Interesting question. I've studied German and Russian, now learning French, so this topic fascinates me.
I think with a character-based language like Chinese, this would be really difficult - probably close to impossible. You may recognize patters or frequencies of certain characters, but that'd be the extent of it.
However, the other languages present a unique situation: many languages (particularly Romance languages) have English-cognates, i.e., words either derived from English or from which English derived its word. When the dictionary tells you a word is Latin in origin, it usually passed through French first on its way to English. For example, we derived "Mansion" from the French word for house, "Maison." So you may start picking out cognates while PR'ng. But...there are many FALSE cognates! They look like and are pronounced like the English but mean something completely different. "Patron" in English means the customer, but in French he's the boss!
Russian presents an even more interesting challenge because it uses the cyrillic alphabet: while there are many English and French cognates in Russian, without a basic knowledge of the alphabet and sound system, you wouldn't be able to recognize them. For example, if I said the Russian word for "library" to a friend who spoke French, he or she would definitely be able to guess what it meant. However, if that same friend only saw the word, he might not be able to discern the meaning.
Written languages (alphabets, characters, and letters) generally came after the development of the spoken language. The Russian language didn't have a written form until two Greek monks, Cyril and Methodius, decided to create an alphabet for it (can't convert them to the Christianity without a written langauge!), hence all the Greek-looking letters in the Slavic languages from Serbo-Croation to Russian.
If I learned anything from my French instructors, it's that accent and pronounciation are everything! Mispronounce a word and you change its meaning. There's an added dilemma for PRing, because in many langauges two words spelled exactly the same mean two different things based not on the written word, but on pronounciation. So in Russian, the word "lyuk" can mean either "onion" or "manhole cover", depending on where you put the stress. Say "I'm writing in my book" and accent the wrong vowel in Russian and you end up saying "I'm peeing in my book."
I would thus recommend PRng a phonetic dictionary and a pronounciation guide to increase the odds of recognizing cognates and making a more direct connection between the spoken and written words.
Publius
[This message has been edited by Publius (edited October 26, 2002).]
