[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn2Uhq1wP6c&feature=player_embedded#!]
Interesting multilingual interview with an Italian guy who is some sort of a polyglot.
The interview is conducted in nine different widely spoken European languages. Every language is the official language of a significant and famous European country with a long history. All groups are significantly represented in US ethnics, and most have a history of colonialism.
Four are Germanic languages.
Four are Romance languages.
One is a Slavic language.
I can’t even figure them all out myself, but I think I got 8 out of 10. Write answers in comments.
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1. English
2. Italian
3. French
4. German
5. Spanish
6. Dutch
7. Swedish
8. Portuguese
9. Russian
Dear Robert
In the right order, this guy spoke English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese and Russsian. I’m not sure about Russian, but I’m sure about the others.
Cheers. James
You must be correct.
I confused the Portuguese for Russian! Isn’t that strange? A lot of people say that Portuguese sounds Slavic. I’m not the first one.
You confused Portuguese for Dutch. I don’t know how. Are you sure you didn’t just write it the wrong way around? But yeah, I used to think Portuguese sounded like Russian.
I guessed:
1. English
2. Italian
3. French
4. German– Swedish or Norweigan?
5. Spanish, maybe Portuguese
6. Dutch
7. Swedish or Norwegian? Dutch?
8. Portuguese
9. Russian
Nine is definitely Russian, though he speaks with a poor accent. I wonder why his English sounds perfect but his Russian accent is fairly poor. Nonetheless you can tell he certainly understands Russian quite well even if his pronunciation is a bit off.
Americans who live or who grew up in cities that are more cosmopolitan will do better than those who live in less diverse places.
In no particular order:
1. French
2. Spanish
3. Dutch
4. German(this was the easiest for me to recognize behind Spanish)
5. Russian
6. English
7. Italian
8. Portuguese
If he wants to work on his accent, he will probably need to move. Immersion works best.
thanks for the blogroll add Robert ð
This is what I got:
1. English
2. Italian
3. French
4. German
5. Spanish
6. Unidentified Germanic language (I would have got that if he was a native speaker. Listening again I can tell.)
7. Unidentified Germanic language
8. Portuguese
9. Polish
It must be fun to be him. Is he really Italian? When he speaks English, he doesn’t sound Italian at all to me.
1. English
2. Italian
3. French
4. German
5. Spanish
6. Dutch
7. Swedish
8. Portugese
9. Russian
His German was hard to understand due to his accent, but his Swedish was quite easy for me to understand. ð
I got the same nine that Robert lists in the first comment. Lots of people, when they hear European Portuguese for the first time (but not necessarily the Brazilian variant) think they’re hearing something Slavic. It’s all the -sh and -oo- sounds and the guttural r, I think.
LIke most of the others, I found it relatively easy to identify the first few;
1. English
2. Italian
3. French
4. German
5. Spanish
6. Dutch
7. Swedish
8. I’ll be honest – I certainly did not catch that this was Portuguese. I’ve heard Brazilian Portuguese a number of times, and thought they were similar – but apparently not.
9. Russian. I guessed here, simply because it’s the largest Slavic language spoken in Europe. Beyond that I’m not very good at identifying different Slavic languages.