Polyglot

>>1079717
I speak portuguese as a native language (Brazilian), speak fluent english and good german,and am learning japanese and spanish now, probably gonna go for italian after i'm done with spanish. I would recommend studying a bit at home first, as it speeds the learning process when you travel, at least for me learning before helped a lot in germany. The benefits vary really, it may help you landing a better job, but if that would be your reason, you would be pretty much set with just english and spanish, as half of the world speaks that, maybe throw in chinese and you are done, but those are heavily dependant on what job you have. I learn it because i think it's fun, and it helps me understand a bit more of the culture and all of that

>>1079717
>>1079722
it also makes you a bit less subject to scams when you travel to places you understand the language

>>1079717
I'm polyglot. Native speaker of English, fluent in Thai (lived there for a number of years, studied the language formally as an undergraduate, read and translated many thousands of pages of Thai stuff as a grad student), good/working command of Spanish and Russian (university and travel), basic-or-better command of five or six other languages.

Both Spanish and Russian have been useful to me in multiple countries, and as far as Thailand is concerned, nobody has ever tried to rip me off in a serious way, or to scam me, that I can recount, despite the common stories. People seem to assume that if you speak the language, you know the deal and will recognize scams (which is true).

>>1079740
>>1079722
Was it always gruelling, or do languages just come naturally to you? I have a Russian friend whobspeaks English as a second language rather eloquently and he says he wouldn't try to learn another language because even knowing two is almost too much for him

>>1079747
It was never that grueling for me, but I'm pretty old now, and acquired most of my languages starting when I was a kid, when it's much easier. Languages I have taken up after the age of about 30 have been noticeably slower to learn, although I recognize a natural proclivity in the way that I pick them up faster than my peers/classmates. I think it's 50% inborn inclination, 50% practice: Once you have a few languages down, cross-linguistic patterns become more obvious, and you have a better sense of grammar overall. I think many people struggle because they think of learning a language as translating another language into their native language, rather than using a new set of pieces to apply shared underlying principles.

>>1079747
>>1079748
What this guy says. The more languages you pick, the more you will notice similar patterns and it will be easier to understand. I'm 21 right now, and i wouldn't call myself a natural learner, i'm extremily influenciable, to the point i started german because saw a sentence in a book and thought it was "cool". If anything, the sooner you start the better, and you just gotta carry on when your motivation dies off, because in 2~3 years it will start to pay off

>>1079717
My mothertongue is icelandic, but I also understand a little bit of danish, norwegian and swedish, althought probably norwegian the best since it's closest, very easy languages for me to pick up if I want but I havent had the time for it. I also speak German fluently, or lets say well enough that I can speak about complex topics. This came from grammar in school (some years ago) and from living in Germany for almost 2 years now. Next languages for me to learn are dutch and spansish, where dutch seems to be very easy since it is basically a mix of english, danish and german. Spanish is a little bit tricky for me since it is a different language family but I am slowly getting better. The little knowledge I do have in spanish has helped me connect with mexican and spanish people tho. Knowing german is crucial if you want to get into the culture and get some friends since germans tend to be closed off for people who dont put in the effort to learn the language. Dutch is just an interesting language for me and easy to pick up it seems. Since I already think and speak in 3 languages daily, I think it has many benefits, I am definitely starting to see some crossovers when interpreting different words from different languages. It gives me a better understanding of how words work and the semantic meaning of languages and the connection to reality, as cryptic as that sounds.

Next languages after I have intermediate understanding of these two; spanish and dutch will either be in the direction of italian/french or norwegian/swedish/danish (learn one and they are all the same).

>>1079717
English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, little bit of Mandarin

I feel the same way about picking up new languages as everyone else ITT, you get faster and faster with each new language.

I like to do a bit of a mixture, learn it myself and then travel once I'm comfortable with everyday casual conversations about shit, and I find that doing that results in a pretty big boost to language skills. It's also because I'm not rich or anything, so I can't really afford to just fuck off to another country whenever I feel like learning a new language, so I have to know enough to make it count

>>1079717
>Sinuous learn in travels
WTF is that supposed to mean?

>>1079749
>>1079932
How do you go about learning, do you use paid apps like Rosetta Stone, or sinuous learn from a book?

>>1079986

Always went to a language school and started paying for classes, i can't keep myself motivated alone

>>1079986
I'm another dude but metric tonnes of language learning material is all over the internet. From "10 Secrets For Speaking Fluent x" to "Easy x Audio Course" you can find everything and more. Over on /t/ there's a language learning thread, where you can get as much material as you want.

As for learning itself the first thing I do is getting the basics down. Can't do anything without them. After that I think the best is to do a little bit of everything, from listening to grammar to reading, since being mediocre at every single thing is better than being skilled in one part and knowing next to nothing in the others.

>>1079986

Rosetta Stone, at least the Mandarin version, is completely useless.

>>1079940
As a user of Android's swype keyboard, I'm guessing that's the culprit.

>>1079986
>Paying for Rosetta Stone
I hope nobody's ever done this.

>>1079991
>>1080004
I don't have many options, I live in a relatively small town that doesn't possess the resources to learn a language from a tutor

I guess I sort of am. I'm fluent in English and tagalog. Conversational in French and American sign language. I cam get by with my Italian, Spanish, and Swedish. I know a handful of useful phrases in almost every country I've been to but I wouldn't count them as anything else but openers and party tricks.

But for me, learning Spanish is hard because its so similar to French, Italian, and sometimes tagalog. People have a hard time understanding that though.

Honestly, I think it's all immersion. I such at learning grammar rules but have a good intuition/unconsciously pay attention to what context verbs are conjugated to. So I always suck at learning why things are said a certain way... I just tend to be good at knowing it's like that just because it's like that.

I'd really like to learn German next to open up Switzerland, Germany, and Austria for me.

Personally, I try to read up before going to a country and it never works. I have to be in a country to want to learn.

>>1080169
Forgot to say that my friends dream job is in the UN so she's working on all the major languages (I think you need 4/5 official languages or some shit). She's got mandarin and English down pat. Her Russian is almost there and her Spanish is beyond conversational. It's fucking ridiculous how good she is at picking up languages. I sort of wish I was like her cause it's literally all she does in her spare time and should she choose to do business in any of them, she'd make sure a fucking killing

I speak English and Welsh natively, fluent Spanish and conversational Turkish. Recently started basics of Arabic and Korean (just learned the scripts and basic words) which I hope to get to a conversational level by the end of the year.

>>1079986
I find the best way is to learn the absolute basics first (Hello, Goodbye, Yes, No etc). Then learn all the common questions and answers that are going to come up in a conversation. For example "Why are you learning X?" "I'm learning X because..". It's funny how many people overlook this, especially in language classes. People learn so much useless crap like how to order food, or learning massive lists of vocab but can't even have the most basic of conversations.

I'm not sure I'd call myself a polyglot but my native language is French, I'm fluent in English abd I get by in Spanish, German and wapanese.
I'd like to learn arabic too if I ever end up having actual free time.

>>1081031
>abd
I fucking hate touchscreen keyboards.