Only English :)

[mister155]

Sure thing, Japanese people are straange to us, huh? I'm pretty happy because of this future course, so I think I won't give up so easily. I actually tried to learn something, but I stopped at Kana learning and I just gave up (but when I'll learn seriously, I won't, promise). Anyway, how long are you studying?

[Hazreth]

Anyway, how long are you studying?

Me? Oh well, not very long. And not very systematically, therefore I learn a tiny bit of stuff, and then take a long break and forget everything, except of things that could possibly make me look smart when I talk about them on the internet. And eventually I get back to studying, revise this stuff I forgot, and take another break. And so on.

[3m2oo5]

Koko-de tabako wo sute-mo kamaimasenka? - thats all that I remember from my short studies of Jap language.. few kanji marks.. thats all. Used it to hit the chics

[TatankaYatanka]

Hey guys! Haven't been here for ages, and I see that you've started quite interesting topic - learning languages in general.

But first things first. I agree that you need "willpower" to learn languages, but only partially. IMHO good teacher still plays the greatest role. During my life I tried learning some languages and I must admit that I achieved satisfying level only in English. And believe me that's not only because of that seventeen years of being in touch with it. It's also or rather mainly thanks to people I met and who were able to force a little bit more knowledge into my brain. Unfortunately in case of German, and Russian I haven't had so much luck and little do I understand and even less can I say which is quite annoying since I spent few long years on each of them.

In case of Japanese... it's time for short commercial: click me. This school is run by someone who I know quite well and I believe she'd be glad to have some new students . Additional advantage of learning here are some Japanese students (mainly girls xD) coming to Poland from time to time... it usually means 3 days of parties mixed with sightseeing and interesting discussions. Hopefully most of them speak Engrish (sic!).

[maciollo]

Speaking of learning languages (or however you spell it), i always wanted to learn latin. It's going to be completely and totally useless but it's very cool thing to can, don't you think?

[Qbuś]

No. I mean it's not cool. 'Cool' is a word incompatible with Latin Latin is definitely not completely useless. Maybe it's not useful in most situations but in some it comes in handy. Latin is at the root of many words and languages. Many, many medical terms come from Latin.

And if you want to learn Latin... Go to Finland. They even translate Elvis into Latin there.

[Rankin]

Go to Finland. They even translate Elvis into Latin there.

Is that why Kathai loves Finland so much? I wonder... And Elvis? Is it because he's dead, much like Latin?

At any rate, "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC" always cracks me up

[Turambar]

Ugh. Finnish is quite cool, especially when used in metal music These words, which meaning is a mystery for you, but they sound quite... You know And Finns are weird people, but if you live in a country, where in winter sun stays low on the horison, you must be weird to survive

[opti]

Oh, I see that some people are interested in English, that's good. Let me join, then. Ouh, Latin... I think that learning this language is useless nowadays. Of course a lot of medical terms come from that language, but that's all. The best languages to learn are English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese. These language can be very useful in the future, especially Chinese. But I doubt that it would be too difficult to learn 50.000 signs of whole Chinese alphabet.

[ellessaar]

Latina latinaaa uuu There's a lot of words taken from latin and used nowadays, however I can't remember too many e.g. Soldier is some kind of "working for pay" in latin, many illnesses like pneumonia or leukemia has it's roots in latin, as far as I know

[gerbilos]

The best languages to learn are English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese.

I disaprove with you. I think the most useful laguages are English, Spanish and maybe Russian. Even in France majority people speak English. If you will in Asia on tour or something in restaurans waiters must speak English. In Russia it propably this same. Of course if you know more languages its all better for you. I know my English isn't too good, but in next week i have English Test, and i think writing here is good training. If i done some serious mistakes please tell me about it. Thank you in advance.

[podbiel]

Good idea, but that "test" won't be very difficult ;] Anyway, it doesn't matter in recrutation to "college" ;] You made some mistakes, but they comes from your remissness, not from yours gaps in knowledge -

If you will be in Asia on tour

,

In Russia it probably is the same

.

[mmorpgfps]

Even in France majority people speak English.

So what?

Most of 'em won't use it and will pretend not to understand because they don't like it

[gerbilos]

How do you know it? I was in France, and if I asked someone about something in english, he always can respond me. I think in 2111 all world will be speak english.

And French is difficult, Polish and Chinease too. Whole world can't learn those languages. Just can't. Globalization, man

English is known in Poland. Its good, because most of Russians can't speak any foreign language. That's is just another reason why Russia should'nt be in EU.

[yojc]

Its good, because most of Russians can't speak any foreign language.

How do you know, did you do some kind of research on that issue?

Anyway as popular as English is in Poland, I highly doubt that most people know any other language than mother tongue.

[gerbilos]

You know, majority of Pole's do not know Polish grammary well. I mean something like participles... When you must learn any language, you start learning from words, and then you must learn grammar... Thats why i think some poeple know much better english grammar than our mother grammar.

[yojc]

True, English is far easier to learn than Polish, but you must take into consideration that in Poland you don't really have a good contact with English in everyday life. Thus even if someone has learned all the theory in school, it doesn't necessarily mean he knows English very well since he had little to no real life contact with it.

Good grammar is one thing, but the most important usage of foreign language is IMHO a everyday communication with other people (which is more complicated that it might seem, especially since it is not taught very well in schools). In communication the most significant role plays the ability to convey the message to other people, not the grammar itself (unless it gets really bad).

[gerbilos]

Yes, i know it. I think i have good speech, and I owe it my journey to France. But in conversation most importent is gesticulation. If you know simplest words you can explain majority of deals or something

If we talking about Polish school system i must say about Engilsh teachers. Most of them make their lessons boring, because they think something like that: They must know words!!!! WORDS! WORDS! MUAHAHA! Kowalski! F!!

OK, im kidding, but a part of this is true. I learning english almost 9 years, and in school i had really not much grammar. I sad in "real world" gesticulation is very important, but when i write something in Internet i must know grammar.

[yojc]

Yeah but on the other hand, a decent knowledge of words is one of the basic things in learning English (or any other language). If your grammar will be a little off it shouldn't make that much difference, but if you run out of words to describe what you're saying you're in big trouble. True, you might try gestures but in the long run it gets rather annoying for the listeners - not to mention that gesticulation is not the most convenient form of communication since it IMHO takes longer to be understood and can be misinterpreted at times.

Also on the Internet no one really seems to give a crap about proper grammar, so you could get away with it

[Black Shadow]

Also on the Internet no one really seems to give a crap about proper grammar, so you could get away with it

Yeah, I say Internet have it really unique way of speaking, you know what I mean? Something geek-like: teh Internetz or... aw, I can't think of anything funny for now. Alas from this, for example, American people in common speech use only two times if I'm correct, but I honestly don't how how it looks like in Her Majesty's country ^_^

[yojc]

Yeah, I'm really into troll language, you know.

Well I had a couple of times an opportunity to talk with English (UK) native speakers and true, they don't really use that much tenses at all. Grammar is really basic, but you ought to know a lot of words if you want to keep up. Not to mention their horrible accent... especially the Scottish one is totally beyond the comprehension - it sounds more like German mixed with French.

[Qbuś]

... it sounds more like German mixed with French.

Weeelll... English is a Germanic language and it has a lot of French influences due the Norman invasion But I know what you mean:

Youtube Video ->Oryginalne wideo

English is pretty easy to learn but can be hard to master. And Polish... I would hate to learn Polish as a second language. We are not aware of this but learning Polish is hell. Seven cases, many many declension groups, agreement... Horror.

[Zdenio]

Not to mention pronouncacion

In learning English, pronouncacion isn't a big issue because we've got so many English accents (including ones from countries where people speak English as their first language and all foreign accents) that nobody cares so much about it.

[Tesu]

Well guys... when I think about Polish grammar I see many similarities to the Latin one, which I also had to learn. For many Poles who are just starting their adventure with English this language might be a bit confusing and even scary since there are so many different tenses. But the truth is that they are all matching what we are using in Polish grammar, only under different names. In fact, English is like a good game - easy to learn, hard to master. The pronounciation is important but native English speakers will not have any problem with accepting it even if you do not have excellent Cambridge accent and vocabulary. I am dealing with people from all around the world at work. People from UK, Ireland, US, New Zealand, Australia are all native speakers but the way they speak, their accent or even vocabulary and the phrases they use are all totally different. I am living and working in Ireland at the moment. I have been here for almost seven years now. I can tell you that English accent and pronounciation differ not only from one country to another but it is different within the same country and even the same city. Look at the capital of Ireland, Dublin. There are about 1,5 million people living here. Even if you do not count all non-native English speakers there are more than 1 million Irish people living in the city. The way they speak is still different depending on which part of the city they come from. And it is exactly the same if you go to London. To me this is just amazing how many different 'flavours' English language has got.

[yaiez]

Not to mention pronouncacion

In learning English, pronouncacion isn't a big issue because we've got so many English accents (including ones from countries where people speak English as their first language and all foreign accents) that nobody cares so much about it.

I can't really agree with this statement. Pronunciation is very important in English, some words may be misunderstood if you are not using the correct pronunciation. Some words are typed in the same way, while pronunciation differs, some words can be distinguished only by stress, place of speech production or even narrow (common) way the word is pronounced. We can see this e.g. while saying the word "object" as it can be both a verb and a noun, depending on the way you are saying it.