Languages!

[HelloDizzy]

I speak English natively, and have taught myself a good bit of Japanese and am learning Hebrew.
I would also like to learn Estonian, German, and Russian.

I don't care for the romance languages.

 

[kasmanaft08]

I'm kind of thinking of learning at least a little bit of French even though I have no plans to travel there anytime real soon. I've never studied it before, but I can kind of recognize several French words because I know a bit of Spanish and Spanish and French are both Romance languages, so I would have sort of a head start on it. I kind of think that simultaneously studying multiple Romance languages rather than just one might be a way to solidify that knowledge a little bit. I have a feeling that when you already know a few languages, that makes it easier to pick up new ones.

I think thats true if the languages are related. It's weird coming here with an English/German background and trying to pick up Dutch. It was really confusing at first, but I actually picked up understanding and reading Dutch very quickly- it's speaking it was the most confusing. But the more I familiarized myself with Dutch, the more I was able to seperate that it was not like either, and that's when it became easier. It's also kind of strange that I live in a household that speaks a lot of Danish, which has a lot of similarities with Dutch and German as well. I actually found I can understand a bit of that sometime as well, even though I never really tried to learn it.

I guess that's why romance languages like Spanish have always been difficult for me. It's completely new (in a way) for me to pick up. I'm used to Germanic languages,or Japanese (which I don't think has any other similar languages in that sense).
If I chose a romance one, I would definetly go for French though.

 

[HyperCube]

I'm a native English speaker myself, but I also know a bit of Japanese. I may try learning Italian sometime, since I'm technically 1/8th Italian-American (the other 7/8th being a mystery mix of Scottish, French-Canadian, and perhaps a dozen nationalities I'll never know). Languages in foreign writing systems look very interesting, like Korean, Arabic and Russian, though I admit I don't know much about them.

 

[ajmilam93]

I speak English, Japanese, and German. I hope to learn Italian, Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish.

 

[ThDude]

I speak English and I know another language. However this language can not be spoken or written. It can not be heard or read.

Give up? It's american sign language! I'm a signer, one year in. My sister is Deaf so I had to learn it, now I'm getting the college credit hours.

I find ASL to be cool, and it's more fun and Easter to understand then english

 

[IContainMultitudes]

Currently trying to learn some Italian since I'm going to be taking a trip to Italy in about 2 1/2 months. I think it's probably one of the easier languages out there for non-English speakers to pick up.

This is a site where I'm taking free lessons that are pretty good:

Language Learning with Livemocha | Learn a Language Online - Free!

I don't think I would have much practical use for it, but I'd love to know some Portuguese since I'm a fan of Brazilian music and I think it's one of the world's most beautiful-sounding languages.

 

[globalrevolutionary1]

I am not very good at languages, when I was at school I could never remember anything the teacher asked me so I was put in the lowest set in my peergroup thou I did get an Euroclass award way hey lol haha but Nah I canny speak any other language except english which is a shame really as I would love to learn more than english!!!

 

[kg4fxg]

I don't know if this counts? I talk to people on Ham Radio in Morse code. Average speed is 20 words a minute but I run a slow net at 5WPM. Talk to countries all over the world. Maybe not the same thing?

I was told I did not have an aptitude for languages? So I attended a college that did not offer languages, but rather in place of language was Music Appreciation, Literature, Philosophy, Etc. I have no problem learning something if I am obsessed about it. I build radios and solder all the components in place. Wind toroids and all that, what I mean is I taught my self electronics and how to trouble shoot with an oscilloscope.

For me I have to be passionate about learning something. If I am not it is very hard.

B

 

[Douglas_MacNeill]

I can function in French, but I don't have a third language (German? Spanish? Japanese?) yet.

 

[kasmanaft08]

So heres a question,

What do you guys think about languages sounding harsher or louder than any others? I was told that American english is especially loud, but to be honest I dont think its that bad. I find Danish and scandinavian languages (whom the person who told me this speaks) much harsher and louder, kind of on par with Vietnamese or Chinese in my opinon. Not that any of that matters, and i dont find any language especially terrible in itself (depends on the speaker) but the truth is, some do kind of grate me a bit to listen to more than others. Anyone else the same?

 

[King_Oni]

So heres a question,

What do you guys think about languages sounding harsher or louder than any others? I was told that American english is especially loud, but to be honest I dont think its that bad. I find Danish and scandinavian languages (whom the person who told me this speaks) much harsher and louder, kind of on par with Vietnamese or Chinese in my opinon. Not that any of that matters, and i dont find any language especially terrible in itself (depends on the speaker) but the truth is, some do kind of grate me a bit to listen to more than others. Anyone else the same?

Yeah, there's some languages I think sound more harsh. Vietnamese and chinese come to mind. Maybe French, but that might depend on who is speaking. Turkish or the middle-eastern languages sound like angry screaming to me. And in general the attitude of people from those regions I bump into here are acting pretty agressive as well.

Maybe it's also when people speak a language in screaming manner is when it bugs me. For instance a diner here (as well as a lot around the country now have chinese owners who sell/make fries and snacks... if they're talking in a normal tone I don't think chinese is that bad, but usually it's a lot of screaming due to the stress in the kitchen... that's where it sounds harsh to me.

 

[Gomendosi]

if they're talking in a normal tone I don't think chinese is that bad, but usually it's a lot of screaming due to the stress in the kitchen... that's where it sounds harsh to me.

Yeah that is probably Cantonese, which I also think tends to be slightly loud. Its not that it is high pitched though? It seems to be sort of cobbled together and said too fast so it sounds angry. You tend to get that yelling back and forth a lot in Asian kitchens though I?ve noticed ; ]
That?s the language that gets called Chinese but they speak another, different one called Mandarin which is more formal and less rushed, it seems to me to be laid back and for lack of a better word, soft? I usually try to watch a lot of Asian cinema and you tend to hear this spoken a lot in swords and sorcery epics I think.

To my ears the difference between the two is like Italian (Mandarin) in comparison to German (Cantonese)

That could just be interpretation by me because I also happen to prefer Italian to German ; ]

 

[epath13]

It's not about language actually but sort of... I'm thinking about learning Morse code.
.._ _.._ _.... ._ _ _ _ ... _ _

 

[danielsm]

English, Spanish, Hebrew

 

[marraco]

What languages do you speak? What would you like to learn?

From most fluent to least fluent: English, French, Spanish... a little Quechua and some German. I'd like to learn Russian, Mongolian and Mi'kmaq next!

I would like to be able to read and write Chinese, but I think that I'm not capable of achieving that goal.

 

[Arashi222]

I know a bit of Japanese I took it as my college language and I also know a bit of Spanish as I grew up in an elementary school and high school where that was the language of choice for your language credits.

Otherwise I speak American English as my native language.

 

[King_Oni]

Out of "utter boredom", I started courses in both Gaelic and Italian. But looking at how I progress. I don't know... I think the software I'm using isn't that ideal for me. I"m using Rosetta Stone right now, but somehow I'm missing something (yes, I got an obscure copy somewhere ). To my understanding it's just a computer thing, but the rough idea of grammar for instance doesn't really work for me. I hate getting 90% because I had to guess some grammar. I want to read into that, and know when for instance in Italian something is Lei or Lui or whatever.

Another thing that bothered me a bit with Rosetta stone is that in both Gaelic and Italian the image material was the same. So it felt "boring" and "I've seen this before" which already is a reason for me to be less active and focused on it. And... some images were weird. There's an image with 3 women in presumably a kitchen, looking over a single piece of paper. There's bowls on the table, and from what I remember they even wear something similiar to kitchen aprons. Thus in my idea the correct thing is that they're cooking (in whatever language I'm learning). Seemed they were reading. Yes, they are reading... maybe a recipe? To cook? If we're going into semantics of "they're READING a recipe", then an image of someone stirring in a giant bowl as means of cooking should be "stirring"because he's stirring a spoon as one of the actions required to the cooking and preparation process. But that might be an aspie thing, going into semantics and all. Though, with that, I scored totally negative on the "social interpretation test" during my diagnosis, so seeing an image with little context might not work for me at all.

So what I'm wondering; people who tend to learn languages, how do you do it? Any courses you recommend in terms of how it's being explained and all. Maybe any free courses online you thought were good.

 

[Kelly]

I can speak English, I used to be fluent (spoken and written) in French when I was younger, I know a little Spanish, a few words in German (my husband is fluent so I've picked a few words up from him) and I know a handful of Japanese phrases and words from watching so many films.

 

[Arashi222]

Um question does being really super geeky and learning Klingon, Tolkien elfish, and go'ould and Ancient from stargate considered a language? Cause if it does then I learned those.

 

[King_Oni]

Um question does being really super geeky and learning Klingon, Tolkien elfish, and go'ould and Ancient from stargate considered a language? Cause if it does then I learned those.

From what I've heard at least Klingon is officially a language. I don't know about Tengwar or Go'ould.