Learning a language?

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 10-07-2009 3:18pm #1

Anyone know more than their native tongue? I learnt a bit of french when I was in school, but I don't think I was mature enough to care.

Any places in dublin that teach dutch? Money is a factor.

I was never good at languages, but I am prepared to give it another shot to broaden my job prospects

I meant to ask, how do you know if you have a brain for languages or not? O.o

My name is URL · 10-07-2009 3:20pm

Dutch is a very difficult language to grasp. Why not French or Spanish?

markopantelic · 10-07-2009 3:20pm

French(if I lived in France for 6 months I reckon I'd be fluent) and Irish(although not enough use for it)

German would be a better option than Spanish in terms of job prospects I reckon but it be class to work in a year round nice climate.

Piste · 10-07-2009 3:21pm

I speak fluent English, reasonable Irish and can hold a conversation in French or German (though my French is much better)

javaboy · 10-07-2009 3:22pm

Moved from After Hours.

WIZE · 10-07-2009 3:22pm

English and German

IvyTheTerrible · 10-07-2009 3:23pm

I'm getting pretty fluent at French. I did it for my Leaving Cert and was ok (got a

but hadn't used it since (10 years); I've been here for 4 months and it's amazing the difference a few months of total immersion makes. When I arrived, I had to watch everything on tv with subtitles, never read newspapers. Now I don't need subtitles, I understand nearly everything.

So if you have a chance to go to Holland (you mention Dutch) for even a month, it would surprise you what you can learn.

PeterLT · 10-07-2009 3:30pm

I consider myself fluent i English and Russian. Learned German for 5 years, but as you say wasn't mature enough to care, so I'm not very happy with my German skills. Lithuanian is the tongue, hence I can understand Latvian. Knowing Russian let's me undertand 80pc of Polish language... And I can order wine and some basic meals in Spain using Spanish. Don't know am I right, but I allways get what I order

I would like to learn Gaelic, but I find it difficult to learn it on my own with out any help. I think the best way to learn a language is to buy some books that are used in school and start from a scratch, like colours, numbers, cat, dog, yes, no, beer, whiskey, pint, girl... (no that's to advanced)...

is_that_so · 10-07-2009 3:34pm

Best to start with one you may know some of like French just to get back into it. Of the languages mentioned Spanish is the easiest to learn along with Italian. If you do want to learn Dutch German would be a better option and you can probably get courses in public libraries, although it is tough work learning German.

What you do find is you use the ones you already speak, English and Irish(assuming you know some) to work out how the new language works. Whatever one you choose , first learn the sounds of the letters.

EDIT: Speak Irish, Spanish pretty well.
Can hold conversations in French & German, understand some Italian and Portuguese and can do some rudimentary things in Polish. Tried Russian but never got further than the basics. I can also introduce myself in Japanese for the all use it is. I will say the more languages you know the easier other ones become.

Deedsie · 10-07-2009 3:40pm

I speak English. Bit of Irish, Bit of German.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 11-07-2009 1:27pm

Dutch isn't as hard as some people make it out to be. It's quite similar to english is many ways.

Girlfriend is Belgian, so dutch will be more benificial to me. I will be using the language more than any other foreign language.

Why the hell would french and german be of any use to anyone? Such remote languages. French is easier, but it's sh!t, has no use, and learning a language because it is "easier" is one very stupid reason.

Surveyor11 · 11-07-2009 1:34pm

I had to brush up on my German for a recent job interview, there's a great free online course at Deutche Welle http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,2547,00.html. Found the on line course very good,follows the same format in terms of levels as paid course

FruitLover · 11-07-2009 8:59pm

Asher Beautiful Spinach wrote: »

I was never good at languages
...
I meant to ask, how do you know if you have a brain for languages or not? O.o

You understand English, don't you?

If you can learn that, you can learn any other language. There's no such thing as a 'brain for languages'. Over a billion people speak various forms of Chinese (supposedly the most difficult family of currently spoken languages), including infants and retards, so you can do it too.

9wetfckx43j5rg · 12-07-2009 11:29pm

I am a 18 year old student who just did her leaving cert.

I speak fluent English obiv.

Speak average/moderate Irish.

Speak way more French than I do Irish. Can hold a good conversation in French. (Know around seven tenses). I write French better than I speak it.

I can speak basic greetings in Polish, Lithuanian. (Hello, How are you, I'm good, I'm hungry, I'm tierd, And you?, Bye ect)

I also know a few words of Italian and Spanish. (Hello, how are you, good ect)

I studied Latin for a year but only know four words!

I can speak the alphabet and my name, greeting and sing a song in Irish Sign Language.

At the minute I am trying to learn some Chinese. I've got "Hello", "how are you" and "thank you" down.

So thats English, Irish, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Latin, Chinese and Irish Sign Language.

p1akuw47h5r3it · 20-07-2009 7:33pm

I speak English, decent standard of french, abysmal Gaelic and I (hope) to start Russian in TCD next year so in 4 years I hope to be relatively fluent in that.

shewasoctober · 20-07-2009 10:37pm

I love Dutch. I think it's a beautiful language, and I love the Dutch culture as well. It's actually not that difficult to learn. It's the 2nd closet language to English, just behind Fresian.

I'm really just starting out with Dutch. I spent last summer in The Hague and love it. I worked as an au pair there. I had a blast.

Also, having Dutch means there is always a job available in Dublin. My housemate is Dutch and can get a job any time as Dutch speakers are needed and not many people seem to learn Dutch. The Dutch are usually quite impressed when a non-Dutch person speaks Dutch.

I'd say, if you want to learn, go for it. Everyone learns French or German. try something else out. check out Trinity or Sanford Language Institute if you're interested. They both seem to have good courses at a decent price.

I also have a bit of Spanish as most Americans pick it up with how widely it's spoken. I took Italian & Latin as well, but I was so young that I really don't remember much. Only a few words here and there.

Alun · 21-07-2009 2:19pm

I lived in the Netherlands for 13 years and spoke Dutch like a native, but get little use out of it now. It's still there in the background though and I can slip back into it as if I'd never left the place. It's also pretty handy for discussing things with my wife that we don't want other people to overhear

The only kinds of jobs using Dutch, or pretty much any language for that matter in Dublin, are phone based sales or support jobs which don't appeal to me in the slightest.

I agree with others here that it really isn't that difficult to learn, but a big problem can be getting to a fluency level where everybody is happy conversing with you without them reverting to English at every opportunity. Once you've got past that stage you're flying.

earwax_man · 05-08-2009 4:12pm

I speak English, Irish, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Although I have a brian for languages, they are just easy to learn anyway.

German grammar is NOT hard btw.

jester77 · 05-08-2009 4:19pm

German is the most widely spoken language within the EU, so from a job perspective that would probably be the best option. Plus it's not a difficult language to learn either. Don't think you need a particular type of brain for languages, if you are exposed to it every day then you will naturally pick it up.

spurious · 05-08-2009 4:23pm

Have German (fairly OK) and French (less OK) from school and am in my third year of Polish.

boonen · 06-08-2009 4:16am

I speak English, Portuguese, Spanish and a bit of Italian, French and Swedish

Femke · 18-08-2009 10:38pm

I speak Dutch fluently (since I was born and raised in the Netherlands). I'd say I'm almost fluent at English, I've studied English at uni for the last 2 years and I started learning the language when I was 10. I can have a conversation in French and German but most of it slipped away after I stopped taking classes (which I did in high school). I've taking 2 beginner Irish courses at uni so I I'm slowly getting better at that

Summers are bad though, when you just learned a new language and don't practice as much :P

Oh and I love how so many people are trying to learn Dutch! shewasoctober is right, we are impressed when a foreigner speaks Dutch. Mostly because we get to learn quite a lot of languages at school (everyone has to take up English and at least one other foreign language) so it's not problem when foreigners come to visit Holland and speak their own language.

dlofnep · 19-08-2009 11:35pm

I speak english, obviously, have a reasonable level of irish, and i'm learning gaidhlig slowly but surely.

dlofnep · 19-08-2009 11:37pm

Femke wrote: »

I speak Dutch fluently (since I was born and raised in the Netherlands). I'd say I'm almost fluent at English, I've studied English at uni for the last 2 years and I started learning the language when I was 10. I can have a conversation in French and German but most of it slipped away after I stopped taking classes (which I did in high school). I've taking 2 beginner Irish courses at uni so I I'm slowly getting better at that Summers are bad though, when you just learned a new language and don't practice as much :P

Oh and I love how so many people are trying to learn Dutch! shewasoctober is right, we are impressed when a foreigner speaks Dutch. Mostly because we get to learn quite a lot of languages at school (everyone has to take up English and at least one other foreign language) so it's not problem when foreigners come to visit Holland and speak their own language.

I only know one dutch word from a friend - Proost and he knows one Irish word - Sláinte!

GoingBk2School · 21-08-2009 3:35pm

Hi All,

I speak English and Spanish (I speak Spanish at home) and I'm currently teaching myself Russian (I would like to see a 'Russian' thread - would there be much support?).

I think Spanish is one of the most useful languages to learn, especially if you want to travel to the US or S.America.

I don't understand at all the earlier attack on French for being a useless language! Obviously, outside of France, you have Canada, various African countries and also various places in the Caribbean. It's also a popular choice for people as a second language - which is something that should not be underestimated when choosing a language to learn. Spanish is also useful for that. Often I will meet foreigners who don't speak English, but they've learnt some Spanish along the way, so we can communicate through that.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who's learning Russian. I've only just started, but I'm really enjoying it.

Alun · 26-08-2009 11:26am

I'm English and speak (in rough order of fluency) Dutch, German, French and Swedish. I also did Russian at school many years ago, but have all but completely forgotten it. Oh yes, Latin too (traditional English grammar school education!).

The most interesting language to learn for me was Swedish, mainly because I was learning it in an environment and in a language that was also foreign to me (Dutch). Actually, the teacher, a native Swede, was fluent in Dutch and English as well, and the other Dutch people in the class were near fluent English speakers as well, so it made the whole experience quite interesting. Some grammar constructs in Swedish are closer to English than they are to the Germanic languages like Dutch or German, so occasionally she'd slip into English to explain some things, simply because it was easier to give parallel examples that people could relate to in English than Dutch. Fascinating!

drakshug · 29-08-2009 9:33pm

Well.
My Native tongue is English (Lowland Scots).
I can speak fluent Lithuanian - I lived there for 12 years. I can speak French and read enough Gaidhlig to get by with those road signs in Ireland (though the spelling is different-ish)

I can also swear like a trooper in Russian and order beer etc in most European languages.
My Kids speak English, Lithuanian and are quite good at Irish.

I've found the best way to learn a language is to go and live in the country, make friends and avoid self service supermarkets. Basically, when I moved to Lithuania, there were only Soviet style shops with grumpy Bobutes and if you didn't learn the vocabulary, you starved. The grammar comes later.

dlofnep · 29-08-2009 9:36pm

drakshug wrote: »

and read enough Gaidhlig to get by with those road signs in Ireland (though the spelling is different-ish)

The English is written on the same sign

Nah, but Gaidhlig and Irish are very similar. Are you from Scotland? I was under the impression that it wasn't very common outside of the Hebrides..

drakshug · 29-08-2009 9:59pm

dlofnep wrote: »

The English is written on the same sign

Nah, but Gaidhlig and Irish are very similar. Are you from Scotland? I was under the impression that it wasn't very common outside of the Hebrides..

Yeah but I still try to read the Irish. It is more interesting.
It isn't that common outside the West coast but a lot of us have relatives who speak it and some of us have a smattering. I'm not a teuchter but my family is

dlofnep · 29-08-2009 10:15pm

Ah fair play - I studied a little bit of it, it's handy enough to pickup from Irish

drakshug · 30-08-2009 1:10am

A bit harder the other way round.
I wondered what dove was for ages and found out it was doo

:):) (dubh)

Learning a language?

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