I have been learning German for several years but my progress has stagnated due to a lack of opportunities to use it (I started reading Die Verwandlung by Kafka recently but I got bored and read ahead in the English edition - it was then that I realised that it's not a particularly fun book to read, although interesting and sometimes funny). Recently I've started with Japanese, because the culture, music, etc is interesting and linguistically speaking the language is very unlike the European stuff I had been learning.
What languages have you learned / are you learning?
What sort of strategies / techniques worked best for you?
Immersion is thought of as the best technique, do you agree with this sentiment? What alternatives are there?
Have you found certain languages to be more interesting / harder / easier / [etc] than others? Why?
What about constructed languages? Esperanto? Interlingua? Are these of any interest to you?
Technically? English. Constantly learning here! Had French, German, Latin and ancient Greek in high school but I got rid of three of those as soon as I could. What I dislike about learning languages is that you have to keep up with it so much. Unless you're immersed in the language, you have to constantly work on the language to even maintain a similar level. I've had three years of French and while I enjoy knowing a bit of French and having a feeling for the language, I have forgotten so many words and I'm glad I didn't spend another three years learning words only to forget them.
I took Latin this year and regret it immensely. I've wasted a lot of time learning the specifics of a dead language. I'll be taking Spanish next year, which I'll be able to apply in my life because I live in the US Midwest. Any recommendations for immersion?
I was writing a longer comment but lost it due to losing wifi signal and subsequently restarting Chrome. Anyway, the gist of it: Of those languages, I found Latin to be the most valuable to my linguistic insight. Nearly all West-European languages have their roots in it, including English. I didn't like having Latin because it was a language, not because it was Latin. I mean, I have translated parts of Caesar's De Bello Gallico and Pliny the Younger's letters to his uncle, explaining the Pompeii eruption. Closer to classical history you cannot get. For immersion, I would recommend finding a forum or site on a topic you're interested in, in the language that you want to learn. You could also try reading the Spanish news.
A dialect of Lisp named Scheme. It's the most interesting programming language I've ever seen. I've tried to learn Python, but soon afterwards ditched it. It's one of the most boring languages to learn. The uninteresting syntax is groan-worthy.
I highly, highly recommend the SICP (also available online). The SICP uses Scheme. But it doesn't just teach the language. It teaches you how to program, and think, functionally. Things like the different types of recursion (tree-recursive, vs linear recursive, vs iterative [did you know you can write a recursive program that executes iteratively‽]). Highly recommend it. It will help you learn to think functionally to a much greater degree than an ordinary Scheme tutorial. FYI I'm kind of in the same boat. I was taught OO and Imperative programming, and I've been trying to make the vertical ascent to FP. It's hard to find the time.
Thank you very much for this suggestion. I have been wanting to try functional programming for a long time, after seeing so many inscrutable and concise solutions on Project Euler. I never managed to get far with Haskell, though. In addition to the web version you linked to, Chris Krycho has created a nicely-formatted Kindle version. I am 4% through it and managed to write my first Scheme code for Exercise 1.3: "Define a procedure that takes three numbers as arguments and returns the sum of the squares of the two larger numbers." delta, how's your progress coming?
I am using a handy online interpreter. (define (square a) ( * a a))
(define (sumofsquares a b) (+ (square a) (square b)))
(define (<= a b) (or (< a b) (= a b)) )
(define (sosbig2 a b c)
(cond
( (and (<= a b) (<= a c)) (sumofsquares b c))
( (and (<= b a) (<= b c)) (sumofsquares a c))
( (and (<= c a) (<= c b)) (sumofsquares a b))))
Well, I decided I didn't like Scheme's syntax + there aren't many frameworks & libraries that support it. I'm learning C now, and I like it a lot more. The main reason I'm learning C is that I plan to use OpenWRT for a science fair. Your code above is pretty damn beautiful, though. I wrote a program yesterday because my sister wanted a program related to flowers. (✿◠‿◠)
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int rose_amt = 12;
int daisy_amt = 7;
int tulip_amt = 23;
int sunflower_amt = 42;
int rose;
int daisy;
int tulip;
int sunflower;
int exit_value; printf("This program will calculate the grand total number of days\nit will take for four different kinds of flowers to grow.\n\n");
printf("Roses take %d days to grow.\n", rose_amt);
printf("Daisies take %d days to grow.\n", daisy_amt);
printf("Tulips take %d days to grow.\n", tulip_amt);
printf("Sunflowers take %d days to grow.\n", sunflower_amt); printf("\nHow many roses do you wish to plant?\n");
scanf(" %d", &rose ); printf("How many daisies do you wish to plant?\n");
scanf(" %d", &daisy); printf("How many tulips do you wish to plant?\n");
scanf(" %d", &tulip); printf("How many sunflowers do you wish to plant?\n");
scanf(" %d", &sunflower); printf("\nIt will take a grand total of %d days for all the flowers to grow.\n", rose*rose_amt+daisy*daisy_amt+tulip*tulip_amt+sunflower*sunflower_amt);
printf("\nWould you like to exit?\n");
scanf("%d");
return 0;
}
Thanks for the resource & information! I definitely need to learn how to program before attempting to learn. Many people don't understand the difference; one of my friends learned the complete syntax of Python, then realized he didn't know how to do anything with it (thanks, Codecademy). By the way, Scheme is my first venture into programming outside of HTML+CSS and looking at Python a few years ago. We'll see how it goes.
Hey, we all have our own opinions and preferences. :) Python is definitely one of the best general programming languages, it's just not for me. If you ever look into Lisp, make sure you learn a dialect and not Common Lisp. Also, the syntax will look completely alien to someone with experience only in Python and JavaScript. What kind of applications are you looking to develop?
Cool, I'll have to look into Sencha more, I was considering using PhoneGap but this looks really nice! I have used PHP and Perl mostly, with predominantly web programming in jQuery, Coffeescript, or vanilla JS. Recently went back and took a class in C to get some fundamentals, and worked through some tutorials in Ruby but nothing in depth. For a while I was researching node.js for my current project but I ended up switching to Python with Flask at the last minute because I was running into a ton of issues with the automated node build tools and dependency hell. I'd still like to try node again for an api but so far Flask is working really nicely.
Currently learning French. 4 years in and I've learned every grammar rule those damned people ever created, reading Camus and all that, but to this day I couldn't understand a Parisian giving directions if my life depended on it. However,I learned to read Russian quite fluently in two weeks and I'm quickly learning to actually speak it just by interacting with Russians in my time there in Armenia. I learned Russian phonetics by connecting the dots on Armenian road signs as such You gotta be there, learning it because you have to, and if you engage yourself you'll soon learn everything you need to know. At least that is my experience.
I speak English natively, and am somewhat proficient in Spanish. So, I am still learning Spanish and will be for a long, long time. I also have been interested in French lately, and despite a few attempts at seriously learning it, I have not made much progress. I hope to take some French course in school so I can get a good introduction to the language, and eventually I'd like to study in France for a time. I hope to be able to maintain my Spanish in the meantime. I'm active in a language IRC channel, so I get to at least use it every day. Languages are fascinating!
Are you familiar with Toki Pona? That's on my list of things to learn this summer holiday (dissertation is due tomorrow, then an exam and some other things in a week then I'm free), mostly because it's so simple. I find the idea of a language where the fundamentals are really simple and can be picked up by almost anyone kind of cool. At least it's not Ithkuil, which is terrifying because for some reason it is always written in red.
I looked into Toki Pona a lot during college, it was really cool. I really like their Sapir-Whorf style mentality that positive language is positive thinking. Although I guess it can have some Newspeak-esque issues. Ithkuil looks interesting, I'll have to read through more of this.
1) I am learning Esperanto and German 2) Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, reading poems and short stories, lernu.net, youtube, movies, skype chat groups, etc. 3) Yes. I hope to go to Germany in a few years. 4) Esperanto has been the easiest for me, I love it. 5) Esperanto.
I'm still learning Xhosa and !Kung. I'm fascinated by clicks and other phonemological (not a real word) oddities. I'm also always learning French and English because one can't simply stop learning a living language! Oddly, my first language was actually Hebrew, but I stopped being immersed in it so I've forgotten most of it. The best way for me to learn a most of the languages I speak was by learning how to get in and out of a conversation; then I just started talking with as many people as I could. I read up on grammatical structure and things of that nature as well, but, in my experience, immersion has been the best way for me to learn. I've also taken to watching French news and listening to French radio to keep my skills up. Xhosa has been my favorite language to learn because it was the first one where I actually had to practice specific phonemes!
Speaking from experience, I disagree. Straight up immersion is not always the best way to go. If there are similarities between a language you already know and your target language, then yes, immersion alone will do you well. For example, since I know Spanish and can read books in French, I'd likely be able to go to Italy and have a functional grasp within a week. Immersion without knowledge, however, is really tiring. Sure, you'll learn a lot more culture, but having some level of competency before going is useful. It will make you more interesting to talk to. For example, there's a phrase in Arabic that you're supposed to say when someone gets a haircut . I've forgotten what it is, but now I know that if I ever live in the middle east and find myself in the above situation, I'll know why they said it, which is useful for memory. Here's my advice: the better you know how your own language work in theory, the easier time you'll have making analogy. You have to start with analogies with your current knowledge base. Buy/borrow a book on linguistic theories of English.Immersion is thought of as the best technique, do you agree with this sentiment? What alternatives are there?
It's been over two years since I attempted Japanese. I had taken a few classes, memorized my hiragana and katakana, as well as basic grammar and some terms. Right about the time we started to pick up kanji, work picked up and I couldn't continue the classes. I still have the books: "Japanese for Busy People" ISBN 978-4-7700-3008-5 "Basic Kanji Book" ISBN 978-4-89358-091-7 I find both to be excellent learning resources for anyone interested in Japanese. Hoping to find some time between work and my two year old to pick it back up!
None. I took Spanish for six years from grammar school through high school but it never held my interest. Maybe another language would interest me more? I feel like i should learn another language but I haven't bothered exploring any.