kate23

By media I mean literature, music, movies, tv shows etc etc. There's a lot of French media that interests me, although I can't use a lot of it yet since I'm only a beginner. I do listen to music, audio books and podcasts though to help me learn. With Hawaiian, the other language that I'm currently seriously studying, there's very little media available. However, I love the language and culture so much that I don't mind that it won't be particularly useful for me. There's many other languages I'd like to learn but I worry that because I'm quite picky about what media I'll read/watch/listen to that I won't find some of them very useful. I'm really interested in Greek (modern) for instance but I'm not sure if there's much media available and what is available if it'll even interest me.

I thought I'd update this thread with some links I've found to be helpful with learning Hawaiian. These are really helpful because the word lists either have audio or they're spelled out phonetically. http://www.forvo.com/languages-pronunciations/haw/alphabetically/page-12/ http://hawaiian-words.com/common/ http://hawaiian-words.com/home/essential/ http://wikitravel.org/en/Hawaiian_phrasebook#Pronunciation_guide http://www.eyeofhawaii.com/Hawaiian/hawaiian.htm More words and expressions (sadly no audio/phonetic spelling) http://www.mauimapp.com/moolelo/hwnexprns.htm http://www.alohafriends.com/words.html http://hawaiian-words.com/home/hawaiian-dictionary/ This has a lot of tips and easily explains about the alaphabet, symbols, syllables etc. And it has audio on how to pronounce vowels. http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hi?Language Youtube videos: (class 1 in a series of classes) &list=PLGYhxoS_Bzi7sB25ryztVSg4vt3feGkEo (a playlist) http://oleloonline.com/coursework-index/ Haven't looked at this one much but it's supposed to be like an online classroom for Hawaiian, with videos and audio and also has media like newspaper articles and books. This has a lot of info on Hawaii http://www.oiwi.tv/naloea/ I'll update as I find more

Definitely the grammar. I find it a lot easier to remember pronunciation and spelling than I do with remembering all the grammar terms and rules and everything.

I think fleur is very pretty. It means flower, and it's also a name. Plus: Noir = black Rouge = red Magnifique = magnificent

I know that people say not to try to learn a particular dialect or accent of French when you're studying the language because then you'll be limiting your resources. So, is it easy to learn a different dialect or accent once you've got a good hold on French? Is that something that people commonly do?

For me, it's speaking. I find it takes a little practice to get the pronunciation right with French. Although, with Japanese it's definitely writing/reading. But I haven't really studied Japanese yet, just learned a few words, so obviously I haven't learned the script or anything yet. Pronunciation doesn't seem too hard though.

I'm not studying Icelandic yet but I really want to in the future, it's a beautiful language and I love to listen to Icelandic songs (one of my favorite songs right now is the Icelandic version of "You can't take me" from the movie Spirit ). I don't know of any good resources though, I've just seen some sites and youtube videos when googling something about Icelandic.

I agree that you're never really done but I think that once I get to B2 in the languages I'm currently studying (which is French and Hawaiian, for the most part) I'd consider that to be the end point of official studying. After that I'd just continue to communicate and read/listen to media in those languages. I'd still technically be studying as I would still be learning and increasing my skills through communication and media, but that would then be the point that I put more focus on other languages on my 'hit list'.

Does anyone else have to look up what a lot of grammar terms mean? I notice that on this forum and other language forums everyone can easily talk about and understand grammar. I couldn't even remember what basic grammar terms, such as vowels and verbs, meant even though we did study them in school and I always did well in English class. So I've been having to look these things up constantly, I keep a tab open on a glossary of terms. I keep mixing things up and having a hard time getting a good grasp on these things. I'm finding it a bit confusing and it's definitely slowing me down on studying my target languages. I'm hoping that after a little while it'll be like second nature to me.

I seem to have a particular interest in the more uncommon languages like Hawaiian, Latin, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Cornish (I like Celtic languages as you can see!) etc. Anyone else the same way? I know that a lot of people say it's pointless to learn uncommon languages but really it can also be pointless to learn very common languages - it completely depends on your motivations and plans. I don't believe it's ever pointless to learn, though. For me, learning languages stems from a love of the languages (way it sounds/looks) and/or the cultures. If I never meet another person that speaks Latin that will be okay because I can get enjoyment out of it in other ways (although, I have heard of a Latin chatroom where they all speak in Latin, so there are ways to talk with other speakers).

I'd love to learn Romanian one day. It sounds very different from other Romance languages. Kind of like a mix of a couple different languages. It's fairly difficult and there's some other languages I'd like to learn first but it's definitely one I'm considering for the future. I remember when I first heard of Romania, it was mentioned in Harry Potter because Ron's brother Charlie was studying dragons in Romania. I just remember thinking the word sounded cool and exotic sounding. At that point I wasn't even sure if it was a real place or a fictional place, lol.

Yeah, I think it just triggers something. Like how music can be an opening into being interested in the culture and language of a country. It's also just purely about being exposed to the language. For instance, last year I read the book Speaker for the Dead and there was a lot of Portuguese in it and that piqued my interest in Portuguese. I just hadn't given it a lot of thought before.

My brother, who's studying Japanese, said he can't wait until he has dreams in Japanese and that made me think, when does that happen? How advanced do you have to be in the language you're learning for that to happen? And when it does, does it occur rarely or often? Is one dream sometimes in your first AND second language, all jumbled together? It's fascinating to think about! Anyone have any knowledge or experience of it?

I'm trying to focus on mainly French and Hawaiian and I'm having some difficulty in doing so. Partly because I find so many languages fascinating, and partly I think because I feel like I've got an overabundance of passion, but am lacking aim. I think I need to sit down and figure out my plan for how to learn these languages and keep up with it. Anyone have the same problem?

Definitely! I use 'lol' a ton, to the point that it feels funny if I don't say 'lol' for a few messages in a row. I feel like it's really useful - it lightens things, especially when you're talking to a friend you don't know too well, and can make blunt or neutral sounding messages sound friendly. It's like using a lot of smilies.

Yeah, I care some. I'm pretty shy and my voice can sometimes get shakey when talking to strangers, which is kind of embarrassing. But thinking about it just makes me more nervous so it is best to just forget about what other people think and be yourself, then you'll feel more confident.

My native tongue is English but I've had speech problems since I was little. I took speech classes in elementary school, but even today (I'm 21) I have a hard time pronouncing things, or I will think a word is pronounced one way and I'm completely off. My family and I often have a laugh about it when we discover a new word I've been pronouncing wrong my whole life. Like as an example, I was pronouncing chaos as how it looks for years. I'm finally getting used to pronouncing it the right way now when I come across it while reading. So yeah, I'm not sure if the speech problems and my lack of pronouncing words correctly is related. Anyone else have this problem? And what I'm really wondering is if it's going to be more difficult for me to learn other languages or could this just be an English thing? Like my brother says I wouldn't have this problem with Japanese because Japanese words are pronounced as they're spelled (or at least I think that was the gist of it)?

Of course the best languages completely depends on the person, for example, I'd prefer to learn Hawaiian than I would Arabic, while someone else might think the complete opposite. But just for the fun of it, would do you think would be the ultimate or the most useful for the average polyglot? Here's mine: 1. English 2. Mandarin Chinese 3. Arabic 4. Russian 5. Spanish I'm basing it on some the most spoken and widespread languages in the world and also that these languages are very varied from each other. But other people will have other criteria I'm sure.

I think it can really help some people, my brother has mentioned that he thinks it helps him with his Japanese. But I doubt it would help me much considering that I often have a hard time understanding lyrics that are in my native tongue. However, I do listen to songs in foreign languages for enjoyment purposes. If it helps me on some subconscious level then that's a bonus for me.

I think it would be useful for there to be a global language, a bit like how there's people in countries all over the planet that know English. Without English or another very common language it would make it hard to communicate. So it definitely has its pros. The problem is if people become disinterested in their native languages. Some people would think what's the point, I only need to know one language now. That would be really sad, I hate when languages become rare or extinct. Some of my favorite languages are uncommon or rare. However, in some countries, like Malaysia for instance, it's common for people to speak 3 or more languages (official language, ancestral language, other common languages spoken in that region) so I'm sure a lot of places would keep their languages.

I've noticed that a lot of times series that I love inspire me to learn a language, like Harry Potter and Lost inspired me to learn Latin and Percy Jackson inspired me to learn Greek. Anyone else the same way?

I'm only slightly older than you and I really love Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giver, Life of Pi and Battle Royale. It's a good mix of YA, fantasy and classics.

Will you teach your kids (either future kids or your current kids) the languages that you're learning or already know? I think I definitely will when I have kids someday because it's easier for you to learn a language when you're little and it would be cool to converse in multiple languages with your kids and see which languages they prefer, which you end you using most often, etc. Plus they'd be able to impress their friends and maybe when they grow up they'd be able to put the languages they've learned to good use, perhaps when traveling or for job opportunities.

I thought it would be interesting to see what languages are most useful for where you live. For instance, I live in Florida so Spanish is definitely the most useful language to know here, aside from English of course.

When I was about 4 I started learning French because my sister, who was in high school at the time and chose to study French, was teaching it to me. But she didn't teach me a whole lot (she was just learning herself after all) and by now I've forgotten it all, I pretty much just know how to say goodbye in French, lol. But it's something that I was always interested in, even when I was 4, so I always planned on continuing learning it and am only now just getting around to it. Well, unless you count several years ago when I studied French for a few weeks in middle school.