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Learning new (and old) Languages.

21:31 / 01.11.06

I thought i'd start a thread on learning new lanuages. New or Old.

I've been self teaching myself Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the last year or so from books but i've just recently started a college course which is fantastic. The self teaching from books was going slowly. Bad self disciplne and other things getting in the way etc. Four weeks into the course and it's all really starting to gel.

I'm at that high point of learning when i 'get it' so i'm loving it. Of course, like many things, the next part is when it gets difficult again and you realise that you are still way, way down the mountain and you start to struggle again.

I've learnt some, very basic and obvious, tips from the course that are really helpful. Things such as keeping your own dictionary of words, writing stuff down constantly to improve handwriting and recognition. Keep at it really.

I don't speak any other language than english and my grammar is really pretty bad (see above!..thats what happens when you leave education at 12 kids!) so i'm struggling with a lot of the basic English grammar that is needed to understand the ancient Egyptian. But i'm getting there.

So, anyone else learning something? Old dead languages or new? Any tips? I've got a craving to start on a bit of Arabic at some point but i don't want to chew off too much.

And another question. Masculine and Feminine? Welsh, French, Ancient Egyptian, many others. German, as far as i can tell has 3. Any ideas about the linguistic ideas behind the genders?

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21:37 / 01.11.06

I'd be happy to chat with you about middle egyptian; I took it up a few years ago and then stopped. Same deal; lack of self-discipline.

21:46 / 01.11.06

Cool. I'm happy at the moment because i've got my suffix and dependent prounouns sorted. Early days. I'm really enjoying it though.

21:48 / 01.11.06

Did you do the Shipwrecked Sailor Id?

09:37 / 02.11.06

Practise practise practise. Do it regularly, set aside maybe half an hour a day to practise if you can.

I've been learning Mandarin since January, and really need to knuckle down (especially on the writing).

I do find that watching films and tv programs in the language you're trying to learn helps you to become more used to hearing it spoken normally.

09:41 / 02.11.06

I want to learn the basics of Latin and Greek, purely for English etymological purposes, but Asterix Roman is about as far as I've got. I need a Latin, an ancient Greek and an etymological dictionary I think. And to learn Persian, Norse, Celtic...

lonely as a cloud...

10:23 / 02.11.06

I did Latin at school. I found it really heped me with learning other European languages. There's an awful lot of grammatical rules involved in Latin, but once through them, other languages I've learned (Irish, German, French) seemed a lot easier. Although this may be down to teaching methods... in Latin class, there was more explanation of how and when to use different grammatical constructions, whereas in other languages, there was a more prescribed approach.

All Acting Regiment

13:05 / 02.11.06

Learning Greek and or Latin will help you with all European languages. If you want to learn more northerly languages then a bit of old Norse will help. I can't claim to be fluent in any other languages but I keep up regular exercises in Greek, Spanish and Old English. At first I thought this would be really difficult, but it actually isn't...

14:33 / 02.11.06

Dr. Q, Celtic is actually a family of languages. P-celtic and Q-celtic

My modern Irish is awful, I tried and it just didn't stick except for some reading comprehension. Welsh is a very beautiful langauge and I've only heard manx on tapes.

15:51 / 02.11.06

I've been teaching myself Mandarin, mostly off CDs.

No genders. No "he" or "she," actually.

I've been slack the last few months, but will take actual classes in January, I think.

16:00 / 02.11.06

Learning in converstions with someone else is always good. Or make up role-plays by yourself and talk to a teddy.

This is also a good way of realising what you may need to revise or if you have any gaps.