Are you learning a new language?

[Virtual ghost]

I learned German in school, but I didn’t like it so I made a great afford to not learn anything. Now I’m mad at myself...

Anyway I remember that the grammar was very logical and some words were similar to English so it was easier to learn.
A friend who learned it for a longer period of time, says that no other language she's learned has such a logical structure.

I took 4 semesters of German in high school and did extremely well. Even went to Germany with my teacher and was able to communicate in German when needed. However even after all of that learning, I was barely at a preschool level. I remember the structure of the language well enough; however I have lost nearly all of my vocabulary from lack of use.

I do not remember if I still have any of my notes, since it's been 4 years; but I will look for them, and if I manage to find anything, would you like me to share it with you?

I'm learning it right now. It's quite difficult at first because the grammar is quite different when compared to English, but once you get the hang of it, it doesn't get more difficult like English does.

I still have problems with knowing the forms of the word. I can hardly know which gender the word is.

Thanks for the info.
I think I will try to force myself to learn at least the basics of German. Since that would probably be a major benefit to my career.

 

[Red Herring]

Since there seem to be quite a few people here with an interest in German, how about a thread or group for that? Also, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask - it's my native language.

 

[Kierva]

Since there seem to be quite a few people here with an interest in German, how about a threat or group for that? Also, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask - it's my native language.

Eine sehr gute Idee. Machen einen, bitte!

 

[senza tema]

I'm starting Classical Greek. Lord help me.

 

[Mad Hatter]

I'm starting Classical Greek. Lord help me.

Pro tip: Don't.

 

[Chrysanthe]

lol maybe if I had the patience and determination. my interest to learn quickly burns out after spending hours and hours researching everything about the language, and its corresponding culture and history. I try to take in as much as possible about everything and then it overwhelms me and I end up immediately changing my focus to elsewhere. As a result, I can only remember a few words from various languages which surprise me when that information pops up out of nowhere. Like "Perkele!" being the Finnish expression for "fuck!", literal meaning "devil". Or how the Swahili word for moon is Mwezi, which is actually a word included in one of my email addresses. Also I often use "Dökkálfr", the Icelandic word for Dark Elf, in many of my usernames, just because it sounds so... Nordic and sexy. Things like the Cyrillic alphabet, however, have been long lost from my memory.

edit: now I kinda wanna return to my learning of Icelandic... or Old Norse, since they are essentially the same language and I already have two books for learning Old Norse.
And also Futhark is so magical:

 

[Forever]

Si. Un pocito. Claro.

 

[Frosty]

Picking up on bits of spanish here and there.

 

[Dreamer]

Took Spanish through high school and also in my undergrad, but unfortunately, I let my progress die once I gradated. I was able to practice it while studying abroad which was really cool and put the language in context for me. Nowadays, I can still understand enough in conversation or on TV to get the general idea of what's being said, and I can more or less read Spanish, but my speaking ability is basically limited to short sentences and not straying too far from the present tense

I've always had an interest in French though since I love how the language sounds. Even in high school, I had an interest in French, but went the Spanish route for its utility (grew up in the Bay Area). So these days, I'm teaching myself French here and there and watch the news in French on: Infos,' 'news' '&' 'actualités' '-' 'L'''information' 'internationale' 'en' 'direct' '-' 'France' '24 often just to help nail down the pronunciation and get a feel for the flow of the language.

My goal is to be able to fluently speak Spanish and French some day, but I'm going to try out French for now. I'm hoping that my interest for it, rather than for utility, will help keep me motivated in learning it.

 

[Red Herring]

Eine sehr gute Idee. Machen einen, bitte!

For heaven's sake, man, I am an INTP - we brainstorm and analyze, but we don't actually DO things!!!
However, I'll make an exception today.

Here you go: http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/academics-and-careers/79040-donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapit-nsm-tze-nstricker-german-support.html#post2527749


Damn it, the forum software keeps splitting that into two words but it's actually one. That ruined my thread title!!!!!!

 

[Also]

I took a course in French a few semesters ago. Although I passed the class, I left not knowing much. It was a mixture of bad teaching and getting behind early on and not having the energy to catch up. I went to the bookstore last week to pick up a few 'French for beginners' textbooks, so we'll see if I'm successful this time. I've seen some beautiful French films that I loused up with English subtitles and I eventually want to travel and maybe live in France for a bit so it's important that I learn at some point.

I would also like to learn Portuguese, especially when written.

 

[senza tema]

Pro tip: Don't.

Please tell me this accent stuff will eventually make sense.

 

[kyuuei]

I've been trying to develop a system of exposure to French that makes it more frequent in my daily life.. I picked up this 10 minutes of french a day book and while I don't quite like the layout of it, I DO like the stickers it comes with! You can stick them right on shit and look at them constantly as you use them--kitchen, fridge, phone, etc. Get you used to the basics of general exposure of the written words and what they correspond with...

I need to start watching french tv/shows more often though those are pretty hard to find for me it seems outside of some pretentious TV on netflix and my Kaamelott DVDs I covet so much. Finding time to watch any shows is hard though, so I found this website and I'm going to download some podcasts to listen to on my way to work! 10 Awesome French Podcasts for French Learners

For writing, I'm going to try writing a couple sentences in french to my best friend everyday to try practicing that. And for speaking, I'm going to start trying to speak to my boyfriend in french more, and speak to my best friend in french more, as I gain exposure to more and more. I can read an easy book page every other day or so, that's not that bad.

I have plenty of work books as well, and I need to just pull one out and poke through it a bit.

I was swamped all last year with school, and now with my orientation.. but I'm soon coming off of that orientation and moving to just working my 3 days a week. When that happens, and I get more in a groove, I think I'll finally have some time to really breathe and be good to go on my personal time. Which means making good on my resolution, even if that is 9 months into the year.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Please tell me this accent stuff will eventually make sense.

Ha! After I got my Ancient Greek certificate, I forgot almost all of the grammar stuff, but your post made me have a look at my grammar because it was never really explained to us during class. (By the way, do you have to translate into Greek as well, or put accents yourself? We were told that you only had to do it if you studied Ancient Greek, so it had always retained some of its mystical aura to me.)

The way I understand it from my grammar, it's like this:

Every word has an accent.
Every phrase has a (main) accent.
The accent of the phrase is either an acute or circumflex. Acutes other than the main accent of the phrase turn into grave (unless there is an acute on the first syllable of the phrase); circumflexes remain the same (?).

I'm not at all sure about this though, but I hope it helps. Greek is still pretty Greek to me :/

 

[Mademoiselle]

Yeah, turkish, I use the duolingo app.
I usually learn the alphabet first, basic phrases, and start watching movies in the own language's subtitles.
This is the fastest/fun way so far.

 

[Pinker85]

Sorta, yeah ... I let things trickle into my cranium, what is meant to stay will stay, and what is meant to go will be forgotten, mostly, until sitting on the toilet at 3am and bam 'arigato' ... that's when I wish I had that waitress at the Japanese restaurants number just so I could be like "BAM -- arigato" text message sent! Brain like a steel trap, bitches!! lmao

 

[senza tema]

Ha! After I got my Ancient Greek certificate, I forgot almost all of the grammar stuff, but your post made me have a look at my grammar because it was never really explained to us during class. (By the way, do you have to translate into Greek as well, or put accents yourself? We were told that you only had to do it if you studied Ancient Greek, so it had always retained some of its mystical aura to me.)

The way I understand it from my grammar, it's like this:

Every word has an accent.
Every phrase has a (main) accent.
The accent of the phrase is either an acute or circumflex. Acutes other than the main accent of the phrase turn into grave (unless there is an acute on the first syllable of the phrase); circumflexes remain the same (?).

I'm not at all sure about this though, but I hope it helps. Greek is still pretty Greek to me :/

Yeah, we're going to be doing some elementary composition + translation into Greek in a couple of weeks. Right now, our drills and quizzes involve inserting accents and breathing.

I've had all of two classes in which we've already covered two declensions. My head is spinning. Also, there's no ablative. WTF is up with that??? I don't like this language. LATIN IS SO MUCH NICER.

 

[RedAmazoneFriendZone]

Yes, I'm learning spiritual and intuition as new languages since years ago.

Without it, life is much more boring, shallow and insignificant.

I loose less time, I win hope, humanity, and can communicate differently with so many different people.

 

[danseen]

Si. Estoy aprenendo Espanol. Pienso sabo muchas palabras, pero tengo hambre a aprender mas. Quiero un viajo, y voy a practicar en Puerto Rico. Las personas me hablan que San Juan es caliente. Posiblmente, un viajo a Caracas o Miami. Estos lugares cerca de.

 

[Hank]

Right now, I'm learning French and Hindi. I took two years of Spanish in high school, and I think I've retained it pretty well since then. I had an excellent teacher. Eventually, I'd like to learn (or at least try) American Sign Language, Arabic, Mandarin, and Italian, although I really doubt I'll get around to any of those anytime soon.

I really find learning new languages fascinating--I just wish I could obtain and retain vocabulary as easily as I like to imagine I can. It would help immensely if I actually had opportunities to use what I'm learning.