Hey Darcy I understand about trying to learn another language, acouple of years ago I tried to learn Vietnamese by books and tapes didn't work out , but I was born into a Spanish family and learned it ,even thou I never studied it I can read and write it and that opens up another huge library
There are no easier or more difficult languages.Originally Posted by astrum
That's an interesting video. I wouldn't take it as far as that guy though. It seemed he was studying over a dozen languages. I'd be satisfied with french, spanish, german, russian and ancient greek.
You're lucky to know Spanish. Its literally one of my life goals to read Don Quixote and One Hundred Years of Solitude in the original Spanish with close to flawless comprehension.
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
Many of the jokes and opinion about Poles come from somewhere. However we cannot compare Poland today with Poland from 30s. Nowadays this country has been changed into very weak country. Probably if the IIWW hadn`t happened, everything would be different now. I read many articles according to which, Poland should have suported Hitler what of course was impossible. It`s just stupid saying something like that. Unfortunately there people believing in it. Despite it, Poland still has a very big potential. There are many young people who are forced to move out but maybe one day something will change (I don`t believe in it).
I`ve read 2 times Marquez in Spanish up to now. It was very difficult for me but I managed to do it. Spanish is a very beautifull language. In spite of commiting some mistakes I`ve published my works in Spanish but I still have to put effort to do it better.
Have you read Carlos Fuentes or Octavio Paz?
Is it true you don't have to be a fluent speaker to a fluent reader? I feel like being lazy and settling for the reading part and forget speaking if I'm only in it for the reading.
Last edited by Mr.lucifer; 05-20-2013 at 02:56 AM.
Not much, just a couple of short stories which I did enjoy.
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
- Kurt Vonnegut
If it somes to Fuentes, one of my favourite ones in "Terra Nostra". It`s a trilogy. Recently I`ve bought it in polish.
It is said that speaking, reafding and writting should be coherent. Howeve it is true that there are some people who can read very advanced texts but have problem with speaking at this level.
Would I be able to pronounce the words properly in my head? Its just the fact that reading translated works isn't as good as reading them in the original language bothers me and its makes me curious. I would like to know what it is like, but I'm not interested in being a fluent speaker.
For example, if I wanted to read in french but wasn't sure if I would ever visit France, I would prefer to be a fluent french reader.
Last edited by Mr.lucifer; 05-20-2013 at 03:23 AM.
It depends on you.
Yes, it's possible. The literary language can diverge quite a bit from the colloquial language at times. For some languages this is especially pronounced and we have diglossia. That said, you can't help but improve your speaking skills some as you read more and more. That's because much of the stuff you learn to read can also be used in colloquial language for a language like French or Spanish.
When I first started learning languages, it seemed like such an incredibly time-consuming process that I resigned myself to only ever learning one or two of them in my life. But as time went on, and I learned how to learn languages, I also started seeing the huge web of connections between many languages. For example, while learning Japanese I found out that all East Asian languages share thousands and thousands of words of Chinese origin that were borrowed from Chinese throughout the millennia. These words usually aren't exactly the same in each language, but knowing one of these languages gives you a definite advantage in tackling another. The same kind of web of connections exists in Western Asia for languages like Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Turkish which share thousands of Perso-Arabic vocabulary. And of course in the West we have the shared Greco-Roman vocabulary.
And I haven't even gotten into how many of these languages are related genetically, which gives us another advantage in learning additional languages. If you learn one Romance language, then you can learn the rest of them with relative ease. So the bottom line is that the more languages you learn, the easier it becomes to learn additional languages. Learning those first one or two languages is the most difficult part. But be careful. Once you start down the road to polyglottery, language learning can become very addictive! (See: Alexander Arguelles)
Here are a few sites that I'd recommend:
1. www.lang-8.com
2. www.ver-taal.com (it has a ton of listening exercises)
3. www.wordreference.com (one of the best English-Spanish dictionaries)
4. www.espanglishchat.com
YouTube is also great; you can find a ton of foreign-language films, documentaries, interviews, etc. Some of them are even closed captioned!
You have some very good points. Many people think that learning another language serves the purpose of reading works in the original. But the important aspect of it is the ability to see different ways that are not translated no matter what. That gives you a lot of flexibility in the art of thinking. And it is addictive but very good stuff for mental health.
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