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All these people who can speak multiple languages; I'm really jealous as I've barely mastered one. My language teachers at school pretty much gave up despite my genuine best efforts....
- 12-01-2011 #11Trusted Penguin
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All these people who can speak multiple languages; I'm really jealous as I've barely mastered one. My language teachers at school pretty much gave up despite my genuine best efforts.
If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate! (Zapp Brannigan)
My new blog. It's probably not as good as I think it is.
- 12-01-2011 #12Linux Guru
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As far as I'm concerned, the only way to learn another language is to live in a country where it is the lingua franca for 6-12 months. There seems to be a hard-wired thing in our brains that takes about 7 months before one starts to really think in the language, and no amount of school or book learning will change that. Example: my sister studied Spanish for 3 years in high school and another couple of years in college. Then she went to study in Mexico, and was foundering for 7 months. Then one day, she realized that she was listening to conversations without trying to translate them. I studied Spanish for 1 year in high school, then went to Mexico to study, and after 7 months (3 months of intensive Spanish classes - 8 hours / day), the same thing happened to me! Needless to say, she has a better technical command of the language (especially after having lived in Mexico for many many years), and does work as a translator, but we are both fluent in speaking it and often babble to each other in Spanish, or more often (to my wife's chagrin) Spanglish!
Originally Posted by elija 
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real time.
Just remember, Semper Gumbi - always be flexible!
- 12-02-2011 #13Trusted Penguin
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A lot of people say that. But I think you need enough of a language to at least pidgin your way through for the first few months. I went through two years of secondary school German and four years of French and emerged unable to speak word one of either language. And I genuinely did try my best. By the third year, it was decided that languages were "probably not my thing". Unfortunately, I had to take at least one foreign language and wasn't allowed to study extra maths and C.S. instead.
If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate! (Zapp Brannigan)
My new blog. It's probably not as good as I think it is.
- 12-02-2011 #14Trusted Penguin
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How you learn it depends on what works for you - you've probably just not found the way that works for you yet. My second language is really C (or C++) but after that, can manage a bit of Spanish (where I've only ever been on holiday) and a bit of German (where I've never, ever been). Originally Posted by elija Linux user #126863 - see http://linuxcounter.net/
- 12-02-2011 #15Linux Guru
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Yo hablo perl. Originally Posted by Roxoff
- 12-02-2011 #16Linux Guru
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Ich sprecken Smalltalk...
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real time.
Just remember, Semper Gumbi - always be flexible!
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