• Language Learning - Parlez-Vous français?
    760 replies, posted
Dutch is about as hard as French or German. It does share around 75% of it's vocab with German. I'm not aware of a huge amount of resources for dutch, so it might be worth while deconstructing the language, and finding out important things like word order. For example, Japanese is Subject-object- Verb instead of Subject-Verb Object like we use. Then i might recommend some sort of L-R and live mocha or something else like assimil on the side. [url=http://www.grimmstories.com/nl/grimm_sprookjes/index|] Here[/url] is a site that has some of the Brothers Grimm Stories in Dutch with Audio & Written. You'll need to make your own bilingual text but it should pay off in the end. As far as I'm concerned the simple language in it should be enough to help you get a grip on it. Happy learning!
I speak English and Mandarin (read/write/speak for both). Trying to learn Latin now. Yes, I'm aware it's a dead language and no one outside of a classics department will speak it, but I've always found it fascinating. Ancient Greek too. Always wanted to be a polyglot.
Going to Italy for spring break next year, so I'm gonna start learning some Italian pretty soon. I'm already pretty good with Latin, so at least I have a starting point. [editline]30th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Xybjj;36572430]I speak English and Mandarin (read/write/speak for both). Trying to learn Latin now. Yes, I'm aware it's a dead language and no one outside of a classics department will speak it, but I've always found it fascinating. Ancient Greek too. Always wanted to be a polyglot.[/QUOTE] Latin is a lot of fun, especially when you get into the poetry.
OP, in the Japanese bio you say Japanese has three different [I]languages[/I]: Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. This should be changed to [I]alphabets[/I] as these are writing systems, not languages.
Changes: -Added Section on Anki -Fixed mistakes (Thanks Ast_risk!) -Added more on reading listening. -Russian and Italian language Bio's
Is Italian hard to learn?
[QUOTE=Kirbyfactor;36575162]Is Italian hard to learn?[/QUOTE] Italian is much easier to learn then french or german. If you speak another romance language (French, Latin, Spanish or Portuguese). Italian is much more phonetic then French, although not as perfectly phonetic like Spanish. An hour a day if you don't speak any other romance language should get you to advanced fluency in about 12 to 18 months. Italian is widely studied so it has plenty of resouces to find. The word genders and other things, such as the odd conjugation of frequently used verbs is hard at first but gets easier as time goes on. Most other romance languages suffer this. The rolled r can be tricky at frist but otherwise the language should be quite easy. Finally, the Italians are quite forgiving of mistakes, and often do not expect people to speak their language. This can be a huge confidence boost and they are often happy to help you.
I lived in France for a year and did AS level at school, but I can barely speak it now due to the fact that I don't have to. I'd really like to learn Russian and German though.
I've been learning Norwegian for a couple years now. Still no good at it. But still, I saw thread title and got the perfect music for this thread. [QUOTE][video=youtube;XRZ-jLOrFfk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRZ-jLOrFfk[/video][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;36576167]I've been learning Norwegian for a couple years now. Still no good at it. But still, I saw thread title and got the perfect music for this thread.[/QUOTE] That's where i got the inpiration. If you are having trouble with Norwegian, try using a different method, maybe one of the ones i posted in the OP or others from How to learn any language. (Incase you didn't read the update, it's a community of polygots who share language learning techniques/secrets.)
[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;36572095]Attempting to learn Dutch. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE] Visit the Dutch chat thread. It's called Nederdraad. They might help you out. Also, the grammar in Dutch can be nonsensical at times.
Je voudrais un croissant. Où est la piscine?
Seconding Anki, also you can use audio you just have to find it or record it yourself.
My first language is French. :v: I'd love to learn Japanese, but it feels very overwhelming to me. I don't know if I could pull through.
[QUOTE=Xybjj;36572430]I speak English and Mandarin (read/write/speak for both). Trying to learn Latin now. Yes, I'm aware it's a dead language and no one outside of a classics department will speak it, but I've always found it fascinating. Ancient Greek too. Always wanted to be a polyglot.[/QUOTE] I'm learning Mandarin as my second language. I just spent a month in China and learned a few vocabulary. Any advice?
[QUOTE=Abrown516;36587084]I'm learning Mandarin as my second language. I just spent a month in China and learned a few vocabulary. Any advice?[/QUOTE] English-Chinese dictionary helped me. Can you read hanyu pinyin? I live in Singapore so I speak Chinese to some locals sometimes, helps with the practice. To the OP: Maybe you can add a penpal section? To speak with others in a particular language, for practice.
[QUOTE=Xybjj;36588740] To the OP: Maybe you can add a penpal section? To speak with others in a particular language, for practice.[/QUOTE] Sure, i'd be happy to put in a pen-pal section. If it's going to work, we need a few people who speak a language natively to be willing to chat with others. I'd be willing to help with English. Lang8 is similar to this. You submit written texts to be corrected by native speakers in return for correcting others work.
[QUOTE=eichhornch;36557292]I can fluently speak luxembourgish, german, french and english. Although in Luxembourg this isn't really a big deal as everyone learns all of these languages in school. Pretty much everyone here speaks atleast three of them. It is pretty handy though knowing all those languages.[/QUOTE] Isnt luxembourgish just a mix of dutch, french and german.? Im dutch and I can somehow understand (not speak) it a bit due to knowing, well french dutch and german.
Have you guys tried the active courses in livemocha? 'Cause the regular ones are useless.
Guys do you think it would be stupid buying a book in German? I am still in the early stages in learning the language.
I'm bilingual in Italian and English, but for some reason I'd like to learn german. But I feel to lazy to start. Is it difficult?
Je parle Français assez correctement. Faut dire que c'est quand même ma première langue! And I also speak English and yes French is a pretty difficult language to learn, at least for the English people I knew that tried to learn it.
I know English (Primary) Spanish (Basic) and am in the Process of learning Italian I found French very annoying especially with the mandatory classes here in Canada. Should I learn any other languages? I think German, Russian and Japanese look fairly interesting.
[QUOTE=crazycombine;36599256]I know English (Primary) Spanish (Basic) and am in the Process of learning Italian I found French very annoying especially with the mandatory classes here in Canada. Should I learn any other languages? I think German, Russian and Japanese look fairly interesting.[/QUOTE] I'm not too familiar, but maybe you could look into lojban.
Is it really possible to learn a language (German to be exact) by immersing yourself in that language, such as watching German films/television and listening to German music? I thought I'd ask as surely this isn't possible without having to literally go through hundreds of thousands of hours of listening to the language before it sinks in. Or does viewing foreign entertainment just help the learning process and fluency in the language, and can only be used as aid rather than a core learning process?
After learning Japanese, I'm thinking of either learning Swedish or French. I'm leaning more towards French as it is an absolutely beautiful language (or why not learn both) Then maybe after that I'll learn Anglo Saxon for the hell of it.
I took Spanish in school for a couple years and shit was easy as fuck. I tried to learn Russian a few years ago but it was confusing as fuck and now all I have for Russian is the ability to read the alphabet (it literally took me 15 minutes to learn this), some basic vocabulary and decent pronunciation. I should probably try again now that I'm older and have more patience. [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=David Tennant;36599948]Is it really possible to learn a language (German to be exact) by immersing yourself in that language, such as watching German films/television and listening to German music? I thought I'd ask as surely this isn't possible without having to literally go through hundreds of thousands of hours of listening to the language before it sinks in. Or does viewing foreign entertainment just help the learning process and fluency in the language, and can only be used as aid rather than a core learning process?[/QUOTE] By listening to Russian music and watching Russian TV shows and movies with English subtitles it helped with pronunciation and I learned a little bit of vocabulary. It should be similar with other languages.
[QUOTE=David Tennant;36599948]Is it really possible to learn a language (German to be exact) by immersing yourself in that language, such as watching German films/television and listening to German music? I thought I'd ask as surely this isn't possible without having to literally go through hundreds of thousands of hours of listening to the language before it sinks in. Or does viewing foreign entertainment just help the learning process and fluency in the language, and can only be used as aid rather than a core learning process?[/QUOTE] Well im pretty sure I learned 70% of my english from tv and games. So that would work but take ages. I learned German and french in highschool, but never actively learned annything after that (5 years ago) I never speak french so im kinda horrible at that now, but I do speak/read/watch german now and then and my german is now way better than my french. So it definitely helps but i think you need a base first. Else you are just like: WTF is going on.
[QUOTE=Feuver;36586646]My first language is French. :v: I'd love to learn Japanese, but it feels very overwhelming to me. I don't know if I could pull through.[/QUOTE] Most Asian languages are based on completely different grammar constructs compared to most European languages, so when you are not used to them (which is my case) they sound like utter gibberish. If your first language is French you are going to have a bit of a hard time learning it but it's eventually going to be quite rewarding. Given the massive grammar differences there are between both languages it may even help you learn other languages since you would have a wider idea of what and how grammar can work in two utterly different tongues.
Arabic is one I would really love to learn.
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