Givethanks
Superstar
Duolingo helps a lot, i'm trying to learn french and spanish.
Anyone else successfully learn a new language? (OFFICIAL COLI LANGUAGE THREAD)
- Thread starter hoodheronova
- Start date
MAGNETO.
#STARKSET #LEMONCAKEGANG #NYGBIGBLUE
how long did it take you to get fluent?
trying to learn now from scratch.
any tips/recommendations would be a god send bro.
MindOverMatter
Pro
Haven't read through the thread yet but I'm trying to learn French. I want to eventually be fluent in at least 3 languages. I'm glad i found this read. Right now as a baby step I'm using the app duolingo.
MindOverMatter
Pro
How long have u been using duo?
MindOverMatter
Pro
I'm learning Spanish, but want to learn French or Portuguese also...
Is it easy to go from Spanish to Portuguese? Or would o drive myself crazy considering how close those languages are[/QUOTE
This is my same dilema with learning French and Creole. Trying to figure out which one I should learn first and how similar they are.
DrBanneker
Space is the Place
I studied 2 years in the US and then spent a semester in China. After 3 years I had a pretty good handle on it.
TIPS:
1. Hang out on chinese-forums.com. Excellent threads about learning, grammar questions, cultural questions, etc. Zhongwen.com is a great starting online dictionary.
2. DO learn to read/write Chinese characters. I never understood how people think they can just get by speaking, the characters help reinforce a lot of stuff and they are easiest to practice without speaking buddies.
3. I would try to learn traditional characters (at least the most basic 1000) and learn simplified in parallel. It is easy and clear to jump from traditional to simplified but not vice versa. Most stuff in Chinese communities in the US (though this is rapidly changing) is in traditional characters.
4. Practice characters every day. I tried to learn 2-3 new ones every day by writing them 3 lines (on paper) the first day, two the second, and one the third. This helped me get a lot down over time.
5. Learn the radicals first and make sure you get stroke order down well. There are some animated gifs that are pretty good.
6. If there is a beginning Chinese course on nights/weekends at the local community college or a private language school, I would advise taking it for at least two sessions. The first 6 months of Chinese can be bewildering and there are certain things, like the four tones in speaking, you need a native speaker to make sure you learn right or you will pick up bad habits that are hard to break. They can give you a legit Chinese name (ask for a 3 character last name+ 2 first name) too.
7. Try to get opportunities to speak outside of class. This can be ordering at restaurants or (if you have the money) Skype sessions through eChineselearning.com. I studied 2 years and when I got to China I could not understand or be understood for about a month (though I could read great). Speaking Chinese can't be mastered with audio tapes, Rosetta stone, etc.
8. Get a good Chinese-English dictionary
9. Don't neglect Chinese history and culture--it is very entwined with the language. A good starting book on ancient Chinese history is The Ageless Chinese by Dun Li. Out of print but you can find on Alibris or in the library. Also learn about modern history (20th century) and the various festivals (Chinese New Year/Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival etc.) Finally some major books like Romance of the Three Kingdoms (in English) are good but are long. Know the characters from Journey to the West they pop up everywhere.
10. Try to visit China or Taiwan for an extended period if you really want to be fluent. I was lucky in that I took the HSK (Chinese TOEFL) and got a good score and scholarship from the Chinese government to study for a semester. It came right when I got laid off from my job so was perfect timing. You should try to enroll in a university program while you are there are speak as little English as possible.
Finally, don't believe dudes that say getting a Chinese girlfriend will help you learn faster. I knew a lot of dudes who did this from the get go and the never progressed. The girl spoke English well and they resented her always correcting their bad Chinese so they eventually gave up since the difficulty was not helping the relationship. This was even true for people living in China. Every fluent Chinese person I know with a Chinese girl/spouse ironically met them after their Chinese was pretty fluent.
DrBanneker
Space is the Place
I'm gonna focus on Brazilian Portuguese because 1) it's the biggest dialect and 2) euro Portuguese sounds
DrBanneker
Space is the Place
I'm gonna focus on Brazilian Portuguese because 1) it's the biggest dialect and 2) euro Portuguese sounds
Cool, it is not too hard and fun to learn. I would find a Skype buddy to practice with since in my experience in Brazil, slang and other phrases not often taught in textbooks play a big role in language. Also contractions (no/na, neste/nesta, lhe/lha) etc. play a much much bigger role in Portuguese (though some are more written than spoken) and you need to get these down early.
QuintessentialBM
GoldenAgeGamer82 - PSN ID
I'm gonna focus on Brazilian Portuguese because 1) it's the biggest dialect and 2) euro Portuguese sounds
I just saw a video about the differences between Continental Portuguese and Brazilian... The main reason why Continental Portuguese sounds so bad sonically is because the people from the mainland speak with their mouths closed, while the Brazilians speak with their mouths open.
I live in NJ so there's mad Portuguese folks here
They all smoke cigarettes and their language
Link breh ?
I live in NJ so there's mad Portuguese folks here
They all smoke cigarettes and their language
The Brazilian London Carnaval is in 3 weeks ..... I'm going even if it's in Brixton
All the brazilians here are white but I do remember running into a pardo girl years ago
I handed her off to the homie but he flopped...when he spoke to her
The black portuguese people here are from Angola/PT...so that's not going to useful accent wise
Good thing I've been consuming Brazilian content like a mad man and flying through duolingo.
What's your plan breh ?
