Language Learners

[StatusWoe]

I thought I'd create a thread for the language learners of Tattle. This includes people who are self-teaching, in formal education, and those who are learning just for fun. Hopefully this can be a place where members can share tips and support each other.

I'm doing Spanish again after a long break. I took the GCSE at school (long time ago now) and a night class, but I'd like to improve beyond that basic level. I find the grammar easier than most languages I've studied, but my accent is terrible. Sometimes listening is hard because it's spoken so fast. I've been listening to lots of Spanish and Latin American music and consider this revision.

• Which language/s are you studying?
• What are your reasons for learning that particular language?
• How are you finding it so far? What do you like about the language? Any aspects you're struggling with?

 

[PollyPerks]

Hello! This looks like the thread for me I'm currently learning Polish and absolutely loving it. My best friend is Polish and he is a bit of a language geek like me, so we would very often end up having conversations about the intricacies of the language. This got me curious and I started learning Polish on Duolingo. Eventually my friend suggested to me that I get myself the same Polish text book that his husband has, and he set up Saturday morning classes on Teams where he teaches his husband and me Polish using the teaching materials from the books. It's so much fun!

So my reason is basically 'for fun' and because I love the idea of one day being able to have a conversation with my friend in his native language. I would never have thought of learning Polish before we became friends but I'm so happy to have discovered it as it's an incredible language. Having studied quite a few languages before I keep picking up elements of other languages in it - Latin, German, even French. And there's so many things that seem infuriatingly complicated - for example, a case system that relies not only on the position of a noun in the sentence but whether you're speaking positively or negatively about the noun! - but each time I discover something bizarre it just makes me more determined to master it!

I've also discovered that every time I meet someone Polish and tell them I'm learning the language, their first reaction is 'why on earth would you do that??' before they then proceed to tell me at length all the ways in which Polish is a special and amazing language

 

[Ensay]

Mostly French. Like most people, I learnt it at GCSE and really enjoyed it. My teacher was very disappointed I didn't go on to do it at A Level, but I always said I'd try to keep my skills up. I mostly do the modules on Duolingo and having the knowledge I gained from GCSE was vital to that, as I think learning a language from scratch in Duolingo is pretty hard.

My reasons are mostly due to being able to speak it when I visit France (or anything other French speaking country), but also because I find that learning another language also helps improve my English. Being a native speaker, there are lots of things I didn't even realise about my own language until I learnt another.

I find I've hit a bit of a plateau. It's like I can cope with complexity up to a certain point, but then when I go above that, I lose confidence and keep forgetting things. I need to get better at tenses as well.

I've also learnt a very small amount of Welsh on Duolingo -- mostly because I was going on holiday to a predominately Welsh speaking area of North Wales and thought I may get the chance to use a few basic phrases (I didn't as it turned out!) and also to learn the basic pronunciation rules. I also learnt how to say the longest Welsh town name just to see if I could really. I doubt I'll progress my learning very far in Welsh, but I've enjoyed giving it a go!

 

[Snippysnips]

I used to know a bit of French, Spanish, Welsh, gaelic an Japanese an BSL but I've mostly lost it all with not keeping it up

I want to go back to my gaelic since it's a gaelic/English school my neice will be going to an I've been trying to teach her BSL as well, mostly so I could have at least some sort of communication with her when she wasn't at the talking stage so it was just things like more, all done, yes, no etc at the time but I'd like to learn more an have her learn with me

I'd also like to go back to my Welsh, my papa was Welsh so I learned because of him, he was a English speaker but it was nice to learn his native, an I'd like to get my Japanese at a good stage as well since on future I want to travel out there

I don't even know where to start with it all again, it's hard for me to keep up the motivation with it an keep a schedule as well as know what apps will be the best to go with

 

[xoxoxo13]

I'm 'studying' German because I want to move there next year. I need a B1 level to get my passport.

But I am just so tired after work, I can't bring myself to do anything.

 

[StatusWoe]

But I am just so tired after work, I can't bring myself to do anything.

I know how you feel.

I'd also like to go back to my Welsh, my papa was Welsh so I learned because of him, he was a English speaker but it was nice to learn his native, an I'd like to get my Japanese at a good stage as well since on future I want to travel out there

My grandad was Welsh, but I've never learned the language. I'm impressed with your list of languages. Is Japanese difficult? It would be amazing to visit Japan sometime.

And there's so many things that seem infuriatingly complicated - for example, a case system that relies not only on the position of a noun in the sentence but whether you're speaking positively or negatively about the noun! - but each time I discover something bizarre it just makes me more determined to master it!

That really does sound complicated. Very intriguing! I'm interested in the Irish language for similar reasons, though I've never studied it properly. It's very different to English. Here's an article explaining some of its features: https://www.lexiconista.com/awesome-irish/

 

[no-no]

Which language/s are you studying?

• What are your reasons for learning that particular language?
• How are you finding it so far? What do you like about the language? Any aspects you're struggling with?

I’m forever ‘learning’ Spanish. I hated it at GCSE but picked it up easily and got a good grade with little effort. I’ve wanted to learn loads of other languages over the years but settled on Spanish because it is one of the ‘easier’ and most common ones. The older I’ve got the more I love it and watching Spanish speaking tv shows makes me wish I’d dedicate more time because being bilingual is a life goal.

I had classes with a private tutor not long ago but it was awful because I didn’t have make time after work to revise. She was patient and suggested things like putting post-it notes around the house so I might do that. I know you can reach conversational fluency in < a year, but procrastination 🥲 I have kids books and Collins Grammar + Verbs + Vocabulary. I only find the apps helpful for pronunciation, but I do like the ones you speak in to and it translates. There are lots of Spanish teachers on Instagram, I tend to look at the content of those who teach kids atm I used to stick YouTube videos on, too. Hopefully this thread will give me una patada en el culo.

 

[Sglodion]

I'm learning Vietnamese because I want to move there to become an English teacher - I've been learning on duolingo since about May. I was in the country over the summer and could communicate alright with people (although only at a basic level, like complimenting their food/home/tour guiding skills and explaining what this white British girl was doing alone in Vietnam trying to speak Vietnamese at people, lol), but I had to write everything down because my pronunciation is TERRIBLE and no-one could understand me

I'm thinking about getting an online tutor to practise speaking with, but I'm not sure at what point it would be most worthwhile. Like at the moment I don't know enough vocabulary to have much of a conversation beyond the "my name is Sglodion, how are you, how is the weather in Ho Chi Minh City today" level, and so I'm not really sure what we'd do for half an hour... My dad has a French tutor but he can already speak it to the level where they just spend an hour discussing French politics or whatever, so that's not much help. Anyone who's tried learning with a private tutor, can you please give me some idea of what you actually do in lessons?

 

[no-no]

Anyone who's tried learning with a private tutor, can you please give me some idea of what you actually do in lessons?

I booked 10 hours and you could have them 2x a week depending on the tutor. They also had free nights at the school where you could go and chat with tutors/other students. First session was so she could understand what level I was at and what I wanted to get out of the tutoring. I didn’t have a plan of action so we covered all the basic stuff. We’d discuss themes and practice pronunciation, grammar etc. I was set homework and encouraged to lead on the content.

I would do them again but only at intermediate level (CEFR B1) so there’s more to build on. It can be intimidating fumbling over basic words with a native speaker, even though the tutor I had was lovely. That said, I think some people could benefit from them as a beginner but it is very expensive compared to what you’d get out of them vs being disciplined with self-directed study.

 

[Snippysnips]

My grandad was Welsh, but I've never learned the language. I'm impressed with your list of languages. Is Japanese difficult? It would be amazing to visit Japan sometime.

Thanks, at one point I really threw myself into learning a lot an done OK with it, I had learned that being able to switch between languages could help starve off dementia an since it runs quite heavy in the family I really got stuck into it all

I guess it would depend on how well your memory is for Japanese because really your sorta learning 4 languages at once, although the Japanese discourage romaji so I tried to keep away from that as much as I could, I'd say focus on your hirigana first as that is the main an then go onto katakana since that is used for non native words an since your name will be non native then its helpful to learn that an then finally kanji which is the most difficult

 

[Sglodion]

That said, I think some people could benefit from them as a beginner but it is very expensive compared to what you’d get out of them vs being disciplined with self-directed study.

Thanks - yeah, this is what I'm thinking. At this stage I'm still getting a lot of benefit out of DL and free flashcard apps, so maybe when I've completed those courses I'll look more into getting a tutor. My doubts over doing things this way round are because there's not much point having perfect grammar and knowing a lot of vocabulary if my speaking skills are so bad that I still can't actually talk to anyone, but on the other hand it's also hard to practise speaking if you don't know any words!

 

[Keikochan]

I am studying Japanese. I studied it in school and did it for my LC.
I really love the culture and want to be bilingual. I've traveled there before and it was fun trying to communicate. I am hoping to travel again at some point. I know the hiragana & katakana, a few kanji and basic words & sentences. There is so much to learn though and I need lots more practice.
Thankfully there are lots of good Japanese TV shows to watch and pick up phrases from.

 

[mochibean]

I guess it would depend on how well your memory is for Japanese because really your sorta learning 4 languages at once, although the Japanese discourage romaji so I tried to keep away from that as much as I could, I'd say focus on your hirigana first as that is the main an then go onto katakana since that is used for non native words an since your name will be non native then its helpful to learn that an then finally kanji which is the most difficult

I've been learning Japanese for 3 years now, it's so difficult but I will say in my experience I don't find it like learning 4 languages at all. If you start with phonetics aka hiragana and katakana you cut out romaji immediately. Romaji misleads people so much that when I was first starting out I was mispronouncing so many words because I was reading them from an English perspective. Hiragana and katakana are actually really easy and can be learnt within a couple of weeks if you practice every day. Kanji makes reading so much easier in the long run, even though they are difficult to learn and many of them look similar. I think Japanese is a very intimidating language due to using multiple scripts, especially kanji but I struggle way more with grammar, especially with very complex topics and sentence structures.

I've been dissuaded from learning Chinese because I struggled so much with kanji initially. Especially when there's more than one of them to make up a word, has me totally lost at times. That being said though learning languages is so fun, it'd not be a challenge if it was too easy.

 

[mochibean]

I am studying Japanese. I studied it in school and did it for my LC.
I really love the culture and want to be bilingual. I've traveled there before and it was fun trying to communicate. I am hoping to travel again at some point. I know the hiragana & katakana, a few kanji and basic words & sentences. There is so much to learn though and I need lots more practice.
Thankfully there are lots of good Japanese TV shows to watch and pick up phrases from.

Have you watched Terrace House? If you know even basic sentences and vocab it's super easy to pick up natural Japanese from that show! Unfortunately it did get cancelled but there are a few seasons of it.

 

[Keikochan]

Have you watched Terrace House? If you know even basic sentences and vocab it's super easy to pick up natural Japanese from that show! Unfortunately it did get cancelled but there are a few seasons of it.

No I not heard of it but I'll look into it & try find it online. Thanks!

 

[mochibean]

No I not heard of it but I'll look into it & try find it online. Thanks!

It's on Netflix if you have that.

 

[279cupcakes]

I was excited to see this thread! I learnt French the entire time I was at school, so I have an okay grasp of grammar/vocab, I just struggle to hold a conversation. I would really like to get better at holding a conversation and understanding some books/shows.

Two of my good friends at uni are French so I should really have conversations with them, I just get nervous and flustered that they’ll think I’m terrible. My uni has a language hub where you can borrow magazines and book conversations with native speakers, so I’ll try that at some point

 

[xoxoxo13]

Does anyone have any advice on German? And om balancing work and studying languages?

 

[StatusWoe]

Does anyone have any advice on German? And om balancing work and studying languages?

Do you have any specific questions about German? My sister is a German speaker so I could always pass a couple of questions on to her. No advice about the work-study balance because it's something I struggle with as well.

 

[Ilaariaa]

Does anyone have any advice on German? And om balancing work and studying languages?

I did a basic German exam last year and my teacher gave us a few resources for self-studying so we could keep it up once the course was finished.

Firstly the Easy German channel on Youtube which has a ton of videos where you can hear native speakers talk at different levels of difficulties and with German and English subtitles. There are a lot of channels on Youtube called Easy German, Easy French, Easy Italian etc., they all follow the same format and imo they're good quality;

The PONS online dictionary and Verbformen.com for conjugations and declensions, noun gender and meanings;

DW Learn German is a pretty good free online course that is structured in levels (from A1 to C2), you can take a placement test and each level has a lot of resources, exercises, short videos and vocabulary lists in different areas.

She also recommended Seedlang (which is sort of like Duolingo I think) but I have yet to try that so I can't really tell you more.

Hope this helps