Anyone here learning or have learned a new language?

igorbiscan

I am using duolingo app.to pick up some spanish?
How are ye learning your languages?whats the best websites,apps??
I would imagine a skype type student exchange type website would be quite useful..

Un Croissant

Learning French since september. Told my French language assistant that I love her and i have two vaginas. also, nice ass.


Its going great.

Micky Dolenz

The problem Irish people of a certain age have is that we were never taught English grammar in school. It is difficult to learn a new language when you don't understand the terminology and the names of the tenses.

I think german is lovely, I speak that
Up to about C1 level at the moment

WilyCoyote

steddyeddy wrote: »

It sexy, tasty, what a body all in one. I wouldn't say it unless you're sure you have a good chance already. Vai fundo ( a Portuguese way of saying good luck literally meaning "go deeply").

Vai fundament? :eek::o;):D

The Diabolical Monocle

osarusan wrote: »

you misunderstand my point. Languages will be less or more difficult to learn depending on the existing lingusitic capital of the learner.

The fact that every language can be acquired perfectly be a native speaker of that language has no relevance to a learner of that language.

If Izzard's argument (from your paraphrasing) is that "kids can learn languages, so how hard can they be to learn? It's just that adults are afraid of making mistakes whereas kids are not" then there isn't much substance to that.

The logical conclusion of the argument is that any adult who was as unafraid as a child of making mistakes would develop a level of proficiency equivalent to a native speaker, and that is clearly nonsense.

Christ on a bike.
There are no objectively difficult languages.
Native kids have an advantage.
That is all.

This is so typical of boards, you say 'hey the sun heats the earth' and then you get ...'actually no the earth goes round the sun and I think you'll find its never been used to make toast'.

Young kids have an advantage, as described.
There are no living languages that are structurally so complex that they can't be learned by a native child .... i.e not difficult.

And I think you'll find that donkeys have 4 legs not 6.

sopretty

The Diabolical Monocle wrote: »

Christ on a bike.
There are no objectively difficult languages.
Native kids have an advantage.
That is all.

This is so typical of boards, you say 'hey the sun heats the earth' and then you get ...'actually no the earth goes round the sun and I think you'll find its never been used to make toast'.

Young kids have an advantage, as described.
There are no living languages that are structurally so complex that they can't be learned by a native child .... i.e not difficult.

And I think you'll find that donkeys have 4 legs not 6.

Do you not comprehend that Italian was an EASY language for me to pick up as it resembled my native language and other languages that I have studied, but that Japanese would be a much more DIFFICULT language for me to pick up, due to the steep learning curve I would have to embark on?

It's not that Italian is some sort of low level language and Japanese is some sort of sophisticated language. It's just that they are vastly different. Therefore, it is conceivably HARDER for me to pick up Japanese.

The Diabolical Monocle

sopretty wrote: »

Do you not comprehend that Italian was an EASY language for me to pick up as it resembled my native language and other languages that I have studied, but that Japanese would be a much more DIFFICULT language for me to pick up, due to the steep learning curve I would have to embark on?

It's not that Italian is some sort of low level language and Japanese is some sort of sophisticated language. It's just that they are vastly different. Therefore, it is conceivably HARDER for me to pick up Japanese.

Do you comprehend that its nothing to do with .... YOU.

All languages are structurally of a level that can be comfortably learned by a native child.

A child can do it.
An entire nation of children can do it.

Ergo, its not objectively fvcking difficult is it.

Chess, calculus, playing Beethoven on the piano - requires 99% of a country's people to sit there straining their brain and thinking wtf - for a human - difficult.

Any native language - 99% of a country's people, including kids, wont give a second thought while chatting away at 100 words per minute - for a human - not difficult.

A difficult language would quickly die - why - because people would be sat down with a pencil and notepad thinking wtf how does that work when trying to tell their tribe that theres a fire. Kids would think 'fvck that its too difficult I'll play xbox instead'.

There are no universally, objectively, difficult languages.

Drakares

Learned German. I'm at a level of proficency high enough to work. I'm currently living and working in Germany

But will need another while before I'd be able to write a thesis or something long and complicated without getting the missus to give it second look

Links234

osarusan wrote: »

No idea if you know about these already, but:

Here's an app which breaks down the kanji for you:
https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/jlpt-study-1-5-level-kanji/id330922255?mt=8

Here's a decent site:
http://nihongoichiban.com/

you can take mock JPLT tests here if you are interested:
https://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/forlearners.html

As you say, there are loads of resources out there.

Thanks! I'll be checking these out!

Konata

Links234 wrote: »

But wanna know a little secret that a friend let me in on? A lot of Japanese people nowadays can't write that well either! Think about it, with technology, PCs, phones etc, there's very little call for actually writing something. Even writing your signature, lots of people will have their own little personalized stamp, so if they need to sign something, they'll use that. Interesting, huh?

That way I don't feel so bad about my writing being sloppy! :pac:

This is very true! In fact, because of the increased use of computers etc. many Japanese people are actually forgetting how to write some of the lesser used kanji. They'd still be able to recognise it and read it no problem but it seems that because there is less need to write out kanji these days that their writing skills are definitely weakening.

For example, my own Japanese teachers (in a Japanese college) occasionally forget how to write a kanji when writing on the board and have to go to their laptops/tablets to double check it. It's kind of mental to us to imagine forgetting how to write a word but when you have over 2000 symbols to remember, you can understand how the less you write them the easier they are to forget!

WikiHow wrote: »

Would schools in Japan be using technology more than paper and pen in teaching kids do you know?

Nope. I babysit three Japanese kids here in Japan and everything is still pen and paper. They spend their entire school careers still learning how to write and if they started allowing kids to use computers etc. more to write with, they'd never learn how to write all the kanji they need to. As such, it would seem to me that using technology is much less common in Japanese schools than it is in Irish schools (I'm not a teacher though so can't say with 100% certainty - just what I've observed/heard from the kids).

robman60

I'm learning French and Gaeilge! In Leaving Cert so it's necessity but I love both languages. Love them both for different reasons. Have the orals in a week's time, should be fun. :pac:

I intend to learn another language as a hobby later on. Maybe Spanish or Italian or have a look at Latin just because I'm intrigued by etymology and so many English words have Latin origins.

czechlin

igorbiscan wrote: »

I am using duolingo app.to pick up some spanish?
How are ye learning your languages?whats the best websites,apps??
I would imagine a skype type student exchange type website would be quite useful..

I'm going to a Spanish class once a week and also use Duolingo. I do German on it as well and tried French out of curiosity. It's a great app.
I also downloaded Spanish from Mindsnacks (I think they do other languages too), it's not a free app but I find it quite good for vocabulary. It's learning in a form of games.

Also http://livemocha.com/ or http://alison.com/subjects/27/Languages might be worth a look.

HalloweenJack

I've got up to a fairly high level of Spanish after living here for the best part of two years.

I want to go back and improve my Portuguese. Was studying it for a bit a few years ago and spent some time in Brazil but since I came back to Spain I've stopped studying it.

Links234

This has turned out to be a really, really interesting thread

Another question, how do you guys find different dialects in the language you are learning?

Especially those of you with a bit of Japanese! 'Cos we all know people from Osaka are all like なんでやねん all the time :pac: But seriously, I do find the Osaka dialect and accent really fascinating

samsclub

ive got the pimsluir italian all levels if any one wants it . no charge ... im finished with it very usefull.

coolbeans

I speak French pretty well and have read lots of books in the language. I've no interest in Irish though, I just think it's a dead language and totally useless to me.

samsclub

its so sad to hear that comment dead ? its where your from mate .............. i speak irish and so des my 4 kids.

Donkey Oaty

coolbeans wrote: »

I speak French pretty well and have read lots of books in the language. I've no interest in Irish though, I just think it's a dead language and totally useless to me.

Here's a good tutorial to get you interested again - who says the Germans have no sense of humour?

coolbeans

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Here's a good tutorial to get you interested again - who says the Germans have no sense of humour?

No offence but most people can't speak it well and even those that do are likely more competent in English. It's a sad state of affairs but I'll go for Spanish next once I get my exams in Paris. It'll enable me to speak to more people. Irish won't.

feargale

igorbiscan wrote: »

I am using duolingo app.to pick up some spanish?
How are ye learning your languages?whats the best websites,apps??
I would imagine a skype type student exchange type website would be quite useful..

I reckon that, apart from living in the country, there is no better way to pick up a language than listening to the news on television. Before you start, you probably have an idea of some of what will be said. Years ago there was a tv channel that spent all day reporting the news sequentially every 15 minutes in French, Spanish, Italian and German. I didn't have that channel myself, but came across it in Dublin. It was British, I think, and seems to have vanished.

McChubbin

I'd love to learn to speak fluent German purely so I can sing along to Rammstein without looking like I'm having some kind of seizure. :pac:
Nah, seriously, I've always had a soft spot for German culture and cookery. Also, it's funny as hell to yell "ICH LIEBE DICH!!" and bear hug a friend when you're drunk.

La_Gordy

I speak good Russian and fluent French. I was on the Aran Islands this weekend, it was wonderful. But I was disappointed with myself that I could barely string a few words together in Irish.

denhaagenite

Can read and understand French as I have it from school, speak Dutch because I live in the Netherlands- most people aren't bothered with it as the Dutch have a decent level of English but I quite like the language and it really is the key to integrating.

maguic24

When I was unemployed a year and a half ago, I started learning Swedish....then I got a job and started a masters...and now I don't have the time.

Donkey Oaty

coolbeans wrote: »

No offence but most people can't speak it well and even those that do are likely more competent in English. It's a sad state of affairs but I'll go for Spanish next once I get my exams in Paris. It'll enable me to speak to more people. Irish won't.

I'm sure you are making the right decision - but no harm in taking a bit of an interest in everything! A few nice phrases in Irish - a line of poetry or two? - takes little effort, and will be well worth it when somebody overseas asks you if you can speak it.

Holsten

I can speak pretty good French and German.

I'm learning Spanish at the minute. Want to move onto either Russian or Arabic/Farsi after that.

Online learning/classes/duolingo.

These days you are at an extreme disadvantage if you can't speak one or two more languages over your native one. Typical of this country to have us learn a dead useless language in place of something that can actually benefit people greatly in later life. I hold every single hour I was put through Irish with great disdain.

Donkey Oaty

Links234 wrote: »

But seriously, I do find the Osaka dialect and accent really fascinating

Osaka-ben suggestion for tea when stated by a 外人 goes down really well with日本人. It's like a 日本人 saying "Aye oop lad, any chance of a brew?"

Links234

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Osaka-ben suggestion for tea when stated by a 外人 goes down really well with日本人. It's like a 日本人 saying "Aye oop lad, any chance of a brew?"

Lol

It's not something I'd be confident speaking myself, I just find it really intruiging, like a whole other branch of the Japanese language to explore, you know?

Legs.Eleven

HalloweenJack wrote: »

I've got up to a fairly high level of Spanish after living here for the best part of two years.

I want to go back and improve my Portuguese. Was studying it for a bit a few years ago and spent some time in Brazil but since I came back to Spain I've stopped studying it.

I want to start learning Portuguese but can imagine it's easy to mix up the two lingos as they're so similar. Do you find that?