What language did you learn and become fluent in, as an adult? What were your strategies to actually learn vocabulary?
I am watching gay porn in my target language here:
http://gejejo.tumblr.com/
It surprisingly works.
italian, browse /ita/ everyday
>>52041732
bit gay tbqh
>Chinese
>hard
>>52041923
>doesn't agree with mainstream consensus to be edgy
kek ok
>>52042263
>toki pona
No thank you. I'm not that gay.
>Easy
>French
Hahaha go for it buddy if the very well documented stats tell you french is easy you'll surely have no problem
>>52042593
French is just what happens when a German Barbarian tries to learn Spanish.
>>52041732
Buonasera.
>>52042682
>>52042593
French really are born conceited to think that their culture and language are something special.
>>52041680
Huh, I was always taught that the hardest languages to master are Finnish and dutch.
I mean there are a lot of foreign combinations, and the grammar is not very logical. It's overall easy to learn some words, but rather hard to be proficient at I imagine. Dutch people switching to English the moment you failed the 'do you even Dutch?' test doesn't help people trying to learn dutch in NL either.
(As a sidenote, why would anyone want to speak dutch anyways? Literally useless.)
>>52049877
You'd be extremely retarded to think french is easy.
>>52042593
>French is hard
Is this a new maymay I'm not aware of?
>>52050085
>any language which has a phonetic script
>harder to master than Chinese and Japanese
Yeah nah.
>>52050085
The only people that I ever met who learned Dutch were into Hardstyle.
Drug addicted 20 something year olds.
>>52050142
It's definitely nothing special
>b-b-but muh grammar!
I hope that you don't seriously believe that french grammar is harder than Italian and Spanish grammar. For any western-european, French is relatively easy compared to other foreign languages.
>>52050085
Do you guys also magically know when someone is a foreigner even if he doesn't make mistakes in his grammar?
>>52050142
It's a relative scale retard. No language is truly easy. But compared to other languages it most definitely is. Romance languages period are the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn. Get over yourselves. Spanish and Italian are just as difficult don't think you're so special.
>>52050167
>If you learn all the chinese and japanese letters you mastered the language!
Except no.
Beginning of Japanese and Chinese is hard due to this, but the grammar and other structures are a lot more straightfoward than Dutch grammar and other structures.
>>52050142
>French speakers really are offended that others don't think that their language is the epitome of sophistication and difficulty.
>>52050348
Imo as an English native, Italian/Spanish>French. I personally think Italian is easier than Spanish but I've heard others say different.
French is still easier than German, retards with "muh Germanic" are fucking stupid, German is hard.
>>52050368
Learning hanzi may become easier with the time but if you seriously believe that remembering 5000k hanzis, their pronunciation and their tone is somehow comparable with knowing 5000 words you're just deluded.
When it comes to grammar, I'm also pretty sure that languages such as German, Russian and Arabic easily beat Dutch in that matter.
>>52050509
Spanish is objectively harder than Italian IMO.
Gotta say, speaking/reading italian is easier than spanish.
>>52050336
Yes. If the dutch even sense a slight awkwardness in pronouncing the words, they'll switch to English. Dutch people are very eager to 'show off their amazing English proficiency' and we developed some kind of sixth sense for 'not dutch how I think it should go'. It has to be really intimidating for foreigners that want to learn dutch by using it in real life.
>>52050528
I'm assuming mastery, which is knowing every in and out of a language. The learning curve with dutch is fairly flat but is extremely steep towards the 100% mark. Btw a quick search showed ~58k unique characters, of which 8k are still 'alive'. In any case not 5 million.
http://www.hutong-school.com/how-many-chinese-characters-are-there
I'm not disagreeing with harder to be proficient at, but harder to master. Also again this is just what every dutch person is taught.
>>52050595
Yeh I think so too.
I wanted to learn a Romance language and was initially thinking French but Italian and Spanish seem like an easier choice.
Spanish is slightly harder imo and I'm less interested in Spain... but Spanish is supposed to be more useful. Sorta torn honestly.
Is it true that if i was to learn Spanish i could understand most of Italian/Learn Italian easily off that. There is supposed to be some mutual intelligibility right?
Haven't become fluent in any language,unfortunately.I'm just trying to learn english by talking to people on this board, but it doesn't work out,actually.I assume that chances to succeed at learning a language depend a lot on your native language and if it's close to the language you learn it will be pretty easy for you to become proficient. As example, when i started learning english at school i couldn't realise that there are some words such as "am/is/are", which are actually untranslatable into my language. That's the main reason why most of people in my country can't say more than "London is the capital of the Great britain" after fucking 11 years of studying the language at school.
>>52041680
>I am watching gay porn in my target language here:
>>52050812
can't say personally since I haven't really given Italian a go, but I living in Central America I met a few Spanish speakers that said that learning Italian was easy. I also met an Italian girl that was basically fluent in Spanish after only learning it for a year. Definitely goes both ways.
>>52041680
>Oh, look, Hindi uses a different alphabet, that must mean it's harder to learn than French and Dutch!
>>52041923
Chinese-brazilian detected
>>52050970
It just takes a few dozen more hours.
This chart is meant to be used when training soldiers. Civilians have more time to spare.
>>52050646
It's Esperanto, an easy-to-learn artificial language combining traits of Slavic, Romantic, and Germanic languages, among others.
>>52041923
This.
Chinese is easy for Gaijins.
there are no honorific, and same grammar as English.
>>52051039
Are you fluent in Esperanto?
>>52041680
>What language did you learn and become fluent in, as an adult?
Ironically, English. In elementary and high school everyone had to study German (which I had already forgotten) but after graduating, I started playing tons of /v/ideogaymes, watching american movies and tv-shows, even reading books, so after a while, you picked up words and even grammar rules.
I think it took like 4 years until I was able to speak English properly. 6 until I could literally understand everything, starting from deep marine biology to relativity theory. Never had a teacher, everything I learned was due to immersion.
My biggest pet peeve though, is because I haven't been able to speak with anyone I still have a fricking hungarian accent. Fuck that.
>>52051077
Nah, it's not all that useful as a language, so I never tried. There is a course on Duolingo, though, if you're interested.
Why would you learn esperanto when you can learn other more interesting constructed languages like quenya, sindarin and klingon?
>>52050167
>Is this a new maymay I'm not aware of?
Not him but in the real world beyond memes yeah French is considered hard
I've heard people countless times saying "but French isn't hard ! Except the pronounciation" and I can't understand a word they're saying.
>>52050807
Yeah, that k was a typo.
>>52050812
Written Spanish is harder to understand than written French due to the basic vocabulary which is a little bit more distinct (Comer-Manger-Mangiare, Día-Jour-Giorno, Queso-Fromage-Formaggio). I once read that it was because these words came from Vulgar Latin in Italian and French, but from Classical Latin in Spanish and Portuguese. But yeah, it's pretty understandable, especially if you know the basics.
With that being said, grammar-wise I can assure you that Spanish is harder than Italian. We have pretty much the same tenses (They just have an additional one which is used only in very formal contexts nowadays), but they tend to use more of them in their everyday speech (At least in Spain). They also retain some small grammatical differences which Italian has lost (The difference between "to have" as an auxiliary and as a stand-alone verb, the difference between a temporary "to be" and an innate "to be", various way to say "to become" and to express the future etc.)
>>52051184
Because
1. Esperanto gets you laid.
2. Helps promote international understanding.
3. It has a couchsurfing service.
4. Lernu Esperanton!
>>52051226
I know a few people here who are trying to learn french
Typically they can't get the R's and sounds like "deux"
>>52051125
Upload vocaroo desu
>>52051184
I would love to learn Sindarin!
Can you suggest any good resources?
>>52041680
Fluent Norwegian is hard. Even most Norwegians can't speak or write properly (to my great frustration). It might be easy to get a overall good understanding of the language, but I promise you, you will never be fluent. I can usually spot a non-native speaker from their first or second word. But if you are satisfied with speaking understandable Norwegian and don't give a fuck about all the grammatical and paradigmatic mistakes you are bound to make (especially native English-speakers), it's the language for you!
>>52051294
reddit.com/r/Sindarin
I'm not joking either. I moderate there and I post all the links I can find about it.
>>52051030
>one is a pretty ordinary language with a regular as fuck script
>one has an overly complex grammar for English speakers and spelling everything is a mess even to native speakers
>welp, the second one uses the latin alphabet so that one must be the easiest one
>>52051266
Ok that's interesting to know. Makes learning Italian sound more appealing. Its a shame people just hate on learning it :s. Should just follow my dreams desu
>>52051278
Can you vocaroo yourself speaking Esperanto?
I want to see how much I can understand conversational Esperanto.
>>52051226
I guess that as an italian-speak I am somehow biased (Most of the Italian boomers also learnt French as a second language and not English), but it's hardly any more difficult than Italian and Spanish.
Again, as an Italian I might be biased, but even German is way harder than French, both in grammar (Especially syntax) and pronunciation.
The only thing that I may agree on is the fact that it is somehow hard to get used to read French, but it has its logic, unlike English.
>>52051344
I'll give it a look, thanks. ;)
>>52051435
Give me an excerpt.
Mi estas komencanto.
>>52051539
It's from a Wikipedia article:
Unu el la promesoj, kiujn donis Lenin, la estro de la revolucio, al la rusa popolo, estis paco kaj finigo de la Mondmilito. Kiam la nova soveta Rusujo faris armisticon kun Germanujo kiel verigon de la promeso decembre de 1917, la orienta fronto (inter Germanujo kaj Rusujo) de la milito ekmalekzistis, kio signifis perdon da strategia sekureco por la aliaj nacioj militantaj kontraŭ Germanujo. Usono, Francujo kaj Britujo, kune kun aliaj malgrandaj ŝtatoj, provis re-krei la orientan fronton per halti la Rusan Revolucion. Pro tio ili subtenis tiujn movadojn, kiuj jam kontraŭis la revolucion, i.a. defendantojn de la carismo kaj de la provizora registaro kreiĝinta kaŭze de la februara revolucio. Tiel estiĝis la Rusuja Enlanda Milito.
>>52051430
Well, you can always learn another latin language after you're done with Italian. Apart from maybe Romanian, you will find them way easier once you've reached a decent level in Italian,
>>52051395
For an English-speaker, considering the shitton of French lexicon present in English, yes.
>>52051293
nonononono pls. I'm really insecure about it.
I'd rather just practice by talking to my cat in English for a couple of months, I'm sure my accent will improve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP3gzee1cps
vid sort of related but not really. it's a cat speaking in a different language.
>>52051463
>pronunciation
So wait, you're comparing a language in which the biggest worry you're going to have while writing down a word is whether to write 'f' or 'v', to a language in which "verre", "vers", "vert", "ver", "vair" and "verres" are all pronounced exactly the same?
Say what you will about German grammar but German spelling and pronunciation are the fucking easiest.
I'm learning French. I can read and write okay, but I can't understand it spoken unless it's very slow. Any tips?
>>52051901
Watch french movies with english subs
I really wanted to learn Chinese but fuck it.
>The problem of reading is often a touchy one for those in the China field. Inferiority complexes or fear of losing face causes many teachers and students to become unwitting cooperators in a kind of conspiracy of silence wherein everyone pretends that after four years of Chinese the diligent student should be whizzing through anything from Confucius to Lu Xun, pausing only occasionally to look up some pesky low-frequency character. Others, of course, are more honest about the difficulties. The other day one of my fellow graduate students, someone who has been studying Chinese for ten years or more, said to me "My research is really hampered by the fact that I still just can't read Chinese. It takes me hours to get through two or three pages, and I can't skim to save my life." This would be an astonishing admission for a tenth-year student of, say, French literature, yet it is a comment I hear all the time among my peers.
>The "sink or swim" approach just doesn't work in Chinese. At the end of three years of learning Chinese, I hadn't yet read a single complete novel. One day I happened to find a Spanish-language newspaper sitting on a seat next to me. I picked it up out of curiosity. I had a sudden discouraging realization: Having never studied a day of Spanish, I could read a Spanish newspaper more easily than I could a Chinese newspaper after more than three years of studying Chinese.
>Someone once said that learning Chinese is "a five-year lesson in humility". I used to think this meant that at the end of five years you will have mastered Chinese and learned humility along the way. However, now having studied Chinese for over six years, I have concluded that actually the phrase means that after five years your Chinese will still be abysmal, but at least you will have thoroughly learned humility.
http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html
>>52050646
AAAAAAAH
Fuck you, anon !
>>52051800
I'm talking about motherfucking pronunciation, not reading nor orthography.
German has almost all(If not all) the phonemes present in French, plus its unique sounds such as the "ch" in "Ich" (no, pronouncing it as "Ish", while not unheard of, is wrong) and the uvular trilled "rr" in "Pfarr".
>>52051693
Practicing with native speakers is really the only good way to improve your accent and enunciation. I understand though I'm pretty self-conscious about my spanish accent.
>>52052014
It's tumblr. Typical SJW shit.
What did you expect?
>>52051693
Post your accent. We want to hear a hungarian accent. Please read the following:
>What happens in our brains to make us feel fear, love, hate, anger, joy? Do we control our emotions, or do they control us? Do animals have emotions?
>>52041680
How does that pic define proficiency? Because you won't be anywhere near fluent in the easy languages in 6 months.
I studied German in uni and am working on Finnish.
Aside from formal study, I watch Moomin cartoons, and listen to Finnish music.
I can't say I've come across gay porn in Finnish, yet.
>>52052152
Level 3 in speaking and writing (level 5 is considered fluent).
Does anyone have any good podcasts or spanish speaking shows for intermediate speakers? I really need to be listening to more everyday Spanish bt it's hard to find something interesting to listen to or watch.
>>52052210
And what does that mean exactly?
>>52052233
Definitions are here:
>General Professional Proficiency
http://www.govtilr.org/Skills/ILRscale2.htm
http://www.govtilr.org/Skills/ILRscale4.htm
Also be aware that the "time to proficiency" is measured from the viewpoint of a native English speaker.
>>52052152
Depends on the person. If you're a NEET, then you could easily be conversational after 6 months. You'll probably have the vocabulary of an 8 year old, but you could easily get good enough to understand 80% of the language.
>>52051956
4th year Chinese student here, this is true.
>>52052211
Thank me later.
http://ka5nom.com/esperanto/TYEBook.pdf
>>52052332
> Speaking 3 (General Professional Proficiency): Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations in practical, social and professional topics.
In 6 months/600 hours? That seems way too short
>>52052404
And actually I don't see how you can participate in a conversation without being fluent.
>>52042682
As a german:
No
Just stop, America. You're being American again, it's embarrassing.
>>52052396
Thanks for a link to a completely useless language!
>>52052160
I've seen Finnish anime. It's pretty much the same thing.
>>52050595
>objectively
>IMO
YOU
THE GAS CHAMBER
NOW
>>52052404
It's not that short. For english or rmoance speakers 6months is enough to get good at conversation and understanding most of a language. Most people simply don't learn efficiently, will occassionaly stop studying, and may inly out in 15 minutes a day.
>>52052464
Are 6 year olds fluent? They can speak and participate in most conversations.
I can't trill my R. I've been learning Russian for nearly 4 months at this point, and I feel on the verge of dropping it simply because I can't pronounce half the words correctly.
I'm honestly at a loss of what to do, anything that I've been told to do just doesn't make anatomical sense, I'm supposed to tense my tongue but keep it loose, I'm supposed to hold my tongue up towards my teeth, and somehow manipulate the air to go over just the tip of my tongue, without making any audible noise from my throat.
I suck at it and it's really fucking disheartening if I'm being honest. I'm British English, this entire concept is so Alien to me.
>>52052537
>finnish anime
What a weird rabbithole you live in...
>>52052555
Well the definition of "objective" changes according to the person, too.
I think that it is objectively harder, but I can be wrong.
>>52052570
>Are 6 year olds fluent? They can speak and participate in most conversations.
No they can't. Someone speaking like a 6 years old wouldn't be able to function in a professional environment.
This is how a 6 years-old speaks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5URTelVodao
>>52052742
>wouldn't be able to function in a professional environment.
Well is being "able to function in a professional environment" now the definition of fluency or being able to participate in a conversation.
My main point was that, it's possible to be able to participate in a conversation (discuss your background, job, studies, goals, past and future events, etc.) without being fluent.
My brother is 6 years old and he's not fluent, but he can definitely participate in conversations and understand most things. His issues are more with logic than language.
Hell using your definition of "professional environment," I know a few 14-16 year olds that aren't fluent.
>6months is enough to participate in most conversations
Assuming that the person studying is a linguistical genious
>>52052874
Also, that video is a bad example. That girl speaks well. Most of her problems are with her age (lack of intelligence) than language. If a foreigner had her vocabulary and understanding of english, they could travel and share ideas without any major problems.
>>52052404
I guess it's based on FSI language courses. If you're using something else then your results may vary.
There's also different levels of language learning aptitude. That time is for someone who scores 95+ on aptitude. If you score lower you can still learn but it would obviously take longer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Language_Aptitude_Battery
>>52052874
>Well is being "able to function in a professional environment"
According to http://www.govtilr.org/Skills/ILRscale2.htm that's just proficiency, not fluency.
>Hell using your definition of "professional environment," I know a few 14-16 year olds that aren't fluent.
Well, yes.
>>52052929
I'm strictly talking about english and romance language speakers learning english or another romance languages.
Our languages (english, french, spanish, italian, etc.) are not that hard.
You can be conversational (good enough to make friends at bar) quite easily. Getting good enough to give speeches or lectures takes longer.
>>52053034
>good enough to make friends at bar
Annoying people with your stupid accent (ie an accent that makes you sound stupid) and your broken sentences is not a very good way to make friends.
>>52052585
Just keep practicing and don't give up because of something dumb like this. Trilling your Rs can take ages to master.
>>52053079
It got me with your mom last night actually
>>52053108
Joke's on you, I have 2 dads and no mom.
>>52052874
The differences between the various linguistic levels are not in what one can do, but HOW one can do something.
Even at low levels one may express their thought and opinions, but certainly not in the same way of a fluent person.
"He is right"
"In my opinion, the second speaker is right. One cannot contribute to deforestation without taking one's responsibility. Furthermore, allowing a person to behave like this, legitimise pretty much everyone to do the same"
Both examples show that the speaker thinks that a certain person is right. But I think that you will agree with me when I say that the second definitely shows a better command of the language.
>>52053104
>brit flag
>practicing
I don't think you should be giving advice on how to learn languages, m8
>>52053079
Pretty much this. You will always be a foreigner. People won't be your friend, for real.
How many Mexican friends do you have?
>>52053034
Well you can't hold a meaningful comversation with them, most likely.
According to that first chart you can uderstand frenchies, nederlanders and swedes just fine after 6months. Its total bullshit.
>>52051693
Vocaroo is good to hear yourself and improve your own accent. Come to the vocaroo's thread once in a while
>>52053104
Practicing what? How to do it wrong? I don't know what to do so how can I practice it
>>52053155
I agree with you, but unless you're an academic, politician, in most of your daily life (outside of work) you would just say "he is right. if a person cuts down trees without consequence, then others will do the same."
That is not too difficult for a non native to understand or recreate.
For me fluency is all about conversation and being able to interact with people. When I'm at uni I may speak like that, but when I'm with friends or average people, I'll speak simply and succinct manner.
>>52052493
>implying
>>52051693
Here's a tip: Go on TeamSpeak and join the american/british servers. Usually there are lots of people there to practice.
Also, you can talk to yourself. I do it a lot. When I'm alone, I read out loud and talk to myself as if I was another person. I also record myself speaking and correct it later.
>>52053217
>Well you can't hold a meaningful comversation with them, most likely.
Define meaningful. I think 6 months is long enough to be able to:
>introduce your self
>talk about your background
>describe whether you work or study
>why you left your last job
Most people simply won't spend those 6 months constantly learning; or they'll learn in a poor fashion (6months of only duolingo).
>>52053207
>>52053079
I wouldn't take social advice from people on 4chan. The biggest hurdles towards meeting people is pronouncing things correctly. Slightly accents are not a major problem, but good pronounciation is requirement. That is not too had to develop (assuming someone starts learning a language with forvo).
>>52051602
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ulbyUZ3Yaa
>>52053340
Well, the higher levels are inherently academic, there's nothing you can do about it. A native-speaker hasn't necessarily mastered its own language.
Of course, being able to speak at a B2 level with a relatively fast pace will do in one's everyday life, but it still doesn't suffice due to the lack of grammatical structures knowledge that might impede effective communication in formal settings.
>>52053475
>Slightly accents are not a major problem
Maybe not in English but in French it is.
>>52053475
I'll repeat again, this is all a description of english/romance languages learning another romance language or learning English.
Our languages are all fairly similar, have many shared words, and the grammar is not too crazy.
>>52053198
I get them confused every time, without fail.
>>52053490
This shill has a Chinese accent.
Esperanto confirmed for Beiking OP.
>>52053475
>Define meaningful. I think 6 months is long enough to be able to:
>introduce your self
>talk about your background
>describe whether you work or study
>why you left your last job
Thats not a conversation, thats giving a policeman enough information about yourself to not be suspicious.
Profiency to me means that I can keep talking about random topics with strangers, give out my own opinions and make remarks about the other person's opinions while having a discussion.
>>52053545
I don't know spoken French well enough to comment on that; so maybe you're right. In my experience (Polish) I only have an accent when I'm reading text and there's unfamiliar words.
Everything I learn is accompanied by audio of a native speaker. I'll usually repeat new words dozens of times and try to get as close as possible to the recording. Of course I still have an accent, but the people I speak to can immediately understand what i'm saying without asking me to repeat myself.
Unlike with some EFL speakers I'll have to ask them to repeat themselves before I realize "oh they're pronouncing x instead of y".
>>52053297
Practising your Russian. There are many exercises and tricks to get you trilling Rs if you look around. Also, lots of Russians can't do it either, if that helps at all.
>>52053674
I'm pretty sure the only opinion I can share with any foreigner is that their taste is shit
나는 한국어를 배우고 있다. 나는 Anki를 쓰다.
>>52053490
That's cool! I understood about half of it without reading along!
>>52053903
화이팅 내 귀워운 미국 친구
>>52052136
Had to try out since I haven't spoken in english for awhile.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1WMrQA9ueon
>>52054201
>귀워운
>>52054354
Not bad. Your accent would not be annoying. People would not think you were stupid. You just sound a bit "formal". People would probably describe it as German.
>>52053653
B-but I'm [spoiler]white[/spoiler].
>>52054107
Dankon!
>>52041680
Saluton!
>>52056590
Kiel vi?
Mi estas aliulo.
>>52056927
Mi estas Usonano. Ha!
>>52056986
Ĉu vi scias la malsamecon inter kiel kaj kio?
>>52057007
....Silentu!
Ankaux, mi ŝercas.
>>52057160
Estas malbona ŝerco, knabĉjo.
How long until people realize that duolingo doesn't really work?
>>52057395
Took me 1 week
>>52057230
Fiku miajn vaginĉjojn, sinjoro.
>>52057434
>vaginĉjo
Malbela bildo, aĉulo.
>Polish
>Hungarian
>Finnish
>Cantonese
>>52041680
I grew up speaking Syrian Arabic but I'm rusty. Plus I don't know MSA. I want to improve my speaking abilities and learn MSA once and for all. I feel like it won't take me long to learn since the grammar is already in my head. I seem to know a lot more than I give myself credit for but I'm still ashamed I'm not completely fluent. And I know a bit of Turkish from Duolingo. I wish to become fluent in it as well eventually.
>>52057594
>learning Turkish instead of Kurdish
Daesh scum.
>>52057636
No offence to the Kurds but they're not very smart people. No point in learning that language.
>>52057667
Why aren't the Kurds not smart?
Many other minorities have been wiped by the Turks, but not the Kurds.
>turkish
>50.8 million speakers
the population of turkey is 80 million with like 10 mil diaspora, how does that work?
>>52057594
good lad, we can help you on /tr/ if you need help
>>52057722
>Why aren't the Kurds not smart?
i dont think you said what you wanted to and also yeah they really are not very smart, they're not very educated but only speaking for the Kurds in Turkey, Kurds in Iraq seem pretty cool.
>Many other minorities have been wiped by the Turks, but not the Kurds.
if you're talking about genocides, kurds were pretty much the ones carrying out massacres...
>>52057722
>Why aren't the Kurds not smart?
They're just not smart anon. Intelligence is genetic and some groups are just smarter than others.
>good lad, we can help you on /tr/ if you need help
Appreciate. I'll start stopping buy once I have a solid foundation to at least start understanding most things.
>>52051184
I'm so shocked something like Rosetta Stone hasn't tried to capitalize on modern "nerd culture" by doing Quenya, Sindarin and Klingon language packs.
They even did a Rosetta Stonme: Klingon April Fools joke and a lot of people at the time really wanted it.
>>52051226
I don't get how if you don't have the pronunciation of a native French speaker the French will be snobby and pretend not to understand what you're saying but when they speak english they have the worst accents out of anybody
>>52057473
How do you say "boipussy" then? "Virvagino"?
how long should it take to learn a language?
>tfw want to learn french and spanish
>think it would be cool to watch movies without subtitles
>>52058657
Vaginiĉo, kompreneble.
>>52058727
>tfw want to learn french and spanish
Once you learn one of those, learning the other will be much, much easier.
I would recommend starting with French, because it's closer to English and imo the French->Spanish transition is easier than the Spanish->French transition.
>>52058846
People who learn Esperanto learn French even easier. And Esperanto only takes a few months to master. A romance language can take 2 years just to get the fundamentals.
>>52058953
Vivu la movadon!
>>52059008
Ĝis la nokto, nokto fin'
>>52058953
but who actually speaks Esperanto? seems like an obscure century old language that never caught on really
>This thread
I never knew the French were so guarded and pretentious over their language. Is it an inferiority complex?
>>52059127
Are you likely to use French everyday? Probably not.
Esperanto has an active community but online and offline. Plus it's cool speaking a complete language in a fraction of the time it usually takes. I read literature in Esperanto for pleasure. There is enough to read for dozens of lifetimes.
>>52059223
Who is your favorite author? Is there any good literature from Asia and/or Africa?
>>52059456
My favorite author is William Auld. I've read several of his works, but my favorite is a book called La Infana Raso. (The Infant Race). That's something /int/ would probably like to read.
My favorite Asian authors are either Miyamoto Masa and Ueyama Masao.
There isn't much work from Sub-saharan Africa, but my favorite African author is Konstantinos Kavafis. He's mediocre tbqh.
>>52041680
>Chinese
>1.2bn speakers
Bullshit. For one thing, there are a bunch of different dialects, and for another even Mandarin, the most popular one, doesn't have anywhere near a billion speakers.
>But that second argument assumes that everybody in China is fluent in Mandarin. They’re not. The country’s official education ministry announced last week that only 70% of people in the country can be considered Mandarin speakers. Of that 70%, the ministry said, “only 10% are capable of communicating fluently” in the language. In short, you don’t have to be fluent in Mandarin to speak better than 93% of China.
>If we assume most of the Taiwanese population to be fluent in Mandarin, and generously account for the Chinese diaspora abroad, the number of fluent speakers worldwide looks more like 120 million.
http://qz.com/269243/people-in-the-west-need-to-stop-obsessing-over-learning-chinese/
>>52059604
>My favorite author is William Auld
That's such a mainstream response.
>>52059855
Kial ni parolas je la aĉa angla lingvo se vi estas jam ia samlingvano?
French. Actually the only one relevant language today.
>>52059923
>english
>not relevant
stay butt-devastated, slav-lad.
>>52059872
Mi estas eterna komencanto.
>>52059964
Most of english dialect are useless for slavs, because we can't understand it even with a normal vocabulary case.
Only pacific northwest (like in The Secret Circle TV-show is fine).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPHxF6lf6_E
>>52042593
Nah buddy, French is one of the easiest languages to learn.
>>52059997
>>52059872
Esperanto looks and sounds like a lithunian clone.
>>52060002
Like russian, but without cases and with a more time constructions.
>>52059997
Lernu la lingvon, lacemulo.
Eĉ la duolinga ludo faris ĝin tiel facila por vi.
>>52060019
I think it looks more like Livonian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Wi3b7LqlI
>>52060137
>>52060154
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJvcnKVEi34
>>52058953
>respecting an unnatural meme language
kys, familia
>>52060154
balt languages are completly uncanny valley-tier for me
they sounds like a slav languages, but I can't understand it like polish or czech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOgJs5Gvh2U
>>52060173
I prefer this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kibIM8WjAMo
>>52060183
Mortu.
>>52060237
mortiĝu*
Morti estas transitiva verbo, novulo.
>>52060044
>Like russian
isn't russian supposed to be difficult to learn
>>52060226
His voice does not match his look. He should have a deeper voice.
>>52060247
In Lojban, even nouns can be an imperative.
>>52060272
Ĉu vi povas imagi lian voĉon?
>>52060247
>todos estos squigglies arribas de letras
An absolute disgrace to the Romance family.
>>52060313
Este niño tenía razón.
These random squiggles are disgusting.
>>52060262
it is, but mostly because we have very special orphography
also belarussian is de facto west russian, but it has phonetical orphography
and it could use the latin system
Usie ludzi naradžajucca svabodnymi i roŭnymi ŭ svajoj hodnaści i pravach. Jany nadzieleny rozumam i sumleńniem i pavinny stavicca adzin da adnaho ŭ duchu bractva.
for example russian in the same latin system and orphography system will look the same
Vsie ludzi radžajucca svabodnymi i ravnymi v svojom dostoinstvie i pravach. Ani nadzieleny razumam i sovieśćju i dałžny žić v duche bratstva
but we'll write this in another way
How similar are Ancient Greek and the modern Greek language?
>>52060309
Ĉi tiu bildo tre amuza.
>>52060154
nice chorus
check this, this is a latvian native speaker sings russian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I42-CayHVnA
in songs he sounds almost like a native speaker
>>52060484
I prefer Lithuanian, but Latvian is cool.
I don't speak Russian.
I only mentioned Livonian because it's a Finnic language. I am into Livonian, Eesti, and Finnish.
>>52060475
Amuza? Eble feliĉiga. Ĝi estas la bildo de nia kara estro.
>>52041680
Australian. I mainly learn from my shitposting mateys on /pol/ and sometimes by putting a finger up my bum.
I picked up degrees in Spanish and German in university. Spanish is incredibly simple and straight forward, the only thing that English speakers struggle with is the imperfect and subjunctive tenses.
German was much harder. There is just so much vocab, and the initial learning curve is very steep. Once you understand WHY there are 50 ways to say the/a/an it starts to click though.
If I do a 3rd foreign language, I would either do another Romance language, Russian, or Arabic.
>>52042593
I am currently lerning french,it's easy since both our languages are romance languages and many words are very similar or exactly the same
>>52060539
Tiu estas la bildo de nia kara estro.
>>52060807
Chivu - Cocu
>>52053490
typical fag sounding american
ughhh please can you try to sound like a man ??
>>52042682
>
Underrated bost
Mi dormos nun.
>>52060995
Pardonu min.
>>52041680
Just dropping by to post the language resource I post in every language learning thread I see.
https://gloss.dliflc.edu
It's survey for english speaker. Gook's and jap's have honorifics and grammar is different from western language.
>tfw sometimes wish I was born in a european country because then it's pretty much guaranteed you're bilingual
Oh well my life is pretty fine so shouldn't complain I guess
>>52061248
You're a nigger, your brain isn't capable of learning much.
>>52061376
Only anglos in Australia are monolingual.
Why not just pick up another language, bazza?
>>52061454
I'm deciding between French and Spanish. Not really sure how much I'd use either though.
Currently learning chinese. How fucked am I?
Haven't become fluent in anything as an adult unfortunately. Currently working on my spanish to get it there. Right now I can understand everything and know all the conjugations etc. but my vocabulary is utter shit and I still need to work on my conversational skills
>>52061454
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZudqkBtUso
I think /int/ should have a language general. We could actually do one good thing other than shitpost and compare how white everyone is.
>>52061519
I started studying Spanish about a year ago and am already very proficient. But, I've been studying languages for a long time, so it's a little easier for me.
>>52061528
Conversational skills first. Get the feel for the grammar and structure before you try to get into vocab. It comes easier once you have a better general understanding of the language. There are so many cognates between the two that vocab is really the least of the worries.
>>52061632
Good thing to see someone agree. If I wasn't lazy I make a meme worthy image for a language general.
>>52061602
You use duolingo. Where you at?
>>52061640
Yeah, lately I've been watching and listening to some Spanish stuff so I can understand what people say more quickly. My speaking has been limited to me hearing what things are supposed to sound like and trying to imitate it by myself, so it's not that great. In terms of grammar, I can understand and create most Spanish sentences fine, but long and complex sentences take a bit of time to come up with and I can't read sophisticated literature yet either. At my current rate I should be conversational within a year though, assuming I know the necessary vocab to keep it going
>>52061905
Hearing it spoken conversationally is huge. There's a youtube show called "Extra" that is meant for intermediates that really nails a lot of basic spanish conversational patterns. Hearing the way people enunciate certain phrases in context really helps.
If vocab really gives you trouble memrise is a good site to really get it down. But focus on getting comfortable with stringing together sentences and general comprehension. Reading books are great for that too.
>>52061248
flagged, ebola'd and eat the poopoo
Anyway, if any of you friends want to learn Limburgish, I am here for you.
>>52062122
>Teaching a fake language
No thank you. I might as well learn Dutch.
>>52062156
It most definitely is not a fake language, gringo.
>>52062190
>>52062156
>>52062122
You may as well learn Klingon!
>>52062190
>Limburgish
>East Low Franconian language varieties
Is this r real?
Serious question: why doesn't /int/ have a language general?
>>52062357
Because everyone already speaks English.
Never mind lads, I'll take it to /pol/ and fling some Charlemagne story around it. They love that shit there.
>>52062357
sina pilin e ni tan seme?
mi jo kin e toki lawa wan. toki ni li toki pona.
>>52062434
Of course you can speak even klingon in the language generals
>and hot memes
>>52062375
Have fun dumbing down for the stormfags.
Generally I try to find videos for babbys, stuff like Sesame Street for example. I haven't learned any languages as an adult though, I learned all I know while still a child and teenager. At the moment I am reading some Japanese book meant for toddlers and doing a bunch of flash cards on Memrise.
I'm also chilling in the toki pona threads here because I have a half-knowledge of it from when I was in high school...the threads got me interested so now I am doing the toki pona lessons because why not.
>http://gejejo.tumblr.com/
unue "La Kojoto" por malsamseksemuloj, nun ĉi tio...vere, esperantujo ĉiam grandiĝas
>>52062659
Honestly, while Esperanto looks interesting I don't think I have the time to learn it. It would pretty much just be a hobby.
>>52051435
Not that anon but I have spoken Esperanto for years...
Here is some basic speech, which I will do slowly for you: http://vocaroo.com/i/s02TeGmRYp2q
Here is me reading that excerpt: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0zKuyqx7XEX
>>52062806
I've never heard Esperanto before. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm high but it sounded way more slavic than I thought it would. Really cool though. It sounded very fluid. How long did it take you to learn?
>>52051956
If you really want to learn Chinese, you won't have this problem, anon. It's obviously difficult, and more time consuming than French or Italian, but a person who can't read or even skim-read properly after 10 fucking years of study owes that to their own retardation rather than the difficulty of the language.
That author says Chinese teachers and students don't want to lose face by complaining about the complexity of the language, well I'm telling you that this author wants to save face by blaming the language rather than their own retardation.
Put an ounce of effort into learning, and you won't end up like all the people who learn Chinese because "muh booming economy" and end up coming out the other end only knowing how to order a coffee.
>>52063096
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=303M_aU1WIc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dNRtJ9ZEGY
>not learning ido
>>52063364
I really like Esperanto i just need to focus on Spanish atm. I feel like I need to get close to fluency before I start another language. The singing sounded almost sounded Portuguese to me
>>52063607
If you study Esperanto, it will aid you with any Romance language.
However, if you study Spanish first, Esperanto will be doubly easy.
so should I learn French or Spanish?
>>52064594
Learn Arabic.
>>52064594
What do you want to learn? Everyone in my class in middle school picked spanish, cause we'd had to learn a second language for high school and the general consent was "They're practically the same anyway, so just pick the one with the not fucked up pronounciation."
>>52064594
Learn toki pona >>51961438
>>52064594
Spanish is more widely used and easier to learn since pronunciation and spelling is fairly simple compared to French.
>>52041680
>Portuguese
>178Million People
Brazil alone has over 200 Milion people you dumbfucks!
>>52066095
A-are you, a t-tuga, actually admitting Brazilians speak Portuguese?
>>52066158
A Very broken and gramaticaly incorrect breed of Portuguese.
>>52066215
Sometimes its easier to listen something in english than in Brazilian Portuguese.
Only learned German to a somewhat fluent level as an adult. The grammar is really not as bad as people make it out to be and the vocabulary is easy to learn if you know some other Germanic language. Pronounciation is as simple as English, but Anglos often have a hard time with it for some reason.
>>52041680
>Hebrew
>medium as Russian as Finnish
why does Russian belong to Medium
Aren't there many people complain about it?
>>52063096
Eh, I don't know how long it took...Not very long, probably a couple weeks to be conversational and a few months to be intermediate, and probably by the year mark I had reached the point of thinking and speaking at a fluent pace and writing at a complex/intuitive level. I was 14 or 15 when I learned it, for me that's ten years ago by now so I don't remember much of the learning process to be quite desu with you.
>>52063536
see pic
>>52065993
I dunno, I have heard Spanish grammar gets more difficult than French and uses the subjunctive mood more
>>52063364
Ĉu estas vi, tiu ulo kiu ĉiam afiŝas videojn?
Nu, ne gravas. Ĉu vi ŝatas ĉi tiun version de Tiel La Mondo Iras? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PlbYCIhqsk
>>52067200
That version suxxx. :P
>>52067262
Kial?
Mi ŝatas ĝin kaj mi ne bedaŭras.
>>52067328
>sad white boy music
>>52067139
We definitely use subjunctive a lot but that's not really a problem when you get the hang of it.
>>52067504
Ĝenerale "sad white boy music" ne plaĉas al mi, sed laŭ mia lia voĉo estas bona, kaj li ludas sufiĉe bele. Mi amegas la version originalan de Juliano, tamen la omaĝo estas plaĉa. Eble estas nur ke mi surpriziĝis ke mi ĝuis ĝin.
>>52053155
>legitimise
*legitimises
>everyone
*everyone else
>>52041680
There are more native Portuguese speakers than that in Brazil alone.
