Language Learners

Although I took German in highschool (anyone needing a good German-English translator, my teachers suggested we use dict.leo.org) I have been interested in learning Italian for a few years now. In the last 2 years or so I've occasionally used the app Babble, as well as spent a little time on duolingo, but I haven't put a ton of really concentrated effort into it. I know dozens of random vocab words, but have no knowledge of grammar or any verbs. So I'm still at a very beginner level. My interest in sitting down for learning it also comes and goes, so I've not been very consistent with studying.
 
Ahh Nina that's a fun idea for writing! I always loved flashcard and worksheet type stuff. :> and also I frickin love laminating things i feel ya on that

Duolingo accounts yes! I'm eternallyanna~ Don't let my levels in anything fool you I know nothing

@Cobalt I think you'll start to pick it up pretty quickly! Once you get past the basic vocab you'll be able to rely on context for the most part. Don't be afraid to ask, either, omg. I was making a planner while counting the days in Spanish and must have asked my friend what "thirty" was at least 15 times before I started remembering lmao
 
Today was the first day of me attending a Japanese class! It'll be like that until about March 25 - every weekend, twice a week, 5 hours of learning each day.

Right now I'm still trying to make heads or tails about hiragana.
 
Twiggy said:
Today was the first day of me attending a Japanese class! It'll be like that until about March 25 - every weekend, twice a week, 5 hours of learning each day.

Right now I'm still trying to make heads or tails about hiragana.
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Ooh, how was it? What exactly did you do?

Nina said:
~snip~
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As for Hiragana, one of the best ways I learn new words in any language is by using mnemonics. Here's a website that I came across that has some good Hiragana and Katakana mnemonics. https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/

Woah Nina, you're pulling out the big guns now {XD}. I'll be sure to check out that site, since my handwriting definetly needs work ;).
 
A fellow Frenchie! Bonjour! A long time ago I had a DuoLingo account. I have no idea what username I was.

For everyone using Google Translate, try www.wordreference.com. It translates about 17 different languages and gives context and connotation, as well as daily use of the words. It's fantastic and has saved my derriere multiple times!
Also, for people wanting to hear French, there's a free French radio: fipradio.fr
I have finally gotten 1/3 of the way through le fantome de l'opera!
Staralfur said:
Edit: Ah zut! Je suis d?sol?, je n'ai pas vu que vous avez dit, ?Comment nous etudions?! Showing off a little aside I mostly use Duolingo supplemented with various random Google sites depending on my problem for both French and German. When it comes to actually typing in French and German I use Google Translate but not in the sense of I type the sentence in English and figure out the translation I type it in the language I am trying to learn and see how the translation comes out so I can adjust my sentences accordingly because it's easier to proofread and find problems in my native language and trace it back to the language I'm learning rather than find it in the foreign language.
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For the Japanese learners struggling with meanings of kanji and parts of sentences, I recommend jisho.org and alc.co.jp. You can put an entire sentence in Jisho and it deconstructs it and gives the meaning for each part of the sentence. Very handy, but sometimes it deconstructs a bit too much and it does not always catch onto spoken language and idioms. For that, alc.co.jp is very useful because it does take these things in account. Paste a part of a sentence into it and most of the time you will get an accurate translation. These tools are really helping me out. :)
 
An update: it's been a week since my new Spanish classes started, and it's already a pain in the ass... We are required to hand in these writing assignments and hold conversations with actual Spanish speakers about some topic every week. I've lost a lot of my fluency and I'm lacking in both that and my vocabulary compared to the others, so I am struggling already. First test is next week and I still don't know a good way to cram all these Spanish words in my head once and for all... Agh, I better be fluent in Spanish before the summer.
 
Thank you for offering, I might contact you if I ever need it. :) Yesterday's class made some thing more clear to me and I feel like I have a better understanding of grammar now... I also had my first video conversation today. My brain was fried at the end, I've never had to talk that much Spanish. x_x
 
aurevesque said:
CharnaySeba, that's a really cool idea. What if everyone on here who wants to learn a specific language could connect with the others? Sort of like a pen pal idea?
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That would be the coolest idea, I can offer my knowledge in Spanish Language (three years studying to be a Spanish teacher and almost a year studying Translation and Interpretation). Just contact me if you need some help.
 
Radiating said:
I signed up for French this year in high school, and I will continue it next year.

I can do this: J'mapelle Alex, j'ai quinze ans, J'aime Pokemon.

I am fluent in english and spanish already.
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Sweet, another francophonie. Enchante, Alex. PM/VM me if you want to start a conversation. I think you'll find that once you know Spanish, French and the other Romantic languages are much easier to pick up.
 
Just had my second one-hour conversation with a Spanish native and, hoo boy, I fluked that. For the first conversation I was paired up with a girl who spoke very clearly so even if I didn't understand her at times, I could ask for clarification and I would. But this dude, this dude, had such a thick accent that I knew it was gonna ruin me right from the start. And to no surprise, I failed as hell. At some points I was just saying "yes, yes" because I couldn't make sense of his words at all. There was also a part of the preparation I seemed to have missed so when we got there... Yeah it didn't get much better. I'm sure he thinks I'm an idiot; he's not wrong.

This time, the issue really was that I just couldn't understand him. How am I supposed to train my ear for that?
 
aurevesque said:
Sweet, another francophonie. Enchante, Alex. PM/VM me if you want to start a conversation. I think you'll find that once you know Spanish, French and the other Romantic languages are much easier to pick up.
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Radiating said:
I signed up for French this year in high school, and I will continue it next year.

I can do this: J'mapelle Alex, j'ai quinze ans, J'aime Pokemon.

I am fluent in english and spanish already.
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If you need help with french or just practice, don't be afraid to ask me!
 
Bump - we are in Off-Topic now! Never been here before lol.

We had a Spanish test last week - listening, reading, grammar and conjugation, vocabulary - and it went meh. After the test I had a really insightful conversation with a classmate about langauge education over here. There is a lot of focus on conjugation and forming gramatically correct sentences, but very little on vocabulary and actually making sentences. The result is that we know very well when to use which tenses, but no words to actually use. I've been wondering on how I could practice that on my own.
 
I've been studying japanese for a few months now. I memorized hiragana and katakana and have learned some basic grammar and can make sentences but it takes me a long time. I have also been working on kanji. I used to study for four hours a day, now I might study a few nights a week. I really want to start studying way more again and possibly with a study partner though.
 
I JUST BARELY PASSED MY TEST HAHA

Oh morphology, you saved me. :') I'm disappointed that I got all the grammar questions wrong though, I thought I had that down at least 40%.
 
I tried learning Spanish in my free time previously, and somehow I was able to manage a simple conversation recently. Though, I think motivation plays a great factor whenever choosing to learn any foreign language, in my case, I decided it to be either Spanish or Arabic.

After going through the basic words and grammar from a textbook, at a certain point past a vocabulary limit in one's head, I felt that the best way to proceed next was to just start watching telenovelas :)
 
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