LL-L 'Language acquisition' 2007.02.12 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 12 February 2007 - Volume 02

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Grammar' 2007.02.11 (03) [E]

Beste Jacqueline,

you wrote:

It is indeed difficult to keep track of the difference between masculine and
feminine nouns when your own language has lost the feeling for the
difference between them. More recently, my solution for the problem has been
to become an equal opportunity speaker of bad German. I alternate "Gender"
across the board. "Der" on Monday, "Die" on Tuesday and "Das" on Wednesday
etc. etc. At least I am right some of the time

I think it to be extraordinary difficult to learn ‚good' Dutch for a German,
too, in special if any LS is in your mind. These languages all are too close
together, all differences just are slight ones.

I really admire people like Gabriele, Ron, Luc etc. for their skill- I'd
never be able to reach a comparable level.

But- in my correspondency with ‚our' Piet I found out that a good mixture of
the above mentioned languages, spiced with some English in an emergency case
is able to open nearly every border- no matter where the grandmas come from
;-)! Viva Ingvaeonica!

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language acquisition

Thanks, Jonny.

Speaking only for myself here, I hasten to add that I do make many
mistakes.  It would be weird if I didn't.  All of us have to contend with
interference, especially when we learn other languages as adults and also
when those languages are so closely related to ours and thus largely
comprehensible that we are tempted to "fly by the seat of our pants"* rather
than study them thoroughly like any other language.

[* etwa: versuchen etwas Schwieriges ohne erforderliche Vorkenntnisse,
Fähigkeiten und Methoden zu bewältigen]

It is only in the ways we deal with it that there are differences.  For one
thing, I do use dictionaries when needed (without being totally dependent on
them).  The other thing is that education in at least basic linguistic
concepts (be it formal or self-taught) is extremely useful in that it helps
you see the underlying patterns instead of feeling overwhelmed by the
apparent confusion on the surface, and it facilitates connecting cognate
words in different languages.

But, yes, the beauty of dealing with these many closely related languages
here is that communication is fairly easy without prior study, and that in
the course of this type of communication you pick up a lot and over time
improve mutual comprehension.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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