Learning rare languages (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Learning rare languages
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

40 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 Next >>

Sprachprofi
Nonaglot
Senior Member
Germany
learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6471 days ago
2608 posts - 4866 votes

Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese

Message 9 of 40

23 May 2010 at 10:19am | IP Logged

I'm learning Swahili. Fortunately there's an Assimil course for it. I also dabbled in
Maori, using the Kauderwelsch Maori book, which is a cross between language guide and
course.
3 persons have voted this message useful

Raчraч Ŋuɲa
Triglot
Senior Member
New Zealand
Joined 5819 days ago
154 posts - 233 votes

Speaks: Bikol languages*, Tagalog, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Japanese

Message 10 of 40

23 May 2010 at 1:31pm | IP Logged

noriyuki_nomura wrote:

Apart from the top 10 popular languages, such as
English/Mandarin/French/German/Japanese/Arabic/Russian/
Portuguese/Italian/Korean, does anyone study other unusual languages/dialects, eg.
Hmong, Corsican, where materials are so scarce. How do you go about studying them?

I'd like to learn Jingulu, unfortunately, there are only 10 fluent speakers in
Australia today and its not practical to move and live with them, so I've only
subsisted on whatever I can find in the internet, plus bought the grammar book written
by Pensalfini. I'm planning to buy the dictionary too. I am not looking forward to
being able to speak it though in the near future with this handicap. I just want to
satisfy my curiosity. But I am seriously thinking about moving to Australia to know
more about its many beautiful indigenous languages and the people who speak them.

3 persons have voted this message useful

Rina
Newbie
United States
Joined 5545 days ago
35 posts - 64 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin, Korean

Message 11 of 40

23 May 2010 at 9:16pm | IP Logged

I'd really love to learn the Catawba language, because it's a part of my heritage. (Smallish part, but a part nonetheless). However, the resources seem to be extremely scarce, and I think there are very few (if any) fluent speakers.

So my next choice is Cherokee. My grandfather is Cherokee, but he doesn't speak it. But the resources are significantly more abundant for Cherokee than for Catawba, so I'm definitely going to learn. If anything, my cousin speaks some. I'm sure there are some classes or other means of learning from fluent speakers up in the mountains, so I might ask my parents if I could take part in something like that. They were the ones who said I could pick up another hobby when I quit soccer training, so they should have known what they were getting themselves into ;]
3 persons have voted this message useful

lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5961 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

Message 12 of 40

23 May 2010 at 11:35pm | IP Logged

TixhiiDon wrote:

My experience with Georgian has been that there is just about enough material to get
you through the grammar and give you some listening practice, but I've had to take the
attitude that "beggars can't be choosers" and basically buy everything that's out
there, regardless of quality and enjoyability. I am filled with envy when I read posts
from people asking if Assimil is better than Linguaphone or if Pimsleur is better than
Michel Thomas. Of course I knew this would be the case when I took on the language,
but still...

One thing that does frustrate me a lot is that most of the textbooks for learning
Georgian seem to treat the language as nothing more than a linguistic curiosity. Only
Dodona Kiziria's "Beginner's Georgian" is actually written for people who want to learn
the language just like people learn French and Spanish.

I am fascinated by the L-R method as I kind of invented something along the same lines
for myself when I was studying Russian at university and I know how effective it is.
With Georgian, however, it seems to be completely impossible - almost no Georgian
literature has been translated into English and I have yet to find a single Georgian
audiobook on the entire Worldwide Web.

Another problem is hooking up with native speakers. The language exchange websites
aren't exactly overflowing with Georgians, and neither is the city in which I live -
Tokyo. I've been very lucky to make friends with a Georgian woman on this site with
whom I exchange written messages on my language learning log.

However, I have only myself to blame, and I'm still enjoying my studies at the 6 month
mark.

Have you tried searching for Russian or German-language materials? This site seems decent:
http://www.kartuli.net/
3 persons have voted this message useful

TixhiiDon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5465 days ago
772 posts - 1474 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian
Studies: Georgian

Message 13 of 40

23 May 2010 at 11:40pm | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

I've looked high and low for Georgian audiobooks, with no success. I'm
a reasonably good searcher, and I spent hours on this. I hope they exist.

The translated literature situation also seems grim, though I haven't looked into that
in depth. "The knight in the Panther Skin" is fairly widely translated (I have a copy
in Esperanto), but most works aren't. At least the classics are
readily available in Georgian,
which is more than can be said for many languages.

Thanks for the tips Volte. I do have the newspaper reader and yes, it is very good,
but I hadn't found the literature site, so that's a great discovery for me.

FromRussia.com has quite a few books in Georgian. I just ordered some the other day,
although I'm not really at a high enough level yet to actually read them! I also
ordered an old translation of "A Sunny Night" by Dumbadze, so I will at least have a
Georgian and an English version of a modern novel to read together. I'm planning a
trip to Georgia in Summer 2011, so if you can hang on for a year and a bit I'll try and
find some audiobooks while I'm there!
2 persons have voted this message useful

TixhiiDon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5465 days ago
772 posts - 1474 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian
Studies: Georgian

Message 14 of 40

23 May 2010 at 11:43pm | IP Logged

lichtrausch wrote:

Have you tried searching for Russian or German-language materials?
This site seems decent:
http://www.kartuli.net/

Bloody hell, I thought I was pretty good at searching stuff out on the Internet, but it
seems not... Thanks a lot Lichtrausch!
1 person has voted this message useful

Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6440 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes

Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 15 of 40

24 May 2010 at 4:42am | IP Logged

TixhiiDon wrote:

FromRussia.com has quite a few books in Georgian. I just ordered some the other day,
although I'm not really at a high enough level yet to actually read them! I also
ordered an old translation of "A Sunny Night" by Dumbadze, so I will at least have a
Georgian and an English version of a modern novel to read together. I'm planning a
trip to Georgia in Summer 2011, so if you can hang on for a year and a bit I'll try and
find some audiobooks while I'm there!

If you could make a thread about books you can find in both Georgian and English, and once you go to Georgia, about Georgian audiobooks, that would be fantastic!

Enjoy your trip, and good luck in your studies.

Hanging on for a year won't be a problem; I have a huge language backlog.

1 person has voted this message useful

Fanch35
Triglot
Newbie
France
Joined 6152 days ago
19 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: German, Mandarin

Message 16 of 40

24 May 2010 at 1:25pm | IP Logged

I am learning Breton, which is a rare language.
However I am not concerned with lack of ressources to learn as I live in Britanny.
The majority of ressources are in French (Assimil books, Oulpann, Ni a gomz brezhoneg, Herve ha Nora), I guess it's harder to learn Breton without knowing any French.

For those interested in Breton languages, these are some interesting links online :

Languages courses :

http://www.kervarker.org/en/lessons_01_toc.html

http://www.keravon.com/skol/kenteliou1.php3 (in French)

Radios :

http://radiokerne.antourtan.org/
(Celtic music and Breton language)

News :

http://bremaik.free.fr/sizhun/sizhuniou_2004/sizhun00_2004.h tml

Edited by Fanch35 on 24 May 2010 at 1:29pm

6 persons have voted this message useful

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