Which is your first language?

Which is your first language

  • Total voters
    78
Sudacafan

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
Interesting to see the voting results by poster so far.
I wouldn’t have imagined that for many of them, English was not their first language.
 
Tenez!

Tenez!

Professional
English is not a difficult language to write.
Given the lackadaisical approach to grammar and syntax adopted by many native speakers on these boards, it's hardly a surprise that the posters are indistinguishable.

It's a well known corporate rule in international affairs that first-language English speakers are the laziest communicators.
 
Last edited:
Mike Bulgakov

Mike Bulgakov

G.O.A.T.
125downthemiddle said:
English. First and only.
Click to expand...
Learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain. This is what Swedish scientists discovered when they used brain scans to monitor what happens when someone learns a second language. The study is part of a growing body of research using brain imaging technologies to better understand the cognitive benefits of language learning. Tools like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electrophysiology, among others, can now tell us not only whether we need knee surgery or have irregularities with our heartbeat, but reveal what is happening in our brains when we hear, understand and produce second languages.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning
 
Sudacafan

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
Mike Bulgakov said:
Learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain. This is what Swedish scientists discovered when they used brain scans to monitor what happens when someone learns a second language. The study is part of a growing body of research using brain imaging technologies to better understand the cognitive benefits of language learning. Tools like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electrophysiology, among others, can now tell us not only whether we need knee surgery or have irregularities with our heartbeat, but reveal what is happening in our brains when we hear, understand and produce second languages.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I always keep my brains big by participating in these forums.
 
D

Deleted member 716271

Guest
RaulRamirez said:
Good deduction. Yes, from my mom's side. Her parents spoke a language called Ladino. Not too much trickled down to her as the youngest, and even less to me as her youngest. (TMI?)
Click to expand...

I'm of half Spanish/half Dutch ancestry but don't discount the possibility of Converso on the Spanish side.

There is a vibrant Sephardic population here in New York
 
SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
I fully realize that the # of poll options is limited but I have a problem with lumping Chinese languages (Mandarin, Yue/Cantonse, Wu & others) with Japanese and Korean. Japanese & Korean, maybe ok. Many linguists believe that they may have shared a common proto-language precursor. While quite different from each other, they appear, to my uneducated ear, to be more similar to each other than to Chinese languages -- and very, very different from Chinese languages.

Sure, Japanese has borrowed some Kanji characters (1000+) from the Chinese written language but their other character sets are quite different -- and their spoken languages are extremely different. Korean characters may very well have been influenced by Chinese characters and/or Japanese characters but, again, are quite different. Anyone know more about this?

I am aware that the words for "three" and "four" in Japanese and Chinese languages share a common history. Can't say who "invented" these words but, somewhere along the line, one culture borrowed these words from the other. The was a time -- long, long ago -- when many early languages had words for "one" and "two". But after that, it was "many" -- regardless of how much greater than 2. There may very well be a tribe or two on the African continent and elsewhere that still uses this basic counting system: 1, 2, many.

I suppose it makes sense to lump Portagee and Spanish together. At one time, they may have primarily been dialect differences. Are they that much different than that now? Forgive my ignorance on this. And or course, they are both derived from Latin. As are French and Italian. While those 2 sound different, i can see the rationale behind lumping them together -- separate from Spanish & Portagee. Romanian could also probably be lumped in with Italian (and French) even tho it has some other influences.

Time to resurrect Esperanto?
.
 
Sudacafan

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
SystemicAnomaly said:
I fully realize that the # of poll options is limited but I have a problem with lumping Chinese languages (Mandarin, Yue/Cantonse, Wu & others) with Japanese and Korean. Japanese & Korean, maybe ok. Many linguists believe that they may have shared a common proto-language precursor. While quite different from each other, they appear, to my uneducated ear, to be more similar to each other than to Chinese languages -- and very, very different from Chinese languages.

Sure, Japanese has borrowed some Kanji characters (1000+) from the Chinese written language but their other character sets are quite different -- and their spoken languages are extremely different. Korean characters may very well have been influenced by Chinese characters and/or Japanese characters but, again, are quite different. Anyone know more about this?

I am aware that the words for "three" and "four" in Japanese and Chinese languages share a common history. Can't say who "invented" these words but, somewhere along the line, one culture borrowed these words from the other. The was a time -- long, long ago -- when many early languages had words for "one" and "two". But after that, it was "many" -- regardless of how much greater than 2. There may very well be a tribe or two on the African continent and elsewhere that still uses this basic counting system: 1, 2, many.

I suppose it makes sense to lump Portagee and Spanish together. At one time, they may have primarily been dialect differences. Are they that much different than that now? Forgive my ignorance on this. And or course, they are both derived from Latin. As are French and Italian. While those 2 sound different, i can see the rationale behind lumping them together -- separate from Spanish & Portagee. Romanian could also probably be lumped in with Italian (and French) even tho it has some other influences.

Time to resurrect Esperanto?
.
Click to expand...
About language groupings, I had to do magic with the max 10 poll options.
As said, I admit they can be arbitrary or inaccurate.
About Spanish and Portuguese, they are almost mutually intelligible.
In all, I tried to apply the mutual intelligibility notions I found in the Internet.
 
SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Sudacafan said:
About language groupings, I had to do magic with the max 10 poll options.
As said, I admit they can be arbitrary or inaccurate.
About Spanish and Portuguese, they are almost mutually intelligible.
In all, I tried to apply the mutual intelligibility notions I found in the Internet.
Click to expand...

Don't know much about the language difference in the Iberian Peninsula (and the Azores). But I have been told by numerous Brazilians that they can understand most South American (and Mexican) Spanish but ppl from those areas have a difficult time understanding their Portagee/Brazilian language/accent.
.
 
SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Sudacafan said:
Same feelings as me, when I say I’m from Argentina, and they tell me they love the sound of Portuguese.
Click to expand...

Amused. Does Argentinian Spanish sound anything at all like Portuguese? The flavor of Portuguese language that I've heard appears to incorporate a lot of softer "SH" sounds rather than the harder "Z" sounds or sibilant "S" sounds heard in various flavors of Spanish.

Am aware that there are a fair number of Japanese in Brazil, Mexico and Peru. How about Argentina? To my ear, Japanese vowel sounds are not all that different from Spanish & Portuguese vowel sounds.
 
SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Rafa.the.Magnificent said:
American English is all I know, sadly.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I'm in that boat too. Learned a little bit of French in the 3rd grade and a scosh (sukoshi; Japanese) of words from other languages living in the Hawaii when I was young. Had 2 years of Latin in HS -- but was only paying attention the first year. Not been able to get anyone to converse with me in Latin. So, it's atrophied for the most part.

Living in the SF Bay Area, I've learned just enuff Spanish to get my orders right at Taco Bell (no frijoles, con carne, con arozz, cinco por favor ...). Used to be when I said, "no beans" they would leave out the "beef". Now, when I say, "con carne, no frijoles", I get it the way I want it.
.
 
Sudacafan

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
SystemicAnomaly said:
Don't know much about the language difference in the Iberian Peninsula (and the Azores). But I have been told by numerous Brazilians that they can understand most South American (and Mexican) Spanish but ppl from those areas have a difficult time understanding their Portagee/Brazilian language/accent.
.
Click to expand...
Brazilians get more chance to interact with Spanish speaking people as they are surrounded by almost all Spanish speaker countries . It’s a question of exposure. Argies, Uruguayans and Paraguayans among them are the ones who understand better Portuguese because of greater proximity and interaction.
Mexicans are farther, so that’s why it’s harder for them.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Hardest Language to learn?
2
Replies
53
Views
3K
chrischris
C
Sudacafan
  • Poll
On which surface/s do you play tennis?
Replies
23
Views
751
vanioMan
vanioMan
doriancito
  • Poll
in which month is your birthday? part 1
Replies
29
Views
1K
Sentinel
Sentinel
Sudacafan
  • Poll
Which is your favorite red wine?
11 12 13
Replies
619
Views
15K
optic yellow
O
COME ON!
  • Poll
Is your current significant other a tennis player?
Replies
20
Views
1K
chess9
chess9
Top