anyone here interested in languages/linguistics?

Truly_Scrumptious

Truly_Scrumptious

Broken Winged Flutter
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just wondering, because I like languages and linguistics seems like something I might want to get into. :D

another question (it would have been in the title but then it would have been too long, haha!), is anyone here actively learning another language? I sadly do not take classes for anything because my school cut our language classes (my high school does have them however, so taking french next year) but I'm learning Italian with my father through books and programs.


I'm also interested in french, german, and hungarian. even though I'll probably never even use hungarian, it's really interesting!

sorry this got a little long, just wanted to ask about it and share! :tongue:
 
i majored in german, and took many higher level spanish courses,` some French and one semester of Norwegian. I have dictionaries for many other languages (Cajun? LOL... Hawaiin... amongst number of more`"typical" ones.) and like to just peruse them. The internet has opened up a whole new world of learning them.

In short, you are not alone. I love languages!, as well as learning about regional differences (such as pop/soda/soft drink, that kind of thing)
 
I really like languages too. I've never had much luck as far as learning goes, though. I had a succession of terrible Spanish teachers when I was younger, and am taking Latin now. I know a few things and can write if I really try, but forget translating. My Latin teacher isn't fabulous.

As for my personal endeavors, I've tried a little Irish Gaelic (but had trouble getting past the pronunciation). Right now, though, I'm teaching myself Esperanto, which is great. I love the idea of a language for the whole world (not that it'll happen), and Esperanto is so easy to learn. I guess I want to be able to say I speak another language.

I'm also fascinated by regional differences and I really would like to know how I sound to people from different parts of the country and the world.
 
I love languages! I took Spanish up through high school. Then I was required to take Italian, German, and French in college. I wish Russian had been part of the curriculum because I struggle to get back into it every time I sing it. I should just learn it on my own someday. I'm definitely not bi-lingual, but I'm good at pronouncing foreign words ;) We should start a language club!
 
My daughter is 8 and she and I are learning German at the moment. It is slow going but really enjoy learning it… slowly. I do see it getting a little confusing with sentence building in the future until we understand the set up more. So far memorizing words is good for us. She knows more spanish than I do at the moment which is sad but I'm happy she is learning so much at a young age.
 
I did read French and Spanich for couple of years but my teachers wasn't that good at teaching methods and I could not motived myself to read as much I would have wanted.. so I'm not so good in those languages :/ I also tried Russian but the letters.. no no no.. my motive also got lost in the way again because the teaching methods (and because of me).

I have watch anime (text are in English, sound in Japanese) for couple of years and I would love the learn Japanese (and Chinese) :D I already understands some words just by listening but I would like to read it and speak it properly. And I would love to learn more languages but some reasons my motive drops drastically after the easy part. :((

I totally respect those people how have make the effort to learn multiple other languages and speak them fluently :p
 
Mirakat said:
My daughter is 8 and she and I are learning German at the moment. It is slow going but really enjoy learning it… slowly. I do see it getting a little confusing with sentence building in the future until we understand the set up more. So far memorizing words is good for us. She knows more spanish than I do at the moment which is sad but I'm happy she is learning so much at a young age.
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Good for you two!! The earlier the better! We lose the ability to learn other languages (how fluent we can become, ability to pronounce sounds that aren't part of our native tongue, etc) at an alarming rate as we grow up. :sadpony:
 
ha, a language club would be awesome! :D (thanks to all of you who responded to the thread, I love hearing about other people's experiences with languages!)
 
Interested in languages? Am I ever! :satisfied:

One of my biggest dreams is to become a translator for animated movies and shows, and I LOVE seeing as many dubbed versions of said movies and shows as possible. It really is interesting how each dubbing team chooses to interpret the same character, and of course, I learn a bit of the language while I'm at it! I actually learned a few Greek words and expressions that way, from watching their dubs of Kung Fu Panda I and 2 and Rango (the latter is just made of awesome). I now know that "dracus polenistis" means "dragon warrior", for one.

Other than Portuguese (native) and English (I'm this close to being bilingual), I also know some Spanish and French, a bit of Japanese (just enough to survive, I'd guess), and am currently studying Arabic at university alongside Spanish and English. I've also had 3 years of German and one of Mandarin Chinese, but I pretty much forgot all of it, sadly. I'll get back to both someday.

I actually wanted to get the chance to talk to actual native English speakers to know how well can I do in a situation I can't use my own language as a crutch, and also to know if my accent (if I have one) gives my non-native status away. I've even pondered if I should ask here if anyone wanted to chat through Skype, but I lost courage at the last minute. :oops:
 
I'm currently taking Swedish classes! I moved here from the US last year, so it was done out of necessity rather than desire. ;) This is actually my first time learning a new spoken language (I took Sign Language in high school as my "foreign language"). I think it's actually quite fun to learn a new language! I think my limit is just one new language, though. Many of the people in my class speak several languages. I just don't know how they keep so many different words for things in their head at the same time! Blows my mind!
 
I myself am planning on taking Linguistics once I make my way to college. On my own time I spend it learning from the Germanic and Nordic language families. Those being Swedish and Norwegian mainly, though with also a good amount of German, and small portions learned from the Romantic languages.
I'm starting with working within language families as I often find it difficult when trying to learn languages that, for the majority, have no common roots with each other.
What I would recommend for world languages is learn some basic conversational pieces in the language and get the grammar down(most important), then possibly try taking a trip to a country that speaks the language, if you can, to get a better understanding of the way it works. If you're that dedicated with learning the language, that is.
A good website for learning world languages is Duolingo(although it's currently in the process of adding Klingon). It's free to sign up and, from experience I can say that, they've done a bang up job with the site and the way it works. Most notably is the fact that with each language they give each audio recordings for the words and sentences for them. It helps with pronunciation and proper usage of tone, seeing as that can be a big factor in some languages. If you're gonna learn another language, best to start sooner than later. It's proven that children and teens are much better at learning other languages than most adults.

At one point I became interested in the linguistic qualities present in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and I started doing some observative research of my own. It's still on-going, and my primary focus is on the text written in the book depicting Nightmare Moon's return in episode 1 of season 1, that being the ten pictographs on the page which tells the tale. Although, most of this work was also done with someone who had spent a good amount of time on it before I had. He was a lot of the reason I started it in the first place.

Along with that, in my studies of Linguistics, I use what I learn to further develop a series of constructed languages that I've been working on for a book that's still in the making. I discovered a few years ago that this was my passion and my talent, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this kind of profession will take me in the world.

It's always so refreshing to see so many people everyday with such an interest in other languages and the study of them. It's not a greatly demanded profession, so I always enjoy finding people with similar interests and passions as my own in this area.

(I apologize for the length of this message, but I hold so much passion for this kind of work. Any form of linguistics or language study is something I can definitely get into.)
 
No much in learning to speak other languages but I can read and right basic hieroglyphics and hieratic. I wish I could learn sand script but never found a book on how to learn it.
 
Ology said:
No much in learning to speak other languages but I can read and right basic hieroglyphics and hieratic. I wish I could learn sand script but never found a book on how to learn it.
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That is one skill that I'm wanting to obtain myself. If I may ask, where did you learn to read and write hieroglyphic and hieratic?
 
I took Latin for four years in high school, then two additional years in college as well as Greek. I've found they're very valuable in translating any of the various Romance Languages. I branched off into the ancient languages of Babylon, both Akkadian and Ugaritic, though I am far weaker in Ugaritic than I care to admit (in my defense, Ugaritic occurs at a much rarer span, as it was the lesser used of the two tongues). I can translate cuneiform fairly well and find it of great assistance in my personal research.

Currently I'm learning to read kanji, now that I've somewhat mastered my hiragana and katakana. I love languages.

(What i need to do is brush up on my Choctaw, but we only use it at pow wows, so I let it slide)
 
Phonicnotestudio said:
That is one skill that I'm wanting to obtain myself. If I may ask, where did you learn to read and write hieroglyphic and hieratic?
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Very few friends to no friends growing up so lots of time did not go out much. I Love to read and love documentery. I have asbergers and a freaky love of Egyptology, Archeology, paleontology, Anthropology,and history. So lots of book I have alway had a higher level of reading and I am a speed reader as well as reading up to three book at once but lol not at the same time. I am a visual learner as well. Also documentery, time, and going to college level field camp for a few summers as well.
What else did I have to do growing up really. I know other thing non language related mostly Mythological related to Roman, Nordic tribes, Egyptian (of course), Aztec, etc. Probable beside Egyptian culture my second favorite group is the city of Pompeii and Herculaneum and Mt. Vesuvius. I guess more Modern likes are Titanic and WWII.
So just study practice which I did a lot and keep researching.

I also taught myself basic sign language the same way. I want to learn more. It is so beautiful the way the hands move I love it.
 
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Ology said:
Very few friends to no friends growing up so lots of time did not go out much. I Love to read and love documentery. I have asbergers and a freaky love of Egyptology, Archeology, paleontology, Anthropology,and history. So lots of book I have alway had a higher level of reading and I am a speed reader as well as reading up to three book at once but lol not at the same time. I am a visual learner as well. Also documentery, time, and going to college level field camp for a few summers as well.
What else did I have to do growing up really. I know other thing but they are not language related.
So just study practice which I did a lot and keep researching.

I also taught myself basic sign language the same way. I want to learn more. It is so beautiful the way the hands move I love it.
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Sign language is a really handy skill to have. I was taught by a friend who was blind, deaf and incapable of speech. At first I just drew letters on her palm, then she taught me the alphabet. I would have to spell each word into her cupped hands. Then she very patiently began t teach me words and I got some books on it as well. It was fun, we had a secret language in a way!

First thing she taught me were cuss words of course! :D


There's some really good sites to learn to translate hieroglyphics, if anyone is interested.

http://www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/hieroglyphics/

http://www.egyptianhieroglyphs.net/

http://hieroglyphs.net/0301/cgi/pager.pl?p=01
 
I have a awesome book if it was not in storage I think its called basic Hieroglyphics for beginners it was my first book and its well worn but very easy to use.
The love of Signing is my favorite signing book. I used it as a guide book when I work as a preschool teacher with a parent who was deaf and at books a million with people who needed help finding things.
My boss who was a insert bad word of chose here, told me at BAM that I was wasting time singing to those retarted people His words not mine I hate that word. You get called that by kids, teacher, adults enough growing up you will learn to hate it a lot. I told him they are not that and that it makes them feel more at ease and in the end its funny that they tended to buy more when someone treated them like normal people then something broken.
 
evilbunnyfoofoo said:
First thing she taught me were cuss words of course!
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Wonder if that's something common/a trend, someone else I know who learnt some basic sign language from a deaf person got taught some of those early on as well. :lolpony:

I've been interested in languages since I was fairly young. I studied French and German at school and took Japanese lessons while I was studying at university. My German is rather rusty as I've not used it much at all, my French and Japanese are better. My husband and I both like anime and tend to watch subbed rather than dubbed so I get a bit of listening practice with that and I sometimes listen to or read things in French to try to keep that current in my memory too (perfect excuse to buy the Friendship Is Magic series 1 DVD box set when it was released here, it contained the French audio as well as the English :lolpony: ). It's not unknown for me to look up how songs from animations I like sound in different languages (dubs) too. :)

Learning some more sign language is on my to-do list, I learnt some very basic stuff at school but I'd like to refresh my memory and learn more. Especially useful as I have problems with my voice, although my husband doesn't really know any so I'd have to teach him too perhaps. XD Ah well, I manage just fine with a mini whiteboard/pen and paper/typing messages when my voice goes completely.

I'm also interested in etymology and the way language is used. Got quite a few books about those sorts of subjects, including one which has words from other languages which are unusual (The Meaning of Tingo) which is both interesting and fun. :)
 
PrincessLio said:
I actually wanted to get the chance to talk to actual native English speakers to know how well can I do in a situation I can't use my own language as a crutch, and also to know if my accent (if I have one) gives my non-native status away. I've even pondered if I should ask here if anyone wanted to chat through Skype, but I lost courage at the last minute. :oops:
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I'd be happy to skype and test your English anytime :) I'm sure your English is much better than my Portuguese! I went to a feast at a mostly Portuguese church last weekend and you should've heard me trying to pronounce some of the words when I was ordering food o_O

Although sometimes I wonder if the food we have in America that we think is foreign, is actually anything like what people from those countries eat? I had something called cacoila, it was a shredded meat sandwich, is that really a thing you guys eat over there in in Portugal?
 
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