|
|
#31
08-21-2007, 02:52 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
Q: What do you call someone who speaks many languages A: Polyglot Q: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? A: Trilingual Q: What do you call someone who speaks two languages A: Bilingual Q: What do you call someone who speaks only one language A: American MUHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [/ QUOTE ] QFT ^^ english is my 2nd language too btw ........ also, Dutch(language from The Netherlands aka Holland fyi) seems to be a pretty difficult language to learn for foreigners. My german is good, my french is ok'ishh, and i speak a bit of swedish too .... i'd love to learn spanish at one point in my life too since half the [censored] world speaks it. 
|
|
#32
08-21-2007, 02:58 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] If so how did you do it and how long did it take? I want to move to Miami, but it's necessary to know Spanish to get a job. I've had a lot of classes in highschool, and plan on taking classes in college this next year, but I'm no where near fluencey....Realistically what is it going to take? [/ QUOTE ] living in japan for almost 9 months now, going to school for 5 hours a day and have a job I'm no where even near fluency. If you want true fluency, about 15 years. To simply get very good and understand all of tv, about.. maybe 2-3 years if you study. But it's different depending on the hardness of the language [/ QUOTE ] Interesting. I hear japanese is MUCH more difficult to pick up however. [/ QUOTE ] Not at all. It's one of the easier languages to learn to speak. I've been studying for about 6 months and I can hold a conversation pretty well. [/ QUOTE ] wow that's ignorant. yeah it's not hard to pick up enough to hold a conversation. I'd say 3-4 months and you can open/hold a conversation for a long period of time in any real social setting. When you watch the news in Japanese, how much do you understand, honestly? right now I understand about 95% of dramas and 80% of japanese news. Keep in mind, I go to a japanese language school in tokyo, 5 hours a day, and I have a job completely in japanese, for 8 hours a day.
|
|
#33
08-21-2007, 02:58 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
Been in Amsterdam for 2 years and nowhere near fluent in dutch.
but mainly because i dont care and dont try to learn it. You can get by on english here no problem
|
|
#34
08-21-2007, 03:03 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
wow that's ignorant. yeah it's not hard to pick up enough to hold a conversation. I'd say 3-4 months and you can open/hold a conversation for a long period of time in any real social setting. When you watch the news in Japanese, how much do you understand, honestly? right now I understand about 95% of dramas and 80% of japanese news. Keep in mind, I go to a japanese language school in tokyo, 5 hours a day, and I have a job completely in japanese, for 8 hours a day. [/ QUOTE ] Why did you call me ignorant and then agree with me?
|
|
#35
08-21-2007, 03:05 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] wow that's ignorant. yeah it's not hard to pick up enough to hold a conversation. I'd say 3-4 months and you can open/hold a conversation for a long period of time in any real social setting. When you watch the news in Japanese, how much do you understand, honestly? right now I understand about 95% of dramas and 80% of japanese news. Keep in mind, I go to a japanese language school in tokyo, 5 hours a day, and I have a job completely in japanese, for 8 hours a day. [/ QUOTE ] Why did you call me ignorant and then agree with me? [/ QUOTE ] TOKYOWNEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
|
|
#36
08-21-2007, 03:12 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] wow that's ignorant. yeah it's not hard to pick up enough to hold a conversation. I'd say 3-4 months and you can open/hold a conversation for a long period of time in any real social setting. When you watch the news in Japanese, how much do you understand, honestly? right now I understand about 95% of dramas and 80% of japanese news. Keep in mind, I go to a japanese language school in tokyo, 5 hours a day, and I have a job completely in japanese, for 8 hours a day. [/ QUOTE ] Why did you call me ignorant and then agree with me? [/ QUOTE ] my point was it's not hard to be able to hold a conversation in about any language but holding a conversation ======================== fluency big gap
|
|
#37
08-21-2007, 03:19 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
lol @ whoever said english was an easy language. Have you ever talked to a non-english speaker? I've never met one that said English was easy.
I'm fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, but it takes a long time to get there. You can get to a decent level in the classroom, but there's no way around just spending time with natives.
|
|
#38
08-21-2007, 03:36 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: Anyone gained fluency in a second language?
[ QUOTE ]
lol @ whoever said english was an easy language. Have you ever talked to a non-english speaker? I've never met one that said English was easy. I'm fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, but it takes a long time to get there. You can get to a decent level in the classroom, but there's no way around just spending time with natives. [/ QUOTE ] English is easy. French is my first language and I'm currently in an English college in Quebec (Canada) and have found English much easier to learn than the language I'm working on right now, German. I'm perfectly fluent and most Americans don't notice it's my 2nd language until I tell them so. Unveiled brag. It's easy due to two reasons, one being that English material (movies, ineternet, books, etc.) can SO easily be obtained, and the second being that the structure of the language is pretty simple. Genders and other things of the like are not a problem in English unlike in most other languages. Def. one of the easier ones to learn (although Spanish, to a speaker of a Latin-based language, is even easier since its simplification in recent decades). As for learning, I've had 4 ways: - school. I was in a pretty advanced class for 5 years, it was OK, but def. not the best way to learn - immersion. I went to a summer camp in Maine for 7 years, the first one I could barely speak and the last 3 or so I was fully bilingual. I'd say the 3rd year was when I was always comfortable. - internet. I played online games (talk), read a LOT online (English), both formal and non-formal, etc. - TV. watched tv and movies a lot in English. I'd say that immersion is BY FAR the best and only a few weeks, once you know the basics (from school/tapes/etc.), are VERY beneficial. You need to be immeresed though, so more than 75% of the people around you need to be unable to understand your mother tongue. If immersion is not possible, I'd say a mix of TV/movies/internet is pretty good. I'd start off by using Rosetta Stone first, it seems like a good software to learn (I'm just starting with it in German now) languages from scratch. Good luck. EDIT: books, once more accustomed to the language, are a great way to better your mastery of it.
|
 |
|
|
Linear Mode
