Learning Languages

[Cutelittlenose]

Anyone else have fun learning languages?

Middle of May 2021 update:

My Japanese class is going well. I already turned in all my homework and did all my notes for last week and this week. There's luckily no Japanese class for next week. So, I can study Japanese at my own pace. 

I just started my Mandarin Chinese class. The teacher is hard to understand, because he is in Malaysia. So, his accent is heavy. 

Also, apparently we were supposed to/ideally do all the chapter 1 homework and quiz BEFORE CLASS ACTUALLY STARTED. So, now I have to do both chapter 1 and lesson 2 and play catch up.   (<--- For my Mandarin Chinese class)

As for my physical textbook and workbook, the sources for the Mandarin class are from somewhere else (different textbooks and stuff), but I hope they'll still be useful if I need them. I haven't used my physical textbook and workbook yet, as the class is conducted/taught through powerpoint slides.

Clarification: My physical textbook and workbook are called Elementary Mandarin Chinese and are by the Tuttle Company.

Both the classes I'm taking are free on Discord, but they've already started. I know the Japanese class isn't taking anymore  new students. But, maybe the Mandarin Chinese class might.

Both the Japanese and Mandarin Chinese class had requirements before you could join the class:

Japanese requirement: Know hiragana and katakana

Mandarin Chinese requirement: Know Pinyin

[SleepingPhlox]

I am fascinated by languages but I am not very good at them.  I have been learning Russian for a couple years and I can read simple descriptions on, like, cat videos.  I got really mad at Russian grammar a few weeks ago so I started messing around with Spanish on Duolingo to see how much I remembered from the long ago times when it was a requirement in school.  Turns out, more than I realised!

[Cutelittlenose]

On 5/17/2021 at 4:56 AM, SleepingPhlox said:

I am fascinated by languages but I am not very good at them.  I have been learning Russian for a couple years and I can read simple descriptions on, like, cat videos.  I got really mad at Russian grammar a few weeks ago so I started messing around with Spanish on Duolingo to see how much I remembered from the long ago times when it was a requirement in school.  Turns out, more than I realised!

Cool! Russian was one of the languages I took in college, and I really enjoyed it. (I took Beginning Russian 1 and Beginning Russian 2)

I also took Spanish in middle school, high school, and college. (Beginning Spanish 1 and Beginning Spanish 2). I had to take the same two college courses as my school courses, because for some reason, even though I passed both by Spanish classes before, they wouldn't carry over.

Foreign languages were my major in college. I took German, Spanish, French, Russian, and Korean (all for-credit courses)

For fun, I took Latin, French, Russian, and Japanese. Although, the for-fun French and Russian classes were before the for-credit courses at the same college. Also, the Japanese class was a bit disappointing in that it was for travelers, mostly, and only taught in romaji (Romanized characters).

Although, I did teach myself how to read and write hiragana and katakana (Japanese) one summer back in high school. So, that's why it was disappointing.

I know I said this before, but I'm currently self-learning Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. (As the nearest colleges don't offer them.) 

I've been learning Japanese, I guess the equivalent of a few years.

And, I've been learning Mandarin Chinese for one month.

[Klingon]

am learning Japanese, and great with German and am also learning Tsulagi  (the language of the Cherokee Native Americans ),  I would like to learn Hebrew, Lakota,  Norse and Russian languages.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Kurn'la

[Klingon]

for those of you interested this is an example of Tsulagi, (Cherokee language)  a language I think is absolutely beautiful! 

 

[Cutelittlenose]

Beginning of June 2021 Update:

My Japanese class is going well. We're on Chapter 6 (grammar) this week. I already read the entire chapter.

Although, I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend this week's class on Friday, June 4th, 2021, because of bad weather for this weekend. Also, June 4th is my birthday. And, I'm not sure what I'll be doing that day.

I dropped out of my Mandarin Chinese class. The class was only bi-monthly (twice a month), and I didn't like it.

So, I switched back to Korean again. I learned Korean in college (two semesters), so I have previous experience with it.  

[Reader]

Korean! I’ve been studying off and on, but it’s time to get serious about it! 

[Cutelittlenose]

On 6/3/2021 at 10:23 PM, Reader said:

Korean! I’ve been studying off and on, but it’s time to get serious about it! 

That's so cool, Reader!!

Middle of June 2021 update:

My Japanese class is going well. We're on Chapter 6 kanji next week. There was no Japanese last week, and there's no Japanese class this week. I finished my Japanese homework for Chapter 6 (grammar), but I still have to take notes over the chapter, and on the Chapter 6 kanji.

Also, I paid for a year of Premium Plus on Busuu. It's a website where you can learn 1 language (for free, but some content/most content is behind paywalls), but if you pay for Premium Plus, you get access to almost the entire website (minus the paid tutoring sessions). On it, I'm currently learning Japanese and it says I'll reach B2-level (CEFR) in Japanese by the middle of December this year. I'm doing at least 30 minutes a day (the highest you can set your goal is 30 minutes a day, but you can learn more/go beyond 30 minutes in a day.)

On Busuu you can learn learn English (yes, even English from English), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic. So, that's 12 courses/languages (really 11 if you know English well/are a native speaker) that you can learn up to B2 level (according to CEFR). B2 is an upper-intermediate level, apparently.

I stopped learning Korean, and switched to Finnish. I'm learning Finnish for the first time. It's really interesting. I learned the alphabet, and some greetings, and next I'm going to learn numbers.

For Finnish, I'm currently learning from Youtube, a little bit from Duolingo, and from a Finnish class on Discord. There's also a few Finnish textbooks available in English/for English speakers, but not a lot, I've noticed. And, there are quite a few Finnish courses on Memrise (but none made by Memrise, so they're user-created courses). I think I'm going to by the Complete Finnish textbook (from the Teach Yourself series). You can buy it on Amazon.