Language learning thread

[Anonymous No.12119080]

What language are you trying to learn and for what purpose? How's it going?

[Anonymous No.12119086]

>>12119080
Sorry, but I didn't want to write my own answer in the OP.
I've been studying Latin for a couple of weeks now and I'm kind of amazed by my progress; Lingua Latina Per Se Ilustrata wasn't a /lit/ meme.

[Anonymous No.12119135]

>>12119080
Spanish, because I'll get paid an extra dollar per hour at work, I have the most basis for Spanish given my stale ineffectual Spanish education in high school, I live in the American southwest, and I'd like to read Spanish authors (Cervantes, Borges, Marquez, Bollano) in their own language.

Also dabbling in Hindi and reviewing Latin, but mainly Spanish.

[Anonymous No.12119150]

>>12119080
Greek to understand those pesky untranslated citations in Schopenhauer and Heidegger
French to pick up girls

[Anonymous No.12119155]

>>12119150
>French to pick up girls
French girls or will any do?

[Anonymous No.12119274]

>>12119155
I have my standards

[Anonymous No.12119278]

Japanese. Want to read the book of five rings. It can be very tough at times.

[Anonymous No.12119283]

>nipongese
>mangoes and /lit/
>bretty good but not fluent yet, still need better vocab before reading big boy books

[Anonymous No.12119286]

>>12119283
I'm glad we met just now

[Anonymous No.12119338]

>>12119286
Call me in five years and I might be able to read these fucking mysterious slant eye novellas in their native moon scribbles.
>know about 1300 kanji
>need to know like 4,000 kanji to read classic /lit/ competently
>even 2000 just for newspapers and LN
Two nukes wasn't enough. We need to put a nuke in a time machine and deliver it to ancient china.

[Anonymous No.12119365]

is there a book for methods other than the grammatical grinding ones?

I recall some book talked about here not in these threads specifically but itt was something like read something french I think there was one for german as well but people in the thread where saying it got them to reading really quickly. Anyone have any idea what im talking about?

[Anonymous No.12119373]

>>12119338
maybe ill get hate for saying it but they should create there own sane system like korea did with hangul

[Anonymous No.12119377]

>>12119373
*their

[Anonymous No.12119379]

>>12119365
Are you talking about français par la méthode nature?

https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rfburger/language/Le%20fran%E7ais%20par%20la%20m%E9thode%20nature/

[Anonymous No.12119388]

>>12119365
French for reading, Sandberg

[Anonymous No.12119408]

>>12119274
So, any girls as long as they aren't french.

[Anonymous No.12119418]

>>12119338
The kanji system is fucking ridiculous. They literally couldn't base their language about something worse

[Anonymous No.12119427]

>>12119418
around**

[Anonymous No.12119436]

>>12119388
>French for reading
thats it thank you

[Anonymous No.12119464]

>>12119388
is there other books that apply his methods in other languages or am I out of luck?

[Anonymous No.12119482]

I started learning Russian not long ago. I already know French, English and Spanish so the Cyrillic alphabet is really fun to learn. It was really weird and nice at first to look at words and not even be able to pronounce them.

[Anonymous No.12119484]

>>12119464
He has books for german and spanish, I believe.

[Anonymous No.12119496]

I've built foundations in a few of the major languages over the past few years but have had a tough time finding one to stay committed to. Hoping to pick one and stick to it for 2019. I know I can only make these sorts of decisions my own but maybe y'all could help me out with some prioritization. I'm at basically the same place in each language vocab/grammar wise so here's some pros for each:

>Spanish
Would be able to talk with family
Work in a metropolitan area with lots of Spanish speakers
Read Borges desu

>German
Wanna read that philosophy
Dropped my German class and college and could possibly retake to help GPA
Spent the most time already studying this one

>French
High school french teacher made me feel like a failure
Cute girl I like is fluent
Wanna jack it to Rimbaud

>Italian
Wanna visit Italy sometime
Heard it's easy
Might help if I transition to spanish/french after?

Any advice/recs would be greatly appreciated thanks /lit/

[Anonymous No.12119519]

I'm learning German, for reading Mein Kampf, Marx, Nietzsche, Hegel, Stirner, Herman Hesse, Goethe, etc, etc.
Also I'm dutch so I can visit the country just with a few hour drive.

[Anonymous No.12119523]

I'm going to start learning Spanish as my GF is from Spain, does anyone have any recommendations for some books that could be useful?

[Anonymous No.12119535]

>>12119373
Hangul is ugly as shit and Japanese has a vast quantity of psuedo-Chinese loanwords that would be nigh unreadable if not written in kanji. I know plenty of stupid people that can handle kanji.

[Anonymous No.12119541]

>>12119418
It's not a bad idea in and of itself, it's how it's implemented. Basically you combine different kanji to combine their meanings. So "truth" plus "true" makes another variation of "true" for use in different situations, or "fever" plus "feeling" equals "enthusiasm." problem arises that to get that end meaning there are like 15 different ways to combine different kanji so it adds up to the desired end result. And they're not always obvious. So you can read something, know all the individual characters, but maybe you never saw those two kanji combined together like that so you have no fucking clue what it means.
If it was one kanji, one meaning, it would be fine. that's probably what ancient chinkoids intended. Now you have kanji gangbangs to get complex concepts and fifteen roads to rome so it takes three dictionaries and a team of paid translators to figure out what the fuck that god damned chink meant. plus it's a loose, ambiguous language to begin with. You don't say things so much as hint at them, often times. And there's varying layers of subtlety with the nuances, expressions that technically mean something but the dictionaries won't tell you the associations/implications (cat has my tongue, that C word), there's 3+ layers of politeness, words like to know, to give, to receive have entirely different words altogether for their polite forms. And then, oh then, you have the antiquated diction. Plus you have the basic kanji for x word, and then the FANCY kanji for it that gets used in literature just to be fancy about it all. Or you'll have a kanji that's usually read x way but in this special snowflake situation it's another reading altogether that was never seen anywhere else.
And THEN if you're reading manga, you know the furigana is supposed to be the phonetic reading of the kanji. Well for shits and giggles the author might write something totally fuckign different as the furigana, like a joke. So maybe the kanji says "crime syndicate" but the furigana say "mafia" in katakana. Or something even crazier, like the kanji says "engineering otaku" and the furigana is the character's name. Or there's using the standard kanji but using a more antiquated or fancier reading, just for fun.

[Anonymous No.12119543]

>>12119464
It's obviously not quite the same but Lingua Latina is a bit similar (a focus on reading texts in the language right away)

[Anonymous No.12119549]

>>12119080
Looks like I'm alone here who is learning English...

[Anonymous No.12119553]

>>12119541
>so it takes three dictionaries and a team of paid translators to figure out what the fuck that god damned chink meant
What the fuck books are you reading where this happens? I read Japanese lit all the time and I can't imagine anything like this, guessing words is generally easy and if not a simple google search has never failed me. The hard shit to read is stuff like Genji that DOESN'T make use of kanji. Houjouki is a piece of cake in comparison.

[Anonymous No.12119582]

>>12119553
Seinen manga. just kill me, then.
The lack of kanji wouldn't be so bad if nips used spaces, but until they figure out where the spacebar is, yes, kanji are better.

[Anonymous No.12119612]

>>12119484
It doesn't seem so sadly only french and german.

>>12119543
Thanks I will check that out

[Anonymous No.12119654]

Learning German but my interest in it has waned. I wanna read some lit in original German, but that's about as far as my interest in the language goes, thought it would be enough for me to stay motivated but nope, dislike too much else about Germany. I'll keep going but at a lesser pace.

I wanna start either Japanese or Korean, unsure of which. I already know a few things in Korean from a large amount of culture consumption, but idk if I'm gonna pick it. I think it's easier than Japanese though

[Anonymous No.12119766]

Latin. I have a low verbal IQ and I think learning this would help with that. The inspiration for this came after reading Malcolm X's autobiography and seeing how he taught himself how to read.
Also, I'm a Christian and a lot of Christian texts are in Latin such as the works of Augustine and other Latin church fathers. And finally, I'm gonna move on to Greek and I've heard learning Latin first can help with that.

[Anonymous No.12119858]

>>12119080
English and Italian. My native tongue is Spanish. I'm learning those languages with literary and professional matters. I would love some literature recommendations written in those languages, specially in English since I don't have enough Italian knowledge to understand a complete sentence in an aesthetic prose.

[Anonymous No.12119865]

Reminder that the monks of middle ages were some of the greatest polyglots of all time and that chastity is of great benefit to language learning, conferring boundless motivation to study for 8+ hours a day if need be, with a mind that is reinvigorated and focused on intellectual pursuits instead of base pleasures.

[Anonymous No.12119869]

>>12119496
If you know spanish learning italian will be a piece of cake. It's basically just adding an extra syllabe, though they're still different enough for it to be a bit difficult. My advice is, if your spanish is fluid, skip the reading/writing in italian and go straight to hearing. I achieved fluency in four months just by watching anime dubbed on it (helped that i already knew the dialogue) i tried to learn french after it, and i found lots of cognates between the two, but the pronounciation and other shit about the language discouraged me. Still, knowing one will help with the other

[Anonymous No.12119943]

>>12119654
What do you dislike about germany? Have you considered french for lit as well?

[Anonymous No.12119960]

>>12119943
The music, food, movies, the history outside of like 40 years or so, the people, little interest in actually visiting Germany, I mean I would but it's not near the top of my list.
French has good /lit/ but I feel the same thing would happen to me with that as it did with German

[Anonymous No.12119970]

>>12119766
Kek, i was like you. In that i wanted (still want to) learn attic greek, after reading Aristotle translated. I didn't have any idea where to start, but everyone said knowing latin helps a great deal and it's easier than greek, so i thought "welp i guess i'll learn latin first". But i also didn't know where to begin. I don't even remember how it happened, but i ended up learning italian(same reasoning as with latin to greek) and by some chance i am now learning sanskrit. Which i also heard shares it's simmilarities with greek/latin.

It's been a long journey, i even recovered my faith in the Almighty along the way. Godspeed, anon.

[Anonymous No.12119992]

>>12119960
man I kind of feel the same but english,french and german are the strongest literary languages.

I don't really have any interest in speaking to anyone or going to the countries

[Anonymous No.12120017]

>>12119992
Yeah, I'll be happy just to get to a decent reading level in German, but I probably won't take it farther past that.

[Anonymous No.12120166]

>>12119541
>ancient chinkoids
>it takes three dictionaries and a team of paid translators to figure out what the fuck that god damned chink meant
These expressions sound so american, I'm laughing my ass off.

[Anonymous No.12120932]

>>12119549
I'm a native speaker so English is obviously not difficult for me, but I'm curious as to what you think is most difficult or confusing about English to you? Also what is your native language?

[Anonymous No.12121803]

Please tell more about your life journey anon

[Anonymous No.12121884]

>>12119080
I'm learning Turkish because it will force me to think in different ways and make me a better linguist. It's going alright, I did an 8-week intensive course over the summer but wasn't able to take the upper level courses this year because of a schedule conflict. I'm focusing on building vocabulary and learning phrases in the meantime, I'll start classes again next August.

[Anonymous No.12122052]

>>12119865
> no fap meme is true

[Anonymous No.12122505]

>>12121884

If you want something to make you a better linguist, start looking at north american indigenous languages. Now THOSE are crazy. Polysynthetic syntax and downright alien phonology.

[Anonymous No.12122577]

>French
Finally hit that point where I can read reflexively while only having to google idiomatic constructions I don't know or have forgotten. Currently reading an academic article and/or book every day just to keep it flowing. Can't speak it worth a damn though.

>German
Trying to hit the same point that I'm at with the French. Currently reading The Never-Ending Story (Das Unendliche Geschichte) by Michael Ende, which somehow has just the right balance and is very enjoyable.

For a while I was trying to read Harry Potter, and I considered Game of Thrones, but I couldn't stand HP, and GoT somehow seemed harder than the Ende. I might return to GoT once I'm done with Unendliche though. I am not a huge fan but fantasy schlock is fantasy schlock, fun enough to keep me motivated.

[Anonymous No.12122605]

Brazilian Portuguese
My girlfriend is Brazilian
I want to go there or live there
I like the way it sounds and it comes to me very naturally. I enjoy how playful the culture is, and my personality feels different when I speak it... more laughing, sillier, etc.

[Anonymous No.12122620]

>>12119283
>>12119338

Oh, I want to learn Japanese, but I do not know where to start, I've been learning many Romance languages and it's easy there because they share a basic structure, so it's not that difficult at first. But Japanese is scary from the beginning, especially considering that you have to learn 3 different alphabets and that's crazy.
What do you recommend to make the experience less frustrating?

[Anonymous No.12122722]

>>12122620

Different Japanese learner here, take a look at the DJT on /int/. And in general the thing about Japanese is that there's an absurd amount of good resources out there because so many weebs want to learn it. Take advantage of that and appreciate it because not every language has so much hand-holding available.

Btw this is a bit nit-picky but Japanese doesn't have any alphabets (unless you count romaji). Hiragana and Katakana are called syllabaries (they represent syllables) and Kanji are logograms. This is somewhat important to remember, as it helps to understand how the language is structured.

[Anonymous No.12122862]

>>12119278
>>12119283
>>12119338
>>12119373
>>12119377
>>12119418
>>12119427
>>12119535
>>12119541
>>12119553
>>12119582
>>12120166
>>12122620
>>12122722
you disgust me

[Anonymous No.12122867]

>>12119865
True. Maybe I'll become a monk as well, someday. I'm already a polyglot, but there is always more to learn. My best tip for any beginners out there; consistency is key. Study every single day.

[Anonymous No.12123460]

native portuguese speaker, successfuly learned italian, which is my favorite modern language by far, pretty much to fluency, started studying french but lacked motivation, I do not appreciate french that much and there is nothing right now I really want to read in the original french.
Probably will start studying spanish, can already read pretty well without ever studying due to the huge similarities with portuguese it so it will be pretty fast I believe. I don't appreciate spanish all that much too, but there are lots of books I want to read in spanish, not to mention the only language besides english that has some value as a professional here in brazil is spanish.

>>12122605
de qual cidade ela é?

[Anonymous No.12123484]

>>12122605
>>12123460
e qual sua língua nativa?

[Anonymous No.12123501]

>>12122722
thank you man, really helpful.

[Anonymous No.12124630]

latin once I'm not lazy