Skip to comments.
How to learn 30 languages
BBC ^
| 29 May 2015
| David Robson
Posted on 05/31/2015 8:01:33 PM PDT by Cronos
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-89 next last
To: beaversmom; Secret Agent Man
Russian, like Polish (I know the latter fluently now, the former more like "i can find my way") can be difficult to English speakers who don't know the way declensions work. But if you've learned Latin, then Polish is pretty easy to pick up. Russian is a different ball game due to its insistence on Slavic words rather than imports from Latin or Greek languages, but that's overcome once you know the basic words
Chinese -- from what my sister-in-law (a Japanologist with a passing knowledge of various Chinese dialects/languages) tells me is grammatically very simple -- just the pronunciation can be murder due to the tonal nature of the languages
21
posted on
05/31/2015 8:30:26 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: beaversmom
I heard the Chinese languages, to speak, read, and write are extremely difficult. Nah, you heard wrong, there is only ONE Chinese language, although there are at least five major dialects. And they are easy to learn, only a few grammatical rules and you are in business, learn ten of the official Mandarin words a day and you will be ordering in Chinese at the local Chinese takeout in a surprisingly short time.
Maybe you meant the written languages, each Asian country has their own. Again, easy to learn except Chinese and Japanese which used pictographs, and you have to learn 2,000 of the little buggers before you are literate. Fortunately, a hundred or so will get you bed, bred and fed, so I hear.
22
posted on
05/31/2015 8:32:22 PM PDT
by
SandwicheGuy
(*The butter acts as a lubricant and speeds up the CPU*ou)
To: Secret Agent Man
Gender of words is alien to English speakers. But for me, I found this easier than French -- French assigns "gender" so randomly it's impossible to know by a word what it is. Polish on the other hand is simple in that respect -- if it ends in a consonant then its male, if it ends in an "a" it is most likely female (with some exceptions like "mężczyzna" - "man" :) and if it ends in "o" it is neuter
23
posted on
05/31/2015 8:32:58 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: Albion Wilde
I wonder if those dialects are on the way to becoming separate languages — Ebonics I think may be going that way. Does it have a grammar (meaning repeatable rules)?
24
posted on
05/31/2015 8:34:29 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: Cronos
To: Cronos
My wife speaks nine or so with ease. Watching a subtitled movie once, she was learning that language, too. Amazing to see. I had a year of German and two years of French 1 but it didn’t stick.
To: Secret Agent Man
27
posted on
05/31/2015 8:37:38 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: Cronos
With Chinese, it is like learning two languages-— the abc one and the characters. It is one fascinating language, and although I’m not at all
fluent, I’m understood. I do a practice session, and get lost in the etymology of a character. I just love this language!!!!!!!
28
posted on
05/31/2015 8:38:37 PM PDT
by
Exit148
((Loose Change Club founder) Put yours aside for the next Freepathon!)
To: beaversmom
I learned formal French in HS and picked up a smattering of Polish later on through travels. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
29
posted on
05/31/2015 8:39:36 PM PDT
by
RushIsMyTeddyBear
(The White House is now known as "Casa Blanca".)
To: SandwicheGuy; beaversmom
"there is only ONE..." -- are you sure about that? I have no clue about Chinese besides what I read about it and all linguists point out that the different "dialects" like Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible if you talk (writing using the same pictographs). Hence I would call them as separate languages
In contrast Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian are pretty much mutually intelligible while even Polish, Czech and Slovak are somewhat (SOMEwhat) mutually intelligible. But all 6 of these are separate languages
30
posted on
05/31/2015 8:44:04 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: SandwicheGuy; beaversmom
"the written languages, each Asian country has their own"... except for India which has 20
31
posted on
05/31/2015 8:45:23 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
To: Cronos
I guess I never really took Russian because I thought it was beautiful. It certainly isn’t German. But it’s not Italian either.
I never heard a Russian tongue twister. To me the foreign language is a tongue twister. :)
32
posted on
05/31/2015 8:52:13 PM PDT
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: Cronos
True that, but somehow I never think of India as a country, only a bunch of mini-states. Can a country be a country if there is no common language? Look at Canada and what we are becoming.
33
posted on
05/31/2015 8:57:35 PM PDT
by
SandwicheGuy
(*The butter acts as a lubricant and speeds up the CPU*ou)
To: Cronos
I wonder if those dialects are on the way to becoming separate languages Ebonics I think may be going that way. Does it have a grammar (meaning repeatable rules)?A few rules of ebonics I can think of offhand are the simple use of the infinitive "be" instead of the conjugated forms of "to be" (I be goin' tu dih sto'; you be goin' wit me; he be meetin' up wit us), the absence of apostrophized possessives (den I be goin' roun' Darrell house) and certain situations where the verb is omitted ('cause Darrell mad). The use of "be" plus a gerund can also stand for several past, present or future verb tenses.
One of the more interesting African-American dialects is Gullah, which some scholars say is a language, and others say is a dialect. There is even a translation of the Bible into Gullah.
34
posted on
05/31/2015 9:33:12 PM PDT
by
Albion Wilde
(The "legacy of slavery" is not an excuse for inexcusable behavior. --Thomas Sowell)
To: Cronos
I used to love French in my teen years as it was an accessible, sophisticated foreign language. But now i'm more enamored with Polish and Italian Have you tried an online course like supermemo.com that will help you get back to basic A1/A2 level?
No, I'm not familiar with that. Thank you for the info. I checked into it recently at the community college I attend, but you don't get credit for the first level so I was reluctant to pay money out for it.
To: Cronos
I’ve been using Duolingo to learn French, and it’s free and IMHO just as good as any of the for-pay apps like Rosetta Stone.
36
posted on
05/31/2015 9:36:12 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: Cronos
What I like about Polish is once you do learn the way the vowels and consonants work, it becomes easy to sound out the words. It’s the ‘rz’ combination that tends to throw off most English speakers.
37
posted on
05/31/2015 9:39:32 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: SandwicheGuy
Maybe you meant the written languages, each Asian country has their own. Again, easy to learn except Chinese and Japanese which used pictographs, and you have to learn 2,000 of the little buggers before you are literate. Fortunately, a hundred or so will get you bed, bred and fed, so I hear. :)
To: Cronos
I think Polish is one of the best languages for music listening, I’m probably now more familiar with Polish singers than the modern-day English singers.
39
posted on
05/31/2015 9:40:56 PM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: dfwgator
Got any beautiful Polish music to share?
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-89 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson