Ask language-related questions that don't deserve their own threads here.
What are some countries/regions that learning their language will serve you best with? A country where not everyone has perfect English, and they appreciate it a lot when you learn their language.
I mean like the opposite of the Netherlands/Germany/Northern Europe.
>>1087878
>What are some countries/regions that learning their language will serve you best with? A country where not everyone has perfect English, and they appreciate it a lot when you learn their language.
As a Westerner with fluent Thai, I can say that Thai people are often impressed and delighted by foreigners speaking good Thai. Those of us who can read and write are an even more amusing party trick.
The downside is that it is not a useful language anywhere but Thailand and Laos (Lao is very close to Thai, in large part mutually intelligible, and everybody in Laos watches Thai TV, so fluent comprehension of Thai is universal, and city people can almost always speak it).
I have also found a few opportunities to use it in Cambodia, where a chunk of the population has lived in Thailand either as economic migrants or refugees (there were still camps on the Thai side of the border until the mid-1990s), but it's a little weird because the Khmers mostly hate the Thais. Also used it a tiny bit in Burma, mostly among minority peoples near the border. But overall, not a useful language globally.
>>1087978
Oh, and was also going to say that anywhere off the tourist track in Thailand (almost the entire Northeast, rural parts of the North, many inland/non-beachy Southern areas), there isn't much English. Even in the most sophisticated parts of the country the quality of English is rarely high among the general population.
>>1087878
Russian in most of the former Soviet Union--I found it particularly well-received in Central Asia, where memories of Soviet times are not generally bitter. Not so much in the Baltic except among ethnic Russians (who make up large minorities everywhere in the region). But ethnic Russians aren't going to be effusive with praise just because you speak Russian, it's just practical. Outgoing friendliness to strangers is not a greater-Russian trait.
>>1087878
arabic will open tons of doors if you dont look like the typical arab speaker. some will always be clised to non muslim speakers but just intermediate level will get you a lot of respect. if your accent is shit they will mock you though, so that too.
>>1087994
I'm told speaking Russian will also make a lot of hagglers and other annoyances fuck off instantly in some countries - no one wants to mess with a Russian.
>>1087878
France. Even the worst attempts at French will get you further than perfectly fluent English. In fact, doing pantomime will get you further than English. Just try to avoid using it at all if you can.
>>1088011
Do you Modern Standard Arabic or one of the dozen or so dialects? I've been spending time learning standard but honestly terrified I'll go to Lebanon or something and make an ass of myself
>>1088035
both, dialect is better for travel and socializing, modern standard is better for academic purposes. dialect is way easier and if you want to get into a particular country and really know it dialect is going to be what you want to know.
modern standard wont really get you far unless you have a really good grasp of it.
How long does it take to be able to chat in Spanish? I haven't learned Spanish before.
>>1088066
For an English speaker Spanish is supposed to be around ~500 hours of study. Honestly not too hard
>>1087978
Not useful? Pffft! I can totally impress waitresses in the US...
I am ashamed at my laziness to learn how to read and write. I have basic reading down, but it's no where near my spoken level.
And this Anon is correct, in a lot of SE Asia, people love it when you try their language.
>>1088170
I actually almost mentioned the Thai restaurant issue. Even more hilarious is being able to speak a local dialect in a restaurant. I speak some Isaan Lao, and someone in the kitchen is nearly always from the Northeast--I've been given off-menu special treats many times.
Reading and writing are a lot of work, no question--my handwriting looks like a child's, and it took me several years of pretty serious study before I could get all the way through a newspaper without a dictionary. I still keep a dictionary in my lap if I want to read a novel.
>>1088174
I speak a bit of Northern/Lanna and switch over to that when I meet people, great for traveling Phayao and Nan etc. It was also great since all the girls I dated were from there, thus I could understand them when they talked to mom. My gf now is from Chumphon so I have to learn Southern... As for reading, I lived there for 6 years and been going there for about 10 years, so I really have no excuse :/ I know I will move back for good in the next few coming years and will force myself back into classes there. currently planning a SEA trip for the summer as my GF has only been out of the country to study in Canada/US.
>>1088027
>just started learning how to speak French
>sat in front of a couple from Paris on a plane, both of whom only spoke French
>storm at destination forces the plane to land in a different city
>apparently I was the only one on the plane who knew ANY French
>received their immediate and undivided attention when I stuttered out "je parle un peu de Francais".
>clumsily tried to translate the situation, absolutely couldn't figure out the word for "connection" (as in they would miss their connection to Paris, "connexion" wasn't landing for them)
>they were clearly amused by how poor my spoken French was, ended up writing it out instead
>after struggling and just barely managing to communicate it in writing, they gift me their French-English travel dictionary that they never once tried using
It was amazing how much they didn't want to speak any English. And the correct word was "la correspondance", which, hilariously, was in the travel dictionary.
I ended up passing it off to my cousin who was going to Paris that summer, so at least it came in handy somehow.
what is the best way to learn spanish besides duolingo, interpals, and moving to a hispanic country?
>>1088793
Go to a language school.
>>1088793
Agreed with >>1088796. If not a specialized school, look for local community colleges (if in US--I've had language classes at the one in my city for something like $80/semester), or potentially a tutor.
I've studied a lot of languages--more than ten at last count, six of which I can actually speak--and I've found that there is no substitute for at least a bit of formal instruction from someone who actually knows how to teach. Self study is great, conversation partners are great, and immersion is great, but all can teach you the wrong stuff and reinforce mistakes without solid fundamentals beneath them. And these are almost always best acquired from someone who both knows a language and knows how to teach it.
Whats the best way to learn a language for free online, already use duolingo
>>1088066
Spanish is maybe the easiest language to learn for a native English speaker because so much of English has a basis in the Romantic languages and Spanish itself is a very simple and logical language that has many parallels to English.
>>1088793
Assimil is the best method to learn Romance languages if you are an English or French speaker.
I want to be very comfortable in the basics of Mandarin because I am planning to travel to Shanghai in a couple of years and Beijing sometime in the next decade. What would be the best way for me to spend about 100 hours of Mandarin study? I'm not concerned about reading literature or developing long-term, Chinese speaking relationships, I just want to be able to comfortably buy and sell things, book reservations, make small talk, etc. I think it's rude to not use the local language when you're in another country.
I have been considering Assimil Chinese because I had great success with their French course, but reviews of the Chinese series are disappointing. I could use a Mandarin textbook like what would be used in a first-year university course, but I'm afraid this will be much more in-depth than I would like.
Any comment is appreciated.
How useful would French be for general European travel, especially in Italy and Greece? How useful is it otherwise? I am already learning it for reasons.
>>1088947
It's less useful than English in Italy and Greece. Otherwise, it opens up all of France and many nations of Africa.
If you're only going to learn one language for general European travel, then learn English, just because it is already a global lingua franca. If you already know English, then Russian is going to open up the most European nations for you, because many people in the former Soviet republics still speak it, as it is a lingua franca for Eastern Europe.
>>1088947
As an Italian, forget trying to get anywhere with french here, unless you're going to visit Valle d'Aosta.
>>1088947
i wouldnt know from experience but im pretty sure aside from what has been mentioned there are areas of belgium and switzerland and russia where you can use it.
>>1088987
>russia
yeah, with the czar maybe
>>1088472
When i was last time in France, german was the same.
>>1088944
look for Confucius Institutes in your area, they offer free beginner's classes regularly.
/int/ makes everyone from every country come off as fluent in English to me, but I know that's probably an outlier. Which Euro countries are bad at English and which ones are good at English besides the Netherlands and Scandi countries?
>>1089473
my spanish friend people in his bumfuck town are shit at english
>>1089480
*said that
>>1089473
none of the countries are really that good at english, people that say that probably had some type of assistance the thing is you can survive off just english all over europe because there should be someone around that can manage to work with you based off the language, but its still awkward. if you know it, you'll be ok and a fear of not being understood shouldnt keep you from traveling.
>>1089473
Northern countries are good at English, southern countries not so much
Is starting to learn Spanish and French at the same time a bad idea (I am scared of mixing them up)?
>>1089722
It is not necessarily a bad idea, depending on how quick you are with languages, but the chances of getting them mixed up are high. I recommend getting the fundamentals of one down before starting the other. Perhaps stagger them by six months or a year.
Should I minor in Spanish or French?
I'm from Hong Kong. My major has nothing to do with languages/business but the idea of doing a language as a minor appeals to me as I get to learn another language without paying any extra money. Should I minor in Spanish or French?
Spanish
>Took a course at uni and did a lot of self-learning by myself
>I like the way Spanish sounds more than French
>Spanish spelling and pronunciation is easier than French
French:
>Began to explore what French is like around a month ago
>French culture, history, literature and cuisine seems more interesting
>Would prefer living in a Francophonie country as opposed to a Hispanic country (moving to somewhere such as Colombia? No thanks)
>>1089783
bump
>>1088987
Yeah everywhere in Belgium basically. Although English will get you further in Flanders & you'll get friendlier responses. (otherwise they'll think you're a walloon refusing to learn dutch)
![italkilogo2[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/bmUHPCj.jpg "italkilogo2[1].jpg")
Anyone here ever taken a lesson on this site?
Was it worth it as opposed to just learning by yourself?
>>1091461
I haven't taken a lesson but I've done language exchange with 3-4 different people and it was great every time. I'd definitely recommend using it
>>1091464
Spain and Hispanic countries are full of black people as well?
How many words do you need to know to be able to communicate in a language?
>>1088035
Like the other snon said , standard arabic is used in education( books and printed stuff , but conversations in class is mostly dilacte ) , in formal papers and kids tv shows/ history shows , other than that , even when applying for a job , arabic dilactes are always used
>>1092388
>How many words do you need to know to be able to communicate in a language?
This obviously depends a great deal on the language, and for most languages, just volume of words doesn't necessarily make communication possible--for languages with complicated inflection systems, a big vocabulary is practically useless without an understanding of the case system.
Ultra-basic small talk can be made with 50-600 words. Comprehension good enough to learn from context, and accurately guess the meanings of words you don't know, starts somewhere above 1000. I've seen multiple people advocate shooting for an active vocabulary of between 2500-3000 words.
>But again, I'm not sure size of vocab is a useful metric for language learning progress. I am conversant in several languages in which I have quite small active vocabularies, and I can comprehend a lot of the vocabulary of languages I cannot effectively speak.
does duolingo really work?
>>1093128
For me it works as a supplement to whatever language course I'm already doing but alone I don't see it being too beneficial
>>1092408
This. From what I've heard most languages use the same 1000 words in around 70% of conversations and 3000 words covers like 99% of conversations. Of course it differs language to language though, there's >5000 synonyms for Camel in Arabic for instance. But for travel purposes it's relatively easy to learn enough to get by.
>>1088793
take some classes, alongside with if you live in 'murricah ask any of your Mexican friends to help you or with HW, they'll get your back famalam
Fuck all people in India speak English, in this regard I was totally lied to. Having no Hindi is very difficult in some areas. Arriving in Bengal was comfy because I know survival level Bangla.
>>1091561
thats racist.
Any idea on how to learn Swedish in an area where Im the only Swedish speaker as far as Toronto? Its hard man
No classes, no other Swedes, no resources.
>>1093968
jag Kan lära dig ;O
If you guys could choose a language to self-study, would it be German, Russian, Italian, or Dutch?
I tried to self study japanese before, but it was too hard because the grammar part needed serious practicing so I gave up. I don't want to give up again, but out of all of these, Italian sounds the easiest, and I also like that the most, but it also seems like the least useful
Any suggestions?
Right now I'm fluent in Hungarian, English, I have okay Malay and Indonesian, and basic level of Mandarin.
>>1094045
Personally I would take Russian, but I'm Polish and already know one Slavic language.
If you know English, Dutch should be quite easy. Same with German, if you don't mind Longwordswithnospaces.
>>1094045
Of those, I'd choose German, because I don't speak it at all yet, and there is a good chance I'll spend some time living in German-speaking Switzerland in the next year or two (my wife works for a Swiss company, and there are always jobs at the HQ).
I already have some Russian (which is also a useful language for places like Central Asia), and although I don't really speak Italian I can comprehend a lot and produce crude pidgins thanks to Spanish and Portuguese. Dutch is kind of neat, but seems fairly useless even compared to Italian, not least because the Netherlanders are more or less all fluent in English.
But your experience may vary.
>>1094045
German's probably your best bet since it's a good utility language and you'd be more able to get practise than with Dutch. And I guess you might already know some German loanwords from Hungarian (I know fuck-all in any Finno-Ugric language, so I might be wrong).
Considering there's tonnes of resources out there for it, if you've got basic Mandarin, you might wanna keep on with that, unless you're just dead-set on picking up another European language.
>>1093968
why would you learn swedish?
>>1093968
Swedes are the best English-speakers in the EU (yes, even better than the English)
No need to learn Swedish mang
>Question for any Swissanons...
How hard is it to get around, medium-long-term, in German-speaking parts of Switzerland with no Schwiizertüütsch (etc.)?
I'm probably going to Basel for an extended period--more than a year, for sure. I don't speak any dialect of German yet, but intend to learn before I get there. I know from previous visits that English proficiency is reasonably high, but I'm not going to live somewhere and expect those around me to speak a foreign language.
But here's the question: Nobody teaches Swiss German, obviously, much less the Basel dialect, of which I understand locals are proud. So the only German I will have will be some kind of Hochdeutsch, which I know everyone learns in school. But I have no idea how often it is used in daily life. Will I miss out on a lot, or be greatly inconvenienced in practical ways, with no Swiss (or Basel) German?
Opinions are welcome
>>1094820
Just use standard German, Swiss people will think you are making fun of them, if you use Swiss German with your broken accent. I'm not Swiss, but I think they mostly use normal German in daily life. You should also get around by speaking English.
How useful is Arabic on Zanzibar? I can't seem to find a good answer on google.
>>1093968
Duolingo, swedish media and, probably the best way, get addictedto CS:GO or Dota and start chatting away, most people you'll meet in those games are either russian or swedish.
You know how people live in Guatemala for a bit and do a Spanish course because it's cheap over there? I was in French immersion when I was youngdr and wish I cared more at the time. What French country is cheap to live/learn French in?
What does "though" mean? Please give me examples. I don't mean "even though"!
>>1094888
French Guyana.
>>1094899
But would I learn a retarded version of French? The French I know is already retarded cause it's French Canadian lol
I'm thinking about going on a language trip.
Would I improve a lot in 2 or 3 weeks in another country with 25x50minutes lessons per week ?
>>1096445
Not really. Been there done that. I learned more Spanish by skyping with my Hispanic friend back at home.
>>1096445
You get out of it what you put in. Immersion gives you opportunities to practise, but that's it. You have to use them and be willing to teach yourself a lot when you're outside the classroom. And that's pretty well language learning in general.
By the way, for people who are aiming at spoken fluency, I recommend Glossika. Yeah, it's not clearly structured like a lot of other things, but that just means you can slot it in with other stuff, which they encourage anyway. It's pretty fucking neat.
>>1094827
>How useful is Arabic on Zanzibar? I can't seem to find a good answer on google.
Much less useful than Swahili or English, but there are still some small numbers of mostly old Arabs around. As you may have read, they were mostly killed or exiled in the 60s. But the large majority of the population are ethnic Swahilis, who are mostly Muslim but familiar only with Quranic Arabic. As you probably know, that doesn't mean they can speak it, or quite understand any of the vernacular versions.
What makes us enjoy studying a particular language very much? Liking its culture very much, finding it very easy, getting good grades, or having friends or family members to chat with in that language?
Does assimil really work? I'm on lesson 15 of the passive wave and I don't really know how to say shit in Spanish. When do the results start showing?
>>1094820
You need Hochdeutsch. Fuck learning dialects. Austrians, Germans, and Swiss respect a foreigner who knows clean Hoch
you guys got any recommendations for learning japanese? i live in essex, UK.
>>1097361
watch anime
attend classes
talk to japanese people
>>1088066
It was super for me to get to a conversational level cause I speak French too, but to progress onto fluency is much harder (as with any language).
>>1088472
French people have a chip on their shoulder about English being the Lingua Franca, and thus refuse to learn/speak it. Even when they do, it's often grudgingly and just to say snide condescending shit about Anglos to their faces.
>>1097361
Here's what I did, and I got to a reasonable level of conversation fluency and literacy within a year of self study.
>first of all you need to brute force learn the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets. That should be the first thing you do. It took me a few days to memorise most of them, then a few weeks of constant practice to be able to write and read them without thinking too much. Use this website: http://realkana.com/
>Listen to Japanese-English audio tapes/phrasebooks (can be found on youtube easily) every night to get to sleep. I often listen to the same one again and again which is great; it imbeds the speech patterns in my memory and literally bores me to sleep.
>consume Japanese media as much as possible. For me this was difficult because I hate anime, but with enough effort I found some dramas and such that suited my tastes. I also try and read news articles on current events that I'm interested in as much as possible.
>don't rush into watching Japanese movies thinking you'll understand anything. Even a year and a half into my studies I find it very difficult to pick up much in movies/tv shows without subtitles (though I can usually catch the basic drift). Because they use a lot of slang/pop culture references etc that I don't understand.
>Try to find language partners on Skype to practice with. I have 2 that I regularly practice with, it's like free lessons (provided you teach them some English of course).
>if you want textbooks, borrow them from the library/download them online. It will save you hundreds of dollars.
Anyway, if you're serious about it, you'll do it. Don't believe the "get fluent quick" shit, learning a language takes lots of time. Take it day by day, don't think in terms of years. And before you know it you'll be able to read signs/menus and chat with Japanese people. 頑張って下さい。
>>1097339
>What makes us enjoy studying a particular language very much? Liking its culture very much, finding it very easy, getting good grades, or having friends or family members to chat with in that language?
When I started studying languages as a kid, it was at least partially because it came easily, and I enjoyed good reactions from teachers; the first foreign language I learned was Spanish, and I had no real interest in Spanish or Latin American cultures (I've since come to enjoy many parts of Latin America as a traveler, but I didn't back then). But I very quickly came to enjoy the beauty of language and language learning all by itself--I liked seeing both new and familiar patterns and logic. I chose my second language, Russian, because my high school offered it and it was a less-commonly studied language--especially back then (I'm old, American, and this was in the late USSR days). I was interested in the language by itself, again without much interest in the culture.
But since then, as I've been lucky enough to travel quite a lot and use all my languages in the field, I'm drawn by a combination of pure love of language, cultural interests, and a desire to communicate with locals. It's a total cliche, but people really do open up to you more and give you a different experience when you don't have to make them speak English. For example, I studied Thai and lived in Thailand for a while, and have literally never experienced any of the country's infamous scams. If you speak Thai, almost nobody tries to rip you off--they even go lower when bargaining in markets. And I've had fun in Russia, a place that is famously brusque-bordering-on-rude, that I feel sure I wouldn't have had if I didn't speak (mediocre) Russian.
>>1087878
You probably won't like the answer, but Spanish.
>>1094896
shameful selfbump
>>1098017
t. Leosmith
>>1098031
>t. Leosmith
I don't get it. I get the t., I think--Finnish, right?--but the Leosmith is lost on me.
>>1094896
>What does "though" mean? Please give me examples. I don't mean "even though"!
Is this a serious question?
If so, very broadly speaking, 'though' functions a little like what some linguists call an irrealis particle, or something that marks a phrase as contrasting to a stated or assumed truth.
Roughly synonymous to "in spite of the fact that..." For example:
>She didn't come, though
It was assumed that she would come; contrary to that assumption, she did not.
>I had some great food in Las Vegas, though
In contrast to my assumptions [either that Las Vegas would not be enjoyable, or perhaps that the food there would not be good], I had food there that I really enjoyed.
It also functions very much like 'but,' except it's usually used at the end of a phrase rather than at the beginning.
And I know you didn't ask for 'even though,' but even though and though are nearly synonymous--their function is basically the same, but 'even though' marks the unreal/contrary to expectation thing as the main topic of the sentence.
Hope that helps!
Hey so Ive decided to go to university in September, graduated high school 2 years ago. Thinking about taking french courses.
Anybody learn a language through uni/college course? How was the experience?
I took french in grade school, did alright, but wasn't very motivated back then. So I do know the very basics.
Are the FSI free courses a good starting point for new languages?
They look pretty old but they're legally free (afaik) and come with audio files too.
>>1098203
They're carefully researched and accurate if out of date.
>>1088793
Move to any part of California south of San Jose.
I'm a native English speaker and fluent in German, but I want to learn a SE Asian language because everyone says it will help, seeing as I'm a business major and I've been meaning to learn a third language for some time. I've considered Japanese and Mandarin for a while, and Korean only recently, but I haven't officially begun to learn any as I've not yet decided on a single language to focus on.
>tl;dr what Asian language would best fit a US kid getting into international business?
>>1098495
>Mandarin
>Japanese
>Korean
>SE Asian languages
Pick something else. You don't seem to know much about Asian geography anyway
>Arr Asians ar ther same
>>1098495
I assume "SE Asian" was a typo; None of those languages you mentioned is spoken or useful in Southeast Asia apart from in Singapore, where there is a lot of Mandarin used, and to a much lesser extent Malaysia, although English is official and nearly universal in both of these countries. Almost all Chinese-descended people in the rest of Southeast Asia speak only various Southern dialects-Teochiu, Hokkien, Hakka, etc.--if they speak Chinese at all.
But all that said, which industries interest you? I think Mandarin is still very useful if you hope to do business in China, since even though some of the professional population has learned or is studying English, many hundreds of millions of line workers and functionaries speak none at all. I've been to China on business several times, and I've been surprised by how uncommon English proficiency is overall. I've also visited Korea on business, and guess that average English proficiency there isn't high either, but everyone I met from the managerial classes was at least conversant and many were fluent.
Among actual Southeast Asian languages, I know that there are opportunities for people with business expertise who speak languages used in various manufacturing centers--I've seen postings recently for people doing things like auditing factories, sourcing, and various corporate social responsibility functions that ask for proficiency in Vietnamese, Khmer, and others, since both VN and Cambodia are significant garment exporters. Some electronics out of Thailand as well, but there are enough people with enough broken English among the professional classes there that listings for Thai speakers are much less common (I look for these in particular, as I speak Thai).
>>1098501
>>1098503
Sorry, half a bottle down tonight. Thanks to >>1098503 though for any advice. I'm interested in the handheld devices area, specifically phones and tablets, because it's going to be hard as hell for that market to die.
I had reasons for wanting to learn each language mentioned, but I'm not going to bother writing them out right now.
I'm in my third year of college, TESL certified, 3.4 GPA. Signed up for Japanese language class next month.
I've always been repulsed by the idea of teaching, but teaching English is something I'm warming up to. JET specifically. Same with kids too. Used to hate 'em, now I play with the neighbor's kids when they visit and shit.
It's all very scary. Learning things about myself.
i only speak basic french. will i be welcomed in quebec? i've heard how some quebecois dislike people who do not speak french. is this true?
>>1094045
I'd go with German, Russian second. Italian and Dutch are useless, especially Dutch.
>>1096621
Oh, okay. I was under the impression that it was a sort of lingua franca there in the same vein as English or Swahili. Thanks.
>>1098536
/thread
Italian is good if you are a Music major though. I know some Music majors who are studying Italian.
>>1098527
>i've heard how some quebecois dislike people who do not speak french. is this true?
I have visited Quebec a few times; my French is extremely limited. I encountered no rudeness or problems--many people seemed quite encouraging and pleased with my attempts.
In my experience, it's less that they don't like people without French than that they simply prefer to do everything in French. Unlike, for example, in France, where people will switch into exasperated English at the first sign of an accent, Quebecois keep speaking French until you force them to speak in English. And I admit I was a bit surprised to meet a lot of people with quite limited English.
I want to learn Korean, but I don't know where to start. Do you guys have any tips or recommendations?
>>1098889
stop watching kpop
>>1094045
German. As a Russian, I say it's useless unless you want to be hardcore about literature and read classics like Crime and Punishment. It's not like you are going to visit Russia any time soon (why would you?) and you can survive just fine with English since only scum don't speak it in Russia.
>>1098913
What else?
What is the most useful language for an American to learn other than English?
>>1099260
Spanish or Mandarin probably.
>>1098889
What are you having difficulties with? It's easy to start and the writing is piss easy. Any youtube channel will be fine. I used some talktomeinkorean and busy atom.
>>1099284
Memorization. I guess quizlet kinda helps, but man it just won't stick.
>>1099260
Sanskrit. Read your way into enlightenment.
In order to learn a language you need to speak it all the time. Make friends with someone on skype.
>>1088944
Use Anki, and find the flashcard deck called "Spoon fed Mandarin" or maybe it's "Spoon fed Chinese"
>>1087878
Believe it or not, Germans are not very good at English.
is the average american who has/had learned spanish good at spanish?
>>1094049
Maybe I'll go in Poland (near Warsaw) for six months thanks to university.
After studying a bit of polish it's more easy learn russian?
Is there a good transfer between these two languages?
I think that your country is really nice but I believe that russian is more useful for the labor market.
Thanks.
>>1098037
Thank you! Sorry for the late response. This helped me out!
>>1099549
>Make friends with someone on skype.
That's easier said than done.
>>1100099
True. A lot people online are looking for sex and they are not there to help someone to learn a new language.
>>1100067
>After studying a bit of polish it's more easy learn russian?
Different polanon here. I'd say yes to a degree, but Polish is much harder than Russian. There's a lot more cases, weird rules and words that are unpronouncable for foreigners.
So while there are a lot of similarities, it's much wiser to start with Russian. The stuff you'll happen to learn in Polish might not have an obvious transfer to Russian either.
>>1087162
So, a few Asian languages like Vietnamese are tonal in nature. Does that mean that if I'm pretty non-musical, as in can't play an instrument or sing properly, I won't be able to learn them? Or that it will be much harder to?
>>1099529
Sanskrit is love, Sanskrit is life.
>>1100118
>Does that mean that if I'm pretty non-musical, as in can't play an instrument or sing properly, I won't be able to learn them?
No, many native speakers of tonal languages suck at music (me included).
>Or that it will be much harder to?
Possibly. I know an Aussie who can speak six languages (Mandarin and Cantonese included) and he works as a Music teacher.
>>1100115
>words that are unpronouncable for foreigners
Like Bydgoszcz?!
Thanks mate for the reply.
Anyway I'll have to start with polish because right now I've not time to study another language and there obviously the polish university will give me a course of polish language.
Does anyone have tips for keeping a language? I've heard so many stories about people being fluent in some language at a point of their life, but forgetting it as life goes on.
>>1100615
Languages are "use it or lose it". If you want to keep your skills up, get a pen pal, read some books, etc.
Is it true that the easiest foreign language for a person to learn depends on his circumstances?
Best SE Asian language to learn for a young Australian? I speak English + French + Indonesian, was thinking of learning Vietnamese (worried about tones though) or Thai (feel like it would be more...practical? Also I've heard that when visiting Thailand and speaking Thai that you get a lot of respect...)
Any thoughts appreciated.
I've been learning German for the past two and half years, but I still have some pretty bad problems with syntax. How do you remember what goes where?
>>1100757
Shouldn't it depend on what country you want to spend the most time in? 'cause if you spend quality time in a country you'll learn the language regardless of how difficult it is. That being said, vietnamese tones scared me off pretty quick. At least the alphabet is (marginally) more accessible.
>>1100615
Watch movies and tv in your language. Also my GF and I have one day a week where we try to only speak French.
>>1100099
check out conversationexchange.com. It's crawling with people who speak every language you can imagine.
>>1088793
Join the Border Patrol. I went through the academy and if you don't learn it you're fired. Once on the job it's easy to find people to practice with.
>>1101918
>check out conversationexchange.com
How do these things work? It sounds interesting but I have no idea how to help the other person.
How do you expand your vocabulary? I was thinking about studying a little bit of a dictionary everyday, but surely there's a better way.
>>1089473
English is easy when you get as long as you want to type it and there is a built in spell checker. If they were to speak with you, they would probably have atrocious accents and stammer constantly.
That being said, you need to be good at English to understand a lot of the banter here, so it's likely that the foreigners attracted 4chan are either already good at English or become proficient in it quickly after spending time here.
>>1100757
>was thinking of learning Vietnamese (worried about tones though) or Thai (feel like it would be more...practical? Also I've heard that when visiting Thailand and speaking Thai that you get a lot of respect...)
Both Vietnamese and Thai are tonal; Vietnamese has more tones than most dialects of Thai (6 vs 5), but the difference isn't that huge--if you have a good ear, six tones is exactly as difficult as five. And if you're a serious hotshot, some regional Thai dialects have as many as seven tones.
The practicality of Thai is debatable. It's very useful in Thailand or Laos. People love it when you can speak it, and anywhere outside of a pretty narrow tourist zone (many parts of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the beaches, not many other places) there isn't a lot of English, so it is very useful. Everyone studies English, professional/educated people can use it at least some, and people who work with tourists may be pretty conversant, but if you get out to the Northeast or the sticks in any region, real proficiency is very uncommon. I lived in northeastern Thailand for a long time, and amazed hundreds of people with my ability to converse in Thai--more than one shopkeeper in the hinterlands has looked at me, panicked, and sent his or her child who studied English out to talk to me so he or she wouldn't have to.
But I think the same is true on all counts in Vietnam. Do you like spending time in Vietnam more than Thailand? Then Vietnamese is your best bet. Are you more of a Thailand/Laos guy? Go for Thai.
Thai is also arguably helpful if you want to learn Khmer--although Khmer has no tones and the two languages are not genetically related, Thai and Khmer share a huge quantity of vocabulary, since Thai borrowed a lot of Khmer words back in the Angkor days, Khmer borrowed a lot of Thai words after that, and both use a lot of words with Sanskrit or Pali roots thanks to their shared adherence to Theravada Buddhism.
>>1088011
if you didn't learn arabic as a child then your accent will always be shit
>>1102308
We're not foreigners on the internet you dumb american. Also it's normal to have an accent when you're not speaking in your native language.
t. swede
>>1093128
It gets the basics covered, from there it's up to you to really progress.
how long would it take to become good in a language?
>want to learn french and a few other languages
>don't think i'm making any progress
>>1102823
underated post
Is the average american who has/had learned spanish good at spanish?
>>1098495
Indonesian or Malay. Both are similar too one another and are amongst the easier languages to learn. Indonesia is akin too a BRIC tier nation when it comes to economic potential.
>>1088472
Britbong here. Was talking to my Ukrainian mate last night about how shithouse Frogs are when it cones to speaking English. Even in moat airports abd train stations around the world you have native and English language signs. But not France though. Too arrogant and stubborn to utter one syllable of English or have signs which could help most foreigners in their country.
>>1088968
I think that French is useful in Italy or Spain honestly because you can learn a lot of Italian vocab and understand what is written a lot easier. As a French with some good English skills and a basic knowledge of Italian there is little I can't read in Italian.
>>1098495
Most SEA countries speak different languages therefore they need a common tongue this is usually English (see ASEAN) for example. English is going to be the most common second language most in these countries so you have good coverage there.
Mandarin is the most useful Asian language however these languages will take about twice the time to get good at as a European language, so learn the one you have interest in. Unless you honestly think you can put thousands of hours over years into a language for tangible business payback which is honestly a terrible idea. I tried Mandarin for 3 months for these reasons and didn't get anywhere, contemporary China is not interesting and I have no reason to care to learn it. The nice parts of China I'm interested in are dialectally different to the Mandarin I'm learning anyway... I went with Korean after and I've stuck with that for a year now because i like their media, food etc.. Japanese is usually the best bet for this though.
Honestly I would pick French or Spanish. French is still the world-wide most learnt foreign language aside from English and is still popular among richer people, so not only does knowing French build your social capital and impress people it is also a big language for international organisations, ngo's... mulitnationals etc.. imo its probably the 2nd or 3rd language for business. Spanish is also good it doesn't have the class or business range as French but its more widely spoken. Either takes way less time than an Asian language and both will probably have relevant speakers in Asia.
