|
 |
My Language Crisis (Relatively Speaking) | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5524 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 31 10 August 2012 at 4:55am | IP Logged | ||
The way I figure it, you're an experienced language learner who's made good progress with Japanese. You've bent your mind around particles, strange grammar, kanji, kanji readings, and vocabulary with no common roots. In comparison with all that, reaching a nice touristy B1 in a Romance language is going to be a cakewalk. You know the alphabet, pronunciation is straightforward, a huge fraction of the "big" words are cognates with English, and you can run 75% of your grammar as a dodgy emulation layer on top of English. Sure, speaking a Romance language fluently and well is still a serious amount of work, but the basics are very doable. So good luck, and may you enjoy whatever side project you pick as much as I'm enjoying mine! 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6895 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 26 of 31 10 August 2012 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
|
It sounds like you would love to learn Portuguese but you're trying to deny it so that
you don't get too much involved ;). I think Portuguese is your best choice. If you learn it to +/- B1 level, learning some French for travelling will be even esier. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4519 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 27 of 31 11 August 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged | ||
|
I agree with the others, pick Portuguese!
It's a lovely sounding language. I'm curious, did you take Brazilian Portuguese or European Portuguese at university? I personally prefer European Portuguese because it sounds like a cool slavic language to me xD My dad speaks Portuguese and Spanish, and he says that if you learn the sound shifts between Spanish and Portuguese, just knowing one will allow you to read well in the other. So I guess you can enjoy literature in both languages then :3 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 28 of 31 11 August 2012 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
|
@ZombieKing - It was Brazilian Portuguese. It was a very informal beginner's Portuguese class. How informal? The teacher was a graduate student from Brazil. The first day, she walked in and asked us, "What do you want to learn this semester?" She had no curriculum planned, and we had no textbooks. We mainly watched Brazilian movies and listened to Brazilian music, and every now and then we even learned a Portuguese phrase or two! I earned university credits but no conversation skills. Still, that began my little crush with the language and also Brazilian culture.
European Portuguese pronunciation sounds easier to me, but I like the "flow" of Brazilian Portuguese. Either one would do; both versions sound great to my ears. Anyway, thanks to some careful thought and the encouragement of you guys, I'm gonna do it. Portuguese will become my side project for the time being. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 29 of 31 11 August 2012 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I found DLI (Defense Language Institute) Portuguese to be quite useful with loads of drills and very little to no military vocabulary. Look for the Basic Course Volume 1 through 10 and the associated mp3's- all free to download.
Good multimedia exercises can be found at DLI Global Language Online Support System with many other languages supported, including Japanese. Your taxpayer's dollars at work. A great website to help you is On Learning Brazilian Portuguese by @erikspen. Check out his post Best of learning Brazilian Portuguese for a list of great resources. Bem-vindo e boa sorte! If I can help you, just ask. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 30 of 31 13 August 2012 at 11:32am | IP Logged | ||
|
Obrigado, iguanamon!
I was looking through the DLI and the FSI courses over the weekend. It looks like DLI is a better fit for me, so I'll try that. Thank you for the links! Do you know of any good podcasts or Internet radio or anything like that? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 31 of 31 13 August 2012 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The DLI course is well organized. The pdf's need to be ocr'ed and/or optimized. I like the drills and the paused conversation that provides the illusion of a duplex conversation.
Podcasts: One of my favorites- with transcript is Café Brasil the podcasts are about 50 minutes long and are about varied topics. Luciano Pires, the host, has a clear Paulista accent. The podcasts also feature relevant Brazilian music. While not Brazilian, Deutsche Welle Radio has a series of "radionovelas" called Learning By Ear. The format is of an audio play about varied topics with simple colloquial language intended for Portuguese-speaking Africa. The actors are Mozambican for the most part. Each episode is downloadable in mp3 and has a pdf transcript. A little searching on the home page will provide the pdf's for English, thereby allowing you to make bilingual texts. I'd start with "Fábulas africanas". Internet radio- I like several. It depends on your tastes. There are plenty of choices out there. Edited by iguanamon on 14 August 2012 at 12:19am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
