The Language Learning Thread - Interested in learning a new language? Already learning a language and wanna share your experiences? Need to find a partner to practice with? Come sperg here!

[Monkey Shoulder]

I see! I don't really have a chance in my day to day life to speak in English at all so I mostly stick to just writing and reading, I wish I knew any native speakers irl, I can imagine talking with one on a regular basis would be helpful. Also, I can't shake the feeling that some things get inevitably lost in translation, it bothers me to know that there are certain expressions or phrases that can't be translated from one language to another, so when I think of something I want to say I usually do it in my native language first and then try to write it out in English. Often times what I end up writing is not exactly what I meant, lol. I guess I might have to make an effort to expand my vocabulary, that might help.

Languages are hard, man.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Consoooming English/American media is actually a good way to pick up on expressions and phrases, as well as browsings forums and such. Eventually they just "click" in your brain.
One fun thing I discovered while talking to an especially slavic individual is that my English pretty much degraded to his level, both in terms of vocabulary and intonation.

 

[Pirata]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Consoooming English/American media is actually a good way to pick up on expressions and phrases, as well as browsings forums and such. Eventually they just "click" in your brain.
One fun thing I discovered while talking to an especially slavic individual is that my English pretty much degraded to his level, both in terms of vocabulary and intonation.

Heh, that's funny. It's crazy that you can't really take breaks from language learning if you want to get somewhere with it lol, it's a great hobby to have because you'll never run out of space to improve. All I really want is to feel comfy when speaking and not have to second-guess everything I'm saying, it can get pretty exhausting after a while.

 

[Least Concern]

I see! I don't really have a chance in my day to day life to speak in English at all

As much as I generally hate Discord, it makes it really easy to do voice calls with people, and for that reason it's quite popular among language learners online. I suggest you search for Discord servers for both ESL learners and learners of your native language. Often these servers will have open chat channels that you can join, and there's no shame in just listening if you're too shy or unconfident to talk yet. You might also meet someone to do a language exchange with; a native English speaker will chat with you in English and correct your mistakes for ten minutes or so, then you'll switch and they will speak with you in your language while you correct.

That said, it's still definitely better to learn in person if possible, because being able to see peoples' body language and mouth movements helps a lot in communication even among two native speakers of the same language.

 

[Pirata]

As much as I generally hate Discord, it makes it really easy to do voice calls with people, and for that reason it's quite popular among language learners online. I suggest you search for Discord servers for both ESL learners and learners of your native language. Often these servers will have open chat channels that you can join, and there's no shame in just listening if you're too shy or unconfident to talk yet. You might also meet someone to do a language exchange with; a native English speaker will chat with you in English and correct your mistakes for ten minutes or so, then you'll switch and they will speak with you in your language while you correct.

That said, it's still definitely better to learn in person if possible, because being able to see peoples' body language and mouth movements helps a lot in communication even among two native speakers of the same language.

I avoid Discord like the plague so it never occurred to me that there might be actual helpful communities there but now that you mention it, it makes sense for language learning. It does sound like a great opportunity to improve my English so I'll try it out, thank you for the tip fren!

 

[Realistic Elephant]

OP - I would STRONGLY advise against learning Russian to use in most, if not all Eastern European countries. That is not a period of history viewed fondly by people in any of those countries and the use of the Russian language was symbolic of their oppression and status as client states of the Soviet Union. Shoot, if you tried that in the Baltic states you might get killed if you come across the wrong way.

For me, I'd like to work on my German again. I took enough courses when I was in college to almost minor in the language.

 

[Dread First]

OP - I would STRONGLY advise against learning Russian to use in most, if not all Eastern European countries. That is not a period of history viewed fondly by people in any of those countries and the use of the Russian language was symbolic of their oppression and status as client states of the Soviet Union. Shoot, if you tried that in the Baltic states you might get killed if you come across the wrong way.

For me, I'd like to work on my German again. I took enough courses when I was in college to almost minor in the language.

Perhaps I should've clarified where I wanna visit: I was thinking more along the lines of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine rather than Poland, the Baltic states, etc. I know that Ukraine is in a bit of of a contentious situation so maybe Russian wouldn't be the best option, but hey: more people in Belarus speak Russian than Belarusian to begin with.

 

[Realistic Elephant]

Perhaps I should've clarified where I wanna visit: I was thinking more along the lines of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine rather than Poland, the Baltic states, etc. I know that Ukraine is in a bit of of a contentious situation so maybe Russian wouldn't be the best option, but hey: more people in Belarus speak Russian than Belarusian to begin with.

Ohhh...that's a little different. Probably would be completely fine in that case.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I went through the painful task of writing Japanese Kanji and writing the meanings to them. As I went through this and with the knowledge of names of Japanese media. It makes sense the more you write them down. A lot of Japanese words have the same kind of pronunciation as the others. King, Concave and Center uses the same pronunciation "ō" where meanings are set apart by the Kanji it's used. Shadow is either used as "Kage" for it's solitary word but uses a different pronunciation know as "ei" when another meaning as added on to it. (ex. Nijyuei meaning Double Shadow (I know for a fact because I am very familiar with the game and have it on the Dreamcast)). I figured why not write all the Japanese Kanji so at least when I get all of them down, I learn some of it and go from there. Also with Spanish, French and German. I don't find it that hard to read anything involving these languages and a lot of these words used are similar to the English ones. A lot of Japanese words are also similar to the English ones (at least the ones during the Meiji Restoration and after as new words were introduced and Japan didn't care to change it into their own. So the potential to be my second language would either be Japanese or Spanish. I know I can easily translate Japanese Manga and Games with that translator but I wanted more to connect with the people from Japan and Mexico so I feel like learning the language. I often go back and forth about learning Languages and Calculus.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Does anyone have any advice for learning Polish and what language learning programs (such as Rosetta Stone, Babble, etc.) to use? I have decided on seriously studying Polish as a second language (because I am mostly Polish genetically), and I want to learn the language.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

Does anyone have any advice for learning Polish and what language learning programs (such as Rosetta Stone, Babble, etc.) to use? I have decided on seriously studying Polish as a second language (because I am mostly Polish genetically), and I want to learn the language.

Buy some Polish-English dictionaries and explore Polish online communities. (I’ve been doing that with the Czech language, and the online communities, while helpful, aren’t much fun because the Czech language internet is chock full of clickbait garbage).

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

Was going to post a new language app thread, but discovered this one instead, so I’ll revive it. Anyone have good suggestions on language apps? I’m using Drops to learn vocabulary and word memorization, but I’m really itching to learn conversational French and Dutch. I’ve been trying to learn Japanese and Swahili just for funsies, but the first two I want to seriously utilize for any future Euro travels. Thanks!

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I've been learning Spanish after going to Mexico a lot. I noticed most of the words have been covered for me and what is left is for me to string a sentence. I've been to Japan and have been learning Japanese as well. I've been practicing writing Kanji as well.

 

[Johann Gambolputty...]

I'm starting to pick up Norwegian, Swedish, loads of German and a bit of Dutch from all the Northern European Pagan folk I've been listening to. Even learning some songs straight up to help with pronunciation. I find it helps to sing along with the lyrics in front of you and you notice how they slur or inflect certain sounds. Swedish and Norwegian are coming quite easily for me, but whoever evolved German and Dutch seem to hate my tongue.

 

[bango skank]

I've been learning Spanish after going to Mexico a lot. I noticed most of the words have been covered for me and what is left is for me to string a sentence. I've been to Japan and have been learning Japanese as well. I've been practicing writing Kanji as well.

I gave Japanese a shot a couple years ago and it was going pretty well. I didn’t get where all the talk about difficulty came from… then I got to kanji and hit a brick wall. If it was just hiragana and katakana it’d be no sweat, but I just don’t have the capacity to learn all the kanji and learning a language while neglecting such a major aspect seems like a pointless endeavor.

More recently I’ve started spanish too, and it’s going much better. The biggest hurdle so far for me is conjugating verbs, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of that as well.

 

[Nick Obre]

Late to the party, but I've always aspired to learn French, German, and Japanese. I know a tiny bit of French, nothing of German, and I have some passing familiarity with Japanese.

On the other hand, I'm a professional translator for Spanish and English. So if anyone needs help with something about Spanish, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I gave Japanese a shot a couple years ago and it was going pretty well. I didn’t get where all the talk about difficulty came from… then I got to kanji and hit a brick wall. If it was just hiragana and katakana it’d be no sweat, but I just don’t have the capacity to learn all the kanji and learning a language while neglecting such a major aspect seems like a pointless endeavor.

More recently I’ve started spanish too, and it’s going much better. The biggest hurdle so far for me is conjugating verbs, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of that as well.

Yeah. I am very familiar with a lot of Spanish words myself. So I don't have to be like "¿Como se llamo?" As often as I thought. Eating at Mexican restaurants also helped me a lot with foods. I am just starting to get the hang of with stringing sentences. You know, we can probably exchange some Spanish knowledge.

 

[innocent jogger]

I've been becoming more and more fluent in Retard. My biggest dream is to someday learn Ebonics and get a cushy job teaching in da hood.

 

[bango skank]

Yeah. I am very familiar with a lot of Spanish words myself. So I don't have to be like "¿Como se llamo?" As often as I thought. Eating at Mexican restaurants also helped me a lot with foods. I am just starting to get the hang of with stringing sentences. You know, we can probably exchange some Spanish knowledge.

I think my vocabulary is still much too small to really be of much use. I’m not even really sure of the differences between "¿Como se llamo?" y “¿Como se dice?” Also, this has brought to my attention the fact I’ve been pretty much ignoring proper spanish punctuation and accent marks in my studies.

 

[sadrefrigerator]

Was going to post a new language app thread, but discovered this one instead, so I’ll revive it. Anyone have good suggestions on language apps? I’m using Drops to learn vocabulary and word memorization, but I’m really itching to learn conversational French and Dutch. I’ve been trying to learn Japanese and Swahili just for funsies, but the first two I want to seriously utilize for any future Euro travels. Thanks!

Don't

Language apps are universally shit. They are just glorified flashcards for tourist language books.

Try to find classes near you, or book lessons on italki.

phonology is tripping me up. Sì, for example, is pronounced as "su" despite looking like it should be pronounced as "see." It has been getting easier bit by bit to learn, but I'm also getting tripped up by tones as well. The irony here is that I speak a tonal language already (Punjabi) but the difference between Punjabi and Mandarin is that a good 75-80% of words in Punjabi use the neutral tone; Mandarin uses tones much more frequently and I'm having a hard time really memorising them.

I'm Chinese ethnicity. Unfortunately I've never met a person who could speak Chinese with an understandable accent that wasn't immersed in a Chinese community or lived in China for an amount of time. The sounds are just too different compared to other language. On the other hand, Grammer is extremely simplistic.

gave Japanese a shot a couple years ago and it was going pretty well. I didn’t get where all the talk about difficulty came from… then I got to kanji and hit a brick wall. If it was just hiragana and katakana it’d be no sweat, but I just don’t have the capacity to learn all the kanji and learning a language while neglecting such a major aspect seems like a pointless endeavor.

You didn't mention grammar which makes it seem like you barely started learning Japanese. It starts from basic inflections, which form the basic blocks for every other grammar you will learn nonstop til the end of at least intermediate Japanese. You're right that it isn't really worth learning any language without learning the entirety of it. You could technically learn only conversation and try to be like a guy who never learned how to read, but the aforementioned grammar lessons are all going to be written in Japanese, which makes it hard unless you live in japan

 

[bango skank]

You didn't mention grammar which makes it seem like you barely started learning Japanese. It starts from basic inflections, which form the basic blocks for every other grammar you will learn nonstop til the end of at least intermediate Japanese. You're right that it isn't really worth learning any language without learning the entirety of it. You could technically learn only conversation and try to be like a guy who never learned how to read, but the aforementioned grammar lessons are all going to be written in Japanese, which makes it hard unless you live in japan

Yeah I only studied casually for a couple months, the main aspect of the grammar I picked up on was the sentence structure was kind of like “Yoda” for lack of a better description.

The idea was, actually, to try to develop a bit of conversational skill and then apply that to really learning reading, but the depth and breadth of kanji is just beyond me at my age I think.