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#4524612 - 06/09/20 11:33 AM Foreign languages  
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Is anyone here currently trying to become fluent in a foreign language? If yes, how are you approaching the task? I am still trying to regain the conversational German that I lost after I graduated from college but German tourists have been slim pickings in my area for a few months now. biggrin However, Youtube videos have been a decent alternative though. At least I've greatly improved my vocabulary and reading skills thanks to the all-mighty internet.

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 06/09/20 11:34 AM.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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#4524613 - 06/09/20 11:38 AM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I haff good been at zer jerman ja!

#4524616 - 06/09/20 11:46 AM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Took some German 20 or so years ago but recall only a little.


"In the vast library of socialist books, there’s not a single volume on how to create wealth, only how to take and “redistribute” it.” - David Horowitz
#4524618 - 06/09/20 12:04 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Originally Posted by F4UDash4
Took some German 20 or so years ago but recall only a little.



I've found that the conversational skills are the first thing to go when you don't use a language on a daily basis. It's much more difficult to regain those skills compared to learning vocabulary and grammar.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524620 - 06/09/20 12:35 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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I think I can say that I am pretty fluent in english.

#4524622 - 06/09/20 01:01 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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My Dutch gets better everyday but boy is it a struggle, I have no feeling for languages at all.

I'm ok understanding the people from this area, but go to the next town and I can not understand a word of what they say, the dialect is so different it's almost a foreign language biggrin

I have been told that I speak without an accent but others say I speak like someone from this town smile

Wife and son are both fluent in English, and my wife also speaks German and French as well as her native Dutch.


Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil
Sons of the hound come here and get flesh
Clan Cameron
#4524624 - 06/09/20 01:08 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: Alicatt]  
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Originally Posted by Alicatt
My Dutch gets better everyday but boy is it a struggle, I have no feeling for languages at all.

I'm ok understanding the people from this area, but go to the next town and I can not understand a word of what they say, the dialect is so different it's almost a foreign language biggrin

I have been told that I speak without an accent but others say I speak like someone from this town smile

Wife and son are both fluent in English, and my wife also speaks German and French as well as her native Dutch.



Thanks for sharing this Alicatt!


One of the things that strikes me the most as an American is just how radically different accents and dialects of the same language can exist within relatively small geographic distances in Europe. Of course there are different accents within the US but I never once in my life found it impossible to understand what another American was saying. The difference just isn't as radical as what you will find in Europe. I have a good friend from the North Rhine Westphalen region of Germany and he told me a story about how he attended a wedding and several of the guests were from the Swabia region and he literally could not understand anything they were saying. He said it was essentially a foreign language to him.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524633 - 06/09/20 02:05 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I never once in my life found it impossible to understand what another American was saying.

Exhibit A: Ebonics
Exhibit B: "Steve from Wichita", the hotline guy

#4524634 - 06/09/20 02:09 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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When we first moved to a village here in Worcestershire there was a most friendly old geezer, who had never left the village and was a casual labourer on local farms all his life who used to come and chat as we worked on the new garden. couldn't understand a word he said until we got attuned to his 'Aysum' (Evesham, nearest market town) dialect after a few months. He must have thought us townies were idiots.

Worked for a few months on a store opening up in the N.E. of England. Had to make out I was slightly hard of hearing and 'could you speak slowly and louder please', so I could make out what they were saying to me. As for Glasgow, Belfast and Londonderry, well, every word addressed to me sounded to my London ears like a threat to my person smile



#4524635 - 06/09/20 02:10 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Had to take French in school for G9, 10 and G11-13 if one wanted to go to university. Was Parisian French so pretty much useless here. A friend in HS was Quebec French and barely passed French class. Have lost most of the conversational Quebec French I learned over the years from lack of use.


There was only 16 squadrons of RAF fighters that used 100 octane during the BoB.
The Fw190A could not fly with the outer cannon removed.
There was no Fw190A-8s flying with the JGs in 1945.
#4524636 - 06/09/20 02:12 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Pretty fluent in English and Russian, my German and Serbian usually take about 2 weeks being in the country to come fully back to me. My French is enough to buy stuff and read the paper, but not to have a meaningful conversation.

I would start re-learning the basics first, in the following order:
1) The verbs Haben/Sein
2) Expressions of time
3) EACH DAY, practice the following table until you've memorized it by heart: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8f/89/64/8f8964eded93c38a89954d0fe9638815.png

If you learn this table early, when you start learning to apply grammatical cases you'll pick it up much quicker. It also allows you to puzzle together sentences like a native (oh, here it's den, so it's either a masculine or a plural word)
4) "where", "where to" and "where from"
5) "to", "at", "in", "on", "from"
6) the mein sein dein ihr unser table
7) "which", "that" , "who"
8) negatives (no one, nothing, not yet, etc...)
9)Adverbs of quantities and degrees
10) Adverbs of position and direction
11) "how", "so", "also"

12) And only after all that, you start with the grammatical stuff of present/past/future tenses, and the application of the grammatical cases.

Whilst continuing practicing grammar, continue on with:
13) sein, in combination with sitting, standing, lying, to put
14) sein in a negative context (i have not, you are not, she isn't, etc..)
15) getting married, divorced, being born
16) dying, being ill, hurting, loving, liking
17) verbs of motion (fahren, gehen, etc..)
18) spelling and grammar rules (when to capitalize, when to use a point in a date, etc...) this should already be familiar from the "time" lesson

Reading german children's books and watching german children TV is a great way to practice the language, although i personally prefer watching commercials/infomercials.and reading about subjects that i already know like the back of my hand.

Also, the best way for me to learn a language, besides living there, is to ONLY watch news/tv/movies from that country or dubbed in that language. If you can receive/stream ARD, ZDF, WDR or RTL, that would be outstanding help, but there are plenty of german TV shows and movies worth watching (the Heimat 1/2/3 Chronik and Goodbye Lenin, are among my favorites)

Replacing the labels on my bottles with the ones from the country and before using something is also a good one, first repeating what's on the package 3 times (this is not for everyone, but I have plenty of time and OCD, so it works for me)

@Alicatt: it's not you, some flemish dialect have more to do with Klingon than with Dutch. In The Netherlands, we actually had the "Jambers Quiz" going on for a couple of years, where the objective of the contestants was to translate a belgian dialect sentence without subtitles, into proper Dutch. It was hilarious!

Last edited by Vaderini; 06/09/20 02:16 PM.
#4524637 - 06/09/20 02:16 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: BD-123]  
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PanzerMeyer Offline
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Originally Posted by BD-123


Worked for a few months on a store opening up in the N.E. of England.



Did it happen to be the Newcastle area?


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524638 - 06/09/20 02:20 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Wow Vaderini, thanks for that extremely detailed and helpful post! I will be saving that one. smile

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 06/09/20 02:20 PM.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524642 - 06/09/20 02:57 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Did 4 years of French in university but have forgotten most of it. I can bumble through a ( toddler level ) conversation in most of Northern France but have great difficulty understanding Quebec french and hardly get a word in northern New Brunswick


Archie Smythe

carpe diem
#4524644 - 06/09/20 03:00 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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PanzerMeyer Offline
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It's been a real eye opener for me to find out that Parisian French and Quebec French are indeed very different.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524646 - 06/09/20 03:14 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Quebecois: donnez-moi le hammer compared to donnez-moi le marteau


There was only 16 squadrons of RAF fighters that used 100 octane during the BoB.
The Fw190A could not fly with the outer cannon removed.
There was no Fw190A-8s flying with the JGs in 1945.
#4524652 - 06/09/20 03:37 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Sounds more like Franglais.

#4524653 - 06/09/20 03:41 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: Lieste]  
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Originally Posted by Lieste
Sounds more like Franglais.



I was thinking the same thing. The equivalent where I live is called "Spanglish". biggrin


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4524680 - 06/09/20 05:52 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Interesting timing as I was thinking about this just today. Early this morning I posted that I'm wrapping up Assembly language, the last difficult subject in my current study term. The next one will begin next week and we'll finally get started on Russian (wife's been bugging me, the highly-disciplined studious type...I bring fun, passion and music, but lack direction and long-term motivation...this combo should work). smile

[Linked Image]

Attached Files DSCF5007.JPG


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4524683 - 06/09/20 05:53 PM Re: Foreign languages [Re: MarkG]  
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Originally Posted by MarkG
Interesting timing as I was thinking about this just today. Early this morning I posted that I'm wrapping up Assembly language, the last difficult subject in my current study term. The next one will begin next week and we'll finally get started on Russian (wife's been bugging me, the highly-disciplined studious type...I bring fun, passion and music, but lack direction and long-term motivation...this combo should work). smile

[Linked Image]



What made you curious about learning Russian? Being in LA I figured it would have been French.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
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