Pages in topic:   [1 2 3] >
Poll: Are you in the process of learning a new language?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Oct 14, 2007

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are you in the process of learning a new language?".

This poll was originally submitted by polsKArina

View the poll here

A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more informa
... See more
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Are you in the process of learning a new language?".

This poll was originally submitted by polsKArina

View the poll here

A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more information, see: http://proz.com/topic/33629
Collapse


 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:23
Spanish to English
+ ...
Learning Italian! Oct 14, 2007

I'm taking Italian classes at Oberlin College (USA) this year. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any classes offered there after the first year, so I will have to find books, etc. and new friends (including online) to keep up with it. Ideally, I would like to be able to translate it well, after much study and contact with it.

I think it sounds beautiful and I have always found its history and culture very interesting. I look forward to going to Italy when one of the art history
... See more
I'm taking Italian classes at Oberlin College (USA) this year. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any classes offered there after the first year, so I will have to find books, etc. and new friends (including online) to keep up with it. Ideally, I would like to be able to translate it well, after much study and contact with it.

I think it sounds beautiful and I have always found its history and culture very interesting. I look forward to going to Italy when one of the art history professors from my undergraduate alma mater takes a group over there.

I often find myself thinking in Italian already!

[Edited at 2007-10-14 23:00]

[Edited at 2007-10-14 23:02]
Collapse


 
Maria Karra
Maria Karra  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:23
Member (2000)
Greek to English
+ ...
Turkish and Chinese Oct 14, 2007

My mom speaks Turkish but she never taught me, so I decided to learn it by myself and surprise her. That's not the only reason I decided to learn it though. In Greek there are so many loan words from Turkish that I feel that if I don't understand it my knowledge of Greek is incomplete. Our histories are so interlinked and consequently so are our languages, and that "attracts" me to Turkish, I need to know more of it.
I also started learning Chinese (Mandarin) a couple of months ago and
... See more
My mom speaks Turkish but she never taught me, so I decided to learn it by myself and surprise her. That's not the only reason I decided to learn it though. In Greek there are so many loan words from Turkish that I feel that if I don't understand it my knowledge of Greek is incomplete. Our histories are so interlinked and consequently so are our languages, and that "attracts" me to Turkish, I need to know more of it.
I also started learning Chinese (Mandarin) a couple of months ago and I have to admit it's the hardest language I've ever attempted to learn. But I like the challenge!
I teach Greek part-time and I decided that if one more student of mine complains that Greek is difficult, I'll just pull out my Chinese homework! I bet they'll never complain again.
Collapse


 
NativeSpeakers
NativeSpeakers  Identity Verified
English to Spanish
+ ...
Good luck with the Chinese Oct 14, 2007

I'm working on that myself


[quote]Maria Karra wrote:

I also started learning Chinese (Mandarin) a couple of months ago and I have to admit it's the hardest language I've ever attempted to learn. But I like the challenge!


 
Emmanuelle Hingant
Emmanuelle Hingant  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:23
English to French
Catalan Oct 14, 2007

My boyfriend's from next to Barcelona and all his family and friends speak Catalan among themselves. So I've been taking one-to-one classes in Edinburgh since July to communicate better with them.

I had a choice between learning Spanish and Catalan but realized that Spanish wouldn't of much help when I get into his family. And as I don't intend to be fluent enough to use it to work, I might as well learn the language of their heart.


 
Uldis Liepkalns
Uldis Liepkalns  Identity Verified
Latvia
Local time: 03:23
Member (2003)
English to Latvian
+ ...
No. I have trouble enough to upkeep Oct 14, 2007

my existing "read only" knowledge of languages like Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, all other Slavic languages, Scandinavian languages and most of all Western-European languages (at last ones Babelfish often beats me).

Uldis

[Rediģēts plkst. 2007-10-14 23:01]


 
Parrot
Parrot  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 02:23
Spanish to English
+ ...
Mostly... Oct 14, 2007

but I'm always in the process of refreshing. Staying in a country whose language used to be my "C", I have to work on the ones not in constant use.

A "new" one for me would probably mean refreshing Italian (which I learned in the streets) or Arabic (which I learned years ago but never quite practised. It's kinda hard trying to do "fieldwork" where most people are reasonably bilingual and judge they're better off talking some other language you know than trying to understand you whil
... See more
but I'm always in the process of refreshing. Staying in a country whose language used to be my "C", I have to work on the ones not in constant use.

A "new" one for me would probably mean refreshing Italian (which I learned in the streets) or Arabic (which I learned years ago but never quite practised. It's kinda hard trying to do "fieldwork" where most people are reasonably bilingual and judge they're better off talking some other language you know than trying to understand you while you make mincemeat out of theirs).

Ah, yes, I voted "other" since I thought I'd only mess up the poll with a "yes".

[Edited at 2007-10-14 23:37]
Collapse


 
Marcus Malabad
Marcus Malabad  Identity Verified
Canada
German to English
+ ...
All the time Oct 15, 2007

Depends on the group of people I meet, lately it has been Italian and Br. Portuguese. Japanese and Swedish have always been in the backburner. When I'm up for a challenge (and want to subject myself to self-immolation) I pick up my grammar books for Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Latin. That usually puts me to sleep.

 
Emanuela Podda Ankrom (X)
Emanuela Podda Ankrom (X)  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 10:23
English to Italian
+ ...
Japanese Oct 15, 2007

I have been learning Japanese since my arrival in Japan. After learning the hiragana and the katakana with the help of a Japanese teacher, I am now moving on to the kanji.

Emanuela


 
Rajan Chopra
Rajan Chopra
India
Local time: 06:53
Member (2008)
English to Hindi
+ ...
Punjabi Oct 15, 2007

I am trying to learn it.

 
Andrew Rink
Andrew Rink  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 02:23
German to English
Also Chinese (putonghua) over here... Oct 15, 2007

Being based in Beijing that should be easy but I found that this time my fluency is down compared to last time I was here (which was only 3 months ago). Might have to sign up for a course at uni after all...

 
Erzsébet Czopyk
Erzsébet Czopyk  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 02:23
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
time to refresh Oct 15, 2007

...my Latvian. Since 1993 I left Latvia, I visited this wonderful country 2 times. So far as translations from Latvian to Hungarian I have maybe 1-2 times a year, I decided to refresh my Latvian and start a new project: translate a Livonian - Latvian - English Dictionary into Hungarian, and visit Livonia next summer

+ English (I never learned it before, just in California and now - how strange the life is ! - this la
... See more
...my Latvian. Since 1993 I left Latvia, I visited this wonderful country 2 times. So far as translations from Latvian to Hungarian I have maybe 1-2 times a year, I decided to refresh my Latvian and start a new project: translate a Livonian - Latvian - English Dictionary into Hungarian, and visit Livonia next summer

+ English (I never learned it before, just in California and now - how strange the life is ! - this language is the most useful in my everyday work. And this is good for Proz Forums too...but my pronunciation and my grammar is terrible

[Módosítva: 2007-10-15 02:18]

[Módosítva: 2007-10-15 02:21]
Collapse


 
JaneTranslates
JaneTranslates  Identity Verified
Puerto Rico
Local time: 21:23
Spanish to English
+ ...
French Oct 15, 2007

My first "foreign language" studies were two years of high-school French. That was a long time ago! I can't say I'm really "working" on it, but whenever the urge hits me I pull out a book and try to learn a little more vocabulary. Vocab and syntax are so similar among Romance languages that it should, in theory, be fairly easy...

 
Beatriz Galiano (X)
Beatriz Galiano (X)
Argentina
Local time: 22:23
English to Spanish
+ ...
Practice German Oct 15, 2007

By the way, I am looking for someone to practice German on a regular basis, I'd love to learn new languages, but I will concentrate on practising the ones I already know, I think thats much more sensible.

 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 06:53
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Gujarati and Urdu Oct 15, 2007

Gujarati is a source language for me and I translate from it. Often clients ask me to do the other way round, which I of course refuse.

But Gujarati is very similar to my main language Hindi, including the script. Also I live in a Gujarati speaking area - Ahmedabad. I have access to everything that is required to learn a language - books, native speakers, training courses...

Actually I know quite a bit of Gujarati. I read regularly in Gujarati, both literature and non-l
... See more
Gujarati is a source language for me and I translate from it. Often clients ask me to do the other way round, which I of course refuse.

But Gujarati is very similar to my main language Hindi, including the script. Also I live in a Gujarati speaking area - Ahmedabad. I have access to everything that is required to learn a language - books, native speakers, training courses...

Actually I know quite a bit of Gujarati. I read regularly in Gujarati, both literature and non-literature. The problem is with speaking and writing.

I hope to master these two in the times to come.

As for Urdu, Urdu and Hindi were one and the same language till recently when politics divided them. The only major difference between them is the script. So learning Urdu should be much easier than learning any other language for anyone knowing Hindi well, which is the case with me. So learning Urdu boils down to mastering the Urdu script. I hope to be able to do this, for I want to read Urdu masters like Iqbal, Faiz, Firaq, Mantu, etc in the original.
-------------
I am interested in two other languages too - Tamil and Malayalam. I am learning them on and off right from my birth. Actually these two are my mother tongues. I was born in an area overlapped by these two languages and my family has been living here for generations. Today this part is in Kerala, a Malayalam speaking area, and we are Tamils.

Like most people, I am interested in exploring my roots and these two languages are absolutely necessary for that. I can speak both these languages and read both, Malayalam better than Tamil as I studied in Malayalam for a few years in early childhood. Can't write in either of them.

The problem is time, and also space! I so much want to be amidst the speakers of these languages so that my ears can get catch the nuances, but that means travelling 2,000 km from my place of residence - a train journey that takes 2 days, though it is picturesque. I simply can't afford the time, even if the money part can be managed. May be after I retire...

To my language wish list can be added Sanskrit, knowledge of which is a must for full command over any Indian language. Also it has a vast corpus of literature built up over 10,000 years, beginning with the vedas, which I am keen on reading in the original.


[2007-10-15 03:56 पर संपादन हुआ]
Collapse


 
Pages in topic:   [1 2 3] >


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Jared Tabor[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Poll: Are you in the process of learning a new language?






Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »