Any Interslavic learners out there?

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Kerajoan
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Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Kerajoan » Fri Nov 19, 2021 2:39 pm

Hi everyone!

I recently discovered Interslavic is a thing. I'm curious if anyone has attempted to learn this language so they could travel throughout the Slavic countries. I plan to travel through Europe for a couple of months sometime in the future (distant future, near future? Covid will decide) and I'm really jazzed about Interslavic.

I have some Hungarian under my belt but no Slavic languages. I feel like a good plan would be to learn Interslavic to a conversational level and then for each country learn just a couple phrases of the official language. Things like: "sorry I don't speak Czech, but I do speak Interslavic." Etc.

A similar question was posted on reddit by someone else and the response was generally negative. I'm curious if there's a different vibe here or not. I understand that there's always English as the lingua franca but...that's not as fun for me, personally. :lol:

Thoughts? Has anyone done this successfully? Especially non-Slavic speakers?

Thanks!
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einzelne
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby einzelne » Fri Nov 19, 2021 4:14 pm

Kerajoan wrote:the response was generally negative.


Well, this is from wiki: "Users 7000 (2020)"

So, yes, phrases like: "sorry I don't speak Czech, but I do speak Interslavic." will certainly 'help'.
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aaleks
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby aaleks » Fri Nov 19, 2021 4:28 pm

I doubt that many speakers of Slavic languages have ever heard about Interslavic :roll:

einzelne wrote:So, yes, phrases like: "sorry I don't speak Czech, but I do speak Interslavic." will certainly 'help'.

:lol:
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Ezra
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Ezra » Fri Nov 19, 2021 4:33 pm

Well, judging by examples in Wikipedia it is actually quite understandable. You might pose as a speaker of some unknown Slavic country :D. I'd say the problem might be not us, Slavic-language speakers, to understand you but your potential inability to understand Slavic speakers who do not Interslavic :).
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Herodotean
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Herodotean » Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:20 pm

Ezra wrote:You might pose as a speaker of some unknown Slavic country :D..


I suggest Sokovia.
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Axon
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Axon » Fri Nov 19, 2021 7:57 pm

I traveled through Russia and Poland in 2016 using very little English, instead relying on Polish-accented Russian and Russian-accented Polish. It got the job done, and I feel like as a non-Slavic speaker, Interslavic preserves too much complexity to be worth investing time in. For native speakers of a Slavic language I can see the appeal more easily.

In the amount of time it would take to learn Interslavic to a conversational level given its minimal number of resources, you could focus on learning to communicate in one well-understood Slavic language in whichever region you intend to spend the most time (like Slovak, Serbian, or Russian). At the same time, you can watch a bunch of videos and read articles in and about other Slavic languages, including Interslavic. When you do actually get to travel, you'll be way more prepared because you'll know the quirks of orthography and phonology for several different languages, plus you'll get to try out the Interslavic you picked up with the ability to fall back on a natural language if need be.
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Kerajoan
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Kerajoan » Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:13 am

Ezra wrote:Well, judging by examples in Wikipedia it is actually quite understandable. You might pose as a speaker of some unknown Slavic country :D. I'd say the problem might be not us, Slavic-language speakers, to understand you but your potential inability to understand Slavic speakers who do not Interslavic :).


This is hilarious, I love it.

Good point, I’d have to do a lot of listening for each language…
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Kerajoan
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Re: Any Interslavic learners out there?

Postby Kerajoan » Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:17 am

Axon wrote:In the amount of time it would take to learn Interslavic to a conversational level given its minimal number of resources, you could focus on learning to communicate in one well-understood Slavic language in whichever region you intend to spend the most time (like Slovak, Serbian, or Russian). At the same time, you can watch a bunch of videos and read articles in and about other Slavic languages, including Interslavic. When you do actually get to travel, you'll be way more prepared because you'll know the quirks of orthography and phonology for several different languages, plus you'll get to try out the Interslavic you picked up with the ability to fall back on a natural language if need be.


Thanks for sharing your experience! I was thinking that Russian would be an easier language to learn than Interslavic (I also have Russian friends, so that helps).

I really like the plan you’ve laid out, thanks so much!
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