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rgaz83

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Everything posted by rgaz83

  1. When I try reading Italian, I have the same problem. If I can remember what language I'm reading, my pronunciation is great. Otherwise, it's a bit off to me. Fortunately, I'm told by a native Italian that the western part of Italy, being conquered by Spain at one point, has a slightly Spanish-sounding accent. So you won't sound completely weird, only a little strange.
  2. If you check this section of the forum, there are already several good ways to learn mentioned in their own threads. Duolingo is one good app, but there are a ton of others out there depending on what's going to work for you. :grin:
  3. I'm not sure that they reach for the thesaurus, exactly. I have several friends whose first language isn't English and at least one of them tends to use more obscure words. We've discussed it before; the dictionaries, for whatever reason, tend to give the more obscure words preference. Or else the obscure one seems to match more closely to their intended meaning than the more common one. Eventually, they switch to more common words as they become more familiar with English. Personally, I don't care. They are writing what they know, and that's fine.
  4. I have tried a sample, back when they offered such things, and was not impressed. You'll find a lot of glowing praise for the program online, but not much said against it. Unfortunately, the glowing reviews all seem to be sponsored links. That is, if you buy it after reading their review and clicking through their link, they get money! For a more balanced review, from someone who's fluent in several languages before ever trying the program, I highly suggest reading this link: http://www.fluentin3months.com/rosetta-stone-review/ One part I find especially interesting/helpful is:
  5. I also have trouble rolling my Rs. I've got a fake rolled R that I can use; to me it sounds completely different, but it's apparently acceptable. As for my fluency level, it's nowhere near anything. I really need to be forced to use Spanish, but I'm not sure how to approach that right now. Alas, I can't afford something as fun as staying in Spain or Mexico for a few months.
  6. Language is, indeed, a tool. But I think you're wrong when you say it's not an expression of culture. I think it is. There are many words and phrases that are almost untranslatable into other languages, simply because they reference a cultural construct that doesn't exist elsewhere, or not enough to have a term for it. One example that springs to mind is a word specific to an Inuit(?) dialect that means something like "the feeling of expecting someone and repeatedly going out to look for them".
  7. Sadly, there are a lot of languages dying out these days. I never heard of Ladino. I take it it's a sort of pidgin? If so, I'm not sure that qualifies it as a full language; but I could be mistaken.
  8. If your friends and relatives are not fluent in Spanish, I wouldn't take too many tips from them. They might get it wrong or being trying to kid you. I would suggest looking up everything they tell you, just in case.
  9. I'm not sure why it'd be harder to learn than Japanese and I don't think I've ever heard that before. Japanese has some strange grammar and THREE separate writing systems. Russian grammar, as I understand it, tends to be complicated but not entirely different than (other) European languages. Granted, I have heard that it is difficult to learn, but I'm not sure that it's more difficult than Japanese. At least Russian has some familiar words for a westerner while Japanese is going to be almost entirely foreign except for loan/borrowed words.
  10. There may be 300+ million Russian speakers in the world, but that doesn't matter if there aren't any that you can actually talk to. Personally, I would still like to learn Russian, but it's simply not as important to me as other languages.
  11. People are silly. If you wanted to learn Hawaiian (and don't live in Hawaii), Mongolian or Danish, what does it matter? When I find out someone speaks or is studying another language, I do ask them out of curiosity why they chose that one. But it's the same question whether it's a more popular language or something more obscure. When they answer, I reply with something like "Oh, cool." What I don't do is try to argue that they're learning the "wrong" language.
  12. I think that's the same for a lot of languages, though. Think of ship, sip, rip, tip, lip, etc. That sounds kind of fun, actually. At least, I'd love to be able to know enough Latin to be able to subsist with only a dictionary for assistance.
  13. If you absolutely hate learning and studying, then it's probably not worth learning multiple languages for you. But even if you have nobody to speak it to right now, learning another language also helps increase your knowledge of your own language. So it's not completely worthless. And how much use you get out of it depends upon what language you're targeting.
  14. For Florida, you probably want to learn Cuban or Puerto Rican Spanish. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone caters to that. You'll probably have to study Mexican Spanish and make due with Castellian Spanish resources when there's no alternative. It's been awhile since I cracked it open, but I recall http://www.amazon.com/Street-Wise-Spanish-Survival-Guide-ebook/dp/B004TC14GO/ being quite helpful. Well worth the $.99 for the ebook and probably worth buying the paper version as well. I THINK I used to have http://www.amazon.com/Streetwise-Spanish-Book-1CD-Understand/dp/0071460861 but mine didn't come with a CD. If it's the one I had, it's an informative book.
  15. A good place to get started is watching Destinos: http://learner.org/series/destinos/ I've also heard good things about Mi Vida Loca: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/ Destinos has a textbook you can order, should you choose. I don't think Mi Vida Loca has anything like that.
  16. Not only do they share a Latin root, but Spain also occupied part of Italy for a time. This led to some back-sharing of vocabulary words, especially in that area, making the languages even more similar. They're not completely the same, but they're quite close.
  17. Do you study it in school? With books? Websites? From what I understand, Latin is a (relatively) easy language. It's the vocabulary that'll kill you.
  18. I like the sound of French better, but I find Spanish much easier. The grammar, spelling and verbs are all more regular. Pronunciation, with one or two exceptions, is MUCH easier. I would examine why you want to learn each language and prioritize based on that. Do you have French speaking friends? A job that requires French? Do you want to travel to Spain? Are you tired of going to Taco Bell and not realizing that you're literally ordering a "little fat girl" combo meal? Once you've got a good foundation in one, then you can start on the other.
  19. It depends on where you plan on staying. I believe Mandarin is more popular up north while Cantonese is more popular in the south. But I could have that reversed. Aside from the writing system, I understand that they are mostly mutually unintelligible. This is unlike two languages like Spanish and Italian where if you know one you can have a good idea of what's going on in the other.
  20. I do this all the time! I've never completely given up, but I have bursts of interest, followed by periods where I completely forget to study or do anything related to the target language. I have done this with French, Spanish, German, and Esperanto. I have also done it with Japanese, but I don't think I ever really seriously studied that; it was more of a whim, like Russian was at one point. :grin:
  21. I have the Duolinguo app for Android. It's not "fun", per se, but it does seem to be one of the better language-learning apps out there. I don't think I've tried the website, yet.
  22. Two is definitely harder than just one. Although it is possible to study more than one at a time, it'll take much longer compared to just one. I found a link with a good explanation here: http://www.thepolyglotdream.com/learning-more-than-one-language-at-the-same-time/
  23. If you're restricting it to in-person and non-teachers? Not really. Unless the bilingual Mexicans that live around here count. If you mean polyglots and aren't restricting it to in-person, then I have met several online who know between 3-7 languages.
  24. I cannot recall anything in particular that I've been recommended, but I DO remember that you should avoid anything too old. Pre-1850s or so (I think), Italian wasn't very standardized. Even today, many people in Italy speak both a dialect and standardized Italian. I can't remember how difficult it's supposed to be, but perhaps something like Pinocchio?
  25. I just came here to suggest that Greek be added and I like the idea of adding Latin as well!
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