(no subject)

[ysobel]

Well, the whole "learn Greek" thing seemed like a great idea until I got out of the alphabet section and into the words.

I need to check the website info (it drives me crazy that the website has information -- like blurbs about indefinite articles or conjugations or whatever -- that doesn't appear in the app) but there's no way I am going to remember anything. There are about five words for a/the (and without information I don't know whether it's based on noun gender or whether the next word Astarte with a consonant or whatever), plus I can't remember the words for "man" and "woman" even from one screen to the next.

So my options seem to be a) stay with Greek and get completely overwhelmed; b) switch over to Russian to see if that sticks any better; c) go back to re-refreshing German; or d) refresh Spanish and start getting serious about things like consuming Spanish media and whatever so that I can get passably ... well, fluent seems unlikely, but I guess conversant or whatever.

Or e) give the fuck up because my brain is broken so why am I even trying. But I think that's the depression brainweasels talking.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Six, apparently. Masculine, feminine, and neuter by noun gender, times indefinite (a/an) and definite (the).

I do not understand language learning without grammatical learning. Who can possibly get anywhere with only vocabulary? I mean. Being able to construct the sentence (or a sentence comparable to) "The purple reindeer deliberately conjugated a small fluffy book in the table" is a valuable life skill! Simply knowing those eleven distinct vocabulary words is...maybe not best helpful, if fluency is the goal, rather than simply being able to comprehend vocab inserted at random points in a text otherwise in a familiar language.

[niqaeli]

Vocabulary alone will get you a hell of a long way if you're just trying to function on a subsistence level in a particular language environment. It's not, in any way, ideal. But it's pretty underrated, tbh? Knowing the words for a lot of things in the language of the person you're speaking with is extremely useful, even if you can't construct a coherent(-in-the-language-you're-speaking) sentence.

However, if you want to communicate at anything more than a basic level, then grammar becomes real damn important, yes. (This would be why my ideal language learning app is primarily vocabulary flashcards alongside a nice splid dose of grammar instruction. My ideal language app basically doesn't exist; maybe I will get on making it some day...)

[alexseanchai]

*nodnod*

[swingandswirl]

Shoo, brainweasels /waves cricket bat threateningly at them/

My vote is for Spanish, as it seems to me that it'd be the most useful of the languages you picked, given your location? Also there's a lot of fun Spanish media around :D But I'm biased, given that I also speak it, albeit not very well.

[ysobel]

For usefulness, it's a tossup between Russian (I have an aide whose native language is Russian) and Spanish. But I mean, Welsh wasn't at all practical but was fun (until it got too hard).

One of the problems last night was I just couldn't grok anything. TheGreek word for woman is γυναίκα, transliterated gynaika. Greek for man is άνδρας, andras. I should be able to remember those at least somewhat because of gyno- and anthro-, but I was flailing about going “um I think the y word is … man? No, woman” and couldn’t retain the words for more than a screen, if that.

But I may have just been too tired...

Re Spanish media, this had me howling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKGyOE_jOI

[james]

At least if you do Russian, you could conceivably talk to locals! (Although there are some Greek folks in Sac, but I tried learning Greek one semester and oh god it's hard.)

[sineala]

Yes, the Greek article inflects for case, number and gender. *waves hi from the Ancient Greek textbook which is like Modern Greek only worse*

Lysimache's tip is to memorize all the forms of the definite and indefinite article because that way you can tell what case something is even if you're not sure about the noun endings for that particular declension.

Also she says that Duolingo is kind of useless for grammar and she thinks it's probably only helpful to review if you already know the language. She recommends a textbook instead; the one she used and says is pretty good (and it's free and online!) is Filoglossia. But she says it goes fast.

Edit: She also offers help if you need help. She is good at explaining things.