I dropped Spanish which was the only language offered during my high school years. I regret it, and now I’m embarrassed to start learning as a uni-aged guy. I want to learn Mandarin because then I would know English and Mandarin which would cover like 50% of the populations speaking abilities.
Basically I just feel like a dumb American and being a Marxist I need to know another language.
Well, nothing stops you from learning it now that you’re uncomfortable with not knowing a secondary language. A different language is extremely useful when reading books from another country. It’s a whole new universe you can discover if you’re able to read and comprehend a secondary language.
In that respect, you should definitely plan before you begin learning a language. Think about why you’re learning the language, and if the language is useful for a particular goal. You can be learning because you enjoy the challenge, etc. But it’s a long-term commitment, you’ll be learning that language for the rest of your life if you want to keep it.
“ha you’re a communist but dont speak a second language? How hypocrtitical!”
the best time to start learning a language was yesterday… the second best time is right now. I was in the same boat as you at 20, and now I’m fluent in French, and have a strong grasp of German, Spanish, and Mandarin. Just practice everyday without fail.
Being fluent in French disqualifies you from any possible appreciation of your other skills (this includes Marx, he should’ve just stuck to writing books in German)
Same. But don’t count yourself our on Spanish. Getting back into it is easy. Lots of ppl and resources and memes haha. The 25 year brain thing is completely made up
Do Duolingo, the Spanish course is the most complete one and there’s also a room in the Matrix space for Spanish. You can ask me if you have any doubts, too. Mandarin is good, although it will be a little bit harder as your first second language, but you can do it if you put enough time into it.
I’ll check it out. I’ve heard that Duolingo is a supplementary learning tool as opposed to primary, is that true? Are there any better resources? I know I’ve pirated Pimsleur courses in the past.
Mandarin does look hard as fuckkkk.
Yeah, duolingo is not great for fluency, but it can help build your vocabulary. I recommend the Language Transfer course in addition.
check out the pinned threads on /c/learnspanish@lemmygrad.ml
Everything is supplementary, there isn’t the one tool that will teach you, but it doesn’t matter, Duolingo makes it easier to start and you will learn stuff, the things it doesnt teach you, you can ask them elsewhere, immerse yourself in the language and so on.
LanguageTransfer is a really cool podcast so that also helps, i havent used many other platforms for indoeuropean languages.
Any category 5 language is hard if youre starting from a english speaking background (chinese (mandarin and canto), arabic, japanese, korean)
With cat2 languages. You can learn them on the side. Cat5 languages require active studying and maintaining to effectively learn them.
Of the cat5 languages, Koreans probably the easiest due to having a very modernized alphabet (to get you from not being able to read to be able to read(not necessarily understand) is the easiest due to having a significantly shorter alphabet(hangul)
If necessity is not a concern then you should only learn a language if you want to, not because you feel like you have to. Learning a language is an incredibly long and arduous process so the will and the desire to learn it has to be there.
That makes sense. It’s not really a necessity, I’d just like to learn more to be able to communicate with more people and be able to more accurately slice through propaganda. Language barrier is a big thing yknow? And I just don’t want to be a dumb USian lol
Learning a language is hard, so I understand why you haven’t learnt a second one yet. But as a person who’s interested in languages I can give you some tips.
Practise daily, whether that is through online apps or study books, preferably both. Watch news broadcasts in the language you want to learn, and read the news as well. Practise speaking, and if you don’t have someone to practise with, practice with yourself. Watch TV shows in the language and try to build towards not needing subtitles anymore. Listen to music in the language and look up the lyrics.
Learning a language of a country you moved into is hard and took a bilingual extrovert I know 3 years. Good luck. In the age of translations, you’re fine.
Also, you really shouldn’t feel any less for not speaking a second language. Most stats of language proficiency are heavily overblown. Most stats where they qualify people as speaking a language seems to be on a level where they can answer pre-learned answers to pre-learned questions, which is not what I’d consider speaking a language.
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Memorizing all the characters I find is the hard part, the grammar is much simpler than English or German, that’s for sure
I have no trouble memorizing the digital characters, but holy hell, writing is tough. I pretty much only can write 我，你，用，有 and a couple others from memory, and I practice writing at least a few hours a week.
It’s okay. I come from the same background, and worst part is I didn’t go to an actual school. Now I can speak German relatively well, and I’m on my way to figuring out Mandarin. All it takes is discipline. There is no time like the present, and don’t stall yourself mentally by speaking of regret. Want to learn Spanish? Slap open a dictionary, right now, start writing down words. Google resources on Spanish grammar, there’s plenty out there. Libgen is your friend if you ever need to get a PDF copy of certain textbooks. Want to learn Chinese? Also plenty of resources. If you like gamified learning and don’t feel like you can sit around to learn Mandarin, get Duolingo, do a few words a day. Yes, you probably won’t get a good grasp on the language that way, but every bit counts! Learning a language isn’t like going from 0% to 100%, often time it’s a life long struggle, and by no means am I trying to discourage you with this, but the way you need to see it is: learn a few words a day, phrases, learn grammar, consume media, however much you can tolerate at a given time, and you will be equipped with much more knowledge than before, possibly in the future with enough to engage in basic conversation. And the best part is with languages in my experience, once you get to a conversational level, everything else will come easily, vocabulary will be something you pick up the more you engage, and people will certainly be impressed. Don’t give up comrade, you’ve got this.
If you’ve got the big monies and like gamified learning go with Pimsleur over Duolingo. For any language but especially learning Asian languages as an English speaker. Duolingo is shit at them. Over 4 months of daily usage for Japanese, while living full time in Japan, and it’s still quizzing me on teriyaki and sushi. Did a single free Pimsleur lesson and learned more actual conversation and grammar than I’ve gotten in Duolingo this year.
Or 🏴☠️ the older workbooks and audio lessons instead of the app. It was originally a CIA program so it’s not like American money didn’t already pay for it. Their Spanish ones were quite good
Agreed, Duolingo might help with absolute basics, but it’s not great for Japanese. For Japanese kanji, I’d recommend an SRS like WaniKani (or an Anki deck if you don’t have the big monies).
In that vein, there’s always the old FSI courses. Designed to get US diplomats fluent as fast as possible. People say good things about them. It’s all audio, though, I think. So it depends what you like. Not sure if there’s a Japanese course.
To be fair, listening is probably the most important part of learning a foreign language (for most learners) and perhaps requires the most time to develop. In every day life, listening and thus conversation/exchanges requires instant comprehension, and that’s also a huge part of how we form social connections/associations with each other. With reading you can generally take your time to digest things.
Strongly agree. The accent has to be just right for me, though. Otherwise I can’t put my ears through it. That’s why I like listening-reading. I go by content and accent, and get 7–35+ hours with a voice that I can listen endlessly to.
I didn’t learn another language until I was 30 and thought I’d only ever know English. Things can change quickly.
You don’t need to know another language, but I always recommend learning another language. I’d join a group for comradely language learning
Eh I learned Spanish in 2 years and didn’t know it was possible to do it that fast. It’s not hard
I think Marxism is not mainly about how much you know, but more about putting what you know into practice to help the oppressed class.
Remember when it was only rich people who could afford the time and money for decent education, or any education at all (still applies in some areas of the world)? What did most of those people do with all their knowledge? Sure some of them furthered the wealth of human knowledge, by just being the only people who could afford to be in that position.
I suggest reading this short essay by Karl Marx: Reflections of a Young Man on The Choice of a Profession. It is about choosing a profession but really you can apply it to choosing what to learn or do.
Some quotes:
Those professions which are not so much involved in life itself as concerned with abstract truths are the most dangerous for the young man whose principles are not yet firm and whose convictions are not yet strong and unshakeable. At the same time these professions may seem to be the most exalted if they have taken deep root in our hearts and if we are capable of sacrificing our lives and all endeavours for the ideas which prevail in them.
But the chief guide which must direct us in the choice of a profession is the welfare of mankind and our own perfection. It should not be thought that these two interests could be in conflict, that one would have to destroy the other; on the contrary, man’s nature is so constituted that he can attain his own perfection only by working for the perfection, for the good, of his fellow men.
If he works only for himself, he may perhaps become a famous man of learning, a great sage, an excellent poet, but he can never be a perfect, truly great man.
History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy; religion itself teaches us that the ideal being whom all strive to copy sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, and who would dare to set at nought such judgments?
If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.
Similar story to me. I had tried learning Spanish many times but failed. Now I know the only thing I failed at was consistency. You can learn a language at any age. It just takes time. The younger you start, the younger you are when you ‘finish’; but that’s about all.
It was also when I started reading Marxists that I realised I had a real reason to learn another language. Same as you, I think: to open up another world of literature and speeches and to communicate with other workers. If it’s an international working class, I better meet some of them halfway.
You can do it if you put your mind to it. Learn the basics, then immerse yourself in the language. Books, news, music, movies, everything. You won’t understand everything but if you can comprehend the message, your mind will do the rest for you. Then, keep topping up your grammar and vocab alongside engaging with ‘the native stuff’. All those quantitative improvements and one day you’ll make the qualitative leap. It’s frustrating but it’s fun if you let it be.
The rest of this comment, I wrote elsewhere, but it may be of help to you, too:
I’m no expert but I am am enthusiastic learner. It’s never too late. And you have advantages that kids don’t have. E.g. if you read Spanish world news, you’ll recognise half the vocab because it’s the same as formal English (which is mostly from Latin rather than German) or it’s ‘international’ language (like brands and international bodies with the name in a different order). So after a little bit of study, you can read Spanish to get the gist reasonably soon.
To get that start, Language Transfer Spanish is a great free course and will give you a big leg up. (Just be sure to start the playlist at the first episode as the SoundCloud link sometimes starts halfway through!)
Here are some answers I’ve given others:
- Learning languages, step-by-step
- Listening-Reading (LR) method (this works with any language)
- Summary of the LR method
- Some tips for making your own Anki decks (spaced repetition cards) if you fancy that
- Some tips on playing games and using word lists to learn vocabulary
