Language Learning Programs

Trap_Wolf

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ok advertising but hear me out :C


Duolingo is a website where you can learn a language for free. Currently available for English -> ___ are Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese. The way your learn is really cool and interactive. The website and Android or iPhone app are really snazzy and smooth. You earn a currency called Lingots for learning a new skill, leveling up, completing a challenge without missing one and more. Lingots are spent at a super neat store to buy super neat things. It's a work = reward based system. It even keeps up a score so you can fight your friends for the best one. Biblius and me have been fighting for weeks.

I really wanted to share this because everyone deserves the resources to learn another language on their own time. It can either be fun or just a chore or both. So try to make it more easier for your because being bilingual or trilingual will greatly benefit you. Try this website/app it's like really easy. You owe this to yourself. C:

If anyone has any other good experiences with other language learning programs ((online or not)) please share. :U
 
W

Wimali

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Reminds me of this /r/askreddit post:

You could learn to code with codecademy.com or tutsplus.com.
You could learn excel with excelexposure.com or other computer skills with thinktutorial.com.
You can improve your typing skills with typeracer.com, 10fastfingers.com, or ratatype.com.
You can learn a new language with duolingo.com or memrise.com.
You can learn the very basic of typography with practicaltypography.com.
You can learn the basics about circuits with allaboutcircuits.com.
You could learn to draw with drawspace.com
You could learn photography with exposureguide.com or cambridgeincolour.com.
Fuckinghomepage.com (NSFW language obviously) usually has more links to this kind of stuff.

(have fun)
 

Prizyms

あんたバカァ~!?
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Heisig's Remembering The Kanji/Hanzi is extremely useful and probably one of the best ways for visual learners to remember thousands of abstract logographs and give them meaning/distinguish them from each other. There's a nice website which ties in with it here. I'm currently working through RTK 1 alongside Genki 1 and Tae Kim's grammar guide to build up a beginner's knowledge of the Japanese language.
 

Notme

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oh woops mo' betta ignore every last muthafuckin thang up in dis thread even if itz helpful yo ass is breakin all tha rulez n' tha dislike five-o is ghon be arrivin momentarily gamma
What police, werewolf?

Where I can go learn to speak in Bash or Java?

Also nice thread, its not advertising.
Java and C++ are languages too ;)
 

Lee_scar

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Heisig's Remembering The Kanji/Hanzi is extremely useful and probably one of the best ways for visual learners to remember thousands of abstract logographs and give them meaning/distinguish them from each other. There's a nice website which ties in with it here. I'm currently working through RTK 1 alongside Genki 1 and Tae Kim's grammar guide to build up a beginner's knowledge of the Japanese language.
expected neat site to learn jap-mayonnaise visuals better, redirected to a book :( why do you torture me.
Though I can still listen to Japanese and understand it vaguely, not so much speak.
 

TubaRiver

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I am currently testing out the Spanish "curriculum" I do not like how it only has a single dialect. Which is mainly center south american dialect. It should have a variety of dialects.

An example; "Yo bebo leche" = "I drink milk"
the Spanish is pronounced as "Jo vevo leche"
In Spanish, the letters J/Y/ll (<- thats double 'L'), B/V and D/T are closely associated with each other, to where you can substitute sounds. Just gotta be aware of the context when hearing it, or keep it the sound as is written for easier understanding.

Also, it needs to add in SOME 'slang' variation. As in standard classes for foreign language they go for "proper" grammar and structure, not that it's bad or anything, but in real life, you need to understand the world rarely uses "proper" speaking in person for ANY language. Every language has slang, either as individual words or phrases or even full sentences.

An example of this; "ese" = "that"
In spanish slang its often used to denote a person, quite rudely at times.

"dar un paseo" = "to go for a walk"
In spain you should never, use this phrase. Due to their past, and the new slang it represents. I won't go into full detail, but let's just say it was a phrase (and is apparently still considered as such there) for when you want to take someone 'out' (not on date, to kill or hurt)


I'll add more as i go along.
 
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TubaRiver

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Omg TubaRiver I love talking to my one friend from Argentina who's given me random tips like instead of saying "yo como una manzana" or "tú bebes agua" you just say "como una manzana" or "bebes agua" if you want to sound like you actually have experience with the language. :b
Exactly the 'yo', 'tu', 'nosotros' etc isn't necessary for if you have a conjugated verb that stands for it.
It's helpful for writing papers so people can understand you easier.

The main time you add pronouns in front of CONJUGATED verbs are for Direct Objects, or Indirect objects when wanting to denote specific people or items previously stated and you don't want to use the name again.

For example; let's say I'm talking about books.
"los compré ayer" = "I bought them yesterday", where in this scenario the 'them' are the books! :)


EDIT: oh and another tidbit. Some spanish materials tend to say this; the main two verbs for 'to be', "ser" and "estar" are NEVER interchangeable. That is wrong.
Are they interchangeable in every case? No, most definitely not.
Some case? Yes most definitely so.

ser: La comida fue delicioso = the food was delicious.
estar: La comida estuvo delicioso = the food was delicious.

ser: Calculo es aburrido. = Calculus is boring. (best to use ser in this case)
estar: Calculo está aburrido. = Calculus is bored. (doesnt make much sense right?)
 
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L

Later_Gator

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EDIT: oh and another tidbit. Some spanish materials tend to say this; the main two verbs for 'to be', "ser" and "estar" are NEVER interchangeable. That is wrong.
Are they interchangeable in every case? No, most definitely not.
Some case? Yes most definitely so.

ser: La comida fue delicioso = the food was delicious.
estar: La comida estuvo delicioso = the food was delicious.

ser: Calculo es aburrido. = Calculus is boring. (best to use ser in this case)
estar: Calculo está aburrido. = Calculus is bored. (doesnt make much sense right?)
Reminds me of a rhyme I learned in my Spanish class.

"To say how you feel or where you are, always use the verb estar."
 

Theodorre

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I am currently testing out the Spanish "curriculum" I do not like how it only has a single dialect. Which is mainly center south american dialect. It should have a variety of dialects.

An example; "Yo bebo leche" = "I drink milk"
the Spanish is pronounced as "Jo vevo leche"
In Spanish, the letters J/Y/ll (<- thats double 'L'), B/V and D/T are closely associated with each other, to where you can substitute sounds. Just gotta be aware of the context when hearing it, or keep it the sound as is written for easier understanding.

Also, it needs to add in SOME 'slang' variation. As in standard classes for foreign language they go for "proper" grammar and structure, not that it's bad or anything, but in real life, you need to understand the world rarely uses "proper" speaking in person for ANY language. Every language has slang, either as individual words or phrases or even full sentences.

An example of this; "ese" = "that"
In spanish slang its often used to denote a person, quite rudely at times.

"dar un paseo" = "to go for a walk"
In spain you should never, use this phrase. Due to their past, and the new slang it represents. I won't go into full detail, but let's just say it was a phrase (and is apparently still considered as such there) for when you want to take someone 'out' (not on date, to kill or hurt)


I'll add more as i go along.

That's bizarre, the curriculum in the States must be quite different to New Zealand's because I thought we were learning the language really sloppily, as it seemed we were focusing on the relaxed language more than proper grammar. But after reading your post I'm kinda happy our teacher is teaching us the way she is, if the relaxed manner of speaking is used more. (And yeah I was never taught to use pronouns with conjugated verbs).

Oh, and as for learning materials, most of the language departments here use Language Perfect (https://www.languageperfect.com/splash/). It's a New Zealand site used throughout Oceania (mainly NZ and Aus), it's great for languages because they offer so many. I believe it costs though. The teachers set us homework on it and then they can see our progress. It has four different learning ways: Reading ([Language you're learning] to English), Writing (English to [Language you're learning]), Dictation (I think that's the word being read in the language you're learning and then you write it down in that language) and one other option which I cannot remember, where you listen to the word in the language and then you write it in English.
 
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TubaRiver

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That's bizarre, the curriculum in the States must be quite different to New Zealand's because I thought we were learning the language really sloppily, as it seemed we were focusing on the relaxed language more than proper grammar. But after reading your post I'm kinda happy our teacher is teaching us the way she is, if the relaxed manner of speaking is used more. (And yeah I was never taught to use pronouns with conjugated verbs).
The curriculum itself is odd, even the teachers state it. Thats why every now and then they will throw out some "real world spanish" instead of book spanish......

For Spanish honestly its not that hard. Just learn the vocab (as in every language) conjugate verbs into the form you want them to be. ýo', 'tu', 'nosotros' etc. For "proper grammer" all you truly need to know is;

for weather you use verb 'hacer+weather vocabs'.
for age its 'tener+age'
Know differences between ser and estar, and MAYBE haber (though not really its like 95% always in 3rd person)
and lastly, the accents. Just memorize where they go for what you're talking about on the words you use WHEN WRITING of course.

That is literally spanish in a nutshell.
 
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