Learning a new language

[Bob's Orange]

Hello fellow Europeans.

For one reason or another, my wife and I are learning Turkish. We have enrolled in weekly 2 hour classes, have invested in a large beginners book and I have started using an app called Memrise which tests your listening and writing. (I have learnt about 100 words last week using it).

Based on your past experience, what do you find is the best way of learning a new language? Our Turkish teacher basically doesn't use any English in her classes which at the moment I struggle with as I have no idea how sentences are structured etc.

Any top tips?

[DarloSTFC84]

Shout in broken English loudly and slowly..

Generally the thing to do, isn't it?

[Samdy Gray]

Duolingo

/thread

[Flashheart]

I learned Thai as a matter of course, I had to learn to order my beer somehow. Having said that I don't speak it nearly as well as I should be able to and can't read or write it at all, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.

[Reg Smeeton]

Hello fellow Europeans.

For one reason or another, my wife and I are learning Turkish. We have enrolled in weekly 2 hour classes, have invested in a large beginners book and I have started using an app called Memrise which tests your listening and writing. (I have learnt about 100 words last week using it).

Based on your past experience, what do you find is the best way of learning a new language? Our Turkish teacher basically doesn't use any English in her classes which at the moment I struggle with as I have no idea how sentences are structured etc.

Any top tips?

I've a mate who speaks about 5 or 6 languages fluently....his raison d'etre, he houses young mainly Eastern European ladies, who come to Blighty for a variety of reasons, work, students etc.

He taught himself Turkish, in advance of what he thought would be a Cameron inspired inflow of belly dancers etc on Turkey's EU accession.

His method....he watches TV from the country on satellite, you get progs like Millionaire in Turkish, so the format you understand from the start, other stuff is in English and then subtitled. He does have plenty of time to work on it mind, being funded by the domiciled ladies with a bit of freelance computer stuff on the side.

[horlock07]

I am crap at learning languages as stints trying French, German, Spanish and Italian show, my approach is to just let my wife who is much better at such things to do the talking whilst I just mumble a bit and arrange the logistics of the holiday!

Incidentally my little one is learning to read at the moment using phonetics and attending the presentation at school the other week made me conclude that I don't even speak English that well!  

[Simon Pieman]

Duolingo

/thread

I've started using this but haven't been as disciplined with it as I'd liked.

How far along have you got with it? I'm trying it to learn some Italian

[Peter Venkman]

attending the presentation at school the other week made me conclude that I don't even speak English that well!   

But aren't you in Lancs? therefore they speak their own dialect of English anyway so if you can learn that you learn anything....

[horlock07]

But aren't you in Lancs? therefore they speak their own dialect of English anyway so if you can learn that you learn anything....

Cumbria now so its even better - I fear for our little one she is growing up with a father with a bizarre Wiltshire Gloucestershire accent, a mother who is broad Yorkshire and living in Cumbria accent wise she has got no hope!

[Peter Venkman]

Cumbria now so its even better - I fear for our little one she is growing up with a father with a bizarre Wiltshire Gloucestershire accent, a mother who is broad Yorkshire and living in Cumbria accent wise she has got no hope!

[Samdy Gray]

I've started using this but haven't been as disciplined with it as I'd liked.

How far along have you got with it? I'm trying it to learn some Italian

Quite advanced. It really works if you can keep at it. I used it to brush up on my German.

[Bob's Orange]

Duolingo

/thread

That looks like 'Memrise' if not a bit better from first glance. I'll give that a go Samdy, thanks a lot.

I've a mate who speaks about 5 or 6 languages fluently....his raison d'etre, he houses young mainly Eastern European ladies, who come to Blighty for a variety of reasons, work, students etc.

He taught himself Turkish, in advance of what he thought would be a Cameron inspired inflow of belly dancers etc on Turkey's EU accession.

His method....he watches TV from the country on satellite, you get progs like Millionaire in Turkish, so the format you understand from the start, other stuff is in English and then subtitled. He does have plenty of time to work on it mind, being funded by the domiciled ladies with a bit of freelance computer stuff on the side.

The wife has suggested watching Turkish films (with English subtitles) so might give this a go also.

[horlock07]

The wife has suggested watching Turkish films (with English subtitles) so might give this a go also.

Possibly put Reg's other suggestion to invite loads of young Turkish ladies into the house to her as well? 

[Chubbs]

Whatever you do, don't try to learn polish. It's near impossible to self learn in your "spare time"

Take a simple word, such as "two" (2) There is only 1 way of saying it, two.
Some countries have a masculine/feminine version making it two ways of saying two.
It gets a bit complicated when your head east such as Croatia have 7 forms depending on gender Poland has 17 forms of saying two.
 1. dwa
 2. dwie
 3. dwoje
 4. dwóch (or dwu)
 5. dwaj
 6. dwiema
 7. dwom (or dwóm)
 8. dwoma
 9. dwojga
 10. dwojgu
 11. dwojgiem
 12. dwójka
 13. dwójki
 14. dwójkę
15. dwójką
16. dwójce
 17. dwójko

That's just 1 word. It took me the best part of 10 years to speak extremely fluently.

[Bob's Orange]

I have no desire to learn Polish thanks Chubbs and your post hasn't changed that!!

Turkish doesn't seem so complicated, only 1 word for yes (evet) and 1 word for no (hayir).