宇崎ちゃん

Do you mean like the way this guy speaks? → https://www.youtube.com/user/DDTop20/videos

Yes, Germans indeed capitalise their nouns. I don't know why though.

Over the past decade, I tried pretty much everything. But the most effective methods I bumped into are Skype sessions (talking to native speakers), and SRS + mnemonics (spaced reputition system + association with your languages' vocabulary, like Anki, WaniKani or Memrise).

Moved this topic to a more appropriate section. I'll give it a try when I get back to Android again (I'm on Windows 10 Mobile at the moment).

I'm currently at level 4 of WaniKani, it works really well. It's like KanjiDamage or Remembering the Kanji, but all automated. And it's something I keep coming back to, something a very few language-related websites have actually accomplished so far. But I can say it works. For example, I never knew "才" was pronounced "sai" and meant "genious", combined with "人" (hito), it would be pronounced as "saijin", meaning "talented person". Of course there were lots of kanji so far I already knew, but what do you expect from level 4 out of 60?

To clean it up a bit, I have just merged 3 Memrise-related topics into 1. They were all very similar any way.

It's actually impressive that you're a beginner and now already learn N2 level Japanese. N2 is a level I didn't reach yet, so I help you with this one. Here's a useful link for you (it's an online Japanese dictionary, explaining everything in English): http://jisho.org/word/%E4%BD%99%E8%A8%88

As Wanda said, "mastering" has some fuzzy edges to the word. Like what do you find "mastering"? Enough to converse in the language, enough to sound (nearly) like a native, or enough to know all the political and/or scientific words too? I used to aim for the first one, but I changed my mind and aim for the second one these days. As for "mastering" by the second definition (enough to sound (nearly) like a native), it simply clicks at some point. As a beginner, you learn a lot in the first few weeks and then you 'slack off'. As an intermediate, you feel like you're stuck at one point, but actually aren't. As an 'expert', everything starts to make sense and if something doesn't, learning the new things is barely a problem.

When learning a language, I always prefer speaking over anything else so I start speaking from as early as possible. Speaking is normally what holds people back most, so if you start with it, the rest will automatically become much easier. Therefore I find it very important to start with that. However, that doesn't mean I prefer speaking from the very first day. I would instead go over some basic vocabs and grammar in the first 2 weeks (and if there's a different alphabet, learn that one in the first 2 weeks too), so I can have a decent topic to discuss without being as dependant on dictionaries as if I would only know "hello", "thanks" and "bye" in my target language.

ようこそ、ウィンさん！ オランダの（削除）です。 日本に行ったことがありませんが、日本に行きたいんです。 フォーラムによろしくね！

I would like to try JLPT for once, but the only location in the Benelux (which is Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg combined) was cancelled, and the one in Germany was fully booked. Maybe next June then.

I think I'll just stick with Japanese a little while longer, especially since I make very quick process recently (much quicker than just a few months ago, like magic!). After that I may either pick up Spanish again, or I might try some Mandarin Chinese. Before I quit Spanish, I could nearly touch my A2 level, but I felt like Spanish just wasn't a language for me. Meanwhile I start to realise how much I like east-Asian languages again, so motivation-wise it's a better idea to start with Mandarin Chinese instead. When: probably halfway through 2016 or earlier, depends on when I can even hold a full debate in Japanese as much as I can do in English.

There's nothing to worry about, most active members I have seen here so far are Filipinos any way. But in general this forum has a worldwide audience, so American names can be interesting too.

I use Google Calendar on my phone to remind me to one-time appointments (like going to an event for example). Maybe that's useful for language learning too? But I honestly never use it for language learning. I did in the very beginning, but it has become a habit to me.

The big problem with friends is that they aren't willing to teach a language you speak. Let alone, learn to speak yet another language at all. I did hear many phrases like "I want to learn English sometime", "I want to learn Spanish sometime", "I want to learn Chinese sometime", etc. They never start. The problem is, there are 7 days in a week and "someday" is not one of them.

I normally combine free and cheap. Example for Japanese: $ 10 USD per 45 minute Skype session, twice or trice a week. $ 10 USD per month for WaniKani (to learn kanji). $ 5 USD per month for Memrise Premium (although I'm considering to go back to free, the paid extra's are worthless). ¥ 200-250 JPY per song on iTunes. Then the other stuff (pen pals, YouTube, thinking in my head and language exchange) are for free. Heh, I just realised I never pay for language learning in my local currency (EUR).

I'm already aware of this and I could understand the dialogue (except for "baie", I don't really know what it means).

Then just check all options, that would mean "everywhere".

Male: Jan, Piet (pronounced as "peet"), Klaas, Bart, Roel (pronounced as "rule"), Gijs (pronounced as "ghice"), Pepijn (pronounced as "pepine"). Female: Jetty, Marjam, Nelly, Angelique. It was harder to find any common female names actually, because these tend to vary more than male names here. As you can see, male names are often very short and easy to remember, but often come with a Netherlands-only pronunciation. Female names on the other hand are generally longer and more internationally known.

I don't think he means 58 languages on C2 level per se. Could just be 1 native language, some C2 languages, a couple of B2 languages and all the remaining ones on A1, some people just consider themselves 'fluent' as long as they can speak and understand a basic conversation.

The first time learning a new language is always hard, no matter how you look at it, no matter the language, no matter how hard you try, this is the moment everything seems vague to you. One of the best things I have noticed at Linguaholic is how diverse people here are when it comes to learning a language. Everyone here has their own opinion on what is best to use and what not. That's why I started the second opinion poll on this forum: learning habits What does "IMO" mean? "In My Opinion". This is a very commonly used word online to express ones' opinion. What's the point? I have seen a lot of topics asking the same question, but I want to centralise this idea in a series of polls. This way I can easily do a research about how people learn a language. More polls may follow in the future. Each poll lasts 2 weeks, so hurry up if you want to participate! I never learnt any foreign language before, may I join in? Sure! It's your opinion after all, I'm looking for either new/single language learners, polyglots or even people who don't bother learning a language. The more different people, the better. Where can I see the results? For now, I'll put them on my language blog. I may as well open a new website just for this (and language tips), so stay tuned. My results for this poll: I fill up every possible free moment I have with language learning, even moments as short as 2 minutes. Therefore, I learn at home, at work, in all public places and whenever my language partner or teacher is available. I only don't learn it in educational environments (because I don't go to school) and I don't learn while driving a car (because I don't have a drivers license yet). REMEMBER: keep it fun! So no insulting arguments if you disagree with someone else. Constructive criticism is OK

I'm a bit late, but here are the results: http://blog.076.wtf/index.php?mode=post&id=4&lang=en Have a good night.

I could, but I decided not to. After this poll, I wanted to work on the results, present them on my blog and move on to the next IMO poll.

It doesn't matter Miya, you still have until 22:00 CET today to reply. After that, this topic will automatically close.

Turkish, I realised how useless it was to me. Because: 1. Turks won't let you learn their language, because they're too impatient. 2. Pretty much all Turkish people in the Netherlands speak Dutch to me any way, no matter how far I force them to speak Turkish.