Self-teaching languages over summer progression thread!

Haha, I signed up for this thinking it'd be a breeze. Darn the distractions of the modern world (namely videogames, music, and TSR.)

My Portuguese is going so slowly, that I may as well have just not learnt it. I know as much now, as when my Spanish teacher told us some random Portuguese words last year. Tomorrow, I'll knuckle down. I'll have to promise it to myself. Especially since I told a teacher I'd come back to school for a chat with her...
Yet again, I may have to force myself to put Japanese to one side, so I can concentrate fully on Portuguese. "Sim? Tudo bem? Sim!".


Two random questions (one for people doing a language similar to one they know already; and one for anyone who has ever studied a language):

"How are you getting around pronunciation?" It's the death of me. I know the meaning of the words I see and learn, but I can't for the life of me say them without going using the Spanish "say-it-as-you-see-it" method, when I need to be in a "say-it-through-your-nose" mindset. [And before anyone directs me to GE's thread, I've been there, and that's why I'm using CDs and such, and repeating to myself...]

"Is it worth getting in newspapers from the 'target' language, with even this minimal knowledge?" I'm planning on asking my newsagents to order in a copy of La Vanguardia or La Razon so I can keep up with my Spanish, but is it worth getting in a copy of Diario de Noticias or Publico from Portugal at this early stage?

"How are you getting around pronunciation?" It's the death of me. I know the meaning of the words I see and learn, but I can't for the life of me say them without going using the Spanish "say-it-as-you-see-it" method, when I need to be in a "say-it-through-your-nose" mindset. [And before anyone directs me to GE's thread, I've been there, and that's why I'm using CDs and such, and repeating to myself...]

"Is it worth getting in newspapers from the 'target' language, with even this minimal knowledge?" I'm planning on asking my newsagents to order in a copy of La Vanguardia or La Razon so I can keep up with my Spanish, but is it worth getting in a copy of Diario de Noticias or Publico from Portugal at this early stage?

Of course, pronunciation's difficult to get your head around, but I'm sure with practice you'll get there. How long have you been learning the language for? You'll probably find that, the more words you listen to and read at the same time, the easier it will be for you to see a word and be able to tell how it sounds or hear a word and be able to guess how it's spelt. I have difficulties with this too with Chinese, for what it's worth. It's not an easy thing to do, particularly if you're simultaneously trying to separate Portuguese from Spanish in your mind.

Portuguese has a few weird pronunciation difficulties, too, like the letter "x" which can be pronounced in about 5 different ways. It's unsurprising that you're having trouble as a beginner.

I'd say no, it's a bit pointless. Maybe look for some simplified news on the internet, even for your Spanish; newspapers are often written in a bit of a weird style. (Edit: there's a few kids' news sites out there with simplified news, but even they can be hard to read for beginners.) Of course, if you can handle it in Spanish, go for it, but if it's way above your current ability, don't try, you'll just get stressed.

I've been learning this since this thread started, so, uhm, since Monday? I've mastered most of the pronunciation, with things for the basics, like how "ch" is "sh", and g and j are quite close to being "sh" but aren't exactly... The big ones that are bringing me 'down' are the more nasal sounding words like "bem" and "sim", "nao" and "irmao", because I see "beM" and "siM", "naO" and "irmaO", but they're pronounced more like "bein" "shi", "nou" and "irma-o" from what I'm listening to.

I'll just keep soldiering on - though it does annoy me that none of the books I'm using tell me how to pronounce the "ao" on the end of words, and I have to do it all by ear.

I've been reading Spanish news sites since the end of Year 12, so I'm used to how La Vanguardia, ABC, El Mundo and La Razon write. So, it doesn't make much difference with that.

But, I'll hunt around for some sites in Portuguese once I get up to speed with it. And use The Lyceum's tip of using wikipedia (since I find it fun to read Spanish wikis, so it might be the same for Portuguese ones later on). Just me, a dictionary, and a cup of coffee - what a way to spend my summer.

A Portuguese book I happen to own (though I've never studied it, so I can't vouch for this) says "ao" is pronounced "ah'oh", and "ão" is pronounced "ah'oon", where that n is nasal. So "irmao" will be pronounced "ir-ma-oh", and "não" will be pronounced "na-oo(n)".

I still can't believe you guys are self-teaching Chinese. I'm sure I'll work myself up to that one day, but it would just seem such an unclimbable mountain for me. Keep on going!

In other news, my Spanish grammar textbook is really quite interesting.

I just got Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese today and it's really really good - they use memory techniques so that you retain the information in your long-term memory. Anyone else used Pimsleur for anything? I really recommend it... expensive though!!

I'm taking a Spanish Module next year during the 2nd year of my Degree in Biochemistry - worth 5% the total degree (as much as the first year!) It's for people who haven't studied it before at all, so I guess the standard will be similar to GCSE or something. I think I'm pretty good at picking up languages naturally (A*/A* in french/german gcse), so bearing this in mind, can anyone recomend me a book to read over the summer so I can effectively self teach myself alot of the basics. I'm not after some cheesy book with set phrases for your holiday, I probably learn best by looking at grammar and verb structures. Thanks In advance.

Excellent I'll take your word for it, that one will do

Russian is amazing I love it already and I've only done two chapters!

The language sounds so beautiful...although my knowledge of it goes little beyond "privyet" and "do svidaniya"

My Italian learning is going ok so far...

I am also about to begin learning German from scratch...is there any material on the internet (eg podcasts) that can help me with the pronunciation? I can't seem to find any useful ones!

Ok I hit a huge brick wall with my chinese (mandarin) learning !

I think I've mastered hello, goodbye, my name is etc. I think. But I'm so self-conscious to practise it out loud, even when I'm on my own in the house!