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Languages few learn, but deserve a chance | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6890 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 17 of 26 15 October 2006 at 4:32am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I agree. I have this software and it has its good points and bad points. The good points are that there are plenty of audio files, have a fair amount of vocabulary per language and can teach you how to speak the bare basics of a language. The bad points are that foreign scripts are totally ignored (with the exception of Cyrillic) and the grammar references leave a lot to be desired. Still, it makes for a good introduction to some of the less-commonly studied languages and can whet your appetite for further study. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7146 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 18 of 26 15 October 2006 at 6:08am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The vocabularies vary from around 5000 for some of the major languages to around 1000 for some of the lesser known languages.
Yes, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic are transliterated into Latin script. If you buy the full language program it is in the correct script. I dislike using transliterated script but I might stick with it if it were all I had or if I had no interest in learning to read. I have the full Chinese course and it is still transliterated. The grammar is rudimentary in the reference file but you can click on any word in a sentence for a grammatical summary of the word in context, as well as telling you the root word. They are certainly not full language programs but they do give an excellent introduction to the language. I have used the progra to make my own survival course with basic phrases and vocabulary. By the way, my brother John has learnt a few languages and he suggested to me today that the intelligent way to learn a language is not by learning words but, rather, whole phrases. The Transparent program is ideal for that as you learn useful phrases for visiting the country. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| bakedbeansjulia Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 6625 days ago 18 posts - 20 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English, German* Studies: Portuguese | Message 19 of 26 15 October 2006 at 11:48am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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There is even multiple languages not even having a writing system, which doesn't mean they are only primitive tribe languages not worth looking at. Even just for special eypressions in the language, that need to be periphrased in order to be understood in e.g. English...in every languages there lies a formidable treasure waiting to be lifted.
I find languages carrying such a huge impact of building bridges of understanding in the world, they are a main pier. Languages are not there to be studied for the sake and pleasure in themselves only, but show the variety and beauty of the world but also it's fissions. I find threads such as this one sooo thrilling! So much lies out there in the world, waiting to be discovered, it's worth waiting to be detected. xxx 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 20 of 26 16 October 2006 at 3:48am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Why learn Azeri when you can learn Turkish right away? There are much more language learning materials, more literature, movies, music... And once you know it well, you get Azeri (almost) for free! For all practical purposes, Azeri and Turkish can be considered dialects of the same language and are mutually intelligible (at least that's what I heard on several occasions from native Turkish speakers). 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Pozdrowienia Newbie Turkey Joined 5283 days ago 4 posts - 10 votes Studies: English | Message 21 of 26 17 July 2012 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Azerbaijani is easier than Turkish. It is obviously the easiest Turkic language. Azerbaijani also has some common words and grammatical rules with Uzbek which Turkish has not. Edited by Pozdrowienia on 18 July 2012 at 2:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5017 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 22 of 26 17 July 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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SBS has podcasts in Bangla, Kannada (among many others).
Don't know if bengali and bangla are the same language. There are some ressources in the famous uzbek site for Azerbaijani, Amharic, Kannada Hausa and Bengali. I am not sure for Karen. Lexilogos.com has at least a page for some of those too. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 23 of 26 17 July 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I'd nominate Slovak.
Do 5 million-odd speakers count as a plenitude?
There is culture among Slovaks but the vibrancy of the native culture depends on who's talking.
There is Slovak literature as demonstrated here but its richness depends on who's talking.
Slovak is. Thank God. :-) I could have done the same with Hungarian but I wanted to stick up for my favourite Slavonic language. Let's hear it for Slovak! :-P 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6868 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 24 of 26 18 July 2012 at 12:07am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Chung, why Slovak and not Czech as well, since the two are so similar?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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