Learning Languages from Books?

[Warlord]

I just got a 10 disc set of cds called "Mastering German" and I am wondering if anyone has ever had any luck learning this way. I really want to learn many languages and turn it into a hobby. Once you learn your first foreign language, does it get easier to learn others? I took French for 3 years in High School but I remember next to nothing of it. I was always frustrated trying to learn it but hopefully it will be different with German. Wish me luck!

 

[moribundman]

Good luck.

 

[Pablo]

Are you a male over, 25 or so? Immersion baby.

Yeah books are OK to go back to after the immersion.

I have the remnants of 3 other languages in my brain. Somewhere. According to mori, even my English is ragtag. Point being for some folks it's easier than others - younger the better, but no good for a stiff old male in the middle of only English speakers to learn from books.

When I was in China I learned a lot. When I came back to my Mandarin class my teacher from Beijing told me to knock off the southern slang girl in alley talk.

Oh yeah Good Luck!

 

[CivicFan]

German is a difficult language. I did one semester of it at university and although I learned some stuff, I did not learn much.

Pablo is correct - immersion is the key to learning a language well. CD-s are good for starters, and books are good once you know the language and want to learn how to spell words. Try to get a German channel on TV and watch it. I think Deutche Welle is broadcast on Direct TV.

 

[moribundman]

Quote:

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German is a difficult language.

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Within the Indo-European language family, German is one of the more difficult Germanic languages. English would be the easiest Germanic language. Of the Germanic languages, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 easiest and 10 hardest), I'd rate English 5, German 9 and Scandinavian 10. Learning German as a first foreign language is likely to spoil the fun of learning any foreign language. I'd recommend an easy Romance language like Italian. Italian can be learned and spoken fairly fluently within a few months. A difficult Romance language would be French (Figure three years intense studying and practicing to become pretty fluent). Either one, Italian or French, impresses the ladies. I used to fake a French accent...

Key to learning any language is interaction with native speakers (be it on vacation or as part of a foreign language course) and observation (living abroad, watching foreign language tv). CDs, tapes and books go only so far. Good enough for emergency communication and learned phrases. For real conversation this type learning is insufficient.

 

[Pablo]

I'm not sure why the Germans ruined a perfectly good language with gendered nouns.

I think is English not so much easier than German.

Portuguese is somewhere between Spanish and French.

Chinese is a really simple language. But then you have to write.

 

[moribundman]

Quote:

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I'm not sure why the Germans ruined a perfectly good language with gendered nouns

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We stole that idea from the French.

Learning French taught me how difficult gendered nouns were to learn!

 

[MarkC]

You should try Gaelic. For that matter, Gaelic is easier that the Glagsow variety of "English". "Hae ya nae hook ma dooky?"
Japanese is a piece of mochi in comparison.

 

[Warlord]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I think I'll probably try a different language. MarkC, do any cultures still speak gaelic? I might try a local native language like ojibway.

 

[MarkC]

Gaelic is still spoken in parts of western Scotland, mainly the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Roadsigns are often in Gaelic as well as English. It's also spoken in Ireland. Maybe parts of Nova Scotia, like Cape Breton, but I'm not sure.

 

[97tbird]

I am sort of trilingual..
I grew up speaking singhalese, my native language, and english as a kid.
At the age of about 20, I went to Germany and started learning German by taking classes, and got good enough to finish college there, studying pharamcy. My German is still pretty good...However, I do not think I could've ever got to this level in english and German with just books/CD's etc at an adult age...
My wife speaks German also, she was in Germany for 1 year, and has a #@$%! in German as a foreign language. (we met in Germany btw).
From OUR experience, we don't think it's very easy to learn it just with books. Taking classes are important, and being there, in the country, is the best.

 

[97tbird]

well my wife has degree (bachelor's). the abbreviation got misunderstood. !!!

 

[CivicFan]

English has gendered nouns, too, like 'host' and 'hostess'. It's the gendered verbs that are a problem - fortunately, English doesn't have them. Basically, the verbs are the PIA in any language. We are blessed with simple verbs in English.

Learning Russian is a major pain because of it.

 

[Pablo]

True enough with specific nouns - but a host is different than a hostess....but you use THE rather than die or der or el or la....which are definite articles appropriate for the gender of the noun.

English gots "to be"...or is....are....a few weird verbs

There are gendered verbs in what languages??? (yikes)

In Mandarin, ta = she or he (confusing - takes longer to get things in context)

 

[CivicFan]

Yeah, in Russian, when you say 'she said', you say 'ona govorila' and when you say 'he said', you say 'on govoril'. It's easy once you get to learn and practice the language but for the first 5-10 years people make mistakes.

The weirdest thing is that the word 'man' is 'mujchina' but the rule is that the feminine words are the ones that end in 'a'. The word for 'woman' is 'jenshina'.

 

[ediamiam]

If I recall correctly from reading the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, that is how Tarzan learned English.

 

[moribundman]

In German a thing can be male, female, or neuter, depending on which term one chooses. For example:

Neuter: das Auto = the auto
Male: der Wagen = the car
Female: die Karre = the car (slighly derogatory term)

There are also words that can have more than one gender. For example:

das Radio/der Radio = the radio
das Tunnel/der Tunnel = the tunnel

 

[Pablo]

What about your wiener? Weiner?

 

[moribundman]

It's a male word, Pablo-san.

Der Wiener = a male from Vienna, a Vienna sausage, a sissy, and it's a slang term for your little friend.

Die Wienerin = a female from Vienna

Die Wienerwurst = der Wiener (sausage)
While der Wiener is male, die Wurst (sausage) is female. In a compound word that is made up from a male and a female word, the gender of the compound word takes the gender of the second word of the compound word (I think -- I'd have to think about it and check if that's true).

 

[Pablo]

Glad we got that straight.