Spending quality time in Europe, learning a foreign language

[netzerkaiser]

As a student of languages, I may be able to help wih recommendations of free or not free but worth it courses, for anyone who wanted to plant themselves in a foreign land for a few months. To be straight-up, the Routledge / 'Teach yourself' option can be a useful aide, Assimil too (but ultimately insufficient)... some Linguaphone courses, are excellent some not so. But I'll start here:

FSI -American foreign service institute courses from way back in cold war... Hungarian & German are terrific. I got them for free, 10 years ago, not sure if its possible now... about 20 hours of Audio..
https://www.livelingua.com/project/fsi/Hungarian/

For Polish, a book by Schenker.. again superb, you gotta try get the audio too...
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Polish ... 0300016530

To start with Russian, the old 70's / 80's Linguaphone is simply superb... there are other terrific resources, I can point to them.

You'll learn Swedish with 70's / 80's Linguaphone + Hugo Swedish... + it'll open door to Norwegian + Danish.

Czech I'll deal with later.

My own bugbear is French. I've never been able to find something adequate. I could do with help / suggestions here

Anyone interested in taking up this discussion I'll help anyway I can.

Two things for sure - 1 if you plan a few months in Europe, your experience will be immeasurably bettered by a grip on language... 2 the free resources around via rapidshare account 10-12 years ago don't seem to be there anymore.

Like I say, I'm kind of well versed in this issue so feel free to ask.

Cheers.

PS I got muh of my stuff from great site called UZ-Translations thats regrettably dead about 10 years...

[YumYum74]

I use the Duolingo app on my smartphone to try and learn Italian. Pretty easy and only takes me 10 minutes a day.

[netzerkaiser]

I use the Duolingo app on my smartphone to try and learn Italian. Pretty easy and only takes me 10 minutes a day.

Google translate has greatly improved too at idiomatic level. For French I just need the right conversational stuff to translate, even stuff like I'm saying now. That isn't easy. Most of the great novels use verb tenses like past historic & not enough of conditional, future etc, I find.

[avanfurwet]

Thanks netzerkaiser, useful resources.

How many languages can you speak?

[netzerkaiser]

Thanks netzerkaiser, useful resources.

How many languages can you speak?

I'm ok with Swedish & rusty with Russian, they'd be easist for me to rekindle, but with Czech, German & Hungarian there was a time I was fairly impressive & could visit & go to small towns etc no problem, so exciting. But that peak was about 5 years ago & I really would have to start again. But I want to.

Right now its just work crazy hours & booze the time off... thats no use, I'm beginning to realise that.

Thank you for the interest Avanfurwet, I'll try expand on that list at weekend.

[netzerkaiser]

Thanks netzerkaiser, useful resources.

How many languages can you speak?

I just want to tell you, Avanfurwet, like several people I've spoken to on site... I think you're a gentleman & you have my respect.

[viewer2]

I just want to tell you, Avanfurwet, like several people I've spoken to on site... I think you're a gentleman & you have my respect.

I think, netzerkaiser, that managing to speak languages which are as far as each other as Swedish, Hungarian and Russian also deserves our respect!
Every one of them taken separately is already not common, but all of them simultaneously, and moreover (if I understand correctly) without actually having conversation opportunities and learning alone... congratulations!

[netzerkaiser]

I just want to tell you, Avanfurwet, like several people I've spoken to on site... I think you're a gentleman & you have my respect.

I think, netzerkaiser, that managing to speak languages which are as far as each other as Swedish, Hungarian and Russian also deserves our respect!
Every one of them taken separately is already not common, but all of them simultaneously, and moreover (if I understand correctly) without actually having conversation opportunities and learning alone... congratulations!

Thank you too, viewer2... I swear by the FSI set for Hungarian... there is an FSI II set also that is equally great, & I hope still, free, its the audio that I find makes it so rewarding, 20 hours? Fantastic. The same people came up with German courses. Unfortunately FSI took wrong turn with Spanish & Italian... totally wrong learning method.

The Hugo & Linguaphone combination for Swedish is enough... I had to do it, I was in love with a country Swedish girl with no English 20 years ago & it worked. The idea that you'll just go over & pick it all up is simply nonsense.

Linguphone Rusian from '80's is superb but I'll add additional courses.

Again, like I say, for Polish, Schenker is your man. But you need audio too. The problem for English speakers learning Czech or Polish is you're deceptively drawn in by same alphabet. With Russian, you must learn Cyrillic & you fast-track the better for it by far. But grammatical basis of all Slavic is the same, 'podobna' as they say.

You need far more than Routledge courses - they're great up to chapter 5, then you're lost, I find.

Thanks.

[netzerkaiser]

You just gotta be careful with some things, they take different shades in similar languages. 'Chitry' in Czech, means intelligent & I remember complimenting Russian lady on her husband being 'chitry' - she corrected me that 'chitry' in Russian meant crafty or sly. The beauty of language...

[Pineapples Studio]

Crazy to see so many multi-lingual people here. I only speak English fluently, although I do have basic conversational Spanish skills. It is much easier to understand what others are saying than it is to speak the language myself.

[avanfurwet]

I agree, enormous respect to people like netzerkaiser who can learn other languages. I can barely speak English.

[netzerkaiser]

I just want to tell you, Avanfurwet, like several people I've spoken to on site... I think you're a gentleman & you have my respect.

I think, netzerkaiser, that managing to speak languages which are as far as each other as Swedish, Hungarian and Russian also deserves our respect!
Every one of them taken separately is already not common, but all of them simultaneously, and moreover (if I understand correctly) without actually having conversation opportunities and learning alone... congratulations!

@viewer2, you know a bit yourself, to even make this statement. Fair play! I did do it simultaneously but I took 18 months out of work, I had this notion of business from an angle of native English speaker on European soil managing his way Vs non-native English speaker on 'British' soil managing his way... I would've been 1 in 1000, but mortgage meant I ran out of time.

Its best to learn very different languages in tandem rather than similar languages.. with former approach you deal with blue, red, yellow - distinct; with latter approach you have orange, red, pink... so easy to confuse. Thanks.

[dap-addict]

I use the Duolingo app on my smartphone to try and learn Italian. Pretty easy and only takes me 10 minutes a day.

Late thanks for this post.
Will try that!

Is it only for vocabulary or also sentences?
Italian is pretty easy than if your base language is dutch/english/german. Have you experience with other languages

[YumYum74]

I use the Duolingo app on my smartphone to try and learn Italian. Pretty easy and only takes me 10 minutes a day.

Late thanks for this post.
Will try that!

Is it only for vocabulary or also sentences?
Italian is pretty easy than if your base language is dutch/english/german. Have you experience with other languages

It starts with simple vocabulary and yes, also small sentences. No substitute for a real course ofc but I find it helps me immensely when talking to my Italian friend and his gf. They both speak English also but when they speak Italian I find I can understand what they are saying now and can even contribute more and more. Let’s say Duolingo is a good basis from which to really learn a language.
I have to disagree though about Italian being easy when my mother tongue is Dutch.
Besides English as a foreign languahe I also speak German and (some) French too, but those are from my school days and not an app.

[Jocke]

Netzerkaiser,
Kul att du valt att lära dig svenska!
Har du varit i Sverige? Är du född i England eller har du östeuropeiska rötter?

[netzerkaiser]

Netzerkaiser,
Kul att du valt att lära dig svenska!
Har du varit i Sverige? Är du född i England eller har du östeuropeiska rötter?

Hejsan, jag prata lite, jag arbetade dar manga ar sedan. Det ar ett mycket strallande landet. Jag bodde nasta lake Maleren, och jag besokte Gotland manga tid. Tyvarr, jag kan inte kommer ihag sprak nufortiden.

[YumYum74]

I lived in Denmark for a while and even though I never managed to learn Danish, I used to be able to sometimes get the meaning in Danish written language. I didn’t understand these Swedish sentences at all guys.

[netzerkaiser]

I lived in Denmark for a while and even though I never managed to learn Danish, I used to be able to sometimes get the meaning in Danish written language. I didn’t understand these Swedish sentences at all guys.

well i just typed off top of my head, without Swedish keyboard & proper letters. I think Norwegian is much closer to Swedish, unless you live in Skane in south, dialect will be closer to Danish, I'm sure.

[netzerkaiser]

Netzerkaiser,
Kul att du valt att lära dig svenska!
Har du varit i Sverige? Är du född i England eller har du östeuropeiska rötter?

Jag foddes i Irland, men jag har arbetade de senaste tio ar pa continent och Scotland. Jag bodde i större delen av Europa och England. Nufortiden, jag stannar har i Irande den senaste ar. Nu stannar jag här i Irland tills coronavirus är klart och resor återupptas. Nu arbetar jag på distans. Jag arbetar med medicinsk teknik, tyvarr det är ett ensamt jobb, men det ar bra att ha jobb idag, forstos.

Sorry Jocke, I was so lazy for this post I used google translate for most of it.

[dap-addict]

That gets funny! LOL!
Though I dont understand a word anymore!

Yum, fine, but have you tried this App for Turkish maybe, or Tagalog or let say Magyar?
Would it be possible to reach a street & shop & bar conversation level as well?

[netzerkaiser]

That gets funny! LOL!
Though I dont understand a word anymore!

Yum, fine, but have you tried this App for Turkish maybe, or Tagalog or let say Magyar?
Would it be possible to reach a street & shop & bar conversation level as well?

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I looked into app (duolingo), & it doesn't seem to me that good beyond facile level. TBH, google translate has admittedly made great strides. As you seem to spend time in Czech Prague, it seems (?) DAPaddict, Lingea (Czech company) are fantastic, I've bought a couple of their courses online, but I'm gonna need get copy of Adobe professional to copy Czech into googletranslate for English.

[YumYum74]

I have not, not too many Tagalog or Magyar speakers over here.
But I imagine you could reach a basic level of proficiency in order to buy a drink, buy something in a shop or introduce yourself, and build upon it from there.

[YumYum74]

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I looked into app (duolingo), & it doesn't seem to me that good beyond facile level. TBH, google translate has admittedly made great strides. As you seem to spend time in Czech Prague, it seems (?) DAPaddict, Lingea (Czech company) are fantastic, I've bought a couple of their courses online, but I'm gonna need get copy of Adobe professional to copy Czech into googletranslate for English.

Like I said, it’s just an app you can use as a starting point and definitely not a full fledged course. I never claimed otherwise.

[netzerkaiser]

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I looked into app (duolingo), & it doesn't seem to me that good beyond facile level. TBH, google translate has admittedly made great strides. As you seem to spend time in Czech Prague, it seems (?) DAPaddict, Lingea (Czech company) are fantastic, I've bought a couple of their courses online, but I'm gonna need get copy of Adobe professional to copy Czech into googletranslate for English.

Like I said, it’s just an app you can use as a starting point and definitely not a full fledged course. I never claimed otherwise.

Oh definitely, I wasn't trying to be elitist brother. For the record, I do find Italian as active english speaker, that rare thing, both easy & beautiful... but as you state... move onto 2nd or 3rd level & it gets TOUGH. But I'd call it Gods language. I love it. Kudos to Dutchman for learning it. I've such an amazing vision of your country though I've never been... both videos in my heart always. Both heavily sentimental... pass me the hankerchief I'm afraid...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f71Wa_d1Io

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7FIF5vh3BY

[drevokocur66]

I would not mind brushing up up on my Russian, Czech or Slovak, while staying with a LP model

[netzerkaiser]

I would not mind brushing up up on my Russian, Czech or Slovak, while staying with a LP model

Do this first, I would not mind brushing up up on my Russian, Czech or Slovak

& the rest comes later

while staying with a LP model [/quote]

[drevokocur66]

I would not mind brushing up up on my Russian, Czech or Slovak, while staying with a LP model

Do this first, I would not mind brushing up up on my Russian, Czech or Slovak

& the rest comes later

while staying with a LP model

[/quote]

Best way to learn a foreign language, is to live where it is spoken.

[Jocke]

Netzerkaiser, while not fully grammatically correct, all you write is fully understandable.

I have been to Dublin and Belfast. Beautiful country with troubled politics, allthough much better lately I guess?

[Jocke]

I know a guy who has imported a Russian lady. They are working on which language to communicate lol!

[dap-addict]

Best is to work on it together in bed!
No seriously, more difficult than language are often cultural barriers. But for many it works out still in the end, for both I mean.

For the record, I do find Italian as active english speaker, that rare thing, both easy & beautiful... but as you state... move onto 2nd or 3rd level & it gets TOUGH.

Indeed!
But I was mentioning street level conversations only. Order a cappuccino, find the way to the beach, where to apply for the pope audience that kind of stuff.

[netzerkaiser]

Netzerkaiser, while not fully grammatically correct, all you write is fully understandable.

I have been to Dublin and Belfast. Beautiful country with troubled politics, allthough much better lately I guess?

Much better, but I only get to spend half the year here, or at least until covid. I knew a few Swedes who made special pilgrimages here & to Scotland for salmon farming. Have you been to Gotland in the Baltic? I was there 4 times I think. I used love get moped from Visby to Faro. I remember there was an old British Challenger or Churchill tank half way on journey!

[dap-addict]

Hey guys, anybody of you both or else know the Owey Island?
Quite a bit out of the way. Ideal detox place. Porn and other detox. Lovely!
Would like to return once in near future.

[netzerkaiser]

Hey guys, anybody of you both or else know the Owey Island?
Quite a bit out of the way. Ideal detox place. Porn and other detox. Lovely!
Would like to return once in near future.

Never heard of it, but just checked it out. I see its off north west coast of Ireland. But that part of world is beautiful anyway. I still don't think it matches the Scottish highlands though.

The problem with Scotland highlands & mulls is you'll be eaten with midget flies in summer. Really iritating for fishermen or hikers.

[netzerkaiser]

Hey guys, anybody of you both or else know the Owey Island?
Quite a bit out of the way. Ideal detox place. Porn and other detox. Lovely!
Would like to return once in near future.

Never heard of it, but just checked it out. I see its off north west coast of Ireland. But that part of world is beautiful anyway. I still don't think it matches the Scottish highlands though.

The problem with Scotland highlands & mulls is you'll be eaten with midget flies in summer. Really iritating for fishermen or hikers.

https://www.highlandtitles.com/blog/midges/

no kidding, horrible fucking experience, Scottish midget flies.