Topic: Learning a new language.

[The Bill Hicks Appreciation Society]

My mum had the Michel Thomas Spanish CD, his accent was horrible

yeah he's deffo got dry mouth syndrome but the system is immense and I think the easiest way of learning a language that I've seen other than living in the country. If you can get past the voice that is  

[Slick_Beef]

Portugal used to be part of the Kingdom of Galicia, so similarities between the two are obvious

Eu gosto de falar o portugues!

Yeah... We have a Galician/Gallego langauge tv channel at home actually and it's dead interesting seeing how that particular language brings together Spanish and Portuguese.

também gosto mas não há muito gente em inglaterra que fala a lingua do Camões!

[Party Phil]

yeah he's deffo got dry mouth syndrome but the system is immense and I think the easiest way of learning a language that I've seen other than living in the country. If you can get past the voice that is  

 

Michel Thomas is great for learning basics like simple sentence structure and the few most commonly used verbs. Beyond that, his stuff is useless as the level of vocabulary used is far too limited and people end up chatting absolute bollocks because they think Michel has taught them to be world beaters. Quite often he seems to be pushing you to run before you can walk, which is not the right way to do it in my opinion.

[Party Phil]

portuguese is fairly easy to read for hispanophones but spoken it sounds like fucking russian to me, I can barely understand anything people say (don't  know if that's a regional thing as I'm only really exposed to the southern hillbillies round here).

[Slick_Beef]

portuguese is fairly easy to read for hispanophones but spoken it sounds like fucking russian to me, I can barely understand anything people say (don't  know if that's a regional thing as I'm only really exposed to the southern hillbillies round here).

Yeah I know exactly where you're coming from. I read spanish fine but i might as well be watching channel 9 news on the fast show to me when I hear it.

[Don Simón]

Portuguese does sound like Russian - that's what makes speaking it so much harder than writing it, in my opinion.

"Official" Galician (aka, the kind that no one speaks except on tv) is kind of like a mix between Spanish and Portuguese but with a Spanish accent. Real Galician is Spanish with a few Portuguese words peppered in.

[Party Phil]

Yeah I know exactly where you're coming from. I read spanish fine but i might as well be watching channel 9 news on the fast show to me when I hear it.

Methethethetheth, methethetheth. Chris Waddle.

[-Willo-]

How many of you can speak more than one language?

I'm looking into learning Spanish right now and I'm wondering if anyone on here has learnt another language apart from English, any tips?

[PaulKS]

No - but i'd love to learn Russian

Mental language

[Dr. Beaker]

How many of you can speak more than one language?

I'm looking into learning Spanish right now and I'm wondering if anyone on here has learnt another language apart from English, any tips?

Michel Thomas for learning how to speak. Yabla for understanding the seamless torrent of babble that comes back at you.

[-Willo-]

No - but i'd love to learn Russian

Mental language

Haha Germany too,

Making progress with Spanish on Duolingo. Doing about 2 hours a day this week and I'm definitely improving however i sometimes get confused when I have to translate a sentence. Individual words are so easy though

[killer-heels]

Can speak French. Not as fluent as i would like to be.

[kavah]

Vietnamese - shite
Dutch - shite
International sign language - boss
Shouting - boss

[La Vecchia Magpie]

I'm learning Italian, started teaching myself for about a year which got me to the basics, and the basic grammar stuff, but I can't stress the importance of doing classes to practice your speaking and learn new stuff. Also be on the look out for language tandems, where you help a Spaniard with their English and vice versa. Advice:

Don't worry about getting everything 100% right, of course strive for perfection and fluency, but the point of languages is to communicate and be understood above all else.

Remember it takes time, so I'd ignore any "fluent in three weeks" crap you'll be bombarded with upon your researching. I'm only just starting to piece everything together that I've learned and I'm still very much a beginer

Pick up a couple of grammar books/audio cds

Listen to Spanish music with the corresponding lyrics in Spanish and English.

Learn how the verbs work. For example in Italian "come stai" is 'how are you', but knowing that "stai" is the second person singular conjugation of the verb 'Stare' helps you to make patterns about how to conjugate the verbs appropriately.

Youtube and Google are always your friends, there are some good podcasts for learning Italian so I'd imagine there'd be loads on Spanish.

E la cosa piu importante! Have fun doing it! I like learning Italian because I love Serie A, it can be something that simple.

Good luck.

[Claire.]

How many of you can speak more than one language?

I'm looking into learning Spanish right now and I'm wondering if anyone on here has learnt another language apart from English, any tips?

Download DuoLingo it is brilliant. Really easy to use and you don't feel like you're actually learning if you know what I mean!

[FlashingBlade]

At school I was in the 'top band' for every subject, apart from French and I was in the 'remedial' class....I would love to speak French or Italian..but my brain doesn't do languages..having a Dutch Mrs who speaks excellent English and smattering of other European sort of exposes my linguistic limitations...and she never fails to pull up my mispronunciation of foreign words...Whilst English people Anglicise words the Dutch tend to incorporate the pronunciation of origin....hence my pronunciation of 'Paella' is a constant battle in our house.

My 9 year old lad can understand Dutch but not speak it , though out of the blue he's expressed an interest in speaking Dutch, which as he grows older will have no fucking benefit whatsoever unless he goes and lives in the Netherlands....or he and his mum talk about me in front of me....without the decency to do it behind my back in English!!!

[Party Phil]

My 9 year old lad can understand Dutch but not speak it , though out of the blue he's expressed an interest in speaking Dutch, which as he grows older will have no fucking benefit whatsoever

That's a bit unfair. Dutch itself might not be very useful but it would be a good stepping stone to German and having any second language can help a lot in having the skills to get a third even if it's completely unrelated.

[Pheeny]

Speak Flemish (Dutch) fluently arrived in Belgium in 92 without much knowledge of the language and picked it up through work and family (father in law speaks no English)

Wife can speak Flemish (mother-tongue) English fluently,French and German but not fluent.

Son English,Flemish,Japanese all fluently,French,German to some extent and has taken Korean lessons.

[sms1986]

I can only speak English, but I am currently using Duolingo and Memrise to learn Norwegian. I would love to be able to speak at least two languages other than English.

[FlashingBlade]

I've always felt the sound of Dutch sits nicely between Welsh and Klingon. I can get the gist of things in some conversations, but cant converse, I suspect if had lived in Amsterdam I would have picked it up but not fluently, trouble is the Dutch will speak English too you even if you try to speak Dutch, in shop, bar etc

What I have realised is that if foreigners translate into English from their native tongue in their own grammatical structure ( is that they way to describe it?)  it can sound blunt and I think that's why Dutch and Germans can sound quite rude when speaking English without that intention.....plus they are blunt , whilst English , especially middle classes can be so vague, scared of saying what they mean, you have to read between the lines...the can be confusing to foreigners learning English.

[-Willo-]

Speak Flemish (Dutch) fluently arrived in Belgium in 92 without much knowledge of the language and picked it up through work and family (father in law speaks no English)

Wife can speak Flemish (mother-tongue) English fluently,French and German but not fluent.

Son English,Flemish,Japanese all fluently,French,German to some extent and has taken Korean lessons.

Wow Pheeny. Your son is impressive.

Download DuoLingo it is brilliant. Really easy to use and you don't feel like you're actually learning if you know what I mean!

Yes it's great Claire. I think I'm making great progress to be honest. I've been on it for around 4 days fully and I highly recommend for the basics at least.

Struggling a lot with verbs and stuff at the moment. It does take time though. I'm not going to give up with it though so it's just a matter of time I guess with me, I'm gonna learn Spanish even if it takes years .

[-Willo-]

I can only speak English, but I am currently using Duolingo and Memrise to learn Norwegian. I would love to be able to speak at least two languages other than English.

Yup. I think Italian is quite similar to Spanish too so if I master Spanish I can probably go and learn Italian, the ripple effect. Just be really good and it obviously opens up more doors.

[MikaelLFC]

I remember when I first got in contact with other languages when I was younger; I felt it was awesome to be able to say a thing or two in an other language, and also, when you do the effort of saying something in an other language to a person from that place they greet you in a very different manner, they really appreciate it.

I've studied Finnish (I'm from a Swedish talking part of Finland), English, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, so I know them quite well. I also had to take a course in Latin, but I can't really remember much of it now, and I have to admit I'm forgetting some of my Finnish as I simply haven't used it in almost 7 years that I've been living in Spain. Danish and Norwegian are very similar to Swedish so I understand them quite well. I also shared a flat with some Italians so I know some Italian; before that one of the girls in the flat had a Turkish boyfriend so I picked up some Turkish, and I also know some phrases and some basic stuff in German (my sister's boyfriend is German), Dutch (know quite a few of them) and French (my other sister used to live there).

Obviously I don't know all of them as well as the first ones I mentioned, but I do feel like it's easier to learn more languages once you've learnt at least an other, as you can see similarities with other similar languages and that helps you to understand and learn faster. When I first came to Spain I knew very little, but nowadays people wouldn't notice that I'm not Spanish for my accent (my appearance does tell an other tale though haha). My biggest tip of learning an other language is to go to a place where they speak it. If you go there and they don't know e.g. English very well, you simply have to learn it. Being surrounded by it day and night helps a lot, there is no escape!

[telekon]

Swedish, English, German, a bit of Spanish, and some tourist French. 

Best advice I could give.

1. Go and live in a foreign country.
2. Don't have any people you know there, or flatmates from your country.
3. Start to live.

You'll be fluent in 4-5 months time if you give it enough effort. That works on paper, I'm a lazy bastard whose Spanish should be much better. Another trick, since go and live somewhere is not so easy, is to watch a lot of TV or films from the foreign country. Throw a lot of shit on a wall and some of it will stick eventually.

[telekon]

Yup. I think Italian is quite similar to Spanish too so if I master Spanish I can probably go and learn Italian, the ripple effect. Just be really good and it obviously opens up more doors.

Yeah, mate, they're very similar. A lot of it is changing the o's and a's to i's at the end of the words.

[Seebab]

I speak French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese fluently. There's honestly no disadvantage to learning a new language if you can put the effort in, only advantages. Better job prospects, more adaptability, greater open-mindedness to the world, more appreciative of other cultures, music, art, cuisine and of course the best of all, you can communicate with hot foreign girls .

[Ken-Obi]

8, including dialects.

Having a native (or fluent) speaker to practice with is an important part of the learning process - they catch and correct the mistakes early before it becomes a habit. Some may explain why certain things are said in a way rather than the other 'correct' method, shedding light on the cultural nuances of which many languages are based on.

Furthermore, native speakers would be able to teach you 'practical' language - the type that you use in interaction with people rather than the formal kinds from newspapers, television et al which would normally be richer and more flavourful. Imagine using Standard Korean in Seoul while talking to people on a night out...

[Pheeny]

Wow Pheeny. Your son is impressive.

Thanks,his Girlfriend is ½ Chinese ½ Vietnamese, who was brought up in French speaking Belgium, so he's even started picking up some Vietnamese   

[the good half]

Italian; but then I lived there for 5 years.

All the classes in the world won't do as much as actually spending some time in the country.

[Narwin Dunez]

I'm doing the exact same thing at the minute willo mate using duo lingo and speak tribe.

Can practice together via pms and stuff if you like?

[Narwin Dunez]

Although one thing I don't like about duolingo is that it doesn't come with any context. It just said mono can mean
monkey, leotard or cute, and asked me to translate el mono.

[-Willo-]

I'm doing the exact same thing at the minute willo mate using duo lingo and speak tribe.

Can practice together via pms and stuff if you like?

Yeah okay. same goes for anyone else trying to learn Spanish too. PM me

[DJBrenton]

A level French and a degree in Spanish but having spent loads of time in France and very little in Spain since, my French is better than my Spanish. I just started learning Italian ( i can understand loads because of Spanish but not speak it). I have Rosetta Stone but I'm not impressed with the method really. It's see and say which I don't think is really the best way.

Once you do have a level in a language, the best thing is to spend your holidays using it full-time. To do that, you need to 1) get away from tourist areas. I got fed up of speaking Spanish and being answered in English, and 2) go on your own. To get really good you need to THINK in the language. That's really hard if you're speaking English to the wife most of the time with just the odd interaction in the host language. A week speaking nothing but the second language bears real dividends. My French surpassed my Spanish when I spent 20 months living and working in La Rochelle. Meanwhile, holidays in Spanish tourist resorts have seen my Spanish almost disappear.

[Dr. Beaker]

I haven't seen anything so far that competes with Michel Thomas' method, without any need for 'memorisation' he has you constructing your own sentences within half an hour. It's not some cheapo novelty shite, he's very scientific about it. Sounds like a great old bloke actually - like some old eccentric professor, I believe he was a Nazi hunter - and it is actually him that does the teaching. Highly recommended.

However, as stated before try Yabla for helping you to decipher the unintelligible cascade of gobbledegook that comes back at you - it's one thing knowing what to say, quite another to understand what is said back to you.

I've tried them all, in my fruitless pursuit of learning the French language (much more difficult than Spanish in my opinion) and the above two systems combined seem to be the best route. I wish I'd started them years ago.

[campioni]

The best thing to do is get yourself to wherever the language is spoken and be surrounded by it all day every day. If you can't do that, try to listen to stuff in the language as much as you can. You can get Spanish tv and radio programmes online. Pick out things that you normally like that will hold your interest. It'll sound like gibberish at first but stick with it, as your learning of the language progresses you'll start to understand more and get an idea of how to form sentences in spoken language. You're not trying to understand every word initially, just enough to get an idea of what they are talking about.

I have a degree in Spanish and German but unfortunately i don't use them for work or at home. My German has fallen a bit by the wayside but i try to keep my Spanish going by listening to radio a few times a week. El larguero is a football programme on cadena ser radio station. They put their shows out on podcasts and with it being football its a fairly easy listen.

Once you start to pick up grammatical structure try to read in the language. The newspaper websites like http://elpais.com/ are great and you can use it alongside English-speaking news sites to compare the same story in different languages. Again you're not trying to understand every word but making yourself familiar with words you're seeing over and over again will help grow your vocabulary.

[cloggypop]

My Dutch is alright. It's not much use though.

[Pheeny]

My Dutch is alright. It's not much use though.

You can go to South Africa or Vlaanderen...

[stoa]

One thing I wouldn't recommend is spending too much time on RAWK, if English isn't your first language. I've started swearing a lot when talking in English... Other than that I speak German (my native language) and have learned Spanish and French in school. Haven't used any French though since finishing school 17 years ago, so I have no clue about it anymore. I can't really say a lot in Spanish except the usual stuff like where I'm from or how old I am. However, my aunt who lives in Ibiza was visiting us a year ago or so and she was talking to my sister (she studied Spanish at University) in Spanish and I was able to tell what they were talking about. No chance of joining the conversation though... I know one sentence by heart though and it's "Antonio Gaudí fue atropellado por un tranvía..."

[Narwin Dunez]

Bono Estente, Antonias Grubba.

Scorchio!

Butrous butrous gali

[the good half]

Sminky Pinky