Language Learning General

gingermilk · 2023-01-07T02:44:16+00:00

Hello sheeps! What is your native language? What language are you trying to learn? How many languages do you know already? This is a general thread for anyt...

Gigachad

Remove How did you come to choose Serbian?

Remove

Gigachad I became friends with a Serbian and we both like stories and music in other languages. They started learning English by reading webcomics and I want to help them make one in their own language.

Makes me feel a bit inadequate only knowing English-based tongues though...

yukarihinata

gingermilk German was helpful enough that even today I can make sense of german posts and comments.

Chinese didn't stick, because I fell out of practice.

Fimm

I'm fluent in English and arguably better at it than my native Finnish because I was raised by the internet. I often mix the two.

I studied Swedish like everyone else here but still don't understand any of it. Just like everyone else.

I can also read Cyrillic letters and I'd like to learn Russian but я лентяй.

MO

Fantasy

I only understand English, but I've helped over a dozen people with their writing so far and I'm pretty solid in poetry. I'm also very good at telling if something looks native or not, or if it makes sense to most native speakers or not.

Just putting that out there if someone wants like, an editor or something. If you know anyone, recommend me.

Fimm

It is a huge pain in my A when I have to read a really old document and the damn terms are in Greek letters. I have to translate the letters one by one to Latin letters, and then use Google translate.

I have the same problem when I see a meme in Russian and I'm trying to understand it.

I'm amazed you can read Cyrillic at all. Also, the tongue of the Fins isn't even Indo-European, which means it's literally easier for an American to learn Hindi, than for you to have learned English.

++

I'll dig this thread up: did anyone here have any luck with language exchange websites? Especially if your trade did not involve English.

gingermilk

++ I have been on hellotalk before and it wasn't that helpful. you might have more luck just by hanging out on random forums and eventually you will meet a native speaker. become friends (hardest step) and done.

Fantasy

++
I helped a friend once on one of those sites. He would post a story or a few sentences and I'd help him rework them to be more like a native english speaker. I forget what the site was called, it was years ago. But he has since moved from China to the US and does tax stuff for the government now. Pretty neat.

Zeta

I know Spanish and English. I was learning Italian, but I had to go on a hiatus to put more time into my business and different projects I have in mind.

As gemisthon said, prioritizing comprehensible input and developing good reading skills (as well as listening skills) are important to actually learn a language, and it's easier nowadays with the technology that most of us have.
I recommend looking up for Steve Kaufmann and his YouTube videos and also looking up for the Refold Guide as I consider it pretty useful for language learning.

Now, what do you guys think about the academic teaching approach for language learning? Or how was your experience with it? I would consider it, in most occasions, pretty bad and stressful for the student. For instance, I went to an English course for a couple of months and the method of teaching they were using was not very didactic and it was very grammar based, therefore the students didn't really learn that much, as you had to basically memorize a lot of grammar rules and unnecessary vocabulary.

++
Not at all. I tried HelloTalk but most of the people didn't reply to do language exchange (isn't that the whole point?). I think Discord servers focused on language exchanging are better for that lol

yukarihinata

gingermilk replying looks at notes A YEAR LATER because I didnt actually answer your question.

Formal classes are good because you learn the grammar much quicker. However, the other half of the battle is consitently studying vocab. At least, the was my experience with German.

Nevermeant

Native in Chinese, mediocre English and bad Japanese
Sorta a polyglot i guess

pikkukuovi

I'm French, speak English fluently and I'm learning Finnish in university since last year. I have about 7 hours of Finnish classes (and homework) a week, I really love the language and country. Ive been there quite a lot since i startrd studying. Worked one summer and got a gf.
Language's very hard tho lol, I feel the progress and all but I'm still very far from fluency.
I'm getting decent at reading and ok at writing, but oral skills need lots of work. I'd like to go work on a farm or somewhere deep in the countryside where people dont speak English. Seems to me like it's the only way to make significant progress !

Anyways good luck to all languages are hard but fun

Fimm

MO
Learning cyrillic wasn't hard at all. They're roughly the same sounds but with different letters. It was easy to memorize them.
Of course, just because I can read them doesn't mean I understand much any of it хаха.

MO

Zeta "For instance, I went to an English course for a couple of months and the method of teaching they were using was not very didactic and it was very grammar based, therefore the students didn't really learn that much, as you had to basically memorize a lot of grammar rules and unnecessary vocabulary."

Yeah um, I've been a English speaker since I was like 12 months old and I'm currently 27.

I learned the difference between "A" and "An" between 26 and 27. No one noticed, no one cared. Most of the grammar rules of English don't make any sense, because the language is Saxon/Angle, Latin, French, and some Viking all stapled together, then tumbled for about 1000 years.

Zeta

MO I learned the difference between "A" and "An" between 26 and 27. No one noticed, no one cared. Most of the grammar rules of English don't make any sense, because the language is Saxon/Angle, Latin, French, and some Viking all stapled together, then tumbled for about 1000 years.

Yeah, it's kinda curious how the English language is so "moldable", and it doesn't even have an official language academy like the RAE for Spanish or the ABL for Portuguese. Maybe that's why so many people give up on learning English lol

MO

Zeta It's better than the French who have official agency which crushes you into powder if you use the word "Hamburger" because it's not native to French.

English is BASED in one respect, we steal words and we don't care if words are "pure" or "native" or whatever. "Gung-Ho" is straight up mispronounced Chinese, and no one cares.

++

MO I've come to really prefer the more purist languages like French. Conversational Japanese is filled with bad English words, it's quite depressing.

gemisthon

English is BASED in one respect, we steal words and we don't care if words are "pure" or "native" or whatever. "Gung-Ho" is straight up mispronounced Chinese, and no one cares.

Uh, the Anglish Moot would like to have a word with you: https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf

++ I agree. As a Swede I've become increasingly hardline about this. Loanwords that plug a specific gap are one thing, but so much of modern spoken Swedish involves dipping in and out of English without even trying to adapt the pronunciation to Swedish. For older people it's just laziness, but the way zoomers speak makes me think many of them are genuinely incapable of communicating in actual Swedish. It would be tempting to think that the French are being haughty, but really it's a defence mechanism more countries should learn from.

MO

gemisthon You say that, but it sounds like this means that Swedish speakers are learning to pronounce English words correctly and not use Swedish pronounciations.

I wish I could pronounce the French and Spanish words I know correctly.

Lumeinshin

gemisthon It would be tempting to think that the French are being haughty, but really it's a defence mechanism more countries should learn from.

im an englishman and i wish we were as bullish about it as the french

Lumeinshin

MO there is an error relating to posting im looking into at the moment, the @ will show unknown. unsure if the error posting is related,

gemisthon

MO The issue is that they're speaking "Swenglish" and not Swedish. Moreover, this is not just throwing in some French bon mots to impress people, but a pervasive inability to express oneself in clean Swedish, switching to English (not just words but entire phrases and sentences) to avoid the mental work of finding a Swedish equivalent. It's weird and jarring, and why should English be so special? Sweden has a tonne of German and French influence as certain people love to point out in these debates, but no one says "beschreiben" or "meuble", even though neither language is much more difficult than English to pronounce.

Lumeinshin Sad to see the Brits suffering from this as well. Being in a country where English is not the native/official language does offer some protection, but I guess if even Koreans are complaining about "Konglish" we are all doomed.

MO

Lumeinshin I don't know, I'm on break right before my teaching shift at a High School, so maybe it's the firewall.

My bad, it was telling me that I wasn't posting, I didn't mean to post 3-4 times.

Lumeinshin

MO no its definitely server side, Gemi was having the same issue I imagine. been getting Error 500's too. will have to find out whats the issue and adjust. take care

Lumeinshin

Lumeinshin somewhat annoyingly once i got ready to fix it, it seems to have stopped. will have to see if that was the 2 changes I made or what

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