Learning a new language

[skyyd1ve 0]

ooh learn german. i'm austrian and know it fluently and i think it's a great language - yet kind of an angry one =)
also have studied french for years and i'm learning italian now - both are great. i had some french tapes once, and they were kind of helpful. however, i think what is very helpful in learning languages is watching movies (with subtitles) in that language and picking things up.

[Rebecca 0]

It's funny, ich spreche Deutsch, and every time I get impatient, that's the language that comes out!

"Auf schon!"
"Ach, du bloeder scheisstueck!!"
"Bitte, mach's schon!!"

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[SkyDaemon 0]

Esperanto! Learn to speak it like a native!


Actually if you're looking to study a language that has some similarities to English, Spanish, French, German, Italian aren't bad places to start.

I think a lot of your decision is going to be based on what languages you want to learn and what they have in common, and finding which one will be easiest to learn first. It's very easy to become discouraged when learning a new language. Using tapes/audio to learn new languages isn't a bad way to do it, however much of learning a new language is pure repitition and memorization of vocabulary.

I first learned Spanish, then Greek, then Russian and by the time I was learning Russian the structure of language and how to learn a new language was quite easy.

Spanish, French, Italian, German and other european languages have the advantages of using the roman alphabet (or at least most of it). Getting into Russian, most asian languages, (save some such as Malay), Middle eastern languages, or languages of indigenous cultures is that the alphabet is different, as is much of the structure.

If you learn something such as Greek or Latin as your first 'foriegn' language, they'll be useful and relatively easy as much of the vocabulary in English is based on latin and greek roots, so many of the words will be quite obvious. It's not a bad introduction to the concepts of gender, case, and singular versus plural conjugation and declinations.

Best of luck!

find / -name jumpers -print; cat jumpers $USER > manifest; cd /dev/airplane; more altitude; make jump; cd /pub; more beer;

[jumper03 0]

Quote

It's funny, ich spreche Deutsch, and every time I get impatient, that's the language that comes out!

"Auf schon!"
"Ach, du bloeder scheisstueck!!"
"Bitte, mach's schon!!"

mein Gott in himmel.....

Scars remind us that the past is real