The Language Practice Thread

[seela]

Isn't that an awesome feeling? It's like, Hey, all that work IS worth it! I have several students (high school) whose home languages are diverse Mayan languages, many of which are very rare. I started trying to find info, and finally found some on one kid's dialect. When he came in one day, I said just basically "How are you?" In Acateko(sp?). His whole face lit up! So worth it.

Yeah, it’s nice to get at least some words out of your mouth when need be.

My Farsi teacher is great and forces people to say things without giving them too much time to work everything out in their heads first. It’s good practice, although sometimes it feels like my brain is going through a meat grinder when trying to remember all the little grammatical details while also making sounds that aren’t fully comfortable yet (looking at you, qaf!).


I hope you feel better by now, Bunny!

 

[BiBunny]

I hope you feel better by now, Bunny!

Much better. Night before last, I took one of the muscle relaxers my doctor prescribed me...and it didn't help. Took an anti-inflammatory yesterday. Same thing happened--nothing.

So I went and found the last of my mother's prescribed muscle relaxers (hers are way better than mine) and took it yesterday afternoon. And within an hour or so, I was fine.

Glad to hear you're enjoying Persian, btw! I know at one time, you'd said you were debating between it and Hindi. I'm liking Hindi pretty well, but I don't always do every language I'm studying every day. I find if I don't do Hindi a few of days in a row, I have to repeat lessons I've already done to refresh my memory, whereas I don't have to do that so much with some of the others.

 

[seela]

Glad to hear you're enjoying Persian, btw! I know at one time, you'd said you were debating between it and Hindi. I'm liking Hindi pretty well, but I don't always do every language I'm studying every day. I find if I don't do Hindi a few of days in a row, I have to repeat lessons I've already done to refresh my memory, whereas I don't have to do that so much with some of the others.

Yeah, I thought about enrolling for a summer course for Hindi but decided against it and it was the right decision. It would have been too much with everything else that’s going on. I’m still really curious about the language, though.

In language news: I finished the Yiddish course on Duolingo! No clue what to do now. Maybe Hindi or some other new language? Maybe a refresher on Mandarin because it’s been some years since my last class?

I was just looking at my Mandarin books the other day and couldn’t believe that I had actually been able to say and write all those things. Like weird business Chinese, too. Writing agendas and invitations for business visits and such… I’ve forgotten so much! So it might be a good idea to pick it up on Duo. However, I know I’ll get bored with just repetition after a while and drop the course.

Y voy a continuar con el curso de español tambien. Es lento, porque uso Duo para refrescar mi español. Repetir cosas que ya sé es un poco aburrido después de un rato…

 

[BiBunny]

Yeah, I thought about enrolling for a summer course for Hindi but decided against it and it was the right decision. It would have been too much with everything else that’s going on. I’m still really curious about the language, though.

In language news: I finished the Yiddish course on Duolingo! No clue what to do now. Maybe Hindi or some other new language? Maybe a refresher on Mandarin because it’s been some years since my last class?

I was just looking at my Mandarin books the other day and couldn’t believe that I had actually been able to say and write all those things. Like weird business Chinese, too. Writing agendas and invitations for business visits and such… I’ve forgotten so much! So it might be a good idea to pick it up on Duo. However, I know I’ll get bored with just repetition after a while and drop the course.

Y voy a continuar con el curso de español tambien. Es lento, porque uso Duo para refrescar mi español. Repetir cosas que ya sé es un poco aburrido después de un rato…

I tried to do Mandarin at one point and never had much luck. My brain just won't remember the different characters. So I am impressed when someone can do that!

Estoy segura que puede ser aburrido cuando lo haces en esa manera. Quizas se volverá menos aburrido después de un tiempo.

 

[seela]

I tried to do Mandarin at one point and never had much luck. My brain just won't remember the different characters. So I am impressed when someone can do that!

Estoy segura que puede ser aburrido cuando lo haces en esa manera. Quizas se volverá menos aburrido después de un tiempo.

It was a whole operation to learn the characters. I still have all the flash cards I used. I practiced pretty much daily with them and sat in a class for 5-7 hours a week, so there really was ample repetition and big motivation. I took Mandarin for 4 semesters and went from practically zero to writing those weird business things. And I still wasn’t very happy with the course, it still wasn’t as intensive and goal oriented as it was marketed as. I’m a masochist.

I imagine learning the characters from Duo would be a lot more challenging. In the class, the characters came as thematic groups, usually. The teacher helped a lot by explaining why certain things are written a certain way. The characters have radicals that can help you categorize them, and they also often have a part that will help you with how it’s pronounced. After a while, when you come across a character you’ve never seen, you can make an educated guess at what it might, roughly, mean and how it is pronounced.

It’s less difficult to learn than people imagine, but having a teacher explain all the finer details is needed, IMO. Duo, sadly, isn’t that teacher.

 

[MileHighBound]

https://www.boundhub.com/videos/641437/spread-naked/

I stumbled across this video but couldn’t identify what language she is speaking. Can anyone tell me what language it is and what she is saying.

 

[curious_slut]

Just because I've been using Duolingo for 6.5 years doesn't mean I can actually speak Italian

 

[seela]

View attachment 2257875
Just because I've been using Duolingo for 6.5 years doesn't mean I can actually speak Italian

I feel you! It has given me a good understanding of the written language but not so much of the spoken at least in most languages I’ve done there. Let alone given me any real speaking skills.

French is the only language that I’ve started from scratch on Duo that I’ve also managed to speak. Not well, but well enough to travel in France using only French and piss off locals with my atrocious pronunciation. But French is also a language that I’ve been exposed to enough to sort of learn to piece together some things even before ever starting the Duo course, so it’s not a completely fair point reference for me.

What I do that helps me to learn on Duo is using the voice-to-text option in the lessons. When Duo asks you to translate a sentence, instead of writing, you can hit the microphone icon in the bottom corner and speak the sentence. It’s sadly not available in many of the languages I do, but for example in Spanish that’s my go to method because it forces me to come up with an answer a little faster than when I’m writing and it’s also good pronunciation practice.

Interestingly, through that I’ve noticed that I seem to suck at pronouncing numbers in pretty much all languages, including the languages I’ve learned for years in school/college. I wonder if it’s a very weird Duo glitch or if I just suck at numbers.

 

[BiBunny]

I feel you! It has given me a good understanding of the written language but not so much of the spoken at least in most languages I’ve done there. Let alone given me any real speaking skills.

French is the only language that I’ve started from scratch on Duo that I’ve also managed to speak. Not well, but well enough to travel in France using only French and piss off locals with my atrocious pronunciation. But French is also a language that I’ve been exposed to enough to sort of learn to piece together some things even before ever starting the Duo course, so it’s not a completely fair point reference for me.

What I do that helps me to learn on Duo is using the voice-to-text option in the lessons. When Duo asks you to translate a sentence, instead of writing, you can hit the microphone icon in the bottom corner and speak the sentence. It’s sadly not available in many of the languages I do, but for example in Spanish that’s my go to method because it forces me to come up with an answer a little faster than when I’m writing and it’s also good pronunciation practice.

Interestingly, through that I’ve noticed that I seem to suck at pronouncing numbers in pretty much all languages, including the languages I’ve learned for years in school/college. I wonder if it’s a very weird Duo glitch or if I just suck at numbers.

For what it's worth, I've heard that numbers are one of the hardest things to get to "stick" in a language. It's supposed to be because people always want to default to their native language for counting, and that feels true, based on my experience.

 

[seela]

For what it's worth, I've heard that numbers are one of the hardest things to get to "stick" in a language. It's supposed to be because people always want to default to their native language for counting, and that feels true, based on my experience.

No I mean pronunciation. Duo never recognizes my pronunciation of numbers even though everything else is just fine. It’s so uncanny.

In my head I always count in Finnish regardless of the language I’m using, yes. It’s just so much faster.

 

[curious_slut]

I feel you! It has given me a good understanding of the written language but not so much of the spoken at least in most languages I’ve done there. Let alone given me any real speaking skills.

French is the only language that I’ve started from scratch on Duo that I’ve also managed to speak. Not well, but well enough to travel in France using only French and piss off locals with my atrocious pronunciation. But French is also a language that I’ve been exposed to enough to sort of learn to piece together some things even before ever starting the Duo course, so it’s not a completely fair point reference for me.

What I do that helps me to learn on Duo is using the voice-to-text option in the lessons. When Duo asks you to translate a sentence, instead of writing, you can hit the microphone icon in the bottom corner and speak the sentence. It’s sadly not available in many of the languages I do, but for example in Spanish that’s my go to method because it forces me to come up with an answer a little faster than when I’m writing and it’s also good pronunciation practice.

Interestingly, through that I’ve noticed that I seem to suck at pronouncing numbers in pretty much all languages, including the languages I’ve learned for years in school/college. I wonder if it’s a very weird Duo glitch or if I just suck at numbers.

I haven't used that option. Will be using it tonight! Thanks for the tip I could definitely use the practice with pronunciation. I hate the way I sometimes trip over words in the speaking section.

 

[AdriaRook]

Learning Spanish on Duolingo. Also brushing up my German from high school and college. Dabbled a bit in Latin and Greek, though not enough to count.

I’m tempted to try Hawaiian or Japanese.

 

[BiBunny]

Learning Spanish on Duolingo. Also brushing up my German from high school and college. Dabbled a bit in Latin and Greek, though not enough to count.

I’m tempted to try Hawaiian or Japanese.

You should definitely go for Hawaiian or Japanese! (Or both!)

 

[Ash999]

For those of you doing Duolingo, which languages are you currently learning? I'm doing Spanish, Dutch, Russian (which I've finished and am just reviewing), Ukrainian (which I've also finished and am just reviewing), Italian, French, German, and Hindi. I tried Mandarin, but I couldn't get the characters to stick in my mind. As soon as the app moved on to the next question, I'd immediately forget the characters in the one before it, so I had to give that one up.

Aapko Hindi aata hain, Memsaab?? Namaste --- ash999

 

[BiBunny]

Aapko Hindi aata hain, Memsaab?? Namaste --- ash999

Going to be 100% honest with you here. I didn't get very far with Hindi, and that made me sad.

Thank you for bringing this thread back, though!

 

[seela]

Good timing for this thread! I ended up translating from Slovak into Spanish on hotel breakfast just now because apparently I’m a masochist or something, and I think my brain capacity is used up for the rest of the day now.

(Edit: I have to add that it wasn’t a huge conversation. It was just an older non-English speaking lady asking about payments etc from a young breakfast waitress who also didn’t speak English, or Spanish for that matter. So a really small conversation, still fried my brain.)

I’ve managed with very little English on my trip, which is always my goal. It’s been a real brain workout though, because sometimes I just seem to revert into Polish practically mid sentence. As much fun and in a weird way comforting as it has been to speak Slovak, I’m also really looking forward to going to Vienna on Sunday. German is going to be like a spa day for my brain after this.

Re: Hindi. I noticed there was a summer college course on Hindi again this year. The schedule didn’t work for me, but I’m hopeful that they’ll keep offering it and that one year I’ll be able to take the class! It seems interesting, and it’d be a completely new language branch for me, which is always fun.

What made you stop with Hindi, @BiBunny ? Was the Duo course not very good or were there other reasons? Some Duo courses are really rather poor.

 

[Ash999]

Going to be 100% honest with you here. I didn't get very far with Hindi, and that made me sad.

Thank you for bringing this thread back, though!

Bahut Achcha Memsaa'b!!!

 

[BiBunny]

Good timing for this thread! I ended up translating from Slovak into Spanish on hotel breakfast just now because apparently I’m a masochist or something, and I think my brain capacity is used up for the rest of the day now.

(Edit: I have to add that it wasn’t a huge conversation. It was just an older non-English speaking lady asking about payments etc from a young breakfast waitress who also didn’t speak English, or Spanish for that matter. So a really small conversation, still fried my brain.)

I’ve managed with very little English on my trip, which is always my goal. It’s been a real brain workout though, because sometimes I just seem to revert into Polish practically mid sentence. As much fun and in a weird way comforting as it has been to speak Slovak, I’m also really looking forward to going to Vienna on Sunday. German is going to be like a spa day for my brain after this.

Re: Hindi. I noticed there was a summer college course on Hindi again this year. The schedule didn’t work for me, but I’m hopeful that they’ll keep offering it and that one year I’ll be able to take the class! It seems interesting, and it’d be a completely new language branch for me, which is always fun.

What made you stop with Hindi, @BiBunny ? Was the Duo course not very good or were there other reasons? Some Duo courses are really rather poor.

Ooh, that Slovakia trip sounds amazing!

As far as Hindi on Duo goes, I'd say it was more me than them this time. No matter how much I drilled the script, I couldn't get it to stick in my mind. And when you can't read the words, you can't get very far. So in the end, I gave up. I wish I had been able to do it, though.