this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
328 points (96.9% liked)

Memes

8115 readers
727 users here now

Post memes here.

A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (3 children)

If you're fluent in Spanish, then you can get by with Portuguese and read Italian. Nobody can understand what the fuck Italians are saying unless they repeat it at 0.25x speed.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I'm at like b2 or c1 in spanish and I can almost never understand spoken portuguese. Written portuguese (or french or italian) I can read mostly ok but spoken portuguese sounds like someone speaking spanish with mashed potatoes in their mouth.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So Portuguese is to Spanish what Dutch is to German, I see

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Those potatoes have a lot to answer for! 🥔

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I tried learning Portuguese and the pronunciations just kill me. I took a few years of Latin in school (so I can read but can't speak at all) and one of those years was as an "independent study" while sitting in the back of a first year Spanish class (my teacher taught Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese). I've heard that native Spanish speakers can get along as Portuguese can resemble a really drunk Spaniard. I can't confirm that, but I would not too surprised there's truth in it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I guess I had an easier time with Brazilian Portuguese because I spent a decade in coastal Puerto Rico and they high speed mumble with tons of slang and a serious dislike of consonants (See Tego Calderón).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just use a lot of gestures, the Italians will understand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Oh, sure. I'm guessing you are a whiz in French and are passable in Romanian, too.

Edit: apparently I needed a /s to show I was making a joke.

Edit 2: Spanish is my first language, English is my primary language. I learned passable Portuguese later, and am a rudimentary Japanese speaker.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm romanian and took french in school. Absolutely not. We have so many common words that are completely slavic or otherwise non-romance. Marar, patrunjel, leustean, broasca, facalet, carucior, etc.

Even the words that exist in both languages are just pronounced too differently. Pain sounds nothing like paine. The first is a single syllable and the n is short and nasaly. The second is a 2-syllable word and you say every letter. In fact, unlike in french, you say almost every letter in romanian.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I can almost interpret or make educated guesses with most Germanic language but Slavic languages just don't make any sense to me. Even (spoken) Asian languages are easier for me to guess at than Slavic. I am probably just weird though.

I do have a question though. Any English speaker that I have met that was learning a Slavic language found it just as difficult as I have. Is it just as hard for a natural Slavic language speaker to grasp English? (I am not trying to over-generalize here, but that may be unavoidable.)

(I am a language idiot, so excuse me if I am grouping languages incorrectly.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Take this with a grain of salt, because I had a high school education that focused on English and got a Cambridge C2 proficiency certificate.

English has relatively simple grammar and sentence structure, and while spelling is inconsistent with pronunciation, it's easier for me to intuit compared to French. I think the hardest sounds for us in English that aren't tied to an accent are "th" (both in the "the" or "three" varieties) and the "soft" R (I don't know what else to call it). "Earth" can sound pretty funny unless you practice.

I think it's not uncommon for someone in Romania who speaks English to have a pretty thick accent but otherwise get most word order or conjugation right. That said, I think most people don't speak English.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Romanian is technically a romance language, so any shared French loanwords will help too.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Portuguese and Italians can understand Spaniards if both sides make an effort. Source: am Spanish, been there, done that.

French people wouldn't so much as try even if they could actually understand.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

French is so goddamn hard it's not even funny.

Source: I'm French

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Say tray deefee seal.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Can confirm.

Source: Took two years in high school and have been with it on Duolingo for a few years.