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Totally different to German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4793 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 10 26 January 2014 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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A year ago, I came and asked for suggestions on learning a community language. I
plumped for Polish in the end but the class was full, as was the level 2 French and I've never had a feel for Spanish although I did take a year's evening class. So, as it was the only one left, I took German to battle an old demon from school. Surprisingly to me, I loved it from lesson 1. I get real intellectual stimulation from it and will be taking it to A2 level the next academic year. I should add here that I have severe depression. Self motivation to study outside of class is very low without a class to want to succeed in. And it helps get me out of the house and socialising while actually feeling like I'm achieving something- as I know some folks on here think classes slow you down. I'm now thinking about doing an additional language next year for fun. I don't care about employment practicality or living abroad. I'd like suggestions for one that's also going to give me that 'buzz' but from a slightly different part of the brain. Non- latin alphabets/ characters aren't a problem. These are my options. I want to take a class as it makes a real different to my motivation levels so these are what I can travel to: Arabic Mandarin (lived 5 months in China and got the basics incl. writing but now 99% forgotten)- brain still recovering from the cramming trauma so not right now Greek Italian Japanese Latin Polish Portuguese Russian Scots Gaelic Turkish I'm also looking at doing one of the 6 week challenges from March via self study to try something really different. My library has the following: Language Packs (book and audio)- Scots Gaelic, Italian, Romanian Books only- Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Mandarin, Polish,Portuguese, Russian, Xhosa, I'd consider anything else if I could get it really cheap off Ebay/Amazon. What would you suggest? Many thanks in advance. Edited by yantai_scot on 26 January 2014 at 1:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5719 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 2 of 10 26 January 2014 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd say go for Russian. Lots of resources, an interesting and important language and if you ever want to pick up Polish again, knowing Russian will help. You've tackled the Romance languages with French, Germanic with German, Slavic is a major group in Europe, so you might as well go for it.
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4360 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 3 of 10 27 January 2014 at 4:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a Slavic language lover, so I would go for either Polish or Russian (I just love Polish a little more than Russian). Polish actually has a decent amount of resources available, and it would provide a good background if you ever wanted to learn another Slavic language.
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| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5091 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 4 of 10 27 January 2014 at 10:36am | IP Logged | ||
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That's all your library has? Have you checked the online catalog as well?
Anyways, I'll recommend Russian because there are a ton of resources and it's considered to be a difficult language for native English speakers so it' should give you another nice sense of accomplishment. Plus you'll look like a boss carrying books around with Cyrillic script on them. If any of the language classes are significantly closer/cheaper than the others I'd narrow it down even further to those. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| yantai_scot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4793 days ago 157 posts - 214 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 10 27 January 2014 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Looks like Russian is the clear favourite! Exceeeellent (I can dig out my TY Russian
book I nabbed at the last used library book sale just in case it ever came in handy...) @Darklight1216 I agree that posing on public transport with a Cyrillic book would indeed be great fun! The most local and cheaper classes are the Italian and Scots Gaelic (plus German, French and Spanish) alas they don't always get enough people to run and you're only notified of a cancellation a week before it's due to run. The rest are university open classes. They cost almost twice the amount but I believe they're don't have the problems with filling seats. While I did search the online catalogue, largely due to my own stupidity, I tried again and also found; Afrikaans,Cantonese,Catalan, Czech,Danish, Estonian, Hindi,Hungarian,Irish, Modern Persian,Punjabi,Sanskrit,Serbo-Croat, Sign language,Swedish,Thai,Welsh Almost all of these are from the Teach Yourself Series, book only and some are 'vintage'. It's the same copy of Serbo-Croat from 1993 that I borrowed as teen... If Russian's my L3 :), any suggestions for doing a 6 week challenge? I'm game for pretty much anything I can get a beginners' book for. Edited by yantai_scot on 27 January 2014 at 7:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5000 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 10 27 January 2014 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think Scots Gaelic could be awesome if you are striving mostly for a change and intellectual challenge. And you are lucky to live in the area, people from other countries than UK/Ireland have usually hard time finding anything for the Celtic languages. If going to class works well for you, than Scots Gaelic sounds like the best of the classes options you listed.
I think Russian may work for you. Slavic languages share some vocabualary with other european branches and some of the grammar features may remind you of German. But the eastern slavic languages are surely a challenge, have the fancy cyrillics and so on. And you should have very little trouble finding resources for Russian, including free ones. With some searching, you can get awesome resources (free or pirated) on the internet. While we are not allowed to share info about the second category in this forum (but many are not hard to find on your own), there is still a lot of content from the first category that members have found over the years and you could surely find some things very useful. Such free tools and resources can lessen the costs significantly. So does buying material second hand or in sale or with damaged covers or just from shops with free delivery. I think considering these options may be better than studying without any audio. Old textbooks often aren't any trouble (sometimes they are even better than newer ones), lack of audio is. I think other Germanic or Romance languages aren't what you are looking for. Even though Latin can be pretty tough and is in many ways a different kind of challenge than the living (and easier) romance languages. It might just spark the different parts of brain as you wish and, given you don't care about practicality and traveling, it may suit well your demand. And there are many and many free resources for learners, nearly all the literature is in public domain, there are enthusiasts who keep it somewhat alive (for example in an online newspaper) and so on. It is a demanding yet rewarding language that can give an awesome insight into vocabulary of many fields and languages. Greek (either modern or ancient) may be an awesome challenge. So could Finnish, Estonian or Hungarian. Very different languages from the three european branches. Non european languages may be awesome as well. But since you have your Mandarin sleeping, it may not be the best idea to start Japanese as vast majority of learners of asian languages on htlal recommends to stick with one of these. Persian, Arabic and Turkish may be great as well and Arabic appears to be on the rise when it comes to the amount of learning materials including the free ones. So, if I were you, I would choose one of these three: Scots Gaelic, Russian or Latin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lingumaus Diglot Newbie Germany bit.ly/1fWQZiV Joined 3952 days ago 12 posts - 15 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC1 Studies: Modern Hebrew, Cornish | Message 7 of 10 28 January 2014 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think anyone here can tell you what is best for you.
What language sounds most beautiful to you? What speech community do you believe is the nicest? What culture do you believe is the most interesting? I think once you answer these questions honestly for yourself you know what language you want to learn. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5719 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 8 of 10 28 January 2014 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't understand. You're looking for ideas for L4 now to do 6WC? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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