FSTDT Forums
Community => The Lounge => Topic started by: Auggziliary on November 25, 2012, 05:59:01 pm
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Does anyone here like learning languages as a hobby or know how to speak another one?
I love learning languages for some reason.
I've taken 2 years of French so far and I really like it. I also took 1 year of Latin but then I had to swap out since they didn't offer a second year of Latin. I hated Latin though since the teacher was awful. Plus Latin-speakers are all dead, so French is much more practical.
I've also tried to learn a bit of Japanese and some Chinese, but its really hard to teach yourself a language, especially something like Chinese.
I also really want to learn Hindi too since India is one of my favorite countries, but I'm saving that language for later.
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Languages are pretty much my life. I've spent seven years learning French, although due to the lack of French people in my circle of friends my level of understanding is greater than my ability to produce. I'm studying Mandarin as my degree, and I am learning Cantonese and German on the side. You're right about the difficulty of self-teaching, and I can only really manage languages as a hobby because I have people who speak those languages in my life (My girlfriend, and my step mother, respectively), and because I have a good reason.
My interest in Bollywood has spurred me to try and learn Hindi a few times, but the horrendous paradigms and the lack of situations to practice or use it in has always pushed me back. I keep accidentally starting new languages because it is hard to control, but realistically I know that I need a proper environment to learn languages to the degree I want.
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Yeah... my only exposure to Japanese is through anime. While its somewhat helpful I know that I will probably never be fluent in it unless I find a better way to learn it.
I'm taking a french class now, but the only practice outside of that is just reading tags(like how tags, advertisements, and a bunch of other stuff is printed in english, french, and spanish).
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I like taking language classes when I need some extra credits. I've taken two semesters of German, and next semester I'm taking Arabic. I don't expect to learn a whole lot, but it's fun to know a few phrases. Plus the way the classes are set up I always learn lots about the the culture, too, which is half the point for me.
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I have studied (and continue to study) Japanese for about 12 or so years now and it was one of my majors in university. When I find the time, I also study Japanese Sign Language.
Languages are super fun to learn, but I always feel guilty if I can't find time to study them seriously.
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Plus Latin-speakers are all dead
Does Ecclesiastical Latin count? :P
I did Classical Latin for a while, but I've forgotten most of it now. If I weren't so lazy, I'd be keeping up with my Old English too :(
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning them and studying them. I'm taking Latin and German right now.
I also make constructed languages.
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I really wish I'd been able to learn more language skills as a youngster. I took three years of high school Spanish and aced 'em all. I learned basically nothing.
These days what I really want to learn is Irish.
I also make constructed languages.
Me (http://johnraptor.deviantart.com/art/Oltengo-Grammar-Draft-322141510) too (http://fairylang.livejournal.com/).
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning...
Heehehehehe....
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Right now I'm studying Russian (self teaching and im really enjoying it)
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning...
Heehehehehe....
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who got a giggle from that.
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Right now I'm studying Russian (self teaching and im really enjoying it)
*Creepy hug from behind* One of the things we share.
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I keep meaning to brush up on my French. I have a good understanding of the grammar, can carry out basic conversations and read it pretty well (occasionally having to look up words) but I'm awful with writing in French, and nowhere near fluent on the whole.
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning...
Heehehehehe....
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who got a giggle from that.
Chiheisen! And where have you been, young lady?!
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Chiheisen! And where have you been, young lady?!
I've been quietly lurking, like a good little lurker.
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Right now I'm dabbling in trying to learn a bit of Finnish (considering that's the language my favourite radio station broadcasts in, it won't go to waste) and also thinking of doing the same with Irish Gaelic.
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Studied Japanese for about 10 years, currently using it in a job involving J->E patent translations. Also do a bit of fansubbing with it on the side.
Did 5 years of French but it wasn't well taught and I can get by as a tourist but that's it.
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Anyone here know Lousiana Creole or French? I'm working on a bayou-ish setting for an RPG, and I'd love some help with terms.
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Anyone here know Lousiana Creole or French? I'm working on a bayou-ish setting for an RPG, and I'd love some help with terms.
Erm... I can speak a tiny bit of French... I don't know much about the bayou though...
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning...
Heehehehehe....
I was typing on an Iphone. The thing is already old and lags quite a bit on the internet, making typing somewhat of a crapshoot. Omni nostri aliquando erramus.
Also can you stop stalking me? Holy fuck you're getting creepy.
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How is this stalking?
Ironbite-please, answer that so I can laugh so hard I scare the cat.
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Every single goddamn time I make a slight mistake this guy's here in a second to point it out to me like I don't already see the fucking mistake.
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Lemme see... Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, English is native for me, Norwegian, Latin, Gaelic Irish, Romani...
Mind you, most of that's either just a few snippets, or swearing, but it's kinda nice to be able to tell, say, Letters, faen ta deg.
Also, I have a friend that's Creole French... I could get back in contact with her...
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I'm really good at languages for whatever reaspn...I llve learning...
Heehehehehe....
I was typing on an Iphone. The thing is already old and lags quite a bit on the internet, making typing somewhat of a crapshoot. Omni nostri aliquando erramus.
Also can you stop stalking me? Holy fuck you're getting creepy.
Even if you couldn't help it its still hilarious to read.
(I'm not stalking you. I started this thread, so of course I'm going to see all of you're posts on this thread.)
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In any other case, here are the language I know/intend to learning/am learning right now:
Know: English (obviously), German (not fluent), Pazmat (it's a conlang I'm creating, so this probably doesn't count...)
Learning: Latin
Want to learn: Italian, Finnish, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Ancient Greek, Welsh, Arabic, Old English, Dutch
Maybe a few others, but it's been a while since I counted. You could probably chuck Vietmanese up there too.
It'll take decades but I think I can get these languages down and be most fluent in them by the time I die.
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Even if you couldn't help it its still hilarious to read.
(I'm not stalking you. I started this thread, so of course I'm going to see all of you're posts on this thread.)
Well, sorry for blowing up on you, but this combined with the previous time you corrected my spelling made me highly suspcious.
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Every single goddamn time I make a slight mistake this guy's here in a second to point it out to me like I don't already see the fucking mistake.
K you're citing half the forums.
Ironbite-what's your point?
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How do you get programs so that you can type in other languages that don't use this alphabet?
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iOS devices come with it. Not sure otherwise.
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Yeah, most OS will have it on there you just have to convince it to install it, I forget how. Although if you want to do Chinese then I would recommend the sogou pinyin inpu here (http://pinyin.sogou.com/). It's a thousand times better than the windows standard one, and it recognises slang and names more often than the google one.
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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).
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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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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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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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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.
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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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Off topic, but I keep misreading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".
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Beat you to it, John. ;)
I keep reading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".
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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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Beat you to it, John. ;)
I keep reading the title as "Foreign Language Hobbits".
D'oh!
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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 ;)
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What Americans sound like to everyone else:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8
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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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.
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Man I wish my uni had a russian course
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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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I've always had some level of interest in foreign languages, but it has gotten a lot stronger over the past few years. So far I've met the requirements for an associate degree in French and hope to continue my studies in Quebec at some point. I did two semesters of Spanish (because I really like Spanish, and a doing second language was required anyway) and one Mandarin Chinese class for fun.
The language I'm most interested in is Japanese, but that's not offered here, so I'll have to do what I can with online learning for now. I think German and Swedish are pretty interesting, too, but I don't actually know much of either language yet.
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I got a book and CD set for learning Irish for Christmas, so I can start actually studying now.
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The book just has a bottle of Irish Whiskey in it.