I got this from the internet, and I love it so much......

[WhtLotus]

I guess being a Spanish major has it's advantages... I can take as many language courses as I like, and they all count as credit to my degree.

Chinese, aside from the writing system, is actually pretty easy... you don't have to really conjugate any verbs!

[9Dragons]

Learn indonesian.
Like Iron Fist said it is one of the easiest language to learn.
I think you can easily learn Indonesian in Oz.
Besides, you got quite a large population of Indonesians there.
Hook up with some Indos at your college, I am sure there are many and then go to Bali or something.

Originally posted by anton
What a pity I thought I could practice a bit of conversational russian with someone other than my parents.

I did a bit of nihongo in high school and I did Latin in year 12. Needless to mention I can remember very little of both. But since I've left school I find myself regretting not having learned a language. I could do a concurrent diploma in a modern language at uni (which would add a year of study to my degree) but I'm already doing a double degree that takes 5 years and don't really want to add much more. So I'm thinking about learning a language (deciding between Italian and Japanese at the moment).

So how do you go about teaching yourself a language? Do you find conversational practice essential? and if so how do you obtain it?
What resources (books tapes etc..) do you find the most useful?

PS
I only speak Russian cos I was born there.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by anton
What a pity I thought I could practice a bit of conversational russian with someone other than my parents.

Sorry dude

(deciding between Italian and Japanese at the moment).

What are your reasons for wanting to learn each? Maybe I can help you decide

So how do you go about teaching yourself a language? Do you find conversational practice essential? and if so how do you obtain it?
What resources (books tapes etc..) do you find the most useful?

Remember that (generally speaking) the popularity of a language is directly proportional to the amount of books available that teach that language. For example, most large bookstores will have multiple shelves of books on Japanese, but probably no more than 4 or 5 inches worth of books on Korean.

There are a few things that I think are important when teaching yourself a language:

1. At least one good book. Many language courses suck, and I mean, really suck. An example of a sucky language course is "Colloquial Korean." Now, this course sucks because the book follows no logical order, and the tapes that accompany it just read random things from the book and aren't in the best order. The book will put words in the dialogues that haven't been introduced yet, that aren't in the dictionary in the back, and in some cases these words are irregular verbs that you won't find anywhere besides asking a native speaker. And halfway through the book, they stopped giving you translations of the dialogues all together. Korean is a special case because up until a year or two ago, there were NO good Korean courses on the market. I can recommend two excellent books now, however, if you're interested. One comes with a cd.

2. Exposure to current use of the language. Back to Korean. Where I live we get a Korean channel on tv, so pretty much whenever I want to hear Korean spoken I can. How people use a language always varies from what you are taught in language books, especially in languages with varying levels of formality. Renting movies in your target language is always good, too, as is knowing a hot chick who speaks your target language.

3. Knowing a native speaker. Who else is more perfect to answer your questions about word order, pronounciation, anything? One thing: Make sure your native speaker speaks an educated dialect of your target language. For example, if you were learning English, would you want help from a hick who can't speak well?

4. This book.

Sorry if this is choppy. I'm exhausted right now so I'm probably not making a whole lot of sense.

5. If you can afford it, Pimsleur makes a tape program for learning langauges that is superior. It's all audio, however, but it doesn't suck like you would think it does. However, again, Pimsleur's Korean program sucks ass, but their Japanese one for example is excellent. Dr. Pimsleur did a bunch of experiments with memory and the ideal intervals to repeat words to learn them and stuff, and incorporated it into a langauge learning course. I'm not joking, these courses rule. Check eBay, and make sure you start with level 1 (the main courses are 30 lessons each, and sell for $300 or $350 new, but there are smaller, $20 "sampler" versions that have the first 8 lessons. Give them a try).

6. Desire to learn it. If you want to learn the language, you will be more inclined to study and retain the words.

Finally, based on my experience, I can say stay away from the following language learning series:

"Colloquial (insert language title)"
"Teach Yourself (language)"

Crap I can't remember any more. If you want to learn Japanese I can give you some good recommendations.

PS
I only speak Russian cos I was born there.

That's cool. I can read Russian script but I don't know what I'm reading. I guess if you were brought up speaking Russian you might not think it's hard, but everyone else says it's extremely difficult.

IronFist

[anton]

Sorry dude

No probs

What are your reasons for wanting to learn each? Maybe I can help you decide

Basically

Japanese:
Love the culture. Like the language.
Learnt it at school from grade 6 to grade 10 (though I hardly remember a thing). I was pretty good at pronunciation.
Japan is Australia's main trading partner in Asia so if I decide to stick to a career in Commerce I may get a chance to put it to use proffessionally.
I'd love to go there some day.

Italian:
Love the culture love the sound of the language.
Learnt a bit in primary school (years 2-5 - needless to say I can remember sh1t-all).
Studied Latin from year 7 to year 11 (can't remember much). [This may be irrelevant but an acquaintance remarked that his learning Italian was made much easier by his knowledge of Latin.]
I'd love to go there some day.

There are a few things that I think are important when teaching yourself a language...
...Sorry if this is choppy. I'm exhausted right now so I'm probably not making a whole lot of sense.

Not choppy at all - very helpful actually. Much appreciated. Thank you

Crap I can't remember any more. If you want to learn Japanese I can give you some good recommendations.

Please do

That's cool. I can read Russian script but I don't know what I'm reading. I guess if you were brought up speaking Russian you might not think it's hard, but everyone else says it's extremely difficult.

Yeah its a **** hard language. I am only realising that now as I am slowly losing my grasp of grammar and some vocab. Most westerners also find the pronunciation very difficult.


PS - Some Korean chicks are hot

[WhtLotus]

Originally posted by anton


[This may be irrelevant but an acquaintance remarked that his learning Italian was made much easier by his knowledge of Latin.]

That's not irrelevant at all. Italian is a romance language, and romance languages are based of Latin. If you have a foundation in Latin, languages like Italian, Spanish, French, Portuges, and Romanian should come rather easily.

[Galadriel]

Its a bit of a long read, but quite good !!

Galadriel


Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation
I shall teach you in my verse
Sounds like corps, corpse, horse, and worse.
I shall keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy,
Tear in eye your hair you'll tear,
Queer fair seer, hear my prayer!
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter, how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade;
Say, said, pay, paid, laid but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague.
But be careful how you speak,
Say gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak;
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Recipe, pipe, studding sail, choir;
Woven, oven, how and low;
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, ailes,
Exiles, similes, reviles,
Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining;
Scholar, vicar and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far.
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label,
Petal, penal and canal
Waint, surmise, plait, promise, pal.
Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,
Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it".
But is it not hard to tell
Why it's pal, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, goal, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion;
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Ivy, privy, famous. Clamour
Has the "a" of drachma and hammer.
Fussy, hussy, and possess,
Desert, dessert, address
From desire - desirable, admirable from admire;
Lumber, plumber, bier but brier/briar;
Chatham, brougham, renown but known,
Knowledge, gone, but done and tone!
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading (the town), heathen,
Heather. This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, mirth, plinth!
Billet does not end like ballet,
Wallet, mallet, bouquet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like good,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Bouquet is not nearly parquet,
Which most often rhymes with khaki.
Discount, viscount, load and broad;
Forward, toward, but reward.
Ricochet, croqueting, croquet. Right!
Your pronunciation's okay.
Sounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Don't forget: It's heave but heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven
We say, hallow, but allow,
People, leopard, tow and vow.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between, mover, plover,
Dover! Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice.
Shoes, goes, does; now first say "finger";
Then say "singer, ginger, linger".
Real, seal; mauve, gauze and gauge.
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Cost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth/loath;
Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Say "oppugnant" but "oppugns";
Sowing, bowing. Banjo tunes
Sound in yachts or in canoes. Puisne, truism, use, to use. Though the difference seems little, Do say "actual" but "victual". Seat, sweat, earn; Leigh, light and height, Put, pus, granite and unite. Refer does not rhyme with deafer, Feoffor, Kaffir, zephyr, heifer. Dull, bull; Geoffrey, late and eight, Hint but pint, senate, sedate. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Gas, alas, and Arkansas (the state), Balsam, almond. You want more? Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants Host in lieu of flags left pennants. Courier, courtier; tomb, bomb, comb; Cow but Cowper, some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither devour with clangour. Soul but foul, and gaunt but aunt; Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant. Arsenic, specific, scenic, Relic, rhetoric, hygienic. Gooseberry, goose, and close but close, Paradise, rise, rose and dose. Say inveigh, neigh, and inveigle make the latter rhyme with eagle. Mind! Meandering but mean, Serpentine and magazine. And I bet you, dear, a penny, You say manifold like many, Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier, Tier (one who ties), but tier. Arch, archangel! Pray, does erring Rhyme with herring or with stirring? Prison, bison, treasure-trove, Treason, hover, cover, cove. Perseverance, severance. Ribald Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled. Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw Lien, phthisis, shone, bone, pshaw. Don't be down, my own, but rough it, And distinguish buffet - buffet! Brook, stood, rook, school, wool and stool, Worcester, Boleyn, foul and ghoul. With an accent pure and sterling You say year, but some say yearling. Evil, devil, mezzotint - Mind the "z"! (a gentle hint.) Now you need not pay attention To such words as I don't mention: Words like pores, pause, pours and paws Rhyming with the pronoun "yours". Proper names are not included, Though I often heard, as you did, Funny names like Glamis and Vaughan, Ingestre, Tintagel, Strachan. Nor, my maiden fair and comely, Do I want to speak of Cholmondeley Or of Froude (compared with proud It's no better than Macleod). Sea, idea, Guinea, area, Psalm, Maria but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean, Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion with battalion, Sally with ally. Yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, hey, quay. Say aver but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. Never guess, it is not safe; We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph. Heron, granary, canary, Crevice, but device and eyrie, Face, but preface and grimace, Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass, Bass (the fish); gin, give and verging, Ought, oust, joust, scour and scourging. Ear but earn. Mind! Wear and tear Do not rhyme with "here" but "ear". Row, row, sow, sow, bow, bow, bough; Crow but brow. Please, tell me now: What's a slough and what's a slough? (Make these rhyme with "cuff" and "cow"). Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen. Monkey, donkey, clerk but jerk; Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work. Say serene but sirene. Psyche must be made to rhyme with "spiky". It's a dark abyss or tunnel, Strewn with stones like whoop and gunwale, Islington, but Isle of Wight, Houswife, verdict but indict - Don't you think so, reader, rather, Saying gather, bather, lather? Tell me, which rhymes with enough, Though, Through, plough, cough, lough or tough? Hiccough has the sound of "cup" - My advice is - give it up. George de Trenite