Foriegn Languages

ruuman

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Hi all,

This is a bit of a call for help, I'm trying to learn French at the moment and just can't seem to get anywhere. I've tried books and CD's but nothing seems to stick.

Considering how multicultural these forums are, most people have excellent command of the english language.

So how did you all learn your extra lanaguages, any tips?

thanks
Ruu
 
I can say "Hello, I am a sour pickle. Where are the toilets" in German

In Spanish I can say
"I want one more beer, please"
"I want another Tequilla, please"
"Where are the bathrooms?"
"Excuse me"
and a few other phrases. That is the sum total of 2 years of High School and one Undergraduate Spanish class.

I hate Spanish, I wanted to take German. At least with German if you don't know the word you just describe the item - chances are that's the word.
 
Blind_Io said:
I can say "Hello, I am a sour pickle. Where are the toilets" in German

In Spanish I can say
"I want one more beer, please"
"I want another Tequilla, please"
"Where are the bathrooms?"
"Excuse me"
and a few other phrases. That is the sum total of 2 years of High School and one Undergraduate Spanish class.

I hate Spanish, I wanted to take German. At least with German if you don't know the word you just describe the item - chances are that's the word.

You've pretty much described my level there, I must admit I like german too, it's about the only language I can get on with (i'm still rubbish)
 
I learnt french for 5 years in school, 2 years later and i remember none of it. The only way to really learn any language is to be immersed with people who talk it, that way you pik up on common dialogue and get better.
 
You're from Surrey ,so easyjet is your friend with 2 airports in your neighborhood which can take you to Paris but mostly to Nice and Marseille (much better weather !).
We've got quite a Film industry in France , I guess you could give it a try.
I don't know how old you are, but if your in High school or University you could take an exchange program like Erasmus or Socrate , it's really easy .
For example I'm going in Germany tomorrow for nine months where I'll be the assistant professor (poor German students :evil: ) in a German Gymnasium (High school) and at the same time taking courses at the nearby University.
 
triumph said:
For example I'm going in Germany tomorrow for nine months where I'll be the assistant professor (poor German students :evil: ) in a German Gymnasium (High school) and at the same time taking courses at the nearby University.
Is the Gymanasium the one for the clever (rich) kids? I never figures out their education system.
 
don't know didn't ask my boss , what I know is that it's in Baden W?rttemberg , near T?bingen.$
NEAR the mercedes Factory 8) and porsche is not far :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Watch the "Allo, Allo" tv series and pay close attention to officer Crabtree. :p


Blayde said:
I learnt french for 5 years in school, 2 years later and i remember none of it. The only way to really learn any language is to be immersed with people who talk it, that way you pik up on common dialogue and get better.
Ditto, I took about 4 years of French in high school, and even tough my parents speak it fluently, and my uncle lives in southern France, the best I can manage is pick out a word here and there.
 
I can speak a little French but m currently one a Gaelic course at school which is hard and really sucks :thumbsdown:
 
Not being from an English speaking country always helps. :mrgreen:

Sorry, but you're f****d. There's no language with a real world value you could ever learn. That's if you're not planing to move to another country.
 
I've studied six languages in my life and the best way that I found to do it is to first learn as many words as you can. Just memorise a dictionary, as much as you can. This will initially just fill your head with random words with no way to construct sentences coherently or to conjugate the words properly, but...

Once you have a basic vocab its much easier to then listen to the language or read it (movies, music, travel, newspapers etc.) and learn to construct and generally use the language from there. (this is where school lectures / discussion groups come in handy as well)

Dunno, this might only be me, but it's worked fine so far.
 
I took German all 4 years in high school (my only advanced class :roll: ) and also a lot of my family members know it so that helped also.

I went to, and still do, a lot of German websites and listen to A LOT of German music to help myself out, trying to read a lot helps too, even if you only understand half the sentence. I also bought a few books on grammar and verbs to help.

Overall I would say immerse yourself in the language as much as possible, after just 2 weeks in Germany my language skills flew past where I was after high school.
 
peter3hg2 said:
triumph said:
For example I'm going in Germany tomorrow for nine months where I'll be the assistant professor (poor German students :evil: ) in a German Gymnasium (High school) and at the same time taking courses at the nearby University.
Is the Gymanasium the one for the clever (rich) kids? I never figures out their education system.
Yes, Gymnasium is for the smart kids. You don't have to be rich to go there though, it's free. Starting with 5th or 7th grade (depends on the state, although the trend is to start with 5th grade), there are 3 different types of schools:

- "Gymnasium" is for clever kids like me ;) , you are done after 12th or 13th grade (again, it depends on the state). Although there's a transition going on right now, they're changing it to 12 years of school in every state. (AFAIK that is, I'm already out of school.) You're only eligible to go to University if you attended Gymnasium.
- "Realschule", students graduate after 10th grade
- "Hauptschule", students are done after only 9 years of school

Teachers recommend to which school each student should go, but ultimately the parents decide. Needless to say, there are plenty of people who start going to Gymnasium but never graduate. :roll:
 
I have learned maybe 90 - 95 % of the English and little German I can from the media even though I have had English for 8 years in school.
When I was little most of the cartoons and so on where in English with subs. (they translate the cartoons much more now). All the foreign movies and series are with subs too.
So I just learned it while I watched it.
Also all my books for the last few semesters (Chemical engineering) are in English + in German last year. One of my Professors is also from Argentina, so hes classes and tests are in English.
So here you kinda have to learn it.
Would still like my internship to be somewhere on the westcoast of North America, or Britain if all else fails (No offense) to get more fluent with my English

So my advise would be:
Watch alot of Fench TV if you can. You may not understand anything to start with, but it will come if you give it time.
Maybe start playing games in french and so on.
 
learn manx the language of the lsland of man
 
oliB said:
- "Realschule", students are done after only 9 years of school
Was it changed in recent years? I went to the Realschule, but I did 10 years, which was normal at the time. :eek:
 
Momentum57 said:
learn manx the language of the lsland of man
If you want something even more useless why not try to learn Channel Islands Patois.
 
the Interceptor said:
oliB said:
- "Realschule", students are done after only 9 years of school
Was it changed in recent years? I went to the Realschule, but I did 10 years, which was normal at the time. :eek:
Whoops, I got the names mixed up. You are right, Realschule is 10 years, Hauptschule 9 years. Fixed it. :)
 
You forgot Gesamtschule which is more of a regional phenomenon but still one of the German school forms.
 
Cheers for all the replies,

So basically I shouldn't have been born in England is probably the best advice I've gleaned ;)

I like the idea of just learning a ton of words first, I think I'll start there. Any one recommend some good french TV that I can get on bittorrent?
I've never been a huge fan of french cinema, La Hain is about the only film I really like.

I'd like to spend some more time in a another country, at the moment though my job isn't flexible to get more than 1 week off at the best.
The main reason I want to learn french is I'm going snowboarding again in Jan, last year I just felt like a burk as I couldn't speak a word to anyone on the ski lifts.
Also me and a load of my mates are going to go to the Normandy landing memorials and I want to have a chat with the old resistance guys and various soldiers while I still have the chance.

cheers
Ruu
 
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