Foreign Languages?

[purelyconstructive]

I am really fascinated with the concept of human brains working differently depending on the language they learnt as a child and grew up around. It's beyond fascinating to me to imagine that human minds can conceptually work and think rather differently all because of the way words are used.

I am fascinated by this as well! You are probably already familiar with it, but Lera Boroditsky's research gives some interesting examples. Becoming aware of these patterns is helpful for learning to "think" in a language. For a bit of entertainment, I also highly recommend the movie Arrival if you haven't seen it.

Does anybody have any tips? For learning Japanese or to stay motivated and whatnot.

Because you mentioned breaking down sentences, I assume that you are starting with reading and are interested in understanding Japanese in the long-term. Therefore...

I humbly suggest conditioning "Hiragana" into your brain as soon as possible. It is both extremely helpful and necessary in learning just about everything else (pronunciation, grammar, etc.). While it might seem easier at first, I would completely avoid relying on "Romaji" (i.e.: Japanese written out phonetically with English letters). Skip on "Katakana" until you feel thoroughly comfortable with Hiragana. A lot of English loanwords are not as useful as they might look.

Then, install a popup dictionary like 10ten Reader and an add-on like Furiganaize to insert a pronunciation guide over Chinese characters on any webpage within your web browser. This makes a huge amount of reading material on the Internet available to anyone with a basic understanding of Hiragana.

As you accumulate reading material that interests you, I would go through a crash course on grammar. I highly recommend Cure Dolly's Japanese From Scratch series. A lot of people do not like the voiceover of her videos, but the information itself is absolutely golden. They are worth going through even if you have to bump up the playback speed to make them tolerable. In my opinion, they are an excellent foundation for the actual structure and usage of Japanese that a lot of language learning materials tend to overcomplicate to the point of being misleading.

After that, if you want to learn "Kanji" (i.e.: Chinese characters as they are used to write the Japanese language), then I would:

Step #1: Write out this list of characters at least once in the order given. It might seem a bit tedious at first, but this will give you a good idea of stroke order. This is helpful for recognizing and remembering characters through collections of strokes that tend to repeat across many characters, as well as for developing a consistent writing style that works well for handwriting input on phones and computers.

Step #2: Learn the "readings" or pronunciation of characters within the context of words whenever possible. As you do so, keep in mind the meaning and pronunciation hints present within many of the characters. There are also general "rules" for how readings are used that it is good to be aware of.

Much like the use of Romaji, I would NOT spend any time trying to memorize readings separately from words or long lists of mnemonic keywords. Instead, learn native vocabulary and build context by linking them together into "word webs" and collecting sentence examples that you can see yourself using fairly regularly. If one takes a systematic approach and is consistent with it, they can learn a lot very quickly.

Also, all of the above links are free resources. You do not have to spend any money whatsoever on learning material. Having a strong personal motivation for learning and staying diligent in using it are the most important aspects.

I hope that helps.
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[Charbomber]

I hope that helps.
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Thank you, thank you!

[DiffydaDude]

@Tommie ΘΔ I've actually been learning Spanish too! Its not world class or even conversational level but i know all the basic grammar. Ive been learning it since like, what, 6th grade or something, or was it 7th? anywho, foreign languages are all really cool, especially when they have a unique writing system to boot. Probably the best looking one is arabic.

[AngelEye]

I'm learning Japanese and studying for the JLPT!

I'm trying to learn Japanese for retro game purposes but also so I can interact with more nerds from across the web, but I have an awful memory and I'm having trouble staying motivated to learn since my typical way of learning things like languages (learning individual words by first figuring out a sentence) doesn't work because without spaces in Japanese I can't tell what's part of what words or what's a part of the grammar. I'm also just generally bad at learning language stuffs... and Japanese is one of the hardest languages, so I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle

Does anybody have any tips? For learning Japanese or to stay motivated and whatnot.

I have webpage here where I list out some resources that helped me! I would recommend going through a beginner textbook or maybe an organized study guide for the N5 or N4. Just start small and learn the basics first. Then go through and read as much as possible! You got this!

[apricior]

oh boy i love languages!!! 

i'm fluent in english, spanish and a third language that would dox me XDD and i studied french, german and latin in high school, but i don't speak them well enough to count them. i've also been learning swedish for a couple of years and this june i'll be done with the B2 course i'm attending, which means that by then i'll have finished the intermediate level! i plan on continuing to C1 (advanced) this october so that's very exciting :]

last year i started learning hebrew too! it's been a challenge because it's so different to all the other languages i speak (different writing system, it's written from right to left, the vowels are mostly not there...  ), but i'm enjoying the experience a lot! i still have a veeeeery basic level though, unfortunately

in the future i'd like to learn other non-european languages, probably arabic considering there's a lot of arabic speakers in my area i would also like to learn ladino (i think it's a beautiful language, and not too different from spanish!) and yiddish (knowing some hebrew and german will help). honestly though, if i could pick a superpower it would be to speak every language in the world, so i don't plan on stopping there 

[Gizmo]

English is my native language and I can also understand some basic Spanish from exposure and previous halfhearted learning attempts. I've started properly studying it recently in a class, and I'm hoping to reach B1 level fluency by the end of 2025, and C2 before I finish uni in 2029. Spanish is such a cool language to me, and I'd be able to better communicate with the people in my community who speak it as their primary language after learning it.

[mothpanic]

god, languages have been my main hobby for a while now! my native language is English, so it's easy for me to just... forget about my goals, since pretty much everything around me is in English too. for about 3 and a half years Ive been learning Spanish, I like to think Im at least around a B1 level by now. it's been fun! even though Ive never been able to use it with other people or in my day to day life, Ive enjoyed learning just for the sake of it.

here in Wales, we're required to learn Welsh as a second language (unless, of course, it's already your first language) from about age 5, I think. I need to check that. and this goes on until you're 16. over 10 years of twice-weekly mandatory classes, having to say 'ga i fynd i'r toiled, os gwelywch yn dda,' until you're 11, two written exams at the end of school... and I haven't retained anything. I don't know any actual Welsh speakers, and both me and my classmates hated Welsh lessons, and Ive never needed to use the language, so none of it stuck, other than the odd word here and there (see above).

so, since Im at an okay-ish level in Spanish (maybe), Im starting to study a little Welsh again. it's been fun having it all come back to me, even though I only know a little. not sure what Im gonna do with this language either - especially since hardly anyone speaks in Welsh online - but... hm. I don't know. Im trying not to think about that, and instead just enjoy making progress.

[stranger]

Does anybody have any tips? For learning Japanese or to stay motivated and whatnot.

seconding angeleye's recommendation of jisho!!! an incredibly comprehensive dictionary database with a ton of example sentences, audio readings, kanji information, external links, and more :D

i'm also a big fan of renshuu, personally! it's a learning tool made to cover both words and kanji, with prizes for lesson completion and lots of minigames, many of which can be played with other community members!


as for my own story... my first language is english, and since i was little, i've prided myself in having a good vocabulary and a good grasp on the language... and when i started a spanish class in middle school for credit requirements, i realized i found learning foreign languages super fun!!!

as for japanese in particular, my older sister was a big anime fan when she was younger, so it was kind of inevitable that it would rub off on me in some way :D i've only started learning japanese these past few years, and i'm still quite rusty myself due to my adhd causing difficulty in the realm of structured learning... but i'm hoping that continuous practice, no matter how small, will build up over time!

[georgemoody]

My native language is persian. easily my most spoken language over the entire span of my life. Able to write and comprehend it just fine, do a poem or two even (do check persian poetry out if you ever have the time ;D ).

English is my second language, thanks to my mom who was a big advocate of me learning it in my early years, which i'm glad she was, wouldn't be able to talk here otherwise. The internet's been a massive (and i really mean massive) help of course, though it has given me some issues on what would be considered formal or not, since a lot of English around here is mixed with slang from all over the anglosphere. Definitely the language that i use the most through other means besides speech. Hell my inner thoughts are in English for what it's worth.

besides these two, i've been learning Finnish and German through my school. Finnish is an absolute beast to overcome! haven't quite gotten the grasp of it yet, especially in vocabulary and being able to comprehend what the other person is actually saying. German has been easier in those departments but the grammar rules are what annoy me, lots of things that have to be learnt by heart, which isn't my kind of thing cause i'm usually already doing that with vocabulary, though German's vocabulary is much more closer to English than i thought so it's not that big of a deal.

[BlazingCobaltX]

My native language is persian. easily my most spoken language over the entire span of my life. Able to write and comprehend it just fine, do a poem or two even (do check persian poetry out if you ever have the time ;D ).

Salaam fellow Persian speaker. :) Jealous that you can write tho. I'm fluent in speaking but I read quite slowly and my writing is tragically basic.

[WidgetOtaku]

My normal language modes are either Canadian French (or Acadian French to be super specific) and general English (as my second language).

Since my childhood, English was one of my strongest and best subjects I’ve studied at school!

tbh I’m not comfortable with writing stuff in French, ‘cause of all the grammar red tape is usually has lol… So I’m mostly jotting down things in English instead.

[SCLPTURES]

i was raised speaking arabic but i ended up having a really good english education so now it's kind of my main language. i forgot a lot of words which makes me alternate between the 2 but i never completely forget, it's always in the back of my mind and i just need it refreshed

i don't know how to write or read arabic at all anymore. even when i attempt to, i need to use google translate or consult my mum to make sure its correct. kinda sad but it won't be like that forever!

[haumeaGeth]

i'm also a big fan of renshuu, personally!

Oh heck, I was wondering why this website sounded familiar. I actually encountered the creator in a Discord server a number of years ago, before he'd done too much with it. Nice to see it's taken off :D


Language learning has been my special interest since middle school. It started with anime (surprise surprise), but when I was watching, I noticed the little cultural tidbits - the food the characters were eating, their clothes, certain mannerisms - and how different it was intrigued me. I branched off from anime and started learning about Japan itself, and have been studying Japanese on and off ever since! Even though it's been over a decade since then, my Japanese is still probably only at a rough conversational level, and only in writing, since I haven't really bothered to practice speaking. :')

The other languages I can actually use are toki pona (still very slowly), and American Sign Language (easily my strongest language besides English, since I use it at home and take classes).

I'm now also learning Mandarin Chinese (simplified), and Lithuanian (veeery slowly, mostly by pointing at random objects and asking my grandmother "kas tai??"). This list is subject to grow and shrink though, as I am a chronic dabbler :]

If anyone would like a study buddy, please do feel free to hit me up! I learn much better when I have someone to parallel play with >:3

[NoxidKin]

I've been using Duolingo for years, but only for like 3 minutes a day.  I can attest that alone is definitely not enough to learn much of a language.  I mean I have a bit of an understanding now, it is seeping in slowly, but VERY slowly.

I did Esperanto for a while, then German, but settled on Spanish, which I've now been doing for about 2 years.

So for me Duolingo is a hobby and a good habit to maintain, but it takes alot more than 3 minutes a day to really learn.

That being said I think Duolingo Premium with the AI (which I think is ethically trained, but don't quote me on that), could be a very good tool to learn with.

Anyhoot I'm not sure you can ever really be fluent in a language unless you use it regularly in a variety of situations.

[Memory]

My first language is Turkish, then along the way I've learned English. some Japanese and German. I'd say that the weak link is still Japanese, mostly since Japanese courses in my area are very expensive. I'm planning to revisit it though. I can still read stuff and kind of understand them.