How Not to Confuse Languages: for Polyglots

I describe how I avoid confusion between languages that I speak.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Spanish
• Italian
• Chinese
• Cantonese
• pronunciation
• mind mapping
• phonology
• intonation
• polyglots
• languages

[UmaEraVez]

Hello there :D. I have two questions for you, if you don't mind answering...

First of all: what's your job and is that related or not to the motivation to learn all of these languages? (That is is a very inspirational thing for me)

Also: did you learn Portuguese in Brazil? I mean, you know a lot about Southern Europe pronunciation (I'm Portuguese and I wasn't aware of a few things about my own pronunciation until now), but your accent seemed Brazilian.

By the way: thank you for your videos :D

[Glossika]

@UmaEraVez

I don't really have a job.

I've never been to Portugal or Brazil, but I chose to learn the one with the most speakers: Brazilian.

[GeddyLeeYYZ]

Hey Mike, I had a question about learning many languages at the same time. Based on your experience, is it more effective to learn 2, 3 or more languages that are closely related at the same time or learning each one individually? I've heard your able to actually retain more information because your constantly challenged, yet, refreshed by the similar but difference in studying the other language as well. Whats your take on this? Is it more effective to learn multiple languages simultaneously?

[Glossika]

@GeddyLeeYYZ Good question. Personally I'm learning many related Austronesian languages right now, and a few of them are actually pretty close together, for example Seediq, Atayal, and Truku. I'm actually learning these three separately in different batches. But only for the beginning. I started working on Atayal in July, and I'm working on Seediq in August-September, although I'm still working on my Atayal. But I have a good enough foundation in Atayal for there to be little inteference.

[Glossika]

@GeddyLeeYYZ Build a solid foundation in pronunciation and intonation at the beginning and there will be little interference later on. But learn the similar languages separately while you're still building the foundation. Once you're at the intermediate level or even beginner-intermediate, you can learn them simultaneously and you should be safe. In my example, Atayal is always stress final, and Seediq penultimate with only 2 syllables per word. This is good for separating them.

[benzvd]

The phenomenon you described is universal. Not only just in Far Eastern and Western languages does this occur but also in South & Southeast Asia. Sanskrit word is read differently in different languages. For example, Sanskrit word for language is "bhasa" but as "pasa" in Thai and "bahasa" is Malay. Thai often switches between voiced and unvoiced consonant from Sanskrit while consonant cluster is not common in Malay. Different inherent vowel also results in different reading like "ros" and "rasa"

[Glossika]

@benzvd I speak Khmer and it's the same too.

[Glossika]

@bastienreal As I am an advanced user of these languages, you're making the assumption that I actually do not even know the basics, as simple as the pronunciation of a "w" in German, or an "o" in Italian, even though I went to school in those countries for years.

[Chitenza]

@Glossika If you dont have a job how do you finance your trips. I really want to do a similar globe hopping

[UmaEraVez]

@Glossika Thank you for anwering me :)

[JustinHeenan]

great video!

[DirtPeak]

Thanks for these helpful tips!

[Trcls]

Can you also speak Filipino?

[sandrodecott]

Nice video. I use something similar to learn languages too. Thanks for sharing. But you mixed up when you compared portuguese and spanish. There are actually many words in which we use a "f" in portuguese and a "h" in spanish: almofada/almohada, forno/horno, ferir/herir, formiga/hormiga... BUT "haber" has nothing to do with "fazer": "haber" (SPA) is "haver" (POR) - in english, it means "there to be" or "to have"; "fazer" (POR) is "hacer" (SPA) - "to do", in english. Greetings.

[VictimOfBoredom]

@bastienreal

"Nobody pronunces it "when" or "rwen" as you say!! but Ven with a V."

I realize this comment is a year old, but you done fucked up. He distinctly added "in English" after pronouncing "when" with a "w" or "wh" initial.

Maybe you should check out one of his English tutorial videos. ;)

[Zerkezhi]

@Purviser

Well, I said 'according to the Spanish I've been taught (European/the original one) It's possible -_-_-THAT YOU SPEAK OF A DIFFERENT DIALECT SOMEWHERE-_-_-'

…so I don't see your problem with my post. Apart from that I don't know any Spanish dialect that says 'cuando' like 'kwendow'.