Learning a new language

[nudge+]

1 minute ago, noelcwt said:

Generally Chinese not from Mainland China are not very fond of China, ask any Hong Kong'ers, Singaporean, Thai Chinese etc. We may trace our root back to China but we don't see ourselves as part of "China Chinese" and have anything to do with them.

The tourists from Mainland China also cause a lot of problems for the locals everywhere, so nobody really like them except those educated ones. 

I don't hate China, but I am not fond of them either. Not sure if you heard of it before, the Malays (Muslim) extremist in Malaysia love to call us to go back to China. Ironically, China are investing heavily in Malaysia, buying our power plants and investing in the new rail line projects. They are also investing heavily in India, seems like they intend to take over the world! 

They're doing the same in Cambodia too, mainly investing in infrastructure, mining, power plants/dams, garment and textile industry. And notoriously building more and more casinos.

As for the tourists, most of them are indeed loud, obnoxious and have some disgusting habits. I actually saw a few spit on the restaurant floor while sitting at the table  The educated ones are completely different though.

[SirBalon]

9 minutes ago, noelcwt said:

Generally Chinese not from Mainland China are not very fond of China, ask any Hong Kong'ers, Singaporean, Thai Chinese etc. We may trace our root back to China but we don't see ourselves as part of "China Chinese" and have anything to do with them.

 

The tourists from Mainland China also cause a lot of problems for the locals everywhere, so nobody really like them except those educated ones. 

 

I don't hate China, but I am not fond of them either. Not sure if you heard of it before, the Malays (Muslim) extremist in Malaysia love to call us to go back to China. Ironically, China are investing heavily in Malaysia, buying our power plants and investing in the new rail line projects. They are also investing heavily in India, seems like they intend to take over the world! 

I know about these things mate as I've debated it with Singaporean and Malaysian work colleagues.

So in effect you're saying you don't feel chinese?

Some of the anti-China people I know (Malysians and Singaporeans) feel more affinity toward Japan than China where culture is concerned. 

[noelcwt]

5 minutes ago, nudge said:

They're doing the same in Cambodia too, mainly investing in infrastructure, mining, power plants/dams, garment and textile industry. And notoriously building more and more casinos.

As for the tourists, most of them are indeed loud, obnoxious and have some disgusting habits. I actually saw a few spit on the restaurant floor while sitting at the table  The educated ones are completely different though.

I am against foreign country owning our key infrastructure such as power, gas and telecommunication etc. Our government desperately needs to sell to pay its 1Malaysian debt so it is a win-win situation for China and our government. 

I haven't seen that personally but spitting is pretty common for them, they even pee inside a metro so I am not surprised. I could say the same for Indians. In a way, the uneducated ones (Indians and Chinese) are very similar. They don't queue, no respect for personal space, very loud etc. 

Just now, SirBalon said:

I know about these things mate as I've debated it with Singaporean and Malaysian work colleagues.

So in effect you're saying you don't feel chinese?

Some of the anti-China people I know (Malysians and Singaporeans) feel more affinity toward Japan than China where culture is concerned. 

I love Chinese food 

But yeah, I don't have any affinity toward China or the PRC's culture. I still enjoy the food, celebrations etc. but I just don't connect myself with PRC. At best, we speak the same language.

I have friends who have worked and lived in Japan. It is a country that is beautiful from the outside, but kinda fucked up from the inside. I love sushi and Japanese girls though 

[SirBalon]

1 minute ago, noelcwt said:

I am against foreign country owning our key infrastructure such as power, gas and telecommunication etc. Our government desperately needs to sell to pay its 1Malaysian debt so it is a win-win situation for China and our government. 

I haven't seen that personally but spitting is pretty common for them, they even pee inside a metro so I am not surprised. I could say the same for Indians. In a way, the uneducated ones (Indians and Chinese) are very similar. They don't queue, no respect for personal space, very loud etc. 

I love Chinese food 

But yeah, I don't have any affinity toward China or the PRC's culture. I still enjoy the food, celebrations etc. but I just don't connect myself with PRC. At best, we speak the same language.

I have friends who have worked and lived in Japan. It is a country that is beautiful from the outside, but kinda fucked up from the inside. I love sushi and Japanese girls though 

Every country is "fucked up" from the inside mate. Don't believe the hype! 

[Toinho]

7 hours ago, noelcwt said:

I am against foreign country owning our key infrastructure such as power, gas and telecommunication etc. Our government desperately needs to sell to pay its 1Malaysian debt so it is a win-win situation for China and our government. 

I haven't seen that personally but spitting is pretty common for them, they even pee inside a metro so I am not surprised. I could say the same for Indians. In a way, the uneducated ones (Indians and Chinese) are very similar. They don't queue, no respect for personal space, very loud etc. 

I love Chinese food 

But yeah, I don't have any affinity toward China or the PRC's culture. I still enjoy the food, celebrations etc. but I just don't connect myself with PRC. At best, we speak the same language.

I have friends who have worked and lived in Japan. It is a country that is beautiful from the outside, but kinda fucked up from the inside. I love sushi and Japanese girls though 

That last paragraph is so true haha

[Mel81x+]

10 hours ago, noelcwt said:

I haven't seen that personally but spitting is pretty common for them, they even pee inside a metro so I am not surprised. I could say the same for Indians. In a way, the uneducated ones (Indians and Chinese) are very similar. They don't queue, no respect for personal space, very loud etc. 

So true about the respect for whats going on around them. Still in Hyderabad? Or moved further up, or perhaps south?

@Topic: I also went and picked up a new book for Japanese so now I really have to get serious about it haha.

[Carnivore Chris]

Learning Spanish was straight forward in general although I haven't studied it properly for ages now. However I still have plenty of knowledge, can understand it well enough depending on the accent and whenever I come across someone from Spain, I have no problems in having a conversation with them. Last week was a fine example:- a fella from Valencia, who was delivering kitchens in a wagon was looking for directions to a local industrial estate, I clocked on that he was Spanish as he referred to a fridge as a "frigorifico" so I proceeded to respond in Spanish and we had a little conversation in it. I could do with brushing up on it and hitting the books again as it's certainly rusty, although I read in the language all the time and this keeps my mind refreshed.

[Eco]

@VanPanna and @Panflute - I was reading some studies that said that due to the grammatical and phonetic similarities, that Dutch is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. Since you you speak both languages, I was curious what you two thought about that? 

[Eco]

On 3/15/2017 at 7:13 AM, ...Dan said:

Since someone in here mentioned HelloTalk a week or so ago I've been on it constantly. Some of you are saying you find learning hard because you have no native speakers to talk to, well HelloTalk is the perfect place for that. You can't learn a language from scratch on there, but if you already have a decent level it'll help you improve a lot.

I'm a lot more confident with my french than I was this time last week.

It's kinda like facebook, you just post whatever you want, and if you make any mistakes someone will correct you. Everyone is so helpful and kind. You can also chat one on one with someone which is helpful for learning to understand and reply at a decent pace.

I joined yesterday, and it's been great thus far.

[Mel81x+]

7 hours ago, ATL said:

I joined yesterday, and it's been great thus far.

Gave up on Arabic? 

[Eco]

46 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Gave up on Arabic? 

Oh no. Arabic is on it! I've been talking to a guy from Egypt for a good portion of the day. 

[Panna King]

22 hours ago, ATL said:

@VanPanna and @Panflute - I was reading some studies that said that due to the grammatical and phonetic similarities, that Dutch is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. Since you you speak both languages, I was curious what you two thought about that? 

Depends on the individual but It is hard because of the grammar, even some Dutch people Don't know it 100%.

[Panflute]

On 3/17/2017 at 3:28 AM, ATL said:

@VanPanna and @Panflute - I was reading some studies that said that due to the grammatical and phonetic similarities, that Dutch is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. Since you you speak both languages, I was curious what you two thought about that? 

No, I don't think so. Apart from the similarities there are still a lot of things that are complex about the Dutch language. And one thing both languages have in common is that their rulesets are very inconsistent. The pronunciation is also very difficult for Anglophones; even ones who have spoken Dutch for decades tend to still have thick accents.

I would say the easiest language to learn for an Anglophone would be Spanish. It's a Romance language as opposed to a Germanic one like English, but English still has a lot of Latin-rooted words due to the French influence. Also, Spanish grammar is fairly simply and logical, and it's easy to pronounce because they only have 5 vowels. Finally, Spanish is much more abundant globally than Dutch, meaning that it's easier to immerse yourself in Spanish by exploring popular culture in that language and meeting people who speak Spanish as a first or second language.

Funfact: the language that is closest gramatically to English is not Dutch, but Frisian.

[Eco]

11 hours ago, Panflute said:

No, I don't think so. Apart from the similarities there are still a lot of things that are complex about the Dutch language. And one thing both languages have in common is that their rulesets are very inconsistent. The pronunciation is also very difficult for Anglophones; even ones who have spoken Dutch for decades tend to still have thick accents.

I would say the easiest language to learn for an Anglophone would be Spanish. It's a Romance language as opposed to a Germanic one like English, but English still has a lot of Latin-rooted words due to the French influence. Also, Spanish grammar is fairly simply and logical, and it's easy to pronounce because they only have 5 vowels. Finally, Spanish is much more abundant globally than Dutch, meaning that it's easier to immerse yourself in Spanish by exploring popular culture in that language and meeting people who speak Spanish as a first or second language.

Funfact: the language that is closest gramatically to English is not Dutch, but Frisian.

I saw that, but really no one speaks Frisian. 

[Inverted]

I've been in Denmark for almost 7 months now and i still can't understand a sentence out loud in Danish. To read, it's so easy, the word order is really accessible for English speakers and a lot of the vocab is familiar. The issue is they drop so many letters. A sentence like "Jeg bor i Kobenhavn og jeg kan ikke taler Dansk" sounds like "yeah boah eeh Kopenhauwn oh yeah ka eeguh tayluh densk".  

So even if you can speak a little bit, and read it fairly well, it's a whole other ball game trying to understand it being spoken to you, especially considering that the Copenhagen accent is one of the less phonetic ones in Denmark. Luckily the Danes have insane levels of English, the main issue is tempering my Glaswegian accent enough for them to understand me!

Otherwise I can read German pretty well, and understand perhaps 60% when listening, and speak/write a little bit. My grammar's kinda crappy, but I can make my meaning known when push comes to shove. I never did it in school, I just bought a little book and started doing some basic exercises now and then, as well as Duolingo to build up vocab (I don't find its way of approaching grammar too helpful, but I can only speak for the German and Danish courses), and then reading a lot of German newspaper articles and then Wikipedia etc (I started with Sport Bild, since you don't get much simpler writing than in tabloid sports articles). 

Some of my favourite films are German too, and just with watching with subtitles, you pick up a lot - its good practice even when you don't understand a sentence, then read the subtitle, and then you recognise the words in hindsight. I highly recommend Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) and Der Untergang (Downfall). 

My best friend over here is a German, and another very good friend of mine who's now moved back home, is Finnish and speaks it pretty well, and sometimes when we were pished we'd try having ridiculous conversations in German. Another fun way to learn. 

 

Edit: there's also a great documentary on Netflix called Trainer!, about German football coaching. It has a lot of interviews with Klopp, Veh and a few others, and follows 3 coaches for a season: including Andre Schubert back when he was at St Pauli. 

Oh, and Das Boot is a classic, of course.

[Eco]

Man, I have been in the rut. I need to really focus on a particular language, but instead I will enjoy learning French one month, Spanish another, and then Italian another. 

Right now, I'm working on Italian, but I'm not entirely sure. I'm really thinking between Spanish, German, French, and Italian. Not really sure where to go from there. 

[Large]

I've been wanting to learn a new language for an age but always put it off for one reason or another. So now is time to bite the bullet. Anybody have any recommendations to make in good resources [software, websites, books, etc.] that can help?

[...Dan]

5 minutes ago, Large said:

I've been wanting to learn a new language for an age but always put it off for one reason or another. So now is time to bite the bullet. Anybody have any recommendations to make in good resources [software, websites, books, etc.] that can help?

I've been learning French for years by using Duolingo and Memrise, watching French music and watching French films. 

If you're not going to take a course, I highly recommend those two apps. When you have a decent grasp of your chosen language you should download HelloTalk. It's like Facebook in that there is a feed of posts, but here you see posts by people who are native speakers of your chosen language. People can post in their chosen language and a native will correct any mistakes. It's a very nice place. There's also a chat function, I've been speaking to someone in French every day for over a month and it's really helped me to improve.

What language do you want to learn?

[Eco]

I've been doing the same as Dan, but in French.

I worked on Arabic, but first off I wanted to catch up on my Esperanto and Italian.

[Guest]

Io sono in il processo del estudio Della lengua italiana. Mi piace molto la lengua.

I had to leave classes because of college but I'm practicing now with Duolingo.

[Eco]

I am almost done with my Duolingo, Italian Tree. I also use Memrise and HelloTalk.

[Large]

1 hour ago, ...Dan said:

What language do you want to learn?

I need to decide between Spanish which would be useful [although not required] for work, or Italian as that is the language I've always wanted to learn. It will probably be Italian.

Others have spoken to me about Duolingo, but all have said that it's okay for learning words but not any good for sentences, structure, context, etc.

[...Dan]

13 minutes ago, Large said:

I need to decide between Spanish which would be useful [although not required] for work, or Italian as that is the language I've always wanted to learn. It will probably be Italian.

Others have spoken to me about Duolingo, but all have said that it's okay for learning words but not any good for sentences, structure, context, etc.

I'd say that's true of Memrise, where you just memorise words, but not Duolingo. The latter teaches you entire sentences. You won't become fluent just by using those two though, they're just a good way to start.

[Large]

1 hour ago, ...Dan said:

I'd say that's true of Memrise, where you just memorise words, but not Duolingo. The latter teaches you entire sentences. You won't become fluent just by using those two though, they're just a good way to start.

Well that's good to know. My plan has always been to use something for the basics then get a pen pal initially to correspond and video chat with.

[Eco]

On 5/23/2017 at 0:05 PM, Large said:

I need to decide between Spanish which would be useful [although not required] for work, or Italian as that is the language I've always wanted to learn. It will probably be Italian.

Others have spoken to me about Duolingo, but all have said that it's okay for learning words but not any good for sentences, structure, context, etc.

I'm not lying when I say this, but something that has proven to help people trying to learn their first language, is to study Esperanto for a month or two. Now, Esperanto is about as easy as it is, and since it's a constructed language with set rules, it's easier to learn. The idea behind starting with Esperanto is that it'll help you understand how you learn languages, and what building blocks you need to go by to become fluent in a given language.