# Learning new languages



## Hexigoon (Mar 12, 2018)

Mancy said:


> So...well...
> For the course of the holidays two years ago I kinda became obsessed with YouTube... But it all turned out great and all...I mean...I speak English better than anyone in my class, but I guess I could still put some work into it and consolidate it. Well... my mother language is Slovene, 2nd language English and 3rd German. I'm just learning German at a Grammar school in Austria and...it's hella hard. Like how can I cope with native speakers?? It's pretty damn hard and I'm not even that interested in learning it, but I guess I need to. I am on a long journey to find a source of motivation or something... I'm just terribly lacking it. I would learn languages like Japanese, since I love anime and the culture, but apart from that... Is that enough of a reason? I always think, that if I won't really need the language that frequently i my life, it's not worth learning it. Idk...What do you guys think? Is it enough of a reason?



I find that while anime was initially the only reason I wanted to learn Japanese, the more I learn the more new reasons I come across.
I'm sure it'd be true with learning any language you're genuinely interested in. Learning a new language opens new doors. You wouldn't be able to converse on here if you hadn't learned English, right?


But if you're not interested in a language though then yeah, it can be very hard to find the reasons to learn it, especially if its difficult.


In my opinion, if you enjoy something then it's never a waste of time learning it.


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## GabrielHum (Mar 28, 2020)

I want to learn Korean and Japanese i think these are the very difficult languages of the world.


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## Meliodas (Nov 16, 2016)

I really want to learn another language, but I get frustrated by how passive and repetitive the process of acquiring fluency is. I need immediate, positive feedback, tangible rewards and someone to keep stimulating me, pushing me along until I have basic fluency. Apparently this is a common issue for Type 7s; we have a tendency to get bored and lose interest in our work if we are left to explore it on our own. I yearn more than anything for someone to cheer for me, and say "You can do it! You're doing really well! I believe in you! Keep going!" because so often, making an effort feels like a thankless task.

I relate to this article: https://www.dannycrichton.com/2015/05/17/foreign-languages-are-boring-to-learn/

To motivate adult learners, it is important to study content that aligns with our interests and reasons for learning the language. The language courses that I've seen fail terribly at this. My preference would be to learn as a consequence of something that I enjoy doing already.


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## Marianne19 (Apr 5, 2020)

I realize that I mostly learn a new language because I want to read literary and/or philosophical works in the language they were written in. That's how I learned French, German, Spanish, and Italian. And now I'm learning Russian! Hopefully, one day I'll be able to read _Crime and Punishment_ in Cyrillic script!


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

I'm working on Japanese (SLOWLY) currently because I want to go visit a very good friend who lives in Japan now. I'd love to stay for a couple of weeks and explore, and my husband is on board. 

I got really into some J-pop and rock in high school so I have an ok understanding of the sounds from listening to/memorizing song lyrics, and I know some common phrasing by now. It is just learning all the scripts that is really challenging.

Other than that, I'd like to learn some Slovene, German, and Italian. I know a decent amount of French, ok Spanish, and a tiny handful each of Swedish, Russian, and Finnish. English is my mother tongue.


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## Xool Xecutioner (Jul 8, 2018)

I want to get out of the intermediate plateau of Spanish and improve my listening skills (just so I can increase my understanding and thus what to say). I just wrote the Russian alphabet a few hours ago and I'm considering to learn Japanese after I have these: 

-Be in an advanced level of Spanish 
-My Russian is at least basic-intermediate

Right now, I'm using Duolingo, and my Spanish listening comprehension has improved somewhat while I am gauging the grammars and letters pronunciations on Russian.


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## Vesh (Mar 28, 2020)

I'm fully bilingual, French and English. Both are good enough they tend to be seen as my native language, although only French is.

My Italian is passable, good enough to read simple books and to listen to shows/movies in it, but I'm not fully fluent and struggle with conversations. I learnt it mostly for the sake of solidifying my own understanding of grammar, and so hopefully facilitate further language learning. My current goal is to be able to read classic literature in Italian and speak it conversationally, as opposed to solely understanding it. I think I'm around a B2 level right now.

German, Russian and Arabic are the three languages I'd love to learn after that, although I know Arabic is hella hard. A friend of mine suggested teaching me Arabic a while ago in exchange for teaching him French, but I never had the time to take him up on it. Maybe after the quarantine is over I'll hit him up. Or maybe the quarantine is the perfect time to do it? Hmm. As for German, my German vocabulary is minimal atm but I was working on it pretty hard a while ago. Unfortunately, I hate actually speaking the language and it's made me reconsider whether I want to learn it at all. There's something about the way my mouth moves when I speak it that is highly unpleasant to me. It lacks expressiveness, unlike Italian.

Spanish is also a possible option. It's not a language I love, but given its similarities to Italian and French, I think it'd be dumb not to learn it. I also am considering focusing my history studies on the Mediterranean and knowing Spanish, French, Italian and Arabic would give me a huge edge over other historians.


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## Handsome Dyke (Oct 4, 2012)

During my life I have hardcore studied Spanish, French, German, Russian, and ASL. I was attracted to languages because I disliked the fact that there were things in the world I couldn't understand (things in foreign languages). I'm somewhat over that now, but I hate to quit, especially the languages I've been studying since high school (Spanish and French). I feel driven.
<p></p>
French I will never quit because I've finally developed some proficiency with the language. But spoken languages in general have begun to wear on me because learning is essentially the same process over and over again (mostly acquiring new vocabulary), which is boring, and because my difficulties with oral comprehension (auditory processing issues) greatly increase the difficulty and make it impossible for me to become fluent. I have considered just sticking with French and ASL and possibly dabbling in Spanish (since I seem to retain what I've learned even without studying) to give myself a break, especially since I always lack the resources to get the study materials I want and spend (waste?) so much time searching for them.
<p></p>
I was attracted to ASL, my most recent language, after finally realizing how much I dislike talking and after realizing how much I like making hand gestures. It's a lot easier to learn than spoken languages because there's no oral comprehension component.


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## popeye (Mar 2, 2020)

Learning about new cultures is the main reason to me. And, of course, language is essential for that.


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## Scarlet Eyes (May 15, 2015)

Learning another language should be one of my quarantine activities, lmao. I used to study French in high school but I can only speak a few conversational phrases. Perhaps I'll revisit that soon. I still have most of the workbooks on hand.

I also want to learn Tagalog and Russian. The former because I have relatives overseas. The latter is because I want to go horseback riding with Putin.

Just kidding. Mostly.


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## The Last (Apr 19, 2020)

I'm learning German because it is close enough to English, but also so I can read original texts for Goethe, Jung, etc. It was a close call between that, Italian, and French.


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## Neetee (Sep 24, 2019)

*Some pronunciation exercises*
















*
 1 – jeden 2 – dwa 3 – trzy4 – cztery5 – pięć6 – sześć7 – siedem8 – osiem9 – dziewięć10 – dziesięć11 – jedenaście12 – dwanaście13 – trzynaście14 – czternaście15 – piętnaście16 – szesnaście17 – siedemnaście18 – osiemnaście19 – dziewiętnaście20 – dwadzieścia21 – dwadziescia jeden22 – dwadziescia dwa23 – dwadziescia trzy24 – dwadziescia cztery25 – dwadziescia pięć 
*


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

The Last said:


> I'm learning German because it is close enough to English, but also so I can read original texts for Goethe, Jung, etc. It was a close call between that, Italian, and French.


and because language sounds like everyone is aggressively swearing


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## Neetee (Sep 24, 2019)

*How polyglots learn languages*






*Part I*

Lýdia Machová
https://www.languagementoring.com/

Benny Lewis
Speaks from day one
https://www.fluentin3months.com/

Steve Kaufmann
Listens and reads massively
https://www.thelinguist.com/

Lucas Rafael Bighetti Pereira and Jan van der Aa
Learn the 500 most frequent words with example sentences
https://languageboost.biz/

Gabriel Wyner
Flash cards without translation
https://fluent-forever.com/

Luca Lampariello
Translation
https://www.lucalampariello.com/

Robin McPherson
Dissection of recordings, https://www.memrise.com/
www.youtube.com/thelifeofrob

David James (Uncle Davey)
GoldList Method
https://huliganov.tv/
https://huliganov.tv/goldlist-method/goldlist-method-explained-part-2-basic-concepts/
https://huliganov.tv/russian-course/

*Part II*

*1. Polyglots don't have a special talent

2. Every polyglot has their own method

3. Polyglots learn languages mostly by themselves 

4. Polyglots create their own language materials

5. Polyglots learn one language at a time

6. Polyglots spend much more time listening and speaking than other language learners

7. Polyglots are not afraid to make mistakes

8. Polyglots have mastered the art of simplification

9. Polyglots learn in small chunks

10. Polyglots enjoy learning languages*


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## CecilFitzgerald (May 6, 2020)

Learning new languages is helpful. Everyone has a lot of quarantined time and this is a great opportunity to learn new languages.


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## Ray King (Jun 9, 2021)

Hello, it is fantastic to see other people having the same passion for learning new languages.
I learned C++ because it was a part of my degree. Then I learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Bootstrap to develop websites. I later learned Python because I wanted to create a detector and it was best made with Python. Python summarizes an extended code into fewer lines, so I loved it.
Moreover, Duolingo is my go-to application because I love learning new languages. I recently started learning French because, well, it seems like a romantic language.
I want to learn German and Persian in the future. German, because I want to pursue my studies in Germany. Persian, because it is highly related to our Country’s national language, i.e., Urdu. And for English, you can learn anywhere, but I would recommend this How to Improve English Speaking | MTS Blog. It is one of the best I saw, and I followed these steps to learn English.


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## Pikaqiu (Nov 29, 2021)

I'm learning Japanese but still couldn't find an app that is not as rigid as Duolingo, so trying to pick it up as I go with anime and Japanese podcasts.


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## mia-me (Feb 5, 2021)

My family's multilingual so that's what I grew up immersed in. Osmosis from immersion, is the easiest way for me to learn a language. By rote bores the living crap out of me.


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