Support NeoGAF

[DragoonKain]

I've been looking for a new hobby or obsession to sink my teeth into. I'm someone who doesn't have a ton of hobbies, but when I find one, I become really into it. My next one is I want to learn 5 languages. I've decided on 3 of them and they seem to be among the harder languages to master, Japanese, Chinese, Russian. Yes, I know there are different dialects and forms of the Chinese language. I'm thinking Mandarin. I haven't figured out the other 2 of the 5 just yet. I'm going to do one at a time, so I have time to figure out the other two.. I also don't know if I plan on completely mastering them. I think that's hard to do without living within those cultures and being surrounded by people speaking it everyday and having to use it everyday. But basically I want to get to a level with 5 languages where I can have a lengthy conversation with people, and read and generally understand the language. I decided to do this because I think it'll be a fun challenge to take on and I also think it's a valuable skill to have for a variety of reasons.

Any general tips to accomplish this are welcome. I plan to start with language learning software, but not sure which one. I really don't want to pay for it if I don't have to. Also different ones have different languages and methods, and apparently free ones work pretty well.

 

[March Climber]

Be absolutely certain about it, because the less you use them on a regular basis, the more you will forget over time.

 

[poppabk]

I would start with one. Trying to learn three languages at once sounds like an impossible task unless you have a natural aptitude for learning languages.

 

[DragoonKain]

Be absolutely certain about it, because the less you use them on a regular basis, the more you will forget over time.

Yes, I use to be pretty fluent in Italian, but lost most of it over the years. I plan to practice it regularly once I learn them.

 

[DragoonKain]

I would start with one. Trying to learn three languages at once sounds like an impossible task unless you have a natural aptitude for learning languages.

I will. I'm doing one at a time even if they take many months or a year or more. I'm not on a deadline or anything so there's no rush. It's just a hobby.

 

[kanjobazooie]

I haven't figured out the other 2 of the 5 just yet. I'm going to do one at a time, so I have time to figure out the other two.

Maybe a bit of sign language?

 

[DragoonKain]

Maybe a bit of sign language?

Good idea, I thought about it before. I'm not sure one way or the other on how useful it would be compared to learning an actual language. But I think it would be helpful to be diverse in a skill set.

 

[kruis]

Start with Russian, that's a much easier language than Japanese or Chinese. You can learn the Cyrillic alphabet in 20 minutes and then you'll be able to decipher Russian words already. That will give you an enormous headstart compared to Japanese or Chinese.

 

[Great Auk]

Learning a language not based on an alphabet must be extra tough unless you're already in a culture/know a language that uses characters.

 

[IDKFA]

I've been looking for a new hobby or obsession to sink my teeth into. I'm someone who doesn't have a ton of hobbies, but when I find one, I become really into it. My next one is I want to learn 5 languages. I've decided on 3 of them and they seem to be among the harder languages to master, Japanese, Chinese, Russian. Yes, I know there are different dialects and forms of the Chinese language. I'm thinking Mandarin. I haven't figured out the other 2 of the 5 just yet. I'm going to do one at a time, so I have time to figure out the other two.. I also don't know if I plan on completely mastering them. I think that's hard to do without living within those cultures and being surrounded by people speaking it everyday and having to use it everyday. But basically I want to get to a level with 5 languages where I can have a lengthy conversation with people, and read and generally understand the language. I decided to do this because I think it'll be a fun challenge to take on and I also think it's a valuable skill to have for a variety of reasons.

Any general tips to accomplish this are welcome. I plan to start with language learning software, but not sure which one. I really don't want to pay for it if I don't have to. Also different ones have different languages and methods, and apparently free ones work pretty well.

I'm English and speak fluent Polish (my wife is Polish), French and I'm getting pretty good at Italian.

If you want tips, my first would be to not start with Japanese or Mandarin as your first. Those are some of the hardest languages to learn for a English speaker. Russian is very much like Polish, which is also a very hard language.

Don't learn five languages at once. Learning just one language to a fluent degree takes thousands of hours of practice. You're not just learning words, but learning a whole grammar system that is very different from English. Learning two at once is doable, but five at once will be overwhelming.

Whatever language you learn start listening to the language as much as you can. Download apps on your phone that can play radio stations in your chosen language, watch films in your chosen language, listen to music in the language etc.

Try and connect with people who speak the language . Learning Polish for me wasn't bad because my wife is Polish. I have French family members and my wife also speaks fluent Italian (as well as English and German), The reason this is handy is because you always have somebody to practice with.

In terms of apps, there are so many to pick from now. Duolingo is great if your just starting out. They also have a new paid Max version that uses AI so you can have conversations (Very handy if you don't know somebody who speaks the language). There is a free version as well, but be prepared for lots of adds and if you make five mistakes you have to wait a day. Babel is probably the best I've used, but look around. There are so many out there now.

Read in the language. Once you're getting the hang of the basics try reading as much as you can in the language. This really helped me with French and Polish, but they use almost the same alphabet. Doing this in Russian or Japanese would be a hell of a lot harder for obvious reasons.

Finally, make sure you commit. Start with a simple goal of 10-20 minutes per day and work up from there. Patience and dedication are key.

Enjoy the journey and let us know what you choose to start with. Personally, if you're a native English speaker then I would start with French or German, but the choice is yours. Have fun!

 

[poodaddy]

Be absolutely certain about it, because the less you use them on a regular basis, the more you will forget over time.

This.

OP, I have learned and forgotten Spanish four times now, did great in college level Spanish classes, and I can't speak a lick of it now. I live in New England, and if you know this region, you know why speaking Spanish is just not gonna happen much here.

I will say this OP; five languages is an insanely lofty ambition. Why not focus on one to two languages at first, one Eastern and one Western, and perhaps even a Northern European language as well if you really just want to learn from very different types of languages all at once. I've been learning Norsk for about a year now while studying computer science, (somehow got the VA to approve another degree for me), and that alone is quite a huge commitment of time, and nowhere near as much a commitment as my daughter, who's learning Japanese. I can tell you that Japanese alone is an unbelievably different language from anything Western, and extremely challenging to learn. My daughter's been studying it for a year, and she has far, far, more to go, whereas I grasped Norsk pretty much immediately as it's not all that different from English in terms of structure. Such is why I could see learning an Eastern and Western at the same time, as they're really completely different subjects, but five languages is an astounding amount of work bro, seriously.

 

[DragoonKain]

I'm English and speak fluent Polish (my wife is Polish), French and I'm getting pretty good at Italian.

If you want tips, my first would be to not start with Japanese or Mandarin as your first. Those are some of the hardest languages to learn for a English speaker. Russian is very much like Polish, which is also a very hard language.

Don't learn five languages at once. Learning just one language to a fluent degree takes thousands of hours of practice. You're not just learning words, but learning a whole grammar system that is very different from English. Learning two at once is doable, but five at once will be overwhelming.

Whatever language you learn start listening to the language as much as you can. Download apps on your phone that can play radio stations in your chosen language, watch films in your chosen language, listen to music in the language etc.

Try and connect with people who speak the language . Learning Polish for me wasn't bad because my wife is Polish. I have French family members and my wife also speaks fluent Italian (as well as English and German), The reason this is handy is because you always have somebody to practice with.

In terms of apps, there are so many to pick from now. Duolingo is great if your just starting out. They also have a new paid Max version that uses AI so you can have conversations (Very handy if you don't know somebody who speaks the language). There is a free version as well, but be prepared for lots of adds and if you make five mistakes you have to wait a day. Babel is probably the best I've used, but look around. There are so many out there now.

Read in the language. Once you're getting the hang of the basics try reading as much as you can in the language. This really helped me with French and Polish, but they use almost the same alphabet. Doing this in Russian or Japanese would be a hell of a lot harder for obvious reasons.

Finally, make sure you commit. Start with a simple goal of 10-20 minutes per day and work up from there. Patience and dedication are key.

Enjoy the journey and let us know what you choose to start with. Personally, if you're a native English speaker then I would start with French or German, but the choice is yours. Have fun!

I always wanted to learn Japanese so I could play import games without translation patches and I want to visit Japan one day. And also watch anime or read manga without translations. I consume a lot of products made in Japan and I hate feeling like I'm at the whim of translators. I've always hated that feeling. I feel helpless in that regard. So I thought about making Japanese my first language to learn, even though it's difficult. But I'm not 100% locked into it yet. I have a specific reason for wanting to learn each of Japanese, Russian, and Chinese. So the difficulty to me doesn't matter, as long as they are useful to me once I learn them, it's all I care about. The reason I've only decided on 3 so far is because no other two languages stand out as particularly more useful over the other right now. But I'll take a bit to mull it over.

I plan to practice as much as I can and incorporate it into my daily habits. Like maybe joining a Japanese, Chinese, or Russian online community and posting or whatever just to keep up with it regularly. But one thing at a time.

 

[Trilobit]

Learn Finnish too. It's one of the easiest languages to learn and you'll be able to read Kalevala and Unknown Soldier as they were meant to be read.

 

[IDKFA]

I always wanted to learn Japanese so I could play import games without translation patches and I want to visit Japan one day. And also watch anime or read manga without translations. I consume a lot of products made in Japan and I hate feeling like I'm at the whim of translators. I've always hated that feeling. I feel helpless in that regard. So I thought about making Japanese my first language to learn, even though it's difficult. But I'm not 100% locked into it yet. I have a specific reason for wanting to learn each of Japanese, Russian, and Chinese. So the difficulty to me doesn't matter, as long as they are useful to me once I learn them, it's all I care about. The reason I've only decided on 3 so far is because no other two languages stand out as particularly more useful over the other right now. But I'll take a bit to mull it over.

It sounds like Japanese would be the best to start with then if you want to visit Japan and understand import games. It's going to be hard, but if you're locked in then stick to it, but I would advise only doing Japanese first.

For an English speaker, Japanese and Mandarin are two of the hardest languages to learn. Learning them both at the same time would add another degree of difficulty as both Japanese and Mandarin have very complex grammar systems.

I plan to practice as much as I can and incorporate it into my daily habits. Like maybe joining a Japanese, Chinese, or Russian online community and posting or whatever just to keep up with it regularly. But one thing at a time.

Amazing. As long as you practice daily you'll be golden. Joining an online community would be very beneficial. Also download a Japanese radio app so you can listen to the language while doing other tasks. If you have Spotify you can also download audio books that help you learn a language - just type in 'Learn Japanese' and see what comes up.

幸運を

Trilobit Finnish is supposedly one of the hardest languages to learn for a native English speaker!

 

[Trunx81]

Finnish is supposed to be learned last.

When you succeed, OP, let us know how you did it and what worked best. From my experience, just talking with native speakers elevates your own levels to the max. Also starting to read in a foreign language as soon as you understand the basics. Best read a book that you already have read in your language, then you manage to understand the rest from the context.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Yes, I use to be pretty fluent in Italian, but lost most of it over the years. I plan to practice it regularly once I learn them.

FYI, if you are American "being fluent" has very different meaning everywhere around the world apart from the US. If you were able to talk about simple things (think A2 level- you were not fluent, I would think this is C1 or C2 level.

As for languages - I tried to learn Chinese for 6 years, if you are not living there and not speaking it everyday you will fail.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Japanese and Mandarin have very complex grammar systems.

Japanese? Maybe, I don't know. Chinese - hell no, the grammar is the easiest part aka there is none lol. No conjugation, words to do not have roots, etc., however that also means everything is described using specific words, that is why the entry-level Chinese vocabulary is approx. 1000 characters as opposed to 150-200 English words.

 

[DragoonKain]

I know one of the things that makes Chinese difficult isn't just the dialects but apparently how you stress and pronunciate certain things can have them change the meaning.

 

[AJUMP23]

My tip is to practice and read.

 

[The Eraser]

5? Can't you learn just one and learn it good?

 

[SJRB]

I’d recommend Python, Go, JavaScript, Rust and c#.

 

[Punished Miku]

Just 5?

 

[Days like these...]

I've been looking for a new hobby or obsession to sink my teeth into. I'm someone who doesn't have a ton of hobbies, but when I find one, I become really into it. My next one is I want to learn 5 languages. I've decided on 3 of them and they seem to be among the harder languages to master, Japanese, Chinese, Russian. Yes, I know there are different dialects and forms of the Chinese language. I'm thinking Mandarin. I haven't figured out the other 2 of the 5 just yet. I'm going to do one at a time, so I have time to figure out the other two.. I also don't know if I plan on completely mastering them. I think that's hard to do without living within those cultures and being surrounded by people speaking it everyday and having to use it everyday. But basically I want to get to a level with 5 languages where I can have a lengthy conversation with people, and read and generally understand the language. I decided to do this because I think it'll be a fun challenge to take on and I also think it's a valuable skill to have for a variety of reasons.

Any general tips to accomplish this are welcome. I plan to start with language learning software, but not sure which one. I really don't want to pay for it if I don't have to. Also different ones have different languages and methods, and apparently free ones work pretty well.

What languages do you speak now? I would learn one at a time. I speak Spanish, English and a little bit of Russian. I can read it much better than I can speak it.

 

[ClanOfNone]

Only 5? You can knock that out in a month or two, aim higher!

 

[Days like these...]

5? Can't you learn just one and learn it good?

He'd be better off learning it well and so would you.

 

[near]

Many ways to learn languages. But what has worked for me in the past is this:

- Learn the alphabet
- Create an anki deck with the most common words to learn the words via spaced repetition
- immerse yourself in the language: music, films, tv shows
- then start building comprehensible sentences on anki
- start reading even if you don't understand the sentences
- repeat above steps with more words

I would ignore grammar for a while, the immersion approach enables you to learn it organically, some would dispute this approach.

 

[Days like these...]

Many ways to learn languages. But what has worked for me in the past is this:

- Learn the alphabet
- Create an anki deck with the most common words to learn the words via spaced repetition
- immerse yourself in the language: music, films, tv shows
- then start building comprehensible sentences on anki
- start reading even if you don't understand the sentences
- repeat above steps with more words

I would ignore grammar for a while, the immersion approach enables you to learn it organically, some would dispute this approach.

I agree. If you think about it as very small child you aren't taught language you acquire it little by little. I can read Russian pretty well I just don't know what most of the words mean but I'm learning more everyday.

 

[near]

I agree. If you think about it as very small child you aren't taught language you acquire it little by little. I can read Russian pretty well I just don't know what most of the words mean but I'm learning more everyday.

Yeah, the idea is to acquire the language rather than learn it. I was surprised by how effective the method is.

 

[Days like these...]

Yeah, the idea is to acquire the language rather than learn it. I was surprised by how effective the method is.

Just an FYI in case anyone is wondering I know Spanish, English and Russian is a weird combo but my ex wife grew up in the former Soviet Union that's how I picked it up initially. Also once you know 2 languages more come easily.

 

[The Lunch Legend]

5? Can't you learn just one and learn it good?

Learn it good ?

 

[DragoonKain]

5? Can't you learn just one and learn it good?

I want to be proficient in multiple languages, I think it would be a useful skill to have. This is a long-term project that I plan on keeping up with over the years. It isn't like a short term goal that by X date I need to accomplish this. I think it will make more sense looking at it that way. Why 5? Admittedly, it's arbitrary. If I ever do accomplish it, I probably won't stop at 5, especially if I'm enjoying myself or getting something out of it. If I feel like I'm not, then I may not go to 5, I'll see and play it by ear.

 

[The Lunch Legend]

I want to be proficient in multiple languages, I think it would be a useful skill to have. This is a long-term project that I plan on keeping up with over the years. It isn't like a short term goal that by X date I need to accomplish this. I think it will make more sense looking at it that way. Why 5? Admittedly, it's arbitrary. If I ever do accomplish it, I probably won't stop at 5, especially if I'm enjoying myself or getting something out of it. If I feel like I'm not, then I may not go to 5, I'll see and play it by ear.

Long term goal or not, learning a new language is not like learning a new song at karaoke.

You'd have to be a high level IQ genius to absorb 5 languages fluently.

Edit - I think the term I was looking for was, "polyglot".

 

[Days like these...]

Learn it good ?

I beat you to the punch dildo/bath man. Nice try though. Did I done good pa?

 

[DragoonKain]

Long term goal or not, learning a new language is not like learning a new song at karaoke.

You'd have to be a high level IQ genius to absorb 5 languages fluently.

Edit - I think the term I was looking for was, "polyglot".

I want to be proficient enough to be able to speak to people and read well enough. I'm not necessarily looking to be a master or someone who sounds like I was born in said countries. I don't expect that, and I think that only comes with total immersion in it regularly and for years.

 

[The Lunch Legend]

I beat you to the punch dildo/bath man.

If you have any dildo questions or concerns, be sure to contact me.

My DMs are open if you prefer privacy.

 

[Magic Carpet]

English, Spanish and Onii-Chan.

 

[Sardaukarama]

If you have any dildo questions or concerns, be sure to contact me.

My DMs are open if you prefer privacy.

I came from the duct tape thread and you have gave me an idea Cheers !

 

[lughnasadh123]

I'd focus on one that either you'd use the most in your personal life and/or in a potential job setting.

 

[Rush2112]

Just curious. Have you even learned one language other than your native tongue? Do you have any idea the amount time and effort that goes into being fluent in a new language?

 

[jason10mm]

Klingon
Elvish
Dothraki
Droid
Esperanto

 

[Tams]

Yeah, nah.

This isn't going to happen.

 

[jshackles]

Just curious. Have you even learned one language other than your native tongue? Do you have any idea the amount time and effort that goes into being fluent in a new language?

I was wondering this too. OP said he learned Italian, but let it fall into disuse. I'd say that the amount of work it takes to learn multiple languages is usually the most difficult going from one language to two, then gets progressively easier as you add on more and more (but I'm sure there must be some sort of upper threshold). This task also gets progressively more difficult the older you are.

I became fluent in Spanish when I was 12, after moving to Mexico. It took me about a year to fully pick up the language to the point I felt confident using it among my friends and classmates. When I was 16, I was in a car accident and suffered massive head trauma and brain damage where I lost the ability to speak or understand Spanish.

Fast-forward to me trying to learn Japanese at 40. It's been over five years now that I've been studying vocabulary, learning grammar rules, immersing myself with anime/manga/music, and traveling to Japan - and I'm still nowhere near "fluent". My brain (either due to age, which is normal, or my accident 30 years ago) just can't absorb this stuff like it used to.

Wishing DragoonKain success though!

 

[EverydayBeast]

OP playing 4D chess

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Japanese or Chinese takes years. 99% of people who start it fail.

I found that apps is the worst, if you don't find it interesting or fun, you won't learn it, and apps get really boring after a while.

I find listening to peoples advice on how to learn stuff just puts dumb ideas about what "the right way to learn is".

Methods on doing things in the most efficient way is pointless if it makes things boring.

 

[Days like these...]

Just curious. Have you even learned one language other than your native tongue? Do you have any idea the amount time and effort that goes into being fluent in a new language?

I asked him the same thing he refuses to answer.

 

[12Goblins]

Learning one language in adulthood is extremely difficult...

 

[Artoris]

learning one language takes many years of constant commitment

 

[pachura]

I don't think it is possible to learn a language just by yourself, using free software like DuoLingo. Especially as an adult.

You need a teacher.

 

[M1chl]

Good luck it took me like 10 years to learn English which in written form is relatively easy. Granted I have better grammar in English than in my native language which has insane amount of rules in comparison...