Beast Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 So I've made the decision to learn another language: Urdu. At lot of customers at work try to talk to me in Urdu and I just can't understand and they struggle very hard to speak English sometimes so it's just as hard trying to understand their needs. That and I like to learn languages. However, it's just finding a cheap (or free would be nice, haha) way of doing so. I've done some YouTube videos and all I can do is greet in Hindi, Muslim and Sikh which took me a matter of five minutes to learn anyway. For some reason, I get spoken to in Urdu and I get mistaken for a different race a lot. People seem to think I'm Indian. They ask me if I speak "my natural tongue" sometimes. I find it funny. Does anybody here ever want to learn another language? What language have you wanted to speak? Does anybody know of a cheap (or as I said, free would be awesome) place/program/whatever to learn languages? (one that has Urdu would be awesome)
Charlie Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 I don't think it does Urdu but Duolingo (http://duolingo.com/) is a great place to learn languages AND translate the web while you're at it.
Iun Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 (edited) Does anybody here ever want to learn another language? What language have you wanted to speak? I already speak English, Chinese, French, German and Italian, so I'm good, to be honest. I'd like to brush up on my Japanese though, and Korean as well. We have a lot of Japanese and Korean students and I can only give them extremely basic responses to their questions. Oh yeah, and my Dutch reading is very rusty. Does anybody know of a cheap (or as I said, free would be awesome) place/program/whatever to learn languages? (one that has Urdu would be awesome) If there's a Rosetta Stone program I can probably get it for pennies here, but I really doubt that there is one. EDIT: There is one, but I can't find it on Taobao. Sorry... Edited February 21, 2013 by Iun
Jonnas Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 I'm fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and that weird language spoken in some tiny European islands (and some other territories). I know some pretty decent German by now. I can also read, write and speak French well, but I have issues with actually understanding the spoken language out loud. Finally, I "get" Italian to some extent by virtue of it being a Latin language. I'd like to learn some Japanese in the future, though, more out of curiosity than anything else (or maybe Mandarin or Cantonese).
Coolness Bears Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 Because I am a non de script brown entity I get mistaken for all kinds of ethnicities so I feel you there @Animal. :p I was pretty good at languages at school. I'd love to get back into learning French or Spanish (as that is more in my blood) but I really want to learn Polish.
Fierce_LiNk Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 If this were 10 years earlier Animal, I could have helped here. I haven't done any Urdu for years. It's not a great sounding language to me and I've never truly enjoyed learning it. English is my first language, and whilst I was growing up I read Arabic and spoke little bits of Punjabi and Urdu. Did Welsh, French and Spanish in school. Hated Welsh, it doesn't sound natural and it sounds very harsh at times. French was ok but Spanish is the one I enjoyed the most. I'm re-learning it. I'm also learning Flemish when I have a bit of time. I can speak it to an ok level with Ine but I freeze up whenever it's anybody else. Confidence goes out of the window. One day, I will learn Russian.
Blade Posted February 21, 2013 Posted February 21, 2013 Wow im impressed with so many people knowing a number of languages. I only know South Yorkshire and struggle to speak English myself at times. It would be beneficial if I could speak something like Russian, Polish and Arabic seeing I do get a lot of clients that speak these languages as their mother tongue. I would have no idea how to learn them though and I dont think I would have the time.
Jimbob Posted February 22, 2013 Posted February 22, 2013 I speak English, and drunk. That does me perfectly.
Ashley Posted February 22, 2013 Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) Trying to get back into Italian. Spent Tuesday with a friend and his girlfriend, who are both Italian, and I felt like I should know more. Anyone know any good Italian podcasts. I tried this but didn't gel with the presenters, and repeated things far too many times that I started to feel a bit cray cray. Discovered a good ipad app called MindSnacks Italian. Good example of how gamification can really work. Get one lesson (about family) free, other 50 are £2.99, which I'll probably pay for. Good mixture of games that challenge you in different ways. Edited February 22, 2013 by Ashley
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 I speak Danish and English fluently, and I can read Latin and Ancient Greek if I have a dictionary at hand. I've also learned some German, but I never use it and have probably forgotten a lot.
Debug Mode Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 I speak can speak English and Japanese, but I'm still in dire need of improvement for the latter. Admittedly, I'm not very good at my base language, the rules of grammar completely escape me at time and was never taught the shit I really should know. Luckily, learning another language has helped me understand my own in a sense. Although I'm studying Japanese and Business at my university, I really owe my progress to a website known as Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese. I skipped a lot of classes and really didn't bother in second year as all my motivation went completely missing and ended up finding it with the inevitable resit exam. I passed the first semester resit with flying colours, but I stupidly got a lot of grammar mixed up with the second semester resit thus had to retake it. And now luckily, I'm on a student placement in Sapporo and practicing every day with speaking. Speaking is definitely the place to pick up a lot of your language skills and I can't believe I neglected making an effort for a couple of years. My favourite ways to practice are video games (which is how I started getting into Japanese, with Phantasy Star Zero), comic books, speaking and recently I'm having a lot of fun trying my best to translate things on the fly here with stuff like the Japanese Nintendo Direct's and most recently, Sony's Vita showcase. I did learn French for 5 years of my school life, but I have absolutely nothing to show for it!
MoogleViper Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 I know Scottish. Actual Scottish, or just drunken English?
Magnus Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 Actual Scottish, or just drunken English? There's a difference?
drahkon Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 I speak can speak English Really? I speak English and German, of course. Would looooooove to learn Italian and Spanish. But don't have the time for it.
MoogleViper Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 Has anybody used Rosetta Stone? Any good?
Jon Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 Actual Scottish, or just drunken English? I also know Drunk Scottish.
Debug Mode Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 Really? I speak English and German, of course. Would looooooove to learn Italian and Spanish. But don't have the time for it. Welp! Ahahahaha, deserved that one
Will Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 I take Japanese classes once a week and am spending more and more time in Tokyo recently. It's tough but it seems to be improving. Hopefully I may be able to get a transfer later in the year which would aid the learning process substantially. Thanks for that website, Debug Mode, looks very helpful indeed!
drahkon Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 I would love to have a British accent when talking English and get rid of that American one I have as a lot of people pointed out to me.
Debug Mode Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 I take Japanese classes once a week and am spending more and more time in Tokyo recently. It's tough but it seems to be improving. Hopefully I may be able to get a transfer later in the year which would aid the learning process substantially. Thanks for that website' date=' Debug Mode, looks very helpful indeed![/quote'] No problem man, hopefully you will find it as helpful as I did. I definitely recommend the pdf version they offer and put it on your phone, but there's also a cheap book version they've made that's available on Amazon. It notes in the description there's nothing new in the book, but people have been asking for a printed version to carry around with them so it's nice they have provided the option.
Ville Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 I would love to have a British accent when talking English and get rid of that American one I have as a lot of people pointed out to me. Ha, for me talking with a British accent is just really weird, feels like I'm a character in a Monty Python sketch or something o_O I'll stick with American / Finnish English...
Beast Posted February 25, 2013 Author Posted February 25, 2013 I had a conversation with a customer in Urdu! lmao. It was really funny! He asked for my help and stuff but then (yet again) slipped into Urdu and thought I'd understand. I said I didn't speak Urdu but I'm trying to learn it. He asked what I've learned so far so I said in Urdu that I'm trying to learn Urdu, my name is Dazz, what's your name? He said that what I learned so far was "Badazarst" (which I think means great or something) so I replied "Shukria" and then said "Khuda hafiz". He tried throwing me off and asked how much something cost but I already learned that one and I said it was £40. He asked how long I've been learning it for and I told him I properly started about 3 days ago and he said I've done very well. He said I pronounced a word like "Key-ya" and it should be "Koi-ya" but other than that, it was good and he understood me. So funny though. Glad I'm going in the right direction, haha. There's only one thing I don't really know. How the heck do you say "Hello"? I know how to say Good Morning but I can't find the right answer for Hello. There's three different answers but which one is the general one you use?
Shorty Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 Sounds like you're doing well To answer your question, google yo! (assalam 'alaykum)
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