Learning a Language

[Hoplite]

For me personally, I think learning a language other than what your native language is needs to be one of the priorities for anyone. It allows you to have greater understanding of the people around you and it lets you see things more fully from that other group's point of view more clearly.

I've been endeavoring to learn Arabic over the last few months with mixed results.

Glottal stops are extremely hard to learn if you didnt grow up speaking a language that uses them frequently. Also, Arabic has male/female signifiers that are applied to words depending on the audience, something very difficult to keep in mind coming from English that does not have such signifiers.

For anyone else, if you want to learn languages like French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc etc, any language with a Latin root, learn Latin. Latin is fairly easy to learn if you have a good grasp on English and learning Latin will make your knowlege of English much greater. The other Latin root languages become MUCH easier to learn because of the shared root.

Additionally, be careful with programs like Rosetta Stone. It's a good program, dont get me wrong, but it works with no translations. You are shown a picture and told what that word is verbally, but there are no English translations. IE: If you were shown a woman drinking a glass of water and then given a word, it's difficult to determine if the word refers to "person drinking" "woman drinking" "drink" "water" or any number of other possible options. It's somewhat frustrating, especially for such a steep price-tag.

I've had good luck with this Pimsleur series of CDs. I checked them out from the library, made copies, and that's what I currently use. I didnt think it would work very well, but a lot has been sticking.

Anyone have any tricks or things that worked well for them to learn a new language?

[blake 3:17]

Learning other languages is immensely important for internationalists. Too my own shame, this is something I`m very poor at. If others have chances to learn other languages through study or immersion, go for it!

[Magón]

I know Spanish and English, along with a bit of broken French and Italian (Neither of which I could have a decent conversation or anything in.) And for most not living in English speaking countries like the US or UK, it's really important for somethings like a job or something else, to know English.

[Weezer]

I would strongly advise against using Rosetta Stone, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, as it's pretty slow.

Like the OP said, all Rosetta Stone is said foreign words placed against a picture, with no translation. It's far better and far more efficient to try anything else.

As I'm taking Latin as a class, I can say Latin is not that easy. It's a complicated language with an inconsistent word order, and while it does widen your English, it certainly isn't easy. There are about five genders in Latin, five declensions, and about 6 cases, all with their own endings.

Latin vocabulary is a mixed bag, many words share relations with English words, some don't. I think we get about 70% of English vocabulary from Latin.

If you're new to learning languages and your native language is English, I would honestly look into Esperanto at first . It helped grasp a lot of concepts foreign to English and isn't overly complicated. Not asking you to master it, but Esperanto I think certainly helps.

http://en.lernu.net/

[hatzel]

There are about five genders in Latin, five declensions, and about 6 cases, all with their own endings.

Great. Now try learning Finnish, with its 15 cases and 5 (WTF?! :confused:) 'infinitives'. 3 of which (or 4, I dunno...:lol:) can be declined. Seriously, why do I even bother with this? :(

[Weezer]

Great. Now try learning Finnish, with its 15 cases and 5 (WTF?! :confused:) 'infinitives'. 3 of which (or 4, I dunno...:lol:) can be declined. Seriously, why do I even bother with this? :(

There's 4 infinitives in Latin.

Any reason why you're learning Finnish, or just curious?

[panda77]

I think learning another language is also useful for exposing the ideology and even your sense and expression of self that is bound up in your native tongue. When I was a younger I spent a long period of time in eastern europe and I noticed that I was quite amazed that my personality and actions changed under the influance of my new language. I'm sure theorists who study linguistics and semiotics could say much more about this.

[Tablo]

There aren't any magical tricks to makes language learning easy. To become proficient in a language you need to study frequently. I study language everyday and I'm only inching along. Some people may have an easier time learning languages, but no matter who you are it will take a lot of time and effort.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Live in a country where the dominant language is the one you want to learn.

[CleverTitle]

I would strongly advise against using Rosetta Stone, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, as it's pretty slow.

Like the OP said, all Rosetta Stone is said foreign words placed against a picture, with no translation. It's far better and far more efficient to try anything else.

Rosetta Stone would be fine for the basics if it weren't so ludicrously expensive. It's nice in that it emulates the way that people learn the most basic aspects of a language, but it's not really good for anything beyond that. Not a lot of substance to it.

[Hoplite]

Does anyone have any experience interacting with someone who learned a language through Rosetta Stone? Do they speak their learned language differently?

As Lev pointed out, Rosetta Stone is total immersion and the lack of translation gets in the way, but I wonder how that effects the final product.

[Black Sheep]

Try try www.lingq.com

My mom learned german from there.

[Kamerat]

For anyone else, if you want to learn languages like French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc etc, any language with a Latin root, learn Latin. Latin is fairly easy to learn if you have a good grasp on English and learning Latin will make your knowlege of English much greater. The other Latin root languages become MUCH easier to learn because of the shared root.
I would just like to point out that German is not a Latin based language but a Germanic based language. There are some Latin words i German but thats also the case for most languages around the world (new scientific/biological words and such).


Anyone have any tricks or things that worked well for them to learn a new language?
Learn the basics and grammatic, and the more complicated words will be easy to learn/understand as you go, when you get it in context.
Watch TV with speech from the language you want to learn subtitled in your native language.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Just want to say that the traditional way they tend to have in school, when it comes to learning lenguages, by trying to learn its structures, grammar and so isnt a efficient way of learning. You will just learn a stiff rabbling of just easy sentences and silent thinking on how youre going to conjugate verbs. No if you want to become fluent you must hear and talk the lenguage like in the examples above, watch movies with subtitles, listen to music in the lenguage and try to learn the lyrics with translation and, like ES wrote, live in the country where they speak, then youre forced to learn it.

[RedScare]

I'm learning Russian through my university, and it's pretty difficult, but not impossible. The key is practice and repetition.

[Tablo]

Does anyone have any experience interacting with someone who learned a language through Rosetta Stone? Do they speak their learned language differently?

As Lev pointed out, Rosetta Stone is total immersion and the lack of translation gets in the way, but I wonder how that effects the final product.
One guy in my Korean class used Rosetta Stone. It seemed to help him a lot, but I think it would be good to use Rosetta Stone as well as have some formal study so you actually know the rules and stuff. He is way ahead of everyone else because of Rosetta Stone. >.>

[Marxista]

I take this opportunity to ask this question: I speak and read ancient latin better than english (italian school :rolleyes:).

English is easier than latin or other neolatin languages, but I improved my English listening to music and movies in original language with english sub. But is not useful to learn a language, for example I make many mothertongue interference mistakes, because my english is passively absorbed and not studied.

Any tips to improve my english?

[black magick hustla]

immerse yourself in a country where that language is spoken. this is how i learned english. i know spanish and my french is broken but it is there. trust me if your friends are all locals it helps a lot

[Pavlov's House Party]

if you don't have the money to go anywhere else, look in the classified ads in your city for language discussion groups. a lot of them are organized by people who have taught themselves and want to maintain the ability to use the language, and sometimes immigrants who speak whichever language the group talks in come.

[Sir Comradical]

I began learning Russian because it's such a powerful language that requires a lot of rolled Rs. My pronunciation for practically any Indo-European language is absolutely impeccable because I can speak malayalam well enough and malayalam is bloody hard. In malayalam, we have two different types of Ls, Ds, Rs, Ns and Ts. So two words sounding indistinguishable to a foreigner can mean two completely different things.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Pimsleur is a good place to start. It's expensive but people have been known to find it online for free, or get it at the library. They have series for a number of languages. The first set will let you learn the basics, and the best thing to do from there in my opinion is to immerse yourself in it as maldoror has said.

[farleft]

My partner is learning Mandarin Chinese through Rosetta Stone (got a cracked copy) but we also live in China which makes a huge difference.

Being able to learn and use the language in the real world is of immense use.

[Münchhausen]

Live in a country where the dominant language is the one you want to learn.
Has anyone tried this? i heard of people going to spain for 3 month (or something like that) without knowing a lot of spanish before, and afterwards being able to speak it more or less fluently. But i can barly imagine, that it's so easy :blink:
I'm asking, because i think about going abroad to learn a language myselft...

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

I have picked up a lot of stuff while in countries where few spoke English. I wouldn't say I became fluent. You'll definitely learn quicker when you have to.

[Property Is Robbery]

For me personally, I think learning a language other than what your native language is needs to be one of the priorities for anyone. It allows you to have greater understanding of the people around you and it lets you see things more fully from that other group's point of view more clearly.

I've been endeavoring to learn Arabic over the last few months with mixed results.

Glottal stops are extremely hard to learn if you didnt grow up speaking a language that uses them frequently. Also, Arabic has male/female signifiers that are applied to words depending on the audience, something very difficult to keep in mind coming from English that does not have such signifiers.

For anyone else, if you want to learn languages like French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc etc, any language with a Latin root, learn Latin. Latin is fairly easy to learn if you have a good grasp on English and learning Latin will make your knowlege of English much greater. The other Latin root languages become MUCH easier to learn because of the shared root.

Additionally, be careful with programs like Rosetta Stone. It's a good program, dont get me wrong, but it works with no translations. You are shown a picture and told what that word is verbally, but there are no English translations. IE: If you were shown a woman drinking a glass of water and then given a word, it's difficult to determine if the word refers to "person drinking" "woman drinking" "drink" "water" or any number of other possible options. It's somewhat frustrating, especially for such a steep price-tag.

I've had good luck with this Pimsleur series of CDs. I checked them out from the library, made copies, and that's what I currently use. I didnt think it would work very well, but a lot has been sticking.

Anyone have any tricks or things that worked well for them to learn a new language?
Good luck. It took my friend six years to be mediocre in Arabic :p

[Agent Ducky]

I'm learning Spanish (at school) and Chinese at home. I don't find myself frustrated with Rosetta Stone because generally I can tell what they're trying to convey with the pictures. The program tries to help you understand by giving you a bunch of pictures like "woman drinking water, man drinking water, kid drinking water." Now you understand the concept of "drinking water" etc.

I chose Chinese because I thought it would be useful especially with China as a rising power and China holding so much of America's debt...

[Rooster]

Eh? German doesn't come from Latin and neither does English. People tried to impose Latin grammatical rules onto English which doesn't make any sense (splitting infinitives anyone?). Most words in English come from the old Germanic languages anyway.

I recommend just getting a good book on grammar and a dictionary and just trying to get used to the rules of the language, and then try to build up your vocabulary. These audio CDs are fine and all if you want to practice how to say words or just build your vocabulary. Rosetta Stone is fine (just don't pay for it), but I think you'd make the most progress and understand the language better if you get a good grammar book. The BBC does a good range which are very clear and indepth.

[Sputnik_1]

i heard of people going to spain for 3 month (or something like that) without knowing a lot of spanish before, and afterwards being able to speak it more or less fluently. But i can barly imagine, that it's so easy :blink:
I'm asking, because i think about going abroad to learn a language myselft...

I speak two foreign languages and I've basically learned both that way. I've started with some basic dialogues before moving, you know, just at least to be able to ask where the bathroom is and such.
But 3 months wouldn't be enough for me. I'd say that maybe after about a year I've started speaking fluently and after that it just keeps improving.
That's just me tho, there probably are people that would need less time.

[leftace53]

I've tried learning my fair share of languages, but mostly to no avail. I seem to have very little motivation to learn them on my own, and the one language that I've taken a course on is the one that has stuck (Dutch). I work somewhat as an English teacher, and I always tell people to watch movies, listen to music, and read as much as they can along with actually having conversations with English speakers, but I never apply this form of immersion to my own language endeavours.

I must ask though, for all you language learners out there, what is your process? As in, do you start with conversational phrases then move to vocab/grammar, or do you start with vocab/grammar and form phrases after that?

[RedGrunt]

English has alot of latin-based loan words however, and more specifically French.

[eyeheartlenin]

I live on the Atlantic coast, and the Spanish-speaking barrio in our town is enormous. English is a second language in at least some of the convenience stores in our neighborhood, and there are a couple of Spanish-language weekly free newspapers, as well as Spanish TV and radio stations. I think anyone who is going to do politics in the US ought to consider trying to learn Spanish; the pronunciation is easy, the grammar is not difficult at all, and there are plenty of native speakers one can talk to. Given the fact that immigrants organized a one-day general political strike in the US a few years ago, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Spanish.

[eyeheartlenin]

Speaking of Spanish, here is an NPR story about Iowa's first majority Hispanic town:

"One place the Hispanic population is growing is in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa. The latest census figures show the Hispanic population, while only 5 percent of the state, has almost doubled since 2000.

"And one small town — West Liberty — is the first in Iowa to have a majority Hispanic population....

"The West Liberty school system has what was the first dual-language program in the state.

"Students take all of their classes in both Spanish and English, switching from an English-language teacher in the morning to a Spanish-language teacher in the afternoon...."

The whole story (audio or in print) is at:

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/10/141150607/west-liberty-is-nations-first-majority-hispanic-town

[Void]

Most promising languages of the future (&today but especially future):

->Listed according to importance

1) Chinese
2) Arabic
3) Russian

Unfortunately all these have different writing styles not using the Latin letters... Chinese being the hardest and Russian being the easiest.. But even Russian is a relatively hard language, especially its pronunciation is tough.

[ВАЛТЕР]

I already know Serbian and English fluently. I plan on taking courses in Russian here pretty soon. I can already read it and get a decent understanding of what it says, and if spoken slowly I can get a general understanding which comes from my best friend in the US being a Russian and his grandparents not being able to speak English so I just spoke Serbian to them and they spoke Russian to me. We met somewhere in the middle and understood each other okay. (His grandpa was a bomber pilot in the tail end of ww2, he is awesome.) I can't speak or write for shit though except for simple phrases and words like "hello, how are you?", "thank you", "good", "look", "how do you say?" etc. etc. :P
I really am excited to learn. I really like the Russian culture and would like to travel to Russia when I get a chance.

[tir1944]

As Mayakovski said:"You should learn Russian if only because it was the language Lenin spoke in (although he spoke some other languages too,but Russian was of course his native one).
:)

[Tablo]

Most promising languages of the future (&today but especially future):

->Listed according to importance

1) Chinese
2) Arabic
3) Russian

Unfortunately all these have different writing styles not using the Latin letters... Chinese being the hardest and Russian being the easiest.. But even Russian is a relatively hard language, especially its pronunciation is tough.
I can agree with Chinese and Arabic, but Russian? I feel like Spanish would be on a list with so many people speaking it.

[tir1944]

I can agree with Chinese and Arabic, but Russian? I feel like Spanish would be on a list with so many people speaking it. Yes,you're correct.
Russian language is losing ground even in ex-USSR countries...even in Ukraine for that matter.
Plus Brazil's economy is almost as big as Russia's,and Brazilians are more numerous.

[Nox]

Try learning Georgian, most unique language in the world. Even more unique than Finnish/Hungarian.

[Tablo]

Yes,you're correct.
Russian language is losing ground even in ex-USSR countries...even in Ukraine for that matter.
Plus Brazil's economy is almost as big as Russia's,and Brazilians are more numerous.
Do many people in Brazil know Spanish? I guess they do since they are surrounded by Spanish speaking nations.

[tir1944]

Right,sorry,i forgot they spoke Portugese.:lol:
But yeah,Mexico alone will surpass Russia in some 10-15 years.

[Void]

I can agree with Chinese and Arabic, but Russian? I feel like Spanish would be on a list with so many people speaking it.

You are right... I have a personal dislike against Spanish somehow. I could never like this language despite the fact %80 of people I met loved to learn this language and especially female ones. (I don't like Latin languages in general, however I like Latin itself, how it sounds etc.)

Russian may not be spoken by a huge amount of people but area of its effect is still very huge. I'd favour Russian over Spanish any time but this is only a personal preference. I like Russian culture more. And still I would say there is more future in Siberia than Patagonia..

[Void]

I already know Serbian and English fluently. I plan on taking courses in Russian here pretty soon. I can already read it and get a decent understanding of what it says, and if spoken slowly I can get a general understanding which comes from my best friend in the US being a Russian and his grandparents not being able to speak English so I just spoke Serbian to them and they spoke Russian to me. We met somewhere in the middle and understood each other okay. (His grandpa was a bomber pilot in the tail end of ww2, he is awesome.) I can't speak or write for shit though except for simple phrases and words like "hello, how are you?", "thank you", "good", "look", "how do you say?" etc. etc. :P
I really am excited to learn. I really like the Russian culture and would like to travel to Russia when I get a chance.

Same here, would like to travel to Russia but I heard that Russians make fun of bad pronunciations. Proper pronunciations are really hard maybe some people's tongues adopt better to this language but I tried to learn some pronunciation of it and had really hard time. Then I gave up learning Russian to be honest.

[MustCrushCapitalism]

Someone may have already said this, but Livemocha is pretty good for this. http://www.livemocha.com/

[Nox]

I'd like to learn Mandarin Chinese and Russian at some point in my life, probably by downloading a cracked version of Rosetta Stone (it's very good, but it's a fucking ripoff).

[manic expression]

I'd like to learn Mandarin Chinese and Russian at some point in my life, probably by downloading a cracked version of Rosetta Stone (it's very good, but it's a fucking ripoff).
Those are the two I'm going to try to concentrate on in the next year or so (I'm not going to bother learning how to read/write Chinese characters, I just want to learn the spoken language). If you want some useful and free resources for either of those, let me know.

My biggest obstacle is that other languages are so intriguing...Turkish, French, Hindi...just to name a few.

[Nox]

Those are the two I'm going to try to concentrate on in the next year or so (I'm not going to bother learning how to read/write Chinese characters, I just want to learn the spoken language). If you want some useful and free resources for either of those, let me know.

My biggest obstacle is that other languages are so intriguing...Turkish, French, Hindi...just to name a few.

Yeah, the BRIC languages are the ideal ones to learn now (Chinese, Russian, Indian/Hindu and Brazilian), it's interesting how most people think of Russia as a 'dead' state with a gloomy future, whereas actually it has great economic potential.

I am also very distracted by other languages, I tend to be interested in languages that are unique, such as Finnish, Hungarian, Georgian and Chechen just to name a few.

[Welshy]

Try learning Georgian, most unique language in the world. Even more unique than Finnish/Hungarian.

I present you Tsez: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsez_language
and Taa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taa

For other languages English or Indo-european speakers would find bizaare look at the languages of the Americas and Africa.

[Libertador]

I am presently native in English, fluent in French, and have a working knowledge of Catalan and Arabic. I'm taking Spanish at university but I'm having a lot of difficulty with my 200 level class as my professor (a native speaker from Colombia) is kind of a dick and refuses to answer questions in a way that I can understand. I'm planning on dropping it for another language next semester, and I am currently debating whether to pick up German or Hebrew.

:|

[Tablo]

You are right... I have a personal dislike against Spanish somehow. I could never like this language despite the fact %80 of people I met loved to learn this language and especially female ones. (I don't like Latin languages in general, however I like Latin itself, how it sounds etc.)

Russian may not be spoken by a huge amount of people but area of its effect is still very huge. I'd favour Russian over Spanish any time but this is only a personal preference. I like Russian culture more. And still I would say there is more future in Siberia than Patagonia..
That makes sense. It is best to learn a language you love, otherwise you won't be very motivated to study.

[rundontwalk]

I'm a Spanish major. ^_^

I'm learning it because the US is next door neighbours with Latin America and because it'll make learning French and Brazilian Portuguese easier.

[eyeheartlenin]

I am presently native in English, fluent in French, and have a working knowledge of Catalan and Arabic. ... I am currently debating whether to pick up German or Hebrew.

I studied Russian, German, koiné, classical, and modern Greek, highly-inflected European languages. Then I took three semesters of classical (i.e., Biblical) Hebrew, and it was a completely different experience, even more complex than Russian or Greek, with several different binyanim (verb structures expressing voice, causation, intensified meaning, etc.) for each verbal root, as well as the fact that the vowels inside Hebrew verbs change in conjugation.

Anyway, while Hebrew was unlike anything I had ever seen in language study before, it was a lot of fun. If Hebrew is a lot like Arabic (and that I don't know), then you probably know what to expect in tackling Hebrew. I hope you enjoy it.