Learning Languages for Leisure Travel

[braumeister]

If you want to speak and understand German a little better, you can try "easy German" videos.

Nice idea, thanks. I had no idea there was such a thing, but found it on YouTube.

 

[audreyh1]

Wohoo! I finished the Dutch Duolingo tree! It was quite long as it morphed during my use and doubled in size. Got to some pretty complex grammar too. I also managed to get all the skills “Golden” as I finished which took a lot of extra work. My longest streak was 344 days.

I also had to take some grammar courses to supplement Duolingo as it is weak on that point. I’m half way through the second one.

But it’s really just a foundation. I still don’t understand much of what I read on Dutch websites and my listening comprehension is pretty bad. But now I can focus more on those areas instead of constantly doing “exercises”.

My main goal with Dutch was to understand what my SIL and nephews say in Dutch. It’s coming slowly....

BTW I also loaded in the Spanish Duolingo tree today and I tested out of all but the final 6 skills! With no “prep”.

I’m also training my ear for Spanish as spoken in Spain by watching some of the Spain produced series on Netflix. Several excellent ones.

 

[davebarnes]

Huge fan of https://www.memrise.com
I upgraded to Pro.
I spent 170 hours learning Portugûes.
Now learning Euskara and Català.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Huge fan of https://www.memrise.com
I upgraded to Pro.
I spent 170 hours learning Portugûes.
Now learning Euskara and Català.

Cool- thanks for the link. We are deciding between Warsaw/Krakow and Prague and this might come in handy. I dislike travelling without knowing ANY of the language. Any thoughts on those two locations?

 

[braumeister]

I can tell you that Polish and Czech are both very difficult languages. If I were you I would just get a good phrase book rather than try to learn the language.

 

[Nemo2]

I can tell you that Polish and Czech are both very difficult languages. If I were you I would just get a good phrase book rather than try to learn the language.

+1

Still recall attempting to say "Good Morning" to a guy in the apartment building we stayed at in Prague.

French/Spanish/Italian it ain't.

 

[Freedom56]

The best way to learn languages is by total immersion. My in-laws don't speak English at all. My father-in-law speaks French only. My mother-in-law speaks French and Swiss German. My wife, like many in Switzerland, speaks English, French, German, and Italian fluently. I had to learn or become anti-social. After 27 years, I became fluent in French, German, and Italian. Both my wife and I can get by in Spanish. We just speak Italian. You can't assume everyone in small villages in Europe can communicate in English. They just don't. Knowing multiple languages certainly helped us in our careers. My wife was a registered nurse at a major hospital in Los Angeles and frequently communicated with patients in German and French. When I was working, I would often take month long long business trips to Italy and work with our EU customers. Knowing Italian and German not only helped at work, but also during social events after work. I have met many young Americans who are studying in Switzerland, its amazing to see how they have mstered multiple languages at such a young age. But then again, they told me it helps them pick up girls at bars.

 

[Sojourner]

BTW I also loaded in the Spanish Duolingo tree today and I tested out of all but the final 6 skills! With no “prep”.

I’m also training my ear for Spanish as spoken in Spain by watching some of the Spain produced series on Netflix. Several excellent ones.

I'm using Duolingo to learn some basic Spanish in preparation for an upcoming trip to Spain, and your comment made me wonder if Duolingo's Spanish is more Latin American (Castellano) or more European Spanish (Español). Any thoughts on that? Is Duolingo a good way to lean basic español as spoken/heard in Spain?

 

[Amethyst]

To my ear, Duolingo's pronunciation sounds *nothing* like the speech of Central American tradespeople who work on our house. I suspect it's very proper Spanish from Spain.

I'm using Duolingo to learn some basic Spanish in preparation for an upcoming trip to Spain, and your comment made me wonder if Duolingo's Spanish is more Latin American (Castellano) or more European Spanish (Español). Any thoughts on that? Is Duolingo a good way to lean basic español as spoken/heard in Spain?

 

[audreyh1]

I'm using Duolingo to learn some basic Spanish in preparation for an upcoming trip to Spain, and your comment made me wonder if Duolingo's Spanish is more Latin American (Castellano) or more European Spanish (Español). Any thoughts on that? Is Duolingo a good way to lean basic español as spoken/heard in Spain?

First of all - it is all Castellano, as Spain’s main official Español is Castellano, as well as being used all over Latin America.

I haven’t noticed Duolingo cover the “vosotros” 2nd person plural familiar case which is only used in Spain. So maybe it is a bit more oriented for Latin America.

Oh yeah, and it’s not using the Spanish “lisp”.

Whatever - it will be just fine for Spain. The main differences are quite subtle and mostly the pronunciation of soft “c” and “z” which are pronounced as S in Latin America and what sounds like a lisp (th) in Spain. You’ll notice the difference immediately just with the word Gracias. It’s still more uniform than the difference between UK and USA English because all vowels are pronounced that same and the same syllables are stressed on both side of the hemisphere. There are no spelling differences at all.

I just take my Mexican accent over to Spain and I’m perfectly understood.

 

[audreyh1]

To my ear, Duolingo's pronunciation sounds *nothing* like the speech of Central American tradespeople who work on our house. I suspect it's very proper Spanish from Spain.

No, it’s Latin American pronunciation. There are no “th” sounds.

LOL! It took me a while to remember because I tend to gloss over that these days. I’ve been watching a lot of Spain produced series on Netflix and am used to hearing both accents so I tend not to pay attention to the subtle differences.

Business people from Latin American will speak a much more educated sounding Spanish than tradespeople who perhaps haven’t had much education or only learned Spanish at home and not in school. So you won’t hear this educated Spanish unless you converse with someone in a professional class such as a doctor or someone on a business trip in the US.

There are regional differences as well, but nothing I’ve heard from Duolingo sounds odd, but rather generic Latin American, apart from the automated voices.

 

[Lsbcal]

Wohoo! I finished the Dutch Duolingo tree! It was quite long as it morphed during my use and doubled in size. Got to some pretty complex grammar too. I also managed to get all the skills “Golden” as I finished which took a lot of extra work. My longest streak was 344 days.

I also had to take some grammar courses to supplement Duolingo as it is weak on that point. I’m half way through the second one.
...

Congrats, that is quite an accomplishment.

I wish I had the stick too it drive that you do. But alas, I'll be lucky if I keep my English up.

 

[audreyh1]

Congrats, that is quite an accomplishment.

I wish I had the stick too it drive that you do. But alas, I'll be lucky if I keep my English up.

We'll be visiting Amsterdam again soon, so I was motivated to finish it before hand. It hasn't been easy, as this the first Germanic language that I have really tried to learn, and even though it's much closer to English than the others, it is still hard.

We have so many loanwords from Latin and French in English - especially for the more complex words - that Spanish is easier for me and I quickly grasp the other romance languages. Verb order is the same too.

Dutch was more of a struggle. I have simply no reference for words like, for example, ingewikkeld (complicated) - while in Spanish it's complicado - way easier to remember for an English speaker LOL!

At least I can actually pronounce ingewikkeld now - well close anyway.

I read this thread earlier and was laughing again about unintentionally confusing you over Dutch versus German. I was just so excited about being able to say it in Dutch at the time!

 

[WestUniversity]

Wohoo! I finished the Dutch Duolingo tree! It was quite long as it morphed during my use and doubled in size. Got to some pretty complex grammar too. I also managed to get all the skills “Golden” as I finished which took a lot of extra work. My longest streak was 344 days.

I also had to take some grammar courses to supplement Duolingo as it is weak on that point. I’m half way through the second one.

But it’s really just a foundation

Congratulations!

I’m a fan of Duolingo, Pimsleur, and the Coffee Break podcast series from Radio Lingua. From what I have learned you need a vocabulary of somewhere around 6,000 words to be conversationally proficient. Each installment of Pimsleur is about 500 words. I think the Duolingo trees are each somewhere around 3,000 words. The Coffee Break series will give you a good grammar foundation as well. Nothing however will accelerate your learning more than speaking, reading and writing on a daily basis.

I’ve completed the Spanish tree in Duolingo and have done some work with French and Italian too, although I’m concerned learning any Italian will potentially mess up my Spanish...

 

[Chuckanut]

I finished the Italian tree on Duolingo. Now I am going back over it to reinforce what I have learned and forgotten. I have no delusions about being anywhere near fluent, but I can read some basic things, have a very simple tourist type conversation, and exchange pleasantries. It's a heck of a lot better than not knowing anything at all. And it does impress my American friends who think grazie is pronounced gratzee.

 

[Nemo2]

Boy, you guys are impressive......I know a few random, totally unrelated, words in a couple languages, but overall I'm barely coherent in English.

Kudos.

 

[WestUniversity]

I finished the Italian tree on Duolingo. Now I am going back over it to reinforce what I have learned and forgotten. I have no delusions about being anywhere near fluent, but I can read some basic things, have a very simple tourist type conversation, and exchange pleasantries. It's a heck of a lot better than not knowing anything at all. And it does impress my American friends who think grazie is pronounced gratzee.

From what I have read fluent means anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 words depending upon the language.

I basically want to be able to have a discussion with a native about everyday things. If you’re familiar with the CEFR scale used in Europe I’m attempting to get to B2. Currently I’m at B1 in Spanish. My next goal is B2 in French...

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I have learned the basics in Italian, can converse a little in Spanish and speak French pretty well. For Czech or Polish, it'll just have to be please, thank you and where is the bathroom, I'm sure. I love the "behind the wheel" series, but don't even know if that's available in Polish...

 

[ugeauxgirl]

From what I have read fluent means anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 words depending upon the language.

I basically want to be able to have a discussion with a native about everyday things. If you’re familiar with the CEFR scale used in Europe I’m attempting to get to B2. Currently I’m at B1 in Spanish. My next goal is B2 in French...

How do you test yourself to see where you are? I am interested in doing this. I was an exchange student in France (a million years ago) and was fluent then. I lost a lot of it, but some of it came back during a 10 day trip several years ago. would be interested in knowing how much I have retained. Please send details.

 

[WestUniversity]

How do you test yourself to see where you are? I am interested in doing this. I was an exchange student in France (a million years ago) and was fluent then. I lost a lot of it, but some of it came back during a 10 day trip several years ago. would be interested in knowing how much I have retained. Please send details.

For Spanish there is a website called Spanish-test.net. Not sure if there is a French equivalent...

 

[anethum]

How do you test yourself to see where you are? I am interested in doing this. I was an exchange student in France (a million years ago) and was fluent then. I lost a lot of it, but some of it came back during a 10 day trip several years ago. would be interested in knowing how much I have retained. Please send details.

I found the following site which has free quick tests for French, Spanish, German, & English:

https://www.languagelevel.com/

The following site describes the meaning of the different level designations:

https://www.fluentin3months.com/cefr-levels/

 

[audreyh1]

I finished the Italian tree on Duolingo. Now I am going back over it to reinforce what I have learned and forgotten. I have no delusions about being anywhere near fluent, but I can read some basic things, have a very simple tourist type conversation, and exchange pleasantries. It's a heck of a lot better than not knowing anything at all. And it does impress my American friends who think grazie is pronounced gratzee.

Congrats!

I think Duolingo is great for a beginner, but it won't take you to a conversational level. You need to hear a lot of dialog to get to that. But it's great for a motivated tourist. Even if you don't speak much, you'll probably understand when someone asks you a short question, and be able to read basic signs, etc.

If/when we make it back to Italy I certainly plan to do the Italian. I'll have to suspend my Spanish though for the period - they are way too close. Years ago I had what I called a "tourist Italian". But it's been over 20 years now!

ciao!

 

[audreyh1]

I know that I'm somewhat fluent in Spanish, and can hold a conversation no problem. Can read web sites and watch programs in Spanish and understand pretty much all as long as the speakers don't mumble (which unfortunately they sometimes do).

I can also think completely in Spanish, no problem.

But it took a long time to get there and I'm not sure that number of words had anything to do with it.

The most effective thing for me was watching many many hours of situational video with conversations in everyday situations like telenovelas. At some point I realized that I didn't need to translate what people said to English to understand it. I knew what they meant first, and then could translate it to English.

I have no goal to reach that level of proficiency in another language unless I move somewhere that requires it.

 

[Chuckanut]

Congrats!

I think Duolingo is great for a beginner, but it won't take you to a conversational level. You need to hear a lot of dialog to get to that. But it's great for a motivated tourist. Even if you don't speak much, you'll probably understand when someone asks you a short question, and be able to read basic signs, etc.
!

I get lots of practice of listening skills thanks to the MHZ network which is primarily non-English speaking shows imported from Europe and sometimes Japan and Korea. Among those I watch are Inspector Montalbano, Bullet Proof Heart, and now Nero Wolf (He's moved from NYC to Rome. Both he and Archie speak impeccable Italian.)

They have shows from French, Spanish, and Northern European countries. Also some eastern block, Turkey, etc. etc. etc.

All have subtitles.

 

[braumeister]

The most effective thing for me was watching many many hours of situational video with conversations in everyday situations like telenovelas.

Telenovelas (what I call soap operas) are great for language learning. I think they work so well because there is usually enough of a pause after each person speaks that your brain has time to catch up. Also the plot never moves very rapidly.