Learning language (2 Viewers)

[Izzay]

get a hold onto some cds and just listen to them. get a feel for whatever you want to learn.

i'd imagine that's alot easier than just reading books.

 

[froth4maths]

Um...what's your point?

I am able to communicate, write and understand English quite competently. Of course, there are some areas where I need to put some attention towards but at the moment, it's decent.

My point is you need to have a masterful grip of understanding of English.

Is that really enough in this modern day and age? Is it really enough?

Deceny is the bottom line. When you wake up in the morning do you think to yourself I'm going to do a decent job of today? You should wake up and think I'm going to utilise everything at my disposal to squeeze the most out of this day. I'm going to control the variables that affect me and I'm not going to worry about other things.

Decency could be likened to baby steps. Just little tiny steps. You have to crawl before you can walk. Therefore you must walk before you can run etc.

Decency is the bottom line. Make the most of your resources. Use time effectively and constructively. Aim for proficiency and excellence to achieve your goals.

 

[fleckar]

Hebrew is easy.

 

[aussie-boy]

having just travelled all through europe, id say spanish would be your best option

in every country except spain, we had absolutely no problems finding people who spoke english - in spain communication was quite a struggle

i speak french, and it was pretty much redundant - even if i started a convo in french, as soon as they found out i spoke english, they refused to continue speaking french

and with spanish, youll be much more comfortable in a lot of south american countries

 

[autumn-bird]

I would do French or Spanish... they sound so cool when people speak them!!

But French, the accent is a bit difficult... I did French from yr 7 - 10; the one thing which I wasn't so good at was speaking with the accent!

 

[Uncle]

English is an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language.
So studying a language with that same order will be easier.

e.g.
Andy ate oranges.
In this, Andy is the subject, ate is the verb, oranges is the object.

 

[allira92]

French is the hardest language of them all because it has mulitple verb endings and male/female pronunciation although it is widely used.
Japanese is difficult because u also need to learn to read it as well. it is also hard for somebody with an australian/ english background to speak because the pronunciation is different as somebody earlier said, it is simple for people with an asian background, we have a korean girl in our class who has ony done japanese for 6 months and is well ahead of us and the yr 12s although she is in yr 10.
German is the easiest of the 4

in terms of what you would use more, either french or spanish
depends on where u were to travel/ associate with.

 

[xeuyrawp]

English is an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) language.
So studying a language with that same order will be easier.

e.g.
Andy ate oranges.
In this, Andy is the subject, ate is the verb, oranges is the object.

Weh, that's not really true, imo.

The easiest language for a student to learn is one that that they're most interested in.

 

[black_kat_meow]

French is the hardest language of them all because it has mulitple verb endings and male/female pronunciation although it is widely used.
Japanese is difficult because u also need to learn to read it as well. it is also hard for somebody with an australian/ english background to speak because the pronunciation is different as somebody earlier said, it is simple for people with an asian background, we have a korean girl in our class who has ony done japanese for 6 months and is well ahead of us and the yr 12s although she is in yr 10.
German is the easiest of the 4

in terms of what you would use more, either french or spanish
depends on where u were to travel/ associate with.

I woul say Spanish is the easiest. German is very easy at first, but as you delve deeper into the language, its complexity is revealed (particularly its grammar- god it's awful ). And both German and Spanish have multiple verb endings, not just French.

 

[lyounamu]

What does it mean by "multiple verb endings?"

Thanks for the insightful comments btw everyone

 

[allira92]

I woul say Spanish is the easiest. German is very easy at first, but as you delve deeper into the language, its complexity is revealed (particularly its grammar- god it's awful ). And both German and Spanish have multiple verb endings, not just French.

many languages have mulitple verb endings, including japanese. French has more.

<TABLE class=tborder style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px" cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR title="Post 4278741" vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 align=middle width=125><quote> lyounamu</TD><TD class=alt1>Re: Learning language
<HR style="COLOR: #d1d1e1; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d1d1e1" SIZE=1>What does it mean by "multiple verb endings?" <quote/>


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
like going, gone, did not go
japanese also has plain form, 'te' form and 'imasu' form of vebs.
the only major difference between them is that some are more formal or are better for speaking etc

make sense?

 

[lyounamu]

Oh right. Thanks

 

[Hagaren]

Spoken Japanese is actually exceedingly simple it is it's written counterpart that complicates the matter.

The full alphabet consists of three individual syllabaries; katakana, hiragana and kanji.

hiragana has 47 individual characters and variations on some to make new sounds (these are really easy to learn).

katakana has 51 individual characters and is much the same to hiragana, i would say it is slightly more complex than hiragana but still not very difficult.

Kanji, there are thousands of characters but probably the most useful indication of how many one must know is the joyo kanji list (said to be what is required to read a Japanese newspaper) released by the japanese government. This is a list of 1,954 different characters which each can have different readings.

The other problem with Japanese script esp. kanji is that it is not phonetically based, you either know how it looks or you don't.

I assume you can speak Korean? If so Japanese is said to be quite easy to go across to and vice-versa.

 

[lyounamu]

Spoken Japanese is actually exceedingly simple it is it's written counterpart that complicates the matter.

The full alphabet consists of three individual syllabaries; katakana, hiragana and kanji.

hiragana has 47 individual characters and variations on some to make new sounds (these are really easy to learn).

katakana has 51 individual characters and is much the same to hiragana, i would say it is slightly more complex than hiragana but still not very difficult.

Kanji, there are thousands of characters but probably the most useful indication of how many one must know is the joyo kanji list (said to be what is required to read a Japanese newspaper) released by the japanese government. This is a list of 1,954 different characters which each can have different readings.

The other problem with Japanese script esp. kanji is that it is not phonetically based, you either know how it looks or you don't.

I assume you can speak Korean? If so Japanese is said to be quite easy to go across to and vice-versa.

Hm, yep yep

Thanks for the insightful comment.

 

[Bored User]

Hi Namu

I would personally recommend that you start with Japanese for the following reasons:

1. As you yourself pointed out, with your Korean background and similarity in grammatical structures, you will find at least spoken Japanese much easier to pick up.


2. If you are going deeper and delving into the written form, this could open up the possibility of paving the foundation for a 4th language.

Japanese written form is divided into 3 main groups* : Hiragana,Katakana & Kanji. Kanji uses chinese characters that more often than not have similar meanings to their chinese roots, which could open up the possibility of learning Chinese at a later date.

As for intonation and accents, you can always watch Japanese Anime with English subtitles for practice.

*There is also Romanji, which many find easier to pick up, but if you are going for a deeper understanding of the language, I would recommend that you at least learn Hiargana, Katakana and a decent amount of Kanji (say, 200 to 500 words?)

All the best in whatever language you finally choose.

 

[lyounamu]

Hi Namu

I would personally recommend that you start with Japanese for the following reasons:

1. As you yourself pointed out, with your Korean background and similarity in grammatical structures, you will find at least spoken Japanese much easier to pick up.


2. If you are going deeper and delving into the written form, this could open up the possibility of paving the foundation for a 4th language.

Japanese written form is divided into 3 main groups* : Hiragana,Katakana & Kanji. Kanji uses chinese characters that more often than not have similar meanings to their chinese roots, which could open up the possibility of learning Chinese at a later date.

As for intonation and accents, you can always watch Japanese Anime with English subtitles for practice.

*There is also Romanji, which many find easier to pick up, but if you are going for a deeper understanding of the language, I would recommend that you at least learn Hiargana, Katakana and a decent amount of Kanji (say, 200 to 500 words?)

All the best in whatever language you finally choose.

Thank you so much! That was really helpful

 

[allira92]

Hi Namu

I would personally recommend that you start with Japanese for the following reasons:

1. As you yourself pointed out, with your Korean background and similarity in grammatical structures, you will find at least spoken Japanese much easier to pick up.


2. If you are going deeper and delving into the written form, this could open up the possibility of paving the foundation for a 4th language.

Japanese written form is divided into 3 main groups* : Hiragana,Katakana & Kanji. Kanji uses chinese characters that more often than not have similar meanings to their chinese roots, which could open up the possibility of learning Chinese at a later date.

As for intonation and accents, you can always watch Japanese Anime with English subtitles for practice.

*There is also Romanji, which many find easier to pick up, but if you are going for a deeper understanding of the language, I would recommend that you at least learn Hiargana, Katakana and a decent amount of Kanji (say, 200 to 500 words?)

All the best in whatever language you finally choose.

i agree, asian languages are heaps easier for people with asian background...
i think i said earlier that there is a korean girl in my class who has picked up more japanese in 6 months than most of us have in 3/4 years.

 

[spence]

I wouldn't pick a language based on what you percieve would be easiest to learn, pick something you enjoy. As was said earlier, it's a lot easier to do something you enjoy. Japanese would probably be the easiest for me to learn (my family is very into Japanese, and I have picked up quite a lot from my brother's gf), but I chose German, as learning Japanese didn't interest me

 

[lyounamu]

I wouldn't pick a language based on what you percieve would be easiest to learn, pick something you enjoy. As was said earlier, it's a lot easier to do something you enjoy. Japanese would probably be the easiest for me to learn (my family is very into Japanese, and I have picked up quite a lot from my brother's gf), but I chose German, as learning Japanese didn't interest me

Um...Japanese does indeed sound interesting...

Languages most appealing to me are probably Japanese and Spanish...

hm...

 

[spence]

In that case it would be a good idea, but a lot of people seem to be suggesting you should pick it just because it would be easier