/lit/ - Literature

English. Because I like it, is necessary nowadays, and a I want to be able to speak it properly (I would like to start reading literature in this language soon); and maybe I will study English at college.

Not exactly on topic, but I have a related question:

I took 2 years of French in high school. I know that most people don't really recommend Rosetta Stone for anyone seriously attempting to learn a language, but since I have had instruction in the language before (specifically, since I actually know the way it works grammatically for the most part) would Rosetta Stone be a good way to actually start learning how to speak and read the language by expanding my vocabulary?

>>3722291
You're pretty good at it already. Where are you from?

I'm learning Russian, Italian and Japanese because I can't choose just one and stick with it

>learning a different language

>not exerting your time refining your Earth Common (English) skills

Unless you actually plan to use the language in a practical manner. Settling disputes between brown people, being a weeaboo, etc

>>3722293
Not really, I have many doubts because I'm not familiar with the language yet. I'm one of the best in my class but I need seriously improve my level (B1-B2 I guess).

Spain. The level here is very poor.

>>3722292
I don't know, I don't use it, but what I do is practice vocabulary decks with Anki (brilliant program) and try and watch as many Spanish-language movies as I can. Gonna try and read some of Garcia Marquez's short stories soon.
>>3722301
I'm already pretty confident about my mastery of the English language. Anyways, I virtually only read books in English, so it's not like I'm slacking off.
>>3722310
Well, immerse yourself, I guess.

>>3722315
>>3722315

>I'm already pretty confident about my mastery of the English language. Anyways, I virtually only read books in English, so it's not like I'm slacking off.

I just think of learning a different language for the sake of it as irrational.

I had this peculiar interest in latin for a long time, I felt like I had to force myself not to invest hours and hours into consequentially undesirable behavior.

>>3722301
>Earth Common (English)
No. Outside of USian colonies (a minority of the world), English isn't used much at all.

>>3722317
Well, I wouldn't say I'm the kind of person who is only ever guided by ratio.
Languages just interest me.
>>3722321
English is the most spoken second language there is.

>>3722321
>>3722321

>No. Outside of USian colonies (a minority of the world), English isn't used much at all.

The sphere of influence that is responsible for the modern world projects its culture and accomplishments onto humanity, but not its language?

What language is ubiquitous among the world's elites?

Not to come off as an /int/ eurocentrist, but to deny the primacy of English as the conduit of international communication seems silly.

Demographics that are ignorant of English will not be within a few decades at the most.

>>3722339
Except for France.

Spanish because I'm moving to Spain for a while soon.

Japanese because I'm going to Japan next.

>>3722351
Pretty straightforward.

>>3722301
>Not reading Proust, Rimbaud, Verlaine, etc in French.

>Not reading Cervantes, Lorca, Bécquer, Borges, etc in Spanish.

>Not reading, Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio etc in Italian.

>>3722333
>>3722333

Yeah. Trying to predict personal benefit is always iffy. How close can one get to "being their own creature" before they wholly deny utility and foresight?

>>3722321

Chinese is a minority.

I am completely fluent in French and English and started learning both German and Japanese; the former for Operas and a certain cultural interest for classical music and literature, the latter because of curiosity, challenge and a bit of weeaboism.

Japanese skills would be an advantage in case I want to learn mandarin etc...
German is nice and useful on a resume if you live in Europe, plus if I ever escape from france, I could see myself living in Austria or Germany.

Mostly cultural reasons.

On a related note, I have a personal objective of speaking 7 languages before I turn 35, being able to converse with natives and read their literature.
English, french + japanese, german, spanish, mandarin and Latin would be transcendental for me.
Learning English shifted the way I think, reason and see things and expanded my horizons so much, I owe it to myself to repeat the experience.

>>3722359
>>3722359

I think it really depends on learning speed and invested time.

If I even had the cognitive capacity to master numerous languages under practical time restraints, is it even worth the investment?

>>3722359
What I really like is when you get a book with both the original text and the translation on the adjacent page. I have that kind of edition of La Vita Nuova, and damn is the Italian beautiful.

>>3722339
>The sphere of influence that is responsible for the modern world projects its culture and accomplishments onto humanity, but not its language?
The 'modern world' isn't a unified thing that can have 'projects', 'culture' or 'accomplishments'.
>What language is ubiquitous among the world's elites?
There is no unified 'world elite', rather lots of orthogonal, unrelated elites.
>Not to come off as an /int/ eurocentrist, but to deny the primacy of English as the conduit of international communication seems silly.
The volume of intranational communication dwarfs international communication by many orders of magnitude.
>Demographics that are ignorant of English will not be within a few decades at the most.
Untrue, of course; the people who like speaking and learning English aren't the ones who are reproducing and carrying on their genes and culture.

>>3722364
Japanese and Mandarin Chinese aren't related, although there are a lot of Chinese loanwords in Japanese.

Fluent in English/Spanish, been living in Japan for 3 years and pretty good, but ashamed to say that my reading is atrocious.

I take conversation lessons twice a week, but I definitely need to focus on actively improving my kanji knowledge.

>>3722383
>I take conversation lessons twice a week

Enjoy never learning the language, you loser.

>>3722370
source? I have bi-lingual versions of the Divine Comedy but I'm looking to get one of Vita Nuova too

>>3722407
It's Dutch, so I doubt it would help you..

>>3722373
>>3722373

>The 'modern world' isn't a unified thing that can have 'projects', 'culture' or 'accomplishments'.

Sounds like waffling over semantics. I'm quite sure we're both aware of the same abstract concepts. Hierarchy exists in humanity. Cultures that have accomplished the most (or are associated by region, ethnicity, etc with such cultures) have far stronger economic and demographic ties to one another than they do with other groups.

The "modern world" is a sphere of efficient communication, material dependence, and shared interests that is not seen on such a scale in the "not modern world".


>There is no unified 'world elite', rather lots of orthogonal, unrelated elites.

Yet these elites cause executive decisions to occur within whatever social atmosphere they have political dominion over. Politicians, rich people, and intellectuals are largely unified on the international stage by the English language. Relative to other languages, I would argue it is that strongest source of information exchange that has powerful consequence. "Meaningful information" if you will.

>The volume of intranational communication dwarfs international communication by many orders of magnitude.

See above. Petty communication is not the same as politically/economically relevant communication.

>Untrue, of course; the people who like speaking and learning English aren't the ones who are reproducing and carrying on their genes and culture.

Built upon the asinine premise that breeding rates and raw population are more meaningful than power.

10 million destitute serfs wield far lower collective influence than do a few billionaires.

Japanese mostly to read classic Japanese /lit/and some comics.

Drawing kanji is pretty relaxing too.

German for now. Literature is the reason. French and Spanish are next, same reason. Now, Russian and Japanese are the kind of language I want to know for no reason at all, sadly have yet to start learning them.

Arabic because it's something that looks challenging.
The language itself is also beautiful.

Spanish too, mostly because it's pretty applicable where I live.

Arabic, cuz it kicks ass

>>3722407
there's a good bilingual edition published by notre dame, Dino Cervigni and Edward Vasta as translators. I don't know which version(s) of Divine Comedy you have but look into the edition by Charles Singleton. The text is facing translation - with translation in prose, which actually helps if you're trying to read the italian since he stretches for words less - but the real gold is the full volume commentary he wrote for each part. If you have the money try to dig up the older hardback versions since the paperbacks fell apart with flipping and i ended up buying it all twice.

Tamil because it's supposed to be my native tongue. French because I already know enough of the basics and it'd be a waste not to learn it. I'd like to try an East Asian language next or Sanskrit if I can find suitable resources to learn it.

latin

I would like to learn ancient greek as well. What am I getting myself into?

>>3722498
>>3722498

>What am I getting myself into?

Regret

>>3722531
Explain.

German, for literature and for a family that expects it of me. My Oma promised to haunt me if I hadn't learned German when she dies.

I know both and have studied Latin for ~1/2 my life and Greek near 7 years. I've also taught both. The thing is to have a real reason for learning it, not just thinking either it will be easier since you don't have to speak it (you'd be surprised how many students confess that on day 1) or that it must be cool to know a dead language. If you don't have a goal in mind - reading Vergil or Homer, for instance - it'll just grow to be a burden once you get past the easy lessons and you'll probably give it up. Or if you're in college and your school has the typical minimum 3 semester language requirement you'll be forced to stay with it so you didn't waste a semester and you'll grow to hate it.

>>3722488
>>3722411

It's alright I found one, bookdepository had it labeled Spanish/English
The Divine Comedy I have is this John Sinclair translation with facing text

>>3722580
Thank you. Is this something I could learn on my own?

>>3722580

I got into Latin simply because I didn't have to speak it but I fell in love with it very quickly and ended up learning Greek as well and getting a BA in classics (tfw $11.50/hr ;_;) One of my professors got into it the same way.

Was it just my school or are there a lot of mediocre Classics major? Besides me and one other student nobody else (i.e. the other five) knew what they were doing. They'd cobble together translations by comparing the text in question to a literal english translation and they'd be completely fucked by sight-reading sections on tests.

french so that i can talk to girls in it and overpronounce french loanwords in conversation

I'm currently learning Latin and Greek for my degree.
I'm doing a bit of Syriac to keep it ticking over on the side and plan to take a module in it next year, as wll as extra-curricular Arabic lessons.
I want to specialise in the late antique Near East and early Christianity, so I'll probably dabble in some Hebrew/Coptic/Classical Armenian at some point.

>>3722607

Not him but you absolutely can if you're motivated. I'm a big proponent of Hans Orberg's Lingua Latina, but you'll want some secondary resources as well. Lingua Latina is a collection of stories written in Latin in such a way that you intuitively learn grammar and vocabulary, or such is the theory.

IME you need to spend some time learning the actual rules to get a solid grasp, but a good grammar (Allen & Greenough) and dictionary will do this for you.

The problem with other methods like Wheelock is that they teach you how to parse sentences, not read Latin. You'll see something like

>Si quid est in me ingeni, iudices, quod sentio quam sit exiguum, aut si qua exercitatio dicendi, in qua me non infitior mediocriter esse versatum, aut si huiusce rei ratio aliqua ab optimarum artium studiis ac disciplina profecta, a qua ego nullum confiteor aetatis meae tempus abhorruisse, earum rerum omnium vel in primis hic A. Licinius fructum a me repetere prope suo iure debet.

and spend twenty minutes trying to "find" the subject, the object, etc, like a crossword puzzle. This is because Latin uses case-endings so the word-order is loose. But if you're well-trained with Orberg your brain is already used to "organizing" these long sentences and you can read it as it is written without too much trouble.

>>3722626

Oh and as for Greek there aren't really excellent beginner-friendly resources for it like there are for Latin. Best to study Latin for a few months and Greek will make much more sense. I like Pharr's "Learning Greek Through Homer".

>>3722626
I should have said greek. I am already learning latin in a classroom so I would like to do greek myself.

Sorry for making you type all that out.

>>3722625
Are there any materials for learning Coptic not locked in ivory towers?

>>3722642

Hah no worries hopefully someone will find it useful. If you already know some Latin go and download the pdf of Pharr, it's a lot of fun and has you reading unadulterated Homer within a few days.

In many ways Greek is easier than Latin. The article removes some of the case-ambiguity that Latin has (i.e. "puellae" could be nom. pl., dat. sg., or gen. sg.) and the vocabulary is much larger which removes even more ambiguity, also the verb is more complete so there are way fewer tricky periphrastic constructions.

Apart from my mother tongue, English and German. My weakness at both is mostly vocabulary and idioms, more so with German (since I use English daily). Is simply reading the best way to improve, or do you all have any special tehniques?

I would love to learn at least French as well, maybe Spanish some day.

>>3722656
Thank you. Is that by clyd pharr?

>French
>Want to study abroad next year

>>3722693
http://www.amazon.com/Homeric-Greek-Book-For-Beginners/dp/1432533967/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Any edition in particular?

>>3722693

Yup that's the one, and if you google around there are some active messageboards that can help when you get stuck on something.

After you've worked through Pharr just get a good grammar and dictionary and a commented text and you're ready to read just about anything you like.

>>3722706

It's out of print, any should be fine, good to have a pdf too though, I bought a hard-copy and it was a bad print-job with some pages missing or unreadable.

>>3722666
speaking is the best way to improve

>>3722653
Have a rummage around here: http://www.lexicity.com/coptic-language-resources.html..
Coptic was offered at the London summer school in Classics at KCL last year (as was Syriac), but they don't seem to be offering it this year. It might be back when the school's back at King's next year.

>>3722712
Thanks a lot.

If I can get bothered I'll polish up my Chinese for reading Lu Xun/Pu Songling/Can Xue, then start German once I'm confident that my Chinese is on a stable level.

I feel horrible, since I neglected my Chinese and focused too much on English when I was younger.

I know english ("know", not a serious knowledge but i can understand texts very well) and this monday i'm starting with French. My born-language is spanish.
Can someone recommend me text in french? For a begginer

>>3722364
Est-ce que tu ne serais pas moi, par hasard?

>>3722623
> french so that i can talk to girls in it and overpronounce french loanwords in conversation
does it even work? i've heard crazy stories of french guys whispering dumb shit with a strong accent to Anglo girls and making them instantly drop their panties, can anyone confirm this?

>>3723115
http://www.amis-arts.com/poetes/marquis_de_sade/oeuvres_marquis_de_sade/4_histoire_de_juliette/1_histoire_juliette_partie1.htm

>>3722656
Όντως ξέρεις Ελληνικά η μαλακίες τώρα;

>>3722298
How old are you?

>>3722285

Wise decision, amigo.

I'm learning Latin and Greek because they're the foundation of western civilization.

English, as it is the only second language I haven't failed in school (yet). I barely managed French and dropped it as soon as I could after six years of being insufficiently capable of speaking or writing it. Seriously, I would probably starve to death if I went to France. When we were offered to take 3 years of Spanish I didn't even think about taking it because I was two years into French and that sucked already, so I'm stuck with German and English.

Hadn't been to bad so far, I enjoyed quite a lot of the English literature I've been doing my A-levels on, and with the German literature is broad enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life. Wish I could understand a few more languages because I like to read literature in its original language, but whatever.

>>3722285
Learning Irish. Because no one else is.

I'm improving my Spanish, which I'm already able to hold full conversations in; and i'm sort-of trying to teach myself French. Has anyone here actually tried the pimsleur method?

Arabic, because I've studied it for too long not to go ahead and aim for fluency. I also happen to like it, enjoy having access to a rich literary and philosophical canon, and enjoy studying and being in the Arab world. Used to be good at French and wouldn't mind picking that up again as well.

>>3723752

I learned basic Mayan for the same reason.

I am still waiting to find somebody to talk to.

>>3723792

Well, you can now fit in and communicate in France.

Latin, Ancient Greek and Spanish

>>3723796
>Well, you can now fit in and communicate in France.

Zing!

The Moroccan dialect is actually really weird and I can't understand it for shit.

I speak Spanish and English and I'm learning French right now. I'm using Pimsleur and Memrise and I'm making progress very quickly. Teaching myself how to speak French is much better than taking a course, in my opinion.

>>3723809

Yeah, it kind of deviates from the standard, which is the Egyptian, because those dudes produce most of the music and TV shows for the Arab world.

>>3722285

I speak Spanish, English, Spanglish, and Finnish.

How does one go about learning a language, such as German?

>>3723829
grammar work + exposure

>>3723607
my ex always got wet when I spoke in french. Don't know how it would work on random girls though

>>3723834
By exposure you mean living in Germany? I'll stick for being able to read books and listening movies for now.

>>3722285
>learning Arabic from a Saudi
Enjoy sounding like an old religious nutjob. Fuck Saudis and their ridiculous sounding Arabic.

>>3723848
duolingo is a decent equivalent to an "interactive: workbook. Using it to supplement a traditional grammar + vocab book is alright

>>3723820

Yeah, Egyptian is widely understood but Standard is something else. TV serials, movies, music ,and stuff like that are usually in Egyptian, but shit like the news and anything formal or written is in Standard regardless of where it's produced.

>>3723864

Sounds like someone is jelly. Petroleum jelly

>>3723922
I'm thankful every day that I'm not one of those classless, tacky, fundamental bastards.

>>3723931

انت من وين؟

>>3723848
no i mean get non-academic, non-formal exposure with the language
books, tv, movies, skype, tutor, newspapers, etc.
past a certain point it shouldn't feel like you're trying to get better at a language

>>3722310
this will sound silly but it works. The ultimate goal for anyone learning another language is to think in that language. Start by narrating daily tasks out loud. This improves pronunciation and soon you will form idea of `brushing your teeth`` with the foreign phrase. It works for me and I am onto learning my third language.

im learning norwegian and ukrainian, very unlikely combination is it not?

저는 한국을 고부해요

I teach English in Korea.

I can speak English and Spanish fluently. I can get by with French, I am currently brushing up on it. I am also learning German and Italian. Once I understand those languages better, I'll add in Russian, Swedish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

What would be the best way to learn french, considering I do not have any opportunity to speak it with someone? I know English and Spanish.

>>3724488
>What would be the best way to learn french, considering I do not have any opportunity to speak it with someone?

You find someone and speak it with them.

Nothing right now. I'm able to speak conversational Spanish and read newspaper articles in that language, but don't know enough to read Cervantes or anything.

I need to learn to speak contemporary Greek by next summer though. Where should I start? I'll be serving my six months of Greek army service and they don't offer classes for non-Greek speakers.

>>3724536
I really don't want to attend Greek School and I've heard Rosetta Stone is terrible. What do you guys suggest for learning a language like Greek, which has a non-Latin alphabet?

>>3724488
I've gotten semi-decent with French over the years with a totally not pirated at all copy of Rosetta Stone, watching French movies, and reading Le Monde. It's not perfect, and I couldn't hold a complex conversation but when I went to Paris for some days I only found myself linguistically wanting a couple times.

Mandarin. I'm part Chinese and I like China anyway

None, because why should I?

It's anachrony and a massive waste of time.

>>3724553
go back to >>>/pol/

>>3722285
German, Japanese.

German because philosophy.

Japanese because exotic animuuu language~!.

>>3724546
Learn the alphabet.

>>3725372
Why should he? after all, english is the best only language to have.

>>3725381
says the monolingual english speaker

to >>3725391

I posted >>3725374

I'm half greek, so bilingual.

ancient greek and german

i'm tired of romance bullshit

>>3722623
>overpronouncing french words in conversation

A man after my own heart.

Spanish
Italian
Japanese

inb4 so kawaii ^_^

Spanish because it's basically becoming a staple for getting any job in the Midwest/United States

Italian, because dude... Italian (and its basically Spanish with more vowels)

Japanese because I'm studying business and I'd like to distinguish myself from the other fuckers by learning a challenging language. Meh, maybe Chinese would have been better but ... cmon... Japanese.

I laugh at all the fuckers learning Latin. Why? Unless you're a genius that has nothing better to do than sit home and do that shit, why study it? Why study any language that can't be shared with another person?

>>3726120
Italian is fucking shit.

>Why study any language that can't be shared with another person?

Who the fuck cares about living people when you have access to the thoughts of some of the greatest minds that ever lived? And this is true for any dead language. I would gladly trade my entire ability for speech for a full canon of Classical writers. I do lean toward greek more though.

I'm mastering Portuguese.

>>3726128
Well I guess its your personal preference.

I actually talk to people, so I prefer to learn a language that I can share with another. Nothing feels greater than talking shit about people in front of their faces with a pal.

Japanese because I want to be able to understand the porn I read without having to rely in shitty translations.

>>3722317
>>3722360
Language isn't just a tool mate, understanding the grammatical structure, vocabulary, cultural quirks, etc. of another language isn't so different than understanding a field of math or science, even if commercially or socially impractical, it will still provide insight into your overall perspective.

>>3726142
>>3726142
kawaii desu ^_^

>I fucking hate people who write in romaji.

>>3726155
何だって?ローマ字で喋らないんだから、黙ってくれ。

>mfw I learned Japanese so I could play super robot wars and haven't used it for anything else

I really need to read some Japanese books.

What's the point of learning languages?
I know 2, I could relearn German if I had any German to talk to, but I don't see the point...

There's so much information to put in your brain and you want to learn a language, which is just a way of processing it.
I need to learn programming too yeah.
That's a language I can get behind. Computers would never hurt me...

I've already learned spanish, next stop is German, then Russian.

>>3727366
I learn it for getting a good job, talking with people, etc.

>>3727366
I want to read books in their original language. Dunno if you like to ask if X is a good translation of Y book.

I'm learning Old Norse and Icelandic. For fun and because icelandic is a beautifully complicated language.

I feel like, as a native English speaker, spending time and effort learning another language would be a debasement. I've never run into anything that I needed to read that was not translated. Perhaps I will eventually, though. The two languages I can foresee this possibly happening with are French and German.

>>3727442
>learning another language
>a debasement
wat
I hope less than a tenth of Native English speaker feel that way. Lack of interest for other languages generally translate a disinterest toward language in general.

>>3727481
I feel like it's not worth my time considering the massive effort others have poured into it in order to translate for me almost any book I'll ever desire to read. I can't say I have an interest in traveling either.

>>3727441
any resources you could recommend for icelandic?

>>3722301
I plan on being a weaboo so I'm learning Japanese. Also I want to read some German works in their intended language so I'm learning German.

To the people learning other languages, how old are you?

>>3723826
Spanglish?

>>3722550
oma?

>>3726120
Silly argument. You can share Latin with Latin scholars and there a buttloads in great reads in Latin. I bet you also think that learning a language takes so much place in your brain that you can't learn more than one or two others. Utilitarian plebs will be plebs, I guess.

>>3726120
>this retarded faggot thinks learning latin is hard


>B-BUT WWWWHY?

You're on a literature board.

>namefag

Get out.

>>3722285
Japanese, and I'm working on my German because even though I speak it pretty fluently, it's still a second language and I have years of hardly ever reading or writing it to catch up on..

>>3727920
>>>/b/

>>3727929
I see you have dropped your name.

Good.

>>3727933
no. you just seem like you belong on /b/

>>3727366
>There's so much information to put in your brain and you want to learn a language
Your brain has effectively unlimited space. Don't worry about "learning too much," that's just a bad excuse.

In addition to that, it's worth it to be able to communicate to other people, read untranslated works, and gain your own understanding of previously translated works. I'm not saying you HAVE to learn a new language or else you're an idiot, but don't look down on it or pretend it's pointless.

>>3727481
Not him, but I do hear that pretty often from people who speak non-English languages natively.
>What? Why would you bother learning another language when you already know English?
Largely for the reasons the guy said. Just about everything "worth reading" or watching has been translated into English or will be. English is the lingua franca. When you learn English you don't only gain access to English works, you gain access to the translated works of the Greeks, Romans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Spanish, etc. all in one swoop.

>>3728057
>translations
>the same as reading a book in the original language

>>3728077
That's actually not what I said at all, are you sure you read my post? If I wanted to gain the access to the largest amount of classical or famous works of the world, the language I would learn would be English, because that's what all or most of them have been translated into. If I wanted to study a specific work, author, or culture, I would learn that specific language. Don't be so obtuse.

>>3728084
My mistake. Sorry.

>>3728057
>Just about everything "worth reading" or watching has been translated into English or will be.
No, untrue. Very, very little of Russian or Chinese literature has been translated to English, and most of it is translated very badly.

English is actually a notoriously bad "gateway language" -- for some reason anglophone people are very insular, there's little interest for translating foreign literature into English.

Russian is a much better language if you want to have a wide knowledge of foreign literature.

>English is the lingua franca.
You don't understand what "lingua franca" means. A "lingua franca" is a simplified common tongue used for businessmen in international trade transactions.

Knowing a "lingua franca" is certainly very useful and profitable, but don't ever expect to see great art written in a "lingua franca".

>>3728215
Is french a good 'gateway language'?

>>3728215
By "everything worth reading" I was implying the classics, which is what most people start with when learning about the literature of another culture.

>there's little interest for translating foreign literature into English.
You are sorely misinformed. Many (I refrain from saying all, but I am sure it is at least "most") major classical works have been translated into English at least once, if not multiple times (the dozen or so translations of the Odyssey come to mind). For most smaller works there are fan translations, which are close to ubiquitous even if they aren't accurate to an academic degree.

I would agree about learning Russian as well, it's another widely spoken language with lots of good works in it.

>lingua franca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lingua_francas
>Examples of lingua francas are numerous, and exist on every continent. The most obvious example is English, which is the current lingua franca of international business, science, technology and aviation.
I think you are mistaken here.

>>3728215
>but don't ever expect to see great art written in a "lingua franca".
But I've already seen Finnegans Wake, Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest written in English.

>>3722310
y ponete a leer en ingles pelotudo
cuando encuentres una palabra que no sepas la buscas en el diccionario y listo, no hay mejor forma
para mejorar el habla mira una pelicula y trata de reproducir la pronunciacion

I have a question: I have some experience learning German and French. Should I pursue it or is learning Spanish a better choice for a better shot at books in the native tongue?

I might add I know my home language (Polish) and English if that's any help?

>>3723640

Is that modern Greek or something?

I'm focusing on Greek - both of them - at the moment, mainly to read tragedies, which I can read, albeit not fluently. I should brush up my Latin, because who the fuck would need my Greek.

>>3726120

>I laugh at all the fuckers learning Latin. Why?

To read Latin. You miss a LOT in translation from classical languages, way more than translating from something like French of Spanish.

>>3728457
>implying english used in buisness or science is the same as literary english
>using wikipedia

Latin, baby. I hate to sound this pretentious but I would rather learn a bunch of dead languages than one that is spoken by millions of people every day. What's the point?

>>3728556
You sound dumb, not pretentious.

>>3728457
>By "everything worth reading" I was implying the classics, which is what most people start with when learning about the literature of another culture.
You're wrong. For example, you're not going to get very far if you want to read the Chinese Classics and you know only English. (Even Russian would be better, as the Russian translations are fuller and more accurate.)

>>3728547
>not knowing how to use wikipedia

>Latin (know)
>Greek (know)
>Sanskrit (studying)
>Hittite (next)

>>3728561
Eastern classics don't matter.

>>3728564
>hittite
you crazy mofo you

French, because I want to join the Legion.

>>3728564
Have fun with Hittite. I had a look through 'The Elements of Hittite' a while back and, although it seems we don't know enough to do prose comp, there's a fair amount to read. Cuneiform is awesome as well - I can't wait till 3rd year when I can take an Akkadian module....

>>3728565

>Eastern classics don't matter.

Nothing matters. Eastern classics are still at least as interesting and relevant to modern life as Shakespeare or The Canterbury Tales.

>>3728565

My friend is a chinese major with bipolar I and reading Taoist texts in chinese made him psychotic.

>>3728565
>>Eastern classics don't matter.
>Implying you've read them or can even name three without resorting to wikipedia
How can you say that they "don't matter" if you don't even know what they are??

>>3728583

Journey to the West... uh... Legend of the Five Rings...

Fuck, The 49 Ronin?

>>3728583
I don't know what they are because they're irrelevant.

>>3728561
I sincerely hope you're not one of the people I was talking to before, because you've failed to address any of my other points. That, and you're missing my main point entirely. If I wanted to gain access to the greatest amount of classical works I would learn English, because there are translations of the most amount of classical works in that language. If I wanted to learn specifically about Chinese works I would learn Chinese. If I wanted the access to the greatest amount of works from every world culture at once, I would learn English.

>>3728588
It's just some guy who's learning Russian and has a bloated view of the language.

>>3728588
Do you have any statistics, any knowledge of russian book market or are you taking all of this straight from your ass? I wouldn't be surprised if Russian had more translations of Middle Eastern or Chinese literature and Germans or French had more and better translations of Greek and Latin classics than Anglos.
I just wonder what makes you say with such certainty that english is obviously superior when it comes to translations.

>>3728622
>le french germans russians so smart and cultured unlike you silly anglos

*yawn*

Im learning mandarin and korean.

I dont really know why, because i wanna wife their women i guess

>>3724536
you get drafted in too huh? i heard the orthodox church holds birth records.

Does anyone else has difficult learning languages that are very similar to your mother language?
I'm Brazilian and I had no trouble studying German or English, but I can't learn Spanish for shit, it's similarities with Portuguese confuse the shit out of me. French is also quite hard for me.

>>3729104
*difficulty, my bad

>>3727647
german for grandma more or less

>>3728494
>modern Greek

Yes, he got it mostly right.

>Όντως ξέρεις Ελληνικά η μαλακίες τώρα;
Do you really know or are you bullshitting me?

>>3728472
me alegra ver otro Argentino acá

>>3728622
Because the English speakers are the richest.

French, Dutch and English are, mostly, done.
German is in progress.

>>3722359
Um, not even italians read Dante in italian. That is, we read it translated into modern italian, because the old one is complete nonsense to us today. Like Shakespeare, very few people read the original shakespeare, you need a shit-ton of notes to be able to make sense of it. Only the difference between the two italians is even bigger.

>>3729414

I can read ancient Greek pretty well but not fluently, I have to look up some words but I have the grammar down. Can't write it.

Latin I can read fluently, I don't have much practice writing it but I'm not bad.

>>3732462
6/10

>>3722285
Don't speak Saudi Arabic. That shit's fucking DISGUSTING. Levantine Arabic is the best sounding and makes the most sense.

Fucking Bedouins and their fucked up culture.

I'm Lebanese, believe me, their Arabic is the most awkward in the Arab world and the Saudi's? Well... they're the most hated.

>>3732505
Egyptian here, and I agree completely.

Of course I have a bias toward Egyptian Arabic, but the Lebanese accent is sexy.

>>3732543
Copt?

I am so glad I'm german so I don't have to learn this language and can read the literature the way it is intended to be read.

Otherwise I only can speak English because internet. Most sites I visit are in english and I always have a tab open with a translator.

>mfw Poe is better in spanish than in english

>>3732831
>tfw I first read him in spanish and it just reads poorly in english, even if usually prefer english

It's that kind of baroque language that spanish is so much better at.

>>3732784
>I am so glad I'm german
Tell me something. I'm learning german and what makes me angry are those separable verbs. How can you understand that? I mean, things like "Ich komme morgen an" not only is simple but an and kommen are both easy to understand when together. Now something like beibringen are hard. It's seems like while in both English and Portuguese, I do not need to read the whole sentence to know what it is talking about, in German I must.

I've been meaning to learn a foreign language for the longest time. I'm not really sure which is the most practical in /lit/ terms. I guess either French or Spanish.

What resources do people use besides taking actual classes?

Japanese, because I already know English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Why not, right?

>>3732968
certainly the most interesting asian language.

Using Duolingo to learn German, I know a little Spanish but I want to expand on it. Anybody have any programs/software that would be great for these?

Could some arabic speaker try to explain the differences between all the arabic dialects/accents? I dont knoe arabic yet im fascinated by it. how different do they sound? Is it mostly the way they pronounce words? Their meanings? The words they use? Would someone from morocco feel comfortable in the gulf states? (linguistically and culturally)

japanese because I'm a walking cliche

I'm thinking about learning German.

Talk me out of it /lit/.

>>3733152
That image is kinda telling you to learn it. I'm doing so because for any reason the library I go to(in Brazil) there are English and German books, besides Portuguese too.