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!

[Dread First]

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.

Funnily enough, I took a Mandarin class sponsored by the Taiwanese government during the Autumn 2023 semester. I didn't retain anywhere near as much as I thought I would, but my instructor most certainly imparted the importance of stroke order to Mandarin learning. Before I took that class, the only words I would instinctively recognise would be... obscure, to say the least.

I only fell down the Mandarin learning rabbit hole because of how much Chinese music I came acrross during late 2021 and most of 2022. Before that class, I was only really able to recall characters or words specifically relevant to the artists I listened to back then (i.e. 草東沒有派對, 劉森, and 高五人). I committed Pinyin to memory only insofar as I needed to look up songs I really enjoyed (i.e. 爛泥，愛人錯過，悲哀藏在現實中，etc). That class I took seriously extolled the "virtue," if you would, for also committing stroke order to memory.

Most of the other characters I know from memory are basic ones like 我，你，們，中國，美國，among others, but like... practising their stroke order for class is basically what got me to commit those characters to memory in the first place. Perhaps this is a foreigner thing, but stroke order can also be kinda meditative. You do the stroke order exercises in the textbooks or even Skritter enough times, you're bound to remember some things.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Recently I spent a couple hours a day learning Spanish, I seemed to be pretty invested in it. And such began learning a lot of really interesting things including places I went to in Mexico. As for Japanese, even though I put it on hold, I still do remember the phrases and words in Japanese that I have learned. Unfortunately I have very few friends in Japan compared to Mexico as I was only in Japan for 2 weeks compared to nearly a year in Mexico. I also have a feeling if I learn Japanese, then learning Chinese would be a breeze. Apparently, Chinese is actually the easiest language to learn if you speak no language while English is the hardest. So Chinese people should learn Japanese first before going to English because a lot of new Japanese words are similar to English.

 

[Book Thief]

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.

I know a little bit about reading Japanese, since I taught myself how to read it using manga and video games, so I could maybe make a few pointers.

First of all, start from the basics. You're not going to know something like 薬 right away. Start with your simplistic kanji like 人 and 木, since those are not only easier to learn, but they form building blocks called "radicals" that can help you learn more complex ones like 休 ("Person" + "Tree" = "Rest", i.e. a Person leaning against a Tree) or 森 ("Tree" + "Tree" + "Tree" = "Forest").

Secondly, create your own mnemonics. Get imaginative if you have to. One easy example I like to tell people when they ask me about reading Japanese is the Person-Big-Husband trio. You start off with a "Person" (人) which is visually a stick figure standing on two legs. This "Person" is a fisherman who likes to tell tales of the fish he's caught, stretching his arms out as if to say "You should've seen it, it was THIS Big!" (大). The ladies were evidently impressed with his story, so he dons a top hat to become a "Husband." (夫)

As a random example, I just came up with one for 仲間: "A Friend is like the Sun (日) shining through a Gate (門) from Within (中) a Person (人)." A bit clunky, maybe, but it incorporates all the important radicals that make up the kanji, so it should give you an idea of how you could proceed should you ever find yourself wanting to try again.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Another interesting perk about being Canadian is the fact that you get a jump start in learning French because literally every product has both French and English on them and vice verse if you speak French (Unless you live in Quebec where it would disregard English).

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Not meant to double post but another thing worth mentioning is that the Kanji looks a lot like what they mean. This is also similar with Chinese characters than the Japanese used their language from. Here's a table of first grade Kanji posted by someone on twitter. Suffice to say to me, it's easier to understand than the Kana's for the most part.

 

[TheRedRanger]

I really need to get learning Korean. I've been to Seoul twice now (albeit only briefly), and I have a tattoo of Yi Sun Shin on my arm. But the only book I have on the subject is no help at all, seemingly being designed to be used by teachers who already know.
I really have no excuse at this point, but still...

 

[Dread First]

I really need to get learning Korean. I've been to Seoul twice now (albeit only briefly), and I have a tattoo of Yi Sun Shin on my arm. But the only book I have on the subject is no help at all, seemingly being designed to be used by teachers who already know.
I really have no excuse at this point, but still...

Hangul is supposedly the easiest part of learning Korean. Never gave it a try myself, but I've often heard from my friends who did classes in Busan and Seoul that it was the grammar that fucked them over so much.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I have been using this site to memorize hiragana and katakana since it's a bitch to memorize otherwise. This is my method on learning and memorizing Hiragana and Katakana in less than a day. For Smartphone Users. Use Hiragana Pro and Katakana Pro on the app and play store. It helped me a lot.

 

[The Holy Empress Theodora]

I've found my Soviet-era Russian textbook again, what is the modern way to address a stranger? The textbook implies it's either това́рищ or гражданка/граждани́н and господи́н/госпожа́ are uncommonly used.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I want to learn Cherokee. For a while I was practicing reading it (but without comprehension of what it actually meant), which is very easy to pick up because each letter is one syllable.

 

[ProfDongs]

I spent a few years learning Nip casually and made decent progress, not amazing but good and steady. Had a lot of motivation at one point last year for studying so I mostly ended up doing that in my free time after work for most the year. Wanikani is a meme but its what I was using and was getting through 20-30 new kanji a week, reading through 3 Jap-Eng dictionaries and reading Jap dictionary for actual grammar and structural stuff which worked out well. For listening I would have streams going or watch GCCX. Then I started playing through Phoenix Wright and Utawarerumono for practicing reading, PW I would highly recommend since there's no real gameplay to distract you. Did the N3 and passed but around that time my motivation dropped off. Still enjoy it and I'm at a comfortable place with it but I can't get back into properly studying and learning new stuff now.

One thing I found for memorization which I imagine would carry over to anything is write down anything new you learn, even if you aren't going to actually write. Its time consuming but I found that to be the easiest way to retain things.

 

[P. Barnes’ THOT 2.0]

I really need to get learning Korean. I've been to Seoul twice now (albeit only briefly), and I have a tattoo of Yi Sun Shin on my arm. But the only book I have on the subject is no help at all, seemingly being designed to be used by teachers who already know.
I really have no excuse at this point, but still...

I’m learning Korean right now for a trip to Seoul in the fall. Out of everything I’ve tried, the Pimsleur app is by far the best way for me. Hangul is probably easiest alphabet I’ve learned, too-it took me a day with flash cards.

Russian is rusty for me, and as soon as I feel comfortable with Korean (enough to get by anyway) I’m jumping back into it

 

[Duiker]

Years back I got into Esperanto and that was fun. I even managed to get to the point where I can comfortably, but slowly, read Esperanto books. I was never good at speaking it thought since I did very little practice for that.

Its been years now since touching it, maybe one day Ill go back to it, but it is quite the meme.

Currently Iam working on Japanese.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I'm getting very familiar with Spanish now. Even when taking a break, because of hours I spent trying to comprehend Spanish before, my brain absorbs it quite well. Japanese is a bit harder though but because a lot of these Japanese words are similar to English, thus it shouldn't be that hard. I also have a book of Kanji necessary for me to learn.

Also for anyone wanting the conjugate verbs easier. Here's a chart.

 

[Electromagnetic Radiation]

Devoted to Russian and German. Russian is a marvelous and awesome language, many Russian creations can be truly grasped once you've sufficiently absorbed the language into your mind, not to mention there's many enigmas and aspects in the wider world where russian would be a vital language to have. I'd say mostly the same for German, though it sometimes does sound rather aggressive and less beautiful than Russian, but i still have a penchant for it.

Another language i want to learn happens to be linguistically obscure, Georgian. There is a meager amount of means and the fact Georgian is not descendant of ANY renowed language, this may be difficult and not entirely worth it, but the alphabet and sound is admittedly captivating and surreal. I also did not care for Japanese at all, but i have overtime thought about and sort of like it now. Maybe ill choose it over Georgian, but i don't like it as much

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I've been using the App Tandem and so far it's going pretty well. Met plenty native Spanish and Japanese speakers there and my Spanish is accelerating quite smoothly. One of the few drawbacks with the app is around 30% would try to use it as a dating app but fortunately I haven't found much so far.

I've been learning a bit of Russian lately and easily the most confusing part is the alphabet. Luckily I got much of it memorized.

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

I've been studying Scottish Gaelic/Gàidhlig for two years and I'm finding that I kind of miss the structured learning that comes from a physical classroom. Obviously that's not going to work easily unless I fly my ass to somewhere like Stornoway, but it would be worth it to hunt down online options. Language just seems like the kind of thing where I need someone to pointely tell me what to work on rather than doing it fully on my own. As much as Duolingo pisses me off sometimes, it gives you that "hey dumbass, do this today" structure.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Russian Plurals and Verb Conjugation is even harder (or easier) than that in Spanish so I advise learning Spanish or any other easy language like it beforehand. Spanish is my top priority language but I plan to pick up Japanese and Russian on the way. If you want to learn verb conjugations faster. I recommend verb conjugation games.

 

[Niall Meanwhile]

not to mention there's many enigmas and aspects in the wider world where russian would be a vital language to have.

That sounds interesting. Care to elaborate?

I have a decent grasp of spoken Russian (some drunk bastard once thought I was literally an agent looking for suspicious activity amongst the Ukrainian refugees or something because of that, lol) but I can't properly form a sentence (outside of very basic phrases) for shit. The lack of articles and the weird single-consonant prepositions baffle me, and wrapping your head around how cases work is a bitch and a half unless you're a German speaker or something. And even though I had it explained to me a million times, I still have no idea how the 'ь' thing works either.

I have an inordinate amount of pride in being able to speak Spanish with a nearly-native accent (or at least it used to sound nearly native when I was younger). Verb conjugations are a bit tricky, and the different sounds for s, 'soft' c, and z are hard to nail, especially for Anglo/Germanic native speakers: there's no shame in pronouncing them the way Latin Americans do (where all three sound the same, 'c' as in 'city'). You'll get less confused about the right spelling (so you'll be able to speak more fluently while you're learning) and you'll be far more understandable to both Spanish and Latin American native speakers if you have a thick accent. Oddly enough, the rest of the letters sound similar to Russian imo.

Plus, if you get a good grasp of Spanish, that's like half the battle for picking up Italian and/or Portuguese. It'll scramble your head though.

 

[Electromagnetic Radiation]

That sounds interesting. Care to elaborate?

It has a lot to do with Russia's enormous size as a country and it's history. After the USSR's collapse, many secret documents and events were lost in the process and neither would this be the first time either, if we look back at the russian civil war (and the collapse of the Russian Empire). Because i find it interesting, that for a country which has been heavily involved in european history, there's much that has yet to be uncovered or explained about it's eastern part/siberia. Not to say there's nothing interesting about the european portion, but certain things overall remain ambiguous or strange. Certain subjects only have a surface level overview and while you could wait for a english translation. Knowing the language itself would allow for a easier time to dig up the history and unexplained events and there's a better chance for you to meet someone who has access to information that would be difficult to acquire normally. Of course if you don't care that much for history, geography and mysteries, none of this would be relevant, but this is my personal opinion.

And even though I had it explained to me a million times, I still have no idea how the 'ь' thing works either.

The "ь" sign myagkiy znak also known as the soft sign, is only ever found at the end of consonants, although it could sometimes replace the russian "i" instead. What it usually does is cut the sound short of whatever letter it's attached to. There's also the hard sign "ъ" tvjordyj znak, which is only found in the middle of consonants and vowels and when you see it, the sign is basically a indicator that you get a slight pause before finishing the rest of the word. I hope that explains it!

Edit: Some typos.