Learning Foreign Languages Thread - October

[Matryoshka]

Hi!  Figured I'd check in and bump the thread. 🙂

I signed up for a free account with LingQ, thinking I'd get 20 words (aka LingQs) a day with the free account, but apparently it's 20 words ever, for the rest of time.  Hahahahaha.  So no. 😒

And then I got impulsive and bopped over to italki and signed up for a trial lesson with a Chinese tutor.  I'm so not sure I'm ready - I have a ton of materials here as well as Duolingo that I could work on for free, but I'd love someone to talk to and give me feed back.  It's tonight!  I'm excited!

And I finished my latest Spanish show (High Seas) and decided to try the one Portuguese show I've ever found on Netflix (Brazilian, actually).  It's set in Rio in the 1950s; watched the first two episodes last night and it looks good!  I tried English subtitles but then I couldn't 'hear' the Portuguese, tried Portuguese subtitles, but I couldn't parse them quickly enough yet, so then settled on Spanish subtitles that worked so well with the Galician show. 😄 

How's everyone else getting along?

[StillStanding]

I have been using Duolingo to learn French for a little over a year. Just to keep my brain engaged (some do puzzles, some learn a foreign language). I only spend 10-15 minutes a day on it. Duolingo drove me crazy until I found the button that let me opt out of the competition they run with the different leaners.  If I feel like taking a day off, I take a day off. I don't need to compare myself  to other people and how fast they learn. I am now starting level 4 (working on past tense) and have completed all stories up to set 11 (I really enjoy the stories).

I have not tried watching any movies yet, but I like the suggestions in this thread of using Harry Potter movies (I have not checked to see if our DVDs have French as an option). 

I am a native speaker of Spanish (and Catalan) so learning vocabulary has not been difficult, but the grammar has been interesting. Many things that are masculine in my native tongues are feminine in French. Why?!!  Spelling is also proving challenging 🙂

Edited October 23, 2020 by StillStanding

[Violet Crown]

Thanks for the thread bump, @Matryoshka! I have made peace with the Subjunctive. So Middle Girl decided to rattle me with the Supine. She said her professor was very excited this week to encounter the supine "in the wild." Mirabile dictu!

[Matryoshka]

9 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

Thanks for the thread bump, @Matryoshka! I have made peace with the Subjunctive. So Middle Girl decided to rattle me with the Supine. She said her professor was very excited this week to encounter the supine "in the wild." Mirabile dictu!

Holy heck.  There is a supine?  I'm not even sure what that is, but at least it sounds relaxing!

Leave it to Latin to come up with entire grammatical categories that don't even exist in other languages...

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, StillStanding said:

I have been using Duolingo to learn French for a little over a year. Just to keep my brain engaged (some do puzzles, some learn a foreign language). I only spend 10-15 minutes a day on it. Duolingo drove me crazy until I found the button that let me opt out of the competition they run with the different leaners.  If I feel like taking a day off, I take a day off. I don't need to compare myself  to other people and how fast they learn. I am now starting level 4 (working on past tense) and have completed all stories up to set 11 (I really enjoy the stories).

I have not tried watching any movies yet, but I like the suggestions in this thread of using Harry Potter movies (I have not checked to see if our DVDs have French as an option). 

I am a native speaker of Spanish (and Catalan) so learning vocabulary has not been difficult, but the grammar has been interesting. Many things that are masculine in my native tongues are feminine in French. Why?!!  Spelling is also proving challenging 🙂

French (especially the spelling) is a bit evil. 😉 Have you considered Portuguese or Italian instead? Much more straightforward. I was telling my kid who speaks both Spanish and Catalan some 'weird' (to me) differences between Portuguese and Spanish, and was told that some of those things were also true in Catalán. So they'd probably be even easier for you!

[Junie]

Still working through the Reverse Spanish tree.  I'm making good progress, but I have gotten to the point where I can't test out of lessons anymore.  I have to actually work now. :)

 

Something interesting here happened with languages on Wednesday night.  I think I have posted before about going to Spanish church services over Zoom.  The English church services are on facebook, so there is no interaction.  My habit has been to go to the Spanish service, and then watch the English service later in the evening.

This week I had a(nother) migraine and I wasn't sure if I would be able to understand Spanish church, but I decided to try and I was fine.  I understood probably 90+ percent (which has been typical for me).  But when it was time to watch the service in English, we had a guest speaker who was speaking from a large room -- and it echoed.  I was not able to watch it until today when my headache was better.  I told my husband that it was encouraging that my Spanish ability has improved so much that I had an easier time listening to Spanish than I had listening to echo-ey English.

[StillStanding]

21 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

French (especially the spelling) is a bit evil. 😉 Have you considered Portuguese or Italian instead? Much more straightforward. I was telling my kid who speaks both Spanish and Catalan some 'weird' (to me) differences between Portuguese and Spanish, and was told that some of those things were also true in Catalán. So they'd probably be even easier for you!

Yes! French spelling IS evil.

I decided to learn French because it is a challenge for me 😉  

When I lived in Spain, I had the opportunity to visit several European countries; not very hard to do.  Portugal, Italy, and France among them.  For the most part I could understand a lot of the Portuguese and Italian, French not so much.  Even reading is easier in Italian and Portuguese.

Speaking the language is another ball game. I don't speak any of these languages. Duolingo thinks my Spanish/Catalan accent is good enough but I can hear the difference between what I say and what the native speaker says.

 I  watched movies in Italian when I lived in Spain and they were easy to follow. Even today, when I watch Brazilian movies on Netflix (with English subtitles) I am in awe of how much Portuguese I can follow.  That common Latin root comes in handy!

I don't think I will ever have the chance to use French but it is a great brain workout. There are 9 levels in the French Duolingo course so I still have a way to go.

Italian is next on my list ( I would love to go back to Italy one day!).

 

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by StillStanding

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, StillStanding said:

Yes! French spelling IS evil.

I decided to learn French because it is a challenge for me 😉  

When I lived in Spain, I had the opportunity to visit several European countries; not very hard to do.  Portugal, Italy, and France among them.  For the most part I could understand a lot of the Portuguese and Italian, French not so much.  Even reading is easier in Italian and Portuguese.

Speaking the language is another ball game. I don't speak any of these languages. Duolingo thinks my Spanish/Catalan accent is good enough but I can hear the difference between what I say and what the native speaker says.

 I  watched movies in Italian when I lived in Spain and they were easy to follow. Even today, when I watch Brazilian movies on Netflix (with English subtitles) I am in awe of how much Portuguese I can follow.  That common Latin root comes in handy!

I don't think I will ever have the chance to use French but it is a great brain work out. There are 9 levels in the French Duolingo course so I still have a way to go.

Italian is next on my list ( I would love to go back to Italy on day!).

It's true that common Latin root is so helpful with the Latin languages!  It's kind of amazing how mutually intelligible they still are.  Taking the Duolingo Portuguese course I almost feel like I'm cheating because I 'know' so much already.  Even the verb conjugations are very similar. Often the 'harder' words are easier, as it's the common words that differentiate more than the lesser used ones.  At some point I should learn Italian spelling rules; my auditory understanding of it is actually higher than my reading ability, and that's likely easily remedied if I ever put my mind to it...

I'm always a little annoyed that the Germanic languages, at least the Western Germanic ones, are really not mutually understandable.  It seems like the North Germanic ones are more mutually understandable among themselves, but I don't speak one of those yet, and again, even speaking two Western Germanic languages doesn't seem to give me anywhere near the bang for my buck if I were to attempt to learn one...

[Junie]

There is a series of youtube videos that I have enjoyed.  It is a "game" with speakers of different languages trying to guess the word that the host is describing.  Each person is only allowed to speak in their own language.  They can ask the host questions, which often helps one of the other people to also figure out what is being described.  It is not really a competition, but a fun activity to see how much of a language they don't speak they can figure out.

I have been amazed at how much I am able to understand, considering I am not a native speaker of any of these languages.  I think it's kind of fun. :)

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Junie

[Matryoshka]

13 minutes ago, Junie said:

There is a series of youtube videos that I have enjoyed.  It is a "game" with speakers of different languages trying to guess the word that the host is describing.  Each person is only allowed to speak in their own language.  They can ask the host questions, which often helps one of the other people to also figure out what is being described.  It is not really a competition, but a fun activity to see how much of a language they don't speak they can figure out.

I have been amazed at how much I am able to understand, considering I am not a native speaker of any of these languages.  I think it's kind of fun. 🙂

 

Oh, this does look like fun.  I've been spending so much time playing with languages lately, my reading amount has tanked again...

[Matryoshka]

And... speaking of new fun language toys... not sure if anyone else here is learning or interested in Chinese, but someone on the Duolingo forums recommended a (free!) App called Tofu Learn.  Not only does it have character recognition flash cards aligned by HSK level, but much more amazingly has writing flashcards - where you have to learn how to write each character with the correct stroke order, and it gives you hints when you're lost.  Wowowowow.  This is exactly what I need.  I have writing books, but having it like this with spaced repetition and being able to write right on the touch screen.   Love that I can make mistakes but also be instantly corrected.  Amazing!

I met with the italki tutor, who insanely thought I might be ready for the HSK2 book.  Flattering, but Yikes!  I think she's overestimating where I'm at... I've been thinking about it more and think I'd like to start a bit more fun and slow with conversation and finish getting through more Duolingo and learning more characters with Tofu and my cool mnemonic book (teaches characters through mnemonic stories - I've only just started really looking at it, but I think it's the kind of thing that would be effective for me!) before getting into working through a textbook.   A supplement to what I'm doing, not a replacement - I can do that when I've worked through what I've already got.  So I've got a sample lesson set up Tuesday with a different tutor who seems to specialize in more oral/conversational work.

[StillStanding]

3 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

It's true that common Latin root is so helpful with the Latin languages!  It's kind of amazing how mutually intelligible they still are.  Taking the Duolingo Portuguese course I almost feel like I'm cheating because I 'know' so much already.  Even the verb conjugations are very similar. Often the 'harder' words are easier, as it's the common words that differentiate more than the lesser used ones.  At some point I should learn Italian spelling rules; my auditory understanding of it is actually higher than my reading ability, and that's likely easily remedied if I ever put my mind to it...

I'm always a little annoyed that the Germanic languages, at least the Western Germanic ones, are really not mutually understandable.  It seems like the North Germanic ones are more mutually understandable among themselves, but I don't speak one of those yet, and again, even speaking two Western Germanic languages doesn't seem to give me anywhere near the bang for my buck if I were to attempt to learn one...

 You seem to enjoy learning languages! You speak English, Spanish and German. You are learning Portuguese and Chinese-- maybe more.

I am a math and science person, and learning foreign languages has always been difficult for me. I am just lucky that I was born in a bilingual region of Spain 🙂 

Learning English was difficult (too many exceptions to the rules) so I doubt that I will add any Germanic, or Asian, languages to my list. Duolingo-French is enough of a brain workout for me.

At some point I would like to learn Italian because I fell in love with the country when I vacationed there many years ago.  I would like to go back  knowing how to say a few more things besides "hello/goodbye, please/ thank you," and the likes.

Knowing English has helped me in learning French too--I was not expecting that at all. Many French words are closer to English than they are to Spanish or Catalan (I guess these are Germanic in origin). 

Once my French is a bit more advanced I will revisit this thread and the Bilingual Board to find movie suggestions. After 22 years homeschooling I am almost done.  My last child will graduate homeschool in May, and as I am not teaching tutorial classes this year (because of COVID) I have had more time to dedicate to pursue other interests. Aka: Pull my hair learning French.

I think I will start drawing again next year...it will be a lot more relaxing.

I am still working on being more diligent about my body workouts too 😉 

[Matryoshka]

1 hour ago, Junie said:

There is a series of youtube videos that I have enjoyed.  It is a "game" with speakers of different languages trying to guess the word that the host is describing.  Each person is only allowed to speak in their own language.  They can ask the host questions, which often helps one of the other people to also figure out what is being described.  It is not really a competition, but a fun activity to see how much of a language they don't speak they can figure out.

I have been amazed at how much I am able to understand, considering I am not a native speaker of any of these languages.  I think it's kind of fun. 🙂

 

That was indeed fun.  I could understand everyone pretty well (as they were also able to pretty easily understand each other!) but still could understand the Italian speaker more easily than the Portuguese even though I've been studying that and have never studied Italian at all... 

Funny, I noticed that Brazilian Portuguese speaker in some words used an 'r' that sounded like the American one - I've never heard that sound in Portuguese anywhere else, either from Portugal or Brazil; I wonder if that's a local dialect there?

[Matryoshka]

18 minutes ago, StillStanding said:

 You seem to enjoy learning languages! You speak English, Spanish and German. You are learning Portuguese and Chinese-- maybe more.

I am a math and science person, and learning foreign languages has always been difficult for me. I am just lucky that I was born in a bilingual region of Spain 🙂 

Learning English was difficult (too many exceptions to the rules) so I doubt that I will add any Germanic, or Asian, languages to my list. Duolingo-French is enough of a brain workout for me.

At some point I would like to learn Italian because I fell in love with the country when I vacationed there many years ago.  I would like to go back  knowing how to say a few more things besides "hello/goodbye, please/ thank you," and the likes.

Knowing English has helped me in learning French too--I was not expecting that at all. Many French words are closer to English than they are to Spanish or Catalan (I guess these are Germanic in origin). 

Once my French is a bit more advanced I will revisit this thread and the Bilingual Board to find movie suggestions. After 22 years homeschooling I am almost done.  My last child will graduate homeschool in May, and as I am not teaching tutorial classes this year (because of COVID) I have had more time to dedicate to pursue other interests. Aka: Pull my hair learning French.

I think I will start drawing again next year...it will be a lot more relaxing.

I am still working on being more diligent about my body workouts too 😉 

I do love learning languages!  And teaching them, and comparing and connecting them. 🙂 Though I learned both Spanish and German quite young (like starting before high school, and was fluent in both before starting college).  As you know it's much easier when you're young!  Since then I haven't really added any; I had very brief flirtations with French and Chinese in my 20s, but nothing more than a dilettantish dabble, and nothing since then, until now (it's all Penguin's fault!).  Also, my kids are now all in college, so I do now finally have time!  But don't wait till your French is more advanced to revisit this thread - this is all about the journey, I think. 😄

Speaking of comparing and connecting and French words that are closer to English, I wouldn't make any assumptions about origin without some investigation - don't forget English has borrowed heavily from French!  And I was really surprised when I found out that while the words for "window" in English/German are really different, it's the English word that's Germanic - the German word is borrowed from Latin!  (Fenster)  That's certainly not the normal order of things...

I also have finally found time to work out regularly, although all this language learning is distracting me, darned ADD hyperfocus issues - you should join us over on the Well Trained Bodies thread too.  It's not a contest - it's for support and consistency, which is extra hard in Covid times!  

[StillStanding]

20 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

I do love learning languages!  And teaching them, and comparing and connecting them. 🙂 Though I learned both Spanish and German quite young (like starting before high school, and was fluent in both before starting college).  As you know it's much easier when you're young!  Since then I haven't really added any; I had very brief flirtations with French and Chinese in my 20s, but nothing more than a dilettantish dabble, and nothing since then, until now (it's all Penguin's fault!).  Also, my kids are now all in college, so I do now finally have time!  But don't wait till your French is more advanced to revisit this thread - this is all about the journey, I think. 😄

Speaking of comparing and connecting and French words that are closer to English, I wouldn't make any assumptions about origin without some investigation - don't forget English has borrowed heavily from French!  And I was really surprised when I found out that while the words for "window" in English/German are really different, it's the English word that's Germanic - the German word is borrowed from Latin!  (Fenster)  That's certainly not the normal order of things...

I also have finally found time to work out regularly, although all this language learning is distracting me, darned ADD hyperfocus issues - you should join us over on the Well Trained Bodies thread too.  It's not a contest - it's for support and consistency, which is extra hard in Covid times!  

I just checked the "Well Trained Bodies-October." 

Just the first page and I am already intimidated!

I know this post is about Learning a Foreign language but you introduced the idea of exercise : Is there a post with Youtube video recommendations for Yoga, Pilates, or the like for beginners? and I mean BEGINNERS.

I am 50, have hypothyroidism, allergies, and asthma.... and I have never (and I mean NEVER) liked to exercise. I use to walk everywhere when I lived in Spain. I like walking but not during allergy seasons (fall and spring for me); or I am sick for weeks. I like swimming but the closest indoor pool is 4O minutes away... and it is COVID season.  

I need something I can do at home in my living-room 🙂

I would like to loose 15lbs.. but more importantly I would like to tone my old body 🙂

Any recommendations welcome!

 

Edited October 25, 2020 by StillStanding

[Ausmumof3]

12 minutes ago, StillStanding said:

I just checked the "Well Trained Bodies-October." 

Just the first page and I am already intimidated!

I know this post is about Learning a Foreign language but you introduced the idea of exercise : Is there a post with Youtube video recommendations for Yoga, Pilates, or the like for beginners? and I mean BEGINNERS.

I am 50, have hypothyroidism, allergies, and asthma.... and I have never (and I mean NEVER) liked to exercise. I use to walk everywhere when I lived in Spain. I like walking but not during allergy seasons (fall and spring for me); or I am sick for weeks. I like swimming but the closest indoor pool is 4O minutes away... and it is COVID season.  

I need something I can do at home in my living-room 🙂

I am 6" tall and 176lb. I would like to loose 15-20 lbs.. but more importantly I would like to tone my old body 🙂

Any recommendations welcome!

 

Yoga with Adriene on YouTube 

[Kareni]

@Matryoshkaand others who like linguistics, you might be interested in this podcast (a written transcript is also available): 

The Cheese Plate is a Technology: Because Internet with Gretchen McCulloch

Regards,

Kareni

[ByGrace3]

I never come on this side of the boards lol but I love this thread! So great that so many are learning other languages! I am working on fluency in Spanish (it has been awhile since I have used it beyond basic teaching), and learning Italian. 

[wintermom]

On 10/24/2020 at 6:26 PM, StillStanding said:

I just checked the "Well Trained Bodies-October." 

Just the first page and I am already intimidated!

I know this post is about Learning a Foreign language but you introduced the idea of exercise : Is there a post with Youtube video recommendations for Yoga, Pilates, or the like for beginners? and I mean BEGINNERS.

I am 50, have hypothyroidism, allergies, and asthma.... and I have never (and I mean NEVER) liked to exercise. I use to walk everywhere when I lived in Spain. I like walking but not during allergy seasons (fall and spring for me); or I am sick for weeks. I like swimming but the closest indoor pool is 4O minutes away... and it is COVID season.  

I need something I can do at home in my living-room 🙂

I would like to loose 15lbs.. but more importantly I would like to tone my old body 🙂

Any recommendations welcome!

 

Don't feel intimidated!! We are NOT fitness pro people, just normal (ex/never been) homeschool moms. Most of us are over 40 years and just trying to stay active and healthy.

Just come on in and say hello! We love cheering each other on. We share recipes, photos, etc. 

I have allergy-induced asthma myself, and am struggling away trying to stay active, breath easy and get enough sleep. 

You will get a lot of great ideas on that tread!

Edited October 26, 2020 by wintermom

[wintermom]

I'm stuck with Spanish, but going strong with Danish. 😉  I'm loving the netflix series Borgen to immerse myself in the language. I start thinking, praying and talking to myself in Danish (some Norwegian slipping in there, too). 

[Matryoshka]

15 minutes ago, wintermom said:

Don't feel intimidated!! We are NOT fitness pro people, just normal (ex/never been) homeschool moms. Most of us are over 40 years and just trying to stay active and healthy.

Just come on in and say hello! We love cheering each other on. We share recipes, photos, etc. 

I have allergy-induced asthma myself, and am struggling away trying to stay active, breath easy and get enough sleep. 

You will get a lot of great ideas on that tread!

Agreeing!  I'm 55, and was quite recently on the overweight/almost obese BMI level.  I've since lost a bunch and am back in the 'normal' range, but I have to keep things up if I'm going to keep it off now I've got to do everything at home.  Having a group of people to help cheer you on is so helpful!  Everyone's just doing what they can, and supporting each other where we're at, no need to feel intimidated!

[Matryoshka]

15 minutes ago, wintermom said:

I'm stuck with Spanish, but going strong with Danish. 😉  I'm loving the netflix series Borgen to immerse myself in the language. I start thinking, praying and talking to myself in Danish (some Norwegian slipping in there, too). 

You guys are making me think that after I get farther along with the Chinese and Portuguese, maybe Danish or Norwegian should be my next Duolingo foray. 😉 

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, wintermom said:

...going strong with Danish. 😉

You might be interested in this Tom Lehrer 1967 performance in Copenhagen which is subtitled in, I'm guessing, Danish. The songs are in English; it's simply the chatter between songs that is subtitled.

Tom Lehrer Full Copenhagen Performance

Regards,

Kareni

[wintermom]

4 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

You guys are making me think that after I get farther along with the Chinese and Portuguese, maybe Danish or Norwegian should be my next Duolingo foray. 😉 

I find it a hoot to listen to the Scandinavian languages. Icelandic is by far the hardest as it's had the least influence from and toward English.

The grammar is a piece of cake in terms of the number of verb tenses you need to learn,  and fairly simple if you've studied a language with many cases). There are so many words that sound and look very similar to English that the vocabulary tends to be quick to pick up, and you can start speaking sentences pretty quickly. 

Norwegian is sing-song like, where they draw out the words, while Danish sounds a little like they are cutting off the words a fraction of the second before they actually finish saying the word. The final consonant is almost dropped, whereas in Norwegian the final consonant (and often the middle ones) are clearly pronounced, even if the dialect makes them soft instead of hard. 

I'm less familiar with Swedish, though I can understand it fairly well. The written language is quite different than Norwegian and Danish (they use slightly different letters/accents), and I find the vocabulary a little more different than Danish and Norwegian. 

You could pretty much pick any one of them and have some fun. 

[Lady Florida.]

I'm just plugging along with Spanish on duolingo and a few other sources. I get more answers right than wrong and it keeps wanting me to level up, but I don't want to. I want the practice. I don't care about crowns or lingot or any other rewards. I've been doing the stories too, and I did one of the podcasts. I don't think I'm quite ready for those yet though. I'm still mostly refreshing my years-ago high school Spanish. 

I looked into turning the competitions off but found out to do that you have to set your profile to private. That makes it completely private and doesn't allow you to have "friends", to follow anyone, or let anyone follow you. For now then, I'm keeping things as is and just ignoring the leaderboards. 

I thought I'd share a few resources. Some are specifically for learning Spanish, but others cover more languages. 

The Language Transfer Project - The "project" is actually just one guy. He was doing NGO work and teaching languages (his university major) and at some point decided that teaching people to communicate with each other is a form of activism. He worked on divided Cyprus teaching Greek to Turkish speakers, and Turkish to Greek speakers. There are several languages, some with more extensive courses than others, and he's trying to expand.  I downloaded the app and have been doing Spanish lessons.

This woman has a lot of tips for iTalkie and Duolingo. If you're a veteran of both there probably won't be much you'll learn but I found her stuff helpful.

https://happilyevertravels.com/category/language-learning/page/4/
https://happilyevertravels.com/simple-language-study-plan/

The Fable Cottage - Fairy Tales in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish

Spanish -

Happy Learning has educational videos for children, in Spanish. 

Unite for Literacy - The blurb on Google says they provide free digital picture books in many different languages but I can only find Spanish and English. Even a site map didn't help me find any other languages. 

I should add that my goal is to be able to converse, to understand and be understood. Of course some knowledge of grammar is necessary for even my basic goal, I'm not looking for a full school style learning situation. Some of the above links are pretty simplistic but I find them helpful. Hopefully some here will too.

I found out The Time in Between is no longer on Netflix or any other streaming site for that matter. That's such a wonderful series even if you don't care about learning Spanish. 😞 In its place I started watching High Seas on Netflix. It has a mystery vibe to it with family drama and possibly some family secrets. They talk so fast so I'm just trying to catch what I can. My plan is to go back and watch again later when I feel I've made more progress. I haven't been able to watch Harry Potter in Spanish because we have our blu ray player hooked up but we have no idea where the remote is. It's probably in a box marked misc. that we haven't bothered to unpack yet. 😄 

[alisoncooks]

11 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

The Language Transfer Project - The "project" is actually just one guy. He was doing NGO work and teaching languages (his university major) and at some point decided that teaching people to communicate with each other is a form of activism. 

I just started using his YouTube channel this week (Spanish). 🙂

My girls and I are also working through this channel: https://m.youtube.com/c/TheLanguageTutor?disable_polymer=true&itct=CAEQ8DciEwiMtLmW9tXsAhVEhpwKHer_BX4%3D

[wintermom]

On 10/26/2020 at 6:22 PM, Kareni said:

You might be interested in this Tom Lehrer 1967 performance in Copenhagen which is subtitled in, I'm guessing, Danish. The songs are in English; it's simply the chatter between songs that is subtitled.

Tom Lehrer Full Copenhagen Performance

Regards,

Kareni

That was the most bizarre thing with heavy American accent English and Danish subtitles. Plus I've never heard of Tom Lehrer. I was expecting a Danish artist. 😅

[JennW in SoCal]

@Matryoshka You inspired me to check out the Chinese duolingo and had fun just now testing to see my level. It gave me a "ta-da" and said I've tested out of 12 skills. It was actually a great way to review! 

[Matryoshka]

54 minutes ago, JennW in SoCal said:

@Matryoshka You inspired me to check out the Chinese duolingo and had fun just now testing to see my level. It gave me a "ta-da" and said I've tested out of 12 skills. It was actually a great way to review! 

很好

Okay, that´s probably not how I´m supposed to say ´awesome!´ but I have limited vocab, and I just discovered how to type in Chinese! LOL.

[EmilyGF]

Hi everyone! I'm a serial language learner.

I'm using TheULAT with my kids and really really love it. I wish I had known about it earlier. It is an immersive online Spanish program for homeschoolers that is super inexpensive. It can get a bit corny at times, but my kids like it a lot, too. If you know of immersive Spanish resources for beginners, I'd love it. Since we're not translating in our lessons, I'd like to avoid translation outside of lessons.

Secondly, I'm learning Hebrew (still). I'm two years in, though I've taken breaks on and off. Actually, my first lesson was on the day of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting, which I just found out was October 27, 2018. That means I started exactly two years ago. I can read books, write, and speak, slowly. I just found a new language exchange partner. I had a great language exchange buddy early in the year, but she couldn't handle it any more when her son's daycare shut down for COVID. I find having someone real to talk with really helps me, and after my earlier language exchange partner had to stop, I lost motivation for a few months. I enjoy reading right to left and writing a new script.

I keep up my German by listening to native podcasts about things like history, science, and literature. I used to listen to current events, but now I find those too depressing. 😛

Emily

[wintermom]

Just finished Borgen season 3. Now I must wait until season 4 comes out. Won't be for a while as it's listed as airing 2022. I need to find another Danish or Norwegian series that isn't too dark. I watched Dicte: Crime Reporter a few years ago and it was great. I'd like to watch The Bridge again, but I think they removed it from netflix. That was another really great show, and it had both Danish and Swedish language.

[Penguin]

New thread for November 🙂 

Learning Foreign Languages Thread - November

[cintinative]

Duolingo is now forcing me to pay one lingot if I want to take a test to get out of a level of a particular module. I didn't know what to do with the lingots anyway, but this is new.

BTW, do we have a November thread or are we just using this one?