Language-learners' chat

Cherryfudge

I'm not a German speaker but there are some YouTube things aimed at people learning French which I've found mildly amusing and I'd imagine a search for beginner's German on YouTube might turn up something. Years ago I started German with the BBC and the content was fairly general, rather than aimed at children.

I noticed Duolingo started what look to be live classes or discussion groups about a month ago in various languages but I was very busy at the time and forgot all about it. 

Cherryfudge

I was at a party this evening where the host is another Duolingo user so the chat turned to that and (long story short) I ended up with a pre-teen playing Duolingo on my phone. She did quite a good job too, and her Mum took a note of the app name. Hopefully playing it for fun will help her next term at school.

cornishchick

Hello. I was an army brat as they say so spent the first 5 years of my life in differnt parts of Germany. And according to family legends i was pretty fluent in German. 
I've never thought to relearn/revisit . I think now might be a good time . Nearly 50 yrs later lol 

Mistral001

cornishchick said:

Hello. I was an army brat as they say so spent the first 5 years of my life in differnt parts of Germany. And according to family legends i was pretty fluent in German. 
I've never thought to relearn/revisit . I think now might be a good time . Nearly 50 yrs later lol 

I am in my sixties and lived in Germany for a short while about 40 years ago.  I did not learn much German while living in Germany, but what German I did learn has not really left me over the years.   When I started to take the language up later in life I was familiar with the pronunciation of words and even dialects and that helped.

Cherryfudge

I'm pretty sure the brain lays down pathways that it can reuse when we go back to something we once knew. Even f we've lost all the details, it makes it easier to relearn.

Do you have plans for your learning, @cornishchick, or aren't you at that stage yet? I started French again many years after school, mostly because I didn't want to lose the effort I'd already put in, and also wanted to 'show' my French teacher I could do it! (Not logical as she's long gone). I do enjoy learning nowadays though.

Kittikins

C_J said:

I’m learning Welsh on Duolingo. It’s going okay (I have an aptitude for learning languages, and a degree in Modern Languages from about a million years ago) but I don’t spend as much time on it as I would like. New Year’s resolution will be to address that!

Bore da C_J! Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg hefyd! Rywt ti'n hoffi siarad neu ysgrifennu gyda fi?  

I'm just back from a weekend in South Wales where I tried so hard to chat to people in Welsh but no-one knew it, they were so apologetic!

Kittikins

Frith said:

I started Welsh on Duolingo in 2020 but petered out after 6 months or so. I'd like to restart this year.

I did French and Latin GCSEs at school and one beginner's module of German at University. I have no grammar now in any of those languages at all! (Nor in Welsh).

Bore da Frith! rwyt ti'n hoffi siarad neu ysgrifennu Cymraeg gyda fi? Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg hefyd.

Kittikins

Scottiedog_3 said:

I'm brushing up my Welsh and Spanish. I did two years of Welsh about 50 years ago and I'm slightly horrified by how colloquial and variable by dialect the Duolingo course is. I think back then I must have been learning biblical Welsh. To stop my brain rotting away completely,  I'm also reviving my Spanish. The Duolingo Spanish  course seems Mexican based so there are "bananas" instead of "platanas". I do a lot of tutting as I used to teach languages for a living and the sheer drudgery of much of the Duolingo exercises strikes me as medieval. However, there's nothing better than a spot of language learning for keeping the brain fighting fit...

Bore da! Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg hefyd! Rwyt ti'n hoffi siarad neu ysgrifennu Cymraeg gyda fi? I'm desperate to practice, not least because no-one in South Wales where I've just spent a weekend seems to know it! So sad...

Kittikins

VJsmum said:

Ooh hello fellow duolinguists.  I'm on day 653 of German (do i win?  LOL).

I did also start welsh but it's really hard - though 'hoffi coffi' is a favourite 🤣

most of my mistakes now are word order...

bore da, dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg hefyd, if you fancy practising, I'd love to do more Welsh! Just back from a weekend in South Wales and tried really hard to chat to people but no-one knew it.  Very sad for this girl from Oxford!

-taff

Go to North Wales. Or West Wales