The other thing that can help when trying to maintain and enhance your language skills, (once you have learnt things at a basic level) is to try and read some foreign language websites or newspapers. Depending on the language, there are a lot of foreign language newspapers available in Australia.

The other thing which can help is to watch football matches with commentary of the language you want to learn. It is generally a limited vocabulary, and you can guess what they are talking about from watching what is happening. So it can help you develop your "ear" for hearing the language spoken by native-speakers.

I do it all the time for maintaining my Italian. Plus, living in Melbourne there is "Il Globo" newspaper as well!

If you're learning it for work than it's definitely worth it, I can't explain how much meaning is lost between two parties in Asian business arrangements when a translator is needed. It was pointless for me living in Europe, I just wanted to be able to have fun with it really.

Lebanese family living in South Africa. English and Arabic were the languages used at home, Mum would speak French to her (an official language in Lebanon) and Dad would speak German (works for a German company) and she learned Afrikaans at school and spoke it with her friends.

They live in Australia now, unlike most South Africans they could escape that shithole thanks to not being too black or too white for most countries to accept.

I know a lot of people learning Hindi. Not surprised given the common interests on this forum that European languages dominate here. I know a lot of people learning Manderin and Hindi and travelling between the relevant locations.

Btw guys, if you're learning languages and get stuck on something feel free to post in here for help. I sure intend to!!

I know french well, can understand alot of spanish and italian, can understand about half any slavic language having lived most my life around various eastern euros. Can fluently navigate any shopping or mcdonalds situation in chinese:lol:


FWIW, learning a language on your own from scratch I'd say first thing to do is learn about 50 of the most common words, like "who, what, why, where, there, also, if, but...etc. Then learn all the forms 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, plural and all pasts presents conditionals of the two most common verbs "to be' and "to have". Learn these 50 and all the verb forms by heart before you start anything else. Someone said you can make yourself understood in any language if you know just 50 words. Once you know these it's make easy to get the ball rolling and fit pieces together. Also then after that find out any points where the grammar form is significantly different.

Edited by spfc: 10/3/2016 01:12:32 PM

Exactly. Asia is the future and China is leading the way. 1/5 of the worlds population is Chinese so it pays to learn it and i, for one, welcome our new asian overlords.

Great thread btw. I speak moderate German and Mandarin although my Mandarin is slipping somewhat due to me finishing the course and not knowing anyone to speak it with

You can't migrate there but there are plenty of foreigners working there. Sure you can get by with a high paying job, not knowing any chinese but visiting/living a country where you can communicate with the locals is a much more fulfilling experience.

Also learning a language does start to expose you the culture of the people too. Learning about confucian values and the protocols that people live and work under there that a based on it make it a lot easier to do business.

Business communication. It allows you to shop around without a middleman which can mean life or death for a business that sells tangible goods. Besides that, it's always good to know the language of the future overlords.

A good mate is from Swabia (near Stuttgart) in Germany, She came over here and couldn't understand my mates mum who is Austrian.

Funnily enough, she also couldn't stop laughing at a couple of northern Germans when I was at school. The northern German accent is how gay people in Swabia talk.

Keep us updated too!

Downloaded it last night, starting off with German.

Good to hear mate! It's a great app. Which language are you doing?

Have been casually keen on learning this too.

I think my Mrs is also, could be something fun to bring the little one up with.

I'm Intermediate at Dutch and looking for a course at the moment for Mandarin considering our Chinese overlords coming down on us.

Also surprised no-one has said Auslan yet. I'm self-taught so my technique probably isn't fantastic but I can hold my own

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My really brief understanding of Swiss German is it's basically German mixed with Italian, yeah?

Fluent bullshit and sarcasm.

Hyvää
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When I was about 7 I would go to 'Finnish School' each Saturday, then the place closed and my parents split so I stopped learning it after that unfortunately. Only know a few words now. :(

Can read Ancient Greek and Ancient Hebrew - but they aren't really spoken languages (despite their modern equivalents).

Basic Spanish as my step-mother and her family (who lived with us for a while) are Peruvian.

I'm no Lega Nord supporter or anything :lol:

Also that video is far from accurate, I just like Christopher Walken :)

I think it does tend to sort itself out. I base that on anecdote, though. How did she come to speak such different languages at such a young age?

I am starting to speak Assyrian and Kurdish but I keep getting confused and lapsing into Arabic.

I have a niece who speaks English, Arabic, French, German and Afrikaans (her parents only speak three each, no Afrikaans) and from when she was 5-7 years old she struggled to differentiate between the languages, so her speech was all five mixed together with her own form of grammar. Her teachers told her parents not to worry and that it would sort itself out, which it did.

Tack! Det är jätte rolig

Was about to ask if you were Calo like me, although I also have family in Milan, Rome, Turin and Florence so I can't really give you shit for being from the north :lol:

Edited by milan_7: 9/3/2016 10:50:02 PM

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I'm also trying to learn Swedish.

I've a lot of Swedish friends, I'd quite like to live there and it's a fun language to speak.

It's tough going learning it from Australia. Feasible but not easy.