Like being able to read Arabic without understanding what it says

  • kittin [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    Cyrillic can be handy since there are many loan words from English / French / Greek / Latin so you can at least get a vague sense of what a document is about.

      • Gucci_Minh [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        I learned cyrillic from a single page infographic on leddit many years ago, and learned what the words actually meant by trying to navigate Russian torrent sites as well. Don’t ask me how to carry a conversation in Russian but I will instinctively click the “скачать” button.

  • electric_nan
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    19 hours ago

    Super fun! I know Devanagari (Sanskrit, Hindi, et al). I hardly know any words, but I can read it.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    Yes. If you are interested embrace that interest! Do things with your brain! I learned Greek as a kid and Cyrillic got a whole lot easier later on because of it.

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    Marginally. If you want to go from seeing it as “foreign text” to “it makes this sound”.

    If you get a kick out of being able to identify a word here and there, or to read a map, or maybe even a label, it might be worth it.

    If you’re curious enough to learn it, it won’t stop there. For Arabic, a little bit of good instruction will allow you to parse a little bit of the syntax of a phrase or sentence, the tense or other inflections, and some prepositions.

  • Nacarbac [any]@hexbear.net
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    Well, it isn’t an actual language (and thus is very easy to do), but it’s been useful to learn Elian script (just an alternate way of writing the alphabet) so I can write random ideas at work without anyone being able to read them… they must never see my stupid notes…

  • PointAndClique [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    Yes. It’s a precursor to learning the language, and for those that share cognates with, or have loanwords from English you’ll be able to recognise some common words

  • leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl
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    1 day ago

    i think about archaeologists, or somewhat similar expertise with this. or in a more relatable vein, people who know their fave actor/actress/singer/entertainer’s fave food, clothing or restaurant.

    generally you don’t need, to but if you have the passion, definitely go for it.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    I guess maybe if you want to learn how to pronounce names and words correctly?

    But like, learning the alphabet requires learning at least some of the language.