Sputnikops

Add my reccomendation to this website too, it's a great resource both for professional translation and for language learners. I have used it for teminology on some translations I have done, and to check the occasional idiomatic expression, and was actually introduced to the website by a translation teacher, so that vouches for it

I agree with most of the responses, romaji is good when you're starting, but you should drop it when you can. The only thing helpflu in romaji that is missing from kana and kanji are spaces, those are usually very helpful (especially in ling sentences xD ).

Yeah, I'm another one of the nerds, in case you couldn't tell by my avatar xD I started learning Japanese because of anime/manga, but now, as a translator, I also look at it as a good working language, especially if I can find a job translating the stuff I love. My Japanese is still not at that level, and I'm not sure if it will ever be, but one has to try

Right, first thing's first: English is not my native language. That having been said, I do occasionally tutor some friends who need help with it. But full-fledge teaching? I don't think I would be able to do that. Not because I think I lack capabilities in English, I just think that I don't know how to teach. I wouldn't try to teach Portuguese (my native language) either, for that matter.

I knew about Project Gutenberg already, even used it to read a few classics, but until coming across thus topic I had not had the idea of using it to complement my language learning. Here is a more specific link for books in German and German learning books: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Language_Education_(Bookshelf)#German

...when your non-language-nerd friends start giving you weird looks for using foreign words in the middle of sentences. Also, when you manage to use five languages in the same sentence xD

I always try to read books in their original language, when it is one I can understand. Th thig is, no matter how good a translator is, something always get lost. Trust me, I'm a translation student No matter how hard you try, even if you catch every reference and every cultural tidbit, an author's style is so much his or her own that it is very hard to imitate, let alone transport to another language. I actually believe that, if a bilingual author were to try writing the same book in two languages, the two books would not be good translations of each other.

Like it was said before, this sounds like an interesting concept, but it raises some questions too, mainly pertaining to the payment, the way study time is counted, and the like. For example, if I just leave one of the supported apps open, will that time count? It just sounds a little too easy to exploit for me, I guess. That being said, I think the added stakes might work as good motivation for some people, and the idea of a cash reward for studying even more so. Might give it a try myself.

Like a lot of people, I started learning a second language at school. Back in my day, we started in the 5th grade, but right now they start in primary school or even earlier.

Well, this is an interesting question. I am interested in them? Yes. Am I willing to make an effort to learn them? ...not really The only 'uncommon' language I have a basic grasp of is Tetum, the language of East Timor. And while I would like to know more languages, I'm already studying a few right now, so I don't really have the resources to do so.

The answer to this question really depends on what you mean by 'useful'. If you accept that a language shapes and is shaped by the culture in which it exists, then the study of ancient languages is part of the study of a particular culture. Also, like some people already said, studying the root language of a group of languages can somewhat help you in learning/understanding those languages.

I think music can help you learn, but on its own its own is not going to do much. Like some people have said already, if you have no idea what the words sound like, then you won't really learn much by listening to music. That being said, once you have some basic vocabulary, you can start listening to songs and checking the meanings of the words you didn't get, making an active exercise out of it. OR you can use songs to create some immersion while doing some other kind of studying, it usually works for me.

I use Rosetta Stone, but I have to say it's not perfect. Like some people have already said, Rosetta Stone's method is based on immersion and learning through exercises, and while that is a good method of teaching something, it is not enough. In my view, I think that it is best if you complement the use of Rosetta Stone with some other methods, mainly some more formal way of learning grammar and, in the particular case of Japanese, Kana and Kanji.