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Let's learn languages


Phoenix Wright
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hi. wanna learn a language? what do you want to learn?

general discussion and stuff can appear here. for those that aren't aware, duolingo is a fantastic resource.

unfortunately for me, though, they do not yet have arabic. anyone know of some fine resources for that?

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python

I finally got around to signing up for duolinguo last night; I'm salty that my intro to Italian professor's teaching the next-level-up Italian class when I've JUSt transitioned to the grad school and can no longer take undergrad classes without paying a shitton of extra money and he was a really great prof

So I guess I'll keep going with Italian by myself

Also want to learn Japanese since I'm natively fluent in Chinese and already have a massive advantage with knowing the writing system, and Icelandic as it's the closest living language to Old Norse

Of course I can always learn Old Norse straight up but that doesn't have the most accessible resources and one no-longer-much-used language under my belt (Latin) is prolly enough for me to maintain

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You can only make so much progress with programs and websites like Duolingo, but hey, a start's a start, and practice never hurt anyone. Personally I'd suggest doing the English course on Duolingo using another language, that way you'll be able to pick up more and more advanced vocabulary while still retaining the same atmosphere and format.

For Arabic, I like to recommend the Learn Arabic with Maha YouTube channel. Again, it's just the basics, but it does give a quite pleasant presentation of them.

I love learning languages. It's always rough when you hit a plateau in your level but if you keep at the vocabulary grind you'll always get through eventually and few other activities are so mentally rewarding, especially when you can start to read confidently in your target language. That's also when vocabulary acquisition picks up the fastest!

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I'm learning Japanese, German, and Irish - the last currently on Duolingo. I started German on Duolingo, and used some other resources as well (Youtube channels, yourdailygerman, etc.) and tested into fifth semester German at my college/university last semester (had to take fourth since fifth wasn't offered then), so it can be quite an effective tool. Admittedly my actual speaking abilities were pitiful, but everything else was so solid that it only took me ~a month of class to be conversational.

I'm interested in just about any language, and I'll probably look at adding at least Spanish for practicality's sake, but it's the weird minority languages that really interest me - thus the Irish.

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python

i already know python

You can only make so much progress with programs and websites like Duolingo, but hey, a start's a start, and practice never hurt anyone. Personally I'd suggest doing the English course on Duolingo using another language, that way you'll be able to pick up more and more advanced vocabulary while still retaining the same atmosphere and format.

For Arabic, I like to recommend the Learn Arabic with Maha YouTube channel. Again, it's just the basics, but it does give a quite pleasant presentation of them.

this is true. i like your suggestion as well!

i'm familiar with her channel, and i do enjoy it. she post very rarely, though, so i've since then gone to other youtube sources. half of my family is arab, so immersion is not at all an issue for me, but honestly i need a classroom-esque setting to learn my best. my uni hasn't offered arabic in over 10 yrs... :(

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python's like the one commonly used programming language I don't know and I really should know

Python is super easy though

I thought it might be cool to learn German since a lot of great works were originally in German (ie things by Nietzsche or Freud or even Einstein) or Spanish because being able to speak Spanish well would prove useful in a lot of situations but I probably won't get to learning another language for a while

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2 things to save face:

1. i forgot that topic existed

2. i'm posting duolingo as a resource. for english speakers, there's only about 12 languages for us to learn. this is a general topic for all of them. people can post anything relevant to learning a language. for example, if one is learning arabic, they can go to aljazeera to read news in arabic (if they're at a high enough level).

most importantly, if people have course materials from university, i highly suggest posting them here. like, a prof. at my school posts everything on his website, and it's extremely helpful. good profs with good course materials for any language should be extremely useful.

python's like the one commonly used programming language I don't know and I really should know

haha i only know "scientific programming" though, which is way easier imo. i struggled really hard learning java when i thought i wanted to double major with comp sci, but easily handled my sci. programming class. i imagine physics simulations are pretty challenging, though. good thing i'll probably never do those! lol

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I do reference my italian textbook occasionally, for what it's worth. My Italian prof recommended me WordReference for vocab and it's immensely useful. Also at least with Italian it gives you all the conjugation it's beautiful

Python is super easy though

It's less it's hard and more that I just never had the room to use it in any of my projects for anything

haha i only know "scientific programming" though, which is way easier imo. i struggled really hard learning java when i thought i wanted to double major with comp sci, but easily handled my sci. programming class. i imagine physics simulations are pretty challenging, though. good thing i'll probably never do those! lol

Physics simulations are pretty tough to code out even as compsci majors I don't blame you for not wanting to

just gonna let physics engines handle everything \o/

Edited by Thor Odinson
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  • 4 weeks later...

I constantly try to learn new languages but most often than not I stop before I get anywhere serious. Right now I'm using Duolingo to learn Norwegian; just for fun since I'll seldom use it, I guess.

Aaanyways, my native language is Spanish if you guys ever get serious about learning it. I'm sure I could lend a hand :p

Edit: Style.

Edited by Zelniaan
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  • 2 months later...

unfortunately, all i could really find is a place called arabicpod101. it costs $$$, though.

i'm saving up money so that i can buy a couple textbooks, namely "arabic for life," "alif baa," and "al kitaab." alif baa is a text pretty much about the alphabet and its sounds, whilst the other two cover grammar, syntax, etc. etc. it's all in modern standard. i'm still looking for a resource that'll teach me about the jordanian dialect.

where are you going to, if i may ask?

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