Some questions on learning languages

[iolair]

I'm currently writing a book for language learners, and would be interested if you could answer a couple of questions... (if you're verbose, please let me know if you're prepared to be quoted either with a name or anonymously)...

 

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

 

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language

 

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

 

Thanks!

[TheDevilAside]

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

 

I moved to another country; I had to learn the language.

 

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language

 

Writing and grammar was always the most difficult for me. It's simple to speak it, but it gets hard once you have to worry about "complex/compound-complex" sentences, and so on.

 

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

English (Lived in the US) High German and the Swiss dialect (I was born in Switzerland) I was fluent at Italian at one point, but forgot most of it (lived in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland when I was younger) French (I'm in French 2, I want to learn all of the Romantic languages)

 

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

Experience: moving or visiting a country which speaks the language you desire to learn, is the easiest way to pick it up. It's easiest when you're young.

 

School: close to worthless, you don't learn the accent (which matters a LOT) and, for some reason, my classes only focus on the grammatical aspect. So, you have students that can write in the language like college professors, but can't utter out a sentence without writing it down first.

 

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

 

I'm still in Highschool, taking French 2.

[italian_guy]

I'm currently writing a book for language learners, and would be interested if you could answer a couple of questions... (if you're verbose, please let me know if you're prepared to be quoted either with a name or anonymously)...

 

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

 

There may be lots of reasons. For me english (My home language is Italian as you can imagine) is useful for my work and for traveling (which is also part of my work).

 

Another valid reason it is also for plain fun and cultural interest, for example I like to study some chinese when I have time.

 

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language.

 

Depends on the language you have to learn and your home language. English is relatively easy the only difficulty for me was oral comprehension and some pronunciation, the rest is just learning words.

 

For chinese everything is hard, the easiest thing is the grammar, they have a quite rigid structure in their sentences, but everything else is a big mess, but it is fun, and once you speak to a chinese in its own language they stare at you with surprise.

 

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

English at school (all levels) and I practice it continuously (also now).

 

French at middle-school, I practice it rarely mostly when I go to Geneva.

 

Chinese for fun, by myself, I practice with my chinese collegues and when I go to taiwan.

 

Latin, at secondary and middle school but I do not practice it.

 

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

For english I started with books and then lots of practice, for practice I mean conversation with english or american people or TV listening, since the grammar is not too hard you do not need a strong "theoretical background" and this method works.

 

For chinese books and cassettes. It is almost impossible to learn chinese only from books because the pronuciation and the oral comprehention is so hard.

 

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

 

Yes I studied English and Latin and the level was quite basic, you need to really practice a lot to learn a foregn languge.

 

Thanks!

[Budderfly]

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

I learnt French in French Immersion school from Kindergarden to Grade 10. My parents put me in it, but I am grateful they did.

 

I also want to learn Japanese cause I've always been interested Japan. I want to travel there and be able to converse with people. I also watch a lot of Japanese movies and listen to some music from Japan as well. I love the music but I have no idea what they're saying. Other languages I'm interested in is Spanish, Chinese and Italian.

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language

Writing and grammar (French and Japanese) is the hardest part, as well as finding a Japanese course that works with my schedule (I work full time and I'm at martial arts 4-5 evenings out of the week)

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

Like I said above, I took French Immersion in school. It's also the second language of Canada and I am proud to speak it. I've also self-taught myself a bit of Japanese (reasons explained above) with books and tapes, but I need to take a class. I want to make sure I'm pronouncing words correctly.

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

School - effective as you get one on one training. It also has a set cirriculum that makes learning easier to grasp.

 

Books - you can learn the basics through books if you have perseverence, but you get to a point where you're questioning yourself if the words you are speaking make sense.

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

I only did French in school. Our high school unfortunately didn't offer any other language except French. Otherwise I would have taken Japanese or Spanish.

 

After 11 years of French, I felt very fluent in the language. But now that I am 26 and I haven't been given much oppertunity to keep up with it, I feel a little rusty. But I can still watch the movie Amelie without sub-titles.

[Drunken Monkey]

just out of curiosity, when you guys say 'chinese', do you mean mandarin or cantonese?

[aefibird]

I'm currently writing a book for language learners, and would be interested if you could answer a couple of questions... (if you're verbose, please let me know if you're prepared to be quoted either with a name or anonymously)...

 

1) What were your reasons for learning another language?

 

I had to in school. I took French, Spanish and Latin in school, but I've been learning Welsh, Swahili and a little Twi since.

 

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language? One of the main barriers initially for me was learning masculine and feminine forms of words in French. Complicated grammar is also another barrier! Spelling and pronunciation are one of the hardest things about Welsh.

 

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

I learned French, Spanish and Latin at school. I did those because I had to I've been learning Welsh because I'm originally from Wales. I've also learned Swahili and Twi (a West African language) because I've worked in Africa a lot and I intend to move back there someday (and convert everyone to Shotokan and Aikido )

 

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

The best 2 methods for me were learning at school (because I had to learn it!) and also learning when I moved to Tanzania temporarily (again, because I had to learn it in order to communicate - not everyone in the area I was in could speak English)

 

Ineffective for me is just trying to learn it on my own out of a book, but that's because I'm a bit lazy at times and I need an incentive to learn it. I've mainly learned Welsh using books and a CD Rom and its taken me a lot longer to learn than any other language.

 

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

 

I learned French, Spanish and Latin up to being 16. I didn't continue with any of them after being 16 to when I left school at 18. I think I got a reasonable standard of competence in them - I would have got more had I wished to carry on with them. I learned enough to pass GCSE's in all 3 languages, anyway!!

 

Thanks! No problemo!

[/b]

[CanuckMA]

I'm currently writing a book for language learners, and would be interested if you could answer a couple of questions... (if you're verbose, please let me know if you're prepared to be quoted either with a name or anonymously)...

 

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

 

Had to.

 

 

 

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language

 

Different alphabet, right to left reading and writing.

 

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

English and French because that's what was spoken at home. Hebrew to understand the main texts of my religion.

 

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

Reading known text in a different language with the translation, and transliteration available.

 

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

 

Spanish, still can't understand it.

 

Thanks!

[tommarker]

Cool thread. Languages fascinate me...

1) What were your reasons for learning another language

For me, languages are a key to another culture, like being able to see a world that you may have overlooked before. It is also a great history lesson in many ways. Arabic influence on Spanish, for example...

 

I started learning French in high school, and used it for my foreign language requirement at University. It was great for literature, and I absorbed as much as possible at the time. I had no real motive for learning it aside from having an excellent teacher (who i hated at the time) that encouraged learning. People in my high school took French for the challenge. And French opened up other Romance languages to me...

 

I started learning Spanish for completely practical reasons. Lots of people speak Spanish in the US (more than francophones at least!) and I've been applying for law enforcement jobs. It started out being one more bullet point on a resume. Now, I'm working on my BA in Spanish.

2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language

 

Thinking in English. This is OK for the basics, but as things get more advanced, it becomes a major hinderance. I'm slowly becoming able to Think Spanish. I don't have to "translate" in my head as much anymore, and I can look at an apple and think "manzana" instead of going "ok... that's an apple, pomme in french, manzana in spanish." etc...

 

Everything comes with practice, but this is THE big hurdle for me, the difference between understanding a language, and having control of it.

3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those?

 

French, Spanish, Italian as needed, Portuguese as needed. Enough Korean to get through TSD teminology. Some Chinese as I started seeing certain symbols over and over again.

 

I would like to learn Lithuanian.

4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective?

 

With Spanish, I have used the internet to my advantage to "immerse" myself in the language even in Ohio. Reading Spanish newspapers (I try to read cnnenespanol.com before i read the regular news so I can't cheat.) I have a couple spanish channels on cable, and I use the SAP feature regularly. I listen to tapes while I'm walking to get used to hearing and speaking the language.

 

I need to practice SPEAKING more often. The people who retain it, are those who participate regularly in class, and don't care if they mess up. That fear of failure keeps a lot of people from learning more... but remember when you were 5 or 6 and trying to use complicated structures and words? You experimented and learned. You weren't embarassed when you said "I going" etc.

5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school?

I learned French, and was able to read fluently. I spoke and wrote with the ability of a 6 year old. To this day, I can understand basic conversational french and could probably put a few phrases together, but that's more from studying spanish than anything else. The two are so similar it's hard for me NOT to remember French equivalents.

[ShotoMan]

We did French and Latin at school. I am now fluent in French as I continued this for work requirements - I used a Linguaphone course and it was/is excellent. Anybody can learn a foreign language using this method.

 

I am currently learning Mandarin Chinese under the same system, simply because I love Chinese people.

 

[italian_guy]

just out of curiosity, when you guys say 'chinese', do you mean mandarin or cantonese?

 

For me is Mandarin. Because is the official language of mainland china and taiwain