Are you learning a new language?

[EJCC]

I never really considered myself 'good' at English until my vocabulary was expanded enough that I could write a decent resume without consulting a dictionary and thesaurus every minute.

^ Whoa, wait. That just sunk in.

English wasn't your first language??

 

[FDG]

I can speak 4 languages but if I have to be really honest, it feels wasted time/space in my brain. Physics is much more interesting.

The only real plus is being able to read novels in their original version, they indeed acquire much more charme.

 

[kyuuei]

^ Whoa, wait. That just sunk in.

English wasn't your first language??

Ooops! It definitely was my first, and currently only, language I am fluent in. But I always considered myself under educated with it until I felt competent and confident in writing resumes and being able to articulate exactly what I want to say without the help of others. It amazes me how "fluent" English speakers are actually not fluent at all and often have difficulty expressing themselves in their own language.. So I made it a point to feel completely competent.

 

[kyuuei]

Picked up Japanese a couple of months ago. It's something I always wanted to do, and I really love the language. The trouble is to find good books though that go beyond beginner level while still affordable.

Also - if you want to count that as a foreign language (it is sort of), I'm learning Old English at the moment. It's got its very own quirky charm, and being German really helps a lot here.

Have you tried shopping at jbox.com ? They seem to have a wide variety of textbook material, and even selling tests of the JLPT from previous years it has been held.

 

[violet_crown]

I always flirt with the idea of picking up Spanish. I don't think it would be that difficult, but I'm not really fluent in the other languages I've studied, so it seems silly to pick up another.

 

[King sns]

I always flirt with the idea of picking up Spanish. I don't think it would be that difficult, but I'm not really fluent in the other languages I've studied, so it seems silly to pick up another.

I find Spanish to be slightly different in this sense because not only is the setup and accent fairly easy, but there's native Spanish speakers everywhere, so you can like eavesdrop Spanish or bounce it off your friends. Not like Chinese or Arabic or something. Or stupid French with it's dumb accent.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Swedish. I have a subscription of Finnish and Swedish semi-monthly/monthly magazines that have the exact same articles written in both of the languages. I've got basics of swedish so I think I'm able to catch on. I've also planned to read dictionarys & wiki articles of the same subjects, and glance a book on grammar once in a while.

 

[Raffaella]

I'm learning Arabic, and not all my reasons are good -- although some are.

1. I started taking it because, hey, what the hell, the option was there, and the summer language institute was free, so I took advantage of it.
2. It's extremely useful, and marketable.
3. Sticking with it made more practical sense after I transferred to my current university, from a different one, at the beginning of sophomore year.
4. Learning how to learn a language means being able to learn others quicker, which is also marketable.
5. It's really pretty. <3

I know this is two years old but are you still learning it?
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Yeah, I'm learning a new language. I keep translating phrases directly from english, e.g "do it yourself". Stupid, very, very stupid because what's actually said is "do yourself" when the correct term in that language is "you go do it" however since I'm only learning to speak it (I'll learn to write later), these mistakes are expected. It helps having people who are fluent in that language around you.

When I finish my degree, I'm going to learn two of the three languages I had to study in high school; French and German. I've already looked into classes and I've started reading Asterix and Obelix in French, again.

 

[EJCC]

I know this is two years old but are you still learning it?

Been out of college for a year now, and unfortunately the job I got after graduation has absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East, so I haven't been super motivated to keep learning. HOWEVER, about 5 minutes ago(!!!), I networked my way into a halfway-decent chance at a Middle East Analyst position, so I'm going to start refreshing my writing and reading comprehension skills. Still have my old textbooks, and step 1 is going to be going through my Media Arabic book again.

 

[Flâneuse]

I already know basic Spanish, but I want to eventually become fully fluent. I've been studying old textbooks and using busuu.com and Byki software (I don't care for Rosetta Stone), but I need to join a Spanish conversation meetup group as well.

 

[Raffaella]

Been out of college for a year now, and unfortunately the job I got after graduation has absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East, so I haven't been super motivated to keep learning. HOWEVER, about 5 minutes ago(!!!), I networked my way into a halfway-decent chance at a Middle East Analyst position, so I'm going to start refreshing my writing and reading comprehension skills. Still have my old textbooks, and step 1 is going to be going through my Media Arabic book again.

Oh, congratulations!

Are you required to communicate in formal Arabic or a specific dialect? Did you originally learn formal Arabic? It's a difficult language however some English words originated from Arabic so you probably recognise them.

 

[EJCC]

Oh, congratulations!

Thanks! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Are you required to communicate in formal Arabic or a specific dialect? Did you originally learn formal Arabic? It's a difficult language however some English words originated from Arabic so you probably recognise them.

It was about 98% MSA, and 2% Egyptian dialect (when I studied abroad there). So I'm good to go for any job that requires watching the news and/or reading anything. But I have no idea what's going on in Arabic pop music or comedy films/TV shows unless there are English subtitles, and I sound ridiculous when I try to talk to people. "Dost thou know the whereabouts of the nearest lavatory?"

 

[skylights]

I am learning ASL for my new job Slowly, but steadily.

Been out of college for a year now, and unfortunately the job I got after graduation has absolutely nothing to do with the Middle East, so I haven't been super motivated to keep learning. HOWEVER, about 5 minutes ago(!!!), I networked my way into a halfway-decent chance at a Middle East Analyst position, so I'm going to start refreshing my writing and reading comprehension skills. Still have my old textbooks, and step 1 is going to be going through my Media Arabic book again.

So neat!! My fingers are crossed for you. I am really interested in Middle Eastern culture and architecture, and tried teaching myself Arabic a long time ago. I gave up, though, lol. I think it's awesome you were able to study it seriously.

 

[Rail Tracer]

Awesome. Right now I am trying to learn a bit of Japanese because of future endeavors (I've talked about this in another thread.) I've been looking at Kanji (and words), sentence structures, and such. So far it is still at an elementary level. I enjoy it because I am watching online videos in Japanese... and I got to learn quite a bit of Japanese online culture (many of them very funny.)

Some tools that I have used (I might look for something similar in a few years to learn another language.)

Anki - It's like a flashcard for smartphones (but also available for computers.) Basically, you input as many words and phrases as you want. Depending on how many words or phrases you want to learn per day, it'll remind you to learn between 10-30 words. And, depending on how familiar you are with the word, you can say that it is easy, good, hard and it'll bring that card back to the deck later in the week. Some languages already have a whole list of words and phrases already created by others. I'd assume French, Spanish, and Japanese have a lot of Anki decks. So, if one of your first French words was "Bonjour" you'll continue seeing that word until you remember that it means "Hello" in French. then after, say 1-15 days, you'll see it reappear so that you don't forget what it means.

Media - because Japan has a big media presence, at least online, I look through nicococo, anime, video games, and documentaries in Japanese. So far, this is mostly for getting accustomed to hearing words and phrases besides just looking at them. Even though I am already accustomed to hearing the language, I am not accustomed to hearing the language for words. But when I do, I can sort of guess what one means. This is actually a great way to listen to French and Spanish.

Windows Japanese IME - great tool for typing in japanese. It makes it so that you'll start remembering the Katakana and Hiragana you type, but it also allows you to change hiragana to Kanji. head to a place that you can type rudimentary Japanese, and you'll learn a lot.

JED - it's a Japanese - English translator (and vice versa) I use it to search for Kanji through radicals to find words. When looking through material I can copy and paste, this is my go to. I can search for most kanji this way.

 

[Raffaella]

It was about 98% MSA, and 2% Egyptian dialect (when I studied abroad there). So I'm good to go for any job that requires watching the news and/or reading anything. But I have no idea what's going on in Arabic pop music or comedy films/TV shows unless there are English subtitles, and I sound ridiculous when I try to talk to people. "Dost thou know the whereabouts of the nearest lavatory?"

ROFL. They have so many soap operas and they constantly producing new ones all with the same plot line (village girl can't marry village boy). Their talk shows are also amusing, the women are heavily made up and spend more time giggling than talking.

 

[Kierva]

Thanks! Keeping my fingers crossed.


It was about 98% MSA, and 2% Egyptian dialect (when I studied abroad there). So I'm good to go for any job that requires watching the news and/or reading anything. But I have no idea what's going on in Arabic pop music or comedy films/TV shows unless there are English subtitles, and I sound ridiculous when I try to talk to people. "Dost thou know the whereabouts of the nearest lavatory?"

I know how to read Qur'an Arabic but I don't know how to read Standard Arabic. The missing signs and symbols just throws me off.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think I might teach myself Italian or Portuguese. I can understand written Spanish well enough (have trouble with the spoken form... can't keep up). Italian and Portuguese look similar.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I've already studied three, but I'd like to learn French, and I'd like to dabble in Sanskrit someday.

 

[Flâneuse]

I'm dabbling in French and Dutch with Duolingo 40 minutes a day. There's no way I'm going to become fluent this way, but right now I'm just trying to get the basics and prepare for more instruction later.

 

[Olm the Water King]

I'm dabbling in French and Dutch with Duolingo 40 minutes a day. There's no way I'm going to become fluent this way, but right now I'm just trying to get the basics and prepare for more instruction later.

For English speakers, this shows how many hours you're supposed to learn a specific language to become proficient: Language Difficulty Ranking | Effective Language Learning

Dutch and French are both in Category I (575 - 600 hours).

In case you're interested.