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[Rapture Ready Blowhard]

Anyone on the board currently learning a language, or have experiences learning languages that they didn't grow up speaking?  How did you learn, how well have you retained it, and what resources worked best for you?

It's always been a dream of mine to learn how to speak Spanish.  I took a couple years in high school and one class in college, but didn't apply myself and felt I learned nothing.  The past few months, however, have been pretty productive for me; I felt like I relearned everything I'd forgotten in school almost immediately and for some reason a lot of the things that were once super tricky (por vs. para, preterite vs. perfect, just straight up conjugating past-tense) are increasingly intuitive for me.  I read at least a couple of news articles in Spanish every day and that's usually not too difficult, but my listening comprehension is not good, especially if someone's speaking fast.  I've been able to help Spanish-speakers at my job twice, but I don't really have many opportunities to practice with actual people.  Has anyone else been in the same place?  Any advice?

[avivatigerlily]

i'm trying to work on spanish and asl at the same time and neither is going particularly well. i have work books for each, but i never find a down minute these days and, frankly, i'm a little too embarrassed to work on these on the train. looks like i'm just going to be a monolingual asshole forever.

[AaronTheCabe]

i really wants to learn spanish and asl as well. I have a hacked copy of rosetta stone 28 language disc that has the elementary courses one and two on nearly ever major language and it definitely helps with learning spanish but only when studying daily. like mike, i can read it better than listening comprehension.

asl is just so amazing but without having a person to really practice with and its unique symbolism of form i don't know if its possible to learn it on one's own.

[desu]

I hear that starting out with children's books help out a lot. Also watching stuff with subtitles.

[momitsnowme]

I was conversational in Spanish for awhile, but lost it when I took up German. I was actually relatively fluent in German but am super out of practice. I would like to relearn Spanish. Yes, kids' books help!

[skateandannoy]

There are so many languages I want to learn. Czech, German, Russian, Spanish..... I should probably relearn some of my French. I never knew that Becca, that's awesome!My step brother is fluent in seven different languages. I'm so jealous.

[momitsnowme]

Thanks! Czech is pretty fun but hard. I studied it in Prague for about 6 weeks and didn't get very far.

[Aaron]

It doesn't look like much, but this website: http://conversationexchange.com/ is a pretty legit way to find language partners online and in real life.

[Hatefvkk]

Just finished my first year of Spanish, had my exam two days ago and I'm pretty sure I passed. Other than my mothertongue (Dutch) I also speak English, French and some German.

[skateandannoy]

Thanks! Czech is pretty fun but hard. I studied it in Prague for about 6 weeks and didn't get very far.

Wow! That's amazing too! You've done lots of badass stuff!

[disa]

I'm fluent in Icelandic, English and Swedish, and I can get by in German, Danish and some Norweigian. Reading kids books out loud, watching movies with or without subtitles (depends on how far along you are) and listening to audio books are all good ways to stay in practise.

[AaronTheCabe]

maybe a bun ch of us can do google+ chats where we talk Spanish to each other and make a language group. HA it'd be like community but not reallycause we'll actually be funny! Just a thought.

[Hatefvkk]

maybe a bun ch of us can do google+ chats where we talk Spanish to each other and make a language group. HA it'd be like community but not reallycause we'll actually be funny! Just a thought.

I totally dig this idea.

[momitsnowme]

me too!

[AaronTheCabe]

to get this started, which day and time is best for people. how much time spent? if people really into it i'll host the hangout

[Seta]

I've been learning Arabic for a few years ^_^

[jer]

Sami I think first you should try learning some American English, you crown-loyalist.

USA! USA!

[Rapture Ready Blowhard]

I've been learning Arabic for a few years ^_^

Just out of curiosity, are you learning MSA, a dialect, or both?

[paolo666]

I'm currently using a free app/website (Duolingo) that teaches a few different languages and so far I would really recommend it. I grew up in Canada learning French but never took the time to actually become fluent, skool sux after all. Lately though, I've been wanting to pick it up again, I knew some basics at first but now I'm really starting to get a handle on the language.

[Pwoink]

I'm using Duolingo for French, too! If the rest of you language-learners haven't checked it out yet, it's a pretty cute app/site that makes a lil' game out of learning the language. (They have Spanish, German, and a couple others available right now, too.) My favourite part, though, is how natural the learning process feels. They teach you a few words, then throw in new things and recombine things you know in new sentences, so you learn through figuring out and getting comfortable with words, rather than memorizing.

It's also in nice bite-sized chunks, so you can work at it for a while if you want, or just do ten minutes a day. My buddy does his French lessons during his poops.

I've also started watching movies in French, which helps keep me pumped because it's so excited to know what someone is saying every once in a while! It feels like all that learning is doing something! One time a child at the subtitled showing of Ernest and Celestine said something to her parents about me in French, and I understood it! Proudest moment.

I also know Russian, but that's because it's my first language. I actually have no idea why anybody would ever learn Russian -- I can never explain the reasoning behind any of the grammar rules when I'm helping friends study, and there's all these exceptions, and it's just silly.

[disa]

I started doing spanish on Duolingo, it's so much fun!

[Pwoink]

I really like how when I get something wrong and I'm all, "Bu-- but why?" and then I see that there are like 120 comments on that question, so I can feel justified.

[AaronTheCabe]

i just signed up for Duolingo and am checking it out now

[Courtney]

I'm not fluent in any other languages, but I'm pretty good with ASL. I took it in college because I'm terrible with foreign spoken languages. I never thought ASL would turn out to be so useful for my job, at the time.

ASL is a really fun language to learn. A lot of the signs look like the words they're representing, so I catch myself signing when I don't mean to (e.g. signing DIFFERENT when emphasizing how different I think two things are).

[mouse]

I'm fluent in Icelandic, English and Swedish, and I can get by in German, Danish and some Norweigian. Reading kids books out loud, watching movies with or without subtitles (depends on how far along you are) and listening to audio books are all good ways to stay in practise.

How would you compare Swedish and Norwegian? Lately I've been seriously looking into learning either language.