Somewhat Silent

Learning Languages

13 Responses to “Learning Languages”

1. lette :
   July 22nd, 2006 at 5:09 am

   Well since, my hearing loss Im currently learning sign obviously!! but while in school I was in Irish and German classed, both of which I disliked, I believe i dont really have the capasity or interest in lingos, but sign is different, its a more physical lingo and i love it

   Katie, My better half, loves to learn new things, and not so long ago he started to learn Japanese through the internet and audio book, (I dunno if that will suit ur hearing loss) but he learned in the comfort of his own home and became very proficient in it, and learned it in his own time and there was no pressure, so perhaps that would be good for you ??

2. alli (the blindie) :
   July 25th, 2006 at 2:57 am

   I warn you on French: almost all the verbs are irregular. Its pretty overwhelming, doable but difficult.

   I’ve had pretty good luck using the “For Dummies” books as a starting place (For both Spanish and Latin) and then getting textbooks and teaching myself the language. The best thing I found was getting a native speaker/friend and interacting with them.

   traditional language classes and i do not get along…

3. lette :
   July 25th, 2006 at 1:06 pm

   yuh huh!! and in german, i had fun but theres 16 cases for everything!! madness!!

4. Katie :
   July 25th, 2006 at 3:39 pm

   Thanks for the suggestions! I was thinking of teaching myself French through the books- I do have a friend who was a french major, so she could probably help.

   Ugh. LATIN. Took a course on that last fall- everything was fine until things got hectic at work and I couldn’t keep up with the memorization anymore.

5. barakta (User Verified) :
   July 27th, 2006 at 5:10 pm

   I did both French and German to GCSE at secondary school (16 yr old school leavers exams). I had the listening tests read out to me by my teachers as the tapes were shit and of course unlipreadable.

   My German got screwed up because we were supposed to do 5 years worth in 4 years - easily doable if you don’t have TWO teachers going bonkers on you and end up retiring. Our final year teacher got us all through the course with extra tuition (I got one to one instead of with my class cos of my hearing) but she wasn’t permitted (yes was forbidden) to teach grammar by one of the high up teachers in the school.

   German without grammar is completely pointless!

   I tried to do German at A-level, but found the auditory demands of the class too difficult combined with my huge gaps in grammar and stuff. I might have stuck with it if I’d not had gaps and it was intended to be my primary subject.

   A few years later I tried to do German again at university. The classes were ‘alright’ but I should really have had a notetaker. The exams were a nightmare because I couldn’t connect my hearing aid to their language lab kit, and my tutor got really nasty about that. She was fine about having a deaf student until the deaf student had additional needs.

   I am still considering doing some German, as I’d like to do it and understand the grammar. I think it is possible in a small group, or with a notetaker to note down vocab and stuff discussed at highspeed in class. My university German teacher used to ask the class for feedback, and just write the German on the board. I couldn’t hear most of the class (too many people to parse error).

   My friend H does German classes in two different groups. I will ask her how the class is organised and how she copes with her deafness. I am considering using the Open University for some German, so I’ll let you all know how I get on.

   Oh and Latin sounds immensely cool as well as useful. One of these days

6. Alli (User Verified) :
   July 28th, 2006 at 5:20 am

   If you already have a decent understanding of English Grammar, Latin is relatively easy. If like me you have abso-friggin-loutely not clue about the actual structure of grammar, you are screwed by latin. Latin is hard. But it is useful.

7. lette :
   July 28th, 2006 at 10:17 am

   me no have grammer at all skillz sentax! so there!

8. alli (the blindie) :
   July 29th, 2006 at 1:50 am

   I have decent “grammar” as far as English goes because I know what sounds right, but the “why” you use wants instead of want for instance escapes me. (And my Romanian prof had no idea why that was. she completely didnt understand that i’d never HEARD of declining a noun before. Was very fustrating. Still a little bitter actually)

9. lette :
   July 29th, 2006 at 2:33 am

   whats a declining noun?? I find it amazing that people who english is not their first language, that they understand english better than us, the people who have spoken it all our lives!! I admire that, I honestly do!! I have no idea what a declining noun is!! wow, and using the word ‘wants’ now that I think about it is a lillt odd, we could just say want!

10. athina (User Verified) :
    July 29th, 2006 at 10:02 am

    What is Alli’s nationality? I thought she’s an American.
    We use the verb wants for singular subject and the verb want
    for plural subject as well as for singular pronouns I and you.

11. lette :
    July 29th, 2006 at 10:48 am

    I dunno, i cant get the hang of english at all, and its supposed to be my first lingo!! there are to many rules to languages!!:p

12. alli (the blindie) :
    July 29th, 2006 at 4:17 pm

    I’m American. I just used wants because it was 2am and I needed a word.

    Declining a noun is the changes a word goes thru depending on what function it preforms in the sentence. A direct object in Latin has a different suffix than a Subject does. Putting -ae instead of -ea on a word changes the translation of the word. There aren’t words like “of” in Latin, they’re included in the declintion of the noun. If its in prepositional phrase you add a different suffix (I can’t remember and don’t feel like looking it up) which indicates what its doing. If its at or of or the or ‘a’.

    And couple that with working full time and having class at 8am, 5 days a week. I had a headache everyday from that stupid class.

    There are a rediculous amount of rules though. But latin is worth learning if you want to. Because most languages are latin or germanic based its good to know the base. It makes the evolution of the language much easier to learn. (LEarning Italian after knowing latin is easy. Same with Spanish. French is a pain in the ass regardless ofyour knowledge base. Porteguese is nice but not as easy as Spanish or Italian..etc.)

13. Ultimate Language :
    October 30th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

    For someone with an intermediate level of proficiency, I recommend watching American movies you’ve seen before in the foreign language you’re targeting. Its keeps it interesting and if you know the script well can boost your vocabulary.

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