Language Learning

[Anonymous No.4122932]

Language learning general.

Are you currently learning a language? If not why? What is your motivation for learning a language? Share resources, advice on how to keep your motivation up, how you best learn or just anything you want to share about language learning.

Personally jeg lærer norsk(I'm learning Norwegian.) I hope to one day visit Norway and if it's as nice as it seems I'd like to move there. Right I'm focusing on learning how to read and write with Memrise, I've just started so I don't know much but I'm really enjoying the language. Hopefully in a week or two I can read some simple children's books.

[Anonymous No.4122937]

I am learning French for the promiscuity of their women.

[Anonymous No.4122941]

>>4122937
I hope to take my decadent hedonism to a whole new level, at the expense of French culture as a whole.

[Anonymous No.4122945]

>people thinking speaking multiple european languages makes you bilingual
Come back when you've learned an Asian language. European languages are baby tier, 6 months max to become fluent.

[Anonymous No.4122947]

>>4122945
No thanks, not interested in Asian chicks.

[Anonymous No.4122949]

>>4122947
>interesting in any 3D sluts
Fuck off homo

[Anonymous No.4122950]

>>4122945
Learn Finnish fluently in 6 months.
Bet you can't do it in 5 years.

[Anonymous No.4122953]

>>4122932

I'm learning Mandarin, mainly for travelling potential.

It seems pretty cool so far.

[Anonymous No.4122954]

>>4122949
Accidentally banging a few dudes is all just part of learning French

[Anonymous No.4122962]

>>4122945
Maybe some of them but languages like Russian and Finnish take much longer to become fluent in.

[Anonymous No.4122969]

I know English and Japanese. Just started learning German. Any learning boom recommendations?

[Anonymous No.4122970]

>>4122962
Slightly, but still don't really compare to Asian languages. So far the people in this thread have said they've been learning Norwegian and French, literally the easiest tier.

[Anonymous No.4122973]

>>4122962
The difference between Russian and Finnish is that you don't have to speak Russian to get with their women. Finnish is so difficult to learn as a means of keeping their countries historically beautiful ladies very safe.

[Anonymous No.4122974]

>>4122945

Asian languages are pointless. I don't even want to learn arabic despite living with my parents who both speak it. It's hard as shit, all arabic countries are cultural wastelands, and I wouldn't want to live there anyway.

Chinese is a stupidly created language and who'd want to live in China? Japanese is hard as shit and I wouldn't touch it unless I was desperate to live in Japan.

I'm learning spanish because it's easy. It's useful because lots of people around the world speak it but are too stupid to learn English, even in Spain. Also emerging economies etc.

I use the Madrigal workbook at home and ankii flashcards on the bus. Michel Thomas is good but i haven't been doing it a lot out of laziness.

[Anonymous No.4122976]

>>4122970
I'm learning Norwegian because I want to live in Norway not because I want a challenge. Asian languages are hard to learn, no one is saying they're not, some people just don't want to learn a Asian language(plus Korean is super easy and Asian.)

[Anonymous No.4122983]

>>4122976
Then please don't call yourself bilingual. Norwegian doesn't count as a second language. And no, Korean is not super easy. It might be easier than a language that uses Chinese characters, but it's still harder than every single European language.

[Anonymous No.4122988]

>>4122983
Who cares how many languages you speak? Sounds like a butthurt point of pride for someone desperately trying to find meaning.

[Anonymous No.4122989]

>>4122974
>learning a language to live there or interact with people
Fuck off normalfag
How exactly is Chinese a stupidly created language? You clearly know nothing about it if you think that. English is a much worse language.
>Also emerging economies
>Spain
>not China

[Anonymous No.4122995]

>>4122988
I don't care how many languages you speak, I just don't want you to dilute the term, like how every normalfag goes around saying they have social anxiety to the point where it has no meaning anymore.

[Anonymous No.4122997]

>>4122937
I'm french canadian. In Quebec there are many French students coming to study here as the education is cheap, the grass is green and the economy isn't leaking acid diarrhea in their eyes.

I played a game of "I have never" (where you must drink if the player calls something out that you've done before. Google it if you're confused.)
Obviously a few college students together are bound to cross the line into sexland and start asking, more creatively as it went on, questions such as "have you ever done it in an airplane", "with another girl" "with more than 30 guys" "with a black guy" "in a threesome" etc.

Two of 8 girls were french. Fourteen people in total at the table.

The french girls drank at every. single. question. One of them was cute as a button so I could understand, but the other had no chin. Just a flat neck going up to her lips. Unsightly to say the least.

And yet she had had more sex than any girl I've ever met. Literally over a hundred partners as a 22 year old. The french-canadian girls? Between 1 and 10. That was the day I realized the French sex culture is far more developed than us americans may imagine. I wish you good luck, your efforts are very wisely concentrated my friend.

[Anonymous No.4122999]

>>4122995
If I speak English,and I learn French. I'm bilingual. Get over it. I'm not diluting the term, it just isn't special.

If I wanted to be able to trick Chinese women into sleeping with me, I would learn Chinese. As it stands, I'm attracted to the French. Learning a language is learning a language.

[Anonymous No.4123000]

>>4122997
btw im a girl give me attention

[Anonymous No.4123005]

>>4122997
Thank you. I tried to choose carefully.

[Anonymous No.4123006]

>>4122997
>wanting to have sex with 3D sluts

[Anonymous No.4123009]

>>4123006
see
>>4122949

[Anonymous No.4123010]

>>4122999
French girls are disgusting.

[Anonymous No.4123015]

>>4123010
Exactly what I am looking for in a lady,and I'm looking for large quantities of them.

In English, we call my plan hitting the jackpot.

[Anonymous No.4123026]

>>4123000
I'm a dude bro.

[Anonymous No.4123039]

>>4122970
>Japanese
>Hard
And that picture you posted just lost all credibility.
The only reason Japanese/Mandarin are listed at 2,2k+ hours is because of their writing system.
You can't say that a language is harder just because their writing system is wider.

[Anonymous No.4123053]

>>4123039
Since we are on /lit/ I'll stop talking about getting laid just long enough to say that Hegel shits all over the chinese writing system for being inefficient.

[Anonymous No.4123050]

can lazy and/or depressed people become intellectuals?

[Anonymous No.4123064]

I'm currently dabbling in a bit of Persian and Ge'ez.
I really want to pick up the Syriac again, but I'm starting Arabic classes soon and I don't want any interference.
My goal in life is to learn all of the Oriental Orthodox liturgical langauges.

[Anonymous No.4123066]

>>4123039
>heh heh, here I go

[Anonymous No.4123072]

>>4123039
Fuck, to add on top of this, there are so many things wrong with it.
You assume everyone's first language here is English, so Japanese/Chinese/Korean must obviously be extremely hard, while German is easy.
The list also categorizes languages really shittily in IV&V.
It says that about 20 languages need 44 weeks to learn fluently each. 20 different languages. Exact same work amount. Uhh...no.
Let's say Swahili took 44 weeks on average, what about a language that takes 75 weeks on average? It's nearly double the amount, yet they get placed in the same group.
All in all...
>hurr durr German is an easy language and doesn't count as bilingual because it's so close to English
By this logic Japanese doesn't count as a second language either because of how closely it's related to the Ainu language.
tl;dr fuck yourself.

[Anonymous No.4123077]

>>4123072
Ainu is a language isolate unrelated to Japanese.

[Anonymous No.4123082]

>>4123053
Yeah, in terms of efficiency and ease, the Chinese writing system sucks ass. It's one of the reason why the printing press wasn't as effective as it was in Europe even though the Chinese invented it first.

Thanks to the french, Vietnamese is the only language that I know that was effective in reworking its writing system so that it is easier to learn.

There's also the argument that calligraphy is art and shit.

If you have to learn a language, pick one that is useful, not something that only dead people know.

[Anonymous No.4123087]

>>4123077
It was an example, Japanese and Korean then.
And don't start a discussion about how Korea/Japan is an isolated strong language that need no family when there's a ton of proof that they're related.
If that still isn't good enough of an example...well, you get my point. It mostly depends on one's first language/languages one is already fluent in. There's no universal scale for "hardest language" when it comes to speaking it, unless you want to rank them by how many languages they have in their family tree.
The writing systems can, however, be categorized on how hard they are and I don't disagree that Chinese and Japanese are one of the hardest.

[Anonymous No.4123090]

- English - not my native language, learning it since school. Shitposting on 4chan is my practice.

- Japanese - learning it for 4 years already, no end in sight. Though I can read without problem popular literature and more ambitious books like those by Mishima Yukio

- Spanish - I'm not even learning it anymore but I can easily read novels. WTF is this sorcery.

- Chinese - started it from pure curiosity, I'm not planing learning it. Japanese isn't helping much as I was expecting.

[Anonymous No.4123091]

>>4123082
Been exactly my secret point behind talking about seducing French Chicks.

[Anonymous No.4123093]

>>4123090
What's your native tongue?
You're learning all of the languages that I am, heh.

[Anonymous No.4123095]

>>4123093
Bosnian

[Anonymous No.4123108]

>>4123039
You clearly don't have any knowledge of Japanese or Chinese if you think the only reason it's hard is because of the writing system. Nice try though.

[Anonymous No.4123109]

>>4123082
Yeah you're right, Chinese isn't useful. It's a dead languag- oh wait

[Anonymous No.4123118]

>>4123087
I'm aware of the probable Old Korean origin of Proto-Japonic. Just making a correction, brah.

[Anonymous No.4123122]

>>4123082
>Thanks to the french, Vietnamese is the only language that I know that was effective in reworking its writing system so that it is easier to learn.
Yet it's still a pain in the ass to learn, accordingly to my Vietnamese friend (fluent speaker but can't write).

[Anonymous No.4123125]

>>4123082
>not learning proto-Hittite

[Anonymous No.4123128]

>>4122932
I want to learn latin and russian

[Anonymous No.4123149]

>>4123108
「おお!知るよ!反論を提供しなくてアノンをアホと呼ぼう!俺はソーeuphoric!」
Go be a bad troll elsewhere
>>4123118
Yeah sorry if I came off angry, wasn't intended.

[Anonymous No.4123172]

>>4123149
It's funny that you think that's proper Japanese. You should work on your grammar a bit before you try and show off. There are lot's of things aside from the characters that makes Japanese harder than European languages.

[Anonymous No.4123175]

Learning French, just finished Michel Thomas and now i'm doing Duolingo. What are some good ways to practice? And where do all the French people live in London? I don't want to search for one on craigslist incase they murder me.

[Anonymous No.4123176]

>>4123175
How long did that take you? 2 months? Anything more and you're pathetically slow. I bet you think you're bilingual, don't you?

[Anonymous No.4123183]

>>4123176
No, I don't think i'm bilingual, that's why I wrote I am 'learning French'.

[Anonymous No.4123192]

>>4123172
Please list a single one of those things.
I never claimed I'm a god at Japanese; you said I have no knowledge of it.
Now if you excuse me I'll be on my way, as I have better things to do than to listen to your mindless attempts to insult me so I wouldn't notice that you have yet to provide any sort of proof or counter-argument.

[Anonymous No.4123193]

>>4123183
I think that person was making a joke.

[Anonymous No.4123194]

I'm doing all five DuoLingo languages atm, but where do I go from there? DOn't suggest reading a grammar book btw, 'cus I'm too lazy for that. I just want easy ways to build my vocabulary. Is Memrise any good for that? Thanks

[Anonymous No.4123197]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sniMbSEzsg

>québécois
disgusting

[Anonymous No.4123198]

>>4123194
For vocab memrise is pretty good, other than that just watch news maybe try reading the ticker a loud.

[Anonymous No.4123199]

>>4123194
stop trying to do 5 languages at once and started reading a ton in whatever language you want to learn
also listen to lots of radio, music, etc. and watch lots of movies, tv shows, etc. and start talking to people who speak it

[Anonymous No.4123201]

>>4123193
No, I wasn't making a joke. French is so close to English that learning it doesn't make you bilingual any more than saying "I speak both American, British and Ebonics. I'm a polyglot!".

[Anonymous No.4123207]

>>4123201
care to explain your reasoning? are you just saying that based on shared vocab, or something more interesting?

[Anonymous No.4123211]

>>4123201
You got me with your first post but this one gave it away. Good attempt though, 6/10.

[Anonymous No.4123212]

>>4123211
>I'm insulted by facts, guess I'll just call him a troll!

[Anonymous No.4123213]

>>4123201
im not even going to waste a perfectly good reaction image on this

[Anonymous No.4123215]

Shit posting everywhere.
You're all fedora wearing cunts.
My contribution.

[Anonymous No.4123218]

>>4123201
Not everyone has the gift of Autism, Anon.

[Anonymous No.4123221]

>>4122970

>tfw I'm learning Korean

[Anonymous No.4123225]

>>4123221
Korean isn't all that hard compared to other Asian languages. iirc, one day some guy sat down and decided all of the grammar and alphabet.

[Anonymous No.4123227]

Korean is my native language and I lived in murica for the majority pf my school years. Planning on learning French or Japanese.

[Anonymous No.4123231]

>>4123090

Hello! I've been taking Japanese for 3 years but know hardly any kanji. I've been to Japan before, read hiragana and katakana swiftly, and speak the language pretty well, but I was never taught very many kanji characters. How would you recommend learning kanji?

Also, why is everyone in this thread a dick? Learning a language is not a competition, you're not inherently better than someone else for being able to speak 3 languages. I'm speaking mainly to the sperglord who spazzed out at that guy for reading a book in french. Seriously? What the hell?

[Anonymous No.4123236]

>>4123225

Certainly the learning curve isn't quite as brutal as Mandarin. But if you dive far enough down the rabbit hole your going to have to learn a shit ton of Chinese characters.

And since this was went to be an advice thread I've found lang8 dot com to be super helpful, although you really need a basic grasp of the language your trying to learn before it will be of any use.

[Anonymous No.4123234]

>>4122970
Is Japanese really the hardest?

[Anonymous No.4123235]

>>4123231
It's honestly just one person being a dick.

[Anonymous No.4123239]

>>4123231
>Also, why is everyone in this thread a dick?
Because 4chan people are autistic and extremely intellectually insecure

[Anonymous No.4123241]

I find that if you want to "learn" a language, you just make love to their women, and repeat what you hear in a less sensual tone .

[Anonymous No.4123244]

Arabic master race reporting in.

[Anonymous No.4123256]

>>4123231
>3 years
>not knowing kanji
You're supposed to get the jouyou down in the first couple months, what the fuck were you doing? Oh, you were taking a language class. Excuse me while I go laugh at how pathetically slow you are.

[Anonymous No.4123262]

>>4123234
No. It is actually a very simplistic language with very few rules as far as syntax goes. The sentence structure, instead of subject verb object, is subject object verb, but it is very easy to get used to and not that hard. The pronunciation is limited to a ee ooh eh oh, so there is really no way to mispronounce words (Entirely, atleast. There are words (like hashi) that have two different meanings based on the way you say them (bridge, chopsticks), but that is a very rare exception). There is no word for the and no feminine-masculine or singular-plural conjugation. I will say though, kanji is a BITCH and is really putting a damper on my studies. It is the reason it takes so long to learn. For a japanese person to read the newspaper entirely, the average age is 18. It is a wonderful language, but you should only pursue it if you have the time. Also, the best way to learn it is verbally. It will catch on and you will learn it pretty quickly.

[Anonymous No.4123269]

>>4123256
Not that anon, but you are blatantly a fedora wearing cunt.

[Anonymous No.4123271]

>>4123256
I know people who have studied for 7 years who don't know the entire jouyou. Many people learn the entire language first before learning the kanji. Go fuck yourself, you blabbering autist.

[Anonymous No.4123288]

I'm taking a semester of compositional Spanish followed by a semester of conversational Spanish this year, so I feel like I'll be fairly proficient by the time I graduate at the end of this year. I don't really practice it outside of class, except for over the summer when I spend some of my time working with a bunch of Mexicans on a farm.

Took Arabic for a year before I realized I was basically wasting my time.

[Anonymous No.4123290]

>>4123271
Yeah those people are (literally) retarded.

[Anonymous No.4123294]

I'm learning Latin. Turns out I'm a retard and it's harder than I expected. I still have my shitty Arabic skills, however

[Anonymous No.4123296]

>>4123290
No they aren't, their IQs are average and above average.

[Anonymous No.4123298]

>>4123290
No, those people spend time learning a language verbally instead of cooped up inside their mother's basement memorizing kanji for their waifus.

[Anonymous No.4123301]

>>4123262
Please do not post about things you don't know about. The sentence structure in Japanese is verb. Nothing else is required to make a sentence. Everything else can be in any order, or not even included at all. There is also ん, and there is also 端 on top of 橋 and 箸. As far as not being able to read the newspaper until you're 18, that is just a blatant lie. They are finished with kanji before they entire high school, let alone graduate. Anything that's not in the jouyou has furigana in newspapers (as far as I'm aware). And learning it verbally is not the best way to learn, learning to read (with kanji) is the best way because it shows you how words are constructed so it's not just a string of random sounds. You can attach each sound or part of a word to a meaning (the kanji). Are you the guy who went to classes? I'm genuinely curious, how are you this slow at learning kanji?

[Anonymous No.4123302]

>>4123298
I'm learning Japanese so I can more easily masturbate to hentai.

[Anonymous No.4123304]

>>4123298
You can learn the jouyou in 3 months with 1 hour of study per day. After that you can pick up the remaining 1000 or so characters as you learn more words. It's not that much of a time investment. Over the course of 7 years that is literally less than a single kanji a day. I'm afraid your friend might have something wrong mentally if she can't do that.

[Anonymous No.4123305]

>>4123301
Furigana is cool because it lets you know immediately if a book si written for children or if it's for adults

[Anonymous No.4123310]

>>4123305
I'm not suggesting you use furigana at all if that's what you're implying. I was just pointing out that not being able to read a newspaper until you're 18 is an absolute lie.

[Anonymous No.4123318]

My native language is spanish but I still have problems when I want to explain myself in english. I can read and understand the most neutral accents but I can't speak it fluidly.

>tfw no english speaking friends that would teach me and correct me in pronunciation

[Anonymous No.4123324]

>>4123318
Watch the news in english if you want to get better. That really helped me when I was learning German. News casters have that calm, well enunciated pronunciation style that's really easy to pick up on a learn from.

[Anonymous No.4123367]

>>4123064
noble enterprise

[Anonymous No.4123372]

>>4123301
Well, I'm only 18 and I had a really shitty teacher in high school. We really didn't learn any kanji because the rest of the students were too fucking stupid to do anything competent. I had hiragana and katakana down in the first week or so but it took the rest of the class (including my classtime) 4 months to learn it. I also didn't have an hour a day to commit to studying kanji, nor did I particularly care about it enough; I'm also an avid reader so I thought, "Why try to learn kanji when I still have plenty of books to read in my native language?". I really didn't care about learning kanji because it seemed like such an impossible goal to attain, but now that you've fixed my misconceptions about newspapers, I think I'll try it. I know a guy who can talk about string theory in Japanese but knows only 150 or so kanji. I also know a guy who knows about 500 kanji who can't even hold a 30 second conversation with me because he can't even pronounce any of the syllables. He's also autistic, but still, verbal japanese is important. I know a good bit of japanese, but it's mainly verbal and I don't know all the rules of grammar. I lived in Japan for 2 weeks last summer and had no difficulty at all in speaking to my host family. My japanese is good but my kanji isn't. I know that sounds strange, but it's the truth. I am now in the mood to learn kanji though, because hearing someone say they can read Mishima in only 4 years of study has brought new confidence in me. Did you get the inspiration from this article http://tynan.com/done-with-kanji?

>>4123304
My friend is not retarded. She's currently attending University of Washington in Seattle as a freshman and taking a 400 level class. She only knows 700 or so kanji but is completely fluent in spoken Japanese, having learned it gradually over the years through camp and working for a news station in Tokyo over the summer. Not everyone has an hour a day to commit to learning Kanji.

[Anonymous No.4123404]

>>4122949
What if it's a non-slutty 3D?

[Anonymous No.4123412]

>>4122983
>every single european language
>basque
yep

[Anonymous No.4123416]

>>4123064
You seem cool

[Anonymous No.4123418]

>>4123095
S/C/B seems like a really neat trio of languages.
Sadly, there are so many languages to pick from and those are not at the top of my list.

[Anonymous No.4123426]

>>4123294
>>4123128
Hey. I know Latin. I can help you guys out.

[Anonymous No.4123428]

>>4123231
Remembering the Kanji by
James "Tha Killa" Heisig

The stories are bullshit, pretty much. Just put all of the kanji into anki in the order he gives them to you, and learn the meanings only, not the readings. Shoot for at LEAST 10 new a day, shoot for 20 if you can.

[Anonymous No.4123434]

>>4123294
a ae ae am a ae arum is as is
us i o um o i orum is os is

drill drill drill.
seriously, knowing the noun/verb endings without having to think about it is key. I'm at the point where I know what something means but I don't always know the grammar behind it right away.

[Anonymous No.4123441]

>>4123294
Would you say it is too hard to learn along with other language?
I'm learning German, and for now I don't have any more plans regarding languages. But in some years I'd like to start learning maybe Russian or French, and also Latin.

[Anonymous No.4123457]

>>4123372
I have never read that article, it's just a normal amount of time that it takes for someone to learn that many kanji. There is someone who learned them all in 2 weeks (depends on your definition of learning, probably 85% recall).
>>4123404
Those don't exist.

[Anonymous No.4123461]

>>4123428
If you're doing Heisig (which doesn't even teach the readings) you should be able to do at least 50 a day, if not more. My advice would be to just learn words rather than kanji alone. You will eventually pick up what they mean and their pronunciations through vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.4123467]

>>4123441
There's an adage that goes something like
"For studying the classics, Greek and Latin are important, but German is essential." (Mainly because a whole fuckload of information, especially on more obscure and post-Roman Empire works, was written in German)

I know Latin at an intermediate to advanced level (i.e. I could probably read any text if I had a dictionary) and I am starting to learn German. As far as I'm concerned, I don't think they're similar enough to confuse me.

>>4123461
50 a day seems excessive to me, but I don't know. That's like, finishing Joyou in 40 days. I don't think you could accurately write any of the Joyou kanji by just hearing the reading after only 40 days.

[Anonymous No.4123469]

>>4123457
Those don't exist
Not even a few?

[Anonymous No.4123472]

>>4123469
No. There are none.

3Dness inherently implies sluttiness.

[Anonymous No.4123474]

>>4123467
Fuck, i meant meaning not reading. It took me about 3 and a half months to do it, maybe about 45 minutes a day, and even they they weren't ingrained

[Anonymous No.4123476]

>>4123467
I really can't say. My German is still very basic.
But being Spanish my mother tongue, I expect that would make learning Latin a bit easier.

[Anonymous No.4123491]

I can't recommend Latin enough if you're interested in learning other languages, especially in the Romance family. Because you can only learn it as a literary language, it's very heavy on grammar, and one of the few languages left where rote memory is still valued in education. This means you learn about language in general, making learning other languages much easier - you'll start to be critical of courses that overemphasise "natural acquisition" of grammar, or which focus on conversation without even having you learn all the tenses.

The world is full of people who think they know living languages, but who will have atrocious gringo accents or speak in a broken dialect forever. If you specifically want literary fluency in foreign languages, learning Latin first is probably a good move.

[Anonymous No.4123499]

>>4123491
Aside from learning it as a literary language, the fact that the prose and poetry that they write is at such a high level of ability and difficulty improves your ability to read complex literature in any language, even your native one.

[Anonymous No.4123856]

>>4122932
Learning French. I'd like to say it's not so I can pick up chicks, but deep down I know it to be true.

[Anonymous No.4123904]

>>4122997
I don't understand why girls purposely devalue themselves. Are they aware that they are slampigs?

>One of them was cute as a button

sigh...

[Anonymous No.4123943]

>>4123904
I don't understand why manchildren think women having sex is "devaluing themselves"
Keep your virgin whore mommy issues to yourself.

[Anonymous No.4124288]

>>4123467
I think my Latin is at about the same point as yours, and I've been (slowly) learning German for about a year now. Are you planning to go into Classics?

[Anonymous No.4124295]

>>4123943
>I don't understand why manchildren think women having sex is "devaluing themselves"
Because that's literally what they're doing according to the definitions of the words. Check your cognitive dissonance.

[Anonymous No.4124297]

>>4123491
>you'll start to be critical of courses that overemphasise "natural acquisition" of grammar, or which focus on conversation without even having you learn all the tenses
This, so much. I'm taking an introductory Arabic course, and they keep giving us phrases to repeat, even though they haven't told us fuck all about how nouns or verbs or anything work. It's really irritating.

[Anonymous No.4124302]

>>4124295
No it isn't. You're an autistic virgin, and you don't evenn understand logic. Wow.

[Anonymous No.4124307]

I'm learning Chinese so I can greet the soon-to-be superpower properly. I know 1000 words as of now. I can only read them though

[Anonymous No.4124309]

>>4124307
Um, but Chinese isn't the language of the Muslims, lol.

[Anonymous No.4124310]

>>4124307
>thinking Chinese peasants will become a superpower
The business and political classes in China will all use English.

[Anonymous No.4124313]

>>4124310
>The business and political classes in China will all use English.
Lol @ the mental image of some fat mouthbreathing chinese factory owner struggling to learn English.

Nope.

[Anonymous No.4124318]

>>4124307
I'm learning it because I'm bored. I just finished Unit 1 in 101 on LiveMocha, so I'm pretty much an expert now

By the way, what do you use to type in characters? Do you go from pinyin?

[Anonymous No.4124331]

Learning Japanese because it interests me, and I want to start learning Chinese too because I work at a retail chain and the boxes we get in are sometimes stuffed with months-old Chinese and Taiwanese newspapers, and I want to be able to see what they read over there

[Anonymous No.4124342]

>>4124313
He is right, though. This idea that the Chinese language will take the world is absolutely false. The lingua franca changes with time, sure, but the thing is that English estabilished itself as a global language, in a time the world has gone global. In business, it is much easier for a Chinese to learn English just like his French, Brazilian and Arab friend, than to expect all of them to learn Chinese. Chinese is the lingua franca of that region of Asia, but don't expect it to expand.

I did a Chinese course once, but dropped in 3 months (for other reasons). It's not as hard as it seems, but to be in a class is important for learning a language. I'm against basement polyglot dwellers.. English is also not my first language.

[Anonymous No.4124355]

>>4124342
>i dropped 3 months in but i'm telling you it's not hard

[Anonymous No.4124367]

>>4124342
People who learn languages in a class room learn at a snail's pace and the people taking the classes rarely ever actually become fluent. I guess you're just angry that you paid money for something you could have just done for free.

[Anonymous No.4124371]

>>4124342
>This idea that the Chinese language will take the world is absolutely false.
Yes, as is the idea that English (or any other language) will take over the world.
>The lingua franca changes with time, sure, but the thing is that English estabilished itself as a global language
There's no such thing as a 'global language'.
> in a time the world has gone global.
It hasn't.

Also, you don't understand what a 'lingua franca' is. A 'lingua franca' is a simplified pidgin that sailors and traders use to make deals in a port city. It's something you might use to buy weed or a cellphone contract in a strange city, but never something you use to watch a soap opera or read a fantasy novel.

>I did a Chinese course once, but dropped in 3 months (for other reasons).
Babby's butthurt. Cry me a river.

[Anonymous No.4124390]

>>4122974
u donn went full retard

[Anonymous No.4124397]

>>4124355
I got a job in another town and had to drop it.

At first, Chinese looked absolutely alien and hard to break though, but those 3 months lead me to another impression, that's all.

>>4124367
It was a free course, actually, granted by my university.

It depends on the course, sure. What I mean is that you can't just say you know a language if you can't understand it, read it, speak it, etc. Conversation and practice is of utmost importance and a classroom may help you with that.

>>4124371
English is a global language, but I don't mean that in a strong way at all,. Not that it has took over the world or subdued other languages. Just that it is the language you'll have the greater chances to use in the greatest number of places. If you're travelling through Southeast Asia, Chinese will be more common, French in some parts of Africa, etc. But English is essential for a lot of trades.

And it is a lingua franca because the German guy and the Argentinian guy will speak English when making business. And the myth is that, one day, they might be speaking Chinese in this situation rather than English, which is not true.

I'm not against learning Chinese and other languages, but I don't think one should count on it for the business opportunities, unless you do intend to work in Asia.

Also, I don't know where you guys get the idea that I'm angry or butthurt at anything... You mad, dudes.

[Anonymous No.4124481]

>>4123943
>>4124302
u go grrrl :D :DD :D :D #sexpositive #femaleempowerment

[Anonymous No.4124489]

>>4124302
>A girl who is about average looking that likes to have random sexual encounters with many guys when she gets drunk. She loves to hook up, give blowjobs, and essentially get railed. This type of girl is every guy's perfect woman because she won't constantly call you, and won't blow your spot. Directions for using a slam pig: talk to her, smash that ass, and kick her out. She'll love it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slam-pig

Thanks for getting our dicks wet! Good luck finding a husband :)

[Anonymous No.4124522]

>>4122974
>>Also emerging economies
>>Spain
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHA
HAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!

[Anonymous No.4124537]

>>4124367

top lel.

have you even consider the variety of learning that can take place in a classroom? there's a big difference from doing an hour of spanish every wednesday at your local community collage and doing an intensive, 5 hours a day, every day, course in the country whose language your learning.

[Anonymous No.4124540]

>>4124522
he is probably referring to the south american nations

[Anonymous No.4124546]

In school I had about 2 years of French lessons, though except some very basic vocabulary and grammar, I forgot everything (can't read any text in French). So, how do I get back into this language? I'd like to be able to read not-too-difficult novels/news in that language -- so reading/understanding is my goal, not talking.

[Anonymous No.4124547]

>>4123290
>misuse of the word literally
>implying you even know english

[Anonymous No.4124549]

>>4124397
>And it is a lingua franca because the German guy and the Argentinian guy will speak English when making business.
Unless you want to spend your life being a salesman this is irrelevant.

>And the myth is that, one day, they might be speaking Chinese in this situation rather than English, which is not true.
Probably not true, but who cares? Like I said, this is important or interesting only to those who shill for a living.

>I'm not against learning Chinese and other languages, but I don't think one should count on it for the business opportunities, unless you do intend to work in Asia.
If you want _real_ business opportunities you'll need to understand the target culture intimately. This includes speaking their language. (But again, who cares? This is interesting only to salesmen.)

[Anonymous No.4124552]

>>4124547
you are old news anon

[Anonymous No.4124554]

I know English, Arabic and embarrassingly French.
I'm learning German at the moment for potential travelling.

[Anonymous No.4124562]

>>4124554
>embarrassingly French
>embarrassingly
why?

[Anonymous No.4124565]

>>4124562
You misunderstood me.
What I meant is that I know enough French to only manage a week there.
I was taught French as a child but I stopped when I became of 7 or 8 years of age.

[Anonymous No.4124571]

If you don't know French, Latin and Greek you're the plebbity rabble that is killing /lit/ and don't deserve to be here.

[Anonymous No.4124575]

>>4124571
>French
Why would anyone want to learn a dead language?

[Anonymous No.4124576]

>>4124565
He didn't misunderstand, you didn't make sense.
>embarrassing
not
>embarrassingly

[Anonymous No.4124577]

>>4124575
Plebbus maximus

[Anonymous No.4124578]

>>4124549

Lots of people, in almost any job or industry you care to name, will need to be able to communicate with people outside their own country, or even inside it in some cases. In these cases there is no doubt that english is the most commonly used means of communication. And this is to say nothing of people learning English in order to engage with culture ect

[Anonymous No.4124588]

>>4124576
Yes, you're right; I just noticed that.
Pardone moi.

[Anonymous No.4124614]

>>4123225
>iirc, one day some guy sat down and decided all of the grammar and alphabet.
The latter, not the former. Hangeul is probably the most logically devised phonological writing system in the world and is famous for how easy it is to learn, but the grammar is another story.

[Anonymous No.4124621]

>>4124577
Really though. French is so incredibly similar to English. Reading the translations are perfectly fine.

[Anonymous No.4124631]

>>4124621
Native French / fluent English speaker here. For having read a number of books in both languages, I can say that a lot of translators fail big time at transcribing more complex sentences from a language to another. The fact that english has a broader vocabulary, while french retains a certain subtelty in its grammar that doesn't translate in a germanic language, doesn't help.
One obvious example of headaching translation would be the title of Les Misérables.

[Anonymous No.4124633]

Try to learn Lithuanian
It's my native language and it it's really hard

[Anonymous No.4124634]

>>4124631
Fellow native French/fluent English speaker, I wholeheartedly agree with this.

[Anonymous No.4124639]

>>4124633
why is there even such a language anyway

[Anonymous No.4124641]

>>4124639
because History.

[Anonymous No.4124646]

French native reporting in.

I recently started Japanese and German (anki core lists, limiting myself to film & music in those languages.. the works).

Learning different languages with near perfect pronunciation, writing and so on is a personal life goal of mine; I really hope to be comfortable in the aforementioned languages plus Russian before I hit 30. (9 years to go.)
Most people simply have no motivation when it comes to languages. The average english accent is truly dreadful where I live, french people simply make no efforts in languages.

And, yes, learning french/english makes you bilingual. I have worked hard on my accent and most Brits/Canadians/Americans simply can't pinpoint my native language.

Good luck to all languages learners. That glorious feel when reading your first major work in the language you spent countless hours learning is really worth it.

[Anonymous No.4124650]

>>4124633

Is there any interesting lithuanian poetry?

[Anonymous No.4124653]

>>4124646
Are there any resources that are definitive to self-teach French? I'm starting Japanese as well but the Romance languages have always interested me .

[Anonymous No.4124662]

>>4122983
A person is still bilingual no matter what languages they know even if your opinion is retarded and narrow

[Anonymous No.4124664]

>>4124653
Since it's my mother-tongue I'm afraid I can't give you the equivalents of genki/tae kim &al. You should roam french learning forums and such.

On the other hand, I vividly recommend watching the shit out of french cinema. Watch, re-watch till you puke in french.

Hip-hop is always a good source. I've been using rap to train myself speaking faster since my early teenagehood. You should look-up IAM, Stupéflip, MC Solaar, NTM.
"L'école du micro d'argent" is on YouTube. One of the best hip hop albums you'll ever hear.
>>4124631
+1. Don't even try to read poetry. I think that's the worst.

[Anonymous No.4124667]

>>4124664
>not recommending late Disiz and Oxmo Puccino

[Anonymous No.4124683]

>>4124667
>Disiz

I fucking love you anon. n-no homo.

[Anonymous No.4124703]

>>4124614

Hangul is amazing and I can't express how much I love it. But just because you can get hangul down in a few hours people seem to assume that Korean grammar and pronunciation is just as easy when, in reality, it can be just as hard as Japanese or Chinese.

[Anonymous No.4124752]

>>4124653
Assimil French with Ease or Michel Thomas French

[Anonymous No.4124758]

>>4124631
>One obvious example of headaching translation would be the title of Les Misérables.

What's so bad about it?

[Anonymous No.4124907]

My native language is Portuguese. I've finished my English course about 4 year ago. But since there's no finish line when it comes to learning a language, I can still manage to grasp more vocabulary everyday. I'm learning Spanish at the momemt, soon I'll finish it too. Next year, when I'm in college, I'll take French, German and Mandarin classes. Also I already know where to learn Russian. And I still want to learn more than those aforementioned. I've read somewhere hyperglotes (people who speak six languages) are unable to speak one more. Does anyone know if that's true?

[Anonymous No.4125420]

>>4124537
Have you ever considered that that is extremely uncommon?

[Anonymous No.4125426]

>>4124662
I'm bilingual because I know British and American English. ;)

[Anonymous No.4125473]

>>4125426
Fk dat bitch im trilingual coz i no txt spk 2.

[Anonymous No.4125521]

>>4125420

Not really, doing intensive courses is quite common for anyone seriously committed to learning a language. Normally their just a couple of months at a time and your milage will vary depending on what language your learning, but you'll find these sorts of courses in almost any you'd care to learn. Of course, you'll have to pay for them and its unlikely your going to be able to work much, if at all, while your doing them, but that's the cost and lots of people seem to be willing to pay for the opportunity.

[Anonymous No.4125527]

>>4125426

u wot m8

[Anonymous No.4125533]

>>4125521
still quite uncommon

[Anonymous No.4125635]

>>4125521
If you're "seriously committed" to learning a language, you will do it by yourself. The vast majority of people who learn multiple languages do it by themselves. Look at any polyglot, do you think they go to university for each language? The stupid idea that you need to be a classroom to learn a language is ridiculous. Reading, listening and speaking can all be done over the internet. I mostly think writing is irrelevant, but you can also do that by yourself if you want.

[Anonymous No.4125640]

>>4125635
>I mostly think writing is irrelevant
What's the point of learning a language if you can't write in it? This is one of the most stupid things I've ever read in a literature board.

[Anonymous No.4125703]

>>4125640
Because you can type in it.

[Anonymous No.4125715]

>>4125640
Not him, but if you can read novels in the language and speak the language when needed, why should you even care about writing in it? Unless you want to write a book in that language (Why do that when English is the best language for literature?) or live in the country, there is absolutely no point.

[Anonymous No.4125720]

How long does it take to become fluent in a Western language? I'm learning Japanese right now but I want to eventually learn German, French, Spanish, and Italian and I don't know if this would even be possible unless I dedicated my life to language.

[Anonymous No.4125726]

>>4124288
Yeah I am probably going to go into historical linguistics

>>4124633
there is a qt lithuanian girl in one of my classes, she's extremely annoying though
I think lithuanian is cool though, is there anything that would make learning it worthwhile?

>>4125720
You can learn a language fluently (as in, able to interview for a job in the language, read technical documents, etc.) in like 18 months if you completely immerse yourself and work hard

[Anonymous No.4125732]

Anybody here learning or already know ancient greek?

[Anonymous No.4125747]

>>4125726
>18 months if you completely immerse yourself and work hard
If your definition of immerse yourself is 1 hour a day. Western languages are baby tier.

[Anonymous No.4125765]

>>4125747

After immersing yourself in German for 540 hours (about 18 months, an hour a day), do you think you could read and digest a book written in German by someone like Heidegger as quickly and easily as you could a similar book in your native language?

I do not think you could.

[Anonymous No.4125790]

>>4125765
as an addition,
this is the equivalent amount of time as spending around a month (not counting sleeping time) in Germany, immersed in the language.

You would not be fluent in German if you only spent one month in Germany.

[Anonymous No.4125809]

>>4125765
I was exaggerating, but if you immerse yourself 24 hours a day (including listening while sleeping), it shouldn't take longer than 3-6 months to be pretty much fluent. If you did the same thing with, say, Chinese, it would take 12-18 months. If it takes you 18 months to learn something like German, you clearly aren't actually immersing yourself. You are probably using English all day long and only immerse yourself for a few hours. If it takes you longer than 18 months you are probably taking a class and think just because you are keeping up with the class and getting good grades that your insanely slow pace is actually good.

>>4125790
Just being in a country doesn't mean you're learning shit.

[Anonymous No.4125812]

>>4125732
How different is current Greek from the Acient? Where can on learn it? Why the fuck would they make it modern?

[Anonymous No.4125824]

>>4125812
I'm not really sure, though I don't think its as different as Old English is from Modern English.
Pharr's Homeric Greek is a good place to start from what I've heard.

>>4125809
I think if you did not care about literacy, Chinese would actually take less time

[Anonymous No.4125830]

lol @ people thinking u need immersion in order to read books in the language you're learning. like lmFao. that's so stupid.

[Anonymous No.4125837]

>>4125824
>I think if you did not care about literacy, Chinese would actually take less time
I assume most people here would, but why would you think that?

[Anonymous No.4125845]

Know English

Intermediate Spanish

Beginner Japanese

Planning to learn German, fuck Rosetta Stone

[Anonymous No.4125848]

>>4125837
A lack of almost any inflection.

I realize a lot of western languages don't actually have much inflection, but Chinese has less.

[Anonymous No.4125853]

>>4125830
stream of consciousness doesn't help your opinion look more passively intelligent

[Anonymous No.4125850]

>>4125824
>Pharr's Homeric Greek
Is that a book? Would learning Modern Greek be worth it?

[Anonymous No.4125856]

I'm learning french, because we had to take a third language in school and when school was over and Id only learned a little bit of french I thought why not keep at it.

Also, OP, even though youre probably long gone now, may I ask why you wanna come live here in Norway?

[Anonymous No.4125862]

Native portuguese, fluent english and advanced french. When I stop studying french I'll probably go towards spanish because it seems easy enough and then I don't know.

[Anonymous No.4125876]

>>4125850
Pharr's Homeric Greek is a book. It is for Ancient Greek, particularly Homer's works (this book focuses on the Iliad). Personally, I would recommend Ancient Greek over Modern, because a lot of amazing works were written in Ancient Greek. (not to say that there aren't modern greek authors that are good, they just are as prestigious or ubiquitous to the rest of the world). In the end, it's whatever you want. Learning both probably wouldn't be too difficult, and depending on what you want to do first (i.e. visit greece or read ancient greeks) will dictate which you learn first.

[Anonymous No.4125879]

>>4125848
Chinese has tones, making it much harder to learn.

[Anonymous No.4125884]

>>4125876

You might want to focus on attic greek at first if you want to learn ancient greek.

That'll be all the stuff written by Plato, the tragedians, Aristotle

[Anonymous No.4125893]

>>4124571
>french
>not italian

[Anonymous No.4125903]

>>4125879
dude, don't even start with that bullshit.
Ask a person in rural China about tones, and he will have no idea what you are talking about, that's just the way it is to him. If you hear a lot of Chinese, the tones won't matter. Input, input, input.

>>4125884
Pharr actually diagrees, and for good reason. Most people that start with Attic Greek start reading Xenophons Anabasis. Pharr says that this a work with complex grammar and a varied vocabulary, while Homer's works have a uniform vocabulary and a simpler, more lucid style. He says, Homer is better preparation for Xenophon than Xenophon is for Homer. Homer was also far more influential in later ancient greek works and literature in general. Making the jump to Attic from Homeric is pretty easy. Not to mention that the Iliad is much more interesting than Anabasis

[Anonymous No.4125912]

>>4125893
Finally, someone is learning Italian in this thread.

It is the prettiest and most practical (in terms of writing/speaking, not in terms of usability) of all languages, and it has a wealth of great literature. I don't understand why so many people prefer to study French and German.

[Anonymous No.4125922]

>>4122997
French Canadian girls are just as bad. I fucking carved my way through Montreal, those girls just come right up to you.

[Anonymous No.4125934]

>>4125903
>>4125884
>>4125876
Are the Modern translations from the Ancient and the Attic really that bad/unreliable? It seems like a really hard time trying to find ways to learn these forms of Greek. I mean, there are obviously no classes/teachers avaible in real life or at the internet to teach; learning by oneself would be extremely hard, not to mention there wouldn't be anyone to tell how much progress you've been making nor it'll be easy to find didatic/exercise books. And I don't even get me started with pronounciation... How would I know how the words sound?

[Anonymous No.4125943]

>>4125912
German is more relevant economically speaking nowadays. Whereas French was the last most important language in the world before English. Also, French exports more culture than Italy. Just count how many French films get to be screened aborad and how many Italains do that within a year.

[Anonymous No.4125946]

>>4125903
Yeah it takes more input than German, dumbass.

[Anonymous No.4125955]

>>4125912
German has the second greatest volume of literature besides English. As for French, fuck French.

[Anonymous No.4125956]

>>4125955
>volume

Quantity < Quality

[Anonymous No.4125959]

>>4122932
took french in highschool. It was pretty awful, shit's like another language to me.

[Anonymous No.4125962]

What do you guys think of Pimsleur?

[Anonymous No.4125965]

>>4125426
Retard. Those are dialects.

[Anonymous No.4125968]

>>4125912
lol just learn latin instead and then italian will come like nothing.

[Anonymous No.4125973]

>>4125853
>that
>stream of consciousness

mcfuckingkillyourself pleb

[Anonymous No.4125974]

>>4125965
French and Italian are just dialects of Latin. ;)

[Anonymous No.4125977]

>>4125976
>angry because proven wrong

[Anonymous No.4125976]

>>4125974
>Trolled! I was only pretending to be retarded.

[Anonymous No.4125983]

>>4125976
Well, yeah. You were trolled. Don't be a sore loser, dude.

[Anonymous No.4125995]

I've learned Swedish & German, currently learning Russian. Learned them because I'm a freelance translator.

[Anonymous No.4126154]

>>4125956
Greatness encorporates quality.

[Anonymous No.4126195]

>>4122973
>historically beautiful ladies
http://www.hel-looks.com/

[Anonymous No.4126222]

>>4124549
Yes, I know. I was responding solely to this anon >>4124307, who appeared to have that business perspective. That's my whole point.

[Anonymous No.4126619]

>>4124907
That's not true. There are people who have become fluent or near-fluent in dozens of languages.

[Anonymous No.4126620]

>>4125732
Yeah. I'm in a second-year college course at the moment, so I should be able to read most stuff if I have a dictionary.

[Anonymous No.4126626]

>>4125812
Modern Greek has lost a lot of Ancient Greek's rich morphology, and its sound system is also much simpler. I've also heard that it has a ton of loanwords from Slavic languages.

One of my professors says that she speaks Ancient Greek when she travels to Greece. People give her very weird looks, but they can usually understand her.

[Anonymous No.4126628]

>>4125934
Universities that have Classics departments should offer Ancient Greek classes. There are plenty of teachers and books, and scholars have reconstructed roughly how the language should sound.

[Anonymous No.4126690]

Lived in Japan and Germany for years and don't speak their languages.

I stopped learning Japanese because I also stopped watching anime. I might pick it back up for a trip to Japan, but English gets you by there pretty good.
I know a lot of Spanish but don't care to learn more of it.
I know some German but also don't care to learn more of it.

For me Japanese is the only language that makes any sense for me to learn. But it serves no purpose for me to learn it. I don't like talking to people. I hate their writing system regardless.

One day I wold like to learn the language of a European country with my spouse as we plan a big vacation.

[Anonymous No.4126745]

>>4122945
I think danish was voted for the most difficult language to learn atleast in europe.

[Anonymous No.4126762]

>>4126745

If you learn Norwegian you've essentially learnt Danish as well.

[Anonymous No.4126761]

>>4124907
> I've read somewhere hyperglotes (people who speak six languages) are unable to speak one more.
The more languages you speak, the easier you learn new ones.

[Anonymous No.4126763]

>>4125715
>(Why do that when English is the best language for literature?)
ha? hahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

oh wait, you're actually serious

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Anonymous No.4126765]

>>4125955
retard

[Anonymous No.4126835]

>>4125812
As different as any other ancient vs. modern language. You will recognize a handful of words/roots, but all-in-all you'll be left dumbfounded.

[Anonymous No.4126843]

>>4126763
go back to redit u faget

[Anonymous No.4126861]

>>4126763
what in the actual fuck? gtfo fagbot

[Anonymous No.4126888]

>>4125635

The idea here is to be totally fluent, not just to be able to get by in that language, but to be able to speak, read and write as if it was your mother tongue. Doing that requires much more than learning by yourself can provide, hell even learning from a native speaker probably won't be enough, your going to need some serious teaching. I realize that this probably isn't what most people need or actually desire when they think about learning another language, but that's what I'm talking about here.

As for polyglots I know a couple of people that are fluent in 4+ language's and while they clearly have studied by themselves the backbone of their language skills have learnt in a classroom. Sure you can always supplement what you've been taught, but at the end of the day your going to need someone to correct your mistakes and guide you and challenge your abilities.

>>4125809

lol have you ever learnt a language? immersing yourself for 24 hours a day just isn't realistic. Even those doing immersion programmes wont be able to do much beyond 6 hours of study a day before they become totally burnt out/having to much new material to be able to comprehend.

[Anonymous No.4126946]

>>4126888
>immersing yourself for 24 hours a day just isn't realistic.
Yes it is. Immigrants do it all the time.

[Anonymous No.4126951]

>>4126888
If you can only do 6 hours a day, that's not immersion you fucking retard. Yes I can do 24 hours a day, why would I use English if I was trying to learn another language? You're clearly just a college student who thinks he's better than everyone and tries to weave it in to every post. Needing formal education to learn a language, what the fuck are you even talking about? That's so far from the truth, and it's obviously you just trying to let everyone know you think you're better than them because you wasted a bunch of money.

[Anonymous No.4126952]

>>4126946

Sorry I meant studying there, the point is that even if you are immersed 24 hours a day, it doesn't equate to learning during all that time. Hell, its possible to be immersed in a language for years and never really pick up that much. Its much more a matter of what you do with that immersion.

[Anonymous No.4126986]

>>4126761
Even if they're not remotely related?

[Anonymous No.4126991]

>>4126946
>Immigrants do it all the time.

Not really, though. Many immigrants learn the basics of communication and then continue to speak their language w/ relatives and other people they meet who speak their language.

[Anonymous No.4126993]

>>4126888
I don't agree with how sure you are of yourself, but I will admit that taking German for one semester pretty much cemented and clarified all of the things I taught myself.

[Anonymous No.4126999]

>teaching self french
>decide to start listening to their music
>all their music videos are fucked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp5U5mdARgY#t=3m30s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raipSLkxO10#t=2m10s

can someone aware me on what the fuck is up with french people?

[Anonymous No.4127004]

>>4126991
This. I live in Brazil and I happen to live in a neighborhood full of Chinese immigrants. The vast majority doesn't speak Portuguese and the ones who do can't pronounce it very well. I think immersion only works for languages who are next to your native.

[Anonymous No.4127007]

>>4126999
The French are the original hipsters

[Anonymous No.4127012]

>>4126991
> Not really, though.
Yes really. When I say 'immigrants do it all the time' of course it means "some immigrants do it, and it's a common occurrence to do so".

[Anonymous No.4127014]

>>4127004
>I think immersion only works for languages who are next to your native.
No. Chinese >>> Portuguese, simple as that. Deal with it.

[Anonymous No.4127016]

both chinese and portuguese are fucking disgusting languages

top languages: italian, german, latin, french, ancient greek, russian, english

[Anonymous No.4127019]

>>4127016
also sanskrit

[Anonymous No.4127020]

>>4123122
It's not that bad, actually. My girlfriend is teaching me.

[Anonymous No.4127021]

Learning Spanish in a class because I studied it in high school and my major requires two semesters of a foreign language.

I plan to keep learning it on my own after the class ends, for purposes of literature, meeting new people, seeing movies that haven't been translated, and learning about the Spanish Civil War.

[Anonymous No.4127026]

>>4126888
>Sure you can always supplement what you've been taught, but at the end of the day your going to need someone to correct your mistakes and guide you and challenge your abilities.
This. How can you people expect making progress without a master beside you to correct your mistakes and cement what you've already learned?

[Anonymous No.4127029]

>>4127004
Funny, I also live in Brazil in a neighborhood full of Chinese.

Vizinho?

But you have to account for the fact that they make use of this ignorance. They know money- talk (dinheirês), they do business and they won't let you steal a single cent from them. But when it comes to conversation and exchange of cultures, they just don't give a fuck. They stick together. I'm pretty sure a lot of them understand Portuguese just fine, but they pretend they don't exactly to listen to others in stealth.

[Anonymous No.4127030]

>>4127014
>Chinese >>> Portuguse.
What does ">>>" even mean in this sentence?
>Deal with it.
Deal with what? Care to explain?

[Anonymous No.4127042]

>>4127029
My dream is to get into an elevator full of them and listen to their conversation up to the point where I'd reach my floor and, before I'd left, I'd turn to them and give an opinion on the subject of their conversation. I bet that would scare THE SHIT OUT OF THEM. It would be great for I live at the 12th floor and they live on the 13th.