Other Other languages you're learning/know?

[PhoenixMire]

Do you speak any languages other than English? Are you currently learning any other languages? What are they?

I'm trying to learn Japanese at the moment. Particles are a confusing mess for me, and kanji is so difficult. :') I also plan to re-learn Spanish at some point in the future. I learned a bit of it in middle school, but I've forgotten it all.

 

[floppyDisc]

Native spanish speaker. Learned english a few years back thanks to the internet and its memes. I'm still learning it, because I like rp'ing in english and I feel bad whenever I play with someone that actually knows how to write

Also learning japanese because.... well, we all know why. I'm stuck at that part where you know too much to be a beginner, but not enough to jump into advanced stuff. And japanese being so different from western languages, I'm finding it really hard to move forward (I never had this problem with english...). Right now I left it in stand by. University is taking all my brainpower

If you ever need help with spanish, I'll be glad to help!

 

[PhoenixMire]

When I was a kid, I was interested in Japanese pretty much solely because of anime, lol... as I've gotten older though, I've discovered I'm really fascinated by their culture, history, and the language itself. I would love to get to the point where I'm fluent enough in Japanese to visit the country and see all the beautiful things it has to offer. Anime doesnt have much to do with my interest in it anymore. Funny how interests change like that.

Thanks for the offer to help! I'll definitely be wanting to learn Spanish someday soon, since I think it'll be useful. I'm amazed that you've learned English so well! I think it's a difficult language, despite the fact it's my native language. I don't have a problem speaking or writing it, but there are so many confusing rules in English that make no sense.

 

[floppyDisc]

Indeed. I'm still amazed at how much nonesense one has to deal while writing in english.

However, spanish it's not free of sin. It may have a somewhat logical writing system, but the grammar.... oh boy

And then there is japanese

 

[marshmarrow]

Taken German for 5 years in school and staying sharp with Duolingo, because I've committed myself to it, but I'm also learning Spanish and Mandarin. I'm decently fluent in German and I can understand Spanish, but Mandarin is turning out to be quite an undertaking with my limited resources. I'm taking it because I'd like to learn a different alphabet. c: And Spanish is incredibly useful.

 

[JEMdice]

I'm learning Japanese as well! I understand how you feel on the particle and kanji stuff. I just use jisho.org and Duolingo to teach myself. Though, my practice of the language is intermittent at best...

 

[PhoenixMire]

Taken German for 5 years in school and staying sharp with Duolingo, because I've committed myself to it, but I'm also learning Spanish and Mandarin. I'm decently fluent in German and I can understand Spanish, but Mandarin is turning out to be quite an undertaking with my limited resources. I'm taking it because I'd like to learn a different alphabet. c: And Spanish is incredibly useful.

That's awesome! I want to be fluent in a language other than English someday. I tried taking Mandarin for a couple years, but I learned hardly anything and forgot most of it. Oops

I'm learning Japanese as well! I understand how you feel on the particle and kanji stuff. I just use jisho.org and Duolingo to teach myself. Though, my practice of the language is intermittent at best...

Yeah, particles are confusing, and kanji is a mess. Very interesting, but still a mess. Why are some kanji characters pronounced differently depending solely on context? Like the characters "now" and "day" - 今（いま）and 日（ひ）、respectively. When you put them together they become "today" 今日、 which makes sense, but then suddenly the pronunciation changes to きょう。。。
And there are tons of other examples like that too. How am I ever going to learn all the exceptions to the rules??

 

[floppyDisc]

That's awesome! I want to be fluent in a language other than English someday. I tried taking Mandarin for a couple years, but I learned hardly anything and forgot most of it. Oops


Yeah, particles are confusing, and kanji is a mess. Very interesting, but still a mess. Why are some kanji characters pronounced differently depending solely on context? Like the characters "now" and "day" - 今（いま）and 日（ひ）、respectively. When you put them together they become "today" 今日、 which makes sense, but then suddenly the pronunciation changes to きょう。。。
And there are tons of other examples like that too. How am I ever going to learn all the exceptions to the rules??

From what I know, it's because kanji tend to have 2 main pronunciations: the japanese one and the chinese one. When the kanji is alone, you pronunce it with the japanese word, but when combined with other kanji, they all take after the chinese pronunciation.

I'm on my phone, so I won't add any examples (it's a pain to navigate more than one tab), but you can check it in Jisho.

 

[JEMdice]

PhoenixMire
I just recognize its context. I learned that Japanese is a language of context and situation. The way to know them is to associate the different pronunciations with the different situations. That's all I got

Also what floppyDisc said

 

[PhoenixMire]

From what I know, it's because kanji tend to have 2 main pronunciations: the japanese one and the chinese one. When the kanji is alone, you pronunce it with the japanese word, but when combined with other kanji, they all take after the chinese pronunciation.

I'm on my phone, so I won't add any examples (it's a pain to navigate more than one tab), but you can check it in Jisho.

The interesting thing is that the Japanese language isn't even close to Chinese, so I don't even know where they get their pronunciations from. :') I know that kanji is Chinese characters, but the pronunciations aren't even close, so it's just... kinda confusing.

PhoenixMire
I just recognize its context. I learned that Japanese is a language of context and situation. The way to know them is to associate the different pronunciations with the different situations. That's all I got

Also what floppyDisc said

it's definitely all about context. Even just the spoken language itself heavily relies on context. I find it really interesting and mostly fun to learn, but also a lot of frustration and confusion
If I could just find some place that would describe particles to me as if I were five years old, that'd be great lol

 

[JEMdice]

Welp, good luck. I don't really have any good resources to give unfortunately... PhoenixMire

 

[floppyDisc]

Idk why its "japanese" and "chinese" pronunciation, but that's how it's explained everywhere

Under Jisho and other resources, they're called "onyomi" and "kunyomi" (i don't remember which one is which). You'll know what pronunciation is the japanese or the chinese one because the former is always in hiragana, and the other in katakana, respectively

 

[PhoenixMire]

Yeah, the whole thing is just pretty confusing lol

What resources do you guys use to learn languages? Any language at all. I took actual school classes for Mandarin and Spanish (even if I've forgotten them), but I'm just using various online resources to learn Japanese

 

[JEMdice]

I mostly use Duolingo with the help of YouTube for learning how to write the alphabet. There's also an app called Lingodeer for phones. You have to pay a monthly fee, but it does a better job at explaining the Japanese language, for example, and has several lessons for learning how to write the kanji and hiragana and katakana as well as pronouncing and sentence structure/ particle explanations. I tried Lingodeer out, but I'm broke so I can't learn any more lessons past the first and second one. The app overall is better for language learning, but since I have a firm grasp on the basics of Japanese, I don't think I need it.

 

[PhoenixMire]

I mostly use Duolingo with the help of YouTube for learning how to write the alphabet. There's also an app called Lingodeer for phones. You have to pay a monthly fee, but it does a better job at explaining the Japanese language, for example, and has several lessons for learning how to write the kanji and hiragana and katakana as well as pronouncing and sentence structure/ particle explanations. I tried Lingodeer out, but I'm broke so I can't learn any more lessons past the first and second one. The app overall is better for language learning, but since I have a firm grasp on the basics of Japanese, I don't think I need it.

Interesting, thanks! I'm super broke myself, which is why I've been using free resources. I've only just recently started learning Japanese - I think I have a firm grasp on pronunciation, and I know how to write and read hiragana and katakana, but obviously the kanji and the actual grammar itself is the harder part.

 

[JEMdice]

Jisho.org is your best friend for learning how to write the kanji. Just be sure to type in #kanji and then the kanji you want to learn how to write into the search bar on the sight.

 

[PhoenixMire]

Jisho.org is your best friend for learning how to write the kanji. Just be sure to type in #kanji and then the kanji you want to learn how to write into the search bar on the sight.

I've done that for a few kanji thus far, it's really helpful. Unfortunately I got lazy and haven't done it in a while lol

 

[floppyDisc]

For japanese, I just use jisho (the dictionary for new words + their grammar guide). The rest is just "exposing myself to the language", like watching anime or reading fanfiction in pixiv. It's not that good of a method, but it worked with english, so I just go along with it

 

[Malphaestus]

I'm a native Swede, so I know Swedish and English equally well. As for other, less natural languages, I do know German and the other Nordic languages (aside from Finnish). I've also spent five years of my life in primary and High School learning French, though it was less a learning experience and more a horrendous trial of will, so I can't say I learned much French in that department.

I do enjoy me some good anime once in a while as well, and Japanese music has always interested me to one extent or other, but I don't know much beyond the standard phrases and basic language patterns, so no grammatical or written knowledge on that department.

I've got a fleeting interest in latin, though as a dead language little can be said as to its proper learning process. Nevertheless, I know my way around pharmaceutical phrases and latin codewords, and I once read a latin-original text once, though with much trial and error.

Aside from that, not much.

 

[Warner Reed]

I started to learn French in 6th grade, but I've slacked on it (a lot) to learn ASL (American Sign Language) enough to hold a conversation at least. It's taking forever even with the resources my online friend provided because I'm having to learn it by myself, in between school work and stuff. Hopefully, I can learn faster because I can hardly introduce myself in ASL right now.

 

[PhoenixMire]

I'm a native Swede, so I know Swedish and English equally well. As for other, less natural languages, I do know German and the other Nordic languages (aside from Finnish). I've also spent five years of my life in primary and High School learning French, though it was less a learning experience and more a horrendous trial of will, so I can't say I learned much French in that department.

I do enjoy me some good anime once in a while as well, and Japanese music has always interested me to one extent or other, but I don't know much beyond the standard phrases and basic language patterns, so no grammatical or written knowledge on that department.

I've got a fleeting interest in latin, though as a dead language little can be said as to its proper learning process. Nevertheless, I know my way around pharmaceutical phrases and latin codewords, and I once read a latin-original text once, though with much trial and error.

Aside from that, not much.

That's really impressive! You know a lot, then. I'm always amazed by people who can speak multiple languages. I feel like I'll never be fluent in anything other than English, lol.

I started to learn French in 6th grade, but I've slacked on it (a lot) to learn ASL (American Sign Language) enough to hold a conversation at least. It's taking forever even with the resources my online friend provided because I'm having to learn it by myself, in between school work and stuff. Hopefully, I can learn faster because I can hardly introduce myself in ASL right now.

Wow, ASL. For some reason I completely suck at hand-gestures and anything even remotely related, so no matter how many times my friends and cousin have tried to teach me the most basic ASL expressions, I can't understand them or remember them in the slightest. I'm amazed you're doing it; best of luck!

 

[Malphaestus]

That's really impressive! You know a lot, then. I'm always amazed by people who can speak multiple languages. I feel like I'll never be fluent in anything other than English, lol.

Whilst learning languages requires dedication and willpower, it isn't exactly impossible for anyone. I'm sure you can do it if you only put your mind to it.

 

[Warner Reed]

Wow, ASL. For some reason I completely suck at hand-gestures and anything even remotely related, so no matter how many times my friends and cousin have tried to teach me the most basic ASL expressions, I can't understand them or remember them in the slightest. I'm amazed you're doing it; best of luck!

Thank you!! It helps a lot that I already use my hands when I speak, so I’ll usually like mumble the words to myself as I sign and it helps a lot more with remembering.

 

[cherub.]

i'm learning korean, japanese and french! of course i'm not learning them all at one time, but i'm learning korean first, with french being the last.
i think that learning both korean and japanese will be kind of hard, because there's so many ways to say one phrase or one word! like saying
good morning could be said in ( i think?? ) three different ways! why i wanna learn korean and japanese is honestly because i want to kill time
doing something fun, like learning a language like those. i also want a challenge. why i wanna learn french is because my sister knows it, and
also because it's such a romantic, and just pretty language, that's why. haha. wish me luck though on learning all three of them!

 

[t s u k i]

Well lets see here.... Native English speaker, but im currently focused on learning Spanish, i know VERY VERY basic Japanese, Hawaiian, and French (I will never take another course of French)

I will say im very interested in picking Japanese up again at a later date when im fluent in Spanish.