Topically Different

Thanks for the resource, seems like a good website I should check out and see if there's anything I might need that's not in the usual suspects like Memrise or Duolingo for my languages of choice. I really like the flashcard model, so whatever works with that has my approval.

It seems like a great idea in theory but I don't think I'd be able to find any really interesting language pair, and I've always felt like I was a pretty horrible teacher. It just doesn't seem like there'd be many Japanese-Italian pairs I think, and I'm not sure I'm qualified enough to teach English to anyone, since I'm not native.

I've never run into this problem but I've sometimes questioned the actual quality of the translation, especially for more techinical titles like Neuromancer or Snow Crash. I've also preferred to read those in English, because the cheesiness of the various translated technical terms would actually take me out of the book. Plus I think I never stop learning English anyway.

I occasionally check it for single words or very simple sentences when I'm not 100% certain of the meaning I have in my head, but I would never trust it to translate complete texts properly. Recently it's also been hijacked to say "inshallah" to pretty much anything, which was awkward.

15 hours ago, Chris_A said:

I would always recommend English for anyone looking to learn a new language. And that is not because I think English to be a really easy language to learn, but more because of the exposure you get to the English language nowadays. Be it the Internet, Netflix or subtitled TV shows. You stumble upon English basically anywhere you look.

English should absolutely be your first language to learn, but I wouldn't say it's easy to learn. It can be quite confusing for someone whose language structure doesn't even resemble it. What it is, in comparison to other languages, is more compelling. You get much more access to a lot of media, you get to understand popular songs firsthand, etc.
There's a few languages that are easy to learn for me and any latin-based language speaker, and that is other latin derived languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese all share similar heritage and grammar, to an extent.

On 17/3/2016 at 8:12 AM, reverserewind said:

I guess you gotta give yourself a genuine answer. Why do you need these languages in the first place? Sure, it's cool to speak both of them almost perfectly. However, it takes time. Lots of time to master them. Yep, it would be kind of confusing. I tried that with Italian and Spanish. Eventually, I picked the first one. So, you should decide which one is right and more important for you at the moment. The results will be way better. Just believe me. Don't involve yourself in that multitasking kind of thing.

Although, at least with Italian, Spanish, French and other Latin-based language, there is a lot of grammar, structure and especially etymology (A.K.A. the source of the vocabulary) in common, which can be shared between all those languages when you've mastered them. However, learning any two languages at once seems like a really fast way to get completely confused.

The media. As we all know, the English language is king of moviemaking and pop culture, and I was incredibly curious to cut out the middleman of translation and dubbing and get to the heart of that culture by myself. Similarily, when it came to Japanese culture, and (yeah I know, really superficial, but...) Anime, I've come to distrust subtitling and dubbing, and the subtlety and nuance that gets lost in that whole process, and therefore I had no other choice but to learn the language, right?

I tend to agree, but you have to have learned at least the very basics of the language you're trying to master, otherwise it's going to be pretty useless in my opinion. It'll do no good being hit with a barrage of incomprehensible sound and structure without being able to make any of it out. Still, it sure helped me increase my english fluency once I was past the elementary level.

It's for shock value - all that matters is the sentence is grammatically correct and that you make that mnemonic connection that reminds you of the grammar, right? I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this philosophy, but if it works, I don't see the problem, really. 

Hi everybody, I'm an Italian 25 year old looking for language learning tips. I'm already fluent in English but I'm struggling a bit with Japanese. I'd love to learn more from people that have already mastered it, as I sometimes feel I'm not getting anywhere any time soon. I'm hopeful, thanks for this forum!