Learning languages

[Shamrock Shamus]

My hobby is learning languages. I know Mandarin and taught it for ten years at a middle school. I'm learning Cantonese and Latin American Spanish now.

Is anyone else here learning another language? What are some things that you have found that helps you? What are you using to learn (ie books, software, etc)?

[galled]

Great topic!

I saw this the other day. Your thoughts?

https://www.ted.com/talks/lydia_machova ... anguage=en

[Gingerale]

I'm terrible with languages but our member Adol Christian lives in China and might converse with you for practice! You can type mandarin & he can respond in English!

[Nek0Nerd0]

I'm learning Japanese with Korean on the side and recently found the motivation to learn Russian.

I find it motivating to learn a new language with someone else who's also a beginner. I use Duolingo for this. And I wanted to learn Russian just because I recently played a Russian game called "My name is You and it's the only unusual thing in my life".
And I'm learning Japanese for future use. Simple as that. There just needs to be a reason for learning.

[Kitalpha Hart]

I need to brush up on my ASL
And for whatever reason despite wanting to learn Japanese and Italian, I don't have those specific spoons which is kinda irksome

[Shamrock Shamus]

Great topic!

I saw this the other day. Your thoughts?

https://www.ted.com/talks/lydia_machova ... anguage=en

I actually agree a lot with what's being said. Think about it, in school if one is forced to learn something through boring textbooks and the stress of incoming tests and exams, it's difficult. But I use basic words and phrases in every day life and try to use more and more each day. I play video games where I know the plot and dialogue in English in Chinese which helps me grasp how it's used. I taped flash cards of words in Chinese to objects, like "refrigerator" to the refrigerator. If you enjoy your journey and don't stress about being wrong or corrected, you'll learn quickly.

Gingerale, Oooh! I've never seen them around, so I didn't even know that! I'll look for them! That would be cool! I met a Chinese immigrant ay work and I am hoping we'll be able to get some learning from each other in.


Russian is hard. But I think the writing is cool. I considered learning Japanese to teach my half Japanese kids one day.


I want to learn ASL, I know someone who is deaf but my fingers don't move freely enough. I have a hard time with it.

[Polaris]

I learned French in high school and was quite good at it, though lost it a bit during uni. I'm trying to brush up on it now, though, with Duolingo!

[galled]

Hi, Polaris!

The old "use it or lose it" and "it's like riding a bike" sayings seem to apply!

[Polaris]

Hi galled! Been a while, ahaha

It seems I haven't yet forgotten the basics, so it definitely does apply!

[Shamrock Shamus]

I agree in that I know basics of the ones I have learned (not fluently) but haven't practiced, yet I'd be hard pressed to get a conversation in.

French seems difficult to me because of how wonky the pronunciation can be.

[Vivianne]

In January I tried to pick up a bit of mandarin by auditing HSK courses and using Duolingo and practicing with my mom/deconstructing the language. It was fun, I should get back to it.

[Adol Christin]

Fluent Mandarin speaker but learning Cantonese because of trip

[MissAutumn]

I was learning Italian for a year. I had to stop my lessons so I could afford a deposit for a house. But I know enough to get around Italy as a tourist.

[juliewolffang64]

As far as languages go, the ones I've been trying to learn are Spanish, Japanese, and German. Funnily enough, experience and the time which I picked each one of those up are in that same exact order. Both Spanish and Japanese I've started out with classes, the former being from high school and the longest time enrolled in the class. Japanese was one I had tried in college and admit to flunking after a while of being around folks that were too much into the anime business to where they were learning it to unleash their full "wannabe Japanese" mode. Apologizes for that as I don't really have room to talk about that myself...

For methods of learning, I know that there was a few Tumblr blogs I follow for Japanese vocabulary and maybe a bit of Spanish there too. German was a bit more rare to find and while I wanted to jump on the bandwagon of being a Langblr (language-focused Tumblr blog) but backed out due to stress. I admit to using Duolingo a bit for all three and then some when I feel adventurous enough. I also do try to look out for what other folks recommend as their way of studying language. For me, since I like to be a visual learner and pictures with words are the way to go - I like to find images online of vocabulary words and an example if applicable.

[Watery Star]

I've always been interested in learning other languages and other cultures.

I admittedly wanted to learn Japanese because of my interest in manga and anime. Though I also have an interest in the culture too.
I flunked Spanish in high school, but not without trying to succeed. However did much better with Japanese college courses. Difference was the teachers, my high school teacher going through the material rather quickly and I wasn't able to keep up. My Japanese teacher(we had to call her sensei) made sure we knew the material and took notice to those who struggled. Even though she was strict, I appreciated her because she gave us resources and pointed out what we needed to work on. I didn't get much guidance from my Spanish teacher. Didn't have as much interest either.

I'd like to get back into Japanese as it's been a long time since then. I've been thinking about Duolingo since I've been hearing others using it.