Anyone like to learn languages?

[SlateRDays]

Hey everyone. Just back on the scene for awhile and trying to interact again. Do you any of you like learning languages and if so what are you currently or have studied?

I've dipped my toe into French. I dipped my toe into Vietnamese and seriously studied it for 2yrs and then had to stop do to time constraints. I study it passively by counting. Studied Japanese at one point, but it was very time consuming, not difficult, just time consuming. I eventually moved onto Russian and German, with German having more work in it. I found some FSI language course and that's what really gave me the most progress so far, but again, time constraints. I find I will soon be able to get back to studying German, as I'm getting ready to settle my other projects down.

other languages I want to learn: Russian, Italian, Czech and Vietanamese. I'm plan to do these with the FSI courses resources I have. Vietnamese will be more a bringing myself back up to speed and then continuing from a more focused point.

[PastyPrincess]

Generally, I like listening to other languages and I have an interest in learning them. So far I've put about a year of studying German in, and that's it, although listening to people speak in other languages simply fascinates me.

[SonadoraXVX]

Very much, I'm fluent in Latin American Spanish, and I'm I have dabbled in French, German, and Mandarin, but like yourself, I have not had much time lately, since I'm in grad school now and work full time, but do have Rosetta Stone courses in Russian, French, Korean, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin.

Its great to be able to understand other cultures and have windows into their great works, being able to translate the works yourself and get your personal interpretation of their literary works. In today's global world, it behoves to know how other people think and are saying.

Cheers 

[Deborah]

I do but I have always had a hard time with it.  I have some kind of mind blockage.  But this thread has given me the motivation to try again.  Maybe with the dysphoria under control the mind blockage will open.


Sapere Aude

[SlateRDays]

Generally, I like listening to other languages and I have an interest in learning them. So far I've put about a year of studying German in, and that's it, although listening to people speak in other languages simply fascinates me.

I actually feel the same way. I love listening to people speak and the various accents of the same region. I'm also always curious how they sound when they sing. German surprised me in how beautiful the language can be when singing. Certain languages I can't tolerate very well. I'm not fully sure why, but it's still a treat to here and try to decipher what the language is. Fore example written differences in Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Looking closely at the characters and then deducing what language it is. In terms of listening; Russian, Czech, German, Belgian. Czech sounds like a mix of Russian, and German. You have to listen to the pacing of how the words are said, and the rhythm. Even if I don't know any words or what is said, I can usually get close to figuring it out.

Besides German, do you favour any other languages when it comes to just exploring and listening?

[SlateRDays]

Very much, I'm fluent in Latin American Spanish, and I'm I have dabbled in French, German, and Mandarin, but like yourself, I have not had much time lately, since I'm in grad school now and work full time, but do have Rosetta Stone courses in Russian, French, Korean, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin.

Its great to be able to understand other cultures and have windows into their great works, being able to translate the works yourself and get your personal interpretation of their literary works. In today's global world, it behoves to know how other people think and are saying.

Cheers 

This is another reason I study. Connecting with people, although I ended up speaking english since I haven't mastered anything yet, but the others are willing to share abit about the language and culture and just everyday things. Reading and singing are my interests here and being able to sing in different language is a deeper goal, but it'll take time since the language basics must come first. Plus script reading and reading books interest me. What is it they read where they are?

What inspired you to choose those specific languages? Do you ever want to travel to these places physically?

[SlateRDays]

I do but I have always had a hard time with it.  I have some kind of mind blockage.  But this thread has given me the motivation to try again.  Maybe with the dysphoria under control the mind blockage will open.


Sapere Aude

What kind of languages are you interested in? How do you like to learn? Medical vocab, technical vocab, listening, etc.

[Deborah]

What kind of languages are you interested in? How do you like to learn? Medical vocab, technical vocab, listening, etc.

I'd like to learn enough Ancient Greek to read the literature from around 300BC to 100AD in the original languages.  So my focus is mainly just on reading and comprehension.


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[SlateRDays]

Had you found any good resources for learning on your search? I've heard Ancient Greek is pretty tough.

[Deborah]

I do have several resources.  I have Logos Software so I have copies of all the philosophers and also The Bible in the original Greek.  Logos also has some other resources to help.  I have also downloaded some apps and have a college textbook to learn with.  Right now though I am mainly just memorizing words as I read along with a Greek text and using Flashcards to reinforce it.  Logos extracts the section of text I am interested in and builds a Flashcard deck for my phone.  So as long as I do a small section at a time it should be manageable.


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[Devlyn]

Totally off topic, but Deborah, I love the new pic!

Hugs, Devlyn

[Deborah]

Totally off topic, but Deborah, I love the new pic!

Hugs, Devlyn

Thank you.  For once I posted one with a minimum of photo editing.


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[SlateRDays]

Totally off topic, but Deborah, I love the new pic!

Hugs, Devlyn

I was thinking the same thing actually! She looks very scholarly to me.

I do have several resources.  I have Logos Software so I have copies of all the philosophers and also The Bible in the original Greek.  Logos also has some other resources to help.  I have also downloaded some apps and have a college textbook to learn with.  Right now though I am mainly just memorizing words as I read along with a Greek text and using Flashcards to reinforce it.  Logos extracts the section of text I am interested in and builds a Flashcard deck for my phone.  So as long as I do a small section at a time it should be manageable.


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That sounds pretty cool actually. A slow digestion vs a huge spoonfuls. Does the textbook look at the grammar and if so, how does it look? Does the basic grammar seem like something you could latch onto or is it a bit out there?

[Deborah]

The textbook is comprehensive and includes all the declensions.  That's going to be the hard part.  Once upon a time though I took a couple of years of Spanish in high school and the rules look more or less similar.


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[BeverlyAnn]

I have heard the younger you are, the easier it is to learn a language.  Some of that may be true because I took Spanish in high school and French in college.  It's been so many years though about the only thing I remember from Spanish is how to order a ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee or a beer.  I have been trying to learn, of all things, Irish but even with Rosetta Stone, it's not going well.

[SlateRDays]

I have heard the younger you are, the easier it is to learn a language.  Some of that may be true because I took Spanish in high school and French in college.  It's been so many years though about the only thing I remember from Spanish is how to order a ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee or a beer.  I have been trying to learn, of all things, Irish but even with Rosetta Stone, it's not going well.

I think it a way it is, but not necessarily. Determination and inclination can be some factors that can push that aside. The whole can't teach an old dog new tricks comes more from the willingness to learn or not. If you feel there is more to learn then you will find a way, it just may take a different method that a younger person does. If you find your strength in learning then you can build up from there.

One way I mentioned earlier is singing. I like to listen to certain style of songs in certain languages and it encourages me to look up the lyrics and try to imitate. If I'm wrong, then i look for the alphabet, so on and so on. I mentioned medical vocab too. I have an odd interest in knowing what a foreign word for tibia, femur, deltoid, etc is and this encourages me to try and search for these words in that language. It doesn't have too be the whole structure. Some time you can take bites and eventually when you're ready, you can put them together as a whole.

The biggest help for me was running across a public domain website with different languages. I like and figured that learning like military person, even though the program isn't strictly for that, is a great way to absorb a language. You'll learn it quickly and the course is structured in a way that is very interactive and forces you out of your comfort zone with it's pacing. The cool thing though, the pacing is fun, because you can work on a section as much as you need and then move to the next. Yet it's important to challenge yourself.

Lastly art. Can't tackle language like an adult? Tackle it like a grade schooler. Everything is simplified and engaging. The hard part is find grade school resources in different languages. I had help finding Vietnamese grade school material and it was helpful in the early stages. I printed out the material and would take it to study when I went to the doctor or somewhere "boring", where I didn't have to have my immediate attention on things.

This is the link to the website i got my resources from. I couldn't find Irish though, but I have a feeling this kind of course exists if you're interested. https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu

[Sussy]

I really like learning new languages. But I never bring to end ...

[SlateRDays]

I really like learning new languages. But I never bring to end ...

Hey there! What languages do you enjoy trying to learn? And when you say "I never bring to end" Do you mean you never finish them or is it something else?

[SlateRDays]

Currently everyone, I've been really working hard on German and have slowly gotten to the point where the phrases I've learned are becoming easy to "read". I found I was able to know what a phrase meant or a variation of it, and was able to verbally translate it without taking too long a pause to assimilate it.

So it's so far so good and slow steady progress. It's much farther than I've ever gotten. I wish you all much strength on your own journeys and studies

[PastyPrincess]

I actually feel the same way. I love listening to people speak and the various accents of the same region. I'm also always curious how they sound when they sing. German surprised me in how beautiful the language can be when singing. Certain languages I can't tolerate very well. I'm not fully sure why, but it's still a treat to here and try to decipher what the language is. Fore example written differences in Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Looking closely at the characters and then deducing what language it is. In terms of listening; Russian, Czech, German, Belgian. Czech sounds like a mix of Russian, and German. You have to listen to the pacing of how the words are said, and the rhythm. Even if I don't know any words or what is said, I can usually get close to figuring it out.

Besides German, do you favour any other languages when it comes to just exploring and listening?

Recently I've took it upon myself to start learning Korean, I'm nowhere near as good at it as I am with German, but other than that I find it's a very fun language to listen to, as well as Japanese. Languages like Swedish, Dutch, and Finnish are other languages I enjoy listening to, as they sound very interesting in my opinion.