LANGUAGE THREAD

This board is somehow becoming even shittier than it already was. So let's do something about it even though nothing will happen in the long run.

Let's have a thread on languages. What languages are you learning and why? What would you like to learn and why? Do you have some tips on learning languages that you'd like to share? How has your language changed over time, and have you studied the history of your own language or another? And anything else that comes to mind.

Personally I'm fluent in English and I speak German to a good degree. Wrestling with what to do next.

>This board is somehow becoming even shittier than it already was.

Because of shills like you making threads like these.

Schonsteinfagan

>shills like me
kek, I guess I should've made yet another thread about some screencap/news story/fake 'Sup Forums btfo' meme

I unironically want to learn Japanese. There's a whole other Internet of incredibly nerdy and autistic things that I cannot access because I cannot read moonrunes.

I'm trying to learn Spanish and Navajo. The latter is way harder; Spanish might as well be an English dialect compared to Navajo.

Don't let your memes be dreams user

Spanish shouldn't be too difficult. Why Navajo lad?

fluent in both french and english
some spanish (I can read it easy but they talk to fast kind of deal), a little bit of greek (I work for greeks) that's about it
I don't think I'll ever need more than this in the future so I won't waste to much time on learning a whole new language

>This board is somehow becoming even shittier than it already was.

Sup Forums was NEVER good, you moron.

I'm learning be few for my bar mitzsfa on my 13th birthday. Unfortunately it's on a Saturday so I can't work myself but I'm going to have some negro turn the pages while I speak in Yiddish. Shalom

>I work for greeks
I love Greeks tbqh
You could always nerd out on some ancient language but that's not for everyone

That's literally what I said kek

>What languages are you learning and why?
German, because I like it, and I like Germany and Germans.
>What would you like to learn and why?
Latin, French, Russian
Latter two because they are useful and rather prestigious.
Latin for obvious ethno-cultural reasons but also because of its immense prestige in the history of the west and Rome, I think anything truly important is best learned in its original language, translations leave things behind.

I thought about learning Yiddish myself tbqh

>German
nice
>Latin for obvious ethno-cultural reasons but also because of its immense prestige in the history of the west and Rome, I think anything truly important is best learned in its original language, translations leave things behind.
You're absolutely right user, especially for Italians it's extra important. Are there still some similarities between Latin and Italian?
>French, Russian
Thinking about those myself tbqh

>Are there still some similarities between Latin and Italian?
definitely, I mean I can look at a piece of written Latin and most of the times get the gist of it, and I never studied it, not even a little like many still do in non-technical high schools(I regretfully went to a technical one)

the linguistic influence of people who conquered the peninsula in historical times has been rather small thanks to the prestige of Latin, so the very most of our vocabulary is Latin derived and ergo Latin words tend to be recognizeable

also being a native speaker in another "dialect"(more like another Romance language really) helps as well

>That's literally what I said kek

Sup Forums is the asshole of the internet... how much worse could it get?

I've studied Latin for several years. Recently started Japanese. Want to learn Russian after that, then I will know the four languages that are any good

politics?

We have some Latin words in English but nowhere near enough to make sense of Latin itself.

Funny thing is, English grammar is actually based on Latin grammar. This is despite the fact that English and Latin have almost nothing in common.

Decent plan user

There's no /lang/ board here, besides this board needs some broader subjects

>Recently started Japanese.
How are you learning it?
Is it a good idea to try to only learn the writing system first (if that even makes sense)?

This
I don't even know where to begin. I've heard that duolingo isn't all that great for learning Japanese too but I could be wrong.

I am in my second semester of classes and will be studying in Japan for the fall semester. I haven't experimented too much with alternative learning methods so I can't offer much help there, except to say that any such method will suck compared to regular classroom exposure. It is a really bad idea in my opinion to do kanji first or whatever, I don't know how that meme started. Something you can and should do quickly on your own is learn to read and write the kana, though. After that, if you can't find classes, find a tutor and expose yourself to the language as much as possible. Not just anime. The textbooks I have been using, Genki, seem pretty structured so you could use them even without a prof, so look into getting those and Anki for memorization.

Duolinguo in my experience is light on explanation of grammar, for a language as complex as Japanese this could be a problem. Maybe you could get a grammar book in addition to that.

OK. Yeah no I ain't gonna take classes for that. It's just something I'd learn in my free time.
Only reason I'd want to learn it in writing first is that it would be more useful to me so it would motivate me more.
Gonna look into Genki, thanks.

The thing with "learning writing first" is that Japanese is insanely influenced by context. Kanji have multiple meanings and readings depending on the setting of the conversation as well as what is around it in the sentence. Also, huge chunks of a sentence that you expect to see in English, like the subject and the object, are regularly left out in Japanese. I think of myself as above average when it comes to language learning and there is not a chance in hell I could learn Japanese as a side project. Just be aware of what you're trying to do here. On the other hand, an actual honest appreciation for a language is extremely powerful. Latin taught me the incredible things that language can do and Japanese is a similarly enjoyable thing to study and experience. If you like the grind, then it's not a grind and you have a chance of actually learning it.

Studied Japanese for three years in college - I've literally never used it once in the eight years since. I genuinely wish I'd learned something like Russian instead.

In order to understand enough Japanese to even get by in basics (newspapers, comics, webpages) you need to have at least 2000 basic kanji memorized (or at least a vague idea of what they mean based on forms), and while it's not a tonal language like Chinese you can't get by in conversational Japanese without learning four of the different contextual language forms (casual, polite, respectful, humble).

It's not fucking worth it just to read some untranslated mangas.

>There's no /lang/ board here, besides this board needs some broader subjects

German

I had a German gf. All American women are neurotic and slovenly, by comparison.

>alien shapeshifters trying to sneak into human society

Fuck off

>What languages are you learning and why?
Japanese, because I'm a dirty weeb.

>What would you like to learn and why?
Besides Japanese, I don't particularly want to learn any, especially now I know the time investiture required.

>Do you have some tips on learning languages that you'd like to share?
No matter how many textbooks you read, and no matter how many stupid learner resources you use, they will never make you good at whatever language you're trying to learn. I wasted my time on all sorts of useless shit while trying to figure this whole language learning thing out, and the only thing which has actually proven to increase my ability has been reading and listening to authentic native content, made by and for adult native speakers.

I speak Esperanto and toki pona pretty well, and I'm currently learning Toaq.

Natlangs are for betas.

I'm learning english

would you recommend learning Mandarin instead of Japanese if one were to pick between the two for the purposes of picking up qt azn waifus in Toronto