@Zaghoul I think Japanese is one of those languages that is easy to get a sense of if you know a lot about grammar, while English doesn't give you that kind of advantage. I learned English as a second language, of course, but when I was very young. So I don't really remember what was hard learning, except that the spelling and different pronounciation of letters confused me for a while.
Haha! I've forgotten that part of Bladerunner. I feel more like Salvatore in Name of the rose. The guy who "speaks all languages. And no language."
@JoenSo Hah,another favorite movie. I can see that, Salvatore's a great example. All we had offered when I was young was French and Spanish. Schools in the US are at least starting earlier now but we need to broaden the range even more at that age. I learned most of my grammar rules of English through reading I think, all the darn time. Not by the look of it but by the sound,'does that sentence sound correct' based on reading experience. I'm not sure if that is strange or not. The young are more sponge like with languages so I am always amazed when some folks pick up new languages so well.
One thing that really amazed me was a few years after my first foray into college and Japanese. I waited tables at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Often native speakers would come in, say thing in Japanese, when I already stopped studying it. I would often understand just what they said, and THEN say the proper response back. I would always ask myself 'did I just say that'? I think immersion learning is the best way, and doing it from a cultural learning perspective is even better.
I don't like to see languages and cultures disappear, but when a native language, from anywhere, goes, I think also goes an important and binding/ identifying part of that culture as well.
It is great to see how interest in a game brings different languages to a site like this one does.
@JoenSo Hah,another favorite movie. I can see that, Salvatore's a great example. All we had offered when I was young was French and Spanish. Schools in the US are at least starting earlier now but we need to broaden the range even more at that age. I learned most of my grammar rules of English through reading I think, all the darn time. Not by the look of it but by the sound,'does that sentence sound correct' based on reading experience. I'm not sure if that is strange or not. The young are more sponge like with languages so I am always amazed when some folks pick up new languages so well.
One thing that really amazed me was a few years after my first foray into college and Japanese. I waited tables at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Often native speakers would come in, say thing in Japanese, when I already stopped studying it. I would often understand just what they said, and THEN say the proper response back. I would always ask myself 'did I just say that'? I think immersion learning is the best way, and doing it from a cultural learning perspective is even better.
I don't like to see languages and cultures disappear, but when a native language, from anywhere, goes, I think also goes an important and binding/ identifying part of that culture as well.
It is great to see how interest in a game brings different languages to a site like this one does.
Yes, I think immersion is the best way too. Grammar skills do of course help a lot to make sense of the immersion. But it is also easy to fall into the classical trap where you start overthinking the grammar while talking instead of getting a feel of what sounds right. I've sure done it with Spanish. "Voy, vas, va, vamos..." While I learned English through, well, Baldur's gate and other games, movies and books.
I think Duolingo and similar digital solutions are a fantastic way to keep minority languages alive. Duolingo has courses in both Guarani and Irish now, which has made it so much easier for so many people to learn languages that otherwise might disappear. I think it could also help schools like the ones you are talking about in the US to broaden the range of languages they can offer.
Seriously though, it looks like a pretty cool site, I might try it... I've been thinking about trying Polish.
Question: how advanced does this go? I'm always looking to improve my German but I already have a fairly good grasp of the basics, so just re-learning "guten tag, wie gehts?" etc won't really help me.
@Squire I'm about 2/3 through the Spanish course and it gets pretty advanced in terms of vocabulary and grammar. When you start a new course you can also take a placement test so you can skip past the basics and start closer to your own level.
If I were you, I would still apply for the course for language level A2 because I think that learning a new language with the assistance of a teacher is definitely better that learning that language just by your own.
Comments
Haha! I've forgotten that part of Bladerunner. I feel more like Salvatore in Name of the rose. The guy who "speaks all languages. And no language."
Schools in the US are at least starting earlier now but we need to broaden the range even more at that age. I learned most of my grammar rules of English through reading I think, all the darn time. Not by the look of it but by the sound,'does that sentence sound correct' based on reading experience. I'm not sure if that is strange or not.
The young are more sponge like with languages so I am always amazed when some folks pick up new languages so well.
One thing that really amazed me was a few years after my first foray into college and Japanese. I waited tables at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Often native speakers would come in, say thing in Japanese, when I already stopped studying it. I would often understand just what they said, and THEN say the proper response back. I would always ask myself 'did I just say that'?
I think immersion learning is the best way, and doing it from a cultural learning perspective is even better.
I don't like to see languages and cultures disappear, but when a native language, from anywhere, goes, I think also goes an important and binding/ identifying part of that culture as well.
It is great to see how interest in a game brings different languages to a site like this one does.
I think Duolingo and similar digital solutions are a fantastic way to keep minority languages alive. Duolingo has courses in both Guarani and Irish now, which has made it so much easier for so many people to learn languages that otherwise might disappear. I think it could also help schools like the ones you are talking about in the US to broaden the range of languages they can offer.
Seriously though, it looks like a pretty cool site, I might try it... I've been thinking about trying Polish.
Question: how advanced does this go? I'm always looking to improve my German but I already have a fairly good grasp of the basics, so just re-learning "guten tag, wie gehts?" etc won't really help me.
Let us know if you passed the test.
How did you find the Italian version of HOMM3? We discussed about this - it is very rare. Luckily for me, I bought it back in the days
I wonder what they say in the "Discuss sentence" section...