New Language

Does it take too much work to read the classics in Latin or Greek? How much difference is there to justify the effort(besides the brain workout)?

Not him, I have been studying Latin for about 3 months and I am nowhere near reading a classic.

First thing I'll do before starting Greek is to put a book into Greek characters in MS Word, then read it.

Do you guys think it's a good idea? I want to get used to the alphabet first. I'd probably get used in two or three hours at most.

wouldn't recommend Duolingo desu

I like the schoolbook type of books, they often give good introductions

gather some vocabulary, read in the language, listen to it, watch videos etc. and boom you have a really neat base that you can built upon

Just bite the bullet and dive into a textbook, it'll take a couple hours at most

-Check out Gabriel Wyner and Steve Kaufman. They're both on youtube and they've written good books on foreign language learning
-Learn a little bit of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as it's relevant to the language you're learning
-Focus on learning grammar for a while, but once you have the basics down aim for a 70/30 split of actual input and study, actual input meaning stuff like books, news articles, dubbed tv and vidya, conversation. The kind of stuff native speakers would do. It'll be daunting at first, and you'll probably need a notebook with you to dissect every individual sentence at first, but with time you'll be able to process the language faster and faster.
-Get an italki teacher if you have the money
-Immersion is unsustainable and dumb

Best of luck user, hope this helps

Also duolingo is fine but assimil courses are way better if you can find what you're looking for in English.

I don't study languages but I read about meta-learning once and an example was learning languages. It recommended to learn the 100 most used words in that language and then put it into practice with a piece of text. I'd try that.

You listen to natives talk for years with a dictionary while paying attention to emotional cues and context. Once you have the cadence and sound of the spoken language internalized then you can start reading. If you start reading too soon your subvocalization is going to be wrong and that's a difficult fix.

Duolingo is a tool, not a solution. Anons mention thousands of resources because diversification is what it takes.

If you're starting from 0, Michel Thomas is like a voice from the heavens implanting knowledge into your skull. Can't recommend him enough.

yes, it will take a long time unless your life is void of any distractions

Does anyone have any success stories about learning non-Indo European languages? I'm learning two African languages right now and I feel like I've plateaued at the basics. You don't realize how much cognates are helping you when you learn European languages.

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I've been self-teaching French for six years, and I can't even fathom reading something more complicated than translations of Harry Potter, let alone being able to appreciate literary quality.
I know Latin is a motherfucker and I assume Greek is too.

>I'm learning two African languages
Why ?

I've got a lot of friends who speak one, and I'm planning to travel to the region of the other.

I took a classical undergraduate degree which required me to learn an ancient language. I had never studied Latin or Ancient Greek before in my life and never had an interest in learning languages in general (I scraped a C at GSCE French and that was it). I chose Greek.

The first (ungraded) year was an intensive catch-up year, and course expected us to learn Greek up to GSCE standard by the end of the first term (Sept-Jan), then up to A-level standard by the end of the second term (Feb-June). The second and third (graded) years would then expand from there and I would graduate with degree level Greek.

I learnt Ancient Greek to (low grade) A level in my first year. I did this while partying, drinking, smoking weed, lounging about in depression, spending half a year reading pulp fantasy and beginning and ending a volatile relationship. I had about 4 text books (Grammar, Exercise, Reading and an extra supplementary one), a CD and 4 hour long classes a week (which I barely attended - my professor found it funny whenever I actually did attend). Greek was only 25% of my course and was probably the one element I spent the least time and effort on.

I dropped out after passing the first year but my point is: I had a decent vocabulary and knowledge and was translating passages of the Iliad and such fairly well after 10 months of scant learning, at the tender age of 18. I am not particularly smart, yet If I actually put my mind to it and wasn't such a little fuck up I would have learnt a hell of a lot more.

It's not that hard, if you want to do it.

Attend a summer school and buy some textbooks, put aside some time each week.

I still remember some of it (this was 8 years ago now) and I still have my old textbooks. In the coming year I'm going to learn it again.

>GSCEs: qualifications usually earned age 16, in school
>A levels: qualifications usually earned age 18, from college
>undergraduate: first university degree, usually started at 18 and graduating at 21

Yes, not to mention the classics are difficult as fuck to read. Just read any academic article on translating Thucydides. Fucker purposefully wrote in prose so arcane that many students of Greek struggle to read more than a couple of pages a day.

Yeah I was surprised to read In a couple of weeks using duolingo I can already more or less read articles in German. I see no reason why one year of dedicated study wouldn't be enough to read a book(Although not the classics, in the latin/greek example, their prose is hard). And I'm not talking about autistic dedication, I'm talking about simply keeping up with a few exercises a day

Learn English first, dumbass.

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I know English (native) and German (semi-native), always read! Most importantly read, consuming other media helps too, but reading the word from the page is best.

are you retarded, African languages are retarded, I mean seriously, they lack subjunctives and often times complex ideas. You've plateaued because that's all there is.

I think that the thing that will define your success the most is long term motivation and dedication.

Learning the grammar and structure of a new language is actually a pretty small part of it in the long run. The most time consuming part is long term vocabulary acquisition.

How many words can one realistically commit to long term memory per day?

I don't like Duolingo and "fun" types of methods like that since if you are interested in learning a language, chances are you don't need some fancy method to hook you at the beginning. It's commitment to some long term goal (playing Chrono Trigger in Japanese untranslated, reading Brothers K in original Russian, understanding Arabic news broadcasts for broader perspective, religious zeal to learn Greek and understand the synoptic gospels) that will get you to grind through some of the boring parts that come after you know the basics.

Learning is a beautiful thing and knowing more languages is the way to cummunicate better and get a job for example not in your country. Also check this out:
media.giphy.com/media/47xqMrjTiFPslA0AOK/giphy.gif - more information on gif image

i use fsi

fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/oldfsi/languages/french-basic.html

"basic" doesn't mean basic... this is sink or swim intense language training by the united states gov't

I'm learning Russian. The best thing to do is to listen to people speak the language, mimic them, and try to immerse yourself. I found speaking to people in VR chat helps immensely.

i've studied french for 2 years and I can translate proust... you're doing something wrong.

I learned french in two years in Junior high. You need to change your methods. Most important thing you can do is actually speak the language to other speakers.

I use duolingo until it says I'm 80% fluent then I speak with people online and read newspapers in the language

>Two African Languages

French and English?

Tried to learn modern Greek for much heritage reasons. No one to really talk to and those I could practice on are very bro dude kinda person.

I've had a similar experience with Russian, bro dudes or normie chicks learning English for career purposes

I learned Mandarin Chinese to fluency and know over 4000 characters. It took years of autistic Anki usage without missing a single day of repetitions, 3 years of learning it in college along with obsessive self-study, and having a Chinese wife whom I speak with only in Chinese.

You need dedication, discipline, and motivation. Chinese is probably harder than African languages though due to the writing system.

>In a couple of weeks using duolingo I can already more or less read articles in German
Now, why would you go on the internet and lie like this?

>I'm learning German, and I'm finding it to be easier than most make it out to be.
Good luck with plural formation, separable preffix verbs and whatnot. I've been learning German for three years and this language never cuts you any slack. Everybody seems to think that declension and genders are what makes German hard but that's just the tip of the Iceberg.

Any tips? My girlfriend is Chinese and is trying to teach me what she can, but it's more of a corrective teaching right now ("user, pronounce this sentence and I'll point out what's wrong with it").

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>more or less read articles in German.
>can pick out a few words and get the gist while normalfag friends look on in amazement.

>more or less read articles
So, you basically can't read shit and only make up things based on few words. Try reading the Frankfurter Allgemeine and tell me you can "more or less read" articles with good clarity.

I know what you mean. I'm from a country within the same fucking language group and have been learning the language for probably 6 years with 2 of them intensely while living in Germany. God help anyone who wants to master the weird grammatical system of Konjunktiv II and all the Nebensätze, not to mention remembering all the different Fachbegriffe.

Yes, imagine "reading first" for French. Jesu cristo.