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Self-teaching languages over summer progression thread!

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The Lyceum
Ah no, I've had some little instruction in it before but my crap school dropped it :frown: but for all intents and purposes I guess yes. Not to worry I'm a quick learner with a firm command of English! However I'm somewhat upset, after hearing my voice for Latin out loud. It sounded nothing like it does in my head :frown:

This summer my aim is to memorise books 1 and 4 of the Aenied :smile:

That's quite an aim. Memorising anything of some length is hard!
jismith1989
That's quite an aim. Memorising anything of some length is hard!


Nah, I only started revising for the Shakespeare/Other poetry exam the day before and came in happily having memorised reams of verse, soliliquys and the like :smile:

I've developed a pretty intensive time table for Latin, based on studying in 40 minute blocks. I doubt I'll stick to it though :frown: The idea is fill up on examples, as in learn phrase after phrase, poetry piece after piece etc and then begin to work through Grammar etc. Essentially how I think a Roman baby would have learnt. :smile:
jonnythemoose
No you don't understand - I don't know how to pronounce it. There's no 'put yourself in a Spanish mode' about it, I simply have no idea how to say it. And I speak German and French, so I know about the numerous ways of pronouncing the letter 'e', but I genuinely don't know how to say it. :smile:


Righto.

The e at the end of most words is quite simple. By starting with Ser and Estar you kinda took a dive in at the deep-end. Since, in the present it's Soy Eres Es Somos Sois Son, and Estoy Estas Esta Estamos Estais Estan - none of them end in an e.

Regular present tense verbs ending in -ir and -er tend to follow the same pattern in the present tense, with a few having stem changes (like Conducir becomes Conduzco, but it still ends in -o). So, you end up with "-O -Es -E -Emos -Eis -En", right?

So, we'll take comer:

you have "Como" [say it as you see it Co-Mo], Comes [Co-Mess] Come [Co-may] Comimos [Com-e-mos: pronunce your e there as in in e in "be"] Comeis [Com-ay-ss] Comen [Again, say as you see: Co-men].

And it'll be the same when you get to the subjunctive of regular -ar verbs. The third person, and first person, singulars will end in that "e". Which, simply, should be pronounced "ay". I can't think of a place where it doesn't exactly do that...even é tends to sound like that, with just a little more stress on it [which is good to know for those harder tenses later on, cause it pops up a lot].


Sorry about earlier. I thought it would have been a kick in the right direction, but, obviously you're doing it all off your own back and cramming the old grammar sans audio help. Kudos to you, as that's quite hardcore.:cool:



If you need any more help on pronunciation or anything, there's always the Spanish Society. We don't bite. And all the Spanish speakers are only a PM away - I'd rather see someone succeed at a language through getting as much help as they possibly can, than getting them to struggle on through.:smile:
The Lyceum
Nah, I only started revising for the Shakespeare/Other poetry exam the day before and came in happily having memorised reams of verse, soliliquys and the like :smile:

I've developed a pretty intensive time table for Latin, based on studying in 40 minute blocks. I doubt I'll stick to it though :frown: The idea is fill up on examples, as in learn phrase after phrase, poetry piece after piece etc and then begin to work through Grammar etc. Essentially how I think a Roman baby would have learnt. :smile:

That's impressive. Good luck! :biggrin:
Reply 44
Is anyone who has/is learning a language outside the education system planning to do any sort of qualification in it? Are there easy (in terms of arranging it) ones to do?
Just seems a shame to have such a useful, employable ability and not being able to show it to employers etc.
jismith1989
That's impressive. Good luck! :biggrin:


Haha thanks, you too! Also if you're learning French, watch "Le Bossu"! seriously it's such a kickass film.
The Lyceum
Haha thanks, you too! Also if you're learning French, watch "Le Bossu"! seriously it's such a kickass film.

Ah, I shall look into that. Thanks!
Reply 47
would love to learn italian (can go to Pisa for 2nd year at uni :smile: ) no idea where to start though
Reply 48
davedave4619
I am self-teaching myself Chinese (Mandarin) over the summer, having started two days ago. It's complicated but fun :smile:


Me too :biggrin: I have started with basic greetings, using a book I got a while ago and some podcasts. I am going ot do a beginners module at uni, but thought I'd get myself a little more familiar with it now.

Good fun so far, although I am easily distracted and a bit embarrased about my terrible attempt at the tones!!
GrantMac
Is anyone who has/is learning a language outside the education system planning to do any sort of qualification in it? Are there easy (in terms of arranging it) ones to do?
Just seems a shame to have such a useful, employable ability and not being able to show it to employers etc.



Now you've mentioned it. It's a bit late now to be doing a qualification in anything, but there's always next year or the year after [ad infinitum].

For now, I'm going to stick to just looking over stuff and picking it up to a conversational level. If I find that I'm not getting "enough" of a workload in Uni [doubtful] then I'll probably try and enrol for a GCSE in it or something. You've got me thinking, so I'm flicking through the QCA website to see what exam boards do them - and I doubt WJEC does, so it'd probably be OCR or Edexcel, which are totally new boards to me...:frown:

(Then again, I'm going to be totally weighed down by languages. Spanish, optional Italian, modular Catalan, and "hobby" Portuguese...:rolleyes: )

But a qualification would be hella nice in an extra language :cool:
CatatonicStupor
Righto.

The e at the end of most words is quite simple. By starting with Ser and Estar you kinda took a dive in at the deep-end. Since, in the present it's Soy Eres Es Somos Sois Son, and Estoy Estas Esta Estamos Estais Estan - none of them end in an e.

Regular present tense verbs ending in -ir and -er tend to follow the same pattern in the present tense, with a few having stem changes (like Conducir becomes Conduzco, but it still ends in -o). So, you end up with "-O -Es -E -Emos -Eis -En", right?

So, we'll take comer:

you have "Como" [say it as you see it Co-Mo], Comes [Co-Mess] Come [Co-may] Comimos [Com-e-mos: pronunce your e there as in in e in "be"] Comeis [Com-ay-ss] Comen [Again, say as you see: Co-men].

And it'll be the same when you get to the subjunctive of regular -ar verbs. The third person, and first person, singulars will end in that "e". Which, simply, should be pronounced "ay". I can't think of a place where it doesn't exactly do that...even é tends to sound like that, with just a little more stress on it [which is good to know for those harder tenses later on, cause it pops up a lot].


Sorry about earlier. I thought it would have been a kick in the right direction, but, obviously you're doing it all off your own back and cramming the old grammar sans audio help. Kudos to you, as that's quite hardcore.:cool:



If you need any more help on pronunciation or anything, there's always the Spanish Society. We don't bite. And all the Spanish speakers are only a PM away - I'd rather see someone succeed at a language through getting as much help as they possibly can, than getting them to struggle on through.:smile:

Hey man, that's really helpful, thanks! I guess the hardest bit of self-teaching is that there's no teacher there jabbering at you in the language to get it into your head, eh?

And kudos to all you learning Chinese - I did try once, but didn't get past the number 'four'. Also, I couldn't really pronounce the word for 'thankyou', and as a reasonably well-mannered person, that would've killed me had I gone to China :p:
generalebriety
By the way, anyone interested, see my sig for my personal tips on learning languages. :smile:

That'sa great thread, actually - I've had a look at it several times beforehand, and it's quite reassuring! (I looked at it during one of my 'holy crap I'm never going to get better at language x' moments :smile: )
jonnythemoose
Hey man, that's really helpful, thanks! I guess the hardest bit of self-teaching is that there's no teacher there jabbering at you in the language to get it into your head, eh?

And kudos to all you learning Chinese - I did try once, but didn't get past the number 'four'. Also, I couldn't really pronounce the word for 'thankyou', and as a reasonably well-mannered person, that would've killed me had I gone to China :p:

Xiexie. :biggrin: It's taken me weeks to get used to the "x" sound and two falling tones. :s-smilie:
Reply 53
I took Spanish at GCSE level and can surprisingly remember quite a bit of it. Since I look European it's fun to speak Spanish on holidays and actually make them think I'm one of them..haha. I'd also took French took too, well not at GCSE level but can remember bits and pieces of it, all fairly basic though. I'd love to take up Italian, it seems like such a beautiful language. I think I might buy a CD or something like that, books to help me learn Spanish.
I used to have a French penpal whom I was in contact with for about 3 years of my childhood, it really helped me brush up on my French, so that'd be something I'd like to do again.
jonnythemoose
Hey man, that's really helpful, thanks! I guess the hardest bit of self-teaching is that there's no teacher there jabbering at you in the language to get it into your head, eh?

And kudos to all you learning Chinese - I did try once, but didn't get past the number 'four'. Also, I couldn't really pronounce the word for 'thankyou', and as a reasonably well-mannered person, that would've killed me had I gone to China :p:


I'd find it really hard to learn a language with no listening at all! Have you tried this? I'm pretty sure they have beginners resources as well as the more advanced stuff. And with a note to the pronunciation - just remember that the rules of pronunciation are pretty much standard, you don't have any weird things like in English. If you learn the rules, you'll be fine :smile:

I'm going to start my ab initio Russian learning this summer, I'm already itching to buy the recommended textbook as I'm meant to be getting through the first seven chapters by myself. I also need to pick up bits and pieces of French, German, Italian and Dutch for my holiday! :biggrin:
Zoedotdot
I'd find it really hard to learn a language with no listening at all! Have you tried this? I'm pretty sure they have beginners resources as well as the more advanced stuff. And with a note to the pronunciation - just remember that the rules of pronunciation are pretty much standard, you don't have any weird things like in English. If you learn the rules, you'll be fine :smile:

I'm going to start my ab initio Russian learning this summer, I'm already itching to buy the recommended textbook as I'm meant to be getting through the first seven chapters by myself. I also need to pick up bits and pieces of French, German, Italian and Dutch for my holiday! :biggrin:

I do have some listening resources, so I'm not completely stuck - I just find most of the texts they read very 'holiday Spanish' only used by people that want to get by in Spanish. But either way, I suppose it's cool to listen to it.


Hey thanks for that link! That looks great, I'll check it out :five:
LieDown
Me too :biggrin: I have started with basic greetings, using a book I got a while ago and some podcasts. I am going ot do a beginners module at uni, but thought I'd get myself a little more familiar with it now.

Good fun so far, although I am easily distracted and a bit embarrased about my terrible attempt at the tones!!


I know it is actually really fun isn't it hehe. I have been speaking to some people in China with a microphone over msn and at first they couldn't understand me because of my terrible tones but they keep correcting me and now I can do it :smile: mostly... I really advise this method though, speaking to native speakers is great.
generalebriety
Xiexie. :biggrin: It's taken me weeks to get used to the "x" sound and two falling tones. :s-smilie:

Haha, it's the hallmark of a tough language - the inability to pronounce the word thank-you :s-smilie: I began learning Polish once, and the word for goodbye is pretty difficult, it sounds like a Chinese word itself :p:
I am brushing up on French
Reply 59
Zoedotdot
I'm going to start my ab initio Russian learning this summer.


Me too! I'll start in a couple of days! How are you going to go about learning it? Or will you just be using "Colloquial Russian"? :smile:

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