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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6113 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes  22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 9 of 20 02 October 2008 at 11:17am | IP Logged | |||||
That’s true with the bigger languages but not with some of the smaller languages. For example, resources for Luxembourgish are predominantly in French with some in German. There are no English based courses (that I know of). I think anytime you actively use a language you have learned, be it for business, university classes, or using it to learn another language, you will strengthen it. I plan to do the following at some point: Learn Portuguese from Spanish Learn Afrikaans and Frisian from Dutch 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5941 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 10 of 20 02 October 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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I wouldn't underrate non-english material. You never know where the best resources will pop up. As a fervent aficionado of the particular perversion that consists in learning languages from other languages, I have found that sometimes french, German or even russian sources are definitely better than their English counterparts.
A recent example. Yesterday I was browsing language books in a store in Paris and I discovered a small and unassuming japanese booklet that didn't look anything special. The paper and the print were very underground, but it was packed full with useful material arranged in such a smart way as I had never seen before, and it cost around 8 $. The same happened with a repertory of spoken russian expression that was just halfway between the usual and generally useless "dirty dirty russian words from hell" lexicon and a primer in casual conversation. Never seen anything this balanced in my entire life, and I have quite a collection. A third example: a french publisher has these small and unexpensive (12$) booklets that cover the basic vocabulary of scandinavian languages and hungarian arranging words by contexts. I find them priceless. The big, fat, all-included resources are usually in English, but sometimes it's the small little gems that boost your learning. It's worth looking for them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6656 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 11 of 20 02 October 2008 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Absolutely. Dr. Arguelles has mentioned many times that he considers German and French as key languages for wanna-be polyglots as they both provide excellent study material and I agree: For example, I think that the resources for Dutch and the Scandinavian languages available in German and French are superior to the ones available in English. There are great methods like Assimil (in French or German) or Langenscheidt (German), which are usually not available in English. And there are very good methods for obscure languages as well (look at Dr. Arguelles video about Asiathèque on youtube!) The best Latin method I have seen is in French and the best Turkish material is in German. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 12 of 20 02 October 2008 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems to me that the best resources are often in the largest neighboring languages. Dunwoody Press's Lanna course recommends that you already be fluent in Thai (and seems to be in a combination of Thai and English). A lot of materials for Caucasian languages are in Russian. Mongolian material seems to often be in Russian or Chinese. Assimil's Catalan course is for Spanish speakers. Someone posted today about a Tagalog video course in Japanese. Etc, etc.
In general, if I had to pick one language for study material (and without specific target languages in mind), it would be English. French and German are also quite important, especially (but not only) for materials for European languages. However, there's also an amazing amount in Russian and Chinese, and some interesting language learning materials in every widely spoken language I'm aware of. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Othar Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6200 days ago 185 posts - 205 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Norwegian, Turkish | Message 13 of 20 02 October 2008 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
What Turkish material did you use? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5895 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 14 of 20 02 October 2008 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
which latin method would that be? I am still looking for good resources. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6656 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 15 of 20 03 October 2008 at 8:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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OFF-TOPIC:
As requested some material for Turkish: - Margarete I. Ersen-Rasch: Türkisch - Lehrbuch für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene. - Assimil: Türkisch ohne Mühe These two are textbooks for beginners. There are many more on the market, but those are the ones I used and which I like the most. Of course the Assimil course is a translation from French. - Margarete I. Ersen-Rasch: Türkische Grammatik: Für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene A very user-friendly grammar which is perfect for learners. Lewis' grammar is more comprehensive, but also more scholarly. - Hayrettin Seyhan: Lese-und Übungsbuch Türkisch An annotated reader with contemporary Turkish short stories. The Latin method I was referring to is 'Initiation à la langue latine et à son système' by S. Deléani and J.-M. Vermander. It's not a very typical textbook, as it starts out with authentic Latin texts. It was conceived for university students who need to learn the language fast. Edited by Marc Frisch on 03 October 2008 at 8:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gon-no-suke Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6425 days ago 156 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: Korean, Malay, Swahili | Message 16 of 20 03 October 2008 at 8:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm learning Korean and Chinese mostly through Japanese material and it works very well, especially for Korean. For most asian languages, even obscure ones like Manshu and Ainu (obviously), there is quite good learning material in Japanese. I even found a book for Sami once!
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