which languages are you learning or have you learned in the past? (1 Viewer)

[ChiaraStar169]

I'm learning Spanish and German on Duolingo, and I've also tried out Korean, French, and Italian but quit bc too difficult

 

[eclipsoul]

other than english, in school i learned french (elementary school) and german (high school), but ended up forgetting pretty much everything since i didn't use it on a daily basis or find the languages interesting.

currently i'm learning italian by myself through consuming their media and vocabulary books i bought and honestly i'm really having fun with it! the language sounds really beautiful (especially compared to boring ass polish that i speak on a daily basis) and every italian movie i've watched so far was almost a 10/10 in my books

 

[athenaaa]

French and Ukrainian

 

[Belgizen]

I've learned English, French, German and Spanish in school (and Latin if it counts).
I can read Greek, so I've tried learning the language via Duolingo. Also tried Korean and Hawaiian on there but apart from a few words, it doesn't stick.
Duolingo is ineffective for me tbh, so I was thinking on following evening school in the future (it is a huge cost to do so via such schools)

 

[ChiaraStar169]

I've learned English, French, German and Spanish in school (and Latin if it counts).
I can read Greek, so I've tried learning the language via Duolingo. Also tried Korean and Hawaiian on there but apart from a few words, it doesn't stick.
Duolingo is ineffective for me tbh, so I was thinking on following evening school in the future (it is a huge cost to do so via such schools)

I know how to say hi, my name is Chiara in Korean (do NOT ask me to write it in hangul, though lol). and that's about it, apart from the birthday song and some other common K-pop words and phrases. Oh, I do know I'm an American - "Naneun migug salam imnida"

 

[ChiaraStar169]

French and Ukrainian

parlez-vous Francais tres bien? (do NOT reply in French, that's one of the very few phrases I know - and I was wildly guessing on "very well")

 

[ChiaraStar169]

other than english, in school i learned french (elementary school) and german (high school), but ended up forgetting pretty much everything since i didn't use it on a daily basis or find the languages interesting.

currently i'm learning italian by myself through consuming their media and vocabulary books i bought and honestly i'm really having fun with it! the language sounds really beautiful (especially compared to boring ass polish that i speak on a daily basis) and every italian movie i've watched so far was almost a 10/10 in my books

don't the multiple article translations trip you up, though? it did that to me when I was learning Italian

 

[athenaaa]

@AllTimeChiara my French is better than my Ukrainian but not fully fluent yet in either

 

[Selfmate]

I learned Italian in Primary (Elementary) School and French in High School

don't remember a thing lol

 

[Yseki]

don't the multiple article translations trip you up, though? it did that to me when I was learning Italian

The problem with learning a language isn't really that its hard, more that it takes a long amount of consistent time to do. Also, you will make mistakes when you interact with others and a lot of adults quit because they are embarrassed of making mistakes and looking like an idiot.

You have the ability to learn a new language in a year; you just have to spend like four hours a day every day on it consistently. Most of that time needs to be spend absorbing the language, something like Duolingo will never be able to teach you a language to fluency by itself.

I would learn something like the 1,000 most common used words with vocabulary cards, then after that watch native content for children like Peppa Pig a few hours every day. Overtime naturally you just pick up understanding the language. Once you understand almost everything in the Peppa Pig episodes then it's time to move to shows for older children, then after teens, adults etc.

While you are doing this, I recommend getting some speaking practice as well, as understanding and speaking are two different skills. If you don't care about your accent, you can start right away with speaking classes with a teacher online. If you do want to sound like a native speaker I would start speaking after you have listened to the language, it seems to help. Doing things like repeating lines from native speakers from YouTube videos or movies and comparing how you sound (record yourself) with the native speaker can help you if you don't have access to native speakers.

Don't give up if you want to learn a language, it's more like a part time job. You're not failing to learn a language because you don't have the ability it's more that these apps are lying to you. They won't take you to fluency. Even with the best resources doing only 15 min a day would take like 30 years to learn whatever language you are doing.

 

[Yseki]

I learned Italian in Primary (Elementary) School and French in High School

don't remember a thing lol

Kind of like muscles it goes away if you stop putting in the effort to use them.

With languages though if you started learning again it will comeback really fast to you learned it before in the past.

 

[Selfmate]

Kind of like muscles it goes away if you stop putting in the effort to use them.

With languages though if you started learning again it will comeback really fast to you learned it before in the past.

I'm ethnically chinese so I speak Mandarin (and Cantonese since I'm from that region) but the main thing is continually using and speaking the language - like my parents spoke it exclusively to me at home and now I speak it exclusively with my wife (whose also chinese) and kids

Like you said if one doesn't continually use it it just goes away which is one of the reasons if one gets immersed in the language like by going to the country where a language is spoken majoratively then it;s very easy to pick up

 

[Ahsoka]

I learned Spanish in school for like 5 years and am brushing up on it now. I’ve also casually learned French, Portuguese, and Korean. I grew up speaking Russian but I have very very slightly tried to brush up on grammar (it’s not going great though). I tried to learn Modern Standard Arabic and that was a train wreck. I learned German for like 2 months also. And some languages where I learned a very little tiny bit are Mandarin, Ukrainian, Japanese, and Czech.

 

[Yseki]

I'm ethnically chinese so I speak Mandarin (and Cantonese since I'm from that region) but the main thing is continually using and speaking the language - like my parents spoke it exclusively to me at home and now I speak it exclusively with my wife (whose also chinese) and kids

Like you said if one doesn't continually use it it just goes away which is one of the reasons if one gets immersed in the language like by going to the country where a language is spoken majoratively then it;s very easy to pick up

I think historically most Chinese Americans ancestors were from Guangdong so a lot of the Chinatowns were Cantonese speaking so that doesn't surprise me that you know Cantonese as well. Though from what I have heard its changing now and Mandarin is probably more used now.

Most Italian Americans ancestors came from Southern Italy, so it wasn't rare for someone or their grandparents to go to Italy and then be confused because they could not understand anyone or be understood. A lot of American Italians spoke other languages like Neapolitan or Sicilian instead of Italian. Standard Italian, what we just call Italian was originally the language spoken in Tuscany. Italy was only unified in 1861 so it took a while for it to be the spoken language of most people in the country. The other languages that were once the main spoken languages of independent countries are now seen as minor regional languages such as Venetian which was the spoken language that was used in the Republic of Venice, Neapolitan in the Kingdom of Naples and so on.

 

[Selfmate]

I think historically most Chinese Americans ancestors were from Guangdong so a lot of the Chinatowns were Cantonese speaking so that doesn't surprise me that you know Cantonese as well. Though from what I have heard its changing now and Mandarin is probably more used now.

Most Italian Americans ancestors came from Southern Italy, so it wasn't rare for someone or their grandparents to go to Italy and then be confused because they could not understand anyone or be understood. A lot of American Italians spoke other languages like Neapolitan or Sicilian instead of Italian. Standard Italian, what we just call Italian was originally the language spoken in Tuscany. Italy was only unified in 1861 so it took a while for it to be the spoken language of most people in the country. The other languages that were once the main spoken languages of independent countries are now seen as minor regional languages such as Venetian which was the spoken language that was used in the Republic of Venice, Neapolitan in the Kingdom of Naples and so on.

During the time my parents immigrated like 30+ years ago now it was predominately people from the southern coast aka people from Guangdong like you said but now yeah it's because China is much more open economically than 30 years ago and the Chinese have more $$$ to migrate

are dialects like neapolitan or sicilian much different from standard italian - like would one be able to understand somewhat? Like people who speak exclusively in Cantonese like from HK would still have a fair understanding of Mandarin even if they can't speak it fluently

 

[Yseki]

During the time my parents immigrated like 30+ years ago now it was predominately people from the southern coast aka people from Guangdong like you said but now yeah it's because China is much more open economically than 30 years ago and the Chinese have more $$$ to migrate

are dialects like neapolitan or sicilian much different from standard italian - like would one be able to understand somewhat? Like people who speak exclusively in Cantonese like from HK would still have a fair understanding of Mandarin even if they can't speak it fluently

An Italian speaker would not be able to understand a Neapolitan speaker; they may be able to read some Neapolitan and get the gist of it. To grossly oversimplify it would be similar to a Portuguese and a Spanish speaker trying to communicate.

 

[Selfmate]

An Italian speaker would not be able to understand a Neapolitan speaker; they may be able to read some Neapolitan and get the gist of it. To grossly oversimplify it would be similar to a Portuguese and a Spanish speaker trying to communicate.

interesting what about the reverse like would a Neapolitan speaker still have somewhat of an understanding of standard Italian

Is it similar to Mandarin and Cantonese that a cantonese speaker would still have a fair understanding of Mandarin but a mandarin speaker would have very low understanding of cantonese

 

[Yseki]

interesting what about the reverse like would a Neapolitan speaker still have somewhat of an understanding of standard Italian

Is it similar to Mandarin and Cantonese that a cantonese speaker would still have a fair understanding of Mandarin but a mandarin speaker would have very low understanding of cantonese

Yes in that example. For the first one.

Other languages like Venetian are more similar to French than it is to Italian.

 

[ChiaraStar169]

@Yseki hey, do we know each other on here? I can't get to your profile to check past usernames...

 

[Yseki]

interesting what about the reverse like would a Neapolitan speaker still have somewhat of an understanding of standard Italian

Is it similar to Mandarin and Cantonese that a cantonese speaker would still have a fair understanding of Mandarin but a mandarin speaker would have very low understanding of cantonese

English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

French
Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Venetian
Tuti i eseri umani i xe nai ƚiberi e conpagni par dignità e diriti. I xe dotai de raxon e de cosiensa e i gà da conportarse i uni co i altri co spirito de fradeƚansa.

Italian
Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza.

Neapolitan
Tutt''e perzone ro munno nasciono liberi e cu' e stess diritt e dignità. Tutt quant tenon 'a reggione e 'a cuscienza e s'hann' a cumpurtà l'un cu ll'ate cu nu spirito 'e fratellanza.