The Official CP Language Learners Support Group thread.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by nik-

I found Catalan exceedingly rare in Barca except for the signage and at the Barcelona game, since I was apparently sitting in the one pocket of members in a sea of tourists.

Weird, I think most of the cab drivers and waiters/waitresses I had were Catalan. And it seemed they'd rather speak to you in English than Spanish. Could've also been because my Spanish isn't great, but it's passable for ordering food and giving directions.

[rubecube]

One thing I will say that I've found with learning languages is it's much easier to associate new words with mental images instead of the English words they translate to. Obviously harder with adjectives, verbs, transitions, etc. This actually helped me quite a bit for picking up a bit of Danish when I was living in Copenhagen.

[nik-]

That's odd. It's just not that prolific. I think native Catalan speakers in Catalonia are like 40% of the population. I guess it's just "luck"

[FlamingHomer]

I am apparently 55% fluent in Spanish on Duolingo which I think is an overly generous assessment. I can read OK but trying to understand verbal Spanish has been a challenge.

My wife has been using italki which is a one on one tutoring lesson via Skype. She is progressing much better than I am because it's more of a classroom experience where the progress is tailored to your knowledge.

In Duolingo right now I am trying to conjugate irregular future tense verbs and she is learning how to count to one thousand and pronounce the alphabet properly. Neither of which I can do at this point.

You get to see a video introduction of the teacher (a real teacher not just someone who can speak the language) then if you want to can do a trial lesson usually at a discount. Once you find a teacher you click with you are off to the races. A typical cost is about $10-15 US per hour and there is a lot covered in that hour.

Once I am finished Duolingo I will definitely be using italki to fill in all the blanks. And there are a lot of blanks with Duolingo.

http://www.italki.com/dashboard

**Also note the location of your teacher. You want to pick one whose time zone is similar to yours. You book lessons according to THEIR time zone.

[shane_c]

I've been trying to teach myself Japanese for about 5 months now. I bought the Genki textbook and have been working through that. Before starting the book I spent a lot of time writing and using apps to practice Hiragana and Katakana. I also watch J-dramas (with subtitles) to help with listening. I haven't been able to put as much time into it as I'd like but am able to say and write some basic things and can start to understand a few words here and there when I'm watching the J-dramas. I find it enjoyable and plan on continuing to see how far I can get with it. I would like to visit Japan someday so want to be prepared.

[FlamingHomer]

Originally Posted by shane_c

I've been trying to teach myself Japanese for about 5 months now. I bought the Genki textbook and have been working through that. Before starting the book I spent a lot of time writing and using apps to practice Hiragana and Katakana. I also watch J-dramas (with subtitles) to help with listening. I haven't been able to put as much time into it as I'd like but am able to say and write some basic things and can start to understand a few words here and there when I'm watching the J-dramas. I find it enjoyable and plan on continuing to see how far I can get with it. I would like to visit Japan someday so want to be prepared.

As difficult as it is to learn another language such as French or Spanish, at least the alphabet is the same and for the most part pronounced the same. Hats off to anyone who is learning a language where you need to start at zero in that regard.