Learn another language

47 days not 37 !

Just reporting in that I am on day 37 of my Spanish course and loving it. I never thought I could learn another language but my Spanish vocabulary is increasing by the day. I am doing between 5 and 10 minutes a day plus writing up many of the words in my little purple book.

Only my DH knows about it. I will tell my DS and his Colombian girlfriend in a year’s time when I hope to have the confidence to start communicating with her. Of course her English is perfect but I know she will appreciate my effort.

It’s true, BlueSky, it does make it that much harder for a native speaker of English to practise in many places abroad. Whereas if your mother tongue is e.g. Danish or Japanese, hardly anybody is going to speak your language, plus if you’re only going to learn one, there’s no problem over which to choose.

As a family we are fairly adept in several languages, but even in quite remote places we’ve found that trying to practise what we’ve bothered to learn can be hard. My Dh was based for quite a while in Jakarta, and more than once I joined him for a holiday. He made quite an effort to learn Bahasa Indonesian, but in a hotel on to extreme northern tip of Sulawesi, where there were hardly any other guests because of recent political upheavals, the very young barman was just bursting to practise his English and talk about football - which dh has never been interested in. and about which he knows s*d all!
But he did his best.

But with English as mother tongue you don't actually need any other! English is no 1 for business and have you have tried to speak French or Italian or Spanish while on holidays? They quickly reply in English!

I was fluent in German and French, then learnt Spanish with Coffee Break Spanish on the internet ( plus visits to Spain!)
Started to learn Greek, but couldn’t really get into it, so I’m learning British Sign Language with a site called Alpha Academy. I’m sure it was only a few pounds on a Groupon deal.

Not a language as such, but I’m sure that taking up the piano again after I retired ( it almost had to be from scratch) was a good brain exercise - not that I did it for that reason.

My sight reading was virtually non existent when I started, so I had to think about virtually every note or chord on the page, a bit like learning to read as a child. But this was even more complicated - not just page to brain, but page to brain, to fingers finding the right note(s).

Eventually a lot of it (at least at my level) became automatic, i.e. I didn’t even have to think, so presumably that means a lot of new short-cut ‘pathways’ have been forged in my ageing grey matter.

Which reminds me, my piano has been sadly neglected lately, so much other stuff going on - I must get going again and forge more pathways, since I still have a long way to go.

Still going strong with Duolingo which has really surprised me as I thought I was too old to learn a language. Thanks Scribbles for pointing me in the right direction.

I’m a French speaker-not totally fluent as never lived there. Have found duolingo not easy funnily enough, seems more like “guessing” than being taught-am I doing something wrong?
Went with a friend a few years ago to learn Spanish. Heard useful phrases, then instantly couldn’t remember them! Feel like I’ve turned into the proverbial goldfish with a 4 second memory span! Any advice?

This is from the Duolingo support centre:

Why do we have Hearts?
Because it’s better for learning! Our research shows that if people advance too quickly on Duolingo in one day, it can actually negatively impact their learning because they are less likely to remember what they’ve learned. We know that users learn best when they study every day and take the time to practice and review what they’ve learned. The Hearts feature encourages users who are making mistakes to take a breather and review previous lessons before moving forward.

I use Duolingo on a tablet and I don't recall ever seeing a heart anywhere.
???

I've been using Duolingo for a couple of years now, both to brush up the languages I already knew (French and German) and to learn others (Dutch and now Gaelic). I use it on the laptop and in that case the only time you get hearts is if you are doing a whole level at a time, NanKate. I believe they are more of a feature if you are using a phone.

Rosetta Stone is also very good, although you have to pay for it (good offers on their website sometimes). It uses pictures and no English at all, and you have to identify the pictures by speaking, writing, or selecting the correct choice. We have used it and found that it really did help us to speak and understand notices etc.

I think I meants LISTS!!

Quizlet is a very useful app (free) if you want to practice vocabulary.. has vocabulary lusts..flashcards..tests.. lots of sets already on the app or you can make your own.. good for studying any subject where you need to learn 'terms'..

Thanks Mary ?

I agree Fennel. Living in a country is the best way to learn a language.

We both spoke French but when we moved to Provence our neighbours mostly spoke Provençal so, back to the drawing board?

One dear lady in our village recommended that DH should take a French lover as it was the best way to learn!! She was around 80. Possibly letting DH know she was available??

Apparently it's to discourage binge behaviour, Kate. ?

Can anyone tell me please what the red hearts mean on Duolingo ?

IMO watching TV or DVds in the language (with subtitles) can be helpful, esp. if you watch over and over.

Many years ago when we lived in Cyprus I picked up quite a bit of Greek from TV, esp. from the ads, repeated so often. I still remember some of those. Also from the old granny who lived downstairs endlessly shouting at her grandson!!

I did work hard to learn Greek, but it was very often hard to practise when so many people would answer in English.
Couldn’t afford classes then, we were stony broke, but I still have the Teach Yourself book I used at the time.

I think you have to actually live in the country whose language you're trying to learn, to become really fluent.
Then there are other aspects like reading books in the language, writing letters, hearing and understanding (my weak point) and speaking.
When we learned french at school we spent a whole term practising french sounds, especially the nasal ones, and broad vowels which northerners find easy.

I speak French and Spanish well, having completed a degree in modern languages in my thirties, as a mature student.
I started trying to teach myself Russian ten years ago, but really haven't got very far with it. Because we now have Russian family, through the marriage of one of our sons, it would be so useful to be able to speak it at a decent level.
I do sometimes us Duolingo, and find it very useful, but still struggle to remember enough of the complicated grammar to make the progress I would like in order to be able to communicate well with the native speakers (who speak no English).

I have been learning French with Duolingo for the past two years. I am making slow progress but I enjoy it. French is a beautiful language in my opinion.

I speak fluent Dutch as we lived there for 18 years but not the most useful language to know. Thank you for the Duolingo tip. I would love to improve my French.

Many thanks for the Duolingo link. I will def. try that with one I have just a very basic smattering of.

Goodness me, Paintingthetownred, that was IMO rather strong and uncalled for!

Infoman, despite having no gender for nouns, or verb endings except the 3rd person ‘s’ to cope with, English can be unexpectedly complicated for learners.

I used to teach English to mostly Arabic speakers, and certain things a native speaker doesn’t even have to think about would tie the poor things up in knots.
Just our simple past tense, turned into a question, was one my elementary ones always had trouble with.
E.g. I went/Did you go?
In many other lingos they just say the equiv. of ‘Went you?’

So I still remember some of the poor things’ homework - answering questions like, ‘What did you do on Friday?’ (their Sunday, so to speak.)

‘I did was go my village.’
(Of course they’d sort it out eventually.)

Another was what are called question tags, e.g. ‘You went shopping, didn’t you?’ or ‘She’s feeling better, isn’t she?’

A lot of other languages, inc. French and German, IIRC use the same one for everything (n’est-ce pas? nicht wahr?) whereas in English it changes according to the sentence.
Very complicated for learners!

Mine were nearly all great fun, though, I really enjoyed teaching them. I particularly remember one lovely man, probably early 40s, who despite not being able to read or write Arabic, had been sent by his govt. ministry employers to learn English.
He did so well up to a certain point, when not being able to use a dictionary stopped him progressing any further. Why on earth they didn’t get him literate in his own language first, I will never understand.

German lessons only for me when I was at school.
Not clever enough to take Spanish or French.
Although I wish I had taken French at school.
I have picked up a few phrases in Spanish and I now attend a small French class once a week.
Spanish in my opinion is more "forgiving" than French.
I also think French can be more usefull than Spanish.
I just wished than when I started learning French the teacher stated that some "R"s and "S"s, but not all,
are silent in French,just a tip if you or some one else is thinking of taking up French.
English, in my opinion, is an easy language to learn because in English there are no feminine or masculan requirements.
Good luck learning your chosen language,hopefully French.

I did learn a couple of words/phrases of Maori BradfordLass!

Kia ora
Tino pai

I've forgotten the rest

wonder how long it will take the rest of you on here to get an education

Nice, but par for the course painting.

It took you 20 years to learn German? Why so long?