12-18-2009, 12:30 AM
It seems to be where my talent lies. I'm a native English speaker who lives in Oklahoma, and I taught myself the basics of Swedish via a few online sources (trust me, there aren't many 
), then just learnt through trial-and-error, asking Yahoo! Answers questions, and looking up words and memorizing pluralization, ect.
I also know the basics to many languages from just reading online. There're a lot of Mexicans here in the South, so I hear Spanish every time I go out. I took a year and a month (before transferring schools) of it, but I didn't learn much, since I taught myself the basics with a high school text book from a Puerto Rican high school when I was 7.
I took a year of German in the 8th grade, although I didn't pay attention. It was mainly a blow off class, although I did learn the fundamentals. I also learnt a lot just from reading questions / answers on Yahoo! Answers' language section and watching movies in German (such as Der Untergang, Das Leben Der Anderen, ect). German is also very similar to Swedish (mainly in vocabulary, but some pronounciation such as ö, y (German: ü), ect that would otherwise be difficult for a monolingual English speaker were easy because of the similarities), so that helped.
I'm taking French, but I can honestly say that I hate it with a burning passion. First off, the only 'silent letters' that are ever in Swedish are really the final 'g' in adjectives (a lot of adjectives end in 'g', ie. ljuvlig - lovely, smutsig - dirty, regnig - rainy, snöig - snowy, ect) and even then, you can pronounce the 'g' if you want. Sometimes words like något (something) or någon (someone) are pronounced as nåt or nån, but that's informal. In French, it's safe to assume that only like 1/4 of the letters in the word will be pronounced. It's so unnecessary. I know I can't talk, because my native language, English, has a lot of silent letters as well, but it isn't nearly as bad as French.
All in all, I really like learning about languages. I might even enjoy learning the language itself. For instance, most people think I'm pulling their leg when I say Greenlandic is spoken in Greenland, but I'm not. I just love sitting down and reading Wikipedia pages for hours at a time, constantly reading the "related articles" on each page, ect.
Wow, this was long :p
), then just learnt through trial-and-error, asking Yahoo! Answers questions, and looking up words and memorizing pluralization, ect. I also know the basics to many languages from just reading online. There're a lot of Mexicans here in the South, so I hear Spanish every time I go out. I took a year and a month (before transferring schools) of it, but I didn't learn much, since I taught myself the basics with a high school text book from a Puerto Rican high school when I was 7.
I took a year of German in the 8th grade, although I didn't pay attention. It was mainly a blow off class, although I did learn the fundamentals. I also learnt a lot just from reading questions / answers on Yahoo! Answers' language section and watching movies in German (such as Der Untergang, Das Leben Der Anderen, ect). German is also very similar to Swedish (mainly in vocabulary, but some pronounciation such as ö, y (German: ü), ect that would otherwise be difficult for a monolingual English speaker were easy because of the similarities), so that helped.
I'm taking French, but I can honestly say that I hate it with a burning passion. First off, the only 'silent letters' that are ever in Swedish are really the final 'g' in adjectives (a lot of adjectives end in 'g', ie. ljuvlig - lovely, smutsig - dirty, regnig - rainy, snöig - snowy, ect) and even then, you can pronounce the 'g' if you want. Sometimes words like något (something) or någon (someone) are pronounced as nåt or nån, but that's informal. In French, it's safe to assume that only like 1/4 of the letters in the word will be pronounced. It's so unnecessary. I know I can't talk, because my native language, English, has a lot of silent letters as well, but it isn't nearly as bad as French.
All in all, I really like learning about languages. I might even enjoy learning the language itself. For instance, most people think I'm pulling their leg when I say Greenlandic is spoken in Greenland, but I'm not. I just love sitting down and reading Wikipedia pages for hours at a time, constantly reading the "related articles" on each page, ect.
Wow, this was long :p