Learning a new language

[Eco 2,077]

I'm currently still working on my German. At this point, it has basically been a lot of Duolingo plus some German Radio. I figured shortly I'll be getting some children's books from the library and trying to work through them.

Think I'm going to really struggle with conversations as I'm mainly focusing on reading, writing. I need to find some locals that speak German and would be willing to go grab a beer once a week and just speak German. That's the only way this is going to work.

Anyone else trying to learn a new language?

[...Dan 649]

Yeah I've been using Memrise and Duolingo for years to learn French. Listening to music and watching films in your chosen language is very helpful too. Nothing beats being surrounded by native speakers, though.

[Mel81x 1,955]

5 minutes ago, ...Dan said:

Yeah I've been using Memrise and Duolingo for years to learn French. Listening to music and watching films in your chosen language is very helpful too. Nothing beats being surrounded by native speakers, though.

Learning Arabic in school as a compulsory mandate from the government is where that line in bold really holds true for me. I wouldn't have picked it up half as easily as I did if it wasn't for the local kids and playing football in the streets.

[Eco 2,077]

Oh yeah, but I can't simply just pick up and move to Germany, despite the fact that my wife and I both would love to do just that.

I am going to do more research to see if there is a German Society here in Atlanta that maybe I can get more involved in so that I have native speakers to talk to.

[Stan 9,292]

I used Duolingo and Memrise to learn Spanish but never really caught on. That's probably not down to the app though; more my lack of motivation to continue learning.

I do find watching films/tv programmes helps more in practicality when needing to learn a language quickly

[Eco 2,077]

Yeah - I just don't get any German Programming without searching online. German Radio is quite easy to find which is what I've been doing.

One issue with Duolingo is the lack of explanation. I'm on German numbers 1-100, and 1-10 make sense, but it seems to be as if the number 23 would be translated to '3 and 2 ten'. However, that is not explained at all and thus I'm having to look outside of Duolingo for help. 

[...Dan 649]

There are plenty of good German films you could watch.

[Toinho 1,311]

Obviously been learning Japanese. Haven't done much recently, but used to use a paid program online a lot which really helped with my vocabulary and reading.

Used memrise for a little bit. May get back into that.

[Eco 2,077]

8 hours ago, ...Dan said:

There are plenty of good German films you could watch.

Feel free to send me some names and I'll check them out. 

[Spike 2,587]

I want to learn Spanish or Tagalog.

[...Dan 649]

38 minutes ago, Ubuntu said:

Feel free to send me some names and I'll check them out. 

I haven't seen many myself, off the top of my head only Run Lola Run and Goodbye Lenin which are both very good films.

Other films I know of are Wings of Desire, Das Boot, Das Experiment and The Lives of Others.

[Toinho 1,311]

Anyone know some Japanese or are learning it? We could chat here. 

[Toinho 1,311]

Learning a Romantic or Germanic language are meant to be easiest for native English speakers. According to many sources, Chinese (Mandarin) and Japanese are the two hardest.

Has anyone found this true? Or how about our non-native English speakers, how was learning English for you?

[Eco 2,077]

2 hours ago, Anton said:

Learning a Romantic or Germanic language are meant to be easiest for native English speakers. According to many sources, Chinese (Mandarin) and Japanese are the two hardest.

Has anyone found this true? Or how about our non-native English speakers, how was learning English for you?

 

I studied Chinese while living there for 2 years. While it was harder because the entire system is different from ours, it was a lot easier with the fact that I was immersed (in a city with no other English speakers mind you ), and had all kinds of access to children's books, TV's, and native speakers who were eager to try their English on me.

Learning German, at home, with no native speakers is rather a pain in the ass.

[EvertonGirl 14]

I've been learning Spanish for a year now. I go to a face to face conversational class weekly and do classwork too. To supplement this, I also use Duolingo and have used Babbel for a bit too. Really enjoy learning it actually, it's fun but also useful. 

[carefreeluke 551]

My degree was in French and Spanish, moving to Spain next week as well.

[Stan 9,292]

2 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

My degree was in French and Spanish, moving to Spain next week as well.

don't let that get in the way of posting on here. you're in now! 

where you moving to?

[Tommy 4,566]

I've been learning Spanish on Duolingo every now and then. Once you have a bit of a grasp of the language, I'd definitely recommend watching movies in the language you're learning with subtitles in your language. 

 

That's how I improved my miserable school English. And as you can look, it's pretty well. 

[carefreeluke 551]

3 hours ago, StanLCFC said:

don't let that get in the way of posting on here. you're in now! 

where you moving to?

Sevilla mate for a couple of months, will then head back home for summer, then back out again to Spain around September time to most likely a different part of Spain.

[Stan 9,292]

8 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

Sevilla mate for a couple of months, will then head back home for summer, then back out again to Spain around September time to most likely a different part of Spain.

seville? you're dead to me mate

[Jay 7]

3 hours ago, carefreeluke said:

My degree was in French and Spanish.

Same here, as you know.   Plus Catalan added into the mix.

Spending time abroad is a great way of getting to grips with the cultures involved.  I'm very much against the notion of learning language in a vacuum without experiencing or understanding the cultures involved.  I'm very wary of these places offering a quick fix or a dip-your-toes experience as they're very thin on the ground, even for basic communication or comprehension.  I laugh at these "Learn A Language In X Days" programmes - it takes time, dedication and perseverance to learn a language.  It's all worth it in the end but the trial-and-error aspect which goes along with it sometimes knocks peoples' confidence.  Once you're over that hurdle, the world is your oyster (literally!)

[Toinho 1,311]

I still make many mistakes, by accidentally saying the wrong word. Took me like 2 years to get over that fear. Pathetic in hindsight, but much more confident in trying stuff now. My speaking is well below where it should be (in English and Japanese), but my brain finds it difficult with sentence structure and particles, oh god particles.

[...Dan 649]

4 minutes ago, Anton said:

I still make many mistakes, by accidentally saying the wrong word. Took me like 2 years to get over that fear. Pathetic in hindsight, but much more confident in trying shit now.

I asked for il conte (the count) instead of il conto (the bill) in Italy and the waiter laughed at me (not in a mean way) and said something about il conte di montecristo. Good times.

[Burning Gold 426]

I've got Rosetta Stone for Spanish but I barely get the time to use it, which is a shame. I mostly use Duolingo (great, but as Ubuntu said, the lack of explanation can be annoying if someone hasn't put one in the comments) but I find HelloTalk useful for talking to native speakers. Obviously, it's no substitute for immersion but that's not always an option.

[...Dan 649]

Didn't know about HelloTalk, just downloaded it, looks interesting.

[Eco 2,077]

Does anyone know any Arabic? I've been thinking about it - however it would be quite a tall task and I'd have NO IDEA on where to start. 

[Toinho 1,311]

1 minute ago, ATL said:

Does anyone know any Arabic? I've been thinking about it - however it would be quite a tall task and I'd have NO IDEA on where to start. 

From the right.

[Eco 2,077]

Just now, Anton said:

From the right.

Well played sir. 

[Carnivore Chris 1,875]

On 07/03/2017 at 9:49 PM, Tsubasa said:

I've been learning Spanish on Duolingo every now and then. Once you have a bit of a grasp of the language, I'd definitely recommend watching movies in the language you're learning with subtitles in your language. 

 

You should avoid subtitles in your own language if you ask me and not use them at all as it doesn't push your listening to its limits in my opinion. If you must have subtitles, then it would be better to have them in the language you're learning, i.e watching a Spanish film with Spanish subtitles.

[SirBalon 2,607]

The only way to learn a language properly is to be in amongst them listening to them consistently. It drills into your brain and because the brain is a miraculous and marvellous piece of equipment, then you'll all of a sudden without knowing when or how undeestand phrases. The difficulty then lies in twisting your tongue to make the speach habitual.

Children find this easy and it's been proven they can learn upto 7 completely different languages fluently. The older you become, the more you have to immerse yourself in the world you want to capture.