tougher to get into my list of favorites.
Until next time,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Norsk and Svenska
I was going to separate these two, but after thinking about it, I decided against it. There are wayyyyyyyyy too many similarities to be able to have two informative entries without them looking like identical twins.
Instead, what I'm going to do is explain both, and show you the minute differences that I've found.
First off, Norsk=Norwegian and is spoken in Norway. Svenska=Swedish and of course is spoken in Sweden.
The two languages remind me a lot of German, and here's why. When you're making a statement, such as "you understand...", you say,
German: Sie verstehen
Swedish: Du förstår
Norwegian: Du forstår
But when you want to turn "You understand" into "Do you understand?" you switch the subject and the verb, so (leaving out German this time):
Swedish: Förstår du...?
Norwegian: Forstår du...?
Sidenote..Just because the Swedish version of the word "understand" has an extra sign doesn't necessarily mean there is a different pronunciation than its Norwegian counterpart. They sound identical. Jeg and Jag sound similar too. Jeg sounds like "Yai", and Jag sounds like "Yahg" with the g not as strong and glottal.
Because these languages have a lot of other similarities that I won't get into right now, I think the main thing for me right now (especially since I just started), is the fact that for Norwegian, language names end in 'sk', such as Engelsk, Spansk, or Portugisisk. In Swedish, they end in 'ska', so Engelska, Spanska, or Portugisiska.
They really aren't that difficult, and are actually quite beautiful. I've seen the writings of both of these and had no idea how to pronounce them, but now that I'm learning, I think these will be two more that I fall in love with. I'm betting Danish and Finnish sound pretty similar to these two also, but I don't have any resources for them yet :(.
As always, constructive tips, comments, and questions are welcomed!
See you later,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
Instead, what I'm going to do is explain both, and show you the minute differences that I've found.
First off, Norsk=Norwegian and is spoken in Norway. Svenska=Swedish and of course is spoken in Sweden.
The two languages remind me a lot of German, and here's why. When you're making a statement, such as "you understand...", you say,
German: Sie verstehen
Swedish: Du förstår
Norwegian: Du forstår
But when you want to turn "You understand" into "Do you understand?" you switch the subject and the verb, so (leaving out German this time):
Swedish: Förstår du...?
Norwegian: Forstår du...?
Sidenote..Just because the Swedish version of the word "understand" has an extra sign doesn't necessarily mean there is a different pronunciation than its Norwegian counterpart. They sound identical. Jeg and Jag sound similar too. Jeg sounds like "Yai", and Jag sounds like "Yahg" with the g not as strong and glottal.
Because these languages have a lot of other similarities that I won't get into right now, I think the main thing for me right now (especially since I just started), is the fact that for Norwegian, language names end in 'sk', such as Engelsk, Spansk, or Portugisisk. In Swedish, they end in 'ska', so Engelska, Spanska, or Portugisiska.
They really aren't that difficult, and are actually quite beautiful. I've seen the writings of both of these and had no idea how to pronounce them, but now that I'm learning, I think these will be two more that I fall in love with. I'm betting Danish and Finnish sound pretty similar to these two also, but I don't have any resources for them yet :(.
As always, constructive tips, comments, and questions are welcomed!
See you later,
Your Favorite Polyglot
Twitter: @mistercapoeira
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