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learning a language

Started by sheridan, 09 July, 2015, 01:59:57 PM

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Spikes

I learnt a bit of Dutch off random Youtube video's.
Simple stuff like - 'Your pen is under the book' which is - kinda - spoken the same in Dutch as it is in English. So fairly easy, but of no real use. Unless someone asks me 'Have you seen my pen?', and it happens to be under their book, I guess...

My friend who lived in Rotterdam for a decade said 'Learn German, or French instead' when I asked about learning Dutch.

That Duolingo app sounds like it may well be worth a try, though.

SuperSurfer

Glad a few of you folks enjoyed some comics related stuff in Amsterdam.

I used to be able to get by with basic Dutch. Probably still can. The Dutch would no doubt say otherwise. After a year of living there I didn't even know the basics as they so are damn good with languages, especially English. Took me a lot of Dutch evening school classes to remedy that. The classes reminded me of 'Mind your language' (minus the undistilled racism). Instructions in the lessons were in English. An American woman and myself struggled as we seemed to be some of the few or only ones who didn't understand grammatical terms. There is something to be said for teaching English as it is here (and perhaps in the US) but knowledge of grammar sure helps when learning another language. Don't it?

auxlen

I learned some phonetic Cantonese when living in Hong Kong for eight months.
I tried and failed at German while studying German history.
now after watching all these drug shows (Breaking bad, narcos etc) the urge to learn Spanish has reared its ugly head again. 'donde estles pollos hermanos?'
the feminine and masculine always does my noggin in.
I'm always struck by the futility of it and tell myself to go and write fiction that nobody reads instead.

I, Cosh

I've been trying to improve my Cetacean. The hardest part is not swallowing too much water.
We never really die.

sheridan

Quote from: John Cage: Atonal Avenger on 23 September, 2016, 07:03:28 AM
I've been trying to improve my Cetacean. The hardest part is not swallowing too much water.
Keep going - if you manage it you might be able to get a job as a hostess on a starliner...