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Learn a language with me!

Started by littleredrobinhood, November 21, 2014, 05:56:14 PM

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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

What language(s) would you learn?

Spanish
1 (8.3%)
Danish
0 (0%)
Irish
0 (0%)
French
2 (16.7%)
Italian
2 (16.7%)
German
5 (41.7%)
Swedish
1 (8.3%)
Portugese
1 (8.3%)
Dutch (Netherlands)
1 (8.3%)
All of them!
3 (25%)

Total Members Voted: 12

littleredrobinhood

Hey y'all!  :D I just found a fun site called Duolingo (duolingo.com) and I thought I'd share.

About Duolingo:

Duolingo is a free-to-use site that helps you learn several different languages using simple "quiz" type games (well, I consider them games  :P), such as: choosing the word/picture to match the English word (assuming you chose English as your language), typing what you hear (they let you replay the audio as many times as you need - and there's even an option to play it slowly), and translating sentences into English - and vice versa (they let you "cheat", too! You can hover your cursor over a word, and it gives you a list of meanings + some other useful info. Like for instance; whether a word is "masculine", "feminine" or "neutral"). There's a few others, too!

Duolingo let's you take a "welcome lesson" as a guest - to give you a feel of how the lessons work (so you can decide if you'd like to join). After you finish the welcome lesson, you can either discard your progress, or make an account and continue learning. Fortunately, they don't ask for any personal information - no gender, name, location, etc - Just an email address!

Duolingo also keeps you motivated by letting you set a "daily XP goal" - You earn XP (that's experience points, for y'all non-gamers  :P) by by finishing a lesson. Getting answers wrong also depletes your "health" or hearts - lose them all and you don't get any XP. (See? Told you it's like a game! You even "level up" by reaching a certain amount of XP!).

Another fun thing about the site is the words you know have a "strength" meter that fills up or goes down depending on how recently you practiced. So if you don't do a practice session with that word for several days - the meter goes down. (I think this helps, because it can warn you of which words you might be forgetting due to not using/reviewing it enough)

You also earn "lingots" (they look like the rupees from Zelda  :laugh:) occasionally after completing a practice session/lesson, which you can spend in the "Lingot Store". And to be honest.. there's not a lot you can buy with them (at least, not yet). I've only bought the "Heart Refill" power-up (gives you back 1 of the hearts you lost during a lesson/session - which helps if you're almost at the end of a lesson, but only have one heart left), and the "Timed Practice" item (like the name says - it let's you do timed practice sessions. [which I haven't used yet *cough*]).


Anyway! There's more to the site, but you get the idea.  :P And for anyone who decides to join (or is already a member), my username on there is robin8592  :) I'm currently learning German - Still a total n00b, though.. I've only learned simple phrases like "She is drinking water", "The man is reading", etc. And according to my list, I've learned 59 words so far  :laugh: (I'm having to review/practice a lot, too. Still getting words mixed up and forgetting what others mean!)


Feel free to use this thread to brag ("I just reached level 7!", "I just completed another lesson!"), help out anyone else who is learning the same language, ask questions, or suggest other language learning sites/apps/books/etc.  :angel:
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Jill F

I think learning as many languages as you can is a wonderful goal.

It reminds me of a bad joke, and I apologize if it offends anyone.

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual

What do you call someone who speaks one language?
An American


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littleredrobinhood

Quote from: Jill F on November 21, 2014, 06:16:51 PM
I think learning as many languages as you can is a wonderful goal.

It reminds me of a bad joke, and I apologize if it offends anyone.

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Bilingual

What do you call someone who speaks one language?
An American

I'm American and I'm not offended in the least, because it's true.  :icon_lol: It seems like people from every other country whose main language is not English can speak at least 1 other language (usually English. And fluently, too)
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Jill F

I'm sad to say that I've lost my grip on French and Spanish.  My English is still OK, I think.
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Satyrane

I've taken a year of German in college, and I listen to German music frequently. This site looks like a great way to improve what I've learn. I'm always looking for new ways to strength my ability. Danke schoen. :)
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littleredrobinhood

Quote from: Jill F on November 21, 2014, 06:31:18 PM
I'm sad to say that I've lost my grip on French and Spanish.  My English is still OK, I think.

Even if you've lost most of it, you could probably recall a good chunk of it if you took a refresher.  :) It'd at least be a little easier than being totally new to the languages.

Quote from: Satyrane on November 21, 2014, 06:31:36 PM
I've taken a year of German in college, and I listen to German music frequently. This site looks like a great way to improve what I've learn. I'm always looking for new ways to strength my ability. Danke schoen. :)

You're welcome!  :D Feel free to add me if you join
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Edge

I speak English and French, but I'm losing the French from lack of use. I want to learn a whole bunch of languages mostly of the Norse and Germanic variety.

Quote from: Satyrane on November 21, 2014, 06:31:36 PM
I listen to German music frequently.
Hey me too! It seems we have some things in common. What bands do you like? (Sorry if this a derailment.)
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littleredrobinhood

Quote from: Edge on November 21, 2014, 06:48:14 PM
I speak English and French, but I'm losing the French from lack of use. I want to learn a whole bunch of languages mostly of the Norse and Germanic variety.
Hey me too! It seems we have some things in common. What bands do you like? (Sorry if this a derailment.)

I dunno about the mods, but I don't consider it derailing.  :laugh: The topic is still language (plus I might check out whatever groups y'all mention  :P The only German band I know is Oomph!)
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Edge

Quote from: littleredrobinhood on November 21, 2014, 06:51:17 PM
I dunno about the mods, but I don't consider it derailing.  :laugh: The topic is still language (plus I might check out whatever groups y'all mention  :P The only German band I know is Oomph!)
I like them too as well as other neue deutsche härte bands like Megaherz, Eisbrecher, Rammstein, ASP, some Tanzwut, and Saltatio Mortis. I also like In Extremo and Subway to Sally. SuidAkrA is from Germany, but I don't think any of their songs are in German.
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Marcellow

The only languages I would learn are French and Portuguese.
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littleredrobinhood

Quote from: Edge on November 21, 2014, 06:57:34 PM
I like them too as well as other neue deutsche härte bands like Megaherz, Eisbrecher, Rammstein, ASP, some Tanzwut, and Saltatio Mortis. I also like In Extremo and Subway to Sally. SuidAkrA is from Germany, but I don't think any of their songs are in German.

Whew! You listed quite a few.. Looks like I have a lot of listening to do  :laugh:
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littleredrobinhood

My brain is already tired  :icon_dizzy: Went from 59 words learned, to 95 (haha, it's like the number was flipped *easily amused*).

I'm gonna take a break and shower, but when I get back, I should probably do a bunch of practice sessions to make sure I'm not forgetting anything.. It might be a good idea to put off learning any new words until tomorrow, too, and just practice the ones I've already learned (especially since I'm still having trouble with a lot of them).

...it's so tempting to rush through, though.  :P
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MyKa

Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you'll die today.....J.Dean
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littleredrobinhood

Quote from: MyKa on November 21, 2014, 08:24:59 PM
Same here with my german :(

You're having trouble too, huh? How long have you been learning? And what is it that you're having most trouble with?

Me, I'm having trouble with verbs and plural nouns..  :icon_dizzy: Verbs especially. I'll probably have to target those specifically.. Like make some flashcards and try to match the verb to the correct pronoun.
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Satyrane

Quote from: Edge on November 21, 2014, 06:57:34 PM
I like them too as well as other neue deutsche härte bands like Megaherz, Eisbrecher, Rammstein, ASP, some Tanzwut, and Saltatio Mortis. I also like In Extremo and Subway to Sally. SuidAkrA is from Germany, but I don't think any of their songs are in German.

Your musical taste is identical to mine. I love Eisbrecher, and I practically worship Rammstein. Wumpscut is quite creative. I also find Unheilig's work beautiful too, even though I think the band is losing its hard edge.

After taking those German classes, I can get a feel for the sentence structure and cadence in the songs even if I'm not totally sure what they're saying. It doesn't sound like pretty gibberish anymore; I can hear the logic in the sentence construction.
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Edge

Quote from: Hanazono on November 22, 2014, 07:51:48 PM
the Canadians, Central Americans, South Americans might be slightly bemused by this!
Why's that? I'm Canadian and I'm not bemused by it.

Quote from: Satyrane on November 22, 2014, 07:11:30 PM
Your musical taste is identical to mine. I love Eisbrecher, and I practically worship Rammstein. Wumpscut is quite creative. I also find Unheilig's work beautiful too, even though I think the band is losing its hard edge.
I haven't heard of Wumpscut, but will check them out. I like some of Unheilig's stuff.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention I also like Faun.
German is such a beautiful language.
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littleredrobinhood

I just learned 36 more words (all adjectives), and omg. My head hurts!  :icon_dizzy: Especially thanks to this sentence they made me translate: "Gemeinsam lesen wir das Buch". Literally, "Together read we the book".

I was really confused, because all of the sentences they've had me translate so far go in the same order as English.
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Rainbow Dash

I already speak 2 languages. English and German. And i am fluent in both. German is my first language.
"Maybe I really joined with them to keep the loneliness at bay.
Yet in the end, you couldn't make it go away. Others could rely on you, but you couldn't rely on them."

"She's a little scared to get close to anyone because everyone who said, "I'll always be here for you," left."
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ImagineKate

I use the app and I am learning German. I'm fluent in Spanish already. I want to learn Hindi as it is my heritage but I'm unsure where to learn it,
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