The Language-Learning Thread

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Gandalf** » Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:51 am

Thanks guys!

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Knoyleo** » Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:02 pm

I'd not use Memrise before, but got it downloaded this morning. Really like the way it works as a vocab tool, I can see why it would compliment something like Duolingo quite nicely. Looks like it's got European Spanish on it, too, which is a bonus.

+1 for Pimsleur, I agree with pancake that in my experience it's an incredibly useful tool to help learn a language. I found duolingo helped a bit when I was staying in Spain for a while but personally I got bored of it quite quickly. Much prefer the podcast form of Pimsleur. I think they're meant to be hundreds of pounds or whatever but, y'know, pirate.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Pacman** » Thu Jun 09, 2016 1:45 am

"Pancake"

Sorry, it's the first username beginning with p that came to mind. The pacman avatar probably should've been a giveaway

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Knoyleo** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 12:16 pm

The Influent game is on sale on Humble Bundle for £2.79, and you get to pick your first language for that price. Other languages are then charged as DLC, I think.

It's a bit cheesy, seems like the kind of program that wouldn't be out of place on a school computer, but basically, you're some guy wandering around his house, learning the names of all these objects in an immersive language environment. Click on object, add it to your vocab library, then the game tests you by giving you a word, and you have to run round the house and find the right object.

I chose Spanish, (and it actually uses Castillian rather than Mexican Spanish :wub:

) and it's not too difficult as I'm familiar with a fair amount of the vocab already, (although there's plenty of new stuff in there too, the game lets you break more complex objects like "bed" down into child objects, like "pillow" "mattress" and "duvet", for example,) but the demo video for it shows someone playing the game in Japanese, which I imagine must be one hell of a challenge, given the new character set and everything else.

Not bad for less than three quid, probably not a bad way to brush up on your everyday vocab.

Currently supported languages:

More planned: http://playinfluent.com/languages/

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Lex-Man** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 9:39 am

Knoyleo wrote:The Influent game is on sale on Humble Bundle for £2.79, and you get to pick your first language for that price. Other languages are then charged as DLC, I think.

It's a bit cheesy, seems like the kind of program that wouldn't be out of place on a school computer, but basically, you're some guy wandering around his house, learning the names of all these objects in an immersive language environment. Click on object, add it to your vocab library, then the game tests you by giving you a word, and you have to run round the house and find the right object.

I chose Spanish, (and it actually uses Castillian rather than Mexican Spanish ) and it's not too difficult as I'm familiar with a fair amount of the vocab already, (although there's plenty of new stuff in there too, the game lets you break more complex objects like "bed" down into child objects, like "pillow" "mattress" and "duvet", for example,) but the demo video for it shows someone playing the game in Japanese, which I imagine must be one hell of a challenge, given the new character set and everything else.

Not bad for less than three quid, probably not a bad way to brush up on your everyday vocab.

Currently supported languages:
Japanese
Mandarin Chinese
Spanish
English
French
Swedish
Bulgarian
German
Latin
Korean
Russian
Italian
European Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Finnish
Norwegian
Danish
Hindi

More planned: http://playinfluent.com/languages/

I just bought the Japanese version. Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually thinking about learning German when I get back to the UK next month. I've got onto a teaching course but if that fulls through I'm going to be seriously considering my options for moving to the EU before article 50 is called. I kind of think my best option is German or Ireland but not sure if I can get a job in either of those places. Also staying there after England leaves the EU might be hard.

I'm getting back into learning French. I've been using Duolingo these last few days. I'll give Memrise a go as well, so thanks for the recommendation.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Xeno** » Sun Jul 17, 2016 7:47 pm

I have decided to give German a go again, it's been 30 years since I last used it and even then I was a beginner but some has stuck even after all these years, so I though it would be the best option before moving on to a new language. In all honesty I am tired of only knowing a single language.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Karl_** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 12:44 pm

Xeno wrote:I have decided to give German a go again, it's been 30 years since I last used it and even then I was a beginner but some has stuck even after all these years, so I though it would be the best option before moving on to a new language. In all honesty I am tired of only knowing a single language.

Viel Glück!

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Xeno** » Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:35 pm

Karl wrote:
Xeno wrote:I have decided to give German a go again, it's been 30 years since I last used it and even then I was a beginner but some has stuck even after all these years, so I though it would be the best option before moving on to a new language. In all honesty I am tired of only knowing a single language.

Viel Glück!

How dare you say that about my mother!

Xeno wrote:I have decided to give German a go again, it's been 30 years since I last used it and even then I was a beginner but some has stuck even after all these years, so I though it would be the best option before moving on to a new language. In all honesty I am tired of only knowing a single language.

Bitte, vor ist die ratthaus?

I might add that I didn't actually do German at school (I did French and Spanish).

As my girlfriend is French, and all she seems to teach me is swearwords, I've started learning a bit of the old Français. As with Spanish back in the day, Michel Thomas is my starting point. I don't know how his tapes do it, but the sense of progression is insane. By the end of the first 7 minute lesson I was saying "Quelle sorte de reservation voulez-vous pour ce soir" and other similar length utterances knowing exactly what each constituent part meant and where it goes within the grammatical structure. Highly recommended.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Parksey** » Tue Jul 19, 2016 10:42 am

I have heard a few people praise the Michel Thomas method (my Dad used it for Spanish too).

Despite being at the level where I can attempt the N2 JLPT (you were in Japan for a bit so I presume you know roughly what that means), my speaking and listening are so bad. Primarily because I am self-study and I do what I like best - which is sticking my head in a textbook (not literally).

As a result, those other skills lag behind. But I have four or five weeks of no classes now, so I can basically study for eight hours a day at school, and want to make great strides with my Japanese, especially speaking and listening. I'm going to attempt the N2 again next December (as I reckon I have failed this July) but I also want to be able to communicate with people a lot better.

So does Michel Thomas work with Japanese? I know that he didn't do all the tapes for all the languages available, and I also know that what works for Romance languages might not work with one so far removed from English.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Lex-Man** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:41 am

Are you stillin Japan Parksey? I've heard a lot of ALTs who study for the JLPT exams have the same problem.
People tend to get good at reading but struggle with listening and speaking.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Parksey** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:56 am

Yeah, still here. Currently sitting at my desk and have a long summer vacation ahead of me. Today I had the pleasure of having to translate a horrendously difficult Japanese speech about traditional Japanese court music, for a student doing a speech contest. Grammatically it was fine but the sheer amount of unknown kanji (technical music terms and the like) was annoying.

Still, with an online dictionary and Google translate (which can be quite unreliable if you can't untangle the grammar yourself) I can do it.

I find the opposite with ALTs to be honest. Many can speak and listen okay, but really really struggle with kanji and reading. I think because most seem to like anime and Japanese music, whereas they do nothing for me. I actually prefer just sitting at my desk with a big, weighty textbook. Can't imagine that appeals to many ALTs, and none of my friends do the sheer weight of academic style studying I do. But some of them are still better listeners than I am.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Lex-Man** » Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:23 am

I meant more the ALTs who are studying for the JLPT. Espically new alts who came over with below N2 level Japanese.

I'm actually headed back to the UK. Not sure I made the right choice but we'll see.

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Knoyleo** » Thu Dec 29, 2016 6:54 pm

I started a GRcade club in Duolingo, now that that's a feature. Let's all join and laugh and peer at each other's progress.

Club code is VMHJE8

PostRe: The Language-Learning Thread by **Kezzer** » Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:00 pm

aww man its only available on the app versions :oops:

Moving to Germany next week so need to actually start learning the language. I know basically nothing apart from a few words.

Not the most beautiful of languages but should be fun.

The Language-Learning Thread

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