Learning a new language

[Janice]

My husband recently retired. He's worked so hard his entire life that it left him little time to develop hobbies. He's a coin collecter, and being a history buff, has quite a vast library of books and magazines on the Civil War and WWII, if that's considered a hobby.

He decided he wants to learn to speak Italian. So, I got him the beginners kit, with book and CD. I can hear him now in bed, repeating the phrases, lol. He's got a good grasp of Italian anyway, as he's part Sicilian, and grew up hearing it. All I know is he keeps saying things to me in Italian. I told him if I find out he's saying bad things to me in another language, I'll deck him.

Has anyone learned another language? Any tips?

[vtunie]

Uhh... outside school lessons? After retirement? Wow, that's very impressive!

I learned French and Latin in school once upon a time, but w/o practice these things go very quickly.

They say, though, that watching TV in that language helps. Most cities in Canada have an optional Italian channel on the cable services -- is something like that available in the States?

[Janice]

Originally Posted by vtunie

Uhh... outside school lessons? After retirement? Wow, that's very impressive!

I learned French and Latin in school once upon a time, but w/o practice these things go very quickly.

They say, though, that watching TV in that language helps. Most cities in Canada have an optional Italian channel on the cable services -- is something like that available in the States?

I don't know, but definintely something to look into. I can probably find Italian movies on Netflix, with subtitles. Wow, great idea. Thank you so much!

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Family Ties Forever!

The only tip I can think of is what your husband is already doing which is repeating the words over and over.

.....and over, and over, and over, and over. How do you say shut up in Italian? Just kidding, lol.

[Czas na Zywiec]

I speak four languages. What can I say, I'm a language buff. I find the whole concept of language and communication fascinating and had I had another choice to choose a major in college, I would have majored in linguistics.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Czas na Zywiec

I speak four languages. What can I say, I'm a language buff. I find the whole concept of language and communication fascinating and had I had another choice to major in in college, I would have majored in linguistics.

Hey Chris! Long time. How are you? How do you say, 'I love you', in Italian? Something like amore??

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally Posted by Janice

Hey Chris! Long time. How are you? How do you say, 'I love you', in Italian? Something like amore??

Hey I'm doing good, just busy with school, work and graduation, the usual. Hmm...I never picked up Italian so I'm not sure. In Spanish it's "Te amo" and since Italian and Spanish are almost the same I'll guess it's not too far off. Love in Spanish is "amor" and in Italian it's "amore," so it's probably not far off.

[OH Nuts!]

If I had it to do over, in college I would have been a Spanish and French major. It would be so great to be fluent in these two languages. I've had TONS of Spanish in school. I grew up in south FL so there was a huge Spanish population as there is here in NYC. I took some in College. I never got fluent though. Just enough to have a semi-decent conversation with someone who speaks little or no English. I can read most signs in Spanish but whenever I try to tackle "un periodico en espanol" I have to have a dictionary.

One Xmas I met this French Canadian guy I really liked and when I went to call his house his parents didn't speak a word of English. All I could say is "Est Christian ici?'" (which is wrong as ici is here) and "Je ne parle pas francais"

I was so embarrassed by this I decided I wanted to learn some French. I joined the Alliance Francais in NYC which has a great borrowing library and what they call Rendevous's where people of all levels can practice their French. When I was a member, I heard about this great learning program for French called French In Action. It's an immersion based program developed by a professor at Yale. IT WAS AMAZING. I began learning French so quickly that after 2 mo through it that I was able to converse (not fancy of course) with a cousin fluent in French. I have the whole series but I got lazy and stopped watching. But if I ever go to France or Quebec I'm going to start watching it 4-6 mo's before I go so at least I could get my point across in case I ran into anyone who couldn't speak any or little English.

I guess what I'm saying is the best way to learn is thru immersion. Janice, is your husand ever thinking of a trip to Italy?

[Myles]

I took four years of French during High School. I even won the Language award during awards night. Oh~lala!

I took Arabic during last winter semester at college. Definitely not as easy as French. I figured it would be beneficial to me since I live in the metrodetroit area, which has a high population of Arabic-speaking Americans.

We had to learn an entirely new alphabet. Did you know that Arabic is read from right to left? Essentially, in our view, their words and sentences are backwards. You should have seen me trying to open our textbook for the first time.

The best way to learn a language is to use it frequently in every day life. It helps to have a friend or partner that you can practice with. If you don't stay on top of it you'll forget it. I know I've forgotten most of the verb conjugations for French.

[PZelda]

Well.

Sign language is my primary language. American Sign Language and Signed Exact English (ASL and SEE, respectively) are actually two separate languages, but most people use both so they get lumped into one language. Meaning, written/spoken English is the second language I grew up with... SEE/ASL first. I know a bit of German, but that's it. I do better at reading German than trying to write it. I didn't take any foreign language classes in high school... oh well.

Oh, and each country also has its own sign language. I went to England four years ago and saw a few people in London conversing in British Sign Language. I'd looked at the BSL fingerspelling alphabet chart before I flew out there, and it confused the hell out of me (they use both hands instead of one, as we do here in America, to fingerspell the alphabet.).

The fingerspelling chart for here:


British fingerspelling chart :



So. I guess you could say I'm trilingual. To an extent.

[*ClassicPinUp*]

I'm currently doing Italian and French. My dad's side is Italian and they all speak Italian (some can speak/write in more then one Italian dialect) so I've got a lot of it down but not all and seeing as how I'd like to speak Italian to my kids one day I need to learn the rest now.

Next year I would like to take up Hebrew. I started before and it was very easy for me to pick up but I didn't stick with it for some reason.


Janice something I like doing that may be helpful for your hubby; Make flash cards with a picture of an item (lamp, bed, book etc.) on one side and the Italian word for it on the other. The visual with the word helps the mind to remember easier than just saying the word over and over.

[Cactus Jack]

Originally Posted by Janice

.....and over, and over, and over, and over. How do you say shut up in Italian? Just kidding, lol.

Callate


DAMN thats Spanish LOL

[*ClassicPinUp*]

Originally Posted by Janice

How do you say shut up in Italian? Just kidding, lol.

Stai zitto!

[LuLu Rogers]

I took Spanish and French in high school. Something that really helped me was watching movies in either Spanish or French with English subtitles, that way I could hear it in that language while seeing it in English. M*A*S*H in Spanish is great

[InspectorExstead]

i took spanish all four years in high school, but unfortunately, i've forgotten most of it because i didn't speak it after. but like others have said, i would watch spanish channels or movies either in spanish or with spanish subtitles. i found it easier to follow along with spanish subtitles when it was a movie i had already seen in english. reading books, magazines or short stories in the language helps as well.

i really want to take some sign language classes at school next year, so hopefully i have the room in my schedule to do that.