Learning a new language.

[lee1287]

Hi all, first, apologies for any bad spelling or grammar you encounter in here. On to the topic!

Now, I've been wanting to learn a new language since coming home from a two month trip to Europe, and something a German girl i met said, 'There is no downside to learning a new language'

That made me think, there really is no downside to it, and it could open up so many new possibilities, job wise, social life wise, travel wise. Anyway, i decided to learn french, mainly because it's just a euro star trip away,(I'm English) and I've always wanted to go to Canada, and i know not all Canadians speak french, but it couldn't hurt to know it when i go, right?

Anyway enough rambling, my questions are, what are some great learning tools you guys and girls can recommend? Has anyone learnt a new language other than their native tongue, and has it ever come in handy? (New job, love interest, anything!)

Thanks

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...never mastered that myself.

However, a lot of languages are closely related. If you learn Latin, you've almost learnt Spanish and Italian as well. Indonesian and Malaysian are almost the same language as well.

So, once you mastered one, you're well on your way to mastering others.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Try Duolingo [https://www.duolingo.com/]. It tries to gamify the experience of learning a new language, and it's actually pretty good. In addition to the website, they have mobile apps for Android and iPhone. Check it out. (It's a little light on teaching the grammar, at least at first, but it's great if you're just starting out.)

 

[cathou]

ok, first except in Québec, dont expect to use french a lot in Canada. i think a good way to learn other languages is to Watch movies with french dubs and English sub, especially if it's a movie you already know.

when i learned English, watching tv in English and playing games in English helped me a lot. you dont have to really understand how to write the language, you only want to speak it, so dont bother onthe very complicated french grammar, you need vocabulary

 

[mmiki]

Anyway enough rambling, my questions are, what are some great learning tools you guys and girls can recommend? Has anyone learnt a new language other than their native tongue, and has it ever come in handy? (New job, love interest, anything!)

Thanks

This probably won't be relevant to your situation, but English is my second language. I started learning it when I was 6 (I'm 29 now), and thanks to it I was able to communicate with thousands of people, so yeah, it was quite a positive thing for me.

I also learned Russian in primary school but I didn't have anyone to speak it to since, and so I've almost completely forgotten it. I can still read and pronounce most of the words but I can't really have a conversation. It's a great language for poetry, I can tell you that much.

A couple of years ago I started learning German (that's not a great language for poetry[*]), and then I stopped because I was lazy, for lack of a better excuse. I'm thinking of picking it up, actually. I'm not entirely sure what benefit it will serve me in advance, but it might open some new possibilities. Like reading German poetry.

[*] Yes, yes, there are a lot of great German poets, I'm not being serious.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I heard knowing more than one language helps to decrease the chance of dementia.

There's no age limit to learning a new language, because children and adults learn differently. There are advantages of learning as an adult: You have a bigger vocabulary, exposed to more contexts and examples, and you tend to pick up things much easier than a child can. (such as how grammar works) You're also more motivated to learn a new language and that's the best thing you can have. An adult is also way better at researching and solving problems that may occur during their study.

I am fluent at more than two languages and have recently taken up Japanese. It's helpful to be exposed to the environment where you can listen or read that language constantly. Review and practice are also very important. You should also do some research for the best method of learning that works for you.

 

[Colour Scientist]

There are advantages of learning as an adult: You have a bigger vocabulary, exposed to more contexts and examples, and you tend to pick up things much easier than a child can. (such as how grammar works) You're also more motivated to learn a new language and that's the best thing you can have. An adult is also way better at researching and solving problems that may occur during their study.

Actually, I'm fairly certain that it's the opposite. A child who's raised in a multilingual environment and who is exposed to learning different languages at a young age is much more likely to achieve a better level of fluency than an adult.


It's not impossible to become fluent in a language as an adult but it's definitely easier if it begins at a young age.

Edit: That's not meant to discourage the OP.
There aren't any downsides to learning new languages at any age!

 

[Lionsfan]

Once you've studied it for a year or so, I'd recommend getting a french audio book. Read along while the narrator is pronouncing everything correctly.

As far as reading in general, I'd say read out loud too. That way you're teaching yourself how to pronounce the words (as long as you're pronouncing them right too).

And I'll second the French movies idea.

snip

snip

Backing up what Colour Scientist said, total fluency is easier if you're raised in a bi-lingual house.

I've talked to some parents who have raised their kids like that from birth, and they've all told me that for the most part, the kids might not start acting verbal until after their peers, but once they do start talking, they usually have a much better grasp on grammar concepts than an adult learner

 

[Sack of Cheese]

There are advantages of learning as an adult: You have a bigger vocabulary, exposed to more contexts and examples, and you tend to pick up things much easier than a child can. (such as how grammar works) You're also more motivated to learn a new language and that's the best thing you can have. An adult is also way better at researching and solving problems that may occur during their study.

Actually, I'm fairly certain that it's the opposite. A child who's raised in a multilingual environment and who is exposed to learning different languages at a young age is much more likely to achieve a better level of fluency than an adult.


It's not impossible to become fluent in a language as an adult but it's definitely easier if it begins at a young age.

Edit: That's not meant to discourage the OP.
There aren't any downsides to learning new languages at any age!

I agree. I was listing advantages only adults have, to encourage OP, sort of.
Children under 12 are the best medium of a language sponge.

 

[Colour Scientist]

snip

Backing up what Colour Scientist said, total fluency is easier if you're raised in a bi-lingual house.

I've talked to some parents who have raised their kids like that from birth, and they've all told me that for the most part, the kids might not start acting verbal until after their peers, but once they do start talking, they usually have a much better grasp on grammar concepts than an adult learner

It's actually really cool learning about how children acquire language.
I studied it in first year at uni as part of an elective Linguistics module and it was absolutely fascinating.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert because it was one module taken five years ago but I still remember more of it than most of the modules in my chosen field because I found it so interesting. Especially when it comes to feral children and language disruption through things like autism, down syndrome or strokes.

 

[Chemical Alia]

From my experience with studying languages, the best tool is actually speaking it, preferably for a good amount of time in a place where you can do it a lot. Also, speaking/writing and listening/reading are active and passive skills and both need to be practiced, you can't learn one by doing the other.

I studied like six years of Spanish in school as a kid, and I can read a book in that language as easily as an English one. They only taught us grammar and reading, and I had no practice speaking or listening. Over time, after making a point to listen to a lot of Spanish and pay attention, I've gotten better with that, but I still have very little confidence speaking it.

Same with German for me. I actually spoke it well and was "basically fluent" around ten years ago, but I've had about zero opportunities to use it since the last time I was actually in Germany. Unless occasionally listening to Die Ärzte or overhearing some Amish people speaking PA Dutch once every few years counts, which it doesn't because it's not speaking it.

The language I still feel the most confident speaking despite also barely using it is Mandarin Chinese, and I credit the way it was taught to me. Almost immersive (never been to China), and intensive study with hours of speaking/listening and writing every day for a year. I got to speak a little Chinese at TI4 this year to a few people, and it came back to me very naturally.

Anyway yeah, so I always recommend learning a language you really like, but also one you'll have a chance to practice with real people, preferably very often. If you're studying a language in school and they have you only doing grammar and no speaking/listening, definitely seek out opportunities to learn that stuff on your own; you'll have a lot more confidence and retain the language a lot longer.

 

[L. Declis]

Hmmmm...

Well, I've got Mandarin and Spanish down but both of those were due to having to live in those places, and Mandarin especially as my girlfriend's family don't speak a word of English, and I refuse to be one of those foreigners in China who don't speak the local language, or learn their equivalent of "Engrish".

Learning as an adult isn't very easy, but thankfully I do have the inherent yearning to learn it which helps immensely; that said, my children with my fiance will be speaking English and Mandarin interchangeably to give them that advantage, and we shall be impressing Spanish and French and other languages into their lessons if we can. I wish my parent had, instead of me muddling through now.

I have some basic Japanese that I may decide to expand upon (a relic from my time at uni), but that's only if it proves useful to learn it. As it is, I'm concentrating on becoming fluent in Chinese.

In regards to learning it, you need to find a few speakers and force yourself to only speak that language; desperation really helps to encode it in your brain, and you get creative with which words you know, and you find out quickly where your holes are.

 

[Rathcoole]

I recently decided to learn Polish, (Not for any real reason, I just work with some Polish people and it seemed like a bit of fun) Best advice I can give is to just jump right in, if you can find some native speakers who can help you out (maybe online)and don't be afraid to mess up. I lost count of the number of mistakes I have made. Normally I get a confused look and when I explain what I meant to say they laugh and correct me. But most will enjoy the fact that you are trying. This has allowed me to learn much faster than I ever could by myself as well as correct bad pronunciation or nonsensical sentence structure. Which is very useful when dealing with languages that have gender, Like Polish or in your case French.

 

[Neonsilver]

Well, one of the best ways would probably be to look if there are language courses offered somewhere in your area.
Getting a textbook that is used in such courses is good for learning stuff like grammar, if you are studying it by yourself you would need the associated books for teachers as well.
Other than that, the internet is your friend. Just reading texts in the foreign languages and watching videos will help (you will have do your best to understand them as well of course) and it shouldn't be hard to find these online. There are plenty of sites that offer help in learning languages, but most of them cut of a lot of what they are offering unless you pay for it.

If you just want to learn any language you should think if there are similar languages to those you already know. For example french, italian and spanish have some similarities.

 

[Synthetica]

Yes, I was forced to learn 4 languages at school (Dutch (native), English (Fine), German (Horrible) and French(Horrible++)). If there's one thing I can say is that I'd pick German over French. However, if you're determined to learn French, more power to you!

Hmmm...never mastered that myself.

However, a lot of languages are closely related. If you learn Latin, you've almost learnt Spanish and Italian as well. Indonesian and Malaysian are almost the same language as well.

So, once you mastered one, you're well on your way to mastering others.

Same thing with Dutch and German. Everybody who speaks Dutch, can probably make themselves clear to a German. (Not that I'd recommend learning Dutch for a foreigner unless you want to live here )

 

[shootthebandit]

i decided to learn french

I was taught a little bit of french at school and its so hard. I didnt (and still dont) understand why they give everything a gender. To this day I cant remember whether door is le or la porte. Its just a door why does it need to be a masculine word or a feminine word

This was my reaction


Edit: I live in the middle east and Arabic is really tough to learn. I can say a few words like hello and thankyou and I can read the numbers but unlike languages that use the roman alphabet where you can read a sign and think "thats equals such and such because its sounds similar to X word" Arabic is just a bunch of squiggly lines. Unless you are native to the arabic world its just so confusing

 

[HardkorSB]

Anyway enough rambling, my questions are, what are some great learning tools you guys and girls can recommend? Has anyone learnt a new language other than their native tongue, and has it ever come in handy? (New job, love interest, anything!)

Thanks

English is not my native language but I think I can speak it pretty well.
It comes in handy everyday as I'm currently living in the UK.
Even when I'm thinking, I'm thinking in English more than in my native language.

How did I learn it?
When I was younger, I used to watch a lot of TV.
One of the channels I ha was Cartoon Network, the British one so it was in English.
At first, I didn't understand anything but after 5-6 years of watching cartoons in a foreign language, I just knew how to speak English. It helped that they were constantly showing reruns so I've seen the same episodes of many shows many times.
Playing Final Fantasy also helped (FF7 was the first game which forced me to use a dictionary).
German MTV also helped me learn quite a bit of German.
I've been trying to learn Japanese by watching anime and, while I'm not even close to being able to communicate on any desirable level, I'm slowly getting there.

I suggest watching your favorite movies/shows dubbed in French (especially if you know the dialogue).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

i decided to learn french

I was taught a little bit of french at school and its so hard. I didnt (and still dont) understand why they give everything a gender.

Every Romance language (Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian) assigns a gender to every word. To us it's equally weird that English doesn't.

 

[shootthebandit]

i decided to learn french

I was taught a little bit of french at school and its so hard. I didnt (and still dont) understand why they give everything a gender.

Every Romance language (Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian) assigns a gender to every word. To us it's equally weird that English doesn't.

But its an inanimate object. How do you know which is which? Its so much less confusing to say the door or a door than trying to remember the gender of an inanimate object which has no gender