Learning A New Language

[Meatplow]

Now, for some reason I want to get fluent in different languages.

How many languages do you speak? How did you learn them? For what purpose did you learn them? How do you rate them alongside one another?

[Iskandar]

I have studied a few.

You can learn them on your own but you won't get far without native speakers to help you.

I think it's a great idea to learn at least one. It's a marketable skill that will most likely come in handy during your lifetime.

[Jamais_Vu]

I took German for two years...got a C. I'm taking Italian nw and I suck at it. I'm really bad at trying to learn a new language.

[Iskandar]

Italian is easy. But why would you study it?

[Jamais_Vu]

I'm required to take a language at my college since I didn't get 3 full years of one during highschool.

[the2stranger]

I speak dutch (mother tongue), german, english, and french.

[sweboy]

mathematics is the best language to learn

[Iskandar]

I'm required to take a language at my college since I didn't get 3 full years of one during highschool.Couldn't you have picked a better one than Italian?

[Jamais_Vu]

I dunno, I'm half Italian so I thought I'd give it a try. It doesn't matter what language it is (except English), I still won't be any good at it. I'm terrible at trying to learn the rules for verbs and when to change the ending.

[Iskandar]

Anyone can learn a language if they're exposed to it enough.

I think the real problem is your mindset.

[Already_Taken]

i speak english, spanish, and music. :p

i've learned spanish at my job as a cook, all the guys i work with are mexicans so it's kind of a necessity for me, although i really enjoy it. mi nombre nuevo es pablo. haha

[SgtPrimus]

I wanna learn Portuguese so I can visit Brazil.

[Black Ink]

Italian is easy. But why would you study it?

You answered you're own question with your first statement. And to sweet talk ladies of course. I took it 3 years in high school and another year in college and I barely remember any of it now though.

Poish was technically my first language but my grammar isn't too great these days.

[Crapdragoon]

mexican amercians take spanish and get a b

[Already_Taken]

the guys i work with are straight mexican.

they can say "how you say", "hello" "bye" "how are you" "whats up". etc..

[ridethelib]

i'm studying spanish on rosetta stone right now

then i want to learn french

and if i succeed in that i wanna learn something that i probably wouldn't use but would still be cool like arabic or farsi

[bebubly]

What languages do you want to learn Meatplow??

I studied French from the age of 2 to the age of 16 and got an A* in it at GCSE but I can't actually speak it.
I got an A in Latin at GCSE.
I studied German at GCSE too and got an A*, then I didn't do it for A level but this year (my second year of uni) I have picked it up again and do it as an elective.
I also have a level 1 British Sign Language qualification.

I really think that the best way to learn a language properly is to go and live in the country for a while. I think I might do that with maybe German, or perhaps Japanese one day. I would love to learn Japanese.

[Iskandar]

I wanna learn Portuguese so I can visit Brazil.What's so great about Brazil?

[Fuqueue]

I hear the slums are gorgeous this time of year.

[Already_Taken]

the women's asses

[I Am a Hat]

im learning mandarin cause im gonna teach english in taiwan

[semi]

i did german in school and was great at it but tried to learn some swedish on my own for a couple of years and gave up really because it was too hard without a teacher or class

[Already_Taken]

the best way to learn is by being around a bunch of people who speak the language you want to learn. it's hard to force yourself to learn verbs and nouns and stuff on your own.

[Gattsu347]

puedo hablar espanol un poco. yo vi en california, tan es bueno porque las Mexicanas.

[Iskandar]

i did german in school and was great at it but tried to learn some swedish on my own for a couple of years and gave up really because it was too hard without a teacher or classModerator semi Swedish is just German but easier.

[semi]

so?

[Iskandar]

So why would you find it difficult!

[SgtPrimus]

What's so great about Brazil?

Seems nice

[semi]

So why would you find it difficult!the post right there says that i did german at school with a teacher and class but that swedish was difficult because i had no teacher or class
i didnt say that swedish is a difficult language or harder than german but thats not the only factor in learning is it

[Already_Taken]

puedo hablar espanol un poco. yo vi en california, tan es bueno porque las Mexicanas.

vivo***

teehee, pero tu espanol es muy bien. bien trabaja compadre!

[Iskandar]

But if you studied German and did well, you should be able to learn a similar language with a simpler grammar even on your own. Teachers and classes help but ultimately only you can teach yourself a language.

[Gattsu347]

vivo***

teehee, pero tu espanol es muy bien. bien trabaja compadre!

jaja yo chupa mucha. yo uso las palabras malas solemente porque yo trabajo en construccion :lol:

spanglish is where it's at.

chupa mi verga you **** pirate.


porque tu sabes la idioma?

[semi]

im dumb then

[Iskandar]

No, you just lacked the commitment.

[Already_Taken]

jaja yo chupa mucha. yo uso las palabras malas solemente porque yo trabajo en construccion :lol:

spanglish is where it's at.

chupa mi verga you **** pirate.


porque tu sabes la idioma?

rofl. pinche way. (i don't know how to spell either of those words)

yo trabajo en la cocina en tejas, tan por eso hablo espanol. yo aprendo poquito mas todos los dias. :)

[semi]

is that so

[Already_Taken]

even the dumbest people in the world can learn multiple languages. seriously it's just about exposure..

[Iskandar]

If you don't encounter it normally, you have to create exposure. Befriend native speakers. Talk to people on MSN and Skype. Read websites and books in the target language.

[Already_Taken]

learn to read and write the language first, if you didn't know that..

[semi]

im already bilingual and yah from exposure at home to both since birth

and i tried a bunch of websites and programs and things and bought a few books and watched a ton of films so i can get the gist usually and know some words but thats probably as far as im going to get alone

i sure wish i had a swedish friend to talk to on msn
sweboy or fatpete will you be my friend

[Iskandar]

I wish I'd been raised bilingual. The best time to learn a language is as a young child.

[Black Ink]

learn to read and write the language first, if you didn't know that..

I've spoken Polish since I started talking but I have no idea how to write in Polish. I can read abit.

[Gattsu347]

rofl. pinche way. (i don't know how to spell either of those words)

yo trabajo en la cocina en tejas, tan por eso hablo espanol. yo aprendo poquito mas todos los dias. :)

i was in a sushi resaurant the other day. and yes, the cook was straight up mexican.

[Already_Taken]

I've spoken Polish since I started talking but I have no idea how to write in Polish. I can read abit.

don't they use a pretty similar alphabet to english?

i meant if you're starting from scratch, you should learn to read and write it because you can do that on your own time, and it's a good way to build your vocabulary.

[Iskandar]

Polish uses the Latin alphabet (the one English uses) but with lots of weird accents and letter combinations. Still it's not hard to learn to read and write with it. The spelling is very regular.

Just curious, why hasn't anyone taught you to write if you know how to speak? Isn't that sort of a big discrepancy?

[Black Ink]

Polish uses the Latin alphabet (the one English uses) but with lots of weird accents and letter combinations. Still it's not hard to learn to read and write with it. The spelling is very regular.

Just curious, why hasn't anyone taught you to write if you know how to speak? Isn't that sort of a big discrepancy?

I grew up speaking it because my parents are from Poland and we speak it at home. They focused on teaching me English though when I was younger before I went to school and once I went to school I guess they just wanted me to focus on that. My grandma once tried to teach me when I was like in the 5th grade but back then I didn't want two sets of homework so since then I haven't really gotten around to it.

Uppercase A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż
Lowercase a ą b c ć d e ę f g h i j k l ł m n ń o ó p r s ś t u w y z ź ż

There are also 7 digraphs (ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz).

[Iskandar]

Yes, but why not teach you to write at the same time?

My heritage is Polish too and I've thought about learning some of that ****. My dad got me a phrasebook and I can pronounce things correctly and know some words. The last fluent speaker in my family was my grandfather, though.

[rasputin]

I'm sort of the same as Black Ink, I've always been fluent in speaking Turkish and I can read it, but for a long time I really couldn't write. When I did, the spelling and such were completely off. I've rectified this over the past year or so (it wasn't that hard), but when you're raised speaking it and not using it as a written language, it's very easy to get disconnected from it in a written form.

[Meatplow]

What languages do you want to learn Meatplow??

I studied French from the age of 2 to the age of 16 and got an A* in it at GCSE but I can't actually speak it.
I got an A in Latin at GCSE.
I studied German at GCSE too and got an A*, then I didn't do it for A level but this year (my second year of uni) I have picked it up again and do it as an elective.
I also have a level 1 British Sign Language qualification.

I really think that the best way to learn a language properly is to go and live in the country for a while. I think I might do that with maybe German, or perhaps Japanese one day. I would love to learn Japanese.

I downloaded that Rosetta Stone program and i'm fiddling around with French at the moment, it's fun :p

Un garcon

[Chu]

mathematics is the best language to learn
I love you just for saying that.

[Cesar21]

Spanish (mother language), English, very little Italian. If I read something in Italian I can probably tell you what it was about, and I'm able to speak a few phrases if I need too.

I can write in both the Latin alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet, although I never learned the accents and a couple of characters. I've also forgotten some because of lack of use.

[Pop music sucks]

I took 4 (technically 5) years of French. I also took half a year of Japanese but then we had to move elsewhere.

French is gradually slipping away.

[Already_Taken]

omlee du fermage - omelet with cheese

[Cesar21]

If you want to retain the language you should find a French forum of a topic of your interest and go there to practice, also good to find someone in IM or messenger that you can chat with and practice the language.

It is a real shame when one learns something like a language and it goes away for lack of use.

[Meatplow]

Où sont les toilettes?

[Iskandar]

omlee du fermage - omelet with cheeseOmelette au fromage is more like it.

[The_Mop]

I took french for GCSE (English high school exam, taken at 16) and got a B. Dunno how because I absolutely sucked at it, but I went to france a bunch of times and now I know a fair bit more french than I'd need to get by. I gotta say, there's nothing really that can match being entirely surrounded by a different language in terms of learning, it really helps.

That said, basically I've only really learnt how to read and listen. I can't speak french for toffee. So I'm essentially a french mute.

La toilette? Oui, c'est sur ton visage :P

[horseypie]

jai une faim de loup
a cote de a rue

[Iskandar]

That describes me too sort of. I can read French pretty well and can write a bit but struggle to say anything beyond small talk.

I blame our teaching methods which stress passive understanding - the teacher says stuff to you, you read stuff but you don't practice conversing.

[Mr. Ron]

You all know your fancy-schmancy languages....but do any of you know....the language of love?

[The_Mop]

You all know your fancy-schmancy languages....but do any of you know....the language of love?

Errr, I know a little C++....

[Iskandar]

I thought that was Italian or maybe French.

I hate Italy but France is okay. So is Québec. Plus I was taught French in elementary school. So frogs all the way.

[horseypie]

but thats french :/

edit: @ ron

[Already_Taken]

i thought it was italian, i like hearing italian

[Pop music sucks]

There's something about either French or Italian is that even with a mediocre looking chick, she'll become hot with that accent.

[Shadows Within]

I was learning German for a bit and I wasn't doing bad but I lost interest after a while, it really wierd because i really like languages and would probably be able to learn a few if i had more motivation, pronunciation comes very easily to me.

[asdf]

I took Latin for 3 years in high school and remember almost none of it, and am now going to take american sign language. Learning a foreign language doesn't really work for me.

[Chu]

Errr, I know a little C++....
Wait, wouldn't the language of love be at least assembly?

We're going low level man.

[Pop music sucks]

I took Latin for 3 years in high school and remember almost none of it, and am now going to take american sign language. Learning a foreign language doesn't really work for me.La ciel, pleurez-vous. La mer, avec les larmes de la ciel, pleurez-vous. Bon nuit, petite fille.

Bon nuit.

I beleive that's at least partially correct in syntax?

[here comes the bird flu]

languages i will learn in the next few years
german
french
latin
spanish

i am interested in linguistics and the liek

[Black Ink]

I'm sort of the same as Black Ink, I've always been fluent in speaking Turkish and I can read it, but for a long time I really couldn't write. When I did, the spelling and such were completely off. I've rectified this over the past year or so (it wasn't that hard), but when you're raised speaking it and not using it as a written language, it's very easy to get disconnected from it in a written form.

Yeah I may try to learn it. Especially if I might go back to Poland in the next year or so, but we'll see.

[Iskandar]

La ciel, pleurez-vous. La mer, avec les larmes de la ciel, pleurez-vous. Bon nuit, petite fille.

Bon nuit.

I beleive that's at least partially correct in syntax?Yeah.

What are you trying to say? It looks like: the sky, you cry. The sea, with the tears of the sky, you cry. Good night, little girl. Good night.
languages i will learn in the next few years
german
french
latin
spanish

i am interested in linguistics and the liekThat's a pretty vanilla assortment of languages for somebody who's interested in linguistics. js.

[Chu]

Hey, I'm interested in linguistics and have no intention of learning a language other than English.

[Pop music sucks]

Yeah.

What are you trying to say? It looks like: the sky, you cry. The sea, with the tears of the sky, you cry. Good night, little girl. Good night.If I remember right, putting the conjugation at the end causes it to be something else. Pleurez-vous could read as "it cries for you". Vous being the informal "you", the "not as personal as tu, but used for someone you vaguely know"

[Shadows Within]

I think im going to try learning one again this year, i think it's going to be a less practical one though rather than Spanish, French etc. I was thinking one of the Scandinavian languages or possible Hungarian.

probably try Rosetta Stone for it too, i've heard it works well.

[TimJim]

I speak:
Spanish
and because of that can read italian portugese and french
some russian
lots of finnish
some norwegian and swedish
english
and some welsh
I think im going to try learning one again this year, i think it's going to be a less practical one though rather than Spanish, French etc. I was thinking one of the Scandinavian languages or possible Hungarian.

probably try Rosetta Stone for it too, i've heard it works well.
if youre gonna learn hungarian than learn finnish since they both have the same grammar structure but hungarian is all like ábòbth q'eèç while finnish is all like Hei mitä kuuluu

[grapedrank]

i speak english

[Pop music sucks]

I speak:
Spanish
and because of that can read italian portugese and frenchNot really surprising considering many European languages are derived from Latin:p

[TimJim]

Not really surprising considering many European languages are derived from Latin:pfrench is the hardest one and romanian and latin are pretty easy.

romanian has alot of Russian derivatives in it though

[Pop music sucks]

Conjugation and syntax are respective bitches in French:(

[Smokey D]

I can still read French pretty well though my vocab is pretty rudimentary. With a dictionary and a lot of work I could probably read a teen level book, but that would hurt my brain. Might consider doing that in the summer holidays. My active skills are rapidly dimminishing, which is sad.

Also, Iskander has a silly attitude towards languages. Once you're over a certain age, no language is easy to learn. Some might be relatively easier than others but learning languages in a non-immersion environment requires consistent hard work and a desire to engage in it.

[Chu]

Hey smokey, you pretty much just described education in general :smash:

[Tillius]

I'd like to learn French. I don't know why but it's always interested me. Even though it seems almost a necessity these days I really have no desire to learn Spanish.

[Jay Link]

I speak fluent Spanish. Fractured Greek, learning Russian and Portuegese.
I can barely speak English..lol

[FattyKnee]

tri- lingual bitch. english, japanese, french

[Iskandar]

Also, Iskandar has a silly attitude towards languages. Once you're over a certain age, no language is easy to learn. Some might be relatively easier than others but learning languages in a non-immersion environment requires consistent hard work and a desire to engage in it.Not really. Easy is a relative thing. Learning French might take a while and a good amount of effort, but compared to Chinese it's nothing. Bearing in mind that every language is hard to some degree, we can say "X language is easy" when it's more intuitive to English speakers (or whatever your native language) than wildly different languages like Arabic and Korean.

I admit I am biased because I've been exposed to French since the first grade and I have an interest in languages to begin with, so I am understating its difficulty to most people. Still, the critical period is something like ages 2-5, and I never heard any language but English during that time.
Hey, I'm interested in linguistics and have no intention of learning a language other than English.What's the point in learning the theory if you're not going to put it into practice though? That'd be like mastering Perl, C++ and Python without touching a computer.

A basic knowledge of linguistics goes a long way in learning a language, even basic stuff like phonology and morphology.

[SilentAlarm]

Dutch
english ( i do my best to write it as well ;) )
French
West-vloams
.. :)

Edit:

The basic's of C++, C, java, php, html, CSS,..

[Black Ink]

I dunno where you guys have money for Rosetta stone for casually learning a language when its like $250+ per lesson.

[Mr. Ron]

Languages are wicked gay

[wartomods]

Languages are evil

[Mr. Ron]

evil is wicked gay

[wartomods]

fact: English people cant accent spanish

[Mr. Ron]

but thats french :/

edit: @ ron
I've always thought french sounded ugly

[wartomods]

vivo***

teehee, pero tu espanol es muy bueno. buen trabajo compadre!

yayay

[wartomods]

Conjugation and syntax are respective bitches in French:(

well they arent, just like portuguese or spanish

[TimJim]

I dunno where you guys have money for Rosetta stone for casually learning a language when its like $250+ per lesson.piratebay

fact: English people cant accent spanish
i can :)

[TimJim]

I speak:
Spanish
and because of that can read italian portugese and french
some russian
lots of finnish
some norwegian and swedish
english
and some welsh

if youre gonna learn hungarian than learn finnish since they both have the same grammar structure but hungarian is all like ábòbth q'eèç while finnish is all like Hei mitä kuuluubtw i forgot to mention that hungarian and finnish are related

[Fuqueue]

yeah they're both ugly as all hell.

[TimJim]

not rlly

finnish is very pretty. hungarian isnt as much

[Fuqueue]

I was talking about their faces.

If any of them were hot there'd probably be Hungarian mail-order brides. And you never see videos of "two hot Finnish babes getting all girly on each other"..

just saying..

[TimJim]

I was talking about their faces.

If any of them were hot there'd probably be Hungarian mail-order brides. And you never see videos of "two hot Finnish babes getting all girly on each other"..

just saying..oh

well a few of my hungarian friends are babes but idk about finns...ive only have seen finn-muts

[sweboy]

perkelle vittu

[TimJim]

te rakastatte kissimirriä, älkää tehkö teitä?

[sweboy]

"kissimirriä" is like the most ****ed up word ever

[TimJim]

not really

its better than "vittu"

[Chu]

What's the point in learning the theory if you're not going to put it into practice though? That'd be like mastering Perl, C++ and Python without touching a computer.

A basic knowledge of linguistics goes a long way in learning a language, even basic stuff like phonology and morphology.
My interest is in programming language design :)

I am very much into Languages and Grammar, from a mathematical point of view (Formal Languages) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_grammar

This is more the syntactic view of languages, but the semantics of a language is fascinating (and is where linguistics comes into play more than mathematics).

[LostChild]

When I was nine I wanted to learn Perl so so so much more than I wanted to interact with females.

[Chu]

Not a bad choice.

Of course considering the context C would have been better.

[LostChild]

Well I wanted to make like interactive Computer Gateway Interface type things. I used to salivate over that type of bullshit when I was young.

The thought of MySQL used to get me hard too.

[Chu]

Hah, replace MySQL with functional programming, and you have me at 23.

I don't really know what I want to do in CS though, I just want to be in this field.

[Reaganista]

hay **** you

ps bring back neg rep

[Meatplow]

i wanna get an msn cam friend I can talk to in french

dirty

[lak89]

I speak English, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese

Basically I lived in Hong Kong for my whole life, I studied at an international school so I was required to learn English and Mandarin Chinese. I mainly speak English but my dad drills my mandarin at home so now they're equally proficient. Although I've been in Hong Kong all my life I still speak Cantonese with a slight accent simply because I have not used it as much although I can understand it perfectly.

[LostChild]

I want to learn German but I don't know if I'm dedicated enough

Come to think of it its been a year since I last tried, now would be the perfect time

[nedchambers]

i study french and german at university. love french, german sucks a bit though. the grammar is ridiculous and it's the only language i can think of where saying "i love you" sounds more like roasting a dog over an open fire than anything romantic. learnt dutch from scratch in my first year, thank god i decided to give that one up.

[Meatplow]

I want to learn German but I don't know if I'm dedicated enough

Come to think of it its been a year since I last tried, now would be the perfect time

if you just pick up that thing where you sound really condescending and evil speaking english as if it's language wasn't worthy of your tongue you'll be doing fine :p

[janey815]

I only speak English and some Spanish but you have to be really committed to learning and I am not I don't have the time to be but I would love to one day!

[HNLzero]

someone said swedish is easy to learn

i know english, french, some cantonese

[TimJim]

if you just pick up that thing where you sound really condescending and evil speaking english as if it's language wasn't worthy of your tongue you'll be doing fine :p
you mean north english?

[Interstate]

I used to be pretty fluent in french, studied it up to A Level and got a decent grade.
Forgotten most of it now though.

I desperately want to learn Japanese as my friend is studying there for a year next year and he wants me to come out and visit him for a few weeks. I'm failing miserably so far though.

[wartomods]

I used to be pretty fluent in french, studied it up to A Level and got a decent grade.
Forgotten most of it now though.

I desperately want to learn Japanese as my friend is studying there for a year next year and he wants me to come out and visit him for a few weeks. I'm failing miserably so far though.

I would give you one week in france to regain it or even make it better

[Interstate]

I would give you one week in france to regain it or even make it better

I reckon it would take alot longer than that. I used to be able to understand a hell of alot more than I could speak (or at least I could speak it, it just sounded crap). Did enjoy being able to banter with people on holiday and my mum would just be like wtf. :p

[Iskandar]

I desperately want to learn Japanese as my friend is studying there for a year next year and he wants me to come out and visit him for a few weeks. I'm failing miserably so far though.Probably because contrary to the views of the average anime fan, Japanese is one of the hardest languages there is.

You'd probably learn more by travelling to Japan (full immersion) than studying it on your own for any length of time.

[Interstate]

Probably because contrary to the views of the average anime fan, Japanese is one of the hardest languages there is.

You'd probably learn more by travelling to Japan (full immersion) than studying it on your own for any length of time.

That's true. My friend that's going out there to study was seriously worried his japanese wouldn't be up to scratch until he went there for a 2 week holiday last year and he said it was so much easier to understand and pick up new phrases etc. that he hadn't learnt over there then trying to study them in a non japanese environment i.e the UK where he lives atm.