/lang/ - Language Learning thread

Wow. All the new years resolution "I will learn Russian like Trump's best friend Putin!" people are gone

I'm bored and indecisive, where do I roll to decide which language to learn for a month or so?

>>72260280
random.org

>>72260313
Where can one find the corresponding languages?

retard here. I don't even know language structure related words like auxiliary, reflexive etc... where's a good place to conceptually learn that stuff? no bully

>>72260438
didn't you learn this in foreign language class in school? you learned French?

>>72260409
assign languages to a number on your own and then roll

>>72260507
Come on, don't we just have a picture somewhere or something?

>>72260559
i really don't

>>72260438
Useless to learn this crap, it'll come naturally when you're just learning to speak a language

>>72260461
French was mandatory up until early highschool but we essentially learned nothing besides conjugation and how to order at a restaurant. Teachers didn't care and the students were too disruptive, and most of the time we just watched subtitled stuff.

And English classes were just as shitty desu. I think I'm missing some education when reading the duolingo notes.

>>72260655
Yeah a lot of rules are coming naturally for me but I still feel like a dummy when I have to look up some words in the dictionary.

>>72260559
https://www.random.org/geographic-coordinates/

pick language of closest random country

>>72260961
>African shithole
>Antarctica
>Australia
>The other side of Australia
>Canada
>China
Already know some Chinese
>Alaska
>Middle of the Ocean
>Madagasca

Does there perchance exist a version of this with just Europe?

>>72259869
Hopefully. All that's left is the "What language should I learn?" crowd.

>>72261555
:(

Not everyone knows exactly which language to be an autistic about

>>72261555
Rude

Where can I find more videos like this? Ie, foreigners speaking a language at the intermediate level

https://youtu.be/JTLUzk9MxPU

>>72261985

Look, you're talking about something that is going to take many many hours of your life, your only life, so really approaching it like "durr pick a language for me plz!!" is absolutely ridiculous (luckily I think the actual retention rate of people who decide that way is not long any way). If learning a language is not (and will not be) a necessity in your life, by geography or by business, or you don't have some strong interest in a language by way of its media, culture, or whatever, then why even bother? It almost seems like such people are approaching being bilingual as some prerequisite to I don't even know, being civilized? I feel like it's just some finger-wagging loud-mouth Europeans and maybe some elite third worlders projecting this illusion of necessity/criteria that they have had to face learning English, and the rest of the English speaking world that feels needlessly ashamed of just knowing the most important language in the world right now.

tl;dr: nobody likes a pussy-footing fuddy duddy so stop it

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I'm learning French right now, I think Duolingo and flash cards are working very well. I'm thinking about learning Hebrew next because my mom taught me some Hebrew when I was younger. I'm not sure how long French will take though.

>>72263694
Is your French better or worse then these peoples?

https://youtu.be/E78dSjXziE8

>>72263819
Definitely. But I do relate to them a bit, I have a hard time pronouncing some words but i'm working on it.

>>72261555
Perhaps the worst kind of langposters

Italian

>>72260409

https://www.random.org/lists/

type in whichever languages you are interested in.

>>72263987
>>72263819
I just realized you asked if my French was better or worse, not just better. My bad.

reminder it's declension and not declination

>>72267636
unfortunately the german word "Deklination" means declination and declension

Anyone learning/learned italian? Already at lvl 13 in duolingo and I read from time to time the Italia general here but I'd like to add something more related to grammar. Any recommendations?

Who /languageblock/ here?

I'm scared of talking to people in the language I'm learning thinking that they'll bully me for making too many mistakes.

>>72269251
and this applies to everything even generals

>>72269251
Hey man, don't worry. Typically you will earn respect in other countries if you at least try to speak properly. That is what seperates you from the vacation tourists.

Bumped for victory

Why can't I become fluent in German???

Everyday I do
> Duolingo
> Memrise
> Clozemaster
> watch Let's Plays in German
> try to translate German TV shows like Hart Aber Fair
> try to write German sentences

but I feel like my German is still so shitty

>>72273145
it's time to get a german bud

>>72273145
Listen to German radio as much as you can, when you're commuting, when you're at home...

>>72273175
A real German person to talk to?

I... I don't think my autism can handle that

I'm also not white, so I would like like a loser shitskin at the local German club

>>72273209
force yourself to not be like yourself and do it anyway

>>72273195
you mean, download Let's Plays onto my phone and listen to them as I'm driving?

I'm learning Italian

>>72273285
I don't know what that is
I'm saying you need to be exposed to the language and listening to the radio is one of the best ways to do it (according to myself

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>>72273220
look at all those people in my city's German club

I am only imagining myself in a group setting and I feel nervous

>>72273371
it would be good for you

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>>72273414
look at them, they look so normie and happy

aren't you feeling sweaty and nervous, imagining yourself in that social situation?

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>>72273494
I.. I don't know. I don't think I can make myself go to a social situation like this.

I think I'll listen to Sven over there
>>72273333
and listen to German radio

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>>72273371
>>72273494
>>72273633

I could help. Get on Skype or so and have Chats in German!

>>72274138
w-what is your skype name?

>>72274346
youres first! but I'll add you!

>>72274526
ok, give me few minutes to make a Skype account

>>72274770
ok, it is registering account

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>>72274770
my skype is open; addname will be something with der or dea depends what skype shows

how do I know my Skype username? I signed in with my telephone number?

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>>72275085
there should be a nickname or so?

>>72275122
live:164440b588c24870

??

>>72275323
>>72275122
or you could search me in the directory

First name: German
last name: Aboo

sorry, I'm new to Skype

>>72263248
>and the rest of the English speaking world that feels needlessly ashamed of just knowing the most important language in the world right now.
The rest of your post is spot on too, but this is probably the main thing. It's mostly Americans who come in these threads and ask "What language should I learn guys?!" with the idea that "Oh yeah, just choose for me and I will learn it, I guess" mentality, which doesn't really get them anywhere past the first 2 months (albeit, I KNOW this isn't the case for everyone).

Get better at your broken Mexican-Spanish with a thick American accent and then decide if you really want to spend another 2 years getting fluent in a language.

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When listening to audio content, such as podcasts or radio, should I be trying to translate what they're saying in my head or just try to absorb some vocab? Basically, what should I be actively trying to do when learning with this kind of resource? I take the train every day to work and listen to my German radio, but I honestly feel like I'm doing it wrong.

japanese is the worst language

>>72277819

Nope Vietnamese is the worst language.

>>72277819
>>72278010

At least there are weeaboos who love anime

No one is a vietaboo

>>72273145
Force yourself to think in the language. Thinking in the language is an important step to make towards fluency, because otherwise you'll always have at least 1 more step to make in conversation/writing/whatever: you have to translate. Forcing yourself to think in it should help with just "knowing" the words, instead of thinking "oh right, he said blabla bla, which translates to blabla bla"

i'm planning to learn faroese
how is it?

>>72277819
Not while French and Spanish still exist.

>>72273145
>German TV shows
ekelhaft

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>>72273209
Neither are Bavarians nowadays

>>72273209
I'm black and I've been to german loads of times to visit my russian girlfriend studying there. They are pretty nice. a little bit boring and pragmatic though.
>>72259869
>tfw gf wants you to learn russian
>Tfw you only get as far as cyrillic before giving up and going back to my comfy spanish language learning

Been learning Japanese. Picked up Genki 1 and I'm about a quarter of the way through it. I know it will get harder, but so far so good. No problems remembering it so far and it seems to make pretty logical sense to me.

My only looming concern is learning Kanji. I picked up a couple books for it, but l'm not really impressed. I learned the "meaning" of about 250 kanji using the books, but I still can't read more than a handful of them... =/ Aggrivating.

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>>72258781
I'm interested in Slavic languages

I make some paradigm pictures from other pics to clarify some aspects of a language and to remember them

For example, Old Church Slavic(Old Bulgarian) pic. for noun inflections

>>72262836
https://youtu.be/oAkhR6ec8v4

bumptsi bump

>>72277819
それな

>>72278146
>No one is a vietaboo
You called?

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>>72279675
Plait-il ?

is anyone even making progress and this thread or just blog posting or coming here to ask what language they should go just not to do it?

>>72281354
Why do black people make such exaggerated expressions.

>>72286069
How do show that you've made progress? I'm actually kind of interested in an objective measurement of progress that can be updated monthly

>>72286260
The level of your ability to speak about any topic in your target language can be a good guide for you. Everyday on discord I notice I speak more and more about whatever I want and for however long I want to speak about it. Another way I guess you can measure it is by the amount of grammatical mistakes or how much of a book can you read without looking up words.

>>72286069

I prefer to spend my time worrying about which language to learn rather than actually learning a language.

Why are slavic languages so hard?

>>72286950
kek
>>72287077
Is it not because of their grammar systems?

>>72287077
Because they're needlessly complicated

>>72286652
Interesting, all right

>too scared of actually starting to learn
>cant decide between Japanese, Chinese, Korean
>spend all my time reading on how to learn

>>72290989
> Ultimate weeb
Your anime waifu will love you no matter which language you pick

>>72278676
Probably like Icelandic and Danish?

>>72291577
B-but I don't even like anime and manga.
Just interested in the history, culture and music.
And movies in Koreas case.

>>72290989
>cant decide between Japanese, Chinese, Korean
Choose 2 numbers from 1 to 6 for each one and toss a die.

>>72290989

Chinese is the only useful one, but Korean is the easiest

>>72292065
Yeah for the future Chinese seems the most fruitful, but all those characters and tones. On the upside the grammar is easy from what I've read.
Korean is the easiest but is less useful.

Oh well
1-3 Korean
4-7 Japanese
8-0 Chinese

Has anyone met someone who couldn't speak their parents' mother language? Like an Asian who can't speak Chinese, or Swede who can't speak Swedish, or a Hungarian who can't speak Hungarian

For example, the elder Trump children can't speak Czech, even though their mother is a native Czech. How does that even happen

>>72292500
Yes, a Thai-Swedish girl who despite living in Sweden didn't speak Swedish
She went to a school where she spoke English and spoke English at home too

>>72292582
Could her parents speak Swedish or Thai? Were they expats?

>>72292706
Her dad is Swedish
It's beyond me why they didn't teach or make her study Swedish, considering you need it if you want to study here, it's a requirement

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>>72260438
What you're looking for are the parts of speech/syntactic categories.

You generally learn what those are in your native language classes, but everyone tends to forget after a while. I understand, I was like that too. I actually became better in English by learning French since it made me go over a lot of the things that I forgot over the years.

Your best bet is to gloss over everything related to syntax. You stated in your examples that you don't know what auxiliaries and reflexives are, they're both types of verbs, so I'll provide you with a link that only goes over the parts of speech. This guide won't go over things like clauses, prepositional phrases, noun phrases, basically none of the phrasal categories.

It'll take a while to go over this stuff, but do take your time. It's also a good idea to take some notes.

http://www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/

>Want to learn Spanish but start thinking about Mexicans half way through a lesson and always give up

>>72301942
sounds like someone's spooked

>>72302359
You have to go back

>>72301942
That's understandable, Mexico is the only country where people speak Spanish after all.

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>>72301942
Think of Spain

Does it make sense to try and read VNs that are translated into Russian from Japanese? I can't really find any other entertaining reading material that is not too hard for me but I'm worried about how fan translations hold up, especially if they're made by russians. Alternatively maybe someone knows something that makes for fun reading? I'd be grateful.

Bы дyмaeтe этo имeeт cмыcл читaть BH кoтopыe пepeвoдaнниe в pyccкий язык из япoнcкoгo? Я нe мoгy нaйти paзвлeкaтeльныe вeщи читaть кoтopыe нe oчeнь cлoжнo для мeня. Ho я нe знaю кaк хopoшo pyccкиe пepeвoдчики. Или мoжeт быть вы знaeтe чтo нибyдь чтo вeceлo читaть? Cпacибo бoльшoe.

>>72302628
blaga epica

>>72303971
Regardless if it's 100% faithful to the source material, if it was translated by Russians then you are guaranteed to get proper Russian material, no?

>I've been faking not being able speak English for the past year and I just got kicked out of my english class
>Taking a foreign language is obligatory at my school so I now have to choose between French and Italian
>Neither of which I want to learn
what do I do

>>72276014
>should I be trying to translate what they're saying in my head or just try to absorb some vocab?
How about you just fucking listen to it and try to enjoy it?

>>72307236
He's asking how he should enjoy it, you rude person

>>72306836
How did you get kicked out of English class

>>72306836
>I've been faking not being able speak English for the past year
Why.

>>72307949
He wanted an easy 100 on English exams, I think

I'm learning:
Spanish
Arabic
Chinese
Japanese
French

In that order of priority.

It's hell and I feel retarded.

My main problems are:
1. actually speaking with others and getting over the embarrassment that naturally comes with it. Living where I do I literally have the opportunity to speak the top 3 on my list every single day, and if I wanted to I could seek out people to speak with in the latter two somewhat easily (even if it would just be to hire them as tutors). I feel like I'm squandering an opportunity that most people don't enjoy.

2. sticking to a steady learning routine. As I've been doing for basically all my life, I only study in short bursts of a few days and then get burnt out. Rotating between different languages at least keeps me engaged with novelty,and thus having more inspired learning stints than if had I only chosen to study one language, but the diluting effect is still real for each individual language even with that benefit.

Each of these problems will be solved in due time as long as I continue my ascent from extended NEEThood. I'm going to school these days and volunteering, hopefully going to get a job soon. With less personal embarrassment I'll feel more empowered to speak with others. With greater practice at sticking to work schedules in general I'll be better able to stick to a language learning routine.

Overall it's looking up.

As another note, I feel like learning multiple languages can feed into each other pretty neatly.
Spanish has helped me learn some Japanese like the the word miru (mirar, both mean to look or see) and the katakana symbols リ & サ (Ri + Sa, risa meaning laugh).

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I reached level 24 on Duolingo for German!

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> don't speak english for a week
> completely forgot it

>>72311593
do you speak English with kawaii Ruskie accent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uGQmUQ5Jb8

>>72303971
> Bы дyмaeтe, этo имeeт cмыcл - читaть BH, кoтopыe пepeвeдeны нa pyccкий язык c япoнcкoгo? Я нe мoгy нaйти чтo-нибyдь paзвлeкaтeльнoe, кoтopoe бyдeт нe oчeнь cлoжнo для мeня. Ho я нe знaю, кaк хopoши pyccкиe пepeвoдчики. Или мoжeт быть вы знaeтe чтo-нибyдь, чтo вeceлo читaть? Cпacибo бoльшoe зapaнee.
Bce paвнo звyчит нe ecтecтвeннo.
A тaк, мoгy пocoвeтoвaть "бecкoнeчнoe лeтo". Pyccкaя BH-кa c oхyeнным cюжeтoм.

>>72311641
Some sort of mix of British, American and a bit of Russian accents.

>>72311529
Dann kannst du ja bestimmt, was dir, da du fleißig übst, leichtfallen wird, verstehen, was ich schreibe.

>>72312025
ich kann nur verstehen
> Dann kannst du ja bestimmt: then certainly you can
> verstehen, was ich schreibe: understand what I'm writing

:-\

>>72312126
That's been the gist of it essentially
I hope you do something besides Memelingo

>>72312220
I upload Youtube videos of myself speaking German

It's hard for me to watch my own videos though

>>72293125
thanks m8, really appreciate it

bumpity

Fucking Allah picking arabic instead of Persian, what the fuck was he thinking?

I can read Yotsuba now, but I doubt I'd ever be able to hold up a conversation in Japanese.

I know Arabic grammar understand at least 50-60% of written language but my vocabulary is not very large.

I need easy-to-read Hungarian books and I want pick up Polish but can't find good learning material.

>>72310637
don't learn 5 languages at the same time you tard, you're like all those american shitposters that speak a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but is only monolingual in fluency

>>72317693

I know how to order a beer in 18 languages.

Near fluent bro. B2 at least.

>>72319169
>Near fluent bro. B2 at least.
In English? Ordering beer doesn't make you B2 level

>>72264586
Meatballs and spaghetti

>>72268391
Go to the le Reddit learning Italian subreddit, yeah I know it's Reddit but their guides are good.

>>72263987
>is your French better or worse than these people
>yes

>>72319324
german humor is no laughing matter

>>72317693
It is not too late too change language, dustam

official /lang/ Telegram group
https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAED3UID-nkic-jTm3g

>>72312025
Why do your purposefully write to confuse people on a learning thead?

>>72307236
RUDE AMERICAN

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I am of learn the Spanish. Are there any good early children's books or cartoons to watch? I've realized netflix has Spanish audio for most things, but not sure what would use the simplest language...

As for books I'm thinking of things like 'Go Dog Go' level, so I can just work my way up from like 3yo reading level to hopefully adult level.

>>72323039
How many people are in this?

http://pastebin.com/erQ4tFqP
>Few more resources

>>72327024
21 and counting, though some are inactive, but if you ask for help or ressources you will get a response fairly quickly

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Where my Mandarin learners at?

>>72331956
I'm 95% done with HSK 1

I know nobody writes letters anymore. But if you write a letter to a company, and want to make sure it reaches the correct person, what do you write?
In German we would write "zu Händen von" (to the hands of) and then John Johnson.
My dictionary says you can write "for the attention of" but i never heard that before. Is that correct though?

>>72334572
It is correct. Sometimes it's abbreviated to F.A.O