• Language Learning - Parlez-Vous français?
    760 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Binge le mag;39303989]Oh, well I guess what I'd like to know is if there's any programs available to help me learn the basics of Russian. Alphabet, basic words, very basic grammar possibly. I'm fully aware that a program won't really let me be fluent in the language.[/QUOTE] As far as I know there aren't any programs. You should try [e-]books, I have some good ones on my tablet, I'll upload them for you if you want. For the alphabet, use a [URL="http://www.globusworldwide.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/russian-alphabet3.gif"]chart[/URL] and read random text you find, it helps a lot in memorising transliteration and sound. Good luck, what got you interested in Russian?
[QUOTE=Mr. Epicness;39304246]As far as I know there aren't any programs. You should try [e-]books, I have some good ones on my tablet, I'll upload them for you if you want. For the alphabet, use a [URL="http://www.globusworldwide.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/russian-alphabet3.gif"]chart[/URL] and read random text you find, it helps a lot in memorising transliteration and sound. Good luck, what got you interested in Russian?[/QUOTE] Ah, that would be very kind. Thank you! What really interested me, to be perfectly honest, was just how beautiful the language sounds. I really enjoy it, and would love to eventually be fluent in it.
Does anyone have any resources for learning Swedish? I checked out the OP but I didn't find a lot of websites that had Swedish on them.
[QUOTE=Broadus;39321789]Does anyone have any resources for learning Swedish? I checked out the OP but I didn't find a lot of websites that had Swedish on them.[/QUOTE] I can only think of a few, like lingq... though it costs money, They have a lot of material you can LR. Memrise is also good for vocab [url]http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish.html[/url] Should have grammar, someone will probably come along with better websites than me, though.
[QUOTE=Broadus;39321789]Does anyone have any resources for learning Swedish? I checked out the OP but I didn't find a lot of websites that had Swedish on them.[/QUOTE] I think this one's pretty good: [url]http://www.onlineswedish.com/main.php[/url]
Checking my answers with Google Translate and [img]http://puu.sh/1Y9Z1[/img] lol (yes the sentence and conjugation are p messed up) [editline]5th February 2013[/editline] Come to think of it checking work with google translate from your second language to your native language is about as useful as asking a murderer for spiritual advice.
Google Translate is great though for deciphering conversations with words you don't know at all, especially now that it gives suggestions! Say I came across "苹果手机的价格" and didn't know much; the first two characters mean 'apple', I don't know what 3 and 4 mean, 5-7 are "'s price". "Apple ___'s price". Google Translate for 3 and 4 give me "phone" and a suggested "cellular phone" and instantly I know the phrase means "iPhone's price", and from now on, know 苹果手机 means iPhone.
[QUOTE=Disseminate;39490406]Google Translate is great though for deciphering conversations with words you don't know at all, especially now that it gives suggestions! Say I came across "苹果手机的价格" and didn't know much; the first two characters mean 'apple', I don't know what 3 and 4 mean, 5-7 are "'s price". "Apple ___'s price". Google Translate for 3 and 4 give me "phone" and a suggested "cellular phone" and instantly I know the phrase means "iPhone's price", and from now on, know 苹果手机 means iPhone.[/QUOTE] Yeah we're even allowed to use it in class actually, but the other way around doesn't work so well lol.
I use word reference. Better for learning in my opinion. It's pretty much a bilingual dictionary combined with a grammar book.
What do you guys think about learning Polish? I plan to visit at the end of the year for several months, but I can't get many resource-rich websites for the language. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but still. Tips? Advice? Absolutely anything? c:
Is there an in-browser translator much like google translate but one that can actually like, handle medium-long sentences without shitting itself and spewing out gibberish?
Machine translation is pretty fucked at the moment. Human language can depend on context quite often. Coupled with english's weird rules makes translation rather difficult.
Any advice to get over my massive tendency to procrastinate? I get good progress in german easily but i have difficulty of going consistently
get off your lazy ass and study. are you studying now? if not, go, you ass. There's no better cure to procrastinating than to just [I]do[/I].
[QUOTE=LNKFAN;39541883]get off your lazy ass and study. are you studying now? if not, go, you ass. There's no better cure to procrastinating than to just [I]do[/I].[/quote] What would a good resource to use on my phone? German language
Podcasts?
anyone want to be my buddy and help me learn Romanian? [editline]10th February 2013[/editline] Also, I [B]SERIOUSLY[/b] recommend anyone who is serious about learning a language to buy a Gold Key on LiveMocha.com and start one of their courses. Each unit and lesson is compounded at the end by a writing excercise and a speaking excercise, which are then submitted to native language speakers to correct and comment on. I've made incredible progress on Romanian in just four days thanks to this feature.
[QUOTE=FFStudios;39544418]anyone want to be my buddy and help me learn Romanian? [editline]10th February 2013[/editline] Also, I [B]SERIOUSLY[/b] recommend anyone who is serious about learning a language to buy a Gold Key on LiveMocha.com and start one of their courses. Each unit and lesson is compounded at the end by a writing excercise and a speaking excercise, which are then submitted to native language speakers to correct and comment on. I've made incredible progress on Romanian in just four days thanks to this feature.[/QUOTE] Really? I'll update the OP to reflect that. Thanks!
Been trying to learn Italian for a while now. Can't say I really like the language now :v: Also I'm in Italian class right now. We're like 5 peoplein there plus the teacher.
I tried Italian a long time ago before I came to the conclusion that I didn't like Romance languages. It was slightly difficult, but all I remember is the Berlitz Think & Talk CD teaching me the word "Il Chevrolet". It was pronounced really stupidly. But now I figure I might as well attempt to learn a Romance language because I've spent so long on Germanic ones. [editline]11th February 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=The Aussie;39547102]Really? I'll update the OP to reflect that. Thanks![/QUOTE] no worries man, it's like $5/month for the Gold Key and it gets you access to every single course available on the site. even without the Gold Key, you can get to plenty of the lessons for free
[QUOTE=FFStudios;39544418]anyone want to be my buddy and help me learn Romanian? [editline]10th February 2013[/editline] [b]Also, I [B]SERIOUSLY[/b] recommend anyone who is serious about learning a language to buy a Gold Key on LiveMocha.com[/b] and start one of their courses. Each unit and lesson is compounded at the end by a writing excercise and a speaking excercise, which are then submitted to native language speakers to correct and comment on. I've made incredible progress on Romanian in just four days thanks to this feature.[/QUOTE] How much is it? [editline]13th February 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=thelurker1234;39541571]Any advice to get over my massive tendency to procrastinate? I get good progress in german easily but i have difficulty of going consistently[/QUOTE] It may be just me, but I find things like this always hardest at the beginning. When you actually start seeing results, you'll want to go and do it more and more. It was the same for when I was beginning Japanese, or even other things like when I was trying to lose weight. At the start I was like "Ugh, why bother" or "Don't really feel like practicing right now!" but you just have to push past those feelings and keep working on it, cause as soon as you start seeing results it's kinda like "Oh shit, this is actually coming along well. Sweet!"
LiveMocha is $8.99 a month for a gold key. [editline]13th February 2013[/editline] Of course, there's deals if you buy longer amounts.
Damn this thread died? Can I ressurect it?
yes please, but its in GD so it might be worth starting a new thread
Hi guys welcome back commence learn thing
So since I last posted I'm now studying abroad in Hong Kong. I started learning Cantonese and stopped learning Mandarin in preparation for the exchange around May-ish. Cantonese is the main language of Hong Kong, and most of southern China. I'm taking a formal Mandarin course here but it's geared for foreigners and it's my favourite class so far, and is particularly easy compared to the other courses I'm taking (protip: never take math-based courses when studying abroad). So Cantonese is a lot harder to learn by the book than Mandarin, especially since there are basically no books on Cantonese. It's the same language in terms of grammar, but the Chinese character set and sound of the words are entirely different. If you know mando, you can literally look up the exact characters in a dictionary and read it word for word and it'll be exactly the same. I'm about to stop studying Canto though - Mandarin is just more fun for me to learn, and I don't plan on ever coming back to Hong Kong so it's kind of useless for me. Plus I'm pretty fortunate to get to practice my target language Mondays and Fridays for two hours each. Other than that I've travelled to Shenzhen and Beijing in the mainland and am travelling to Hangzhou in under a month and (hopefully) Shanghai after exams, around Christmas time. Living in the country really does motivate you, especially when you're confronted with an angry-looking cab driver looking for exact change and you're too drunk to remember the word for 'seven'. I've also been to Korea for a week and was about halfway to learning how to read the alphabet when I came back. Once again, living in the country motivates you to study! Anyways, I'll be back in Canada in January. How's everyone else been?
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