Language Learner's Thread - Cunning Linguists Welcome. - General

how do i create transliterations for anki, the shared decks are kinda crappy, memrise seems to break up the learning better but i dont like the app i think self learning a tonal language is a bad idea but id rather learn something useful rather than just because

I've reached the point where I'm having regular conversations in finnish with my girlfriend (and to a lesser extent her parents), so I think im making progress

someone on reddit suggested i should learn to read rather than just transliteration, it sounds kind of hellish learning a different writing system like thai but maybe they are right, alot of people here seem to learn japanese do you agree its better to learn to read first?

Never been a fan of transliteration. I guess go for it if you have absolutely no intention of actually using the language apart from speaking but if you do transliteration is only going to hurt you in the long run.

[QUOTE=waylander;52654317]someone on reddit suggested i should learn to read rather than just transliteration, it sounds kind of hellish learning a different writing system like thai but maybe they are right, alot of people here seem to learn japanese do you agree its better to learn to read first?[/QUOTE] สวัสดีครับ my man, go straight for learning to write. Thai writing isn't exactly simple but you aren't learning Mandarin or Japanese. It'll make it so much easier.

Oh my god how did I not know about Jalup earlier. Intermediate+ is J-J and I don't have to make cards myself. Initially this seems to be the Tae Kim's Guide to Grammar of vocabulary. [editline]9th September 2017[/editline] Skipped beginner though, no idea what that's like. [editline]9th September 2017[/editline] Even the kanji side is great. Guess WaniKani is getting cancelled after a single month.

4 weeks into my Japanese course and boy it's moving faster than I thought it would be. It's fun though. Of note, my major requires 2 semesters of a foreign language for some reason, hence why I am even taking it :v:

is memrise pro worth getting? [editline]10th September 2017[/editline] im not doing an official course so i think some features wouldnt be available

Not really

[QUOTE=The Aussie;52656506]สวัสดีครับ my man, go straight for learning to write. Thai writing isn't exactly simple but you aren't learning Mandarin or Japanese. It'll make it so much easier.[/QUOTE] i think i have been doing ok at learning the consonants but some things dont make sense when used in words like สวัสดี having two ส characters but the second one not being pronounced or having the symbol for a silent letter

Anyone else feel drawn to Asian languages? I'm learning Korean right now and I want to learn Japanese (mainly because it would be a lot easier because of their grammatical similarities) when I reach all my goals in the Korean language and truly can say that I speak it (so, advanced to highly-advanced is where I'd probably stop studying actively and move onto to another language) I just think that Asian languages are for some reason more interesting to me than any other kind of language, so I want to learn a lot of them over my lifetime. I think the writing systems, the grammar, the pronunciation, etc. is wildly different a lot of the time and it just intrigues the shit out of me.

[QUOTE=ihatecompvir;52687452]Anyone else feel drawn to Asian languages? I'm learning Korean right now and I want to learn Japanese (mainly because it would be a lot easier because of their grammatical similarities) when I reach all my goals in the Korean language and truly can say that I speak it (so, advanced to highly-advanced is where I'd probably stop studying actively and move onto to another language) I just think that Asian languages are for some reason more interesting to me than any other kind of language, so I want to learn a lot of them over my lifetime. I think the writing systems, the grammar, the pronunciation, etc. is wildly different a lot of the time and it just intrigues the shit out of me.[/QUOTE] Yeah, German got boring because it was too similar. I'd recommend laddering when you get good enough at Korean, that way you won't get confused in the beginning between E-K and E-J translations and don't need to relearn grammar. It's what I plan to do with Korean at some point, got a J-K mango somewhere. Started but never finished learning hanguel and cyrillic at some point.

[QUOTE=helifreak;52688101]I'd recommend laddering when you get good enough at Korean, that way you won't get confused in the beginning between E-K and E-J translations and don't need to relearn grammar. It's what I plan to do with Korean at some point, got a J-K mango somewhere.[/QUOTE] I assume this means learn Japanese from Korean sources, which is what I planned to do. The only real thing I know is gonna be difficult is the Kanji, but language learning is a slow process and I know eventually I'll have them down. Also, as an added benefit, having some knowledge of Chinese characters will make will make it easier to deduce what new Korean/Japanese words mean.

Know any solid resources to learn serbian? I'm struggling to find anything concrete, can't even find a promising book.

How close is Syriac to modern Hebrew? I am learning Syriac and I heard that it is similar to Hebrew, but how similar? Can a Hebrew speaker understand Syriac? Is it similar to how German and Dutch are similar, or are they more different? I am learning Syriac at the moment because it's the language of my ancestors. With the wars in Syria and Iraq, which had the largest Syriac populations and the, unfortunately, the largest Syriac casualties, the number of Syriac-speaking people has decreased significantly. I have decided to start learning Syriac so that the language doesn't die. The only members of my family who speak Syriac are my grandparents (both from my mom's side and my dad's side of the family).

[QUOTE=pussy;52695149]Know any solid resources to learn serbian? I'm struggling to find anything concrete, can't even find a promising book.[/QUOTE] I noticed a [img]https://facepunch.com/fp/flags/ca.png[/img] under your name If you speak french fluently, assimil has a books for basically everything. Looks like serbo-croatian is available there.

[QUOTE=Reflex F.N.;52702597]How close is Syriac to modern Hebrew? I am learning Syriac and I heard that it is similar to Hebrew, but how similar? Can a Hebrew speaker understand Syriac? Is it similar to how German and Dutch are similar, or are they more different? [/QUOTE] I tried to watch a youtube video in Syriac and couldn't understand anything

[QUOTE=Kero_;52703632]I tried to watch a youtube video in Syriac and couldn't understand anything[/QUOTE]All right, thank you so much for your help! :happy:

[QUOTE=thelurker1234;52702866]I noticed a [img]https://facepunch.com/fp/flags/ca.png[/img] under your name If you speak french fluently, assimil has a books for basically everything. Looks like serbo-croatian is available there.[/QUOTE] That looks like the most promising option so far. I think I forgot most of the french I learned in school and after a bad experience at a six flags in quebec I don't have any desire to relearn french but it might be worth it for this. Thanks for letting me know about it!

Just got my first job as a translator :3 feels damn good. also the pay is pretty sweet i wasnt expecting this holy shit

I'm learning Japanese and I've gotten the hang of Hiragana, having difficulty with katakana though because the symbols seem a little more... Vague?

I know this isn't the purpose of this thread, but since a couple people here know Chinese, could someone translate this for me? [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/it2kfAl.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=YuriNikolai;52706925]Just got my first job as a translator :3 feels damn good. also the pay is pretty sweet i wasnt expecting this holy shit[/QUOTE] I have a side job translating meetings in German to English, an extra €100 is sweet. If I was full time I'd be making a lot more than that.

[QUOTE=rider695;52707602]I know this isn't the purpose of this thread, but since a couple people here know Chinese, could someone translate this for me? [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/it2kfAl.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] 我不知道应该要写什么。。。 I mean it technically means： I don't know what I should want to write. Sounds a bit better in Chinese。

Was just asked by the Japanese department at my university to accompany a Japanese tennis player the women's tennis team is trying to recruit during her tour so I can interpret for her. Goddamn am I nervous

God damn that was difficult. Interpreting a conversation as it's happening is a completely different skill than speaking the language or translating. Everyone seemed pretty happy with the job I did so I guess I'll count it as a win

So I thought I'd share this pretty cool site that was recently founded called "Bunpro." It's a free SRS site for Japanese Grammar and has manual input similar to WaniKani's (which I personally loved). It's still in development but it has grammar points all the way up to N3 currently, or what they consider to be N3. They have some examples of their own and also link to websites/videos like Tae Kim. It's been super helpful for me so far, so I figured I'd share it for anyone who wanted to try it out. [url]https://www.bunpro.jp/[/url]

I'm trying to learn so many languages simultaneously that just the sentences are starting to conflict with one another Hallo, mein freunde. Mein nimja ist Siim desu. Yoroshkunegaishimasu urod bljet jummal lautaa

[QUOTE=SILBERDRACHEN;52783793]I'm trying to learn so many languages simultaneously that just the sentences are starting to conflict with one another Hallo, mein freunde. Mein nimja ist Siim desu. Yoroshkunegaishimasu urod bljet jummal lautaa[/QUOTE] This is precisely what laddering exists to prevent. Any time I try to remember what little German I learnt it comes out half Japanese due to the same source language.

[QUOTE=helifreak;52783811]This is precisely what laddering exists to prevent. Any time I try to remember what little German I learnt it comes out half Japanese due to the same source language.[/QUOTE] Yep, trying to learn the local language and every time I try to say something in Norwegian I can only remember Japanese... even though I haven't spoken or even practised Japanese in years.