which is the language that you learn most easily as slovak native spakers?

Question

megichichi · Answer

Czech 
We used to be one state not that long ago 
And we kept czech tv programmes

Slovak kids usually grow up on czech cartoons so it is like 2nd mother tongue

(i dont know any grammar though)

megichichi · Answer

I never tried to learn any of those 
But knowing Slovak first helps

I think Polish could be tricky because there are many words that exist in both languages but have completely different meaning

And i can pretty much understand Croatian and Serbian (as native Slovak speaker)

megichichi · Answer

@carlades Slovak is beautiful language but it is not easy

I think it is for the best to learn one language first and than learn the other

megichichi · Answer

@juro 
Mali by sme si to začať dávať do životopisov 
Languages: 
Slovak (+Czech)
...

megichichi · Answer

The most poppular slovak youtuber - Gogo
https://www.youtube.com/user/GoGoManTV

Slážo
https://www.youtube.com/user/menameselassie

Both have a 2nd vlog channel

megichichi · Answer

@juro som na strednej a pozerám ich videá...

Nie všetky, ale napr. vlogy majú dobré a na ochutnávkach sa pravidelne rehocem

Ak chce pozerať babu nech ju pozerá, ale nech si vyberie sám

megichichi · Answer

https://youtu.be/KfW5exVsU-k
@juro 
100 ľudí 100 chutí

megiii.zakova 
Klasika gmail (ale nemam teraz pravidelne cas/pristup na wifi tak neodpisem asi hned)

juro · Answer

Definitely Czech. But we don't really learn it, thanks to lot of Czech TV programs and magazines. It's expected that every Slovak can understand Czech, so nobody even include it into their CVs. It's common that some recommended studying materials at universities are available only in Czech. We don't even notice that, but I heard foreigners (which only could understand Slovak) complaining about it.

Back to your question: I think after Czech the second would be Polish. It's close to Slovak and Czech, so usually I get the meaning when somebody is speaking.

On the contrary to megichichi, I can't understand Serbian nor Croatian.
And Slovene is toootaly different. Few words are exactly the same, but rest is totaly different.
Fun example: "slovenské železnice" means "Slovak railways" in Slovak, whereas the same phrase in Slovene means "Slovene railways".
Yesterday I watch one video in Slovene (because it was from the channel that I'm subscribed for) and at first I tried to understand as much as I could without reading the English subtitles. Result: I barely understood something - and after reading the subtitles it turns out, I was wrong many times.
But when I watched it while reading subtitles, I was like: "Oh yeah, this sounds similar to our dialect... and this one too!"
We have saying in Slovak: "Everyone is general, when a war is over" :D

juro · Answer

@carlades It's generally not recommended to learn two languages at once. Especially when they are similar.
Of course I would recommend you to learn Slovak! :P 
Ok, apart from that's my mother tongue, here are 3 reasons why to pick Slovak over Slovene:
1) Slovakia has about 5,4 mil. citizens, whereas Slovenia has only about 2 milions. So you can speak to more people, when you learn Slovak ;)
2) Slovakia lies in the middle of "slavic region", so it's said when knowing Slovak you can understand the same (little) amount from any other slavic language. I don't know, how much is it true, but there could be something about it.
3) Slovene grammar is more complicated than Slovak one. For example in addition to singular and plural they have special form when you talk exactly to/about two people. Here is a nice example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkkW7cauPE

juro · Answer

@megichichi tuna ta s tym kazdy vysmeje. Asi ako ked posielas zivotopis na nejaku programatorsku poziciu a medzi schopnostami uvedies "word, excel, mail - pokrocily". V tej chvili si jasna :D Ale na cudzincov to robi dojem ;)
Nedavno tu bola taka akcia, kde mal kazdy na svojej menovke nalepene vlajocky jazykov, ktorymi hovori. Vravel som si: nebudem trapny, nedam si tam cestinu..
Ale buduci rok si ju tam uz nalepim :D Kamaratka si ju tam dala a hned ta menovka bola pestrejsia :P

juro · Answer

It's the same sentence only in English ;)
I can't speak loud when I'm alone. I know, it's huge disadvantage in language learning :( But there are lot of Slovak youtubers, so it won't be hard to find some sample.
Usually foreigners speak English. But those who speak Slovak speak well. It's all about practising - as with other languages. When you practise the language, you will speak it!

juro · Answer

I don't watch them, but this is what I found now:
https://youtu.be/MYhtLSG4oJo
She has nice voice :)

juro · Answer

@megichichi that's exactly what I didn't want to pick as a sample :D

A pre chalana je zaujimavejsie skor sledovat nejaku kocku ako chalana, co robi videa pre zakladoskolakov ;)

juro · Answer

@megichichi on z toho obsahu asi vela nepoberie. Cisto slo len o to, aby sa to dobre pocuvalo. No offense ;)

Ja som si od selassieho pozrel par videi, ale nezaujalo ma to az tak, aby som to odoberal.
Ale ked vravis, ze ochutnavky su dobre, tak daj nejaky tip, pozriem si.
Mozeme to pripadne doriesit aj niekde pomimo, nech ho tu chudaka nespamujeme :D

juro · Answer

@shizonek Where did you read that? I'm interested in that.
Many people think that Slovak and Czech are almost the same languages. But I think actually it's because we (at least Slovaks) have daily contact with each other's language through television and internet and the actual difference is similar to that between Slovak and Polish. This proves when a foreigner learns one of the two languages, they have difficulties to understand the other one.

Polish language sounds for Slovaks equally funny. Some Polish words sounds like a Slovak dialect (or colloquial speach) and your language sounds too soft. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-fcrn1Edik

juro · Answer

@shizonek I know it's only a tongue twister. It was just for illustration.
I don't know how to describe it in English, but yes, I meant that sz, cz, rz and other sounds like these. From our point of view, you have A LOT of them everywhere.
Slovaks say some of the hardest Slovak words for foreigners to learn are čučoriedie, zmrzlina, štvrtok and some other strange words. But recently I was asking my friend from Burundi, where in Bratislava is he working. The address was Ovsišťské námestie (Ovsište square in English). That's a real tongue twister! Even we have to pay attention to pronounce it :D

Yes, there are a lot of false friends here: fore example word "podobá" in Polish means "to like" (if I'm right) whereas in Slovak it's "to look similar".
I watch youtube channel Billie Sparrow. Sometimes I think I understand a word, but then I realize it has a different meaning in Polish.

That think about "Slavic Esperanto": I understand it in the way that Slovak speaker can equally well understand other Slavic languages, because it's "something in the middle".

bghts · Answer

English

shizonek · Answer

I heard Slovak is the most similar language to Polish (which is my native language:) . I've started learning Slovak recently. Sometimes it is weird or even funny how we have similar words but their meaning is opposite. ;) I noticed Slovaks have many words which sounds for me as kind of "ancient/historical Polish". I'm curious if it works similar for Slovaks too.

shizonek · Answer

@juro This scene you linked comes from well known classic comedy in Poland. It is kind of tongue twister, no wonder it sounds funny - even for us. :)
Polish sounds soft for you? And here I was thinking that everybody thinks Polish has hard, weird „crispy” sounds like sz, cz, rz, ż and so on. ;) But you’re right, nothing can beat Slovak words consisting of only consonants. :)) It’s so hard to pronounce them correctly (How do you do it? It’s like having superpower. ;), but I like it anyway. 
Some Slovak words sounds for us like diminutives - I think that could be a reason why Polish may think it’s funny (probably this refers also to Czech, maybe even more).  

I don’t remember where exactly I read about similarities between Polish and Slovak. I guess this information is generally well known, since our languages are both West Slavic. I looked for some info and found out that Slovak and Ukrainian are the easiest ones for Polish to learn. I’m not so sure about the latter, but I can agree with Slovak. I can understand most of the Slovak basic texts or at least guess its general meaning. Of course it’s better to be careful with single words without context, they could be tricky. ;)

....
OK, I found a website about European languages (sorry, it’s in Polish) http://www.okiemmiszy.pl/2017/04/wzajemna-zrozumialosc-jezykow/ I haven’t seen it before, but it contains similar information I found elsewhere. You can find here statistics how well Polish understand other Slavic languages. It's 41% for Slovak, 37% Ukrainian, 36% Czech (for spoken intelligibility; for written one the number is higher).
Another one link (in English this time): https://www.academia.edu/4080349/Mutual_Intelligibility_of_Languages_in_the_Slavic_Family 
I just remembered that someone said Slovak is „Slavic esperanto”, because it is the most understandable language for Slavic speakers. I don’t know if it’s true, but found this interesting.

which is the language that you learn most easily as slovak native spakers? See a translation

Czech We used to be one state not that long ago And we kept czech tv programmes Slovak kids usually grow up on czech cartoons so it is like 2nd mother tongue (i dont know any grammar though)

I never tried to learn any of those But knowing Slovak first helps I think Polish could be tricky because there are many words that exist in both languages but have completely different meaning And i can pretty much understand Croatian and Serbian (as native Slovak speaker)

@carlades Slovak is beautiful language but it is not easy I think it is for the best to learn one language first and than learn the other

@juro Mali by sme si to začať dávať do životopisov Languages: Slovak (+Czech)...

The most poppular slovak youtuber - Gogohttps://www.youtube.com/user/GoGoManTV Slážohttps://www.youtube.com/user/menameselassie Both have a 2nd vlog channel

@megichichi that's exactly what I didn't want to pick as a sample :DA pre chalana je zaujimavejsie skor sledovat nejaku kocku ako chalana, co robi videa pre zakladoskolakov ;)

@juro som na strednej a pozerám ich videá... Nie všetky, ale napr. vlogy majú dobré a na ochutnávkach sa pravidelne rehocem Ak chce pozerať babu nech ju pozerá, ale nech si vyberie sám

https://youtu.be/KfW5exVsU-k@juro 100 ľudí 100 chutí megiii.zakova Klasika gmail (ale nemam teraz pravidelne cas/pristup na wifi tak neodpisem asi hned)

English

which is the language that you learn most easily as slovak native spakers?

Czech
We used to be one state not that long ago
And we kept czech tv programmes

Slovak kids usually grow up on czech cartoons so it is like 2nd mother tongue

(i dont know any grammar though)

I never tried to learn any of those
But knowing Slovak first helps

I think Polish could be tricky because there are many words that exist in both languages but have completely different meaning

And i can pretty much understand Croatian and Serbian (as native Slovak speaker)

@carlades Slovak is beautiful language but it is not easy

I think it is for the best to learn one language first and than learn the other

@juro
Mali by sme si to začať dávať do životopisov
Languages:
Slovak (+Czech)
...

The most poppular slovak youtuber - Gogo
https://www.youtube.com/user/GoGoManTV

Slážo
https://www.youtube.com/user/menameselassie

Both have a 2nd vlog channel

@megichichi that's exactly what I didn't want to pick as a sample :D

A pre chalana je zaujimavejsie skor sledovat nejaku kocku ako chalana, co robi videa pre zakladoskolakov ;)

@juro som na strednej a pozerám ich videá...

Nie všetky, ale napr. vlogy majú dobré a na ochutnávkach sa pravidelne rehocem

Ak chce pozerať babu nech ju pozerá, ale nech si vyberie sám

https://youtu.be/KfW5exVsU-k
@juro
100 ľudí 100 chutí

megiii.zakova
Klasika gmail (ale nemam teraz pravidelne cas/pristup na wifi tak neodpisem asi hned)