Anyone else successfully learn a new language? (OFFICIAL COLI LANGUAGE THREAD)

Ziploc

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do you live in Netherlands or Suriname?


Live in The Netherlands,but i am in Spain at least once a year for a couple of weeks.My fam also has two houses in Suriname but we rent it out most of the year.Ideally I would spend some time between those three countries but my wallet won't allow it yet..working on it though,where you from breh?
 

Mowgli

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Got Mexican peeps teaching me Spanish at work. A few sentences a day laced with profanity or trash talk. It's a good way to learn because the words between the trash talk when you hear them later make sense outside of trash talm
 

BigMan

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Live in The Netherlands,but i am in Spain at least once a year for a couple of weeks.My fam also has two houses in Suriname but we rent it out most of the year.Ideally I would spend some time between those three countries but my wallet won't allow it yet..working on it though,where you from breh?
i'm from NJ in the States. my fam from all over the Caribbean
 

Yehuda

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Isnt Kriolu now considered a seperate language like Haitian Creole

Yes

The official language is portuguese and they learn portuguese in school so they're still considered a lusophone country but colloquially it isn't used. I think the only reason kriolu hasn't become their official language is because it isn't standardized and varies from island to island.
 
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Hope

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Took me forever to learn proper English. I took French for 6 years, got all A's and even been in two competitions. I can read and write, but I'm never around french speaking people to know if it all paid off. Conversations may be rough.

I do want to master Spanish tho, living in NY, and being half Puerto Rican.

I think i know more than I feel I do, but would be nice to take a class, that's how I learn better. I can find someone to converse with in this city, won't be traveling anytime soon.
 

Cynic

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You gotta remove that mindset of "I gotta learn this in X amount of time"
It's possible to become fluent in less than 2 years though if you show up and put in the time. Basically you let Japanese consume you. Your ears are always hearing Japanese, your eyes seeing Kanji/katakana/Hirigana and you pretty much emulate a Japanese environment.

That's what I do. This is pretty much my desktop right now as I speak.


Japanese is another level from the romance languages ...easier to be a gringo than Gaijin:pachaha:

Anyway I'm learning Brazilian Portuguese and at first I couldn't shake the italian influence:sadcam:

I'm going to be consuming content for about 600-800 hours before I begin lessons
just to get familiar with the language and pronunciation....

My current plan at the moment is ....

5 X Kids episodes per day (Castelo Ra Tim Bum then Peppa Pig?)
One Brazilian movie per day/2 X 1 hour capitulo
Duolingo
Baile funk playlist /samba during minor work
Watch Globo/SBT

Then after 3 months ...

Pimsluer course
Semantica Course
10-20 Italki sessions per week
Attend Brazilian concerts/events

Then in 6 months and beyond focus more on the reading/writing aspects
 

Selena

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Spanish (high school + self taught)
Russian (mostly self taught)
French (college + self taught)

I was learning Italian at one point in middle/high school but I stopped. I would love to learn Japanese but I don't got time to learn all those symbols & ish. Russian is hard enough lol.
 

the bossman

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Japanese is another level from the romance languages ...easier to be a gringo than Gaijin:pachaha:

Anyway I'm learning Brazilian Portuguese and at first I couldn't shake the italian influence:sadcam:

I'm going to be consuming content for about 600-800 hours before I begin lessons
just to get familiar with the language and pronunciation....

My current plan at the moment is ....

5 X Kids episodes per day (Castelo Ra Tim Bum then Peppa Pig?)
One Brazilian movie per day/2 X 1 hour capitulo
Duolingo
Baile funk playlist /samba during minor work
Watch Globo/SBT

Then after 3 months ...

Pimsluer course
Semantica Course
10-20 Italki sessions per week
Attend Brazilian concerts/events

Then in 6 months and beyond focus more on the reading/writing aspects
i would do it opposite. do a course to have the basic grammar structure and then start using italki or find some cats on skype wanting to do language exchange and get talking right away. The class format was good for me to learn the basics of how to form a sentence, the different tenses, etc. but after that actually going there and making friends and staying in touch over skype my speaking proficiency went way up
 

abominable1

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working on my Mexican/Central American Spanish this past year:
Pimsleur , michele thomas , probably going to do that FSI course since its free on the net.
long story short, the wife and i cruise and spend a lot of time in the Caribbean .
we also vacation in spots like Cozumel, Honduras, etc.
My family has a heavy Native American influence On My Mom's side
And my dad is a breh from Louisiana , so i resemble Afro Caribbean people,
so when me and the wife started traveling when we first got married ,
people in those countries/ islands would come up to me and speak the local language and I would be like,
"sorry i am a gringo" and they would just look like :patrice::usure:

And my wife would just be in the background :russ:


this happens a lot
just this December on a cruise
I actually got to help some people from Chile out and Calico jacks in Grand Cayman island.
they could not figure out what the wifi password was and this lady kept staring at me, I was like,why this chick keep looking at me and smiling
My wife was like she thinks you speak Spanish. she came up to me and asked me how to connect to the wifi in Spanish
( i was hoping she was flirting, but oh well), ha!
so i had to set her and 4 other people up and talked to them with my struggle Spanish.

we are trying to retire in cozumel
but a lot of locals speak & pronounce English better than i do, but its still fun to learn

My wife has a silver guy in cozumel
when i came down this time i spoke to him almost exclusively in Spanish
he asked me why i am learning it and i responded

lo hago para la cultura:lolbron:
 

Cynic

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i would do it opposite. do a course to have the basic grammar structure and then start using italki or find some cats on skype wanting to do language exchange and get talking right away. The class format was good for me to learn the basics of how to form a sentence, the different tenses, etc. but after that actually going there and making friends and staying in touch over skype my speaking proficiency went way up

I'm opting for immersion via consumption first because that's how babies do it... I've already started to pick up
a few words here and there and it no longer sounds like cxschgsdhgsffsdfsdfsgdjhsf ...

I'll be able to pick up cultural references as well as get "insiders look" into what my target lingua
watched when they were young, what they listen to and also what is going on there now....

No offense but I need something more intense and strategic. It's just how I am I suppose....
I can't rely on "friends" to give me 10-20 hours a week for 3 months so I'd rather just pay for a pro
and get my desired outcome....

You might have other things going on in your life but I've cut a lot of anchors in terms of business and social ties
so this won't be just a thing I do every now and again... it will be daily and stringent ...

By the time I pull up in Sampa my conversational portuguese will be maravilhosa :ohlawd:
 
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