Language Club

[saqwert]

This is a club for all people who are interested in foreign languages
Whether you're just wondering which language you wanna learn or if you're fluent in Russian, this club is for all levels to ask questions, share advice, opinions, methods & all that jazz

Resources will be compiled here

ONE WORLD

[Skaren]

I'm learning German.

Is it agreed upon that we won't let anybody who speaks Spanish into our secret club?

[Cyberdevil]

Sounds useful. I've been wanting to learn Japanese for some time. Probably won't be learning to anytime soon, but I am interested in foreign languages. Currently I'm fluent in Swedish/English, and not too bad in Spanish either...

At 3/5/13 06:58 AM, Skaren wrote: Is it agreed upon that we won't let anybody who speaks Spanish into our secret club?

:(

[saqwert]

At 3/5/13 06:58 AM, Skaren wrote: Is it agreed upon that we won't let anybody who speaks Spanish into our secret club?

I dunno man. I think we should, but just for jokes

At 3/5/13 08:08 AM, Cyberdevil wrote: Sounds useful. I've been wanting to learn Japanese for some time. Probably won't be learning to anytime soon, but I am interested in foreign languages.

What's stopping you from learning Japanese now?

[Confucianism]

Why don't people learn languages together here? Having someone to remind you and learn with you, while having the vast knowledge of the internet to help you both. And I mean having a basic understanding of another language through this method, it's better than nothing.

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 03:22 PM, saqwert wrote: What's stopping you from learning Japanese now?

Time. Though since I am posting this, I suppose that's a matter of prioritizing...

More like procrastinating.

At 3/5/13 03:27 PM, Confucianism wrote: Why don't people learn languages together here?

Sounds good. How about learning some Japanese?

[Confucianism]

At 3/5/13 03:36 PM, Cyberdevil wrote: Sounds good. How about learning some Japanese?

Ghhuuuh.

I was hoping someone would ask. If you're dedicated to it. Sure. We can help each other keep the translations in memory. So, we'll start from the bottom then aih?

[SilverPoyozo]

This is a pretty cool idea.

I'm fluent in english and portuguese, and I've been trying to learn both french and japanese.

[DeIirium]

I know English and Finnish, and I've been studying Japanese for a pretty long time and I would say that I'm prety good at it, at least I'm able to read most Japanese texts, such as wikipedia articles and manga, and I can understand shows like game center cx where it's fairly easy to understand what people are saying, so I can answer some questions about things that are within the field of my knowledge.

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 03:42 PM, Confucianism wrote: I was hoping someone would ask. If you're dedicated to it. Sure. We can help each other keep the translations in memory. So, we'll start from the bottom then aih?

Hai! :) I'm supposed to be working on an essay right now, but wth, might as well start learning a new language!

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 04:09 PM, DeIirium wrote: Knows Japanese and stuff.

That's awesome to hear. I'll look forward to your guidance later on, sensei!

At 3/5/13 04:06 PM, SilverPoyozo wrote: I'm fluent in english and portuguese, and I've been trying to learn both french and japanese.

Another Japanese learner. This is getting interesting. :) How far along have you managed to learn?

[Confucianism]

At 3/5/13 04:15 PM, Cyberdevil wrote: That's awesome to hear. I'll look forward to your guidance later on, sensei!

I think it would be more appropriate to refer to him as Senpai.

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 04:18 PM, Confucianism wrote: I think it would be more appropriate to refer to him as Senpai.

Ah, my bad, that's definitely a better word. ;/

[saqwert]

At 3/5/13 04:12 PM, Cyberdevil wrote:
Hai! :) I'm supposed to be working on an essay right now, but wth, might as well start learning a new language!

Man, that's just a great post. It really captures why I made this club

I also never mentioned what languages I study so I'll do that now. I study Japanese and Spanish
I'm a novice at both, but my Japanese is improving fast
Right now I'm focusing on the kanji. I log my kanji study here
I've noticed Japanese is a pretty popular language to learn. It's kinda fun

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 04:48 PM, saqwert wrote: Man, that's just a great post. It really captures why I made this club

You made this club so people would purposefully flee the tasks for which they have upcoming deadlines and just jump onto a different project all of a sudden? Sounds ideal! ;)

I've noticed Japanese is a pretty popular language to learn. It's kinda fun

By the look of the languages in this thread so far, it does seem the way! About learning Japanese, would learning the spoken language without first learning the alphabet be a bad move? I mean, learning words and their meanings (and writing them with Latin characters) before Kanji or any of the other written variants?

[saqwert]

At 3/5/13 05:34 PM, Cyberdevil wrote:
By the look of the languages in this thread so far, it does seem the way! About learning Japanese, would learning the spoken language without first learning the alphabet be a bad move? I mean, learning words and their meanings (and writing them with Latin characters) before Kanji or any of the other written variants?

I'd suggest learning hiragana and katakana first, the two syllabaries which any word in Japanese can be written in
By learning them, you will learn the correct pronunciation of Japanese words, though it's pretty simple anyway
You will also be able to read and write in Japanese
It also depends on what your goals are

[DeIirium]

At 3/5/13 05:34 PM, Cyberdevil wrote:

At 3/5/13 04:48 PM, saqwert wrote:

By the look of the languages in this thread so far, it does seem the way! About learning Japanese, would learning the spoken language without first learning the alphabet be a bad move? I mean, learning words and their meanings (and writing them with Latin characters) before Kanji or any of the other written variants?

I studied the kanji first, because while you're studying kanji you learn lots of vocabulary at the same time, and if you can't read kanji it limits your reading abilities greatly, which makes the language harder to learn I think, unless you have lots of people to talk Japanese with in real life.
I think Tangorin is a really good site for studying kanji, they provide a list of all the joyo kanji ordered based on how commonly they are used, and they have comprehensive information on all of them including stroke orders and readings, plus jinmeiyou kanji and hyougaiji. They also have example sentences with english translations and furigana available, so it's also good for learning grammar.

[Jolly]

I've been occasionally learning German, but I've kind of lost the motivation to do it and haven't been working on it lately. I've been using duolingo to learn it.

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/5/13 06:13 PM, saqwert wrote: It also depends on what your goals are

The primary goal is being able to watch anime/movies without subtitles. After that, who knows, interacting with Japanese people, traveling to Japan, /?). In first hand I'd just like to understand Japanese when I hear it, I haven't actually considered reading anything but if the written part makes it easier to learn/memorize the rest, I'll start with that.

At 3/5/13 08:51 PM, DeIirium wrote: Kanji, etc

So.. the most complex form first? Not Hiragana/Katakana? Thanks for the link btw.

[Ruby-S]

At 3/6/13 03:46 AM, Cyberdevil wrote:

At 3/5/13 06:13 PM, saqwert wrote: It also depends on what your goals are

The primary goal is being able to watch anime/movies without subtitles. After that, who knows, interacting with Japanese people, traveling to Japan, /?). In first hand I'd just like to understand Japanese when I hear it, I haven't actually considered reading anything but if the written part makes it easier to learn/memorize the rest, I'll start with that.

In this case, you don't really *need* to learn the Kana firsthand, but it only takes 2 days at most and there's really no reason to *not* learn it. You could probably scamp on Kanji, as that is a true hand full.

At 3/5/13 08:51 PM, DeIirium wrote: Kanji, etc

So.. the most complex form first? Not Hiragana/Katakana? Thanks for the link btw.

I don't see any reason at all to learn the Kanji first. You're going to be burning the Kana into your mind anyways when you memorize all the Kanji readings, and memorizing the readings in romaji is just plain silly. Learn the Kana first.

I used this to learn the Kana. I would recommend drawing them on a paper and pronouncing them as you memorize. Makes for a much more engaging learning experience.
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

Read this too, so you know what the hell Kanji is.
http://kanjidamage.com/kanji_facts

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/6/13 07:10 AM, KevinHR wrote: In this case, you don't really *need* to learn the Kana firsthand, but it only takes 2 days at most and there's really no reason to *not* learn it. You could probably scamp on Kanji, as that is a true hand full.

I seem to recall the entire first semester of school being focused on learning the English alphabet, with only 25 characters. Just 2 days for Kana sounds almost too good to be true. :)

I used this to learn the Kana. I would recommend drawing them on a paper and pronouncing them as you memorize. Makes for a much more engaging learning experience.

That definitely sounds like the best way, when you write something it's stored partially in muscle memory as well so it should make things easier to remember than just by sight.

[Ruby-S]

At 3/6/13 08:19 AM, Cyberdevil wrote:

At 3/6/13 07:10 AM, KevinHR wrote: In this case, you don't really *need* to learn the Kana firsthand, but it only takes 2 days at most and there's really no reason to *not* learn it. You could probably scamp on Kanji, as that is a true hand full.

I seem to recall the entire first semester of school being focused on learning the English alphabet, with only 25 characters. Just 2 days for Kana sounds almost too good to be true. :)

It IS true! While 2 days may sound like little, it's 2 days of dedicated hard work. And when I say "learn" I mean memorizing to the point of being able to recall and write down all 92 syllabaries in a single sitting, complete with pronounciation and correct stroke order. You're going to be a real slow reader in the beginning, and probably have a hard time differing between similar characters, but by the 2 days you would've layed your foundation to expand upon through simple practice.

I used this to learn the Kana. I would recommend drawing them on a paper and pronouncing them as you memorize. Makes for a much more engaging learning experience.

That definitely sounds like the best way, when you write something it's stored partially in muscle memory as well so it should make things easier to remember than just by sight.

Yes, and it's fun too. (at least it was for me) You might want to use flash cards in addition. Realkana seems popular. I personally didn't use flash cards for learning the Kana, but many do, and it probably speeds up your recognition.

[TracyJacksonTAW]

I'm fluent in English (of course) and also Chinese.

English was my first language, growing up in England that is more or less required. I learned Chinese because almost half of the world population speak Chinese, and would be helpful if I wished to go into international law (or diplomacy).

[sweet21]

Im learning Japanese, I know Spanish.
Albeit I dont know mcuh Spanish, I kinda stopped learning when I was 6 or something. I cant connect alot of words.

[Ruby-S]

At 3/6/13 10:40 AM, TracyJacksonTAW wrote: I'm fluent in English (of course) and also Chinese.

English was my first language, growing up in England that is more or less required. I learned Chinese because almost half of the world population speak Chinese, and would be helpful if I wished to go into international law (or diplomacy).

Do you have any tips or resources to share with Chinese learners?

I've been wanting to learn Chinese for some time now, and will probably get to it once I'm confident with my Japanese.

[TracyJacksonTAW]

Well, most of Chinese is just brute memorization. When writing the words, you just have to memorize what each word is written like, really ins't much way around that.

Same goes for speaking and conversing in Chinese, there's really ins't any tips for learning how to speak the language...unless of course, you could try to link a word to something you know in English or something...

[saqwert]

James Heisig wrote a book called Remembering the Hanzi, which, if its anything like Remembering the Kanji, should be pretty helpful

[Skaren]

At 3/5/13 09:35 PM, Jolly wrote: I've been occasionally learning German, but I've kind of lost the motivation to do it and haven't been working on it lately. I've been using duolingo to learn it.

I'm pretty much in the same situation, but I've been using Rosetta Stone. Is Duolingo good?

[Jolly]

At 3/6/13 07:36 PM, Skaren wrote:

At 3/5/13 09:35 PM, Jolly wrote: I've been occasionally learning German, but I've kind of lost the motivation to do it and haven't been working on it lately. I've been using duolingo to learn it.

I'm pretty much in the same situation, but I've been using Rosetta Stone. Is Duolingo good?

Yeah, it's pretty cool. It makes learning a language like playing a game, you earn tokens, level up, and compete against friends. It gives you more motivation to do it.

I just got stuck at one part and kinda lost interest.

[Cyberdevil]

At 3/6/13 08:19 PM, Jolly wrote: Yeah, it's pretty cool. It makes learning a language like playing a game, you earn tokens, level up, and compete against friends. It gives you more motivation to do it.

That does sound motivating. If only they had some more languages in that list...

At 3/6/13 08:41 AM, KevinHR wrote: It IS true! While 2 days may sound like little, it's 2 days of dedicated hard work.

A 48 hour shift of hardcore lingual learning? I'll give it a try sometime. :)

At 3/6/13 10:55 AM, sweet21 wrote: Im learning Japanese, I know Spanish.

How far along are you with Japanese?

At 3/6/13 10:40 AM, TracyJacksonTAW wrote: I'm fluent in English (of course) and also Chinese.

In Chinese, is there any structure/pattern to the symbols, that makes it easier to link different words or sounds when you learn it, or are all of them as unique as they look?