Starting a new language, better late than never?

[Destruction]

Das Wasser und das Brot ( water and bread)
or
Das Wasser und Brot ( water and bread)
or
Bei Wasser und Brot ( to be in prison)

most nouns ending in -er are neuter

das Wasser
das Messer ( knife)
das Fenster ( window)

Fuck sake, thought 5 mins after posting it that it should have been das.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Has anyone got any tips with learning the more obscure(ish) languages?

I'm moving to Poland in Jan/Feb so want to start learning that, as I don't want to rely on speaking english/broken German as has been the case in the past. I also want to learn serbo-croatian as a passing interest (that, and I think my future could be in that part of the world).

I've always sucked at languages, but I'm only 19 so guess I have time.

Just learn to talk backwards and use z a lot, they'll understand you.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Think it's a bit late when you see how languages like Spanish, English and Chinese have taken hold. It's a saturated market these days.

Good luck though.

 

[UTS]

Think learning a language becomes so much easier when you are in the country in question. Obviously learn the basics before you get to Germany, but when the language is all around you it's so much easier to pick it up and learn what things mean.. Think TV, adverts, signs, shops etc. It just subconsciously soaks in.. Well it did for me. I used to live in Sweden, albeit I was only a teenager and I think language is proven to be easier to learn the younger you are. Good luck.

 

[mente captus]

Think learning a language becomes so much easier when you are in the country in question. Obviously learn the basics before you get to Germany, but when the language is all around you it's so much easier to pick it up and learn what things mean.. Think TV, adverts, signs, shops etc. It just subconsciously soaks in.. Well it did for me. I used to live in Sweden, albeit I was only a teenager and I think language is proven to be easier to learn the younger you are. Good luck.

Imet some swedes at the 2006 wc here in germany. I was really surprised how easy it is for a german to understand the swedish language, same for dutch, same grammar and so on, more a dialect then a different language. Danish and the norwegian language are also not that hard to get

 

[JaseTheVillain]

They're all 'Germanic' languages though, as are English and French, however we've differed a hell of a lot from the original roots. Especially English, we've just nicked bits of everyone's languages, come up with our own very odd (by other languages' standards) grammar, and just rolled with it.

 

[Destruction]

It might be worth having some actual lessons too, if you don't mind spending a little bit of cash. We had 12 2-hour Spanish lessons (in a group of about 6) a couple of years ago and they were massively helpful. The man giving them is a Spaniard who works as a translator and just wanted to make a bit of extra cash in his spare time - I can't remember exactly how much they cost but they certainly weren't expensive. Duolingo is useful as an addition to other methods, but I wouldn't want to rely solely on that sort of thing.

There were loads of adverts for that sort of thing in Manchester on gumtree, although you might struggle a bit more to find them if you're in Preston.

£70 for 10 hours worth of lessons a fair price cha?

 

[JaseTheVillain]

£7 an hour, just above minimum wage, I'd say that is reasonable...

 

[lordofthepies]

£70 for 10 hours worth of lessons a fair price cha?

Yeah, sounds pretty fair to me.

 

[Destruction]

£7 an hour, just above minimum wage, I'd say that is reasonable...

Yeah, sounds pretty fair to me.

They are being run at my local uni and I've also just discovered they knock 20% off for students so DON'T MIND IF I DO.