learning a language

[sheridan]

Afternoon all - anyone here on Duolingo?  I'm attempting (not for the first time) to learn German before my next holiday to Berlin, Leipzig and similar places.

[von Boom]

Guten Tag,

Ich habe für zwei Jarhen Deutsch zu lernen und Duolingo benutzen.

Duolingo is a great resource Sheridan, but it will not make you fluent in any way. I've been using it as part of my effort to learn German and will finish the entire Duolingo German course this month. In addition I subscribe to Rosetta Stone German, which is a better tool, but even with both of those I wouldn't say I'm fluent yet. That will probably be a couple of years coming.

However, I would have no problem conversing about every day subjects in German. I'll be in Germany in August so that will be the real test of my efforts.

As a note, I'm also learning French with the Rosetta Stone/Duolingo combination and after having studied German, French is much easier.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Haven't tried duolingo; but I'm currently trying to brush up my (admittedly always a bit shit) Spanish with Michel Thomas - he's really really good at making grammar easy, but the listening comprehension skills would have to be learned elsewhere.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

[sheridan]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

Guten Tag.
Eins zwei drei.
Auf Wiedersehen.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

Guten Tag.
Eins zwei drei.
Auf Wiedersehen.

[sheridan]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

Guten Tag.
Eins zwei drei.
Auf Wiedersehen.

What is confusing is when you spend a few days in Germany, then unwittingly stop off in the Nederlands for a break on the way back.  You look at the menu to try to figure out what to order, half-recognising some of the words, but when you consult your holy tome (the English-German dictionary you've been carrying for the last few days) you can't find any of the things on the menu.  Then you realise that's because the words are similar but have different spellings, because it's a different language, and they're not in your book, so you'll just have to take a guess...

[Daveycandlish]

Only German I learnt as  a kid was;
Achtung!
Gott in Himmell!
and Hande hoche!

They were regularly used in Battle Picture Weekly 

[von Boom]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

Guten Tag.
Eins zwei drei.
Auf Wiedersehen.

What is confusing is when you spend a few days in Germany, then unwittingly stop off in the Nederlands for a break on the way back.  You look at the menu to try to figure out what to order, half-recognising some of the words, but when you consult your holy tome (the English-German dictionary you've been carrying for the last few days) you can't find any of the things on the menu.  Then you realise that's because the words are similar but have different spellings, because it's a different language, and they're not in your book, so you'll just have to take a guess...

Lol. My wife is Dutch and she keeps pestering me to learn it. Dutch only sounds a bit German and only a few words are the same. As I have learned from the many chortles and guffaws from my Dutch in-laws as I speak German to them.

[sheridan]

Gooten Targ.....Iens...vie.....dri......Aulf-wetazein....

All I know!

Learnt at school, plus I am supposed to have some German heritage of my own.

Guten Tag.
Eins zwei drei.
Auf Wiedersehen.

What is confusing is when you spend a few days in Germany, then unwittingly stop off in the Nederlands for a break on the way back.  You look at the menu to try to figure out what to order, half-recognising some of the words, but when you consult your holy tome (the English-German dictionary you've been carrying for the last few days) you can't find any of the things on the menu.  Then you realise that's because the words are similar but have different spellings, because it's a different language, and they're not in your book, so you'll just have to take a guess...

Lol. My wife is Dutch and she keeps pestering me to learn it. Dutch only sounds a bit German and only a few words are the same. As I have learned from the many chortles and guffaws from my Dutch in-laws as I speak German to them.

I should point out the sum total of my experience of being in the Nederlands is at a service station on a half-hour coach stop, so the only part of the day-to-day language I would have seen was that on the menus and ingredient lists.

[Spikes]

I love popping over to the Netherlands, and I made a - kinda - stab at learning a bit, but it is the most difficult of languages to pronounce correctly, and most Dutch people, I guess, speak very good English. Even one of my mates, who lived in Rotterdam for the best part of a decade, said not to bother learning Dutch. Try French, or German instead.

[SuperSurfer]

I can (or could) get away with speaking Dutch pleasantries, having lived there for a couple of years – though that was a quarter of a century ago! After my first year there, after being offered a full time job, I realised the only way to learn the lingo was to go to evening classes. Before that, pretty much nothing at all had sunk in. Towards the end of my stint there I grasped a lot of the basics. A couple of times, having met new people I was able to carry on a conversation for about 15mins, when I would then have to ask to switch to English. One person thought I was taking the mick, which was a pretty good complement.

In my early days there, they never took too kindly to being told "Dutch sounds like German".

[Mardroid]

I love popping over to the Netherlands, and I made a - kinda - stab at learning a bit, but it is the most difficult of languages to pronounce correctly, and most Dutch people, I guess, speak very good English. Even one of my mates, who lived in Rotterdam for the best part of a decade, said not to bother learning Dutch. Try French, or German instead.

Coincidentally, I'm going to the Netherlands for the first time in a few days...

I'll admit, I haven't learnt any of the language.

Learning languages have never been a strength of mine. It just doesn't seem to sink in. I'm not sure if it's bad memory, (in that particular area) or patience. (I get bored very quickly learning other languages. I think I make the mistake of trying to map sentences to English and I'm not sure that is the right way. I will also memorise sentences, then when I memorise the next lot the older ones get pushed out of my head somehow...)

Oddly I do have a gift for pronouncing  names and words in other languages once I've heard them.

I understand there are courses that actually teach you a new language in the way we all learned our own language growing up. I wonder how well they work. I've heard they're a good way to learn, but it must take a very different way of thinking to do that.

[Spikes]

Any place in particular that you are going to Mardroid?

I was there just over a fortnight ago. Had three days in (the Dutch speaking part of) Belgium, and then three days in the Netherlands - Utrecht, Arnhem, and the Hague.

A lovely country. I could very happily up sticks and live there.
I'm sure you'll have a blast.

[Mardroid]

Amsterdam, for around a week. (Possibly travelling outside, as well.)

This is my 40th year so I thought I would do a bit of travelling. As I have a friend in Holland (a Polish friend, just to be confusing) who has repeatedly invited me, I thought this time, why not?  I originally planned to just stay 2-3 days, then travel further affield at some point in the year. Possibly jaguar spotting in the Panenau, or going to India, Sri-Lanka or Thailand (not all of these...) but certain factors suggest that this will be unlikely, although I don't rule it out completely.  So I decided to extend my stay in Holland instead.

I can always go to these other places in other years. Nothing really that special about 40 anyway, but it's a wake up call to go out and do something before it's too late.*

* I don't suffer from a terminal illness, unless you count aging. I'm just.. you know... 40. Heh.