Language thread!

[mira-chan]

Considering the discussion that started in the LHC shock thread on the subject I think the topic needs its own thread.

Is anyone learning a diffrent language? (and my cat, Nicki, just decided to help me type.) Maybe want to find someone to help you with a translation or with practicing a language. Share information on study books and strategies. Maybe just talk about language learning woes.

My first language was Russian, I still know it quite well. Second was English. Learned Spanish in high school and forgot most of it, I ned to relearn it some time. I'm currently studying Japanese. For me the best way to learn a language is immerstion. I tend to speak and read a lot better than I write.

Some links for anyone interested in Russian:
http://www.alphadictionary.com/direc...lavic/Russian/ (http://www.alphadictionary.com/directory/Languages/Slavic/Russian/)
http://masterrussian.com/

And Japanese:
http://members.aol.com/Joyo96/
http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/dict (great dictionary)


Andraste (aka Nastasska) and I have come to a conclusion that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. I think its due to many exceptions in the grammar rules. Neither Russian or Japanese have many exceptions.

[Amber]

I want to learn Hindi - but so far I've only learnt about half of the alphabet. I'm pretty slow with languages.

[Nastasska]

Great thread:whoohoo:
English is my first language at school I studied both German and French but only for two years
I started learning Russian from a television programme called Russian Language And People when I was seventeen
I started Russian lessons a few years later very hard to find a teacher here then
I have also studied
Irish with a native speaker
and Swedish
I have been dabbling on my own in
Hungarian
Dutch
Romanian
Yiddish
Coptic
Latin
Greek Ancient and Mordern but I have terrible trouble remembering the alphabet
Finnish
Estonian
Welsh
Arabic
Hebrew
Spanish
Georgian
I basically love all languages especially the ancient ones and the Mystery Languages like Basque and Korean

Here's one of my favourite sites

http://www.omniglot.com/index.htm

[eucalyptus]

I took two years of French. The language was fairly straight-forward, except that there were a lot of exceptions because they make them every time following the rules makes a word sound not pretty (does that make sense?) It was the teachers that made things difficult. My first teacher was a shy sort of person who couldn't control the class. This past year, I had a paranoid psycho who picked on me constantly. Now, I have taken the opportunity to make a huge change. I am going to learn Chinese. By myself (Rosetta Stone style). At least I am going to try this teacher-free method, because in my experience, teachers have been a hindrance in my language learning. I could never do math or science or literature or history or religions or anything else without a teacher, but when it comes to language (except Latin), I don't like learning it teacher-style. If I find it is too difficult to do it completely independently, I'll probably look into having a tutor or something. So I took Latin for three years, and absolutely loved it, and I'm going to take Greek as a senior, and continue with the Chinese in my college years. That's my plan for now.
So to answer your question, I have taken Latin and French, and will take Chinese and Greek, but as far learning, well I've never been immersed in any other language, so I'm going to have to say, I speak only English with no second language (and I'm getting tired of speaking English all the time.)

[Love My Cop]

I'm fluent in Spanish, and learned a little Japanese while living in Okinawa, Japan for 6 years, However, I have forgotten alot of what I learned, since I dont know anyone personally, who speaks it here in the states. I love learning languages. My DH is German, and speaks German to our 2 boys, so i'm picking up a little here, and there as well.

[mira-chan]

Eucaliptus I mostly study Japanese teacher-less. I took classes for a total of 5 months. And I was learning it before that on my own. The only reason I needed the classes is for speaking practice and procrastination management. Good luck on your Chinese language study! I was dtring to learn Chinese at one point, on my own, I still have the book I was studying from, somewhere. I was starting to study japanese at the same time and chose to concentrate on japanese for the time being at the tiem. As soon as I take the exam I'm currently studying for I'll start makeing kanji (chinese based charaters) cards. I was thinking of taking the Level 3 proficiency in Japanese this year, but I dont think i'll be prepared for it by december. I know half the number of kanji need for that test, but I think a good half of that are different from the ones that are on the test. Once I learn kanji maybe i'll study Chinese, considering that at lears i'll be able to read some of it by then. The characters are slightly different at times though.

Andraste: wow! Quite a list there. I have relatives that speak Yiddish, I would love to learn it but, unfortunately those who speak it are not in the same country as me.
Greek is the next language I want to learn, after Japanese. maybe Latin after that. I'm in science so those are useful. Hebrew I could learn any time here as there is a large Jewish community here, but I'm not inclined to currently.

Amber Good luck on the Hindi learning! I've seen the alphabet and it does look very hard. I plan to avoid learing how to read and write it :lazy: but learnign how to speak and understand it I wouldnt mind. I also want to learn Urdu. My brother in law is from India and he speaks Hindi, Tamil and Urdu (he also knows English, French and Russian now). I plan to learn Urdu with and from my niece, who is learning how to speak now, in two languages! (Russian from her mom , Urdu from her dad.)

[mira-chan]

I'm fluent in Spanish, and learned a little Japanese while living in Okinawa, Japan for 6 years, However, I have forgotten alot of what I learned, since I dont know anyone personally, who speaks it here in the states. I love learning languages. My DH is German, and speaks German to our 2 boys, so i'm picking up a little here, and there as well.

I want to live in Japan for a while. I went there for 5 weeks and that was not nearly long enough. DBF is from a Spanish speaking family but, he doesn't speak it well. If he did I would have had a good way to relearn it. -_- My sister and her husband are trying to make sure their daughter learns their languages so they are talking to her in Russian and Urdu. My parents and I talk to her in Russian. She can learn English easily when she goes to school.

[Love My Cop]

mira-chan, I come from a Spanish speaking family as well, so it was easy for me to learn it. Maybe you could have your DBF family ,speak to you in Spanish. You can pick up alot by just listening to it over and over again.. I think its great your neice is learning Russian, children are sponges they absorb different languages well, I think. When I lived in Okinawa, I live out in the economy, not on base,and I was surrounded by the Japanese language. The mama san who own the place we rented there, spoke little English, and she would sometimes sit with me, and teach me the language. had great fun learning it too. I think the first word I learned was "Yen", lol...had to learn the conversion real quick. Anyways, Good Luck and have fun learning as many as you can !!!! :smile:

[Unnamed]

I took Spanish in high school and French in college. The Spanish is a little iffy, but I can still get a good portion of convos and do good with signs (high number of Spanish speakers here). The French is a bit newer, but I never had anyone to practise with, so it's more or less been sitting. If you count back when I was about 5 or so, I also had Spanish and Sign Language, although all I remember of the last is the alphabet.

I'm better and reading and writting than speaking, but I think that's mainly because I'm waaay too shy, so speaking suffers, and I like reading just about anything...heh.

Languages I want to learn:
German
Swedish (which I might know if my grandfather hadn't died before I was born...)
Latin

The first two, it's mainly due to a lack of anyone to practise with. The German I've dabbled with a little, but I haven't started into the Swedish much at all. I wanted to take German in High School, but it didn't mix with my schedule...same in college. In high school, I was to the point that while I couldn't really speak (or write) German, I could read it well enough to use a couple of sources for my history class that were in German.

[Sapphire'sWings]

I also come from a Spanish speaking family.I talk Spanish fluently and can read it just fine.However,I feel awkward writing it because I forgot some grammar rules and I'm unsure about spelling.

I was learning Italian at school,but then we moved,so I've been learning German for a while.I will take German again next school year.

After I master German,I think I would like to keep learning more languages.I'm pretty good with German grammar,but I would like to be more comfortable speaking it,or at least writing and typing it like if it were for an everyday thing,instead of just classroom practice.

[Clare-Dragonfly]

Shwmae, everyone! :whoohoo: (Hmm, where's cortese? I doubt she'll show up here, oh well.)

Well, my native language is English. I took Spanish from kindergarten to eleventh grade and then a semester in college, but I am DONE with that language. I just got sick of it. I do know a smattering of Yiddish, but only because my dad is Jewish.

Welsh is my real love. I've been interested in it for years, and have studied it sporadically. I started seriously studying with a book and CD set (first Welsh teaching materials I've found that actually help) over winter break, but took a break for the semester. I really need to start studying again now that it's summer, especially with LHC down!

Nastasska (no I can't possibly call you Andraste, what are you crazy?), how much Welsh do you know? I doubt either of us knows enough to help the other but it could be fun :sweatdrop:

[hairyfairy]

Mother tongue Bengali.

Second language English.

Fluent in Hindi.

Two years of Italian in College(forgotten most of it)

Dabbled in Spanish for some time by myself (See above).

[Medievalsilver]

I've learned some Italian, it's very little. But I want to learn Latin and Irish. I know a good amount of ASL, too.

[Nastasska]

Shwmae, everyone! :whoohoo: (Hmm, where's cortese? I doubt she'll show up here, oh well.)

Well, my native language is English. I took Spanish from kindergarten to eleventh grade and then a semester in college, but I am DONE with that language. I just got sick of it. I do know a smattering of Yiddish, but only because my dad is Jewish.

Welsh is my real love. I've been interested in it for years, and have studied it sporadically. I started seriously studying with a book and CD set (first Welsh teaching materials I've found that actually help) over winter break, but took a break for the semester. I really need to start studying again now that it's summer, especially with LHC down!

Nastasska (no I can't possibly call you Andraste, what are you crazy?), how much Welsh do you know? I doubt either of us knows enough to help the other but it could be fun :sweatdrop:

Sut rydich chi (I'm not sure I spelled that properly):nosey:

It would be great fun I don't know much Welsh but I'll get my books out again
Don't worry you'll get used to Andraste:lafhard:

[KarenLynn]

My mother tongue is Norwegian, which means I also understand Swedish and Danish pretty well. I suppose I *could* make an attempt at speaking either if needed, but it usually isn't. Very convenient, that. :D

My second language is English, which I guess I'm doing ok with. I don't find it super hard to learn, but then I never memorized grammar rules either. I think it comes from reading a lot, but I tend to go by whether it 'looks right' or not. It seems to work for me.

I had French for five years, and at one point I was starting to get somewhere with it. I haven't used it more than a few times in nearly a decade, though, so it's sadly rusty.

I had a few weeks of German as an elective, but it didn't do much for my active vocabulary. I could read a text just fine, I could translate it to English, could even do grammar exercises (!!) but there's no freaking way I could have found the words if translating the other way. My understanding is fairly good (presumably due to similarities to the Scandinavian languages), but I can not say more than the simplest things. Irks me to no end.

After about five years of living in Hungary, I've picked up enough to get by, sort of. Ok, 'picked up' really isn't the word for it, because you pretty much have to sit down and *learn* every word, as it's wildly different from any other language I know. The grammar is also very complicated, with a huge number of cases. I'll admit I haven't made a huge effort to learn it once I got to the level where I could get by. I might regret that later, but oh well. I never actively chose to learn Hungarian, it was an inevitability of living here.

I understand some Spanish, Italian and Latin, partly due to knowing French, and partly due to too many years of singing church music. Also some Icelandic, though I do better with it in writing than when spoken.

That's what I already know. Now, what I'd like to learn ... *rubs hands together.* Well, my English vocabulary still needs work, and while my grammar skills are decent, they could be better. I really want to brush up on my French, as I think it's a beautiful language. I want to improve my vocabulary in German, and work on my non-existent grammar knowledge of that language. After that, there are more languages I'd like to learn, but I suppose I should do it one (or a few, anyway) thing(s) at a time. I love how Italian sounds, and I'd like to know Urdu or Hindi. To mention a few. :lol:

[snowbear]

I'm a native English speaker, who knows a smattering of Hebrew, even less Spanish, and who will be going for her American Sign Language Interpretation Exam, when she gets around to it.

[Nastasska]

I wish I could live in Hungary for a little while being able to actually use the language on a day to day basis would be wonderful:happy:

[Clare-Dragonfly]

Sut rydich chi (I'm not sure I spelled that properly):nosey:

It would be great fun I don't know much Welsh but I'll get my books out again
Don't worry you'll get used to Andraste:lafhard:
Dim yn ddrwg, a chithau?

I couldn't find "sut rydich chi" but it seems similar enough to "s'dach chi" that it probably means the same thing... :happy:

ETA: In fact "s'dach chi" is probably a contraction of "sut rydich chi".

[aisling]

My mother tongue is Swedish and with that comes a pretty good understanding of Norwegian and Danish, Danish especially in written form. I think we could have a discussion in our mother tongues with KarenLynn and understand each other pretty well anyway. Living in Finland, speaking the official minority language of the country, means I'm rather fluent in the majority language Finnish as well.

My third language is English and even if there's a lot of things I could get better in, I don't remember any of the grammar we learnt in school anymore, I feel I cope pretty well in English as well.

I studied German for some 5 years in school but I have never really had to use it which means I've forgot a lot. I feel very insecure in German but I do read newspaper articles in German and understand most of them. Now I'm trying to keep up my German skills, after neglecting them for years.

I've also studied some Italian, took a few basics classes at uni just for fun and to get some extra credits. I have to admit, I don't remember much of it, just the things that interest me most, which is food and wine vocabulary :) I can read an Italian menu and avoid the stuffed pigs feet, which is enough for me at the moment.

What I feel would be needed is some basic skills in Russia, but like most Finns, I avoid anything coming from our eastern neighbour. Brushing up my German skills would be great, living in a German speaking country for a while would be interesting.

[KarenLynn]

Nastasska - hey, I'd gladly swap with you! C'mon over, I'm moving out in less than a week. :lol:

aisling - it seems Norwegian and Swedish are more similar in pronunciation, while Norwegian and Danish in writing. I much prefer written Danish to spoken too. And they think *I* talk fast? I'm actually pronouncing the whole word. :lol: (That's not meant as an offense to Danish or Danish speakers, by the way, just saying your pronunciation is remarkably different for something that's written so similarly, and it's a bit of a challenge to get used to.) When talking with Danish customers at my old job, we did just give up and speak English sometimes. Felt like a bit of a defeat, that.


In Hungary, Russian and German are the two most common foreign languages spoken by people about 50 years and older. Unfortunately for me, I don't speak either. Younger people are more likely to speak English, though often not very well, as it's as foreign to them as Hungarian is to me.

Speaking of first and second language, by the way? I just tried to translate what I've written to Norwegian, and man did that sound awkward! I think it's way past time I start actually using that language again. :p

[Kuchen]

Where is the waving smiley?

Mother tongue English, studied French and Italian to degree level, Ancient Greek to advanced level and a couple of years of Latin. Have dabbled in Russian on my own, and am now sort of trying to learn German but finding it hard, despite the immersion. I need to do an intensive course, but that takes a lot of money and time, and I earn a living through my skills with the English language...:boggle:
When my German was better, my writing (in English) was worse, but I feel like a cop out for not learning the language. Ach! Any tips, good websites gratefully received.

[hairymonster]

My mother tongue is Hokkien. I can also speak Mandarin and a number of Chinese dialects but can only read a few characters as I have not studied Chinese.
I speak more English than anything else.
Studied Malay for 9 years in school, but mine sucks due to lack of usage.
Had a couple of semesters worth of Japanese in varsity.
The only French and Italian I know are musical terms :sweatdrop: but I'd like to learn more of them one day.

[Sian100]

I'm learning Arabic at the minute. My mother tongue is English and I have conversational level French. I've attended Irish Gaelic, Spanish, German, and Russian classes in the past, but couldn't say much about them now.

[Rae~]

Japanese and Korean reasonably fluently (if a tad rusty)... am currently learning Arabic, but slowly.... am only doing one class a fortnight, and have been very slack at self-study... dammit... must get motivated again! :purplex:

[aisling]

KarenLynn, you're right when it comes to the similarities between the Scandinavian languages (Finnish NOT included!). I do understand Danish mostly because I've worked with a Dane for years but they don't understand my "weird" dialect (some would say "accent" but that word is used differently in Swedish). When it comes to Norwegian, the further north and east you're from, the better I understand the language, the further west, the worse it gets. Bergen is hard for me while Alta and Tromsoe are dialects I don't have much problems with.

[dancingbarefoot]

Another linguophile here!

I'm a native speaker of English, and I also speak Swedish and Japanese more or less fluently. I used to be passably good at Russian, but since I stopped taking classes in it, I've been forgetting it. Trying to get it back now. I've also studied (Scottish) Gaelic, Korean, (Eastern) Armenian, German, Yup'ik, and Inupiaq. The more, the better!

[KarenLynn]

aisling - that's an interesting distinction between western and eastern/northern dialects. I actually think western are 'easier' (though some can be a bit grating on the ears - personal opinion only) than northern. Oh, and I'm from the eastern part. For such a small country, Norway has a ridiculous number of quite different dialects.

Finnish is definitely something else altogether, being one of the languages that are related to Hungarian. Not particularly closely, though, more like they have a common origin way back, and have similar grammatical traits.

I really wish I had more time to bury myself in linguistic fun. The thrill of learning a language and discovering that it works, people understand me! is amazing. :D

For those who chose to learn less commonly known languages - why did you choose that/those language(s)?

[Abanilla_Surfer]

I studied French at school and found I learnt more in the 2 week exchange than I had in a year of classes. Forgotten most of it now though. :boggle:

I now live in Spain and have completed the Linguaphone cd course. I did that in England before I moved. I go to a free Spanish class once a week which is taught by a local Spanish lady. She has a broad range of abilities so some weeks are more challenging than others.

I find the class good for motivation, but really agree with eucalyptus that learning is something you have to do alone. Once I have the grammar sorted out I like to get out there and practise. I need lots of that. :happy:

This is a good site for language lessons and it's free: www.about.com (http://www.about.com) They have many languages available and forums where you can practise too. They also do word of the day which is a great tool. :geek:

[lizzernog]

My one wish is to know all languages. But I think I'll start that when I'm out of high school or done with the stress of college searching.

I'd love to learn Swedish because my dad works for a Swedish company and we are frequently offered trips there (though I've only gone once).

I'd like to pick Spanish up again. I used to be good at it but I suddenly stopped understanding it one day. :purplex:

I'm taking Latin now. I must say, my Latin teacher is about 5000 years old, and most likely Zeus on earth. But we haven't learned much at all. Oi. But I know random words, but to save my life I can't string it all together. Salve! Bene! Ehue! Omnibus. Ancilla. Triclinium...etctc

On the top of my list though is Korean. The area that I live in has a lot of Koreans and my best friend is Korean. I taught him to speak English when he came here from Korea, and I still know not one Korean word unless kimchi counts for anything :rolleyes: . Now he wants me to teach his parents but that would be much harder. Oh I wish I knew Korean! But it really seems impossible.

[Nastasska]

This is the audio version of the programme I first learned Russian from:whoohoo:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563519754/ref=wl_it_dp/026-1419183-2325224?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I3445WDZJV347O&colid=2W2LTGV6013B3

[Medievalsilver]

I'm a native English speaker, who knows a smattering of Hebrew, even less Spanish, and who will be going for her American Sign Language Interpretation Exam, when she gets around to it.

Wow thats neat! I'm only working at a church, signing praise and worship songs, and helping the 1 timothy 4:12 choir.:happy: :whoohoo: :innocent:

[golden_gal]

My mother tongue is Chinese but I only learnt it when I was 6. The first language I learnt was English. I also speak Malay, and I understand a little Japanese and Spanish.

I learnt the Japanese when my dad took a course before going to Japan for a while. I've forgotten most of it.

I hpe to be able to take Spanish classes one day...it's such an interesting language.

[LadyHeather]

I can get by in France if I go there, and I took a year of Italian in school. I couldnt get by in Italy though. Not without major brushing-up.

I took two years of German in school, too, and know what words mean, but I couldnt hold a conversation in German.

When I get a new job and move house I'm going to take refresher courses in French just for fun. I'm also going to learn British Sign Language after watching CSI (Grissom uses it) I think I can use it in a drama-based job. I'm sure people need translators at the theatre and that kind of thing.

And I can curse in Mandarin Chinese, but I blame Firefly for that. :D

[Pierre]

I'm native bilingual, English and French. I also picked up enough Spanish from my mother that while my speech is halting, my accent is Salvadoran.

My parents had a Berlitz German book from which I picked up a fair bit of German. I know enough to get around.

I've learned Russian in school, Hebrew and Greek by reading the Bible, Ameslan by watching interpreters, and Portuguese by going there. I've also been in Brazil, but the Mineiro dialect is pretty much incomprehensible.

I'm interested in Native American languages (North and South) but probably won't learn one unless I marry someone who speaks it.

[dancingbarefoot]

For those who chose to learn less commonly known languages - why did you choose that/those language(s)?

Various reasons, really. Including (but not limited to):


it interests me (vague, huh?)
required for a class/degree
wanted to take another language, and it was the only other one offered at my college that I hadn't taken already
want to know as much as I can about the languages indigenous to my home state (so far, out of the 20, I've only tried to learn Yup'ik and Inupiaq)
good to learn a language that few other Americans know, at least in terms of future job prospects
some fascinating (to me) characteristic of the language, like polysynthesis or circumfixesBasically, I just love languages and jump at any opportunity to learn another one. :grinhappy:

[Pierre]

Can you give some examples of circumfixes and polysynthesis? I've seen the occasional polysynthesis (I think) such as εμοσχοποιησαν "they made a calf", but it's not a regular formation in Greek or any other language I know.

[dancingbarefoot]

Can you give some examples of circumfixes and polysynthesis?
A circumfix would be one morpheme that surrounds another morpheme, but where you can't isolate each part of the broken-up morpheme into smaller meanings.

Some claim that Swedish has circumfixes, because you express definiteness in two places around a noun:

bok (book)
boken (book-DEF)
den boken (DEF book-DEF)

I'm not 100% convinced that the first "den" here (or "det", depending on the noun class) is really a circumfix, because it's not obligatory. Might be a clitic. Anyway, there are lots of languages where circumfixes are definitely at work, especially in languages of the Philippines and Indonesia. I don't have any linguistics books here with me that would have examples, but here's one from Google, from the Philippine language Tuwali Ifugao:

baddang (to help)
ka- -an (NOMINALIZER)
kabaddangan (helpfulness; help-NOM)

I've seen the occasional polysynthesis (I think) such as εμοσχοποιησαν "they made a calf", but it's not a regular formation in Greek or any other language I know.
I imagine not, since polysynthesis doesn't occur in any European language (with the arguable exception of Finno-Ugric, but I'm not certain those are polysynthetic or just synthetic).

A Central Alaskan Yup'ik example:

tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq
'He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.'

The important thing here is that there's more than one verbal morpheme in the word, which makes is polysynthetic and not just synthetic. There are some other good examples here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysynthetic_language).

[golden_gal]

Can you give some examples of circumfixes and polysynthesis? I've seen the occasional polysynthesis (I think) such as εμοσχοποιησαν "they made a calf", but it's not a regular formation in Greek or any other language I know.
There are plenty of circumfixes in malay:

hidang (serve-(for food etc))
dihidangkan (is served)...followed by a type of food
dihidangi (is served by)...followed by the person who serves

tulis (write)
*penulisan (works of an author)
*menuliskan (to write)
* the 't' is canceled due to the type of circumfix

hidup (live)
kehidupan (life/ organisms)

Hope that helps!

[dancingbarefoot]

Very cool, golden_gal! :)

[golden_gal]

Very cool, golden_gal! :)
Thanks...dancingbarefoot!

Malay is the bane of my existance... it's actually my worst subject at school and it's compulsary. Mom forced me to go to tuition this year and I've improved quite a bit...

At least I get to help others!

[Pierre]

I was talking chitchat in Spanish with one of the guys at church, and he asked me when I was going back to my country. I looked at him in puzzlement. He asked me where I was born. I told him New York, and I spent my childhood in California. He asked me if I knew El Salvador or Mexico. I certainly do not sound like a Mexican, and have trouble understanding them, but El Salvador was a good guess, as that's where my mother's from. :)

There's a gal who still thinks I only speak "un poquito". She will be quite astonished when we get together to learn each other's language. I actually have a large reading vocabulary, but when I speak I stumble over past tense and past subjunctive, irregular verbs, and words that have no cognate in French (also words with false cognates, such as "acatar" which does not mean "buy").

[Love My Cop]

I
There's a gal who still thinks I only speak "un poquito". She will be quite astonished when we get together to learn each other's language. I actually have a large reading vocabulary, but when I speak I stumble over past tense and past subjunctive, irregular verbs, and words that have no cognate in French (also words with false cognates, such as "acatar" which does not mean "buy").


Pierre, What does "acatar" mean?

[Arianwen]

I was forced to take French (Canadian) in Elementary school but I loathed it. The pronounciation of Quebecois makes my brain ache. :P

I can still remember the days of the week, numbers and other useless stuff from french though haha.

I've been studying Brazilian Portuguese intermittently for what, 3 years? :O.

I still stink at it but I understand way more than I used to.

[Pierre]

I don't know! Someone once gave a sermon and said that the Law is to acatar, not to atacar. The latter word does mean "attack", but "buy" doesn't make sense in that context, and I already knew that "comprar" means "buy".

What does Canadian French sound like, as compared to French from Normandy?

When talking in Spanish about my trip to Brazil I said I had to "alfandegar" my luggage. There is no such word in Spanish. What you go through when entering a country is aduana. There is a cognate "alhondiga" but it means something else. "Aduana" should have come out easily, since its French equivalent is "douane", but I had just spent two weeks speaking Portuguese so the Portuguese word popped into my mind.

[Clare-Dragonfly]

According to Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary, "acatar" means "respect, revere". Makes sense in that context.

[Rosa.Damascena]

My mother tongue is german, and I've learned english and french in school. After reading a lot of books in english original reading fluently is for the most no problem, but I've to train the writing and speaking. As for French I've forgotten the most and could hardly read a longer text in it and understand it. But I want to work it up like my english - by the way of reading books in french. For the most I just interested in other languages to get the ability to read books in the original language or get at all the chance to read so many books that will be not translated.

[Miriela]

Mother tongue is English, and while I am not necessarily fond of it, it has made both German and Spanish easier. I think.

I'm taking German (II) and Spanish (I) at school. My school also offers French, but I don't have enough class periods for that, and I'd be afraid I'd mix it up with the Spanish.

The German teacher has a very grammatical approach to teaching. I have no issues with nominative/accusative/dative cases (*when* will we learn genotive???), though unusual/illogical (to me) sentence orders are more difficult to understand. Spanish is harder for me because the teacher hasn't done nearly as much grammar stuff.

For example: why the heck is it "a mi me gusta" instead of "yo me gusto"? I assume gustar is a dative verb and mi (or would it be me?) is the dative form of yo, but I have no clue.

An example of the German: It's far easier for me to understand "Er schenktet ihr das Auto." but it takes longer for me to decipher "Ihr schenktet er das Auto." I think this is simply because it's not in subject/verb/indirect object/direct object form. That's the simplest most straightforward form, I guess, and it's what I'm most familiar with. I get even more confused when we get to "Er schenktet es ihr." ;)

[Rosa.Damascena]

Hi Miriela,

perhaps its a little comfort for you when I say, that learning german grammar and all the difficulties of our language is even for the most german kids tough stuff to get in the head. :) I rembember myself sitting with a smoking head over the same problems as you described ;). I always found learning english much more easily.

[LadyOttoline]

For example: why the heck is it "a mi me gusta" instead of "yo me gusto"? I assume gustar is a dative verb and mi (or would it be me?) is the dative form of yo, but I have no clue.

I think you simply have to learn this as an expression instead of trying to translate it back into English. Or if you do, translate it as "to me X is pleasing" or "X is pleasing to me" instead of translating it directly as "I like X". But you can also leave out the "a mi" part and just say "me gusta el helado" or whatever. In any case, what happens is that the item you like is the subject of the sentence, not the "me" which is the direct object of the sentence. There is a whole bunch of verbs that function like that in Spanish, e.g. interesar (a mi me interesa el cine), etc.
NOt sure if this is helping at all...

An example of the German: It's far easier for me to understand "Er schenktet ihr das Auto." but it takes longer for me to decipher "Ihr schenktet er das Auto." I think this is simply because it's not in subject/verb/indirect object/direct object form. That's the simplest most straightforward form, I guess, and it's what I'm most familiar with. I get even more confused when we get to "Er schenktet es ihr." ;)

I know what you're saying - I teach German and this is always so hard for all of my students to understand. Just try to figure out what is the subject, i.e. who is doing the schenken here - he or she or they and who is being given the object. Anyhow, I feel with you:whyme:

[mira-chan]

Bump!

I added one more language to my list this fall, Chineses (Mandarin). ^_^

[meliora]

My native language is Russian, and I still find it the easiest to use. I have lived in the US for 6 years so far, and I am becoming bilingual (Russian/English). At this point I still think mostly in Russian.

I have taken one year of French in 7th grade and forgot all of it aside from a few key phrases.

In high school in the US I took 2 semesters of Spanish and can hold a simple conversation in it and understand what people are saying most of the time!

My true language obsession is German though. I always wanted to take it, but only got a chance to do so in the university (different circumstances made impossible in my early school career, sadly, and later my high school did not offer it). Now I major in it :) My goal is to perfect it, but this my 6th semester only, and that will take some years. Right now I think I am pretty good in it for the time that I spent learning it.

I am trying to learn Japanese and Arabic on my own, but I just started this recently and picked up some interesting self-teaching books. So I can't really say that I know those!

[mira-chan]

Hi meliora!I'm also a native Russian speaker though I've been in the US twice as long as you have and think in a mixed jumble of languages. Usually I think in the language being spoken around me, if I know it.

For Japanese I posted some links at the start of the thread that may be helpful also the book "Japanese for busy people" Kana version is a great place to start I found. :grinhappy:

I taught myself to read in Japanese, the phonetic aphabet anyway, still working on the kanji so it can be done. Conversation is another story.

[angelthadiva]

I'm currently taking Spanish, I'm going for a Spanish minor.

[meliora]

Hello, Mira-chan! :happy: It's awesome to see another Russian speaker here, and I think I am heading the same direction as you in the next few years, thinking in a mix of languages. For the moment it's mostly Russian though.

The links are interesting, thanks! I will definitely use them :grinhappy: Like I said, I am just starting to learn Japanese, because I have some more free time now. Right now I have learned some key phrases and simple vocabulary, and I am memorizing katakana and practicing writing the symbols. I am into manga big time (and some anime too, but I prefer manga, since I've always loved books more than the TV), and I have a really cool book called Japanese in Mangaland that teaches you Japanese based on manga and manga examples! It helps, because it keeps me interested :lafhard:

[mira-chan]

I've seen the Japanese mangaland book too. I read Japanese manga instead. We have a Japanese second hand book store here and I can get the manga for $1 each. Convenient for practice plus fun to read (much better than the text books :sleep:). Most of them have furigana (tiny kana next to the kanji) so they can be read if you know phonetic only. Plus you learn the kanji through repeat encounters.

I keep forgeting karakana letters on and off and figure them out when I encounter them. They are not used nearly as much as hiragana.

Another thing that helps a huge amount is watching things in Japanese. I started with subtitles at first but after a while I jsut started ignoring them. Now I don't need them at all. I was watching anime at firstnot I watch any random thing I find and get intereted in. A nice site that has Japanese drama shows, movies and some anime is Crunchyroll.

I'm working on memorizing the kanji now, both chinese and japanese readings and meaning.

[meliora]

Yes, reading something first-hand is always more useful in my opinion. I am trying to literally decipher Faust in the original German, and it's really fun and helps remembering words. I wish I could get Japanese manga! I see you live in the NYC, and I can imagine there are a lot of fun stores there :) I've only been in NYC once and loved it. Here in Florida I am a bit limited in this sense, getting cool things like that :lafhard:, but the book does help. I do the same thing with anime (watching it subbed rather than dubbed and trying to understand it). I also find some Japanese game shows really fun, and if you find videos online, many of them don't even have subtitles, so you are forced to try to understand.