Just a quick inquiry here /lit/, how many of you are bilingual? What do you speak? How did you learn? I've decided to start learning how to read, write and speak Polish since it is where my family is from. Can anyone on here attest to its difficulty?
http://claritaslux.com/blog/the-hardest-language-to-learn/
I'm bilingual in French and English because Québécois, I've spoken both since I was born. My spoken and written French are not great these days due to lack of practice but I can still read more or less anything in French.
Can't attest to Polish, but I'm learning Russian which has some similarities I'm told. After the initial struggle of memorizing how the different grammatical endings work and learning the prepositions and such the language became relatively easy to pick up on, due to those same formal rules. You almost always know what type of word it is based on its ending which makes reading unfamiliar texts a lot easier.
I think these rules, like noun/adjective inflection, verb conjugation and aspect are true of Polish as well.
Don't learn a language for sentimentality's sake.
Unless you're going to live in Poland some day, learn a language you could use almost every day.
finnish, english(duh), some french
english because muh lingua franca, french because I was there for a while
>>7842799
I'm bilingual. I started learning German at the end of high school.
I kicked off with Michel Thomas' program (I've heard only his Spanish, Italian, French, and German are worthwhile), then took it at college too. Mostly I just began reading, and listening to things in German, and that helped me to understand a lot. The grammar is a little tricky. So, I had to practice that quite a bit before I got it down.
The only advice I'd give is do at least 30 minutes every day. Don't do 3 hours in one day ever week. I don't think I can understate how important consistency is.
Another thing: there's a website "How To Learn Any Language" that rates languages in terms of difficulty, and describes some materials, but the real gem on this crap site is the forums. A lot of very motivated language learners always taking about techniques, or just having conversations in their target languages. It's a great resource.
As a non-Anglo, I speak more than one language.
Beside my mother tongue and English, I also studied Latin, Spanish, and some Russian and Ancient Greek.
>>7842813
Don't trust this guy. Languages give you more than what you would deem "useful" beforehand. Not only does learning the language grant you a way better access to the culture of your interest, it also gives you a different access to your mother tongue and culture. Reflection is the keyword. Really interesting.
As to Polish, I guess it is similar to Russian, which was the most difficult language for me. That is not because of the grammar, you' ll get into it, but because of the strangeness of the words. The words in Romanic or Germanic languages just come more naturally to me and probably you too, as an English speaker.
You'll certainly need dedication.
>>7842832
Okay well have fun learning a language you can't apply while learning it...
>>7842810
Have studied some Latin and can attest to this, once you memorize conjugation and declension you can infer the basic meaning of a sentence easily.
>>7842845
>Latin
>Ancient Greek
I have, thank you very much :)
>>7842853
How long did it take you?
>>7842853
I think he's saying the less you can apply a language in day to day life, the harder it is to learn.
Polish, English, and shitty french
>>7842804
Inaccurate
>>7842909
That is certainly right.
However, with ancient languages specifically, it is not my goal to speak them, but rather to understand them.
Which does not really support one's claim to be able to 'speak' those languages, but the focus while learning them is simply a different one.
>>7842863
I've been studying Latin since I chose to learn it at school nine years ago.
I am currently learning Greek in a course that is stretching over two semesters, after it I am supposed to be able to read the classic authors. I should already able to read the bible to some degree after half a year.
>>7842926
I am supremely jealous right now. I live in Canada and did not have that option, I was forced to learn shitty Quebecois French.
I would give anything to have a school system like that, where do you hail from?
Also, how are you liking aforementioned course?
>>7842938
I am from Germany.
We at my school had the choice between Latin and France, and could add Russian later on.
The system differs from Bundesland to Bundesland and even from school to school.
Some even offer Ancient Greek aditionally to Latin.
I hope the demand for Latin remains for a long time, for egoistic reasons, because I am aspiring to become a teacher one day, but also because no other modern language is tackled the way the ancient languages are, with more focus on the understanding of grammar and with a deeper insight in the studies of languages in general.
The Greek course I am taking is actually really good, mostly because of the highly competent and easily accessible tutor we have. The book we are using has mostly altered texts from ancient authors and also some written by the authors of the book themselves. It is good to have a tutor there who is able to comment on the quality of a text.
The workload is very high. Unfortunately, I am a little lazy at times, but you know how it is, everything will change the next semester...
In which we will be reading original texts, as we have dealt with most of the grammar in the first half of the course.
>Hungarian-native
>English-fluent
>French-basics
I'm about to start to learn Russian in April, since I'll move to Moscow in September.
Serbian is my native language,i'm pretty good at English and i'm currently learning German at school. It's pretty cool i guess,but i wish i could learn more languages.
English Native, Decent French, basics Danish.
>>7842799
I consider myself fluent in French and German, and honestly well-read in Japanese and Chinese. I had courses in school, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek ones. Later, I would use Anki but it was disappointing. Nothing is better than correctly reading, speaking and learning the target language's grammar. The key is dedication, regularity and diversification in study materials. However it should be a high-quality material. I've been living in France for a short time and grew rather skeptic about the benefits of immersion. In my opinion, you'll unconsciously mimic the natives' errors and poor vocabulary. After all, we often talk about the same, boring things every single day. Why would a French or a Polish do otherwise? Of course, I assume you do want to be cultured in the language you're looking for.
I'm Italian but actually grew up in a region with a recognized linguistic minority so I consider myself natively bilingual - although I assume this is more or less the norm in Europe, considering the number of dialects and regional variants that are everywhere.
I picked up English very early (I mean, in addition to what little we are taught in schools) and then actually took up languages as a study career. Currently I have a degree in English, but I've also studied a smattering of other european languages. I actually studied a bit of Polish, didn't practice it a lot so now I just remember the basics, but in general I agree that it is a relatively difficult language, the declensions and verbal aspects need a bit of work for non-slavic speakers.
german and english, can understand les bandes desinees
learned english from ASOIAF
>>7842799
How difficult can it be if even Poles speak it?
