Author Topic: Foreign Language Hobbies?  (Read 8487 times)

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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #30 on: November 28, 2012, 08:41:40 am »
I keep reading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".

Aaaanyway, I've been dabbling in learning Cherokee as well as improving my Latin.  I've found that Latin helps me to learn more of the Romance languages (of course), and I've learned quite a bit of Spanish simply from living where I do (town I commute to has a high Hispanic population with lots of bilingual signs).

Offline Reb Yid

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #31 on: November 28, 2012, 01:10:05 pm »
I've been learning German on my own since age nine, and Hebrew since I was old enough to attend school. Recently I learned how to read Cyrillic (understanding what I'm reading will come later), and Yiddish and I want to learn Arabic, Polish, Czech, and Hungarian.

Yeah, there just ain't enough hours in the day for all that. At most I might get fluent in German, Hebrew, and Yiddish, but at least learning how to read Arabic, Polish, Czech and Hungarian would be good enough for me.
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Offline Old Viking

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #32 on: November 28, 2012, 05:04:21 pm »
There is no practical need to lean a foreign language.   If you simply speak English clearly and slowly to a foreigner, he or she will understand you.  It helps if you employ a tone that suggests the other person is a bit dull.  English phrases useful in foreign lands include "How much is that in real money?" and "Don't you wish you lived in the United States?"
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Offline Auggziliary

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #33 on: November 28, 2012, 05:16:44 pm »
There is no practical need to lean a foreign language.   If you simply speak English clearly and slowly to a foreigner, he or she will understand you.  It helps if you employ a tone that suggests the other person is a bit dull.  English phrases useful in foreign lands include "How much is that in real money?" and "Don't you wish you lived in the United States?"

Sadly my mom is kind of like this. She was trying to get directions from a Mexican person who didn't know any English. When he said something like "no speak english", my mom was like "OHHH ok... DOooo, Youuu knowww WHEREee THISSS STREEET ISSS?"
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Offline Agni

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #34 on: November 28, 2012, 05:32:28 pm »
There is no practical need to lean a foreign language.   If you simply speak English clearly and slowly to a foreigner, he or she will understand you.  It helps if you employ a tone that suggests the other person is a bit dull.  English phrases useful in foreign lands include "How much is that in real money?" and "Don't you wish you lived in the United States?"

There may be no practical need to learn a foriegn language, but it's fun to me, so that's why I do it.

I find learning languages to be really fun. And especially their grammar--I love doing shit like conjugating verbs or having to make gender agree (yet everyone else hates that...). Hence why I REALLY wanna major in Linguistics.

Offline Auggziliary

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #35 on: November 28, 2012, 05:39:02 pm »
There is no practical need to lean a foreign language.   If you simply speak English clearly and slowly to a foreigner, he or she will understand you.  It helps if you employ a tone that suggests the other person is a bit dull.  English phrases useful in foreign lands include "How much is that in real money?" and "Don't you wish you lived in the United States?"

There may be no practical need to learn a foriegn language, but it's fun to me, so that's why I do it.

I find learning languages to be really fun. And especially their grammar--I love doing shit like conjugating verbs or having to make gender agree (yet everyone else hates that...). Hence why I REALLY wanna major in Linguistics.

I think he was parodying how many Americans view learning other languages. You know, the ones that throw temper tantrums because they hear a Mexican family speaking in Spanish to their family in public.
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Offline JohnE

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #36 on: November 28, 2012, 06:58:05 pm »
Off topic, but I keep misreading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".

Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #37 on: November 29, 2012, 12:18:09 am »
Beat you to it, John. ;)

I keep reading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".

Offline Osama bin Bambi

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #38 on: November 29, 2012, 12:23:54 am »
I am learning Spanish in school, but I do have a minimum number of languages that I want to learn before I die. I've dabbled before in Old Norse and Latin, and I believe that somewhere I have textbooks lying around for Italian, Arabic, and Tagalog that I haven't even opened yet.
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Offline JohnE

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #39 on: November 29, 2012, 01:07:18 am »
Beat you to it, John. ;)

I keep reading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".
D'oh!

Offline maanantai

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #40 on: November 29, 2012, 01:46:06 am »
Hobby or bad habit? Hard to tell.

Too much work and too little sleep has put my Chinese (mandarin) studies on backburner (not with a teacher at the moment, but trying actively not to forget all that I know), but we'll see what happens next year and what kind of courses they have available at Adult Education Institute and how I'd be able to mix them with my work. Then there is English and I do not know if I really should put any time or effort in it, as I can get by with it as it is at the moment. But I somewhat actively use it almost daily.

And the damn Swedish... Hate it with passion. Lurking in the back of my mind, sneaking itself into my Chinese homework from time to time and refusing to leave when I tell it to. And when I happen to need it, it's nowhere to be found, totally lost and I'm like.. "umm... jåå-å, jag vet inte" and the again I'm feeling dumber that ever. I know I should do something about it, and once in a while I learn a new phrase or word or way to pronounce it differently but I just don't want to. I just hate it.

And no. I've gotten old enough to know that I should not add anything in to the mix if I wan't to have success of any kind with the ones I've got at the moment. And besides, I know how to order a beer in Spanish and how read Russian street signs AND how to swear like a Finn, so I'm all good ;)

Offline Auggziliary

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #41 on: December 01, 2012, 05:11:08 pm »
What Americans sound like to everyone else:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8</a>

I this was kind of cool. This from an Italian so you can hear a bit of his accent. I've actually always wondered what I would sound like to a foreigner.
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Offline Normandy

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #42 on: December 09, 2012, 03:17:12 pm »
I'm currently learning Russian in a college course, which has been a very rewarding experience so far.  I'm also considering trying to pick German back up through self-study (since I took a few years of it in high school but have mostly forgotten it now) and would eventually like to learn Swedish, too.

Offline Søren

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #43 on: December 09, 2012, 08:42:19 pm »
Man I wish my uni had a russian course
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Offline Jack Mann

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Re: Foreign Language Hobbies?
« Reply #44 on: December 10, 2012, 04:03:13 am »
After four years-and-a-half years, I am finally no longer beholden to study Arabic.  I am currently contemplating what to do with all of my Arabic textbooks from DLI.

I'm thinking bonfire.
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