Some questions on learning languages

[DLopez]

I'm hispanic, but Spanish is really a second language for me, and lately I have been finding it difficult to maintain my vocabulary as I don't practice it nearly as much as when I was younger.

 

I am trying to learn French too, using one of those computer immersion programs, but it's slow going on my own. Not only that, I am talking only to my computer because none of my friends speak French either.

 

But hey, I know four high level (Basic, Fortran 77, Pascal, C/C++) computer languages and a good half dozen microprocessor assembly languages!! Do those count?

[angelica d]

1/ What are your reasons for learning another language?

 

Umm...school made me, and I was good at them so I carried on. I aslo quite enjoy knowing stuff that not many other people can do!

 

2/ What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had?

 

Finding places that run Japanese courses (There isn't much call for them in East Yorkshire). Otherwise, language learning comes to me pretty easily. Trying to understand different dialects and accents is always hard though.

 

3/ Which languages have you learnt and why?

 

French and German at school, Japanese for fun. I'm interested in Japan and hope to visit, plus I thought it would be challenging. I was right! I also fancy learning Italian, Arabic and Russian. For novelty value.

 

4/ Which learning methods have you used?

 

Classes at school and then college were the main method, I like the traditional methods of learning grammer and then progressing. I think that now at school they simply teach basic pjrases to the kids, which doesn't help them understand the structure of the language. I also used books and a CD ROM but nothing worked as well as actually going to class.

 

5/ Did you learn a language in high school?

 

Yeah, French for 7 years and German for 2. I can honestly only remember the numbers from German, and how to say 'I love watching TV' - which isn't true! As for French, I would say I'm pretty good. I can hold a fluent conversation, although my spelling could do with some improvement.

[aefibird]

2/ What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had?

 

Finding places that run Japanese courses (There isn't much call for them in East Yorkshire).

 

*sigh* I know the feeling. Yorkshire doesn't really seem to be a haven for Japanese speakers - I've tried to find a place that teaches Japanes but so far I've drawn a big fat blank. It'll probably be another 'teach yourself from the book' job, like I mostly ended up doing with Twi and Swahili.