David's learn a language challange

DAVEM · 26 Mar 2007 at 10:45

Hi All,

I was just having a look at my post coun't which whilst modest hides the fact that I actually spend quite lot of time browsing these forums, I'd certainly say on average around 40 minutes per day, and I'm a pre-nuke member so wow that must be a fair few hours I imagine.

So this got me thinking about a challange, I wonder how long it would take for me learn a language if I used the time I browse to learn?

Good idea or Bad idea - discuss.

Davem

Red and White · 26 Mar 2007 at 10:48

yes but then you wont be posting/browsing

sounds like a good idea though if you have the staying power to learn a new language

doofer · 26 Mar 2007 at 11:03

Learn English first for a bit of a challenge.

DAVEM · 26 Mar 2007 at 11:14

doofer said:
Learn English first for a bit of a challenge.

My mother tongue is maths

Morlan · 26 Mar 2007 at 20:39

How about you learn a new word for every post?

Van Hellseek · 26 Mar 2007 at 20:45

DAVEM said:
Hi All,

I was just having a look at my post coun't which whilst modest hides the fact that I actually spend quite lot of time browsing these forums, I'd certainly say on average around 40 minutes per day, and I'm a pre-nuke member so wow that must be a fair few hours I imagine.

So this got me thinking about a challange, I wonder how long it would take for me learn a language if I used the time I browse to learn?

Good idea or Bad idea - discuss.

Davem

an east asian laguage japanese/chinese etc would probably take the rest of your life (to be fluent in both the spoken language and the written).

it takes years even if you study for seveal hours per day. -let alone 40 minutes.

Red and White · 26 Mar 2007 at 20:48

seek said:
an east asian laguage japanese/chinese etc would probably take the rest of your life (to be fluent in both the spoken language and the written).

it takes years even if you study for seveal hours per day. -let alone 40 minutes.

maybe he was thinking about something easier like French

escape sanity · 26 Mar 2007 at 20:57

For something relatively easy like a big European language, a year will probably have you at a decent enough level to read newspapers and watch TV in that language and 2 years along with maybe a month or two in that country will have you speaking to a good enough level to get by comfortably but it will take you many more years than that for you to become fluent.

As seek said, Chinese is difficult enough to have you learning for your entire life especially if you learn the written language and not just the spoken form (which is actually quite a bit easier than you would expect). I would assume Japanese and the other Asain languages are the same in that respect.

Or you could go down the Esperanto route and acheive fluency in a few months

Van Hellseek · 26 Mar 2007 at 21:08

Clerkin said:
maybe he was thinking about something easier like French

well he did ask for a challenge.

Yucca · 26 Mar 2007 at 23:41

Interesing thread! I want to learn French over the summer holidays, i have 4 months off from uni. I wonder, if i spend a hour a day working on it, how good would i be after 4 months? Good enought to hold a decent conversation maybe?

AngeluiMorte · 27 Mar 2007 at 00:04

very intersting idea I would deffinitly give it a go but as said start with a european language such as french or spanish.

I would love to learn japanese so I could watch my anime without subs but it just seem so alien to me.

Another fun language to learn might be latin or any other acient languages.

All depends on what you want to use it for I suppose, if you are going to go on holiday somewhere its always a bonus to have some grasp of that country's language