What language and how are you learning?

Means the same thing.

Japanese. Studied it for five years (three years were the absolute basics like pronunciation, hiragana, katakana, sentence-structure, and some easy culture stuff, mostly because foreign-languages were effectively compulsory, which meant there were people without any interest in the class; two years of proper study going into more complex grammar, conversation, kanji, as well as cultural study) in school, currently continuing study by immersion for conversation and basic language skills, and independently learning kanji to augment writing ability and vocabulary.

If you're going to study any language, completely alone, from the start, you should try to get your hands on school textbooks and teaching materials, and work from cover-to-cover. These are seriously some of the best resources available, as far as languages go, and especially better than most outright commercial products. The important thing to do is not just take in information mindlessly like a sponge, but look for patterns and nuances, and get to understand them. A language is not just a bunch of words; it's a mindset and a way of thinking. You can use language to understand culture, and culture to understand language - there's a positive feedback loop, and once you get to the stage where you're able to make use of this, if you're really interested in the language, daily immersion will be a huge boon to your studies.

edited 9th Aug '11 9:57:02 PM by ekuseruekuseru

I wish my schools offered Japanese. In Florida, 80% of kids took Spanish and 20% took French. I think we had German for a year, but it was taken away from a lack of interest.

Lazy ass boca-kids.

I'm learning German through school and online courses. Does anyone know good online places for learning?

I haven't checked if they're actually good (as I haven't started learning it), but there's this:

• http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/
• http://www.german-grammar.de/grammar/content/english_german_table_of_content.htm
• http://www.germanpod101.com/ (I know the Japanese version is good, at least)

Also, what are everybody's thoughts on learning multiple languages at once?

edited 10th Aug '11 10:35:32 AM by Stormtroper

I found it difficult to evenly divide my time between German and Spanish last year, but I end up doing more German out of spite to my horrible Spanish teacher. Hopefully this year I'll get a better one.

This is what I'm using for German, along with dicking around on Google Translate.

Don't use online translators, they almost universally suck.

Studied Japanese for five years through high school and college, and took a semester of Russian at college. After going to Iceland, I'd love to learn Islenska, but it's supposedly the most difficult language to learn.

English.

I find it funny man. In school, I am one of the best students of my class (At least according to the teacher herself and a lot of the other students)... but I myself dont think so, because A LOT of times I get mocked and made fun of BECAUSE of my english level, LOL.

That's not unusual, there's a big gap between knowing a language well in a school setting and in a "real" setting.

Also:

Still teaching myself Egyptian hieroglyphs. Slowly.

I'm trying to learn Latin. It's not a hard language at all, I just can't seem to find time to fit it into my schedule.

Lingue Latina est ludus.

I'm learning Mandarin Chinese and German. Both through classes and online. I understand the whole "But you can read other media" stuff for Japanese, but for 90% of that stuff someone has already done the thinking for me. The reason I began to learn German is it looks like a nice place and ~10% of datasheets I read are in German, and Chinese because a smaller but increasing number of datasheets are in Chinese, which I currently have to get a friend to translate. Also, Chinese means I can speak to a large portion of the worlds population and component suppliers.

I decided that I want to become fluent in Japanese, although reading is more important than speaking to me. Can someone recommend a professional or teacher textbook or resource that can really help me?

Learning English, wanting to learn either French or German via school.

I'd like to learn Italian, but it has no real usefulness near where I live.

I should get to Spanish, though. I am surrounded by Spanish Speakers and sick of being left-out of conversations.

Spain, Mexico, or Miami?

As for reading Japanese, learn the Kana's (Hiragana —> Katakana. Forget Romaji that shit is useless).

That should take you a week or two, depending on how much you review/memorize. If you continue reading the characters you'll never forget.

Next up is to learn the 2000~ Joyo Kanji, the "official" set number of Kanji that every Japanese student learns.

To learn these, pick whichever method works best for you. Outside of a paid program, you can find these online and just make flash cards with them. Depending on your retention skills, should take a year or two. Depending on your time and effort could take less than a year.

At least, that's my impression I'm still learning it myself.

@Ten: Learning Latin for philosophy I presume?

edited 11th Aug '11 10:45:18 AM by Jewbacabra

I've learnt hiragana in five days. Of course, if I hadn't been so damn lazy, I would have learnt it earlier, seeing how the textbook I'm using ("Remembering the kana, part 1", I really recommend it, it's great, imho) says that this course should take three hours

I wanted to start the 'normal' Japanese language learning (grammar, meaning of words and stuff like that) but I'm taking a break and just practice reading hiragana. It's really fun I've never been learning any Asian language before.

juan, I'd say who've learned English by now.

I have Anki on my phone, but I keep forgetting to do it, and I want to learn so many languages that I lose interest too soon.

edited 1st Apr '12 3:21:09 PM by HersheleOstropoler

J'apprends francais. Je commence apprendre francais a l'age de 12.

I am learning french. I started to learn french at the age of 12. I suck at it, I'm much better at understanding than at speaking it.

I've been taking French since the beginning of middle school. This year's AP language; next year's going to be literature. After that...eh. I think I'll study abroad in a francophone country during college. Il faut que j'améliore ma compréhension.

edited 1st Apr '12 2:57:51 PM by Marisashana

I'm taking French via Rosetta Stone. I haven't had the opportunity to really use it, but I will soon; I'll be going to Quebec and Montreal next spring.

Spanish.

Or actually, Failing to learn spanish, and not getting a much needed A because of it.