64 replies to this topic

[Hopeless]

Thought I'd post here to see if anyone else is trying to pick up another language, or just hear about some of your experiences with learning other languages in general. 

 

Are any of you also currently trying to learn a new language or pick an old one back up? Have you ever forgotten a language (to any extent)?

 

I used to speak Korean growing up (when we lived in Seoul it was all I could speak), but have now lived most of my life in the U.S. and basically speak English exclusively, besides the occasional chatter with my mom. I feel like I have lost so much of it just through lack of use. Now that I'm done with college I'm trying to pick up Korean again, to hopefully start having conversations with my mother again in her native tongue. Besides just talking to her, I have a copy of Rosetta Stone (although I haven't dedicated too much time to using it yet).

 

I'd love to hear about any of your language-learning or language-losing experiences, if you have one to share 

Edited by Hopeless, 10 February 2015 - 02:58 PM.

[Irradium]

My language stories are pretty banal; I learnt some Spanish in school, but I don't take it any more. I used to be pretty good, and I still have a great accent, but I don't remember so much of it otherwise. I'd love to pick it up again though, and maybe even German. Perhaps I'll do it in uni. And I'd very much like to be able to visit my German friends without relying on them for everything.

[Grimley]

Like Irradium, I learned some Spanish in school (well, being in America, the Mexican Spanish variant is primarily what is covered), but not exactly tons. I became adeptly conversant in it during the 4 years that I lived and worked in San Diego ages back. Though no longer conversant, I can understand written/spoken Mexican Spanish quite well, which is rather amusing when people carry on loud conversations of what they consider to be "private" in Spanish, thinking that no one around them understand what they are saying (and sometimes, it's fun to let them ramble on at length and then burst their bubble with a word or two in Spanish coupled with a knowing expression).

[Keil]

I moved to America from the Philippines when I was 4. ESL took away my ability to speak Tagalog or my parent's specific dialect. Now I speak enough Tagalog ironically with my friends with accents I picked up from dramas and fawning aunts. However, I'm at the point I can understand EVERY single word from my native language but I no longer have the recalling process for that language to respond back in other than English.

 

During my Kindergarten years, my teachers thought I was mentally disabled until they realized that I don't speak English. I just didn't speak to people because I didn't know how and just blankly stared at them.

 

I'm very fluent in Spanish, the only issue is that I easily forget some vocabulary words. Like when I was in the NYC, I tried to say my coat got stuck in the turnstile, but I have no fucking idea what turnstile is in Spanish. I studied abroad in Spain in my first year during the summer and basically got it down pat there, but because my Spanish teachers in college were mostly Colombians and Venezuelans, my accent morphed to fit theirs.

[Hopeless]

My language stories are pretty banal; I learnt some Spanish in school, but I don't take it any more. I used to be pretty good, and I still have a great accent, but I don't remember so much of it otherwise. I'd love to pick it up again though, and maybe even German. Perhaps I'll do it in uni. And I'd very much like to be able to visit my German friends without relying on them for everything.

I also took Spanish in school, but most of what I can remember are lines from the Spanish version of "Shrek" our teacher made us perform to shame us ("eres un ogro!"). 

Like Irradium, I learned some Spanish in school (well, being in America, the Mexican Spanish variant is primarily what is covered), but not exactly tons. I became adeptly conversant in it during the 4 years that I lived and worked in San Diego ages back. Though no longer conversant, I can understand written/spoken Mexican Spanish quite well, which is rather amusing when people carry on loud conversations of what they consider to be "private" in Spanish, thinking that no one around them understand what they are saying (and sometimes, it's fun to let them ramble on at length and then burst their bubble with a word or two in Spanish coupled with a knowing expression).

This was the norm in the restaurant I worked at in college. Being able to jump into a conversation like that has got to be satisfying

I moved to America from the Philippines when I was 4. ESL took away my ability to speak Tagalog or my parent's specific dialect. Now I speak enough Tagalog ironically with my friends with accents I picked up from dramas and fawning aunts. However, I'm at the point I can understand EVERY single word from my native language but I no longer have the recalling process for that language to respond back in other than English.

 

During my Kindergarten years, my teachers thought I was mentally disabled until they realized that I don't speak English. I just didn't speak to people because I didn't know how and just blankly stared at them.

 

I'm very fluent in Spanish, the only issue is that I easily forget some vocabulary words. Like when I was in the NYC, I tried to say my coat got stuck in the turnstile, but I have no fucking idea what turnstile is in Spanish. I studied abroad in Spain in my first year during the summer and basically got it down pat there, but because my Spanish teachers in college were mostly Colombians and Venezuelans, my accent morphed to fit theirs.

I can identify with how you describe your early/kindergarten years - the way you describe your teachers responding to your silence reminds me a lot of similar moments I went through. I picked up a lot of my mom's terrible English pronunciations when I was little and I just couldn't understand the difference between how she spoke and how my classmates/teachers spoke, or why any of it mattered.

 

I always wanted to study abroad. That accent you picked up probably just makes it sound more authentic.

[Padme]

I pick up and lose the French I know really quickly. I used to be able to hold full on conversations in French, I used to read novels in French and listen/watch French tv & music. 

 

My sign language is also pretty poor lately but I was nearly fluent in it until I was 15 however I really need to pick it back up since my Father is going deaf. 

[Keil]

My sign language is also pretty poor lately but I was nearly fluent in it until I was 15 however I really need to pick it back up since my Father is going deaf. 

 

I only know how to sign Family and that's because of The Wild Thornberrys Special where Donnie discovered the fate of his parents.

[Swar]

I used to speak Italian pretty well. I've had some long conversations in Italian with my grandma.

No, not really, I just knew the basic stuff. My grandma used to talk in Italian to me, it was fun to try to find out what some of the words meant, since some are really close to Portuguese. I still want to learn it because of her.

I also speak a little Portunhol (a Spanish Portuguese), which is just mixed words that sound a bit Spanish

[Fikri]

i studied russian a few years back because i got a scholarship to do medic in russia before i quit lol. i know how to say some basic russian greetings, how to read the cyrillic alphabet, yada yada... it is a miracle actually considering my russian lecturer doesn't speak even a word in english. she taught russian in russian. it's insaaannneeee y'all.

 

now i'm doing architecture and part of the university requirement here is to learn a third language. i decided to pick mandarin (chinese) which i think is the most practical choice since there are chinese people in malaysia. i mean, they're everywhere, really. besides, i'm a quarter chinese anyway. (my grandma is chinese who had been abandoned by her parents to a malay family because they didn't have any money to bring her back to china) i'm not really fluent in it yet but i think learning chinese can be a good hobby.

 

my native language is malay and english is widely spoken here in malaysia. i converse mostly in english tho. because of this, my friends think i'm arrogant sometimes lol.

[Hopeless]

@ortin - have you ever thought about picking it up again? I feel like I was at my peak with Korean around when I started kindergarten. -_-

@Padme - I wish I knew sign language! What made you pick it up so early in life, if you don't mind me asking? There's this G.J Rives poem I really like about teaching sign language, partly because of the example poems he signs - it's always interesting how poetry changes when you lose/gain access to certain words. I'll just put this here:

Spoiler

 

(this version's got closed captioning - I must warn that I've heard criticisms on his actual signing, but I appreciate his message either way. Maybe you can confirm his skills)

@Kelvin - Man I remember waiting for that episode to premiere on TV! The whole series was... smashing.

 

@Swarley - Do you have a lot of family members that speak Italian? Maybe it would be worth getting back into

@Fikri - My piano instructor was Russian, and I used to love when she would get sidetracked by her kids and start telling them to do their chores - I always thought the language was gorgeous but I was never been able to understand it. I have a friend in China right now and he says he's been enjoying the structure of the language a lot! Apparently his accent is terrible though, heheh. So did you grow up bilingual, with an even mix of Malay and English? That must come in handy!
 

Edited by Hopeless, 10 February 2015 - 11:20 PM.

[Bee]

I did Spanish for 3 years and French for about 10 years in school, I could hold a decent conversation at that time in both languages. I used to end up slipping words from one language into the other though, especially as my Spanish teacher was also my French teacher. I've forgotten most of it now as I don't use either language frequently anymore. My mum was a proficient French speaker (not so much now) and we're planning to go to lessons together.

[Alexiel]

Had to learn a foreign language in high school. Unfortunately the year my class was eligible to select one they cancelled German so everyone had to take Spanish.

Nearly forgot most of it by college. 

Few key phrases here and there. Something about a bathroom and telephone so... y'know, just barely enough to survive. 

Then get to college and there's a mandatory foreign language credit. Might as well take Spanish, right?
Was disappointed to waste my opportunity instead of picking up something new since there was now plenty of options but... did give French a try and kept getting the language rules confused with Spanish so said "screw it" and passed Spanish I with a B. Meh. Got it out of the way.

So now I know about bathrooms, phones, and nonsensical phrases such as "el diablo azul es altissimo" and "sublar la gato bueno"... okay, maybe a smidge more than that and especially post-high school but now grad school has erased most of my espanol semester freshman year 2007/2008ish.

 

Now? Trying to find the best options for self teaching Japanese.

Like, I don't just want the typical tourist stuff. Student light or whatever.

I want to be able to listen to whatever I'm watching without subtitles, converse should I ever visit Akihabara/Japan, order like a pro next time I take the missus to a Japanese steakhouse or wherever, and maybe even do some fansubbing.

Rosetta Stone has the best reviews but... seems more tourist driven? Only had a trial of the first level so honestly not sure how deep it goes (anyone else have personal experiences with Rosetta Stone? Is it worth the $300+? or would you recommend other software?)

 

Leaning towards acquiring Rosetta Stone, pairing it with like Japanese for Dummies, and then eventually taking a class somewhere. Give me some sort of foundation to build upon instead of just sitting here waiting & researching while learning diddley squat.

[Padme]

Signing is actually a really complicated thing, I think it's easy to pick up the basics (I learned the alphabet in <1hour and signed with just spelling for a while) but to be truly fluent is a little tough. 

 

I want to be able to communicate with all people as best as possible and while there are different signing 'languages' afaik a lot of things are the same. There are also certain things that are difficult to communicate through sign and people then rely on 'fingerspelling' in those cases.

As well, my dad has had <60% hearing left (totally deaf in one ear, partial left in the other) from having mumps as a child. It's always terrified me that i'd lose the ability to talk to him.

 

My cousins school offered sign classes, she took them and taught me what she learned. While she stopped taking them, I eventually googled how to sign more and more. Took out books, etc. 

 

The video is ... good. Honestly, I am the worst person at signing with people who sign that fast especially with my skill level now. However maybe he isnt the most fluent person but I think he's doing something pretty rad that others aren't doing.

 

If you want to know more about ASL the best thing is to read an AMA about deaf people who use it. As someone who can hear I don't think my ASL will ever be on par just because I can rely on speaking as well  

[Swar]

I have a cousin who did 6 years of Italian and another one that's interested in it, but didn't really try. It's one of those things that you want to do not because it would be useful, but you just want.

[Wisdom]

I studied Chinese and English from primary school to secondary school for close to 10 years. I could never speak or write Chinese well, probably because I am not a big fan of it and the environment in Singapore, close to everyone speaks English 95% of the time.

 

Now I can only speak basic Chinese and have no intention of picking it back up, but maybe I will study another language instead. 

[Sockoo]

My main language is Portuguese. I used to have some Spanish and English classes in school, but I was only interested in English, but I may speak a little bit of Portunhol (Portuguese + Spanish, more like Portuguese trying to sound like Spanish. Now I'm thinking to try to learn French by my own if i have the time.

[Hopeless]

@Bee - Lessons with your mom sounds like a fantastic idea, especially since she's used to teaching languages!

 

@AkihabaraKnight - I just looked up the Spanish you used in your post because I had to know what "el diablo azul es altissimo" was (surely more than just a nonsensical phrase?)... and apparently it's an old movie starring a luchador named the Blue Demon:

 

Spoiler

 

Anyway Japanese would be awesome to learn! My little sister is trying to pick it up while she's in Korea, but she might fly to Japan because it forces you to learn the language faster when you can't use a different language to help explain yourself. Honestly, I like Rosetta Stone and I don't think it does a bad job, it's just impossible to learn everything without real world practice. I could learn a sentence like "the little girl drinks water and reads a book" very quickly after using Rosetta Stone. I could feel really good about that, get excited and try to talk to my mother about it, and realize I can't even describe learning that sentence in Korean because I still don't know enough Korean - even though I can say "the little girl drinks water and reads a book" perfectly. That's my experience so far, anyway. I think taking classes with other people who are learning it with you would help a lot, though! Especially if that group contains some people who are already fluent enough to help you along the way.

Also I feel you on the subs, I'd love to be able to watch an anime without having to read constantly! Heheh.

@Padme - I think it's really cool that there's a spelling system for words - I'll definitely look up some AMAs! There was a mini one on Reddit one day when a documentary maker uploaded his film about a school for the deaf, but the video had no closed captioning. They seemed to get that straightened out pretty quickly though. I feel like that is true about learning any new language, if you can rely on the one you use the most, it's harder to make yourself use a different one. I'm glad you liked the video! I seriously got chills the first time I saw it, but I realize I don't have an understanding of ASL so I couldn't testify for his skills. 

 

@Wisdom - What would you pick instead of Chinese?

@Sockoo - Cool, @Swarley mentioned that he could speak a little Portunhol as well! How do you think you'll be going about learning French?

Edited by Hopeless, 11 February 2015 - 08:46 AM.

[Turnip]

Thanks to going to a different school every year I haven't really gotten into any languages except for Japanese, which I've always learnt in my own time Like I learnt a bit of Spanish, German and Welsh which I can't remember much of except for like pronunciations lol

 

I really wanna get back into learning Welsh since its such a silly language and learning a dying language which I'll never be able to use is always a good thing lmao!! But it seems like fun ^^ I really wanna get back into learning Japanese one of these days too, I found learning Kanji super easy. One of these days I'll stop being lazy hahah
 

Now? Trying to find the best options for self teaching Japanese.
Like, I don't just want the typical tourist stuff. Student light or whatever.
I want to be able to listen to whatever I'm watching without subtitles, converse should I ever visit Akihabara/Japan, order like a pro next time I take the missus to a Japanese steakhouse or wherever, and maybe even do some fansubbing.
Rosetta Stone has the best reviews but... seems more tourist driven? Only had a trial of the first level so honestly not sure how deep it goes (anyone else have personal experiences with Rosetta Stone? Is it worth the $300+? or would you recommend other software?)
 
Leaning towards acquiring Rosetta Stone, pairing it with like Japanese for Dummies, and then eventually taking a class somewhere. Give me some sort of foundation to build upon instead of just sitting here waiting & researching while learning diddley squat.

Aaahh gosh, don't use Rosetta Stone  It's terrible!! If you really really want to use it, pirate it and stay away from any romaji options it gives you. Don't buy it though it's such a waste of money. I found that the My Japanese Coach DS game is actually really good, it teaches you a load of stuff (there's SO MUCH CONTENT) and it has little mini games!! The easiest way to play around with this is to emulate it ^^

Here's some good advice and a guide:
 

Google "kana mnemonics" and start with those. Should take only a few days to get both hiragana and katakana down assuming you're not lazy, two weeks at most.

For grammar download Genki .pdf files if learning simple travel stuff like "Hello", "Where is X place" etc. is enough for your immediate needs, but start with Tae Kim's Grammar Guide (don't only read, actually write shit down and memorize the new words) instead if you seriously want to get something done and properly learn the language.

For vocab get Anki and download Core 2000/4000 etc. decks. There's also voiced files floating around so you might want to look for them too. I suggest disabling the pictures as they're a crutch that prevent you from focusing on kanji.

If you have trouble memorizing kanji shapes or distinguishing them from each other start with Kanji Damage or Heisig's RTK1 (don't touch RTK2), plus their respective Anki decks.

Japanese starting guide:
https://docs.google....=h.6mzqwou67j69

[Hopeless]

@Turnip - Wow, that must have been crazy moving around so often... sounds like quite a variety of places. I don't think there's anything wrong with appreciating a dying language by learning it! What kind of options do you even have for learning Welsh?

 

Also, thanks for sharing your advice for learning Japanese! I'll actually have to send these suggestions to my sister who's been trying to learn it It's also good to know that the language Coach DS games are pretty up to snuff. I'd probably try learning it myself if I wasn't already trying to get back into Korean.
 

[Turnip]

@Turnip - Wow, that must have been crazy moving around so often... sounds like quite a variety of places. I don't think there's anything wrong with appreciating a dying language by learning it! What kind of options do you even have for learning Welsh?

 

Also, thanks for sharing your advice for learning Japanese! I'll actually have to send these suggestions to my sister who's been trying to learn it It's also good to know that the language Coach DS games are pretty up to snuff. I'd probably try learning it myself if I wasn't already trying to get back into Korean.
 

 

Yeah, it was pretty horrible. I only moved around the US and UK when I was a kid though so it wasn't too much variety thankfully And I'm just gonna have to learn it myself because now I'm in Canada with Elin!! B)

 

You're welcome!! Doesn't look like there's a My Korean Coach, which is a shame because they made a bunch of those things >w> I really wanna learn Korean mostly because Hangul sounds really easy to learn but damn am I lazy lmao

[Alexiel]

@Turnip Awesome! Thank you so very much! I can't wait to dive right in now that I've got a clear direction ahead of me. Appreciate it, Turnip, thank you. 

[Turnip]

@Turnip Awesome! Thank you so very much! I can't wait to dive right in now that I've got a clear direction ahead of me. Appreciate it, Turnip, thank you. 

 

You're welcome man!! Good luck with everything ^^

[Hopeless]

Yeah, it was pretty horrible. I only moved around the US and UK when I was a kid though so it wasn't too much variety thankfully And I'm just gonna have to learn it myself because now I'm in Canada with Elin!! B)

 

You're welcome!! Doesn't look like there's a My Korean Coach, which is a shame because they made a bunch of those things >w> I really wanna learn Korean mostly because Hangul sounds really easy to learn but damn am I lazy lmao

Hahah you're right about Hangul - it was basically created to be easy  I need to catch up with my writing waaay more than I need to catch up with my speaking... My Korean Coach sounds like it would be perfect, if it existed!

[Romy]

I speak English pretty well.

[Hopeless]

I speak English pretty well.

 

I ah, do what I can.