Member of the Month! - Chaos Team - Page 3

Bs, you said you enjoyed learning languages. What languages have you learned, even just part way?

quote w111j

Bs, you said you enjoyed learning languages. What languages have you learned, even just part way?

Well, the main one I've studied is French, which I've learned for most of my life, really, and been there several times.

I did Latin for a year at school, but I had no say in that, haha! All I can remember of it is that there was someone called Caecilius, and someone called Pliny, and other than that, it's just the bit from Life Of Brian, and a few other scraps here and there, haha! So I don't really count that.

I learned German for maybe 2 years in high school, but I found it hard to work with that and French at the same time, and I missed some important lessons for various reasons so I didn't carry on with that in the end.

I also learned Spanish for a year at college, and like German, I did pretty well with it, but also mixed it up with French occasionally, and then I accidentally missed the reading exam, because I forgot to write it down on my exam timetable, heh.

Generally, I found that I did alright with the other languages when I was learning them, but it complicated my learning of French a bit, as it was all at a similar level, so I wanted to give that priority, and so I just took that one to A-Level. I don't remember too much of the others.

I've wanted to learn Japanese for years and years though, so I'm happy to finally be doing that now at university. And in addition to that, my girlfriend is Thai, so I'm hoping I can learn that in the future, although it's one of the hardest languages around. I learned a few basic things in it earlier in the year when I went there, but I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation in it by any means. Hopefully one for the future though. And then maybe I can go back to those other languages I've tried briefly like Spanish and so on and try and polish them off too.

quote Pokenerd15

Bs, Yeah.. Only I used a translator. I really want to learn Japanses, but I have no clue where to start and such. I wanted to take Japanese in school, but they don't offer it so I get i'm gonna have to figure this one out on my own. lol. Where did you learn yours?

Ah, I see, okay. Well, yeah I've wanted to learn Japanese since I was 10, I think. I didn't have the option in school or college though, so I've had to wait for university, which I started just over a week ago, and I'm finally learning it now. However, there are sites that can help you. I found JapanesePod101 last May, I think, and that helped me a little in setting myself up before I started, but once I knew I'd got into university, I decided to wait and start properly then. Now I have started, I'm using all the files I got from that site in conjunction with what I'm getting from my teachers to try and learn just as much. I know there are other sites out there too though!

If it helps, I think what I did was pay about £10 for a 1 month premium subscription to the site last May, and then that gave me permission to download everything they'd ever had on there during that month, basically, via podcast. So I ended up with almost more than 15 days worth of podcasts, plus .pdf files guiding you through the language, video files, etc, making up about 22GB worth of files dating from 2005-2010, ranging through all topics and difficulties. I also got sent a DVD with some extra stuff on that. Not bad for £10, really. I don't know about the having led a full life thing, although I suppose I've done a few things over time. I'd like to do more in the future if possible though!

Heh, well, not as much as I'd like to have done. I spent about 4 years of so of it being depressed, I've spent a lot of time wasting days on the internet or playing video games when I could have actually been doing something a bit more worthwhile, but your options are kind of limited when you're young and have to go to school and so on and you don't really have a say in matters. Either way, I'd like to make more use of my time in the future, even if I have done a few things that I am still happy with so far.

Pokenerd15, if you want to learn hiragana, I also just found this site which you might want to use. Looks pretty useful to me.

Well, that depends how you mean, Zeezow. Obviously, I spend a lot of time in the games battling competitively, and during the earlier generations, I'd often battle with friends via link cable. I don't know if you're referring to newer methods though, if there's some kind of global wifi network for it or something? As I only have a Game Boy Colour and a Game Boy Advance, I've never experienced anything beyond the link cable battling I'm afraid!

Hmmmm. I've never heard of that before, but it does actually look pretty cool. I've bookmarked the page, so I might try it out someday. I like the sound of it anyway!

Thanks, GeoHulk!

It might not be just yet. In fact, I'd already forgotten about it, and I have a busy schedule for the immediate future. But I have saved the link so I'll try and check it out sometime, because it does sound interesting, and I'll drop a message in on the forum when I do!