You live a new life for every new language you speak. (a Czech proverb)
Language and culture have fascinated me since the age of 6 when I used to listen to foreign languages on a shortwave radio (around 1962). My fascination led to a passion for learning over 30 languages during the past 5 decades and discovering new cultures along with their unique worldviews in 99 countries around the globe. As a professor of cross-cultural management at Japanese, US, Chinese (Shanghai and Taipei), and Thai universities for 32 years I have written extensively on foreign language acquisition and cultural adaptation. The goal of this KZread channel is to share that knowledge with all who love diverse languages and cultures.
Please subscribe to our channel and embark on this exciting adventure together. Let Polyglot Dreams be your source of inspiration as we explore the power of languages and the richness of cultures that make our world truly extraordinary.
有難う御座います
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Serbian is only the eastern version of the Serbo-Croatian language. The western version of it is Croatian, and there is the Bosnian version as well. Not mentioning these facts makes your video much LESS valuable!
Saints Cyril and Methodius created Glagolitic as an alphabet for the Slavs during their mission to Greater Moravia. After their deaths there was a change in leadership, and their 5 Bulgarian Holy Students that were still there were expelled. Upon return to Bulgaria, the Holy Students were welcomed by Knyaz Boris with open arms, who founded two schools (Ohrid and Preslav) for the Students, to whom and where he commissioned the creation of Cyrillic. Cyrillic was created by the Holy Students at Preslav (St Clement of Ohrid is perhaps the most famous of the five students, along with St Naom who is also credited as the student in charge of the project), and the name is dedicated the their teacher, St Cyril, the older of the brothers. Cyrillic was simpler than Glagolitic and being similar to Greek, it was founded where the academics were aware of Greek (Bulgaria would accept Christianity from Byzantium and was founded on the former territories of Eastern Rome), which meant Cyrillic spread faster and overtook Glagolitic (meanwhile, Croatia accepted Christianity from Rome and never had the same connection with Byzantium, meaning it stuck with Glagolitic, until it eventually switched to Latin for convenience with Rome). As Bulgaria grew, and later sent missionaries (eg: to the Kievan Rus' during it's conversion), Cyrillic also spread. Cyrillic, like its predecessor alphabet Glagolitic, are meant as alphabets from the Slavs for the Slavs, in contrast to Latin. That is why I prefer Cyrillic. Latin was never meant for us.
smart
In 1850 an agreement was signed that united Serbian and Croatian languages into one. Serbo-Croatian used both scripts. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian was politically (not linguistically) divided into several languages. Croats kept only the Latin alphabet and Serbs kept both.
Ironically these languages are artificially united on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect but making Macedonian and Bulgarian separate which is just politics from Ex-Yugoslavia.
@@HeroManNick132 Well, the most central and the most widespread dialect was used as the basis for Serbo-Croatian. From Slovenia to the Black Sea there is a dialect continuum, so you can basically draw borders wherever you like and create separate languages... Or create one central south Slavic language... Every next village speaks a little bit differently. As they say, a language is a dialect with an army and navy. I guess you're Bulgarian and I know what you're getting at, but every standardized language is artificially created. The thing about Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin is that they are all based on the same dialect which is ridiculous xD (Serbian actually has 2 variants, and the one used in Serbia is based on Šumadija-Vojvodina dialect)
@@HeroManNick132Slovenian doesn’t have to do anything with Serbo-Croatian, it is unintelligible to the Serbo-Croatian speakers and it’s totally different. Macedonian and Bulgarian as well, although to a lesser degree. So, Fuck off Ustashi, your failed propaganda is dead!
@@HeroManNick132Slovenian (especially), Macedonian and Bulgarian are not completely mutually intelligible to the Serbo-Croatian speakers, so they are different languages. The three main accents of Serbo-Croatian, Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian are 100% mutually intelligible, even more than the main accents of English themselves.
@@HeroManNick132So, stop spreading your failed nationalist propaganda, it’s long dead and all you write here to support it is worthless.
Cyrillic is traditional and official alphabet in Serbia, Latin alphabet is more practical in the modern age especially on internet.
Yeah, then Vuk Karadzic comes and adds Latin letter to your alphabet and calls it ''Cyrillic.'' How pathetic is to call J a Cyrillic letter where it never was.
Come on Serbia, please keep our lovely child, present for the Slavs alive, an alphabet to unite the Orthodox alive - your sincerely, Bulgaria
The truth is that in 1850 some Serbian and Croatian linguists gathered in Vienna, and declared that Serbs and Croats speak the same language, that the language should be called Serbo-Croatian, and that it should be using two equal alphabets, Cyrillic and Latin, which mirrored each other with same 30 voices. But in reality, only the Serbs adopted both alphabets, while the Croats were always using only Latin. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbo-Croatian language doesn't exist anymore, but the Serbs have continued using two alphabets because they were used to and they thought it was practical.
Montenegrin too (even though Latin is more preferrable nowadays) and sometimes Bosnian use both. Montenegrin can be also mentioned because unlike other alphabet there are 2 letters (although not used) they were proposed to be in Montenegrin like the letters are written as Sj/Zj; Сj/Зj in others as Ś, Ź (which are taken from Polish to represent the soft S and Z sounds), З́/С́. The only BCMS variant that uses entirely Latin alphabet is Croatian which they add Q, W, X, Y into foreign words, while others (except Bosnian) don't add them.
I notice that the young Serbs use the Latin script more often. I think the only explanation would be the frequent use of the computer, where the software is mostly in English, obviously with Latin script.
And obviously that's what makes them ''more European'' too, am I right?
Ukrainian language has 7 grammatic cases for nouns, telling you as Ukrainian native speaker. russians were trying to cut the 7th case out to make Ukrainian more similar to russian, but now we use it again as it is natural for Ukrainian language
Yes, Thanks
Originally, these two languages were related, but of course, modern Japanese and modern Chinese are not similar because they were in different places for about 1600 years. There are various ways to read them, and they are completely different. Still, we can get the general meaning by looking at the kanji.
So you didn't watch the video?
It's great how they care so deeply about their heritage that they continue to educate their children in both scripts. Had only the same practice prevailed in the rest of Europe, how many more writing systems could still be in use today?
So true.
Cyril and Methodius invented glagolitic script, but cyrillic script was invented by Kliment Ohridski, who was Cyril's student and he dediceted the new script to Cyril
And that's why Serbia created North Macedonia?
@HeroManNick132 A?
To elaborate, Saints Cyril and Methodius created Glagolitic as an alphabet for the Slavs during their mission to Greater Moravia. After their deaths there was a change in leadership, and their 5 Bulgarian Holy Students that were still there were expelled. Upon return to Bulgaria, the Holy Students were welcomed by Knyaz Boris with open arms, who founded two schools (Ohrid and Preslav) for the Students, to whom and where he commissioned the creation of Cyrillic. Cyrillic was created by the Holy Students at Preslav (the Students in general, not specifically St Clement of Ohrid, who was one and perhaps the most famous of the five students, along with St Naom who is also credited as the student in charge of the project), and the name is dedicated the their teacher, St Cyril, the older of the brothers. Cyrillic was simpler than Glagolitic and being similar to Greek, it was founded where the academics were aware of Greek (Bulgaria would accept Christianity from Byzantium and was founded on the former territories of Eastern Rome), which meant Cyrillic spread faster and overtook Glagolitic (meanwhile, Croatia accepted Christianity from Rome and never had the same connection with Byzantium, meaning it stuck with Glagolitic, until it eventually switched to Latin for convenience with Rome). As Bulgaria grew, and later sent missionaries (eg: to the Kievan Rus' during it's conversion), Cyrillic also spread. Cyrillic, like its predecessor alphabet Glagolitic, are meant as alphabets from the Slavs for the Slavs, in contrast to Latin. That is why I prefer Cyrillic. Latin was never meant for us.
I noticed that "George Washington" was transliterated into both alphabets; it wasn't written "ulica Georgea Washingtona". Is this usual? What about names originating in other languages written in Cyrillic?
It was written "Ulica Džordža Vašingtona" because of the genitive case. In Serbian we have only 30 sounds and one letter for each one of them. The key rule in writing in Serbian is "one sound -> one letter and one letter -> one sound". That's why we write Džordž Vašington and never George Washington. In Croatia it is possible to find names written in their original names, but I am not sure about official street names. In Serbia the street names of are usualy written only in cyrillic, but there are examples where the name of a street is written in both alphabets.
Another reason why non-Slavic names are "Serbianized" in the Latin script is so as to keep the one-to-one grapheme correspondence with Cyrillic. Otherwise, _George Washington_ would suddenly become _Георге Васхингтон_ in Cyrillic, and the pronunciation would, in turn, be literally [ge.or.ge vas.hink.ton] ... and nobody would have a clue what's being said. 😂😂 Croatia and Slovenia use Latin script only, meaning they can allow themselves to keep the original, foreign spelling. 🙂 Of course, a Slavic language using Latin script is not always a guarantee for name sanctity. Polish, for example will more often than not write foreign names phonetically; _Washington_ becomes _Waszyngton,_ _Shakespeare_ is _Szekspir,_ etc. Not even living people are safe; both Queen Elizabeth II and Danish Queen Margrethe II are known to the Poles as _Elżbieta_ and _Małgorzata,_ respectively... 😮😂
@@isailodondic3204 I find it so ironic that you write Љ, Њ, Џ as 1 letter in Cyrillic but 2 letters in Latin alphabet? I will never get why you didn't take Polish's letters that are used in the Classical Belarusian Latin alphabet if your language is so ''focused'' on 1 letter, 1 sound? Like for Л you could take Ł, and for Љ - L instead of Lj. Heck even Slovak has 1 letter for soft L and N but Serbian doesn't which is funny. Heck at least Montenegrins tried to add letters for Sj/Zj; Сj/Зj taken from Polish - Ś, Ź and made own variant in Cyrillic - З́, С́. I never get why you guys don't like these letters just like making Л and Р as vowel which imo is stupid. And the Latin Dž is the same how in every other Slavic languages we use Дж in Cyrillic.
@@danielvanr.8681 Most Slavic languages seems they lack of letter for W sound and like Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian they use V/В in consonant clusters or at the end of words change it to W sound. Only Belarusian, Polish and the Lechtic ones have proper W sound, since Polish doesn't have dark L but W sound.
@@HeroManNick132 In all fairness, _Lublana_ and _lubav_ would look silly... So let's keep Lj lj and NJ nj, I say. 🤭 And it'd seem that the only Slavic lingos with an actual /w/ sound is Polish (Ł ł), Belarussian (Ў ў, łacinka Ł ł) and Ukrainian (В в -- but this letter also covers /v/, so good luck...) 😄
For me I wanna study Thai, Korean, Japanese and Chinese
Very good job, my words of praise for you. I respect you and the knowledge you're sharing in your videos, you are clearly the person who should be talking about this. Vietnamese is very difficult from my viewpoint - my native is polish, so thats a pretty different language. I have some experience in studying japanese, i used to be communicative at it, but i forgot a lot because of not having time for studying and exposing myself to it. My words of respect are because of this - I always felt impressed by sinosphere languages, since I was like a 10 year old kid watchin japanese karate movies. Almost always wanted to be really good at them, or any of them. I also have two vietnamese colleagues who told me a lot about the country. And I may end up studying vietnamese eventually. Wish me luck. And I wish you good luck too, keep on livin man
It's religion. Catholics used Latin script, Orthodox used Cyrillic because their respective religious books were written in those scripts. The Latin in Serbia has also gained in popularity after the 90s when most of computers couldn't yet process Cyrillic scripts.
And this is also mirrored in the Greco-Roman loanwords; Serbian uses the Byzantine/Orthodox /h/ sound, but Croatian uses the Roman/Latin /k/ sound, e.g. _hemija / kemija_ (chemistry). 😊
Well, but the question is why Catholics can't use Cyrillic but Orthodox and Muslims can use Latin alphabet? Still doesn't make much sense why the Roman church does that?
@@danielvanr.8681 This is to some way similar with Bulgarian and Macedonian: BG - MK характер - карактер хамелеон - камелеон
@@HeroManNick132 If you ponder for a while the fact that Romans spoke Latin, you'll find that the Roman Catholic Church using the Latin script makes perfect sense.
@@danielvanr.8681 Writing Slavic language imo with Latin alphabet is ugly, especially look at Polish's monstrocity. The only reason for this is this makes you more ''European'' or perhaps you don't want to promote Russian or Serbian nationalism. Despite Croatian used Cyrillic till 1991. I see many Ex-Yugoslavians trying to be really edgy with using more Latin alphabet because it makes them ''more Europeans'' than us.
Thanks for making this video that mentions about Vietnamese. I am proud of Vietnamese.
私は福岡に住んでいた。昔の九州大学は、箱崎辺りに広い校舎を構えていた。 我觉得中国人学日语很难,比学英语难。日本人学汉语也很难,也比学英语难
Serbian written with the Latin alphabet is called Croatian. (runs for cover...😁just kidding folks, relax)...
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all Serbs are croated equal ... :)
Croatian uses Q, W, X, Y in foreign words which Serbian doesn't
Actually no matter what people say Serbian and Croatian are the same language with different accents and coloquialisms. Yes people in Split speak a different version of Croatian but at the same time people in south Serbia speak a very different Serbian from the north. In fact, Spanish in Spain and Spanish in Argentina are probably more different than Serbian and Croatian. It is one language that got separated by politics. Whenever I speak with other peole from the former Yugoslavia I just call it "our language"
It is TRUE, by the way.
There is a small mistake in your video. The term "latinica" reffers to all latin scripts, not just the ones Croats and Serbs use (for example, the French are using "latinica" aswell). The specific latin script (with the letters š,đ,dž,ž,ć,č,lj,nj) that Croats and Serbs use is actually called "gajica/Hrvatska latinica". Just wanted to point that out, your video is great tho!
As far as I know Croatian also uses Q, W, X, Y which appear in foreign words but Serbian doesn't.
@@HeroManNick132 No it doesn't
@@balkanexplorer6092 Pretty sure English names that has these letters (especially in Movies) are kept as original.
@@HeroManNick132 In Croatian and Serbian writing, foreign names (in the latin alphabet) are spelt the way they are in the original script, however that DOES NOT mean those foreign letters are part of the gajica script. In Serbian specifically it is also correct to transcript foreign names into gajica script. If we applied your argument to english, it would mean "ó" and "ł" are also in the english alphabet because that is how you spell Józef Piłsudski.
@@balkanexplorer6092 Shouldn't be in Serbian ''Jузеф Пилсудски/Juzef Pilsudski'' since it's how it will be in Cyrillic and the Cyrillic is identical with the Latin alphabet?
Vietnamese is probably the easiest to learn when it comes to learning the tones. In Thai you have to learn the tone rules. In Chinese you have to guess the tones or memorize it if you are reading Chinese characters only. In Vietnamese the tone is given to you.
I have been to Serbia and seen that both alphabets are used on all street signs etc. But I always assumed that the use of the two among people was more geographically dependent? What determines which one you would use in daily life?
That is an excellent question that doesn't have a specific answer. 🤔
Personal preference. Cyrilic is official in documents and preferred by traditionalists, whereas latin is more prevalent in daily use, in newspapers, on advertisements, websites, in messaging, etc.
There is a sterotype that cyrilic is used only by traditionalists, ultra ortodox people and right wing, which is not true. I am an anti religious leftist and I use cyrilic script much more than latin.
@isailodondic3204 Of course, like I said, it's personal preference, so it will vary from case to case, but talking on larger scale I'm pretty sure if some researchers did a survey on the national level, they would get such findings.
@@hakigor It''s purely personal preference. When we read, we don't even notice which script it is. I think there's more of a sociological than geographical distribution...
It was good to see you again at the gathering.
Likewise
Fun fact: In the region of Nghe-Tinh, there’s a different dialect in each every square mile. It’s the true Asian mode of Vietnamese.
"Can you speak Chinese?" *no reaction* "Can you speak Spanish?" OMG
マンダリンと日本語、多少なり喋ってもらわないと説得力がないわな マンダリンのほうが難しい!發音種類が多くて、文法があるようでないからね
Norwegian and Swedish are such beautiful sing-song languages. Norwegian, Bokmål, is a bit easier than Swedish in terms of grammar.
1825-1830 Afrikaans was first written in Arabic script in South Africa. The first Germanic language written in non-Latin or Roman script. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_Afrikaans#:~:text=It%20began%20in%20the%201830s,written%20in%20the%20Arabic%20script.
I wish the German would simplify their grammar as did the rest of the Germanic languages speakers.
日语的音读和训读有点烦
In ukrainian there's also vocative
I am Vietnamese 🇻🇳 What are you nationality? Are you love Vietnam ? I hope you have an idea how much you enjoy traveling in Vietnam the most in the world
I am Japanese born in the US- white but Japanese nationality
I list all pronouns here and when to use it and how to use it properly in case you guys need it or to figure out how confusing it is () 1st note: Every pronouns have to use according to your genders and genders of the person you are talking to. We have pronouns to call other people and to refer to yourself but in this note i would list all pronouns you use when speaking Vietnamese or at least Vietnamese in the North - Use Chị/Cô/Dì/Mợ/Thím/Bà (Female) - Use Anh/Thầy/Chú/Ông (Male) - Unisex pronouns: Mày, Tao, Tớ, Cậu, Bạn, Mình, Bác, Cụ, Con I. A person who is younger than you: + Cháu/Con: When that person is so much younger than, you for example you are 20 and he/she is 5 years old =>Pronouns you use to refer to yourself: 1. Chú, Cô, Dì, Thím -In case you seem to be younger or as old as his/her parents- 2. Bác -In case you are seem to be older than his parents Note: Chú/Bác - Cô/Bác/Dì/Thím can be flexible Ông, Bà - in case you are little younger/as old as/older than his/her grandfather/mother Cụ - in case you older than his grandfather/mother or as old as his/her great grandfather/mother *In reverse if you are that younger person then you have to use pronoun "Cháu/Con" to refer to yourself and all below pronouns to refer to the person you are talking to + Em/Mày (Insulting or when you are close to that person): When that person is younger than you but not too younger and you definitely can tell him/her is younger => Pronouns you use to refer to you: Anh, Chị, Tao (Insulting or only when you are very close to that person) * When you use Mày to call him/her you can use Anh/Chị/Tao to refer to you but when you use Em to call him/her you can only use Anh/Chị to refer to yourself *In reverse if you are that younger person you have to use Em to refer to yourself and use Anh/Chị to call the person you are talking to. () 2nd note: Never use Tao/Mày except when you guys are very close and that older one feel comfortable being like that. But this is really rare when that one is older than you II. A person who is in or around your age + Bạn/Cậu/Mày (same age), Anh/Chị (Not knowing if youger/as old/older and want to respect) *Note: When you use pronoun Mày to call that person you have to use pronoun Tao to refer to you, only when you guys are close => Pronouns to refer to you: 1. Tôi and call him/her Bạn 2. Em and call him/her Anh/Chị 3. Mình and call him/her Cậu 4. Tao and call him/her Mày III. In studying ( school/college/university ) + Use pronouns Thầy, Cô to call your teacher => Use Em to refer to yourself Above is the standard way to use pronouns in society in the North and enough to speak Vietnamese. Different regions comes with different pronouns, just cant know all. In family, pronouns get more confusing but basically still those pronouns, just different in way using it. Even Vietnamese got lost and sometime members in family argue how to call each other 😁
Thanks for the useful input
Learn czech and their padny vzory bullshit if you can
Confusion is clear first I'll learn Japanese and Korean together not mandarin💀
さらに日本語には「行間を読む」という日本人独特の「空気を読む」的なニュアンスを感じ取らないといけないので、日本語は勉強すればするほど難解に感じるでしょう。
The easiest language Ive learnt Italian was the easiest
As a German I have to say they have an incredible good German
You've done a real service to this language & gotten me excited about it for sure - THANK YOU kindly
I am very pleased.
Dziękuję for your inspiring videos! Every time I think of quitting to learn "po polsku", because I cannot wrap my brain around it as a German, I watch one of your videos and keep on. The start is easy, then grammar almost kills you, but once you start speaking it gets better.
"They often thought I was from poland" - *proceeds to absolutely butcher the name*...
Hello Mr. Thank you for compare and contrast the language/tone/accent in different region of vn. The Vietnamese language and vocabularies are much different before the 1975 compare to now. Nowadays a lot of nonsense/ignorant vocabularies that the communist regime added to the Vietnamese language in the last 20-30 years. Great video, yes the Vietnamese language is very difficult….. thank you
Excellent topic
Many languages are similar but come on you need to learn thousands of words it takes hundreds to thousands of hours of consuming content in the given language. Grammar is easy in these languages (compared to for example russian (extreme example) and even german languages as there are so many exceptions)
I felt sorry for learners of Japanese language by looking at this video espacially on keigo, kenjogo and sonkei go .. our language should be super annoying..
I am a native Japanese speaker and I also speak Chinese and some Korean. Between Chinese and Japanese, Chinese is much easier to learn. This is because Chinese has no verb conjugations, so you can construct sentences like arranging dominoes. On the other hand, Japanese has significant changes in word order and verb conjugations. Korean and Japanese are similar, but I think Korean is easier to study because it has fewer variations in characters.
To a native Serbian speaker, Bulgarian sounds like trying speaking Serbian without the knowledge of the grammar.
Mozambican is the best
I’m a native Polish speaker and I have never formally studied Russian. However, I watch some Russian KZreadrs and I can understand most of what is being said without subtitles. Of course sometimes there are words I have to look up but I suppose that is to be expected.
Wow, this was a very thorough analysis. As a learner of Vietnamese and a teacher of English, I appreciate how accurately you framed everything. Especially pronouns and vowels. My wife's family are from Quảng Nam in central Vietnam and it's almost like having to learn the entire IPA vowel chart to learn each dialect of Vietnamese.
Much appreciated
Now Ukrainian reality is from me. In Ukraine, more than 75% of people speak Russian in everyday life, with some insertions of Ukrainian words. This language is called Surzhik. Ukrainian is used only on TV and as a political language. 100% of Ukrainians understand Russian. Even residents of western Ukraine. Ukrainian is used in everyday life by no more than 25% of Ukrainians. Although this figure is most likely less. Recently, because of the war, people specifically speak Ukrainian, but it’s more like a flash mob that is gradually passing. Even the most notorious Ukrainian nationalists speak Russian at home. This is very funny. If you ask Ukrainians what their native language is, they will answer Ukrainian. This answer will be given even by those who have spoken only Russian all their lives. Therefore, all these Ukrainian polls mean nothing in reality. Moreover, if you find yourself among Ukrainian refugees in any country, you will be convinced that outside the cells they will also speak only Russian. Russian and Ukrainian are two branches of the Old Russian language.