Anyone teaching themselves a foreign language?

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Veteran
Anyone teaching themselves a foreign language? Perhaps we could explore using a thread here at DVXuser to discuss languages, find people doing the same, or to vent frustrations. :grin:

I'm currently taking a swing at Irish. And no, it's not drunk english :beer: It's a very difficult language to learn but it's very fun! Learning a language on your own (as opposed to being 'forced', as I was in high school) is very rewarding as you start to find similarities to other languages or root words and origins in your own language.

Anyone else doing the same? Chinese? Spanish? Other?
 
Fahad said:
i really applaud your focus. trying to teach yourself anything is hard enough, let alone a language.

i tried to teach myself Japanese once. didn't last.

are you using something like rosetta stone? or are you using books, the old fashioned way?
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Books.

Rosettastone was expensive, and I enjoy the paper and pen experience. I like reading, so it seemed best for me. I still use index cards as flash cards and fill notebooks up with read, write, recite. Perhaps I'll move to Rosettastone later, but most likely not. As soon as I master the basics, there is a Celtic cultural center in LA which holds free Irish Language classes every monday. I don't want to show up without any knowledge, so I'm waiting to go until I have a respectable grasp of the basics, like counting, saying hello, asking for a pencil, and etc. I'm getting close! I never like to show up to someone sharing their knowledge without putting in a good effort to learn before hand. I didn't want to show up and say 'hello. I don't know anything. Now teach me'!

Irish is difficult because it is not phonetic. But at least the letters are mainly the same. Chinese, Korean, or Japanese would be very difficult as the actual characters would be drastically different! It's not easy, but it does give you a new outlook at the way people communicate with each other!

It's funny how we think in the structures of our languages.
 
I know french (Quebecois french, very different from France), but not enough to get by sometimes, so I gotta brush up on it. I may started reading something like a novel in french or watch french tv. It's just hard. I was on a set recently as lighting tech and the gaffer was french. He spoke so fast and used lots of slang, whenever he made a joke I just laughed, pretending I knew what he was talking about. Made it tough... ugh...

Used to know spanish a bit, now I just understand it. It's funny, I was on another set where we were half english half french (like lots of sets here), and the director and main actors were spanish, so it was trilingual. One of the actors asked "where are the plates" in spanish, and I understood him perfectly, just thought he was speaking french, responded in french, and he laughed realizing I understood spanish.

Man, languages are hard...

Batutta said:
I'm learning Canadian.
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What you talking aboot eh? Get them chestefield off to the danderlane and pick me up a timmies with a toonie! Ya newfie!

(heh, made up the word danderlane, sounds Canadian though)
 
Póg mo Thóin. :)

Funny enough, it's the profanities we all learn first. My sister was a science teacher in a Dublin secondary school and one of the first things her students did was try to take advantage of her American upbringing and attempted to make her say 'pog mo thoin'. My sister, having well over half-a-brain, was clever enough to not trust a bunch of 7th graders and declined.
 
Taught myself Ancient Greek at 18. Then took a stab at Latin, but never really got into it. Later on, I got a Greek teacher, who insisted on me also learning modern Greek.

So this was like...20 yrs ago. In 2005, I got to Greece on vaction, and BAM, like a lightning bolt, I could actually understand people. Then I could actually talk back. i wasn't great, but I was amazed how well I could do.

But agreed, I loved it and found it very rewarding. After my trip to Greece I tried to get it on again, but just don't have the time anymore. It's hard enough for me to squeeze out a couple of hours of reading in English a day now...
 
J Davis said:
I think he means he is learning Gaelic, there's no such language as Irish. Irish is an accent.
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No. Irish is a language. The Irish call their language Irish. If you want to spell it out, it could also be called Irish Gaelic. Gaelic is actually a classification of many Celtic languages. It's more of a language branch than a language. It's a common mistake to call the irish language by simply gaelic.
Irish (Gaeilge) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language only by a small minority of the Irish population, and as a second language by a larger minority. However, it is widely considered to be an important part of the island's culture and heritage. It enjoys constitutional status as the national and first official language of the Republic of Ireland. It is also an official language of the European Union and an officially recognised minority language in Northern Ireland.
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So if you were in Galway speaking gaelic in a gaelic conversation talking about the mother tongue you would break out and use the english word 'Irish'?

ahh semantics, I'm just takin the piss brother. Good for you for learning it. It's a shame that it's not spoken more often in the majority of the country.

edit:
just want to add that you are indeed correct. Irish is a language and its the english name for Gaelic.
Just there's not much love lost for the english when your are over there
 
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J Davis said:
So if you were in Galway speaking gaelic in a gaelic conversation talking about the mother tongue you would break out and use the english word 'Irish'?

ahh semantics, I'm just takin the piss brother. Good for you for learning it. It's a shame that it's not spoken more often in the majority of the country.
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No worries.

If I were in Galway speaking Irish, I would refer to the language as 'Gaeilge' in Irish. Scottish Gaelic is 'Gàidhlig' , and Manx (isle of mann) is Gaelg) Irish is a type of Gaelic and it is referred to as 'Irish' by the Irish people and by the European Union as a way to be a bit more specific than simply 'Gaelic', which covers one dead and two active languages. The Welsh language is sometimes called Welsh Gaelic, however it's technically Brythonic... which is a sub-language tree of Celtic with Gaelic.

I know what you are saying, no worries. It is an awful shame that it is not spoken more fluently. Because of historical English oppression and now, an English language power majority in world commerce and entertainment, we shouldn't ever hope for an Irish language comeback, however, the number of speakers has been increasing recently. All Irish students are made to take several years of Irish language schooling, however few seem to retain it's use into late adulthood.
 
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Ryan .. I got a lot of ties to Eire, more than I ever expected I would. I've flown there more times than I can remember and there was a time when the Aer Lingus stewardess would recognize me.
My youngest was born in Laois. I gotta a lot of time for the Irish people
 
^ Very cool. You are very fortunate! I don't get to go enough, but who does? I am currently trying to find more work overseas specifically in the Irish film community, and would love to jet between LA and IRE for work. I'm hoping to eventually have professional ties to both countries equally. I've already shot a feature doc in Southwest England, so I'm working my way closer!

Speaking the language will not help me at all with this goal, but is a personal endeavor I have committed to. My family ties go back to the areas of Ireland where the language is still in use (the Gaeltacht areas), most recognizably, county Mayo/Sligo. The Irish language has three major accents, the most standardized being the one from that area (connacht), so I'm happy my native area of the country is also the prevailing accent.
 
If we are ever over there at the same time the pints are on me
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although the younger crowd just drink bulmers cider there, I'm old fashioned
 
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I learn ancient Egypt since a few years. Not something that is very useful, but I always wanted to go in to an old Egyptian grave and impress my fellows, by just reading the hieroglyphs like Indiana Jones (yeah right).

May the death strike the one with his wings that...stuff like this :cheesy:

I also love the Celtic languages. I don´t speak it and I don´t understand it, but for some odd reason, it twangs a string deep inside of me, when I hear it or try to say some words. So next on my list: Gaeilge.

Frank O´Postmaster :beer:
 
Ryan, nice thread. Extremely refreshing.
I'm learning Japanese and have been for the last 10 years I guess. That being said, I am starting to seriously study. Will be taking the Japanese Learning Proficiency Test in a couple of weeks. It appears I need the specter of something that I can fail at to whip me into study mode. I'm pretty lucky though as my wife is Japanese and I have been living here for quite a while... still my wife's English destroys my Japanese in comparison!
Regarding learning methods (and everyone has a different mode for maximum efficiency at absorbing and retaining information), I have never really been a text book kind of guy (books, 'yes' - textbooks 'HELL NO'). For me, learning is doing so I find that actually speaking and interaction is by far the most effective way for retention. It's quite amazing in my case, in so far as how poorly texts translate into useable information for me... so camera manuals, for example, are about as appetizing (and effective for study) as a kick in the face with football boots on. I marvel at the people who are able to study in this way.

In any case, good luck with the study! Communicating in another language is a very rewarding adventure!!!

Actually, there is one more thing about Japanese, the swear words are relatively boring in comparison to English but the way they are said is very entertaining when done by a pro...or Yakuza.............or the wife.......or even more so the FATHER-IN-LAW.
Cheers,
Sam.
 
If you're over the age of nine or ten, learning another language—unless you are gifted with an ear for languages—is difficult. It's effortless for children to learn multiple languages when they grow up in such an environment. My kids speak English and Hebrew fluently. My eldest is now nine. He came here to Israel when he was four and stopped speaking for three months while he took it all in. The others developed both languages at about the same pace.

On the other hand, my Hebrew is pretty rough. I can make myself understood but I know I must sound like an idiot a lot of the time. Asking someone, "Where is the thing that makes air spin?" when I didn't know the word for "fan" and similar instances usually elicits at least a smile. Then, of course, there are those with whom I find myself in a disagreement and they think that because they've corrected a minor verb conjugation error I've made, that the whole point I was expressing is therefore invalid.

I constantly question why more schools don't teach second languages earlier. In fact, with young kids, two birds can be killed with one stone by simply teaching them a certain subject in the targeted language. Here in Israel, they begin to teach English in grade three, which is too late to take advantage of kids' natural abilities.

Of course, like piano lessons, we can't become kids again and learn what we wish we had. I do think, however, that when adults learn a language, they need to use as many strategies as possible. Yes, take advantage of your strengths; 50% of all learners prefer to acquire knowledge visually. However, listening, speaking (and recording and then listening to yourself), and writing are also crucial. I have found that mnemonic devices can be quite helpful as well.
 
Mark Harris said:
Taught myself Ancient Greek at 18. Then took a stab at Latin, but never really got into it. Later on, I got a Greek teacher, who insisted on me also learning modern Greek.

So this was like...20 yrs ago. In 2005, I got to Greece on vaction, and BAM, like a lightning bolt, I could actually understand people. Then I could actually talk back. i wasn't great, but I was amazed how well I could do.
Click to expand...

I went to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and was surprised how quickly I picked up my Spanish again. It got even better after I'd been there a week. The mind is an amazing thing.
 
Batutta said:
I went to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and was surprised how quickly I picked up my Spanish again. It got even better after I'd been there a week. The mind is an amazing thing.
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Yeah, I had learned some spanish when I lived in Caracas. But have not been immersed enough anywhere since to see if it comes back to me. We are thinking about Spain or Equador for the honeymoon, so that might be it.
 
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