Learning a New Language.

[Tim]

Well, I'm sure SOMEONE here has learn't a different language other then their original language. I want to learn Japanese for various reasons but at the same time I don't have the money to nicker off to College for 6 months just to learn it either. are there any online or downloadable alternatives to help learn a different language efficiently? (and I know learning it wont take less then a week either)

[Pirate_Felix]

Please don't link to illegal download sites ~ Danqazmlp

^You do know downloading isnt illegal in every country?

Thar you go, also i think youre part of the minority who arent bilingual

[Shadiochao]

Please don't link to illegal download sites ~ Danqazmlp

 

Thar you go, also i think youre part of the minority who arent bilingual

 

Is it the top one I should be getting? Just making sure, don't want to spend hours downloading the wrong one :(

[Faux]

you wanna learn because of anime

 

look for japanese version of rosetta stone

[Jernlov]

The only Japanese textbook that is any good is Genki. It's pretty solid and comprehensive. Heisig's Remembering the Kana also worked really well for me in the early stages of learning Japanese.

 

Just be warned, though. Japanese is a pretty tedious language, especially when it comes down to grinding kanji. I've been learning for over a year, yet I've only just felt confident enough to start taking on kanji. It is pretty much the only way that you'll ever be able to understand the language because almost nobody over elementary school age will kana their words. Also, be sure to talk to Japanese people, be it on the Internet or in real life. That helps quite a lot.

 

I went from learning kana -> a little vocabulary -> reading children's books/manga -> more vocab, some basic kanji -> learning kanji. The learning process never really stops, seeing as you need to know around 2000 kanji just to be able to read a newspaper. Don't expect to be speaking it fluently any time soon unless you go and live in Japan for a year or so.

 

The everyday vocabulary is not actually that big; there are just many ways of saying one thing that relate to specific contexts. That's the challenge.

[dsavi]

I haven't learned Japanese, but I'm working on a third language so I like to think I know what I'm talking about:

If you really want to learn it properly, so that you can speak it fluently and don't forget it: Learn the basics, so that you almost understand what's going on a good amount of the time, then immerse yourself in it completely. In my case I started going to school in Swedish when I had hardly any idea what was going on in class, and I learned it that way in one school year.

[Pirate_Felix]

Top link i guess works best, i havent tried em myself :P

[Lenticular_J]

Rosetta Stone is fantastic. Get it.

[Jernlov]

I wouldn't get Rosetta Stone for Japanese; at least, not if you want to get out of the "tourist speaker" camp. I don't even know if it teaches people how to read the Japanese alphabets, obvious essential things to have a good grasp of. It is generally alright for Latin-based languages, though.

 

I would get this and this; expensive if you want to buy them but they are available in certain places on the Internet if you're so inclined. I would really recommend buying them though - you take it in better and you're not as easily distracted.

 

Genki isn't amazingly helpful in the long-term scheme of things, but it will definitely help you get down the basics.

[fakeitormakeit2]

I don't know about learning from programs. I've never been a big fan of them. As you've said you can't just go and get a teacher, but I've never been big on the Rosetta Stone or anything like that. This one kid comes up to me and tries to speak Arabic and it was completely mangled and mispronounced, he used Rosetta Stone. I think a tutor is always the best option because a computer can't correct you or explain things in depth.You could always try to hang around Japanese people, the best way to learn a language is to be forced to understand it. It's quite amazing really, even taking a week visit in the country of a foreign language even if you knew the classroom equivalent of the language, you gather so much more clarity of the language just being actually practicing it.

[Kenshinjapan]

I don't know about learning from programs. I've never been a big fan of them. As you've said you can't just go and get a teacher, but I've never been big on the Rosetta Stone or anything like that. This one kid comes up to me and tries to speak Arabic and it was completely mangled and mispronounced, he used Rosetta Stone. I think a tutor is always the best option because a computer can't correct you or explain things in depth.You could always try to hang around Japanese people, the best way to learn a language is to be forced to understand it. It's quite amazing really, even taking a week visit in the country of a foreign language even if you knew the classroom equivalent of the language, you gather so much more clarity of the language just being actually practicing it.

 

 

You can't declare something a bad teaching method just because you encounter one person that's used it and they were not successful. I've heard dozens of good reviews for several different languages learned through rosetta stone, that would be my suggestion.

[Skeptical]

I'd like to learn Esperanto, or maybe Chinese. Italian or Russian would be cool too though.

 

I'm Canadian though, so I really should speak French. =/

[Faux]

I'd like to learn Esperanto, or maybe Chinese. Italian or Russian would be cool too though.

 

I'm Canadian though, so I really should speak French. =/

French people should learn English instead.

[Jernlov]

I'd like to learn Esperanto, or maybe Chinese. Italian or Russian would be cool too though.

 

I'm Canadian though, so I really should speak French. =/

 

Chinese is awesome. Sometimes I wish I chose that over Japanese, but I may as well stick with what I'm learning right now.

[Giordano]

you wanna learn because of anime

Heh.

 

I'm also pretty interested in learning a new language too, Italian. And no, NOT because of Assassin's Creed. God damn everybody and their mom wants to learn it cuz of that. I am Italian and I should learn it. Though, how much would Rosetta Stone cost?

[Lenin64]

Though, how much would Rosetta Stone cost?

A lot. Couple hundred, I think.

[Giordano]

<_<

 

[bleep].

[Giordano]

If anything I'd like to learn Norwegian, so when I'm a rich old [puncture] I can move out to a beautiful, isolated landscape and live in a quiet mansion and never get off my [wagon] again.

Then what's the point of speaking it if you're going to stay in your house all day? :wink:

[Giordano]

"Yes, I'd like to order a double cheese, double pepperoni..."

Norwegians don't have pizza. Nice try.

[hohto]

"Yes, I'd like to order a double cheese, double pepperoni..."

 

Their education system is good enough, if you could write that, you can order the right thing. I'd rather choose some other country too, there are cheaper pizzas around.

 

Anyways as basically trilingual (English is my 3rd language) I'd have the following to say:

* First study the grammar and basic ideas behind the languages: without understanding the logic you will have really hard times learning the languages.

* Get into touch with the "living" language. Read forums, magazines or anything you can. This way you will learn more and more new words and the grammar will turn from a random gibberish into an automatic thing. No one gives a damn if you don't understand every word as long as you get the idea: eventually you will find a word to match for the unknown ones: they can be picked up from the context.

* USE, USE and USE the language. Post to forums, talk to people in Ventrilo/Skype, get irc or find other ways to talk the language. Also from my own experience I'd advise you to SPEAK the language as soon as possible. With english I'm personally suffering from this: my pronouncing doesn't really match my writing and when you're at my age and stage, it ain't easy to fix it.

 

Anyways, the most important thing is motivation and will. If you don't want it, you won't learn it.

[Grim_]

On a note about rosetta stone I would advise against it. The reason being is that I have recently *ahem* aquired rosetta stone japanese levels 1-3 and found that it does indeed not teach you kanji or really that much aside from something they call romanji (or something like that).

[Guest Mrmegakirby]

I don't think you can learn a language on a computer. From personal experience, you need someone to correct your grammer and pronounciation. Mabye I learn differently, though. But I got nowhere with a disk, but with a teacher, I'm (nearly) fluent.

[Giordano]

True.

 

I'll have month supplies of pizza flown in by plane from America then.

You could get better and cheaper pizza from Italy to the south. :razz:

 

I'll shut up now.

[The Dark Lord]

On a note about rosetta stone I would advise against it. The reason being is that I have recently *ahem* aquired rosetta stone japanese levels 1-3 and found that it does indeed not teach you kanji or really that much aside from something they call romanji (or something like that).

 

I think that they're just teaching you Japanese while using the Latin Alphabet because it's easier to learn the words that way. They probably intend to teach you Kanji after you master the language. I'm not trying to bring you down or anything, but I would have learned another European language first before I tried to tackle a completely different language family... Start off with something easy like French or Spanish and then progress to harder languages like German. It builds up confidence if you do it that way, but it's probably not even necessary to do what I just suggested.

 

I don't really like the idea of learning a language from computer software, though. A flesh-and-blood teacher is much more effective, in my opinion. However, you should probably get a foreign teacher... In French 3, I have learned nothing; the teacher doesn't work with us, and the way that she teaches makes no sense. We have a Russian woman at school that sometimes substitutes our class, and she's fluent in French. She was much more helpful than our teacher, and she made a huge rant in front of the entire class about how it wasn't our fault that we learned nothing...that it was the teacher's fault because she wasn't competent. The textbook itself was garbage as well.

[dsavi]

First study the grammar and basic ideas behind the languages: without understanding the logic you will have really hard times learning the languages.

I'm not sure about that; I know almost no Swedish-specific grammar.