This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan

Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by dsrguru on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @01:30AM (#6759617)

As with the Arabic and Chinese language families, different varieties of Romance languages are similar enough in syntax and vocabulary that speakers can kind of make themselves understood to each other if they speak slowly and choose their words carefully. Same with lots of closely related languages, e.g. German and Dutch. But they're not nearly mutually intelligible to the degree that American English and most varieties of British English are or that Hindi and Urdu are.

Regarding the Spanish/Italian example, the father of a friend of mine was fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Using an Italian grammar guide and his knowledge of Romance vocabulary from the other three languages, he learned Italian in a single flight from the US to Italy to the point where he was able to conduct business in Italy immediately upon landing.

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by mcv on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @03:34AM (#6759910)

I'm Dutch, and people from the east of Netherland don't understand why I don't understand German, claiming the languages are so similar. But I have real trouble understanding German. Maybe when it's someone from the north-west of Germany who speaks very slowly and clearly. People from the east of Netherland have much less trouble, somehow.

(I'm utterly unable to understand people from the Dutch province of Zeeland when they're speaking to their parents. That's complete gibberish to me, though it doesn't have a special status as a local language, as far as I know. (unlike Nethersaxon, for example))

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by srd on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @05:50AM (#6760346)

When you have trouble understanding germans, are they speaking Hochdeutsch or Platt? I'm curious if Platt is more closely related to Dutch than Hochdeutsch or not.

As a german, I always have problems understanding other germans when they speak english, so there's always that ;).

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by wakeless on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @10:26AM (#6761727)

I'm from Australia and I can't understand from the Australian province New Zealand.

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by vorg on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @04:00PM (#6764426)

"Australia's gotta become one country first."

The reply from former NZ Prime Minister Rob Muldoon when asked if NZ would ever become part of Australia.

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by Nux on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @02:43AM (#6759792)

I'm Romanian, as a kid in a few months I became fluent in Italian just from watching their TV channels, no dictionary involved. It was a mass phenomenon at the time since their TV channels were quite popular on cable.

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by twic on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @09:27AM (#6761317)

It's exactly the same with English and American.

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Re:This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and... by Nux on Tuesday November 19, 2013 @10:11AM (#6761619)

lol

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