/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12062849]

What language are you learning? You are learning a language, right?

[Anonymous No.12062851]

>>12062849
I'm fluent in 3 languages and have no further ambitions in that regard.

[Anonymous No.12062853]

>>12062849
no. all languages except English (American) should die out.

[Anonymous No.12062867]

>>12062849
Greek and Latin

[Anonymous No.12062877]

>>12062849
i'm learning how to speak democrat english.
it's like normal english, except 2/3's of the vocabulary has a different meaning.

[Anonymous No.12062895]

Hungarian, Russian, Dutch and German in order to read authors in those languages

[Anonymous No.12062898]

>>12062849
German

lost momentum a few months ago though. Barely keeping up with my anki cards. been at it over a year now

[Anonymous No.12062900]

Japanese ^_____^ ( ^ω^ )(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))

[Anonymous No.12062906]

>>12062877
Nick Land??

[Anonymous No.12062927]

>>12062898
>ankidroning for a fucking IE language with a Latin alphabet

[Anonymous No.12062937]

i find the concept of the Tower of Babel so powerful. it is truly marvelous yet so deceptively simple that even though we're all humans, we speak different languages.

[Anonymous No.12062944]

>>12062877
boomer humor

[Anonymous No.12062953]

>>12062927
It's a good way to drill important vocab. Better than duolingo/memrise imo.

[Anonymous No.12062955]

>>12062849
Been working on Japanese since August, but just with Duolingo. What do you guys use for your language study?

[Anonymous No.12062958]

english

[Anonymous No.12062972]

>>12062849
Uh... SQL.

[Anonymous No.12062977]

>>12062972
based and redpilled and employed. im currently learning python to webscrape some data. C++ and *spoiler* matlab are my mains

[Anonymous No.12062985]

>>12062953
No, it's not, all those means are trash. What you need to study a language is a grammar book to start off, and then books and a dictionary. You acquire a language via exposure, not decontextualized vocabulary games.

[Anonymous No.12062994]

>>12062955
Duolingo isn't very good desu. You should use an anki deck (I'm using core 2k/6k) for kanji and tae kim's guide for grammar.

[Anonymous No.12062996]

im learning japanese just because I don't see any particular reason to learn one language over another and i already watch anime and stuff so might as well because im already exposing myself to japanese a lot in my free time

[Anonymous No.12062997]

>>12062985
the anki deck i have uses sentences when learning a word so there is context

[Anonymous No.12063007]

dont do ajatt or vore or shit like that just read qith yomichan and watch anime and try to understand
tae Kim is good
cure dolly is fucking weird but good

[Anonymous No.12063016]

>>12062877

[Anonymous No.12063019]

>>12062867
Why?
I plan to learn greek and hebrew, and then german and latin.

[Anonymous No.12063022]

>>12062997
Example sentences aren't context or exposure in any substantial sense. You need to be parsing content directed to native speakers of the language, not eternally consuming beginner material.

[Anonymous No.12063031]

German, but I've realized it's a mistake. I guess I like learning it, but I have next to no interest in anything German other than a few books. Hate the music, hardly interested in film, their food sucks, hate modern Germany, little interest in visiting, etc.
Really wish I had chosen Japanese cause I love a ton of different aspects of Japanese culture and hope to visit soon. But now I feel stuck, I don't wanna give up on German, I've already learned so much and don't wanna go halfway on it, planned to take the next level next semester.
I figure once I can read decently in German I'll begin Japanese. I care more about being able to read German than speak it.
Has anyone been able to learn one language then successfully learn another? Was it easier? Or is language learning mostly genetics?

[Anonymous No.12063035]

>>12063007
>cure dolly is fucking weird but good
Cure Dolly is cute as fuck.

[Anonymous No.12063043]

>>12063022
how many languages u know?

[Anonymous No.12063054]

>>12063043
Four.

[Anonymous No.12063069]

>>12062895
>Learning Hungarian and Russian at the same time.
Lmao good luck with that one...

[Anonymous No.12063070]

>>12063054
what ones

[Anonymous No.12063118]

does american sign language count lads?

[Anonymous No.12063149]

>>12063118
yes

[Anonymous No.12063200]

>>12062994
>anki deck
>tae kim's guide
Thanks, I'll check those out.

[Anonymous No.12063210]

>>12062849
I mastered italian in less than a year, now I'm going to learn russian, cause my quasi-gf is from Belarus

[Anonymous No.12063216]

English and French are enough for now, after having learned them as my second and third language I really have no desire to learn anything else. Perhaps I should learn Spanish because it's supposed to be easy, or I should go the full Roman route and learn Latin just for the kicks.

[Anonymous No.12063262]

>>12063210
What did you do to learn so fast and well?

[Anonymous No.12063297]

>>12062849
I'm learning mandarin after reading that one anons anecdote about Chinese being shit business partners in the steel industry. I am specifically doing as such because I am hoping I can take advantage of the greediness of the Chinese capitalistic spirit, and traffic some people.

[Anonymous No.12063575]

>>12063297
Would you happen to have it?

[Anonymous No.12063583]

>>12062849
I'm learning the language of looove

[Anonymous No.12063584]

>>12062849
Spanish but I don’t practice nearly enough.

[Anonymous No.12063756]

Learning Sanskrit and Persian

[Anonymous No.12063792]

>>12062895
What are you planning to read in Hungo?

[Anonymous No.12063869]

>>12063200
Take this guide that lead generations of weeaboos to their waifus: djtguide.neocities.org

[Anonymous No.12064040]

Italian

[Anonymous No.12064044]

>>12063031
>Or is language learning mostly genetics?
Language learning has absolutely nothing to do with genetics you retard.
Forget learning German, learn some basic biology.

[Anonymous No.12064064]

I can speak fluently three languages and shut up myself in all of them

[Anonymous No.12064073]

native portuguese, fluent in italian, learning french.
Being a literature and philosophy lover I wouldn't forgive myself for not learning at least the romance languages and latin itself. After that I intend to study russian, german and greek, but the last three without much pretention of becoming fluent

[Anonymous No.12064076]

No, I think it's better to reach your highest potential in one language, than be mediocre in several

[Anonymous No.12064102]

>>12064073
tiens, un amoureux des langues romanes ;)

[Anonymous No.12064106]

>>12064076
and having a high potential in more than one ?

[Anonymous No.12064138]

>>12064076
one of the best ways to better understand and master your native language is learning other languages, but you wouldn't know that since this kind of opinion is usually held by those who can only speak his native language.
>"I speak: Portuguese, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Esperanto, some Russian; I read: Swedish, Dutch, Latin and Greek (but with the dictionary right next to me); I understand some German dialects; I studied the grammar of: Hungarian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Polish, Tupi, Hebrew, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, Danish; I dabbled in others. But all at a very basic level. And I think that studying the spirit and the mechanism of other languages helps greatly to more deeply understand the national language. In general, however, I studied for pleasure, desire, distraction".

[Anonymous No.12064147]

>>12064138
>Esperanto
Opinion discarded

[Anonymous No.12064155]

>>12064044
The biological determinists are steadily gaining power here, Anon. Come back in five years to 'my 23&me test tells me I'm 2% African can I still read and understand the Odyssey?' threads.

[Anonymous No.12064186]

>>12064155
Yeah, containment board was a fucking meme and everyone knows it. /lit/ was fun while it lasted.

[Anonymous No.12064371]

>>12064138
A lot of thesr historical polyglots were probably not fluent in their claimed languages. Just check out modern polyglots, even with today's technology a lot of them struggle to attain a high level beyond several core languages.

[Anonymous No.12064406]

Japanese. Kek nobody irl knows because I don’t want to get labeled a turbo weeb. Have a trip planned for June of 2020 though and I’m pretty excited.

[Anonymous No.12064439]

Learning Japanese. At a pretty good level right now imo

[Anonymous No.12064444]

>>12062877
Woohoo high 5 basedbro, here's that social cred I promised yuh. Grab me a beer eh?

[Anonymous No.12064716]

>>12064371
the quoted guy was a brazilian writer and diplomat, he was a consul in Hamburg and actively helped to translate his work into other languages, so he knew at least some fluently. But as he says in the quote, he studied mostly for leisure and the languages in which he claims fluency are not that hard, the most difficult ones being german (he lived in German for a while and gave interviews german without translators) and Russian.

[Anonymous No.12064850]

So I just (Yesterday) started trying to learn French, I've bought a bilingual copy of Alice's adventures in wonderland and I've been doing Duolingo.

What else should I do in order to learn. If I'm completely honest I don't care about speaking French since I don't ever want to go to France but I do want to read the language.

What else should I do?

[Anonymous No.12065089]

bump

[Anonymous No.12065104]

>>12064040
Come sta andando?

[Anonymous No.12065136]

>>12063756
>Persian
My man

[Anonymous No.12065214]

>>12064850
French for Reading is a good text. I use the German one to study

[Anonymous No.12065234]

>>12064138
>I read: Swedish
Innebär detta påstående att du kan läsa dig en svensk text och förstå vad som förtäljs däri?

[Anonymous No.12065236]

>>12064076
Learning a new language often improves your ability in your native language.

[Anonymous No.12065297]

>>12062849
Latin and Attic Greek

[Anonymous No.12065337]

japanese

[Anonymous No.12065408]

>>12064138
meme post. nobody can do this

[Anonymous No.12065420]

No one who has written anything worth anything at all studied any language other than what he was raised in. The language matters very little: what is most important is the message

[Anonymous No.12065428]

>>12065420
m8 almost ever European author studied latin and greek until like 1900

[Anonymous No.12065442]

>>12065428
Only because they were forced to

[Anonymous No.12065446]

>>12065442
It's genuinely interesting though

[Anonymous No.12065452]

>>12065446
Porquois?

[Anonymous No.12065459]

>>12065420
stop making excuses for your laziness

[Anonymous No.12065476]

>>12065452
it may just be my autism but I find things like case systems and conjugation patterns really interesting. And well just language in general is extremely intriguing
it is almost certainly my autism really but it's not uncommon for people to find this topic interesting

[Anonymous No.12065491]

Spanish and French but they're so similar I might focus just on Spanish for a while.

[Anonymous No.12065510]

>>12065420
Just off the top of my head, Okakura Kakuzo, Joseph Conrad, Nabokov, Zizek, and Lacfadio Hearn all achieved widespread success as writers in their second language.

[Anonymous No.12065531]

>>12065214
It's £60 on amazon do you know any other sellers

[Anonymous No.12065662]

I'm trying to learn Latin; I'm taking notes on basic grammar and then tackling translations. I dunno how effective this is, so I could use some pointers.

[Anonymous No.12065670]

>>12065662
https://chaharrah.tv/chaharrah-depot/arthouse/latin-attachments/latin-book.pdf

This textbook is fun. Anything you do will be fine if you keep at it and put in the effort

[Anonymous No.12065676]

>>12065670
here is the beginning so you get the picture of what the book is doing:

Rōma in Italiā est. Italia in Eurōpā est. Graecia in Eurōpā
est. Italia et Graecia in Eurōpā sunt. Hispānia
quoque in Eurōpā est. Hispānia et Italia et Graecia in
Eurōpā sunt.
5 Aegyptus in Eurōpā nōn est, Aegyptus in Āfricā est.
Gallia nōn in Āfricā est, Gallia est in Eurōpā. Syria nōn
est in Eurōpā, sed in Asiā. Arabia qucxjue in Asiā est.
Syria et Arabia in Asiā sunt. Germānia nōn in Asiā, sed
in Eurōpā est. Britannia quoque in Eurōpā est. Germā10
nia et Britannia sunt in Eurōpā.

[Anonymous No.12065732]

>>12065670
>>12065676
Thanks for the help, anon; I've had that recommended a few times and have gotten a copy. If I read it from beginning to end once, will it make much of a difference? Also, should I focus my studies around that book, or need I try to work with other material at the same time?

[Anonymous No.12065752]

>>12065732
I would focus around something conventional like Wheelock. I just like that book because it sets you immediately reading in latin and you understand what is being said by the obvious context. After struggling with conjugations or translating for a while it can be nice to have a more fluid experiene with the language.

I honestly don't think the particulars matter that much. If you study and read things each day youll find yourself improving over time, we pick up languages naturally.

[Anonymous No.12065789]

>>12065752
Alright, thanks. I do know of the existence of a continuation of Lingua latina per Ilustrata famila about Rome. After reading those, should I continue my studies by reading actual Latin authors, or would that still be too premature?

[Anonymous No.12065795]

Come imparo l'italiano?

Can someone give me a good book to translate/read

[Anonymous No.12065802]

>>12065789
>or would that still be too premature?
as far as im cocnerned this isnt a real thing. Pick up the Aeneid and translate every word yourself if you feel like it

[Anonymous No.12065806]

>>12064406
do you usually plan trips several years in advance?

[Anonymous No.12065854]

>>12064044
So I can become a polyglot if I wanted to?

[Anonymous No.12065864]

>>12064044
i think the click africans developed slighlty different mouths or vocal chords or some shit for their clicketyclicks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WO5XabD-s

based click africans

[Anonymous No.12065870]

>>12064406
>>12064439
What're you using to learn? I'm planning to learn it once I'm done with my current language

[Anonymous No.12065878]

>>12064155
>Come back in five years to 'my 23&me test tells me I'm 2% African can I still read and understand the Odyssey?' threads
Can't wait tbqhywf

[Anonymous No.12065884]

>>12064155
>biological determinists
a noise emitted by creationists usually

[Anonymous No.12065889]

>>12062849
Attempting Japanese, and I'm thinking about picking up Hebrew again. I also knew a little French from HS, but I don't know about picking it up again since Japanese is a handful.

Not sure why people are so active to discourage picking up a second language. Language is like a puzzle, and it's fun to see how the same ideas can be communicated in different ways.

[Anonymous No.12065914]

Been learning French for 3 years now, I can text with people freely, speaking is still a bit iffy because I haven't practiced it that much.
Literature is killing me though, I can only read plays and some entry-level novels.

[Anonymous No.12065949]

>>12062853
Born and living in germany. My first language was spanish but I learned german as well when my cuban neighbours moved way. Thanks to school I'm fluent in english too.

It's pretty shitty that turkish or russian would have been wiser to learn to understand the residents of my town (Hamburg). This damn city does its best to resemble the tower of babel.

Well now I'm sitting here. Learning russian to understand the cashier girl of the russian supermarket...

[Anonymous No.12065962]

>>12062985
>being such a fucking mongoloid
lmaooo

[Anonymous No.12065966]

>>12065889
>Not sure why people are so active to discourage picking up a second language.
It's a lot of work and people are lazy. Well Americans are, most Euros learn a second language and I believe English is taught in Korea and Japan.
Americans are taught two half assed years of Spanish or French in high school and come out knowing nothing of either language

[Anonymous No.12065967]

>>12065889
Learn german! Lower german and Afrikaans share 30% of their vocabulary. You will be able to talk to people in South Africa!

[Anonymous No.12065974]

>>12065854
I don't see why not, it just takes constant practice and rigorous study. It also helps if the language you wish to learn has enough material for you to stay interested; the main reason why I became so proficient in English so soon was because most information about my interests and my interests themselves came from an anglophone source.

[Anonymous No.12066002]

Yeah, Java and HTML5

[Anonymous No.12066004]

>>12065889
>. Language is like a puzzle
Languages lack clear logic too much to be like a puzzle. They rely on plain memorisation more than any other academic discipline I can think of.

>tfw learning French and cannot into the phonetics
I have great reading comprehension for my level of vocab, but struggle deeply with listening comprehension. Tips for improvement?

[Anonymous No.12066022]

>>12065854
Language acquisition is much easier in developmental years, after that it becomes much harder to pick up a language. Afaik, most polyglots get a head start in that regard.

But I don't see why anyone who isn't a brainlet couldn't pick up extra languages - it would just take a lot of time.

[Anonymous No.12066024]

>>12065974
I always though the ability to learn a language was a futile effort once you get out of your teens.
I was always mad I didn't get taught one growing up. Then I realized that if I had just took initiative when I first started complaining and began learning then I'd be probably fluent in many language by now.
So I finally decided to learn one and realized it's mostly just hard work, discipline, and patience.
Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen und ich bin lerne Japanisch

[Anonymous No.12066041]

>>12062849
Chinese my dude.
I'm focusing on writing, since there's a thousand different ways to speak it but meanings of the characters don't change between dialects.

[Anonymous No.12066069]

>>12066004
>but struggle deeply with listening comprehension. Tips for improvement?
Other than speaking to French people, listen to French music and movies/tv?
That's really the only other way to listen to a language, it'll help you with pronunciation and accents too

[Anonymous No.12066084]

>>12066069
Any suggestions for movies/tv?
I haven't tried any in a while, but my problem with that used to be that with subtitles I just mentally blocked out the speech and it was pointless, and without subtitles I just felt lost.

[Anonymous No.12066097]

>>12066002
Do you have any self-respect? Well, at least it's not JS.

[Anonymous No.12066100]

>>12066084
Hello fellow french learner
Les Revenants is one of the few mildly entertaining TV series. For movies you have a few more options, but still not many (e.g. Au revoir là-haut is good).
Music is much better, then again depending on what kind of music you like.
Also, unironically lurk in /fr/ generals on /int/

[Anonymous No.12066106]

>>12066100
>>12066069
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkZ_ihsn404

[Anonymous No.12066112]

>>12066106
>Jacques Brel
Based and redpilled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9O8x_mjAYI

[Anonymous No.12066113]

>>12066084
I looked up Sesame Street in German, you could try that with French

[Anonymous No.12066117]

>>12062849
How many do you need to know?

[Anonymous No.12066119]

>>12066112
based and redpilled indeed. watch him expound on various species of pleb here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZh2ggOfglU

[Anonymous No.12066130]

>>12066113
What sort of accent does the Count have in German?
>>12066100
Thanks for the tips, I'll check out that TV series.
>learn French via 4chan
>go to France
> unknowingly start speaking memes thinking its part of the language

[Anonymous No.12066144]

>>12066119
>lui qui a un gros nez

[Anonymous No.12066145]

>>12066004
>Languages lack clear logic too much to be like a puzzle.

Start learning japanese. Its possible to learn the grammar in just two months because it is 100% logic.

[Anonymous No.12066148]

>>12066144
brel was unfortunately not based and redpilled on the subject of Jews, being a Frenchman of his time
he speaks of 'le courage d'etre juif et l'elegance d'etre negre'

[Anonymous No.12066153]

>>12066145
>it is 100% logic
Mind telling us the difference between は and が?

[Anonymous No.12066157]

How long does it take to appreciate poetry in another language?
I'm trying Bauderlaire, and while I can suss out what he's saying while looking up the occasional word, I can't appreciate the rhythms or sound of the words at ALL like I can in English.

[Anonymous No.12066171]

>>12066145
Already am, and while the grammar and the pronunciation especially is easy, the writing systems are the worst. Took long enough to get a handle on just the Hiragana, dunno how people ever get a handle on kanji.

[Anonymous No.12066176]

>>12066157
here is some based French verse for you:

Je vous abuserais si j’osais vous promettre
Qu’entre vos mains, Seigneur, il voulût la remettre.
Non que de sa conquête il paraisse flatté ;
Pour la veuve d’Hector ses feux ont éclaté ;
Il l’aime. Mais enfin cette veuve inhumaine
N’a payé jusqu’ici son amour que de haine ;
Et chaque jour encore on lui voit tout tenter
Pour fléchir sa captive, ou pour l’épouvanter.
De son fils qu’il lui cache il menace la tête,
Et fait couler des pleurs qu’aussitôt il arrête.
Hermione elle-même a vu plus de cent fois
Cet amant irrité revenir sous ses lois,
Et de ses vœux troublés lui rapportant l’hommage,
Soupirer à ses pieds moins d’amour que de rage.
Ainsi n’attendez pas que l’on puisse aujourd’hui
Vous répondre d’un cœur si peu maître de lui :
Il peut, Seigneur, il peut, dans ce désordre extrême,
Épouser ce qu’il hait, et punir ce qu’il aime.

[Anonymous No.12066208]

>>12066171
Kanji are awesome if you are autistic enough to appreciate their awesomeness, the stroke order, the phonetic/semantic components and the different readings and how they correlate with usage cases. If not, then tough luck.

[Anonymous No.12066209]

>>12066176
I can at least get a sense of the rhythm of this.
Looking it up, it's from Racine's Andromaque - is there a good recording or film adaption I could watch?

[Anonymous No.12066216]

>>12066209
>I can at least get a sense of the rhythm of this.
because he was a genius
dont know about adaptations sorry m8

[Anonymous No.12066253]

I’m learning Italian on Duolingo, I know it’s not the best. I plan on following that up with an African language.

[Anonymous No.12066257]

>>12066084
You could try watching French dubs for movies you've already seen, that way what they are saying won't sound so alien.

[Anonymous No.12066271]

Japanese. I constantly feel like all sentences I encounter are either brain-dead easy or a tangled mess that I'll never comprehend. Then I end up running into one that didn't make sense other times I saw it but due to the constraints set by the current context there's only one thing it could mean and then it all clicks.

[Anonymous No.12066278]

>>12066271
>paying an author by the page count.jpg

[Anonymous No.12066285]

>>12062849
Lisp

[Anonymous No.12066297]

So since I'm pretty good at moon by now, I thought of learning French to appreciate higher European art. How hard is it in your opinion?

[Anonymous No.12066306]

>>12066297
After Japanese, French would be a walk in the park.

[Anonymous No.12066337]

Portuguese, specifically Brazilian Portuguese

I need to communicate with my future waifus parents and family, specifically anyone older than 35 since everyone else speaks a little English

[Anonymous No.12066343]

>>12066337
Did you fall for some Brazilian woman? There's still time to abandon her right away, my friend. I'm assuming you're either European or Canadian/Fatistan. She is using you as a social trampolin and economic anchorage. Don't trust Brazilian women at all.

[Anonymous No.12066353]

>>12066297
Reading is easy as fuck compared to moon. Pronunciation will be harder. Grammar is harder too.

Reading is easy not just because of the shared characters with english, but there's a lot of similar vocabulary too, so if you have a good intuition, it's easy to ween meaning - ie, it's pretty easy to figure out that "amuser" means "to amuse" and "exactement" means "exactly.
You can also deduce words like "corps" (body) from the english "corpse" or army corps.

This can lead you slightly astray at times, but context helps, and it's mostly a huge boon to reading comprehension.

[Anonymous No.12066361]

>>12062853
They will. Thankfully after such retardation everything will collapse and we'll start anew with new interesting languages.

[Anonymous No.12066366]

>>12066353
in some parts of Canada the Franglais has developed to obscene proportions. They just take any word and anglophy or francophy it

[Anonymous No.12066382]

>>12066353
Thanks, I'll probably pick it up either next year or the year after that.

[Anonymous No.12066389]

>>12066343
Despite the brazilian whore meme escaping monkey land with their vaginas is true, I dont think its the case with my girlfriend. She is wealther upper class, had a chance to study abroad and getting her Italian citizenship, but still absolutely loves Brazil. The thought crossed my mind, but after 1.5 years of dating or so I don't really care.

I am assuming you're a huebro? Viva o Brasil

[Anonymous No.12066401]

한국말배우는사람있나

[Anonymous No.12066420]

>>12066389
>>12066343
>>12066337
Is it true that anal sex is kinda standard for brazilian women?

[Anonymous No.12066426]

>>12062849
russian bcs i want a slav qt

[Anonymous No.12066428]

>>12066420
Brazilian dudes are obsessed with it, they have a whole bunda culture going on so its natural for them to want to stick their dick in there, but women dont particularly care. Most probably tried it, but having a dick in your pooper and feeling good is subjective, if anything they do it to please their guys.

[Anonymous No.12066435]

>>12062849
Deutsche. I'm an Amerimutt so it's really not worth doing except for intrigue's sake. I don't want to go Germany because it's become a shit hole and all the people hate themselves for being German. But I do have German heritage so I can appreciate Germany pre-1948

[Anonymous No.12066730]

>>12063210
>mastered italian in less than a year
Could you please share your methods, in details?

[Anonymous No.12066749]

>>12062849
I'm an English speaker living in Germany, learning German. Every 3 months I feel like I've hit a plateau with the language and just get frustrated.
I have a few German books but haven't really tried reading them because of the list of English books I want to read. All my German books are translations anyway and people keep suggesting I buy these books with German n one side and English on the other. I might try Steppenwolf this way.
After German I want to try learning Danish.

[Anonymous No.12066752]

>>12066730
1. Be already fluent in at least one romance language
2. Study italian for less than a year
3.?????
4. Profit

[Anonymous No.12066772]

>>12066749
Kafka's short stories are pretty good for learners IMO
There's also Michael Ende's childrens books if you want to start nice and easy.

How long have you been living there btw? I am moving to Germany tomorrow to learn the language and I can't wait desu. Going there with a B1 level but I'm hoping to eventually turn it into a C1.

[Anonymous No.12066791]

I know about 1300 words in russian. The grammar is murdering me.

[Anonymous No.12066833]

>>12066752
did you read dante in italian, then

[Anonymous No.12066834]

>>12066752
oh yeah, that's a great method. i learned russian in a year using a related approach called "being a pollack"

[Anonymous No.12066854]

>>12066772
Yeh I've already read Kafka's short stories in English. Children's books are beneath me at this stage I hope as I've taken courses up to and including C1. Want to maybe redo the C1 stuff to better myself though.
Been here 2 years and started learning before I moved at a very slow pace. It was only when I got a job here and my employer paid for my courses that I really felt obliged to knuckle down in it. Was going through a level about every 3 months for a year starting at B1.1 when I got here. But that money is dry now so I've therefore hit my plateau and lost the motivation at work to speak any better than is necessary.

[Anonymous No.12067007]

>>12066791
As a slav, russian makes intuitive sense to me, I understand a lot even though I have never touched it. But my autism drove me to study french

[Anonymous No.12067019]

>>12062877
Dropped something

[Anonymous No.12067102]

In between wageslaving and reading the piles of books I have in english I just dont have the time or impulse to learn another language, I can do some shit to maybe get to a like passive small talk level with stuff like duolingo but meh

[Anonymous No.12067434]

>>12064444
Yakub approves of quads of 4 very nice

[Anonymous No.12067458]

>>12062867
Αρχαία ή νέα ελληνιkά;

[Anonymous No.12067475]

-Greek
-Latin
-French
-German
-Syriac
I'm a phd brainlet student, still struggling with all of them

[Anonymous No.12067487]

>>12067475
>Syriac

Are you studying Theology? Why do so many Theologians learn Syriac?

[Anonymous No.12067564]

>>12067487
No, just plain old ancient history
Syriac was basically the Greek-Latin of Middle East. If you study ancient history (esspecially AD not BC era) for a while you will eventually move out of greek-latin sources, and syriac will most likely be the primary language you will encounter.

[Anonymous No.12067614]

>>12065789
use dowlings wheel

[Anonymous No.12067623]

>>12067564
Oh, fascinating. I've noticed once in awhile that graduate theology programs offer Syriac as a language which struck me as odd. What are common sources read in Syriac for historians?

[Anonymous No.12067637]

Learning German. Got some grammar workbooks. Doing gay memrise and duolingo stuff just to suck words and sounds into my brain. Might start doing Anki too. watch Fassbinder films and that sorta shit. Weimar films. Nazi films.

[Anonymous No.12067641]

>>12067623
Depends on the particular period of history. Syriac bible is commonly used as a learning tool however.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_literature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrologia_Orientalis

[Anonymous No.12067742]

>>12065854
Polyglots are memes. They may be Proficent in 4 languages but the rest are just some vocab and phrases. That Stephen Kaufman guy says he knows 17 languages but in reality he can only speak 4 proficiently

[Anonymous No.12067752]

>>12065889
Hebrew is a conlang for Jews. I have no clue why they would larp as Hebrews when Yiddish was a more viable option. Even then Yiddish was just a German dialect with a larpy Hebrew alphabet.

[Anonymous No.12067753]

>>12065531
Of your really short on money just find a PDF. It's a popular book so torrents are out there.

[Anonymous No.12067865]

I’m learning albanian....does anyone know where I can find movies or television shows possibly with subtitle ?

[Anonymous No.12067889]

>>12063200
don't go down this rabbit hole

[Anonymous No.12067905]

korean

[Anonymous No.12068490]

>>12066041

>the idiot thinks he is going to actively spend time WRITING in Chinese

Newsflash: Most Chinese people (even the well educated) don't know how to write well and constantly forget characters

Learn how to read and speak and save yourself a lot of time.

[Anonymous No.12068555]

Anybody have some tips/ book recommendations for learning Japanese?

[Anonymous No.12068580]

>>12068490
>reading and writing are different
I dunno how you learn, but the fastest way for me to memorize something is by writing it

[Anonymous No.12068593]

>>12066435

I expected to find someone like you in this thread.

[Anonymous No.12068617]

>>12068580

You obviously haven't learnt Chinese.

>Being able to distinguish a dog and painting a dog by memory without error is the same

You can do whatever you want, though. You'll eventually find out writing in Chinese is a waste of time.

[Anonymous No.12068635]

>>12068617
It hasn't been so far, but thx for your opinion

[Anonymous No.12068641]

>>12068593
Oh man, this picture cracks me right up

Spanish. I was also learning a little Deutsch on the side because I heard the grammar was neat, but I never got far enough to have fun with the grammar and most of the basic vocab is gone already.

[Anonymous No.12068668]

>>12068593
To be fair German culture nowadays is kind of shite and overly apologetic. Everyone I talked to when I visited told me about how horrible the Holocaust was.
1800s and 1970s Germany would have been cool.

[Anonymous No.12068690]

>>12068635

No worries, I did my undergrad in China and I'll do HSK 6 at some point soon for certification purposes, which does require a lot of writing. Other than for those purposes (or bragging, maybe) I do not recommend you keep trying to rote learn characters. Won't help you at all. The most actual writing I do when I'm in China is writing my name or address in Chinese .

[Anonymous No.12068869]

>>12067905
I unintentionally picked up on a ton of Korean just from an insane amount of culture consumption for a few years consistently
I should learn to read it

[Anonymous No.12068870]

>>12068668
Yeah my German teacher pretty much fucking hates Germany
There is zero pride there

[Anonymous No.12068921]

Started learning german and after 1.5 months i realised that i don't like language at all. And i lost my drive completely(even though i want to read a book that wasnt translated to my language). Haven't touched a grammar book in two months.
Thinking either return to finish what i started, or learn nippon.

[Anonymous No.12068934]

Should I learn Latin? It would be fun to curse people out in a dead language

[Anonymous No.12069209]

>>12067564
Is there any good literary fiction written in Syriac or by Syriac authors?
All I know of at the moment is Lucian of Samosata. Is he as good as it gets?

[Anonymous No.12069236]

Proto-world

[Anonymous No.12069301]

>>12062877
Check your whiteness, or you will never be woke. Don't be a Nazi like Abraham Lincoln and decolonize your mind. The only way we can stop fascism is if the police are allowed to arrest people for what they say and think. Because the police are fascist pigs. Hatespeech is not free speech, because speech is violence. But violent protest is free speech. We are all born racists, except minorities. Those can't be racist, because their brown bodies are under attack.

[Anonymous No.12069348]

N1 in 3ish weeks, looking forward to it

>>12064138
>But all at a very basic level.
So just like half the Scandinavian 20 year olds with a "passion for languages" who """speak""" 12 languages?

>>12066145
This anon does not speak Japanese

>>12066171
>while the grammar and the pronunciation especially is easy
Jesus Christ. No, the hard part about Japanese are not their kanji. Learning 5 symbols you make 20 words out of is not harder than learning 20 different words in some other language

[Anonymous No.12069356]

>>12067458
Ancient. Why the fuck would anyone want to learn modern greek?

[Anonymous No.12069364]

Since there seems to be a lot of German speakers, would anyone be interested in a German discord or something?

[Anonymous No.12069372]

>>12069301
Satire needs to be subtle or else there's nothing gained from reading it.

[Anonymous No.12069378]

>>12069348
>Learning 5 symbols you make 20 words out of is not harder than learning 20 different words in some other language
Well, it is for me, although I admit I seem to have poor visual memory and high auditory memory.

[Anonymous No.12069410]

>>12067865
Why would you learn Albanian if you aren't in Albania?

[Anonymous No.12069419]

>>12069372
Americans can't understand sarcasm unless it has the subtlety of a brick. That's why you get retarded shit like /s on reddit.

[Anonymous No.12069456]

>>12069356
because it is close with ancient plus you can communicate with a population... what a fucktard

[Anonymous No.12069540]

is learning greek for plato and friends a waste of time? how much is lost in translation

[Anonymous No.12069546]

>>12062849
I am currently getting raped by Mandarin.

[Anonymous No.12069554]

>>12063756
I plan to do those in future

[Anonymous No.12069605]

>>12062900
私も

[Anonymous No.12069716]

>>12067742
He never claims that though. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TAePyl33gOQ Don't knock on Steve he's probably one of the few legit language learner's out there.

[Anonymous No.12069855]

>>12069540
-yes
-not that much
Translatinos differ from book to book, but I would say many of the translations are proper and classicist do write down commentaries, explanations alongside the translation, mostly in footnotes.
Classicists exist for this reason, let them do their job

[Anonymous No.12069873]

I'm still trying to learn English lol

[Anonymous No.12069882]

>>12069372
The point was to show american leftist vernacular in the context of their usual talking points. Combining them in a satirical way was secondary.

[Anonymous No.12069902]

>>12065949
Is she cute, Hans?

[Anonymous No.12069930]

>>12069716
Relax Steve

[Anonymous No.12070110]

Learning Spanish

[Anonymous No.12070112]

>>12069364
Yeah, although I don't know if you mean a study thing or just a general lit chat

[Anonymous No.12070150]

>>12065234
I could read a Swedish text and understand everything within. Or at least 98%.

[Anonymous No.12070158]

>>12066022
>after that it becomes much harder to pick up a language.
Wrong. It has been extensively researched and proven that the almost the only thing that is considerably easier at a younger age is the pronunciation, as children can easily adapt to sound as they haven't spent so much time growing into the patterns of speech we do as adults. Certain things are easier as an adult such as meaning, symbolism and cultures shared perceptions carrying over languages. Please don't post misinformation that can demoralize people.

[Anonymous No.12070193]

>>12070158
By developmental years, I meant as babies/toddlers.
I'm bilingual just because my parents spoke two languages around me. No effort or learning needed on my part. Very different process to trying to learn French in my teens.

[Anonymous No.12070230]

I speak Russian and English and can read French. I'm working on learning to read Serbo-Croatian. Anyone have short story recs? I know there's a lot of serbs on here based on goodreads

[Anonymous No.12070638]

I speak Dutch, French, English, and a bit of German. I'm taking extra German classes right now, and also brushing up on my Latin again. I have ambitions to learn Italian someday, maybe Spanish.

[Anonymous No.12070642]

>>12070230
>I speak Russian and English and can read French
Wow, best three languages for reading lit.

[Anonymous No.12070645]

People that can speak 2+ languages at a similar proficiency - which language do you think is better for poetry?

[Anonymous No.12070720]

>>12070642
Thanks, I agree, that's why I learned French. I wanted to start learing Latin, but it's hard to work out with my life schedule/goals. I think it's the only other language that I'm genuinely sad about not being able to read in the original, though

[Anonymous No.12070952]

>>12070720
>I think it's the only other language that I'm genuinely sad about not being able to read in the original, though
Not Ancient Greek too?
I get sad I every time I come across a writer I love in a language I don't understand. Pessoa alone makes me sad I don't know Portuguese - but languages like French and Russian seem like great investments because of the wealth of literature available (and them actually being in use outside academia).

I'd love to know Japanese as well, partly just 'cause of weebshit, partly for writers like Mishima, but also because the system of kanji and different ways of reading them (and thus giving sentences/words multiple meaning) sounds interesting and completely different to what I know.

[Anonymous No.12070962]

>>12070230
i speak French and English and can read Russian
best combo
still feel like a pleb for my paltry latin and greek

[Anonymous No.12070990]

>>12070952
I used to study Japanese actually, could read mangu just fine, but never tried any serious literature. Ultimately, I find Japanese literature interesting nowadays, but not that interesting, and I think it translates just fine. I am just not as interested in Eastern classics, and later Jap lit that's been heavily influenced by the West I can read in English with no guilt.

Yes, Greek too, but not quite as much as Latin. I would like to read the Iliad in the original, as well as some of the great tragedies, but actually most Greek texts I enjoy come from a later Byzantine period, which would be another convoluted step of language learning. Also Latin has the benefit of its rich literary tradition even after dying as a language. I feel kind of like a pleb not being able to read Greek, but I hate that I can't read Latin.

>>12070962
patrician af, but yes, there's always room to grow

[Anonymous No.12071126]

>ywn be taught Hebrew, Greek, and Latin from a young age, reading Plato, Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and the Bible in the original language and made to memorize them

[Anonymous No.12071133]

>>12070962
>>12070230
Which language is the best for poetry?
Not which language has the best poets.

[Anonymous No.12071146]

>>12071133
Latin.

[Anonymous No.12071160]

>>12071146
would have to agree

[Anonymous No.12071236]

>>12071160
>>12071146
Worst?

[Anonymous No.12071351]

>>12069716
yeah except when he advertises his products he says he "learned" all these laguages and leaves out the fact that by "learned" he means "listened to some material" or "visited the country once and picked up some phrases"

[Anonymous No.12071530]

>>12071133
Of the ones I know, I think Russian. I like French poetry a lot, but the lack of syllabic stresses makes it less restrictive, which imo is where poetic beauty comes from.

[Anonymous No.12071570]

>>12071530
French stresses the last syllable on every word doesn't it?

[Anonymous No.12071594]

>>12071570
yeah, basically, but it's ignored in poetry. French poetry is based on the number of syllables per line, not their varying stresses (like most classic stuff, I believe? I am not sure on this, so don't quote me, but I know old Russian poetry was like this). So the beauty comes from the way the words connect and build to the caesura or end of the line.

On the other hand, in Russian every word has a stress, so you poetry is more (like English) based on metric feet.

[Anonymous No.12071601]

Arabic at the moment. Once I consider myself fluent I will attempt to integrate Latin, French, and German انشالله.

[Anonymous No.12071720]

>>12062849
Lol should have rotated thcanvas to make the tower higher, I mean that is the biggest tower the artist could
Imagine? 20 stories?

[Anonymous No.12071773]

>>12069378
Are you using anki to study? 20 new cards a day? Try doing 100 cards a day in Russian.

[Anonymous No.12071787]

>>12071594
the stresses in Russian trip me up so much

[Anonymous No.12071830]

>>12070112
Bit of both, just somewhere we can talk in German and ask questions or just shoot the shit

[Anonymous No.12071836]

>>12069356
>I wanna learn Latin, why the fuck would anyone learn modern Italian?
>I wanna learn Old Norse, why the fuck would anyone learn modern Swedish or Danish?
>If it's the older version then it's better, and plus it's not really like the modern languages are useful

Newsflash kid, unless you work in classical studies, learning a dead language or the ancient version of an existing one is objectively even more useless than learning a living language which is spoken by few.

[Anonymous No.12071865]

>>12070110
What software is this?

[Anonymous No.12071889]

>>12071787
It becomes natural after a while.

[Anonymous No.12071929]

>>12070110
Idioma patricio. Basado y rojopastillado.

[Anonymous No.12071932]

>>12062849
Coptic.

[Anonymous No.12072140]

>>12071601
But Arabic is such an ugly language. Why?

[Anonymous No.12072148]

python

[Anonymous No.12072188]

>>12071836
Brainlet

[Anonymous No.12072371]

>>12071787
you'll get used to it, there are patterns

[Anonymous No.12072860]

>>12062849
C++

[Anonymous No.12073254]

>>12071865
It's Learning with Texts

[Anonymous No.12074875]

>there are monolinguals on /lit/ at this very moment

[Anonymous No.12075191]

>>12074875
>tfw bilingual but one language has shit all in the way of literature to read.

[Anonymous No.12075203]

>>12062877

Now this is epic. Based and monster pillled my friend!

[Anonymous No.12075245]

>>12062851
stupid

[Anonymous No.12075303]

>>12062900
しんでください

[Anonymous No.12075908]

>>12075303
Nobody says this.

[Anonymous No.12076960]

>>12062849
I'm trying latin but I don't have much spare time to study it as I would like

[Anonymous No.12077013]

>>12075303
ふぁっごと

[Anonymous No.12077628]

>>12062849
I´m learning english.

[Anonymous No.12077641]

>>12077013
いいえ、あなたは

[Anonymous No.12077651]

>>12069301
lel

[Anonymous No.12078998]

>>12071836
so wrong lol.

[Anonymous No.12079111]

>>12062906
LiStEn---PaL-=I_dOn'T-__--tHiNk===YoU-UnDeRsTaNd++ThE\acc--StYlE ++

[Anonymous No.12079164]

GUYS I've legit made my mind to learn Koine Greek - I want to master it asap. Will work 1 - 2 years at least 2 - 4 hours daily for it, other days 8 - 16 hours.

Throw good books at me for this purpose - but good ones as I'll read every suggestion you throw at me.

Than you !
My purpose is to be able to read Septuagint old testament, Gospels + Pauline letters and early Church fathers that wrote in koine Greek and a more advanced for of it until 11th century.

[Anonymous No.12079169]

>tfw finally reaching that magical moment where I look at some basic expository prose in German, like an academic book chapter or a wikipedia article, and I can sight read 90+% of the page without problems
>tfw it literally takes a few weeks of effort max to get to this point
>tfw it's all downhill and fun from here

[Anonymous No.12079271]

>>12079164
This set of books was alright, but pricey so try to get it from a library or pirate it instead
https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Biblical-Grammar-William-Mounce/dp/0310250870

Koine is pretty easy especially if you are very focused on reading the Bible because your selection of texts and vocabulary is so conveniently restricted. Attic Greek is much harder generally speaking.

[Anonymous No.12079308]

>>12079271
Do you think I should definitely start with Attic Greek to appreciate Koine later on? I'm more interested than anything into the semantics of words, idiosyncratic structures and so on.. It's clear that most translators did not bother to convert the meaning of words as understood by said cultures to something equivalent in modern vocabulary.

A clear example the concept of heart, modern people understand just emotions and the organ - but that type of translation and understanding of the word gives no justice to the context of where it's used in bible for example.

[Anonymous No.12079368]

>>12079308
It's a tough recommendation to make - I'm inclined to say learn Attic first because Koine is easy to learn when you already know Attic, and ultimately in the long run you'll be glad you know both and have an extremely strong base in Attic, if you're interested in reading things beyond the Bible (like Greek philosophical influences on early Christian thought, or even literary influence, or patristics). But this is also a subtly shitty recommendation because Attic is insanely hard and unrewarding and probably 90% of people who start learning it will simply give up fairly quickly. Better to learn half-decent Koine, and have that enriching your life for decades, than to have once had a short-lived goal of forcing yourself to endure the pain of learning Attic in your 20s, but you never actually did it.

In my Attic class, it started with like 30 people, and was down to 6 by the end of the quarter, maybe 3 of whom felt confident and enjoyed the language, and those 3 all had Latin before learning Attic. Compare the Latin class, where maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the people from the beginning of the class dropped by the end of it, max.

Ultimately you should research what it's like to learn Koine and Attic, and then make an educated decision from there. And consider getting real lessons, not just to help you directly, but to keep you motivated and force you to actually do the work every day.

My inclination now that I'm older is to say: whatever you do, do SOMETHING. It's so easy for five years, then ten years, to go by while you're always INTENDING to learn some language, eventually. Then suddenly you're old and never did it. And you realize that even if you had done it poorly and sporadically, you'd at least have something by now. Instead, because you always intended to do it perfectly, you perpetually put it off and ultimately never did anything at all. If that makes sense.

You're definitely right about translation. There are all kinds of fascinating hermeneutic problems of translation in general. Being able to read something in the original and capture all those subtleties is insanely rewarding. Biblical and Greek philosophical exegesis in particular are like this. If you go in that direction, you might consider learning some Heidegger and Wittgenstein, and Ricoeur and Gadamer. Heidegger's exegeses of language, particularly ancient Greek, and how he tries to "trace" Greek/German words back to when they were vital and living metaphorical complexes, before they were deadened and flattened into sterile abstractions by philosophical or semantic systematization.

[Anonymous No.12079396]

>>12066791
I know not too many words in Russian but I get the grammar quite well. I think it’s a result of living in Russia for a couple of months - I don’t have to speak much, just listen. I have a good grasp of sentence structures and case usage but don’t have the words to fill in all the gaps.

[Anonymous No.12079419]

>>12079368
I'll write your advice into my heart. I'm genuinely telling you that I'm saving your replies to keep them close for the time I'll be working towards the goal - to remember and to learn why the journey matters, to appreciate it wholly.
Thank you so much anon and thank you for such beautiful and wise words and such care in correcting, guiding an anon over the anonymous Mongolian smoke signal board – it was totally unexpected, and you made my days better.

[35yoboomer No.12079423]

Hey, /lit/ters, I was wondering if anybody wanted to find a native Russian speaker penpal studying English, dox your mail here. I don't smoke a lot of Dostoevsky, but anyway.

[Anonymous No.12079440]

>>12079169
I wanna read it more than speak it, what did you do to get to your level?

[Anonymous No.12079486]

Any resources on how to learn Akkadian? I know that Gilgamesh is literally the only thing I can accessibly read with it, but God I LOVE Gilgamesh.

[Anonymous No.12079604]

>>12079164
>other days 8 - 16 hours.

you will burn out so fucking quick

[Anonymous No.12079622]

>>12079164
>>12079604
This. I can't stress how important it is to take your time when learning languages, not least ancient ones. Greek will kick your ass if you don't approach it the right way.

[Anonymous No.12079625]

Spanish. Do you have any easy book recommendations?

[Anonymous No.12079645]

Currently learning Irish, very beautiful language.

[Anonymous No.12079653]

>>12069301
why you gotta shit on my boy ngugi like this

[Anonymous No.12079659]

>>12062849
English is basically a prerequisite to live in the modern world right now, most developed countries teach English to their kids
Being bilingual is increasingly common, you need to at least be trilingual to stand out now

[Anonymous No.12079709]

>>12062972
Learning c++, normal languages are for boomers

[Anonymous No.12079712]

>>12079622
Yeah, learning languages should be fun, don't ruin it by making yourself miserable
>>12079659
>Being bilingual is increasingly common, you need to at least be trilingual to stand out now
Not in America yet, I think most native Americans only know English

[35yoboomer No.12079796]

>>12079712
most native Americans are dead

[Anonymous No.12079847]

>>12079796
Most people of every race are dead, anon

[Anonymous No.12079856]

Ich lerne Deutsch

[Anonymous No.12079928]

>>12063070
>what ones
holy fuck
you faggot
you dense retard
you literal nigger
you absolute fucking dolt
you utterly hopeless cum-gargling tard
>what ones
WHICH
WHICH ONES

[Anonymous No.12079946]

Japanese

[spoier]just kidding i havent practiced in months[/spoiler]

[Anonymous No.12079949]

>>12079946
fucking spoiler tag fuck this shitty keyboard

[Anonymous No.12079984]

>>12079949
ctrl s

[Anonymous No.12080136]

>>12079625

La invencion de morel

[Anonymous No.12080212]

>>12065967
Learning (high) German isn't gonna help a lot with understanding (let alone speaking) low german. Most germans can't understand or speak low german. The two languages have separated 1300 years ago.