Help for an English speaker w/ German and Dutch

zxczxc,

....it may have something to do with learning the more Germanic words in English first, rather than the Latinate ones, and then identifying them in other languages, such as Dutch.

You made quite an interesting comment here... I fully agree with you. For me, after learning German and Swedish, my comprehension of English Germanic vocabulary triggered up quite quickly, at a passive level, of course.

"Benjamin, I think it may have something to do with learning the more Germanic words in English first, rather than the Latinate ones, and then identifying them in other languages, such as Dutch. Then when you learn the Latinates and use them more as you grow older and become more educated you get a new prescription for you eyesight, as it were, and miss those ones but notice others in French or whatever. "

Excellent observation zxczxc. At the tender age of 12-13, a kid's vocabulary would be very limited compared to what he will have learned in later adolescence or adulthood. And his smaller vocabulary would be confined to more basic level words, which are of Germanic origin.

Very interesting! Yes, that all sounds about right. And if I were to try and read Dutch again now, I'd probably find that I'd understand more through my recently improved knowledge of German. I suppose I could say that Dutch is one of those languages that I'd be able to read in a life/death situation, along with Italian and Portuguese.

LAA wrote:
"At the tender age of 12-13, a kid's vocabulary would be very limited compared to what he will have learned in later adolescence or adulthood. And his smaller vocabulary would be confined to more basic level words, which are of Germanic origin."
LOL. The 12 year-olds as the last Anglo-Saxons! Just gotta love the thought, or the story, as Benjamin's, about sending people links in Dutch because he thought everybody was like him and could read Dutch just fine!
Fabulous!
BTW I prefer to send the sms's to my friends in fucked-up Low German / Dutch, just to keep their Germanic language skills awake!

I wonder also if younger children tend to look more carefully at the actual words and can thus see the similarities more easily, whilst older teenagers and adults would be more likely to see everything together and give up if they don't recognise it straight away.

But then again, I actually believe that I was an Afrikaans-speaking South African in a previous life, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Frederik uit Noorwegen,

bent je ook Nederlands ann het leren of kunt je het taal nou?

""bent je ook Nederlands ann het leren of kunt je het taal nou? ""
(casual)
Ben je ook Nederlands aan het leren of kan je de taal al?
(polite)
Bent U ook Nederlands aan het leren of kunt U de taal al?

Hehe, nee. Ik evenmin lern Nederlands noch kan ik het. Ik vind het maar leuk een betje te leezen en te schrijven probeeren.