Waaay OT: Kind of? Languages? Bucket list?

[Stephen2014]

There are some cool Celtic languages, Welsh, Cornish, Breton. I believe there are some Welsh language groups/societies in the US.

[chwupper]

Obviously, immersion in the country/culture is ideal. I lived in France for a year after college. I'd taken two years in school. But not five minutes off the plane I was hearing idiomatic French and having to figure out what people were saying to me just from context. You never forget that stuff. Like the little old lady in the store saying 'Pouvez-vous me rendre un service?' She wanted me to help her get something off a high shelf.

I'd also studied a little Russian in high school. I tried to pick it up again in my thirties, but good lord, the amount of sheer memorization required was overwhelming. I sorta felt like I just didn't want to do that kind of work at that point of my life. I'd rather use my brain for other activities.

[Bob Ross]

I took 4 years of Spanish in Junior High & High School, but that was almost 40 years ago and all I can say now is "Donde es el cuerpo de Jesus?" and "Me siento orgulloso de suer puertorriqueño." A trip to Mallorca last month proved just how useless those phrases are when trying to navigate a bike ride.

I faired even worse in Italy: Bought two Learn Italian Instantly! books and read them both religiously in the week prior to the trip. Best I could do was remember "Buon giorno!" Tried to order in a cheese shop and was 100% incapable of communicating anything.

And yet, completely unwilling to concede that I have absolutely no foriegn language skills, just this week I started trying to learn ASL. So far I've got the alphabet down...up to G, at least.

[toastedbread]

I've been learning Dutch for a few months now- it's almost like a drunk German trying to speak English. Between Duolingo, Memrise, and Pimsleur it's coming along pretty well, but what's really helped is reading the news/watching TV and finding someone to speak it with.

More than a little motivated by the fact that the girlfriend's family is all in the Netherlands, and even though they speak perfect English, it's nice to know when they're gossiping about you right in front of you.

[thwart]

Michel Thomas is/was great, especially for Romance languages.

But the folks who bought his business after he passed, apparently not so much.

[slidey]

I speak 4 languages, write in 2 of them, and recently have been giving French a go on Duolingo. I've certainly picked up a few French phrases in the 6 or so months that I've been sticking with, but nowhere close to any semblance of fluency.

An easier way of practicing the language you're learning is to look up meetup groups near you, and attend them. I'm going to start doing it fairly soon, now that I can order coffee for myself.

[alexstar]

As a person born in California of both Mexican and European descent, I speak English, bad English, and Mexican Spanish. I can understand French and Italian to a certain extent but I'd love to learn more.

[d_douglas]

The best way to learn is through immersion. I lived in Switzerland for 6.5yrs and spoke French on the street, in shops etc., but worked in English for the most part.

My job changed and the people that I worked with were dedicated francophones. I suddenly had to speak French in meetings and expect that people knew what I was saying. It was a big jump to get me up to speed, but was an amazing feeling when I asked, "c'est tous compris? ou C'est bien explique?" and people nodded that they understood what I had said.

My French is barely passable at best, but it was good enough to work in.

It is a powerful feeling to be able to speak another language with confidence.

[1happygirl]

What a group of smart people!!!
Thanks everyone for your time and replying.

This is exactly the type of real world personal experience I was looking for that is so helpful.

I guess there are no shortcuts to learning and since immersion is out for the short term, online will have to suffice. Since it is winter, online language learning is an awesome fun time.

Like many things, wish I had started before age 14. I'm adding learning language to the hobby mix. Seems like most people on duoLingo, etc are fluent in one language, or rather, have studied/taken at least year of language classes in the past.

Upon researching, really surprised at the large number of online language resources. Thanks again for the replies.

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by gomango

I married a Bavarian.

She taught me a little Bayerisch and a whole bunch of Hoch Deutsch.

Seemed to be a good method.

Cheater!!!! Lol

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by slidey

I speak 4 languages, write in 2 of them, and recently have been giving French a go on Duolingo.
Snip Snip

Wow. How do you find duoLingo? I am amazed at the number of schools and unis that are offering extra credit in regular classes for duoLingo work and what they call 'XPs' outside of class.

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by Stephen2014

There are some cool Celtic languages, Welsh, Cornish, Breton. I believe there are some Welsh language groups/societies in the US.

Cool. Welsh. I think the online duoLingo is contemplating this course. They already have some Irish course?

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by Gsinill

You might not get perfect/fluent but I think it's a good start...

Good Luck!

Ps. Yes, 4 and 6 week vacations are one of the benefits of living and working in what many folks in the US would call a "socialist" country

Thanks for the encouragement.
I did notice that people speaking another (even non-related language family ) seem to have an easier time learning.

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by ceolwulf

I absolutely love learning languages. I started with Japanese around four years ago now. Never really thought it was all that difficult until I started Italian and Dutch a couple months ago and thought I'd activated some kind of cheat mode, it was that easy

Duolingo is a great way to get your feet wet in a new language.

Most commercial learning products are not worth it, especially Rosetta Stone. It's a lot of money to inefficiently learn a small subset of the language that is most likely not going to match your interests.

Read. Read some more. Read massive quantities. It really is the key. And massive amounts of listening too. And it has to be material you're interested in. Watching races on steephill with Italian (or whichever) commentary is going to be learning on turbo boost for most people here but someone with no interest won't get much out of it, for example. If you have the patience for it listening to things multiple times is very helpful (I unfortunately seldom do). Use native materials as soon as you can. Graded readers are very helpful if you can get them; but for most languages graduating to native materials won't (shouldn't) take long. Don't worry too much about grammar. Absorb rather than learn where possible. Grammar explanations can be very helpful - after you've seen the pattern several times and started to have some notion of how it works.

An SRS (Spaced Repetition System) program will help you tremendously until you get to quite an advanced level. I recommend Anki - www.ankisrs.net .

You will find the material at http://antimoon.com very helpful.

Once you're ready to practise your writing and speaking (this is not something you should be doing immediately, in my opinion. There's definitely two schools of thought on this. Speaking right away will help you get to a reasonable level faster. But without exceptional self-awareness you will probably acquire bad habits that you will never be able to shake.) you can use http://lang-8.com to find native speakers that will read your posts and correct them, and in return you correct theirs. It's a good system. It's also a good place to find native speakers for Skype language exchanges.

Your first foreign language is the hardest. If you can stick with it for six months you have it made, I'd say.

As you can tell I love talking about this stuff so ask away either here or PM

Wow. Thanks. I have a million questions……always.

[1happygirl]

Originally Posted by MadRocketSci

Here's my strategy...i travel very frequently these days to different European countries for work. Every time I go somewhere for the first time, i order the intro Pimsleur set of CD's (yeah still the CD's cuz my car only has a cd player and no aux jack). Since they want you to go on to buying the rest of the program, the intro set is given a teaser price of $20. I learn that stuff so I have the basics needed to travel and don't go to the full set.

snip

Great tips. Will check out the Pimsleur set. I guess language learning in winter is my current hobby/obsession.