Anyone here ever tried to learn a second language?

[Arcadio]

However I do struggle with Puerto Rican and Dominican Spanish at times. They are both very bastardized, slang-heavy variants of the language.

Never learn Spanish from Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, or even most Mexicans. Even native Spanish speakers such as myself can't understand what they are saying sometimes.

Btw, I learned English from a British English course on tape and workbooks my dad bought.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The worst thing about learning another language at a University is that the grammar is all taught in terms of English grammar which really sucks if you never learned English grammar. The services do a pretty good job and Rosetta Stone works.

 

[Kirby]

1) What motivated you? Going to Germany and Austria in high school.

2) Did you succeed and/or how far did you get? No, 3 semesters.

3) What were the major barriers you experienced, if any? Too busy with other things/lazy, and memorizing the genders of nouns are a bitch.

4) What method(s) did you use to learn? College classes

It was fun for a while, then it became a bit tedious and I knew I would never use it (CS major).

I did take 2 years of Spanish in high school, but I'm pretty sure the teacher could speak it. I think her only qualification was that she liked Mexican food. So we had parties, did worksheets, and watched Disney movies in Spanish with English subtitles.

The only thing I remember is, "Soy una uva!"

 

[sdifox]

If so, I've got a few questions for you...

1) What motivated you?

2) Did you succeed and/or how far did you get?

3) What were the major barriers you experienced, if any?

4) What method(s) did you use to learn?

Thanks guys... looking forward to hearing your stories.

1) School Curriculum for English and French. My ass got moved to Argentina for Spanish

2) I am fluent in English and Spanish. French, not so much.

3) Verb conjugation. Chinese doesn't have that.

4) Brute force method.

 

[DaWhim]

If so, I've got a few questions for you...

1) What motivated you?

2) Did you succeed and/or how far did you get?

3) What were the major barriers you experienced, if any?

4) What method(s) did you use to learn?

Thanks guys... looking forward to hearing your stories.

second language? Chinese is my native. i mastered english in about 3 years.

Now I am working on spanish.

1. bilingual is not even cool anymore, try trilingual! also....after spanish, making up french/italian/portugese will be a cake walk.

2. so far so good, it is gonna take times. being fluent in english helps a lot when it comes to learning spanish. also, the experience of already learned a 2nd language help.

3. speaking and listening. probably listening. the number part is hard too. some like vocabs, you can memorize it. for the numbers, you need to drill it into your head.

4. nothing works better than living in the country that only speaks the language you want to learn. i did 20 days traveling in spain, it was the time i realized how easy to learn spanish and the best way to learn it. i am traveling in south america for 6 months. this should help. I learned some basic back home for a few months before I start my travel. I got here, signed up private class for 1 week.

 

[SKORPI0]

Not the 2nd language I had to learn (since I was already fluent in 2). Had to take Spanish in HS and college since they were required courses. Hardly retained anything since I didn't think at that time that I'll be using it, still true to this day.

Would loved to have taken German, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, Nippon-go but they were not offered/available at that time.

 

[gaidensensei]

second language? Chinese is my native. i mastered english in about 3 years.

Now I am working on spanish.

bilingual is not even cool anymore, try trilingual! also....after spanish, making up french/italian/portugese will be a cake walk.

Isn't it nice to be able to shift from one to another?

There's the whole thing about white people at a chinese restaurant understanding what asians are blabbing about, or some asians in a spanish restaurant knowing what the amigos are saying about them.

I wonder how it will be in 20-30 years or so, where more people of different nationalities can understand another's language. It'd be crazy. Christoph Waltz is one of the people I look up to after realizing he can play between multiple languages.

 

[OOBradm]

1. Necesito hablar español para mi trabajar.
2. Pues, ahora hablo un poco pero yo tengo más aprender.
3. Escuchar es muy díficil. Personas hablan muy rapido. Mi acento es muy malo tambien.
4. Estudio los libros, tomé un clase de español, y usarlo at mi trabajar.

took 2 years of spanish in high school (~9 years ago). Haven't used it since then

For fun, I'm going to try to translate this:
1. I need to speak spanish for my job.
2. Plus, now to speak a little ? i have very ?
3. To hear is very difficult. People talk very fast. My accent is very bad as well.
4. I study books, write(or read?) in spanish class, and use it at my job

grade me!

 

[Fayd]

Japanese is super useful for watching Anime and reading Japanese video games.

Essentially, completely useless.

which is kind of funny.

japan is the third largest economy in the world. you'd think fluency in japanese would be more useful than it is.

 

[sonambulo]

Never learn Spanish from Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, or even most Mexicans. Even native Spanish speakers such as myself can't understand what they are saying sometimes.

What exactly is the deal with Mexican Spanish? It seems the majority of the translation work for consumer products in the states is done by Mexicans. There have been many, many instances of me lawling in a store when reading something clearly translated by a Mexican. Not to rip on Mexicans it's just that their Spanish is...odd.

 

[zinfamous]

Barthelona!

 

[DaWhim]

Isn't it nice to be able to shift from one to another?

There's the whole thing about white people at a chinese restaurant understanding what asians are blabbing about, or some asians in a spanish restaurant knowing what the amigos are saying about them.

I wonder how it will be in 20-30 years or so, where more people of different nationalities can understand another's language. It'd be crazy. Christoph Waltz is one of the people I look up to after realizing he can play between multiple languages.

total fluency would be i can shift between cantonese and english without myself realizing it. it is a nice thing.

I only know a handful of people that can fluent in chinese (canto and mandrain) + eng + spanish

my spanish just started, i don't know how far I can go in 6 months.

 

[WelshBloke]

what worked best for me is going and living there.

Though, Florence is not exactly the bast place to learn Italian, b/c most people speak English and want to speak English. But they will speak to you in Italian if you make a decent effort (unlike those asshole Parisians).

1 year of it in college 2 years before going to Italy was almost worthless. One really, truly, needs immersion. It becomes surprisingly easy soon after.

2 years of Japanese in High School was also a joke.

Parisians aren't generally that good at Italian

I'm rubbish at languages. I can manage ordering a beer in quite a few, asking for an ashtray in some (a bit useless now I've given up), and I can borrow a pen in two.

My wife is pretty much fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French.

I blame her for my lack of motivation. I can get her to talk to the strange foreigners. This suits my laziness and antisocial tendencies.

 

[Boris Morozov]

english is my second language. i learn when i was little boy

 

[Dulanic]

1) What motivated you?
I would love to visit Germany for an extended period of time.

2) Did you succeed and/or how far did you get?
Just started

3) What were the major barriers you experienced, if any?
Will find out soon enough.

4) What method(s) did you use to learn?
For now... Rosetta stone. But once I start to get the concepts of it I will begin watching TV shows and reading.

 

[fire400]

repitition in positive manner. there is literally no other way.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

What exactly is the deal with Mexican Spanish? It seems the majority of the translation work for consumer products in the states is done by Mexicans. There have been many, many instances of me lawling in a store when reading something clearly translated by a Mexican. Not to rip on Mexicans it's just that their Spanish is...odd.

Can you be more specific?


As to the OP, I tried to learn French for a French class in College (1 quarter). Didn't get very far. Trying to learn it by studying is horribly ineffective. I need immersion.

 

[KingstonU]

If so, I've got a few questions for you...

1) What motivated you?

2) Did you succeed and/or how far did you get?

3) What were the major barriers you experienced, if any?

4) What method(s) did you use to learn?

Thanks guys... looking forward to hearing your stories.

English and French from birth. Then learned Portuguese in my teens and Spanish in my early 20's. I have found that I even get by in Italian by just using a mixture of spanish/french/portuguese since there are many similarities. Would still like to learn Mandarin, which I assume would be much more difficult as it's not latin based or even mildly similar.

1. Travel, latina women, and then work.

2. Very successful, fluent but not "Native fluent", there is nothing that I can't express, however sometimes I have to go about it a different way and using more words than a native speaking person requires. So I could get better but have not really had many reasons to bother improving beyond that. Reading is easy, writing a bit more difficult though I rarely have to do so. I wish I could understand the words in music better though.

3. I would get massive headaches from total immersion (see answer to #4) and from learning at such a rapid pace. If I am out of practice for a long time and get thrown into immersion again the headache will come back for a few days.

4. Total immersion. I've lived and traveled for months at a time in Latin America in areas where no-one speaks a word of french or english. Since then I have also taken a couple Spanish classes in university to improve my base grammar and vocabulary. I've tried Rosetta Stone as well and thought it was quite good, the next best thing to immersion probably.

 

[Leros]

1) 因為我比你聰明
2) 成功了
3) 沒有人跟我講普通話
4) 上網念網站的條目

Not sure what that says, but I'll go with #2. The #2 special is always good.

 

[KingstonU]

took 2 years of spanish in high school (~9 years ago). Haven't used it since then

For fun, I'm going to try to translate this:

" 1. Necesito hablar español para mi trabajar.
2. Pues, ahora hablo un poco pero yo tengo más aprender.
3. Escuchar es muy díficil. Personas hablan muy rapido. Mi acento es muy malo tambien.
4. Estudio los libros, tomé un clase de español, y usarlo at mi trabajar."

1. I need to speak spanish for my job.
2. Plus, now to speak a little ? i have very ?
3. To hear is very difficult. People talk very fast. My accent is very bad as well.
4. I study books, write(or read?) in spanish class, and use it at my job

grade me!

Pretty good.

Real answers (though google can also do this for you):
1. Good.
2. Plus, now I speak a little but I have more to learn.
3. Very good.
4. (close) I studied books, took a class of spanish, and use it at my job.