Ask HN: What natural languages do you learn? |
Ask HN: What natural languages do you learn? |
I wanted to read more Latin and have more fun reading, and I decided that looking words up in a dictionary was an easy step to circumvent, so I made a website nodictionaries.com --- if you read Latin, check out http://nodictionaries.com/vergil/aeneid-1/1-7 if you want to read twice as fast.
Seriously, though, this is incredible. I'll probably play with this all weekend.
Here's a link to language-learning advice:
http://learninfreedom.org/languagebooks.html
Here's one of my favorite links about one conlang:
My personal project (not working yet) is a language learning web app. I think there's actually a couple of more advanced language web apps by HNers too.
One of these days my wife is going to pester me to learn Japanese because she studies early Japanese culture and wants to share.
You should do it, for the beauty and expressiveness of the writing system alone.
Over the years, I've taken stabs at German, Latin, Chinese, Spanish and Lojban. Same story each time---a few weeks of initial enthusiasm, and then I got bored and never returned to Language X. I don't know what kept me glued to Japanese. With Esperanto, I was about to move on when I discovered there were actually people in my town who spoke it and met every week. It added unexpected depth to what I had been approaching as a novelty language.
Sadly my written englisch is not as good as it should (altough I have no problem reading it or with conversational englisch. My father doesnt speak englisch, so when technicians from the US came to repair his machines (CNC) I was the translator).
And with german I dont have any problems, I try to read books and watch movies so I dont forget much. And of course german ebm/dark music =)
Being in a german school (Abitur) and living 2 years in Germany helped me a lot in my career =)
Hur är läget? Alles klar? Todos bien?
Quite frankly the only languages you really need in the western world (aside from English) are French and Spanish (and possibly Portugese). Germans and Scandinavians mostly speak perfect English and for the most part don't tolerate my broken attempt at their language. (although they very much appreciate it)
French and Spanish are probably the most valuable because they tend to be less inclined to master English and both have very large native speaker bases. Other useful languages would be Mandarin, Russian and Arabic.
I'd like to study Arabic and Welsh sometime.
I generally study languages based on how much I'd like to learn that language and how different it is from English. I have a lot of friends that study based on business (Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin being the big ones), but that doesn't really appeal to me.
I moved to Holland from California several years ago, and have picked up the language after taking a few courses. You don't need it here, but it sure helps you break out of the expat scene.
This is the first language I've really 'learned' to a good conversational level, and I am really fascinated by the process. I didn't get far with Spanish in high school, but since the process of Dutch has been so wonderful I plan on revisiting it soon, possibly other languages as well.
I learnt the Korean alphabet through Wikibooks when I wanted to try out input methods. The writing system seems to be easier to learn than other CJK languages, and I might learn more of the language as the Nation of Samsung seems pretty interesting.
I can also speak basic Japanese (started learning in college and continued on my own), but while I learned the syllabaries I only know a very few characters, so I can't write it.
Between the two, that's one whole language at a basic level.
I took Spanish in highschool, but haven't been using it, so it's pretty much lost. I can understand little bits.
I would love to learn a lot of other languages including German, French and Irish Gaelic.
Can any of you talented polyglots recommend techniques for learning lots of vocabulary quickly?
For speaking/understanding speech I've heard great things about Pimsleur. Once you have the rudiments of the language listen to podcasts all the time.
Learn the grammar. You are unlikely to pick up more than the utter basics by osmosis. Good luck!
If you want a large base of cards to start with and the same idea of learning (SRS/Spaced Repetition Software), I'd recommend one of the many excellent Quizlet iPhone apps[1]. I personally use Flashcards Deluxe by OrangeorApple[2].
[1] http://quizlet.com/mobile/
[2] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards-deluxe/id307840670...
I'm just started learning German as well (also moved to Berlin quite recently), and I can recommend this online course for getting down with the basics of grammar, counting etc: http://deutschkurse.dw-world.de/KursPlattform/WebObjects/Kur...
I took four years of Japanese in high school and one at university.
Native Chinese here, been living near Shanghai for 6 years, but never really understand the dialect.