Learning languages for fun

[donKey jote]

Anybody else here duo the duolingo? :bandit:
i'm hooked, so much better than candy crush or 2048 :D

[Storm]

hey 2048 is the only game I did play on my phone and cracked :)


what do you mean duo? I am tri- or cuatro lingual :p:
or is that another game? :dozey:

[pino]

Duolingo is crap, you can easily learn a language, by adding it to your keyboard :p:

[Mark]

I tried to learn French for a good while. Did two years of classes when I was working at York University. I know a lot more than I did but still a very long way from being able to hold a conversation.

Come to the realisation that it's very difficult without having regular exposure to the language and I haven't been to France since 2008.

[odykas]

hey 2048 is the only game I did play on my phone and cracked :)


Are you a cracker? :bandit:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I know English and I know northern English.

[Mark]

I know English and I know northern English.

Yer divint der yer?

[donKey jote]

hey 2048 is the only game I did play on my phone and cracked


what do you mean duo? I am tri- or cuatro lingual
or is that another game?
duolingo is a cool free program (for web https://www.duolingo.com/ , or android and iOS stores) that gamifies learning languages...

so far only Spanish German French Italian Portuguese and Dutch from English, with Irish Danish and Swedish soon to appear in beta and many others due to follow.
I'm pretty sure anybody with an interest in languages will find it cool too, specially mcfeegle or pino :andrea:

as for 2048, I got bored of regularly scoring >30000 so I took up Dutch on duo instead, together with the other five (six including English in the reverse trees) :p

[gadjo_dilo]

Eu sou uma mulher.
My first lesson of portuguese went very well. After a bit of practice I'll write a letter to Neymar. :p

[donKey jote]

Looking forward to learning Romanian too, but it's still only 2% finished :(

[gadjo_dilo]

You already know a lot of words...

Including those that don't appear in dictionaries. :p

[Storm]

I have a Windows Phone :dozey:

[donKey jote]

Not enough though :D

On duolingo I started with German, and found I still make the odd der die das mistake for example so it's a fun way to practice.
Spanish is also interesting as it's mainly american Spanish so I also learn lot's of new words.
Portuguese is so similar to Spanish it's fun to acquire.
Italian too, and I love speaking it and imitating the melody in the speech exercises.
French I've always wanted to learn a bit more than just reading it and thinking I understand most of it.
Even Dutch is fun: sounds like English with German lijk words but is spellt all funny... mijn vrouw is een olifant etc.

It all starts at a very simple level but you feel you're progressing all the time and want more :D

[pino]

You don't need melody whilst speaking Italian, you need your hands :p:

[gadjo_dilo]

I have a Windows Phone :dozey:
Now you have a decent reason to buy a new one

[Mark]

Je ne comprends pas francais du tout. :(

[Storm]

But its only a year old :(

[gadjo_dilo]

But its only a year old :(
Buy a tablet then

[Mark]

But its only a year old :(

It'll be knackered then.

[Storm]

actually yeah the plastics are so bad that the lock button broke last week ( just a couple of days under warranty left!) ...got it replaced but now I do not use it as the phone update has given me a fantastic "double tap screen to unlock" feature :up:

[odykas]

I have a Windows Phone :dozey:

Denial, is that you :erm:

[odykas]

Looking forward to learning Romanian too, but it's still only 2% finished :(

Added to my todo list.

Now I'm dealing with the Italian course :p:

[gadjo_dilo]

Sorry guys but you can't learn Romanian through a computer game. The grammar is impossible and don't follow certain rules. Even most of Romanians speak it like s~it.

[donKey jote]

Sorry guys but you can't learn Romanian through a computer game. The grammar is impossible and don't follow certain rules. Even most of Romanians speak it like s~it.
Maybe that's why it's taking the Romanian team so long... And I thought they were just sheer lazy :p

[donKey jote]

You don't need melody whilst speaking Italian, you need your hands :p:
That would be a cool expansion: visual feedback :laugh:

[gadjo_dilo]

Maybe that's why it's taking the Romanian team so long... And I thought they were just sheer lazy :p
Which of our teams? :confused:

[donKey jote]

The guys building the language.
duo works like that, each language is set up by screened volunteer bilinguals... Why don't you apply and kick their arse? :p

[gadjo_dilo]

The guys building the language.
duo works like that, each language is set up by screened volunteer bilinguals...
lol. No romanian would ever work for free. :devil:

Why don't you apply and kick their arse? :p
The result would be the same because my Romanian is excellent but my English sucks.:p

[donKey jote]

well learn English first :p
https://www.duolingo.com/courses/ro

[Jag_Warrior]

Sorry guys but you can't learn Romanian through a computer game. The grammar is impossible and don't follow certain rules. Even most of Romanians speak it like s~it.


So it's a lot like English, huh? :D

Me, I'd absolutely love to learn to speak Latin. It's on my bucket list. And with it gaining in popularity (again) in U.S. schools, maybe I'll be able to do that in the years to come.

[donKey jote]

You don't need melody whilst speaking Italian, you need your hands :p:
http://youtu.be/v2Y-L-dKeEo
:bandit:

[Storm]

I did a basic German last night on a friend's phone :s

[donKey jote]

Zeer goed :D

(I'm about to finish the Dutch tree) ;) :p

[gadjo_dilo]

I stopped.:s

[donKey jote]

Niet zo goed ! :p

[MrJan]

I was refreshing my Spanish on Duolinguo for a while but eventually let it slide. I got a bit fed up of going over exactly the same words and also found it difficult to find time/places where I could happily do the listening and speaking parts. I wouldn't say that you can use it to learn a language as such, but it certainly helps refresh your memory of some of the key basic phrases.

[donKey jote]

I learnt the difference between further and farther today, after almost 48 years of speaking English :dozey:

[steveaki13]

further on though your father may need to take you further :D

[gadjo_dilo]

I learnt the difference between further and farther today, after almost 48 years of speaking English :dozey:
We have a saying: Man learns as long as he lives :angel:

[donKey jote]

Ja je kunt :andrea:

(yes you can in Dutch :D)

[RoboTom]

Come to the realisation that it's very difficult without having regular exposure to the language and I haven't been to France since 2008.

True, but I reckon you would be surprised how quickly it will come along if you do go and spend some time there. You probably know more than you think you do. Thats what I found with German. No matter how many words you learn or German films you watch, you need to be surrounded by it. Before I first moved to Germany I was ill with tonsillitis. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone! But it did however allow me to brush up on my vocab and grammar. There are still a host of words I know that whenever I speak them I am reminded of being ill in bed. Thankfully it was a beautiful bed from Zen Bedrooms (http://www.zenbedrooms.com/). I was at least comfortable … despite practising grammar and having a sore throat!

[donKey jote]

Irish and Danish have just been released :D :bandit:

[donKey jote]

Tá uchlabhán agam :D
http://i57.tinypic.com/8y50xy.jpg

[donKey jote]

Jeg har en ugle :D
http://i62.tinypic.com/24b5c8h.jpg

[odykas]

Danish? :dozey:

I hope they add Greek / Romanian / Marathi soon in order for you to learn a propper language :p:

[Mark]

It's impossible for foreigners to learn Danish.

[odykas]

Even Italians can learn, so there shouldn't be an issue ;)

[Storm]

It's impossible for foreigners to learn Danish.

how did pino learn it then? considering his English I have doubts about his Danish but then I don't know any Danish to make wise cracks about it :p:

[veeten]

It's impossible for foreigners to learn Danish.

Then, how about eating a Danish? Preferably a cheese or apple. :lips: :D

Not too sure about prune, though. :s

:p ;)

[donKey jote]

Svenska has just been released now too... and just two weeks to go until my next visit to Lappland :D

[donKey jote]

just in time... min svenska ugglar flyger !!!
http://i59.tinypic.com/2ilxs6.jpg

[Storm]

so now janvan and you can talk ...a lot?

[donKey jote]

http://youtu.be/mbs64GvGgPU

http://youtu.be/Ln07mhUTXCY

[donKey jote]

Thanks to duolingo we had a nice warm car this morning :-D
http://i58.tinypic.com/2edqyra.jpg

[odykas]

Thanks to the multilingual donkey :p:

[schmenke]

I can almost make sense of the text on the bottom half ;) .

[janneppi]

This almost fits in with the thread. :)

I tried to call a colleague in our offices in Scotland, I think he wasn't there, but I'm not really sure. Some guy answered and began a uncanny imitation of Robin Williams's famous youtube Golf-bit. ;)
I understood three words from the other end of the line; receptionist, fifteen and minutes.
I sent an email instead...

[Gregor-y]

Any good program for Norwegian? I'm headed there in September for two weeks of flailing around the countryside.

[donKey jote]

Norwegian is due to appear on duolingo in the next week or two...

[donKey jote]

Any good program for Norwegian? I'm headed there in September for two weeks of flailing around the countryside.
Norwegian was released in duolingo a couple of days ago... Together with Ukrainian.

[Louis]

I discovered Duolingo about 2 weeks ago and really enjoy it. Started with Spanish, because I´m going to Spain later this year, but might try some new languages (that I don´t really need to learn) later.. just for fun

[donKey jote]

I'm well and truly hooked... after Norwegian came Esperanto and Ukrainian, oh and I forgot to mention one of my favourites so far: turkish ! :crazy: :bandit:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I stumbled across a website called Babbel.com that has online language courses, and it made me think about this thread.

I might give Duolingo a go before I get too seep into Babbel. I keep telling myself that one day I want to be able to speak French, German and Spanish.

[shivanya]

I know English and Malayalam and I like to learn other language also.

[donKey jote]

I stumbled across a website called Babbel.com that has online language courses, and it made me think about this thread.

I might give Duolingo a go before I get too seep into Babbel. I keep telling myself that one day I want to be able to speak French, German and Spanish.

From what I hear they're both pretty similar, except only one of them is free.

I think most people who are a bit more serious about learning a language on t'internet would use more than one site anyway. There are plenty to choose from: duolingo, memrise, babbel, lingvist, immersia , busuu....

I last posted in this thread a year ago, an update of the courses available from English since then: Russian, Polish, Welsh, Vietnamese, Hebrew and Hungarian.

I've given Hebrew a miss for now and am currently playing with Hungarian... gotta go! :bandit: :andrea: :p

[donKey jote]

lol. No romanian would ever work for free. :devil:

The result would be the same because my Romanian is excellent but my English sucks.:p

2 years later, Romanian is up and running! :D

up next on my list, after Guaraní (Jopará) :p

[steveaki13]

I am currently on level one Espanol. However I intend to keep it up beyond this and hopefully become fluent. It's the first language I have spoken apart from English and really enjoying it.
I already think I would like to learn another one once I become fairly fluent. Maybe that should be If!!!

Sent from my GT-I9301I using Tapatalk

[steveaki13]

After 6 weeks of my first course.

pues..... hablo un poco espanol y Ingles. haha:p

[Storm]

muy bien steve !

solo hablas un poco de ingles eh? ;)

[steveaki13]

muy bien steve !

solo hablas un poco de ingles eh? ;)

Si :laugh: definitely un poco de Ingles.

Pues hablo un poco de Espanol. :p

[donKey jote]

Aceasta e pentru tine, draga mea :kiss: :andrea: :wave:
http://i66.tinypic.com/2e5o3v8.png

[Storm]

:o