Author Topic: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?  (Read 8955 times)

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Offline Kavik

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I began learning German 17 years ago and have studied it off and on since. After a few years of self study, I was able to skip four college courses and get placed in an intermediate II class. I have never had much of an issue with the grammar, but my vocabulary has always sucked, and I have very little speaking practice. So despite good pronunciation, I have a hard time expressing things and speaking any faster than a snail. After all this time, my comprehension is maybe only between A2 and B1; I can understand the gist of videos or podcasts with the context, and I can hear all the words but can't make sense of them fast enough.

I also took French in high school, and I can thus read some French, but spoken French is neigh impossible to understand. But I didn't continue French after my formal classes.

In the US, there's basically no contact with foreign languages except for Spanish. Besides my college instructor, I have encountered maybe two or three native German speakers in the wild where I live (and of course they know perfect English anyway), and never a French speaker. I guess the question could be asked why learn the language if there's no use for it here, but is it possible to become proficient in a language when there is no (natural) contact with it? I presume Europeans have an easier time since borders are more numerous and not as distant, thus increasing contact with other languages.

I know there's the Internet, but real life encounters are basically non-existent.
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline tp4tissue

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It's like buying power tools..  Yea, you can buy a HUGE table saw. But if you don't have utility for it in your life. What good is it. Tp4 only ownz smallz table saw.

There are many more spanish speakers in the US, there's a higher probability of being able to use it. But again, it'll depend on your general exposure to these populations.


Now, if you just want to learn it for fun, sure, if you find it fun, Why Not.



Offline Blackehart

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You could move to an area with higher population of German speakers.Same with the French.
I believe there's parts in Louisiana that speak French as a second language.I believe there's areas near Philadelphia big on German.
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Offline Computer-Lab in Basement

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French

Don't forget our neighbors to the north, ey.
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Offline coralof

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I love learning languages as well, and I am constantly diving into one language learning book or another. I only really get practice in Spanish, as there are a lot of Spanish speakers at my work (in Texas), but I always try and seek out material or find a meetup or something for my other languages if I am intent on getting some sort of speaking practice. 

 - Spanish (1, 2, 3, AP, AP Lit in high school; practice at work with native speakers nearly every day)
 - Chinese (major in college, lived in China for about 7 months in both Beijing and Sichuan and keep up with friends as well as watching movies in Chinese and reading)
 - Esperanto (self taught in 1 month, practice through online forums and correspondence, as well as reading)
 - Swedish (self taught using books + duolingo, practice through reading books like the Millenium series)
 - Japanese (self taught using Genki series, practice by reading both manga and books on Shinto, etc. Speaking practice is hard...)
 - American Sign Language (self taught through books + a YouTube course called ASL University; practice only with a deaf colleague at work)

Offline tp4tissue

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I love learning languages as well, and I am constantly diving into one language learning book or another. I only really get practice in Spanish, as there are a lot of Spanish speakers at my work (in Texas), but I always try and seek out material or find a meetup or something for my other languages if I am intent on getting some sort of speaking practice. 

 - Spanish (1, 2, 3, AP, AP Lit in high school; practice at work with native speakers nearly every day)
 - Chinese (major in college, lived in China for about 7 months in both Beijing and Sichuan and keep up with friends as well as watching movies in Chinese and reading)
 - Esperanto (self taught in 1 month, practice through online forums and correspondence, as well as reading)
 - Swedish (self taught using books + duolingo, practice through reading books like the Millenium series)
 - Japanese (self taught using Genki series, practice by reading both manga and books on Shinto, etc. Speaking practice is hard...)
 - American Sign Language (self taught through books + a YouTube course called ASL University; practice only with a deaf colleague at work)


Amazing..

Offline Kavik

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I love learning languages as well, and I am constantly diving into one language learning book or another. I only really get practice in Spanish, as there are a lot of Spanish speakers at my work (in Texas), but I always try and seek out material or find a meetup or something for my other languages if I am intent on getting some sort of speaking practice. 

 - Spanish (1, 2, 3, AP, AP Lit in high school; practice at work with native speakers nearly every day)
 - Chinese (major in college, lived in China for about 7 months in both Beijing and Sichuan and keep up with friends as well as watching movies in Chinese and reading)
 - Esperanto (self taught in 1 month, practice through online forums and correspondence, as well as reading)
 - Swedish (self taught using books + duolingo, practice through reading books like the Millenium series)
 - Japanese (self taught using Genki series, practice by reading both manga and books on Shinto, etc. Speaking practice is hard...)
 - American Sign Language (self taught through books + a YouTube course called ASL University; practice only with a deaf colleague at work)

That's really impressive. My goal for this year was to be able to read a short fantasy anthology book for teens that I bought in Germany eleven years ago, but I still can't do it. I can mostly read the Peanuts book I bought, mostly because I'm familiar enough with Peanuts to know the context of the jokes already.

-German: It is my best secondary language, so it is the one that I would like to improve the most, but it also hard to find learning materials that fit into my level of proficiency. They're either too easy (and thus boring) or too advanced (to the point of frustration).
-French: Since I already have a base for French and it sounds beautiful, I sometimes practice it on Duolingo, but my pronunciation is rather awful. I'm not sure if I like it enough to pursue it, but I think the grammar is attractive (only two genders and no case endings).
-Russian: I dabbled in it years ago and still remember a few phrases, but my understanding is that it has an even worse case and inflection system than German.
-Japanese: I also dabbled in it years ago and remember a few phrases, but I'm not interested enough to pursue it, especially since the writing system is so hard.

I've recently been curious about Danish since I've been watching the TV show Vorbrydelsen. I recognize some German words when I hear it, but the spelling and pronunciation are supposedly atrocious (at least compared to Swedish). I'm also probably much less likely to encounter Danes than Germans for French people anyway.
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline romevi

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Yeah.

English.

Offline Sintpinty

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I began learning German 17 years ago and have studied it off and on since. After a few years of self study, I was able to skip four college courses and get placed in an intermediate II class. I have never had much of an issue with the grammar, but my vocabulary has always sucked, and I have very little speaking practice. So despite good pronunciation, I have a hard time expressing things and speaking any faster than a snail. After all this time, my comprehension is maybe only between A2 and B1; I can understand the gist of videos or podcasts with the context, and I can hear all the words but can't make sense of them fast enough.

I also took French in high school, and I can thus read some French, but spoken French is neigh impossible to understand. But I didn't continue French after my formal classes.

In the US, there's basically no contact with foreign languages except for Spanish. Besides my college instructor, I have encountered maybe two or three native German speakers in the wild where I live (and of course they know perfect English anyway), and never a French speaker. I guess the question could be asked why learn the language if there's no use for it here, but is it possible to become proficient in a language when there is no (natural) contact with it? I presume Europeans have an easier time since borders are more numerous and not as distant, thus increasing contact with other languages.

I know there's the Internet, but real life encounters are basically non-existent.

There might be some French classes online, but French is the primary language in Canada besides English.

In Montreal, you’ll learn how to use manners in both English and French!

Offline Legonut

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In northern NH there are a few french-speaking tourists from Quebec, and the trip there isn't too far for a weekend trip.

Offline coralof

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #10 on: Mon, 15 July 2019, 16:47:38 »
I love learning languages as well, and I am constantly diving into one language learning book or another. I only really get practice in Spanish, as there are a lot of Spanish speakers at my work (in Texas), but I always try and seek out material or find a meetup or something for my other languages if I am intent on getting some sort of speaking practice. 

 - Spanish (1, 2, 3, AP, AP Lit in high school; practice at work with native speakers nearly every day)
 - Chinese (major in college, lived in China for about 7 months in both Beijing and Sichuan and keep up with friends as well as watching movies in Chinese and reading)
 - Esperanto (self taught in 1 month, practice through online forums and correspondence, as well as reading)
 - Swedish (self taught using books + duolingo, practice through reading books like the Millenium series)
 - Japanese (self taught using Genki series, practice by reading both manga and books on Shinto, etc. Speaking practice is hard...)
 - American Sign Language (self taught through books + a YouTube course called ASL University; practice only with a deaf colleague at work)

That's really impressive. My goal for this year was to be able to read a short fantasy anthology book for teens that I bought in Germany eleven years ago, but I still can't do it. I can mostly read the Peanuts book I bought, mostly because I'm familiar enough with Peanuts to know the context of the jokes already.

-German: It is my best secondary language, so it is the one that I would like to improve the most, but it also hard to find learning materials that fit into my level of proficiency. They're either too easy (and thus boring) or too advanced (to the point of frustration).
-French: Since I already have a base for French and it sounds beautiful, I sometimes practice it on Duolingo, but my pronunciation is rather awful. I'm not sure if I like it enough to pursue it, but I think the grammar is attractive (only two genders and no case endings).
-Russian: I dabbled in it years ago and still remember a few phrases, but my understanding is that it has an even worse case and inflection system than German.
-Japanese: I also dabbled in it years ago and remember a few phrases, but I'm not interested enough to pursue it, especially since the writing system is so hard.

I've recently been curious about Danish since I've been watching the TV show Vorbrydelsen. I recognize some German words when I hear it, but the spelling and pronunciation are supposedly atrocious (at least compared to Swedish). I'm also probably much less likely to encounter Danes than Germans for French people anyway.

Yeah, I'm not even going to attempt Danish because of the pronunciation, especially after watching this video on Danish tongue twisters:


Offline SBJ

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 00:49:13 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(

Offline chyros

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 02:09:56 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(
Kinda does xD .
Whereas Swedish sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk, and Norwegian sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk and singing :p .
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Offline SBJ

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 03:10:28 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(
Kinda does xD .
Whereas Swedish sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk, and Norwegian sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk and singing :p .
Gee thanks. :))
No I will agree that Danish is a weird language. A lot of Danish people even have troubles with it.

Offline iri

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 06:07:37 »
Danish is the worst language I've ever heard, closely followed by Scanian Swedish and Dutch.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 06:25:47 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(
Kinda does xD .
Whereas Swedish sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk, and Norwegian sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk and singing :p .
:'( :'(
Very busy with studies atm.

Offline Kavik

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #16 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 09:28:30 »


Yeah, I'm not even going to attempt Danish because of the pronunciation, especially after watching this video on Danish tongue twisters:


Danish tongue twisters should be called throat twisters. Except for phrases contrived to sound weird, I like the sound of Danish, but I must admit a few of the words sound as if the speaker is having trouble swallowing food.

Anywho, I started learning Danish a few days ago via Duolingo and some Youtube videos (Learning with Ervin), but there are noticeably fewer learning resources for this language, it seems. The pronunciation is weird, but at least the grammar looks pretty easy.
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline kakiharaOne

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #17 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 12:33:55 »
My wife is learning Korean. We go to Korean restaurants and she practices with the people that work there. She also finds people at her work to practice with. Luckily, her work is really diverse. It never seems like a inconvenience. Most seem to enjoy it. She also uses this app that pairs you up with real people in the country of the language you’re learning. So people in Korea help her and she helps them with English.

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #18 on: Tue, 16 July 2019, 12:49:01 »
I just wish I could read Japanese. That's probably the only useful language for me to learn right now for career options.

Learning languages is way too much work though, it's one of the most unpleasant learning experiences for me. It rubs the same spot on my brain that hates math, it's not fun or rewarding, just frustrating.

Offline SBJ

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #19 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 03:26:29 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(
Kinda does xD .
Whereas Swedish sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk, and Norwegian sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk and singing :p .
:'( :'(
It's okay siggy-baby. I love Swedish, it's a beautiful language imo.

Offline chyros

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #20 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 05:11:18 »
Danish is the worst language I've ever heard, closely followed by Scanian Swedish and Dutch.
Danish doesn't really sound ugly IMO, just rather weird. Swedish and Norwegian are really nice-sounding, because they're so sing-songy, but it's difficult not to chuckle when you hear it xD . Dutch is a horrible, horrible language, almost impossible to pronounce, too. German is much the same except worse. Arabic and Jewish are the worst-sounding IMO - they're pronounced so far to the back of the throat it sounds almost like it comes from the gut Oo .

The most beautiful language is Italian IMO. Spanish is also very nice, and super sexy.

The absolute worst accent in English, without a shadow of doubt, is Dutch. Most accents are just kinda funny or something, but Dunglish just sounds ugly and stupid.
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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #21 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 05:18:55 »
Everybody always says it sounds like we talk with potatoes in our mouths.  :(
Kinda does xD .
Whereas Swedish sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk, and Norwegian sounds like talking with a potato in your mouth while drunk and singing :p .
:'( :'(
It's okay siggy-baby. I love Swedish, it's a beautiful language imo.
My favorite dane to the rescue  :-*
Very busy with studies atm.

Offline iri

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #22 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 05:27:58 »
Dutch is a horrible, horrible language, almost impossible to pronounce, too. German is much the same except worse.
No. NO.

The absolute worst accent in English, without a shadow of doubt, is Dutch. Most accents are just kinda funny or something, but Dunglish just sounds ugly and stupid.
Brits think that Dutch accent is sexy. Ever heard a Czech person speaking English? That's where the real terror lies.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #23 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 05:42:22 »
If you want an easier time learning a language I'd suggest going for something in the same "language-family" as English, germanic languages.
More

They usually share words and grammatics making it easier to get into a new language. I´d also recommend a language which dubs their tv-series and movies. So you can more easily hear the pronunciation and the use of words in a context that you are familiar with ( The Office etc. it will also sound horrible ;) ).
Very busy with studies atm.

Offline Kavik

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #24 on: Wed, 17 July 2019, 08:04:58 »
Danish is the worst language I've ever heard, closely followed by Scanian Swedish and Dutch.
Danish doesn't really sound ugly IMO, just rather weird. Swedish and Norwegian are really nice-sounding, because they're so sing-songy, but it's difficult not to chuckle when you hear it xD . Dutch is a horrible, horrible language, almost impossible to pronounce, too. German is much the same except worse. Arabic and Jewish are the worst-sounding IMO - they're pronounced so far to the back of the throat it sounds almost like it comes from the gut Oo .

The most beautiful language is Italian IMO. Spanish is also very nice, and super sexy.

The absolute worst accent in English, without a shadow of doubt, is Dutch. Most accents are just kinda funny or something, but Dunglish just sounds ugly and stupid.

I disagree regarding German. Most of its sounds have English equivalents (the ones that don't are very easy to learn "ch", "r", "ü"), the spelling is 99% phonetic, and the accent doesn't sound too far off from American IMO. In fact, I sometimes think it's easier to understand a German speaking English than a Brit speaking English. Although, I'm referring to Hochdeutsch; I don't know about any dialects.

I thought Dutch might be ok to learn since some of its words are even closer to English than German's are, but then I heard the "g" sound and reconsidered.  :))
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline chyros

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #25 on: Thu, 18 July 2019, 04:29:57 »
The absolute worst accent in English, without a shadow of doubt, is Dutch. Most accents are just kinda funny or something, but Dunglish just sounds ugly and stupid.
Brits think that Dutch accent is sexy. Ever heard a Czech person speaking English? That's where the real terror lies.
Haha really? I didn't know that xD . Maybe I should've put on a Dutch accent back when I lived in the UK xD .

I just find the Czech accent funny though, basically all Eastern European accents sound really adorable in English xD .

Danish is the worst language I've ever heard, closely followed by Scanian Swedish and Dutch.
Danish doesn't really sound ugly IMO, just rather weird. Swedish and Norwegian are really nice-sounding, because they're so sing-songy, but it's difficult not to chuckle when you hear it xD . Dutch is a horrible, horrible language, almost impossible to pronounce, too. German is much the same except worse. Arabic and Jewish are the worst-sounding IMO - they're pronounced so far to the back of the throat it sounds almost like it comes from the gut Oo .

The most beautiful language is Italian IMO. Spanish is also very nice, and super sexy.

The absolute worst accent in English, without a shadow of doubt, is Dutch. Most accents are just kinda funny or something, but Dunglish just sounds ugly and stupid.

I disagree regarding German. Most of its sounds have English equivalents (the ones that don't are very easy to learn "ch", "r", "ü"), the spelling is 99% phonetic, and the accent doesn't sound too far off from American IMO. In fact, I sometimes think it's easier to understand a German speaking English than a Brit speaking English. Although, I'm referring to Hochdeutsch; I don't know about any dialects.
I don't really mean the logic or grammar or anything like that, just the way it sounds. To me it tends to sound either really angry and shouty or like a porn actor xD .
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Offline Nathan6

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #27 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 09:30:17 »
"Spanish, French, German and Latin continue to be very commonly taught in the U.S. But we are increasingly adding other languages, like Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Portuguese https://translatehub.org/esperanto-language/ , there's some Italian taught in K-12.

Offline Darthbaggins

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #28 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 09:42:39 »
So far I plan on sticking with understanding Spanish and it's carious dialects since I run into it enough where I live.  I know once my son has to start learning a second language he'll be pushed to French or Spanish either way due to family (in-laws side knows French and redneck, lol).  I personally would like to start picking away at Latin again, last I took it was in high school as it helped me with my English & Spanish.  Helped that my English teacher was also my Latin teacher, but also meant he was "harder" on his student taking Latin as well - expected more of us due to how it broke down and simplified things alot.

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Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #29 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 09:57:54 »
Also, y'all gotta try Piano.  it's arguably more enjoyable than learning spanish.  Reading music is not easy though, brain workout.

Offline Darthbaggins

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #30 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 10:03:47 »
Learned Piano, Trumpet, and guitar (Piano and Guitar cross-over), and reading sheet music can definitely be a PITA.

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #31 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 10:30:44 »
Also, y'all gotta try Piano.  it's arguably more enjoyable than learning spanish.  Reading music is not easy though, brain workout.

I played it for seven years but i forget how to do most of the things i was forced into doing for an "activity"

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #32 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 10:41:01 »
Also, y'all gotta try Piano.  it's arguably more enjoyable than learning spanish.  Reading music is not easy though, brain workout.

I played it for seven years but i forget how to do most of the things i was forced into doing for an "activity"

Yea, math/piano is no fun when it's homework, but when we attempt things through our own volition it creates opportunity for true affinity and growth.

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #33 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 15:22:14 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

Offline iri

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #34 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 16:51:32 »
Fluency in Mandarin is one hell of a goal for a non-native speaker.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #35 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 18:13:28 »
Fluency in Mandarin is one hell of a goal for a non-native speaker.

It's crazy, even after just a month I has some old lady say I speak better than her son. I guess it has a lot to do with tonal pronunciation and regional accents over there.

But the internet is an unending invaluable resource for learning languages, tons of variation on learning styles to suit your individual brain.

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #36 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 18:48:52 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

They pay well @ dat FBI/CIA for white people to learn mandarin to go over spy documents.  although the risk is, they'll disappear you when something goes awry and deny your xistence.  You have to be realllly good though.

Offline jamster

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #37 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 20:59:34 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

Mandarin is doable, but the number of non-Chinese speakers I have met who can converse with any competency in Cantonese is less than ten. The additional tones over Mandarin, with high/medium/low versus just high/low, basically mandate that the learner has have a naturally talented ear to start with. The only saving grace of the language is that the grammar is simple and lacks tenses.

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #38 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 21:22:54 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

Mandarin is doable, but the number of non-Chinese speakers I have met who can converse with any competency in Cantonese is less than ten. The additional tones over Mandarin, with high/medium/low versus just high/low, basically mandate that the learner has have a naturally talented ear to start with. The only saving grace of the language is that the grammar is simple and lacks tenses.

It's insane how many regional dialects are spoken in China, and some are like REALLY specific in their region and yet so tonally different from everything else around them. From Fujianese which is pretty understandable to stuff like Min which is right in the same region but so different.

Offline Kavik

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #39 on: Thu, 08 October 2020, 23:50:29 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

Yeah, speaking with native speakers is my sticking point and why I originally started this thread. You can only get so far without real practice. I don't know where to find Germans (Hot German singles in your area. Click here!) to talk to, or Austrians or Swiss or Liechtensteiner, even though their dialects are different enough that they wouldn't help. With Danish, it's even worse since there are only 5 million of them in the entire world. I don't think I've ever even met a Dane. I guess it doesn't help that I'm in flyover country.

I take it with Chinese, it's a bit easier to find people, no? (More speakers worldwide and in the US). I've been curious how difficult non-European languages would be to learn; it sounds fun but also really intimidating. There are certain things I have to accept that I'll never understand because of this, like singing in a tonal language. I believe this video is a joke based on the ambiguity of the original song's lyrics given the tonal changes necessitated by the music, but I'll never really be able to appreciate it.
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline noisyturtle

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #40 on: Fri, 09 October 2020, 00:30:09 »
A lot of people use Discord servers to practice with others learning and native speakers, I'd bet you can find a German one easily enough.

Offline Kavik

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #41 on: Fri, 09 October 2020, 00:34:18 »
A lot of people use Discord servers to practice with others learning and native speakers, I'd bet you can find a German one easily enough.

Yeah, I should look for a better Discord server. I'm on Cave of Linguists, but it's rare that anyone joins voice chat there, and, when people do join, they speak English and are between ages 15 and 23 with the corresponding maturity level.
Maybe they're waiting for gasmasks and latex to get sexy again.

The world has become a weird place.

Offline Lordgeill

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #42 on: Mon, 09 November 2020, 05:52:09 »
A lot of people use Discord servers to practice with others learning and native speakers, I'd bet you can find a German one easily enough.
A very great topic, because always developing means always going forward. In addition, when everything was bad with my studies, I used the https://uk.edubirdie.com project to improve my grades in studies, because I did not always understand everything. But thanks to this site, my marks became as high as possible, which I was incredibly pleased with, I advise everyone.
« Last Edit: Thu, 26 November 2020, 07:13:40 by Lordgeill »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #43 on: Mon, 09 November 2020, 12:10:27 »
I'm learning Mandarin and Cantonese right now on my own. It's easier than ever to learn a language without schooling or a tutor, you just need to stay with it. The best practice for me is talking to native speakers. Say 'hello' in their language and they will almost always engage you, and hands on convo is the #1 fastest ticket to fluency.

Mandarin is doable, but the number of non-Chinese speakers I have met who can converse with any competency in Cantonese is less than ten. The additional tones over Mandarin, with high/medium/low versus just high/low, basically mandate that the learner has have a naturally talented ear to start with. The only saving grace of the language is that the grammar is simple and lacks tenses.

This has to do with the critical language (sound) acquisition period during childhood, between ages 0-8.  The brain is forming probability sound maps.  This phenomenon is responsible for why there is a significantly higher number of people with musical perfect pitch of Asian descent, because they ON AVERAGE train on a larger sound map.

To train potential beethovens, you have to expose very young humans to COMPLEX classical music extremely early and constantly. Pop music is repetitive and non-complex, it only reduces/ hinders the sound processor construct.

Offline U_Mage25

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #44 on: Mon, 09 November 2020, 12:37:30 »
I took German in high school because I wanted to get into tech and I had heard it can be a good language to know for international networking. Didn't continue it in college but I wish I had because it's been hard to start learning it again from something like Duolingo (why yes, I do know the word for apple, but please directly teach me how to use past tense again!!!!!!). In day to day life it hasn't come up though. I do try to narrate in my head in German from time to time to not get super rusty

Offline phinix

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #45 on: Thu, 12 November 2020, 03:53:54 »
Try to learn Polish :D
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Offline iri

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #46 on: Thu, 12 November 2020, 04:57:14 »
Try to learn Polish :D
spierdalaj na drzewo prostowac banany

Am I doing it right?
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline phinix

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Re: Is It Possible to Learn a Foreign Language Besides Spanish in The USA?
« Reply #47 on: Thu, 12 November 2020, 05:39:36 »
Try to learn Polish :D
spierdalaj na drzewo prostowac banany

Am I doing it right?

Да, точно  ;D
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Offline iri

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(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury