BootsnAll Travel Community

I did it... I passed prep-math!! If you guys only knew how much I hate math...

I barely passed the final but I got a B in the class... I really slacked on studying but the important thing is I am out of there!!

Woohoo!!!!!!!

Congratulations.......
and jubilations..........

Thats fabulous news!!

I hope i pass my finals now!!!!

Yippee!! Congrats!! Math can really stress people out.

Can I jump on your joy wagon and claim that I'm sooooo glad to be done with finals??! I just finished and hour ago. Yippee again!!!

yes joey congrats to you! learning math is like speaking a foreign language to me! i want to learn but its hard!

Hey travelgirltiff (and anyone else),

What language do you want to learn?

I'm actually learning French right now (off to class in 20 minutes). I have studied Spanish, Italian and Icelandic but I'm not fluent in any of them. I just love languages! How about you Dave?

I like to know the languages, but studying them is driving me nuts right now! I'm writing a german paper on a Goethe poem and how it relates to the Enlightenment and then have to turn around and write an assignment on spanish epic poetry of the middle ages. It's all interesting, but it's frustrating to spend 3 times as long to get it all done...Ok, I'm done being pissy. For the record I've also studied French and a bit of Russian.

OK, I’m seriously not trying to sound like a smart-ass here…

Right now I’m “studying” about a dozen languages. Of course, that can mean anything from intensely focusing on a language to merely learning a few words here and there. Right now, the main ones are:

German (college major, desperately trying to retain as much as possible)
Spanish (I can get by pretty well)
French (knew a lot, lost it, trying to get it back)
Hungarian (one of my favorites)
Icelandic (another fave)
Thai (Thailand is high on my list of places to visit soon—perhaps this summer)
Polish
Hindi
Turkish
Greek
Portuguese
Italian
Dutch
Bits of others (Korean, Japanese, Bengali, Esperanto)

When I lived in Germany for a year, I quickly learned that knowing a few phrases here and there opened so many doors. It was a way to meet locals, and I’d often be invited to dinner or drinks or to spend the night just by knowing some of the local language. (It also helps improve America's image--so many peope I've met assume that Americans only speak English.) So I’ve been working on at least learning the basics (hello, thank you, that’s a nice goat), just enough to survive in as many countries as possible. After I learn that, I try to learn more, whatever I have time for. (It helps that I work at a university teeming with foreign exchange students!)

My friends think I’m addicted to languages. Fair statement. I’ve accumulated close to 300 language books, tapes, etc. My friends think this is why I’m not married.

Hey, Mayumia, how’d you come to learn Icelandic? How much have you learned?

Dave, do you have any tips for learning a language? I'm sure you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Of course besides living in the country where the chosen language is spoken.

thats a hard question... i already know some spanish, i guess german since i am going there!

Hey, Joey T,

Well, I've got a few tricks, but not everything works for everyone. I think I'm geared towards being able to pick up a language more quickly than a lot of people I know. I think what helps me the most (and this is probably the closest I can come to a philosophy) is finding a reason to learn the language. My main motivation is to be able to communicate with the locals of whichever country, either for survival or socializing, so I focus on what I would need to be understood. It really helps to picture myself in a conversation. (What would I say if this person said this, or if I wanted to ask where the nearest bar, bookstore, etc. is?) So I focus on survival phrases (Where is...? Thank you, Do you speak...? Hello, etc.), a few phrases about me, maybe something social (Can I buy you a drink?) and so on.

I don't worry about learning everything from a textbook lesson. Why learn all the body parts at once? I might want to say I have a headache, but I don't think I've ever talked about my elbow while traveling. If I need to, I can just point to it. Chances are whoever I'm talking to can teach the word to me. Then I've learned a new word AND made a friend.

Learn what you need. Don't worry about learning how to talk about finding and staying in a hotel if you're staying with friends. Don't learn car vocabulary if you're not going to rent a car.

Learn phrases, not just words. Get some audio and listen to it. DVD's are great--especially if you're learning Spanish or French, but there are other languages available too. DVD's are great for learning phrases too. Just be careful--sometimes subtitles aren't always a direct translation of what's being said.

Practice. Talk out loud. Find someone you can talk to. I go to Thai restaurants to practice what little Thai I know. The staff loves it. They don't get many short white guys who speak their language, so they're extremely helpful and grateful when they meet one who does. Universities usually have a number of foreign exchange students, many of whom are (from my experience) willing to talk in their native tongue or give some help to anyone studying it. Immerse yourself any way you can.

Of course, if you want to be fluent in a language, you'll eventually have to learn everything. But for me, it's always helped to learn the fun stuff first to give myself a good foundation.

If you think of language learning as a chore, it slows you down. Find a reason to make it worth your while. Then start learning ASAP.

Of course, this only goes so far depending on how much you want/need to learn, how long you'll have to use the language, what you'll be doing, etc. But it's worked for me. It's nice to know I can fall back on English most of the time, but some of the best encounters I've ever had were with people who didn't speak a lick of English and were surprised, impressed and grateful I knew some of their language.

That, for me, is the best part about travel.

Hope this helps!

dave prine:
"Hey, Mayumia, how’d you come to learn Icelandic? How much have you learned?"

I am obsessed with Iceland and plan to live there someday. Unfortunately my only exposure to conversational Icelandic has been through language cd's (I've practised with Daisy L Neimann's Colloquial Icelandic), films I have seen and the 2 hours I spent at Keflavik airport.

It is a beautiful language and I remember when I first heard it in person. I was in Paris at the Nortre Dame and they were a group of 5 women speaking in a somewhat familiar language. Sure enough, it was Icelandic.
My second encounter was when I was taking a ghost tour in Prague and there were three young Icelandic girls. It took a lot of courage for me to try and speak with them but I did it and it was so much fun!

I only know some basics now because I hit a brick wall in not being able to actually use any of it.

I know bits and pieces of several languages and when I get together with my Italian friend who can speak several lanuages, our conversation spans English, Italian, Spanish, Icelandic and Finnish. There are few things in life more exciting to me than that!

(OK, my first reaction is: I must find this woman and marry her. If that fails, see if she has a sister...)

That is very cool, mayumia! I have a similar experience with Hungarian (beautiful language, met some cool people who speak it), and I'm slooooooowly picking up a little Icelandic here and there. Colloquial is next on my list. Would you say it's worth getting? Can you recommend any other resources? I have the Berlitz Scandanavian Cassette Pack, Teach Yourself Icelandic (great for grammar but no audio), and the Lonely Planet Scandanavian phrasebook. Decent, but I need more, especially audio. Any suggestions (or movie recommendations, while we're at it) would be much appreciated.

takk kærlega, Gleðileg nýár,*
dave

*If the text doesn't come thru, that's supposed to mean, "thanks a lot, Happy New Year")

Hey Dave, sorry it took me so long to reply.

Colloquial is defnitely a good buy and it is wonderful to just listen to the short conversations. Even if you just memorize those and spout off a few lines to friends I think it's worth it!

The Teach Yourself series does have Icelandic w/ audio (Hildur Jonsdottir). I have browsed through the book and it seems very easy and well laid out. I used a similar one to study some Italian and it worked well.

Of course my favorite self-instruction program is Pimsleur but, unfortunately, they have not released an Icelandic version yet.

There is a wonderful interactive course online. It takes a little while to figure out how to maneuver around the site (there isn't much English) but once you get rolling it is really fun. A lot of the audio is spoken very quickly though. Here is the link:

http://www.icelandic.hi.is/coursetest.php

As for films, I have only seen a few films where any Icelandic is spoken: "101 Reyjavík", "Cold Fever", and "No Such Thing" but here is a link to a list of films that specify inclusion of some Icelandic dialogue:

http://www.imdb.com/List?language=Icelandic&&tv=on&&heading=10;Icelandic&&nav=/Sections/Languages/Icelandic/include-titles

I have not yet heard Hungarian but am very interested in hearing it now. It's next on my list!

góður heppni!
-mayumi