# Language learning



## soy sauce on toast (Apr 3, 2014)

Does anybody else here teach themselves languages? I've neglected it the past month or two, and I'm dying to get back into a routine. It's approaching summer so I'll have loads of free time (university break), and I'm hoping I make the most of it. 

I still study my "main" languages each day (at the moment I'm focusing on two), but I also want to throw a few others into the mix just for fun. I might give Turkish a go.


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## probably offline (Oct 8, 2012)

I'm studying German online at the moment. I want to learn Mandarin, Korean, Russian and Icelandic some day. I'm not as motivated as you seem to be, though. My tiresome depression tends to kill my enthusiasm and determination. I'll definitely focus on one language at a time, though. We'll see :>


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## soy sauce on toast (Apr 3, 2014)

I think it's a shame German's not so popular in the Nordic countries! How are you finding it? 

With the depression, I too have trouble with motivation. But sometimes it's simple things like listening to an Italian rock band for half an hour that motivates me to get down to my desk and study. Trying to read as little English (and Swedish for you) as possible helps too. German's especially good for that as there's so much to engage in on the internet.


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## silvermoon (May 2, 2014)

I like to study Spanish but I get discouraged because there's not really anyone to practice it with. I'm thinking of maybe creating a meetup group for it...


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## soy sauce on toast (Apr 3, 2014)

Well, I'm going to do a half an hour's worth of Turkish soon, learn the orthography, sounds and some basic sentences. I'm hoping I can squeeze in a bit of Turkish each day, even if I only spend 15 minutes on it (it's not really a high priority of mine at the moment).

I'll post here every so often to update my progress. 

(I'm using a book from this website: http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php. It's a good place to go if you want to need a free teach yourself beginner's course).


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## soy sauce on toast (Apr 3, 2014)

silvermoon said:


> I like to study Spanish but I get discouraged because there's not really anyone to practice it with. I'm thinking of maybe creating a meetup group for it...


I'm guessing you live in the States? Is there a large Hispanic community in your area? It's worth a shot. But don't forget about the internet, there's always people out there! Could look for a Spanish speaking pen pal, for example.


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## Donnie in the Dark (Mar 15, 2011)

I did with Spanish, quite successfully- although I studied it at school which gave me a good foundation with it.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

I on/off study Japanese and I want to learn German one day too. Maybe other languages (idealistically there's a whole bunch I'd like to learn) but it probably won't happen due to my brain.


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## silvermoon (May 2, 2014)

soy sauce on toast said:


> I'm guessing you live in the States? Is there a large Hispanic community in your area? It's worth a shot. But don't forget about the internet, there's always people out there! Could look for a Spanish speaking pen pal, for example.


Yea I live in the US. There is a huge latin presence in areas about 20 minutes away from me but I'm typically not in any situations where I could become friends with them (besides I don't know how to make friends!) I think meetup.com would be a good option though. A pen pal wouldn't work for me because I'm sure I would cheat...you can't cheat in an IRL conversation!


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## Paper Samurai (Oct 1, 2009)

Japanese, mainly reading and writing though. I'm taking a language qualification for it in a couple of months :shock !


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## maho90 (May 12, 2014)

trying to learn arbic..but am to lazy


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## Genetic Garbage (May 7, 2011)

I studied french for seven years so getting back to it should be easier than learning a completely new language. But it's hard to get motivated because it will be of no use. I speak English on internet forums and German in everyday life. Being able to speak two foreign languages would look good on my resume though because I have nothing else going for me.


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## Nanuki (Dec 1, 2013)

.


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## tronjheim (Oct 21, 2012)

I'm using Duolingo (iOS/Android app) to learn German. I've already had one German subject when I was in college but it wasn't enough. I've had French and Japanese subjects, too. All of them are great to learn, but I'll focus on German first.


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## ev29 (Feb 12, 2013)

I'm trying to teach myself Finnish... I'm going pretty slow though and I don't study it consistently enough, it's just kind of overwhelming sometimes. But it is fun teaching yourself a new language!

www.memrise.com is really great for learning languages if you guys haven't come across it


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## Lorenientha (Jul 22, 2013)

Right now I try to keep my German fresh, although it's hard to do with all the exam trouble that's going on at school these last 2 grades. I'd love to learn japanese and russian.


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## cybernaut (Jul 30, 2010)

This summer:
Arabic (some, MSA, some Egyptian)

By 25, I hope to know 3 languages +Engish.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

tronjheim said:


> I'm using Duolingo (iOS/Android app) to learn German. I've already had one German subject when I was in college but it wasn't enough. I've had French and Japanese subjects, too. All of them are great to learn, but I'll focus on German first.


That site looked pretty cool when I looked at the German stuff, I wish it had Japanese as an option though..

edit: Apparently they might work on a Japanese for English speakers course later, but are working on English for Japanese speakers at the moment. I might have to check that out later.


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## Cam1 (Dec 4, 2011)

I've been using Duolingo for French for the past 5 months or so. I get lazy at times though, so it's not as good as I would like to be. I've gotten pretty good at reading it, and can have some basic conversations via text, but it's really hard to understand and speak it.


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## Cam B (Mar 9, 2012)

I love learning new languages, but my biggest frustration when it comes to learning a new language is the grammar structure. For example I could be speaking French and I would speak my sentences with the English grammar structure vs the French way of doing it. it's frustrating (yet very challenging) because I'm use to saying it in my native language vs a new language.


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## AriaJordae (May 18, 2014)

> I like to study Spanish but I get discouraged because there's not really anyone to practice it with.


That's like me, I have no one to study it with either whereas I have people in other subjects that I can study with but those aren't language subjects.

I'm learning Mandarin at school right now! I'd like to be better at it than I actually am but because of my 5 other subjects as well as the QCS Test practices (to get into uni) it's hard to be motivated for it. I want to learn French, Spanish and Italian too but I'll probably do that when I'm older 

I really do love learning new languages though! It's just so interesting learning how others structure their sentences and learning about their traditions along the way! I wish I'd picked to learn more languages when I was younger as electives for school but that would've probably gotten too confusing, haha!


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