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Post by Shadaras on Jun 22, 2011 13:02:36 GMT -5
I'd love to learn Hebrew, weirdly enough. xD I suspect this is because of Wolf, in large part. At some point I'll be around someone who knows the alphabet, at least, long enough for them to explain to me how to read it, at the very least. :3 Hebrew is awesome. =D Speaking as someone who only knows the alphabet and little to no vocab, of course. But it's a very pretty-sounding language, and I'd really fancy learning a Semitic language--Arabic is an appealing language, too. xD Arabic I've wanted to learn for longer than Hebrew, but Hebrew is, I suspect, a bit more useful/relevant. Also easier to learn on your own, I believe. |
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Post by Nut on Jun 22, 2011 13:24:41 GMT -5
Hey, awesome! Count me in! Languages are so cool.  I'm fluent in English, proficient in Dutch (I can't pronounce it correctly to save my life, but I understand it well enough to have gone through a few years of schooling taught in it), and I've been interested in learning Hebrew and Spanish, but neither of those really went anywhere. My current interest is in Japanese, for, yes, nerdy reasons (though I also find the characters beautiful and fascinating, and I frequent a few Japanese sites and blogs that I'd like to be able to read), but it's progressing rather slowly because school has been distracting me from studying kanji (which is really no excuse). I'm mostly limited right now because my vocabulary is very, very basic and I haven't progressed far in the study of grammar, though I intend to as soon as I can focus. Basically I can pick out some words and phrases here and there and figure out some sentences based on logic, but I won't comprehend a full text. |
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Post by Grey on Jun 23, 2011 20:20:37 GMT -5
Ooo. Me likey. Languages are funness. (An' I'm gonna take chai instead of coffee, if you have it. )...Yeah. I guess English is the only thing I'm really fluent in. I've taken a decent quantity of French, though, and I can usually puzzle it apart if given enough time. Same with Spanish, because it's similar enough to French and you see it everywhere and one of my friends sprinkles Spanish in his speech. Other than that... I also know a smattering of Icelandic, because I'm trying to learn that. ^_^ Soyeah. Trying to learn Icelandic, and then something else I'm going to try to do this summer is spend a week or so learning a whole bunch of languages, to get the basics in them and see if they're something I'd want to keep going with. I think I'm doing Icelandic for a month, two weeks each on Spanish and Kiswahili, and then a week each for Hungarian, Gaelic, Arabic, and... something else. I need to decide what. But it should be fun! I hope. I kinda want to know lots of languages because that would be cool, but I have neither the patience not the dedication to become a polyglot. >.> So I guess... if I were to pick twoish languages to learn more seriously, they would be French and Icelandic. But we'll see what happens. --- And by the way, speaking of languages and coffee. ^_^ Livemocha is a language-learning site with a list of probably more than 50 languages that it has lessons for, and it's actually pretty decent. And awesome. And doesn't cost anything. So there's a resource, if anyone wants to look at it. |
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Post by PFA on Jun 23, 2011 20:45:27 GMT -5
Since Nut's comment made me think of it... For those of us nerdy Japanese-learners, I've found this is a pretty good site for learning the grammar. :U I think I should probably formally go through the stuff past basic at some point (rather than skimming whenever I'm trying to write a particular sentence), but |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2011 21:03:30 GMT -5
Since Nut's comment made me think of it... For those of us nerdy Japanese-learners, I've found this is a pretty good site for learning the grammar. :U I think I should probably formally go through the stuff past basic at some point (rather than skimming whenever I'm trying to write a particular sentence), but And for Spanish learners, mostly for a refresher rather than a learning thing, this site gives the conjugations and meanings of a lot of different verbs. Almost completely unrelated though... To start learning Spanish on my own (after three years of classes), I've started reading a Spanish webcomic ( XD Comics, though it has the kind of language that you would expect from a self proclaimed... illegitimate child of Penny Arcade) and I've also checked out the first Harry Potter book ( Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal), with the plan to look up words I don't know, put them in a spreadsheet, and eventually find a site/program to put them into so I can randomly quiz myself. |
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Post by Joker on Jun 23, 2011 21:33:49 GMT -5
I love learning languages! I literally wish there was a "learning languages" major in college where you could just take a bunch of different language courses. xDD (And no, sadly, I'm pretty sure this is not the same as linguistics as a couple people have suggested to me. Sadly!) I "know" French, although I don't consider myself really fluent. But I write essays/give presentations/take classes taught in it at my level, so I suppose I could get by in France.
I'd love to learn Italian though. And German. And Russian... Too bad I don't have room in my schedule. ): The best I can do is pronounce them fairly correctly.
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Post by Grey on Jun 27, 2011 2:34:25 GMT -5
Also! Also! I just found these in my language-learning-stuff place! A couple more sites that are supposed to help with various languages and are also free. I haven't tried either of them yet, so I cannot speak to the quality or the helpfulness of them, but maybe someone here'll find them useful? Italki - Looks like it's kind of a "pen pals"-based thing. Lang-8 - Something along the lines of "write journal entries in another language, native speakers correct them for you". |
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Post by Chao on Jun 27, 2011 12:22:08 GMT -5
This just fits with my desire to become more or less fluent in another language. I'm fluent in German (big feat, seeing that it's my native tongue, I live in that country, went to school there, etc.) and I'm fairly fluent in English. I know remnants of five years worth of French lessons (which dates back about 15 years, so, besides feeling old right now, my French feels even older). Okay, I am in no danger to starve in France because of my lacking language skills, but well... I took some Spanish during university (starting with a three week language vacation in Spain, so I got a bit of immersion and full speed language pick-up training there), and I found it a lot easier than French. I actually have two books in Spanish at home... Like Hunter I have the first book of Harry Potter, but never got very far, and a Spanish edition of 'Pride and Prejudice' (Orgullo et Prejuicio), which I got a little farther, but did not really learn something from it, since I know the English version too well to have to guess what a sentence in Spanish means. I have rudimentary knowledge of Japanese, just enough to be able to see if a line of signs is Japanese or Chinese (simply by looking if there are any Katakana or Hiragana used ;D ). I know how to decipher the signs, a few words, and well... that's it. But then again I only had it for one year once a week at university, and my main reason for taking it was that I wanted to be able to read and write the signs. I love signs. Which is why I'm also fascinated by Greek, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic... But I think the language I'd like to become fluent in besides German and English is Spanish. I enjoyed it a lot at university, I still like the sound of it, so Spanish it'll be. As I learned most English by reading books (I very well remember puzzling a whole 15 minutes over the first two sentences of 'Pride and Prejudice' as school had never taught me how to structure an English sentence, whereas in German we use ever so many commas), I think it might work with Spanish as well. After all, I already have a basic grasp of the grammar, a basic vocabulary, and I'm not one to sit down and revise vocabulary word by word, I'm more likely to remember phrases. With enough phrases and a basic vocabulary the feeling for the language will sooner or later allow me to exchange words and form phrases of my own. So I think I might look around in the major Fanfiction-archives for one-shot fanfictions in my favourite fandoms (Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, Weiß Kreuz) and see if I can find anything interesting enough to make me work my way through the story. If anyone has a recommendation along that line, I'd be happy to follow the lead. (Recommendation for good one-shot fanfictions for the mentioned fandoms are equally welcome for French, because it couldn't hurt to brush up my French either.) In return I can offer to go hunting for good German Fanfictions in any fandom of interest. |
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Post by storm on Jul 1, 2011 10:08:37 GMT -5
I find languages very interesting, and knowing more than one often comes in quite handy when traveling, which I hope I can do a lot of in the future.
I'm fluent in English, and I'm almost fluent in French... I can speak well, but I have to work on my writing, I think. I can understand the odd word of Italian, but that barely counts as even being an eighteenth fluent of the language. I can tell the difference between Arabic, Farsi (Persian), & Azeri, because of the tones and the differences in sounds and such when the language is spoken, and I know a few words & how to say some basic things in Farsi & Azeri, but that's about it.
I want to start learning another language this summer. If I do end up trying to learn another language, then it'll definitely be one that uses the Roman alphabet, and it'll probably be either German or Turkish (both would come in useful for me, because some of my cousins & people in my family don't speak much English or French but are fluent in German, Turkish, or languages that share a similar structure to the Turkish language).
I'd also like to learn Italian, mainly just because I want to, but also because I am part Italian. Italian would also come in useful if I ever end up traveling to Italy (which I plan on eventually doing). I'd be able to practice speaking it with my grandpa and my mother, too, because they both speak Italian.
Other than Italian, German, and Turkish... there aren't really any other languages that I'd like to learn that use the Roman alphabet. Spanish would come in handy, I suppose, but I think I'd rather learn German or Turkish instead.
As for languages that don't use the Roman alphabet, I wouldn't mind learning Azeri. For those of you who don't know, Azeri is a language that shares a lot in common with the Turkish language, except it's mainly spoken in Azerbaijan & some regions of Iran. Learning Azeri would enable me to communicate with a large amount of people on one side of my family, including my grandparents on that side of the family. Learning Farsi (Persian, but Farsi is the correct name for the language) would pretty much be as useful to me as learning Azeri would. I wouldn't mind learning Arabic, either, though the people in my family don't communicate in Arabic (they have some knowledge of it, as most learned it as a second or third or fourth language growing up, but still).
Also, pretty much half my family have tried to convince me to learn Russian for some reason, which is a little funny, considering the fact that as far as I know, none of my family is Russian. I guess it'd be a useful language to know, but I'm not inclined to learn it anytime soon.
Anyways, that's pretty much it... As you may be able to tell, I'm kind of crazy about wanting to learn other languages. ^_^;
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Post by Omni on Jul 9, 2011 19:14:38 GMT -5
I think I found something that might be fun for us geeks to practice Japanese with. It's called MMDAgent and it's open source. However, it doesn't come with characters and the one you can get on the site has a limited set of responses. Still, there's probably a good pack out there. The trick is finding it... I'll let you know if I find one though. A couple of example movies are here, but the movies show more phrases than are available. This movie gives a fair idea of what there is, though. (Outside of that, I noticed you can also say 'bai bai.') Also, I just heard that once you know three languages, learning more languages becomes easier. |
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Post by PFA on Jul 21, 2011 14:08:01 GMT -5
This seems like a decent enough place to stick a language-related question, right? So I was writing this song which, at one point, features the word "heart" sung in the background in several different languages. Specifically, in order: English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, and Chinese. And basically I wanted to make sure I'm pronouncing them all properly and/or using the right word. I'm pretty confident in my correctness with Japanese and obviously English, but since I was basing the rest solely off of Google Translate... I want to make sure I'm not completely butchering them. XD So, just to check: Heart, kokoro, corazón
Coração, Herz, coeur, xíntl;dr, I want to make sure I'm using the correct vowels/consonants for the above words and/or that I'm using the right words at all. Help would be appreciated, kthnx. <3 |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2011 14:24:40 GMT -5
That is indeed the correct Spanish word for "heart". :3
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Post by PFA on Jul 21, 2011 14:39:07 GMT -5
That is indeed the correct Spanish word for "heart". :3 Sweet. Any tips on making sure I pronounce it right? XD Google Translate makes it sound like "core-a-son" but I'm not sure if I should trust it. (Sadly I don't know where my notes on Spanish pronunciation ended up.) |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2011 14:41:10 GMT -5
That is indeed the correct Spanish word for "heart". :3 Sweet. Any tips on making sure I pronounce it right? XD Google Translate makes it sound like "core-a-son" but I'm not sure if I should trust it. (Sadly I don't know where my notes on Spanish pronunciation ended up.) "Core-ah- szon", more like it. At least that's how I pronounce it. ?__? EDIT: The last "o" is like the "o" in "own" or "zone". :B |
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Post by Gelquie on Jul 21, 2011 14:43:19 GMT -5
You got the French word for "heart" correct.
Don't know about the others. (Well, except for the English word.)
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