Thursday, March 13, 2014

How Well Do You Recognize Foreign Languages?

The Great Language Game is fascinating! It's a multiple choice quiz: listen to a language, and try to figure out which language it is. I was quite pleased with my scores when I played it twice several weeks ago.

How well did you score? Did you find it too challenging (i.e. frustrating), or was it an interesting or fun experience?

I wish I were more multi-lingual than I am; the languages that I do speak are really only thanks to immersion a child, but somewhere deep inside of me lurks a linguist, because I love hearing different languages and trying to decipher what they are. Naturally, living in the DC area means I hear and overhear a variety of languages more frequently. Just last night I was in a children's clothing store, overhearing a couple speak in a language that I recognized as Slavic, but could not place precisely. I typically don't walk up to strangers to ask what language they are speaking, although it's something I have experienced myself many a time. One of my favorite (or least favorite) experiences in that regard took place ago many years ago in the Midwest. If I recall correctly, my mom and I were out shopping, and were asked what we were speaking. One of us responded, "Latvian," to which the questioner said, "Latin? I hear that is a difficult language!" Sigh...should we talk about the complete lack of geography education in this country?

If you do play the Great Language Game, leave a comment -- you don't need to divulge your score, just let me know what you thought of the experience!

4 comments:

  1. I'd ,ove to give this a go, but the sound isn't working on our home computer (and I can't really get away with doing it at work..). Maybe Jan will let me use his laptop?

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    1. Sorry to hear it's not working on your computer. I figure with your excellent English and German abilities, you might do quite well!

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  2. Nice quiz, I scored a miserable 350. I was pleased at identifying a couple of them though, Bulgarian vs Slovak threw me, but then I heard "da" and I know that the Slovak word for yes is "ano", also Northern Sami reminded me of the Swedish accent a little. I'm very embarrassed that I didn't get Scots gaelic, considering I have Scottish ancestry.

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    1. I'll admit that I've scored as low as 450, and my method of identifying languages has not been anywhere near as scientific as yours! The very first time I played, however, I managed a 1,050 - beginner's luck, maybe? I learned of the quiz initially from the US ambassador to Latvia's twitter feed...and he had scored a perfect score! However, considering most American diplomats have to undergo intensive language training before each new post, it isn't too surprising.

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