Baburra

I spent my childhood learning Chinese and it was difficult but Now I am glad that I was able to learn it at an early age because I had much more time and patience back then, and not to mention I didn't have much of a choice so that was just more reason for me to stick with it. Now I am trying to learn Japanese but I am more casual with it since I am just doing so mostly as a hobby and I am using what I have learned on how to learn languages from my past, and now I'm glad it's much easier since I could just look it up online whenever I have time and also have endless resources to learn from.

For me I just try learning alone without much structure or a program so it's difficult to stay consistent and diligent but it does work for me for what I am trying to achieve since what I'm learning is more just a secondary goal because I have already learned some extra languages and these new ones I am learning mostly Just as a hobby and for fun so I am more able to take it slowly. What I have always found difficult, though, was forgetting what I have learned when I don't get enough opportunities to practice them regularly.

I agree. I think once you are in an advanced stage in a certain language then it's much easier not to forget certain words and lessons or get them confused with new words being learned in a different language so at this point it might be possible to mix in a new one into your learning schedule, but if you're just starting to learn on both I think it would be difficult. Although I'm sure there are some out there who might be able to do this or they may even find it easy, however I don't think it's likely for most people.

For me, what has always been motivational with any lesson I am learning is how it would apply to my daily life in the future, which unfortunately my schools didn't really focus too much on for me growing up, so I ended up just getting bored with all my subjects when I was younger. The ones I did end up getting high grades on were the ones I understood how they would apply to my life outside of school, so that's what I would suggest which is to explain how certain phrases could be used or why they are important, instead of just putting out lesson plans and having everyone memorize them without knowing the reason why they are important.

I agree. I think evidence of this can be found everywhere now that I think about it, because I am sure that there are lots of non native English speakers who have learned the language mostly just busy watching the movies and tv shows which are extremely popular in almost every country. Granted, these aren't children's shows, but given that the language here is probably more complex then I'd say it's even more helpful or possible if it's a children's show.

I don't understand what was incorrect about it. I don't think pronunciation is part of writing, and as for accents, obviously I meant the pronounced kind and not the one you have to write down. Those little accent things you put on letters do change the meaning though as I know it is the same for Chinese which I know because even just one stroke missing or extra and you'll have a totally different meaning.

Yeah I guess I would consider it if I were to stay for a bit longer than I did but I was only there for a week so it wasn't really necessary. I was very glad that I did end up liking the food I ordered though and I guess the challenge was also partly my decision since I could just as easily have gone to another restaurant that was more tourist friendly but I was determined to eat what the locals were eating lol. At least now if I go back I'll know what to expect and I'll know that I should get a translator or something but at least now I have online resources to depend on as well.

I think it just depends on the person and also maybe even the combination of languages you are learning. For example, if you are learning similar languages and you have the type of mindset that thrives on that then maybe it would be helpful to combine the two but also sometimes the person is the type that would just get even more confused by the similarities and would be better off learning two that are very different so they don't end up mixing up the two. As for myself, I tend to like to focus on just one lesson at a time so I am more in favor of just learning and mastering one language first before moving onto the next one.

Thanks for sharing this. I've always been curious as I've heard that in Japan there are programs like this all over the city and now I'm glad to find out that there is something similar for many other countries around the world. I am glad that it's free too as far as I know. I myself have been pondering if I should go to these classes when or if I decide to stay in Japan for a while, but now that I know it exists in any other country I'm debating if I should choose another city or country to visit first and leave my main choice for last.

I think it's easier to write because there are no accents or pronunciations you'd have to deal with in writing. You could simply just write and besides the fact that everyone words sentences a little differently it's indistinguishable with how other people would write it because you all use the same characters and words. Not to mention you also have a bit more time to think when writing whereas if you're speaking your mind is pretty much trying to catch up with your mouth constantly.

I once saw a movie where a character did exactly this to learn a new foreign language as he was living in a foreign country and wanted to learn to speak the language. Unfortunately my memory of which movie this was is vague because I think it's a very old one that I watched years ago. Still, even then I have pondered that doing so must at least be somewhat effective since you could learn at least the basics and it's not that far off anyway since you are essentially starting to learn from scratch just as kids do.

Agreed. I think that the commonly used words can help somewhat but overall it's still not that easy when it comes to menus because each dish is a very specific name and especially in languages like Chinese even if you're just off by one character the dish could be an entirely different thing from what you are expecting. For the most part at least knowing what beef or chicken means in Chinese can help when it comes to this but for the more difficult or less common words like boiled or fried it gets a bit tricky for foreigners.

I'm learning languages which I'm hoping I'll get to use someday when or if I get to travel to the countries of origin. I would love to be able to live in Japan or France for a while and get to use the language but to be honest I'd also be happy just learning the languages even if I wasn't able to go to those countries. I just find these languages very appealing and understanding it could help me appreciate their media and entertainment a lot more, though of course, it would be great to also be able to just use it for everyday conversations with the locals and being able to travel and transact freely without much trouble.

We have the same situation in my country, wherein a lot of the middle and upper class are training their kids more and more to just rely on English almost entirely. I myself don't have kids as well and I don't know how my reaction or stance will change when the time comes, but for now my thought on it is that I find it understandable. I believe pride in nationality and language has to have weight behind it and it's difficult to be in favor of it just for the sake of it, so if the current generation is starting to slip away from the old ways then there must have been something wrong in how the previous generations and the government has been handling it, and personally I don't think I could blame the individual families for favoring a language and culture that they see as being more attractive or fruitful.

I don't think there's an entirely polite way of doing it but I guess the most one could hope for is that both people involved can just take the situation as maturely as they can. Personally I try to just let it slide if I can because I don't see it as my place to correct anyone and I don't really think mispronunciation is that big of a deal in the first place, but if I felt it was necessary I'd just maybe try to approach it as calmly and objectively as possible so hopefully the one I'm speaking to will feel that the correction is coming from a place of concern.

Thanks for this. I was actually thinking of getting my nephews and nieces into learning more languages since we were taught one from an early age and surprisingly even if we don't use the language that much anymore I still retained a lot of the basics, which fortunately I know I can still use whenever I choose to travel. I think this would be great in not only giving the kids some extra skills to rely on but also it would boost their confidence by knowing they have something to rely on that maybe not all of their friends have.

I had a hard time ordering food and asking questions and at the time smartphones weren't that prevalent yet so I didn't have any mobile internet to rely on. Thankfully I could just point at certain items in menus but even then some of them were kind of a gamble, though thankfully I didn't end up ordering anything too weird. If I thought I would be staying there for longer I think I would have just contacted either a translator or a tutor just to help me get started, but nowadays I will probably just rely more on online resources such as this forum.

I always hear people using these two words interchangeably and although technically it is supposedly allowable I have looked it up and apparently oriented is used more as an adjective and orientated is used more as a verb. I have to admit initially I didn't even think orientated was an actual word which is why I had to look it up in the first place. I don't know, it just sounds wrong to me. I also see the same thing happen for words like "addictive" wherein people interchange it with the word "addicting" which I don't think is correct at all and it always sticks out to me whenever I come across it. Do you guys know of any other similar words or instances? Which one between orientated or oriented do you use the most and are you also guilty of mistakenly interchanging both of them?

Not really, as I'm more attracted to the tone rather than the lyrics in most cases so as long as the lyrics form phonetically pleasing phrases I'm alright with not knowing what they mean. However, I am more inclined to give certain genres a chance in different languages since if I'm not familiar with what the song is expressing through words I can appreciate the tone a lot more and I'm more inclined to give it a chance if I'm not distracted by the words. All in all though I don't think it makes that much difference to me.

For me it's finding the right program that makes learning a consistent pace that I am comfortable with. Sometimes I can't find time regularly so I'll end up putting off the continuation of my lessons and by the time I get back to it I've already somewhat forgotten about previous lessons. This is why I try as much as possible to at least keep my learning as regular as possible so I don't end up having to relearn all the previous words or phrases I've already learned since it's such a big waste of time and effort to redo them constantly.

I think it does get easier, if not because of knowing much more about the process of learning and learning how to anticipate challenges and dealing with them, you could also pick up on certain subtleties that you won't have to learn again such as certain accents beings similar in some languages or even having similar words, all of which you will have in your inventory already as a head start. I think even just the fact that you know the process and know what to anticipate is already a great deal of help in learning a new language.

One of the modern ones that I really adore is the use of the word "potato" to label something that is of low quality or in some cases even useless. I find it so funny and amusing and it just sounds so right that I sometimes wonder why it was not invented earlier in history. I see it used most often when people say they only have an old or outdated phone handy to capture video and they will attach the uploaded video with a description that reads "sorry for the potato quality, I only had an old phone nearby." I also see and hear it a lot in video games, especially in competitive ones where character stats are continually being evolved and molded and at times they will become the best pick for a specific season but in some they will be regarded as "potato" characters.

It should be what could have happened because the presence of the word "have" already points to it being in the past tense. If it were going to be used to say something about the present or the future then the word "have" would be eliminated and you could then switch the action into present tense. In this case, if the question is pertaining to the present or future then the sentence would read like "what could happen" or "what might happen".

I struggle with this as I am fairly disorganized in many aspects of my life already to begin with, and learning something new I have to actively set a schedule that I force myself to adhere to rigidly as if I don't I will end up delaying it too much and risk forgetting about what I have already previously learned, which then just makes it an endless cycle of playing catch up with my own lessons because by the time I am ready to learn something new I have to then again spend majority of the time reviewing past lessons, whereas if I do it constantly and consistently I wouldn't have to review as much.

one of the more popular ones I guess is the saying that there's no place like home. I'm not sure but I think that was popularized by the movie wizard of oz. there's also the saying of painting yourself into a corner which I always associated with home renovation and an important lesson in planning before painting. For those unfamiliar it just means that you start painting at a wrong point on the floor and you end up where the only empty space is the corner and you are left with no other place to go where you won't mess up the paint or get paint on your feet.