Anyone teaching themselves a foreign language?

Jordan_S said:
If you're over the age of nine or ten, learning another language—unless you are gifted with an ear for languages—is difficult.
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Ain't that the truth! Its funny tho ... when you are in another country surrounded and immersed in another language it amazing how fast you adapt when you have to.
 
Fahad said:
I agree about thinking in the structure of your language (have you ever read any noam chomsky?)... it's even weirder when you know two languages with different structures. do you dream in one or the other? is there even a language spoken or heard in dreams? i don't think so.
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I'm fluent in English and Finnish (plus know a little of a couple other languages); and they have very different structures. I can dream in either. In fact, I even think in either. Thoughts definitely do have a language; I can tell when I'm thinking in one language and then translating to the other as opposed to thinking natively in the language I'm speaking. (Look, no rendering!) If (when) I come across a word I don't know in the language I'm speaking, my brain will "switch" to another language in which I know the concept, and I can end up pausing to think - or even ask - for the correct word to continue. Same with dreaming. - The dreams get weird when the two languages mix (for example people & locations from different countries mix).

One thing about learning other languages that I never realized when learning languages back in school, that I do now realize; is that you also learn a lot more about your own language(s) as part of the process. It's one thing to be able to use a language (English), but another thing entirely to be able to use it to define abstract concepts into another language.

It's said that one of the highest forms of intelligence is the ability to form puns. (I'd debate that, as I pun a lot...). To be able to translate a joke well between languages is quite hard; and is a good test of how well you really know them.

- Mikko ... not funny in many countries.
 
lol, i'll never forget my first night travelling in mexico - was mexico city, was exhausted and I needed a hotel room to crash - when I got to the room there was no windows
hence the first words I learned in spanish was 'con ventana' (with window).
 
Jordan_S said:
If you're over the age of nine or ten, learning another language—unless you are gifted with an ear for languages—is difficult.
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This is another reason I am doing it. I'm still a young 25 but as an adult, and past the ideal language learning time-frame, I refuse to believe my mind is anything but capable of greater things. I've taught myself a world of knowledge regarding cinematography, brewing beer, and html computer coding. Some people can learn more than others, but in the end, I think we can accomplish anything.

On the bright side, if I ever get stuck on a word I can just use English! Only about 15+% of Ireland uses Irish on a day-to-day way of life... but even 100% of those people speak English. It's just not preferred. If you obey the saying "Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste, na Bearla cliste", perhaps stumbling through bad Irish is better than speaking English! The saying means 'broken Irish is better than clever English.' It's a clever saying in itself because briste (broken) and cliste (clever) rhyme.

If you don't know what Irish/Gaeilge sounds like:

Sinead O'Connor Song 'Mna na h Eireann' (Woman of Ireland)

Weather Report:

Cool Short film about a Chinese student who learns Irish/Gaeilge.
 
MSDN just release a set of glossaries for us programmer types:

Translation Glossary (x86 and x64) - (English-Australia)
Translation Glossary (x86 and x64) - (English-Canada)
Translation Glossary (x86 and x64) - (English-New Zealand)
Translation Glossary (x86 and x64) - (English-United Kingdom)


:)
 
I speak Spanish and Basque as my mother tongues. I've been learning English for about 9 years now. During that time I've visited England, Canada and USA just to practice it a bit (and compare the accent...I must admit that I prefer the LA one over the rest..(but that's because I found and slight connection to Spanish due to it's geographic location, NY accent is also nice...British well.....I guess it's like talking about American spanish and European Spanish...totally different, both in pronunciation and vocabulary). And then obviously reading post here all day long helps a lot!!!!
I once started learning German.....damn German people you have a really hard language hahaha Hopefully soon I'll have some more time to keep on learning German and maybe Chinese or who knows...there are lots of languages in this world.......Sorry no French....I don't like it (nothing to do French people, is just that I don't like the language...) hahahaha

Whenever I hear that someone knows how to fluently speak in various (6+) languages and hear them speak and change languages while they do..........speachless.......
 
Tá me a dhéanamh maith go leor, . Táim ag foghlaim a léigh (léamh?) go an-mhaith, ach nílim is féidir liom ag caint agus ag scíobh ar chor ar bith. Tíam ag léamh dó leabhar ceart anois. An chéad leabhar tá "Progress in Irish" agus táim ag foghlaim ceacht cúig déag. An dara leabhar tá "Buntus Cainte" agus tíam ar ceacht feiche a trí.

[I am doing good enough. I am learning to read very well but I am not able to speak and write at all. I am reading two books right now. The first book is 'Progress in Irish' and I am learning lesson fifteen. The second book is 'Buntus Cainte' and I am on lesson twenty three.]


_ That was quite horrible for me... trying to write sentences and be grammatically correct is difficult at this stage. I don't think many parts are as accurate or acceptable as I would want. For instance the word ceart means right. Anois means now. But I'm not sure if together they make 'right now', in Irish. However ceart go leor, means 'right enough', as a way of positive acknowledgement, so perhaps it would pass.

Either way, I'm making progress! A person fluent in irish would get what I was trying to say, especially because everyone who knows Irish, knows English, so they can see the flaws and understand where they are coming from. The best of my ability is reading... I can read fairly well, children's books of course. But I still cannot properly pronounce 3/4's of the words I know, and/or think quickly enough to compose off the cuff. It's exciting to learn another language and see how everything fits together. It's discovering language all over again. I now see the huge importance of tense and structure. Just learning how to make verbs in the past, present and future tense opens an exponential possibility of expressing myself with the verbs I already know.

I just hope I'll learn to speak it properly because I don't want to sound like the Irish Helen Keller. :) It's been about 9 months since I began and I don't think my progress has been too bad. I imagine it's a rolling snowball effect. I'll learn faster as the basics take hold. Soon enough, I'll only have to expand my vocabulary and master the trickiest of the grammar.

Is anyone else from this thread made any progress in their language endeavors?!
 
I'm trying to learn Norwegian. Once you learn it you can speak and talk Swedish, and understand almost all scandinavian languages.
 
My first language was bad Spanish (both parents did not have a good education) and my second language was bad English. Small wonder I became a writer. In my house we spoke Tex-Mex or as you know it as Spanglish. Each sentence was woven in and out of both Spanish and English, mostly for 2nd generation Mexican Americans.

I had to practice Spanish when I worked in the hotel industry. I'm sure I've stated this before but when I tried to tell the maintenance man over the radio we needed to replace a light bulb in the kitchen ceiling, I said we need to replace a light bulb in the kitchen Heaven. I was laughed at for days.

Here is a course that will teach you a language in 10 days used by the FBI:
http://goo.gl/kaqTf

It's the Pimsleur Approach. I want to learn French or Italian, mostly because I love foreign films.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
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.
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Tsk, tsk. I know what that means.

I get words in Irish every day from this site: http://talkirish.com/wordaday to help me learn. Which dialect are you learning, Ryan?
 
Hmmm... Looks like the "hot girlfriend" who doesn't speak a word of english method of learning a new language is dying out. ( or I am surrounded by bigger nerds than me :-) )
 
Doc Bernard said:
Tsk, tsk. I know what that means.

I get words in Irish every day from this site: http://talkirish.com/wordaday to help me learn. Which dialect are you learning, Ryan?
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I'm starting to lean toward Connacht... however I'm just as in love with the south coast, so Munster is tempting.

I think Connacht will work just fine. Galway is the goal. I want to eventually live somewhere very close to Galway, mainly because it's a very cool city and many different Gaeltachts surround it, such as Spiddal. I really love the south coast for traveling, as Cork and Waterford are great places too. Ulster is very distinct and despite having a very high Gaeltacht population, I'm not sure it's right for me. I don't really want to speak with an Ulster accent. I don't think it's the natural choice for me.

Again, I've not been speaking much because I am without a teacher, as of now. I am going to learn the language as best I can to read and write, then, in one year or slightly less, I'm taking two months off my career and will live in the most traditional old school Gaeltacht near Galway I can find and learn to speak that way. I figure if I know the words and grammar very well, it will be learned fast enough.
 
I have not kept up on my lessons, but I am going for the Ulster dialect myself. That is where my family ties are. I am an Ulster-Scot by blood (Clan MacCulloch, Sept of Clan Ross). Family tree is full of UDF/UVF baddies, LOL. And one branch includes William of Orange, if you can believe that!

I got to meet our clan chieftain (Clan Ross) a couple of years back at the Highland games, and I talked with him for a while. I have an open invite to the clan and am "clan-authorized" to wear the tartan and badge, but those kilts are pricey buggers.

Sláinte!
 
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My grandmother spoke Corcaigh Irish (born in Skibbereen). Of course when you're talking about West Cork, even the English language dialect favors the Irish pronunciation of any given word in most cases. What is the Irish version of Spanglish...? Micklish? Mucklish? Whatever it is called, you were safe as long as she didn't go into full-blown Irish (which meant she was poo pooing mad as hell.)
 
Doc Bernard said:
I have not kept up on my lessons, but I am going for the Ulster dialect myself. That is where my family ties are. I am an Ulster-Scot by blood (Clan MacCulloch, Sept of Clan Ross). Family tree is full of UDF/UVF baddies, LOL. And one branch includes William of Orange, if you can believe that!

I got to meet our clan chieftain (Clan Ross) a couple of years back at the Highland games, and I talked with him for a while. I have an open invite to the clan and am "clan-authorized" to wear the tartan and badge, but those kilts are pricey buggers.

Sláinte!
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Ah, yes. Ulster-Scot... makes sense then with the Highland games and the kilts. The only people who wear kilts in Ireland are the Scottish-Irish.

Ulster is tempting, because Donegal and Northern Ireland have a really big population of Irish language resurgence supporters. I've just heard that it's the most unique and different than the other two, and the Connacht dialect is viewed as the more universal dialect, as I believe most of the Irish language schools try to make a blended 'one' form of Irish, but Connacht is the main component.

CallaghanFilms said:
My grandmother spoke Corcaigh Irish (born in Skibbereen). Of course when you're talking about West Cork, even the English language dialect favors the Irish pronunciation of any given word in most cases. What is the Irish version of Spanglish...? Micklish? Mucklish? Whatever it is called, you were safe as long as she didn't go into full-blown Irish (which meant she was poo pooing mad as hell.)
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Hahahaha, that's funny. Béarla (English)-Gaeilge (Irish)... Béarilge? Gaeila?
 
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Doc Bernard said:
I have not kept up on my lessons, but I am going for the Ulster dialect myself. That is where my family ties are. I am an Ulster-Scot by blood (Clan MacCulloch, Sept of Clan Ross). Family tree is full of UDF/UVF baddies, LOL. And one branch includes William of Orange, if you can believe that!

I got to meet our clan chieftain (Clan Ross) a couple of years back at the Highland games, and I talked with him for a while. I have an open invite to the clan and am "clan-authorized" to wear the tartan and badge, but those kilts are pricey buggers.

Sláinte!
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Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Ah, yes. Ulster-Scot... makes sense then with the Highland games and the kilts. The only people who wear kilts in Ireland are the Scottish-Irish...
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Scots wear kilts because with pants the sheep can hear the zippers...
 
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