Learning Languages

[Skeever]

Anyone else here into learning languages?

I minored in Chinese when I was in college, and lived over there for a few years after that.
I would consider myself fairly skilled with it (conversational and literate), though not fully fluent.
I still keep it up by listening to podcasts, occasionally watching a TV show or movie, or reading books on Kindle, and that's it. I don't "formally" study anymore. But also,  he changed political environment from 10+ years ago when I started is a real downer, and takes some of the inspiration to keep learning away. I've been thinking of learning something else.

I'd started Japanese a few times, but never get far. IDK why, something about it just never hooks me.
Spanish is enough I'd like to learn (very useful), and also Swedish (oddly, have many friends who speak it).

Curious who here can speak a language other than English, and if so, how you go about study, assuming that it's not your native language.

[El Barto]

I speak my native language alright, but I'm incapable of learning a second. I took French all through high school and eeked by with Cs. Decided to give Spanish a shot in college and same story. I can pass the tests. I can figure out conjugations. If you show me written words I can decipher bits of it. You speak to me in a French or Spanish and it's gibberish, save for proper names. Aside from 10 or so useful words (thanks-seeya-wussup) I don't even bother trying to speak them.

Interestingly, that's also why I gave up playing piano as a lad. I could never read sheet music, which requires exactly the same ability as reading a second language.

[Phoenix87x]

I love learning languages

I've been studying Polish for a year and a half and just recently went to Poland where I actually spoke the language the whole time I was there. One of the greatest experiences i've ever had.

I'm gonna keep focusing on Polish, but want to do Spanish (which I did in high school and college but it never really worked very well)

how I study

I never learned anything from high school or college classes. They just don't work for me. I do the following and this has been working great:

1. One babbel lesson daily
2. One rosetta stone lesson daily (I would recommend babbel if you just can do one)
2. Drops (which is an app that helps with vocab)
3. Google translate, you can speak into the phone in the desired language and see if it understands (this is huge for pronunciation)
4. Watch youtube vloggers that speak only in the desired language
5. I do a few private lessons a month on Italki (zoom lessons, one on one with a teacher)
6. Hello talk -Its not bad. My friend swears by this, but personally it doesn't really help me learn. But it does form connections with people in the country you want to learn

7. If you can find people to practice with IRL. I work with two native born Polish people and try and talk with them constantly

[Stadler]

I speak my native language alright, but I'm incapable of learning a second. I took French all through high school and eeked by with Cs. Decided to give Spanish a shot in college and same story. I can pass the tests. I can figure out conjugations. If you show me written words I can decipher bits of it. You speak to me in a French or Spanish and it's gibberish, save for proper names. Aside from 10 or so useful words (thanks-seeya-wussup) I don't even bother trying to speak them.

Interestingly, that's also why I gave up playing piano as a lad. I could never read sheet music, which requires exactly the same ability as reading a second language.

I'm close to you on this; I try - and like you I can read passably in Spanish - but it's so SLOW as to be useless. 

[Skeever]

5. I do a few private lessons a month on Italki (zoom lessons, one on one with a teacher)
6. Hello talk -Its not bad. My friend swears by this, but personally it doesn't really help me learn. But it does form connections with people in the country you want to learn

I've had a REALLY mixed bag with Preply (similar to iTalki). Tough to find a tutor who can really take you to the next level. Lots of times, I find myself wondering if they're even real teachers on the other end.

Hellotalk - I've used it, yeah. Unfortunately for Chinese, it's a political minefield. The app is based in, I think, Shenzhen, and it's a miracle that Westerners and Chinese can communicate there freely without even need for a VPN on the China side. But it is HEAVILY monitored. I used to make posts there, and got myself shadowbanned for reasons that I still can not fathom.

@barto and stadler - I sucked at Spanish in HS (eeked by with a C). I found learning at the collegiate level a lot more motivating, for whatever reason.

[Phoenix87x]

Me too with preply and italki.

I went through 3 not so good teachers before i found one i really like. It is definitely a mixed bag, i got lucky

But i am also just A2 with Polish so there’s a lot of room to grow and teach

[Dublagent66]

Took French a couple years in HS.  Don't remember much of that since it's been nearly 40 years.  English is all I need to know.

[Cool Chris]

I took French in high school, and 2 semesters in college. When I told my college the 2nd semester would be my last, he told me I should keep at it as he thought I was showing an aptitude for it - though I never felt that way. I've never cared about it, or any other language, since.

My 11 year old decided she wanted to learn French via Duolingo on her own. She is not typically the over-achiever type, so I was happy she is taking this on herself. It's only been a couple weeks but she spends at least a few minutes on it every day.

[MinistroRaven]

If anyone wants to practice Spanish just let me know and we can go through a Zoom call

[axeman90210]

2 years of Latin and 2 years of Spanish in high school + 1 year of Italian in college and what I learned is that I'm not very good at learning foreign languages I'm very good at learning the grammar, how to conjugate verbs and construct sentences and all of that. I could handle reading and writing homework no problem. Where I always struggle is the vocabulary and having to speak/listen or otherwise interact in the language in real time. I've seen people say that if you're learning a language it needs to not be a translation. If you're talking about sugar it needs to just be azúcar from the start. For me though it would always be "I'm thinking about sugar, what's the word for that... ah, right, azúcar". Once we would get past the first month or two and the volume of words started to ramp up that would be it for me.

[Stadler]

5. I do a few private lessons a month on Italki (zoom lessons, one on one with a teacher)
6. Hello talk -Its not bad. My friend swears by this, but personally it doesn't really help me learn. But it does form connections with people in the country you want to learn

I've had a REALLY mixed bag with Preply (similar to iTalki). Tough to find a tutor who can really take you to the next level. Lots of times, I find myself wondering if they're even real teachers on the other end.

Hellotalk - I've used it, yeah. Unfortunately for Chinese, it's a political minefield. The app is based in, I think, Shenzhen, and it's a miracle that Westerners and Chinese can communicate there freely without even need for a VPN on the China side. But it is HEAVILY monitored. I used to make posts there, and got myself shadowbanned for reasons that I still can not fathom.

@barto and stadler - I sucked at Spanish in HS (eeked by with a C). I found learning at the collegiate level a lot more motivating, for whatever reason.

It didn't help that we had three Spanish teachers in my high school.  One was married to the other, and banging the third on the side.  I am not making this up. 

[Phoenix87x]

If anyone wants to practice Spanish just let me know and we can go through a Zoom call

Spanish is next so at some point I may take you up on that. Thanks

 Still need to focus on just Polish for the next few months though.

[MinistroRaven]

If anyone wants to practice Spanish just let me know and we can go through a Zoom call

Spanish is next so at some point I may take you up on that. Thanks

 Still need to focus on just Polish for the next few months though.

Perfect!

[El Barto]

@barto and stadler - I sucked at Spanish in HS (eeked by with a C). I found learning at the collegiate level a lot more motivating, for whatever reason.

I found learning at the collegiate level far more effective. I had no interest in learning stuff in HS. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll beat out learning every day of the week. When I went to college I was there because I actually wanted to learn and it made a huge difference. That said, the problems with learning another language remain the same. I took French in HS and Spanish in college and had precisely the same experience.

[Lonk]

I've been going back to French. I took 2 years in College (almost did a study abroad program, until I saw the price tag for the semester). After college I stopped practicing it and never really used it. Lately I started practicing again. Mainly Duolingo, listening to some videos in French to remind myself of pronunciations and what not. It's been working since I was descent at it before, just need to dig in my memory for it.

I started learning Japanese in late 2019/early 2020 when I was planning a summer trip to Japan, but once March 2020 hit I gave up and never went back to it.

[SchecterShredder]

I was in a French immersion school from kindergarten to grade 10, and considered myself pretty well fluent at that time. I lost a lot of the language in the following 15 or so years after high school, but around 5 years ago I took an interest again after my kids were born. I began reading French novels, and speaking French at home exclusively when interacting with my daughter. My son was already 2 at the time, and he didn't want anything to do with French. I found that in the beginning I was missing so much of my vocabulary I was constantly looking up words. Now, I can hold a convo in French comfortably, and read fluently. I don't ever write in French, but I imagine it would be something pitiful.

I think immersion is the best way to learn a language, but it's not exactly an easy environment to come across as an adult without moving to another country where the language is spoken full time.

[Skeever]

@barto and stadler - I sucked at Spanish in HS (eeked by with a C). I found learning at the collegiate level a lot more motivating, for whatever reason.

I found learning at the collegiate level far more effective. I had no interest in learning stuff in HS. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll beat out learning every day of the week. When I went to college I was there because I actually wanted to learn and it made a huge difference. That said, the problems with learning another language remain the same. I took French in HS and Spanish in college and had precisely the same experience.

The appification of learning these days really changes the game, IMO. Pimsleur courses? Yeah that's a subscription app now. Same with Rosetta Stoned. And those are pay apps, seen as "overrated" given how many free ones will get you to the same results. Same goes with media availability in general. When I started learning Mandarin, I distinctly remember the days when I'd bus over to Flushing just to buy some knockoff shit, then get home, and realize it didn't work in my player or was in Cantonese anyway. Friends learning Japanese or Korean would be spending hundreds buying fansubbed anime from ebay. We are well beyond that now.

[Phoenix87x]

For me formal schooling goes like:

8th grade - Spanish 1 (went over basics with a decent teacher)

9th grade - Spanish 2 with a whack job a few years away from retirement who had zero interest in teaching, so I didn't learn anything

10th grade- Spanish 3 with a great teacher but I had nothing to build off from the whack job

11th grade- Spanish 4 back with the whack job and I lost everything I learned from the good teacher (who only was allowed to teach 3 and 5 sadly)   

College - one semester with an ok teacher

So that's 5 years and I know/remember almost nothing

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Now with making my own lesson plan for Polish, after a year and a half I was in the actual country speaking the language on a basic level.

Formal schooling can work I guess, but I think it has its limitations and the quality of the teacher makes a huge difference. And if I am teaching myself then I have no one to blame but myself as well. And just as important, I can follow my own pace.