Introduce yourself here

General discussion about learning languages
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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed Aug 18, 2021 5:47 pm

lingohot wrote:At the age of 40 I don't think my brain is still malleable enough to master the structures of such a distant language.
Dubious assumption. Give Mandarin a shot, you might be surprised. What have you got to lose? :)
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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AmyNolan
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:08 am
Languages: I speak Russian, English, Dutch and am learning French and Spanish
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby AmyNolan » Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:52 am

I think that no age limit, my mom started learning Japanese at 52, and you know what, after 1.5 years she spoke it. Today it's been 5 years and she speaks and writes Japanese fluently, but of course she's still learning it. So it all depends on your attitude, persistence and effort. Anything is possible, the main thing is to start!!! Good luck, my friends. !
Last edited by AmyNolan on Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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lingohot
Orange Belt
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:17 pm
Languages: German (N), English (certified C1), French (certified C1), Spanish (reading intermediate, speaking/writing/listening beginner)
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby lingohot » Sun Aug 22, 2021 8:11 am

Hello,

for some reason I couldn't log in for a while. It just didn't work (I tried it 10 or so times in a row and then gave up). But now it seems to be working again.

MorkTheFiddle wrote:
lingohot wrote:At the age of 40 I don't think my brain is still malleable enough to master the structures of such a distant language.
Dubious assumption. Give Mandarin a shot, you might be surprised. What have you got to lose? :)


Well the only thing I would have to lose is time :) Maybe I should give it a shot. The Chinese culture is super interesting and fascinating to me. The problem is I'm quite a perfectionist, and when I start a language I already think of how I will go about to reach the highest levels (and then get discouraged because it's so much work). Theoretically I know how to learn a language but having learnt at least two of them to an advanced level I know it takes time.


AmyNolan wrote:I think that no age limit, my mom started learning Japanese at 52, and you know what, after 1.5 years she spoke it. Today it's been 5 years and she speaks and writes Japanese fluently, but of course she's still learning it. So it all depends on your attitude, persistence and effort. Anything is possible, the main thing is to start!!! Good luck, my friends.


Wow, that sounds encouraging. Nice.
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Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
Location: Denmark
Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby Iversen » Sun Aug 22, 2021 5:27 pm

I can't say why you had problems logging in, but we have an issue with the thing that counts how many times you have logged in - it always believes you have too many, and then you have to solve a riddle (so you can just write x and x the first time while there are just two fields and only tap in real data when the page with the riddle comes). And once you are inside, the forum software tends to kick you out again (we use several servers to spread the traffic out, and something there is malfunctioning) - but to this problem there is a solution: tick off "remember me", and you are safe.
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dml130
White Belt
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2021 11:05 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), Persian (beginner)
Maybe someday (in no particular order): French, Swahili, Hindustani, Mandarin, Amharic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby dml130 » Mon Aug 23, 2021 11:19 pm

Hello all, I'm David, from the US. I've had a fascination with languages for years, but it was only recently (several years ago in my mid 30's) that I decided to get serious about learning another language. After some work, I'm conversational (though still have much to learn) in Spanish, and now I'm starting on Portuguese (after a false start on French, which I may someday return to).
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jeffers
Blue Belt
Posts: 848
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby jeffers » Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:57 pm

Iversen wrote:I can't say why you had problems logging in, but we have an issue with the thing that counts how many times you have logged in - it always believes you have too many, and then you have to solve a riddle (so you can just write x and x the first time while there are just two fields and only tap in real data when the page with the riddle comes). And once you are inside, the forum software tends to kick you out again (we use several servers to spread the traffic out, and something there is malfunctioning) - but to this problem there is a solution: tick off "remember me", and you are safe.


I have this issue contantly when I'm logged in at work, but not at home. The "remember me" tick does not help; I tend to get logged off within a minute or so when I'm at work. I suspect the firewall does something the forum software doesn't like.
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Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
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Severine
White Belt
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:00 pm
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Languages: English (N), Latin (Adv.), Ancient Greek (Adv.) French (Adv.), Spanish (Int.), Russian (Int.), Italian (Rusty Int.), Mandarin (Beg.)
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby Severine » Wed Aug 25, 2021 1:37 am

After years of intermittent lurking (let me extend a belated thank you for your many useful resource and reference posts) I decided to finally introduce myself, with a view to perhaps contributing more actively to the forum.

I'm a native English speaker with a reasonably high level of French, intermediate but fading Spanish, and basic but useable Russian. I also read and write Latin and Ancient Greek at quite a high level, having studied them at university and kept up with them (Latin in particular) as a hobby. I once knew a bit of German and Italian, but both have disappeared with lack of use. I just started learning Mandarin quite recently and am deeply enamoured of it.

My current languages of active focus are French and Mandarin, with some intermittent but lackadaisical work on Russian.

Aside from language learning, my hobbies and interests include reading, writing, hiking, camping, canoeing, rock climbing, botany and gardening, neuroscience, history, pens and stationery, travel, music, video games of particular sorts, and law.

I am fairly introverted, but always delighted to meet interesting people and have fascinating conversations.
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IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby IronMike » Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:47 pm

Severine wrote:I am fairly introverted, but always delighted to meet interesting people and have fascinating conversations.

A bunch of us meet up in Boston every year. Good place to have fascinating conversations.
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You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
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My reading life.

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Severine
White Belt
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:00 pm
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Languages: English (N), Latin (Adv.), Ancient Greek (Adv.) French (Adv.), Spanish (Int.), Russian (Int.), Italian (Rusty Int.), Mandarin (Beg.)
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby Severine » Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:04 am

IronMike wrote:A bunch of us meet up in Boston every year. Good place to have fascinating conversations.


Thank you! Despite my lurking, that is news to me. I'll keep an eye out for the next rendez-vous.

lingohot wrote:I'm in love with Chinese culture and would love to study the language, but I guess it's too late. At the age of 40 I don't think my brain is still malleable enough to master the structures of such a distant language.


I just turned 40 a couple of weeks ago, and I recently started learning Chinese. It's not too late! Decades ago, the prevailing wisdom was that learning became less and less possible as the brain aged, but more recent studies have shown that, although we'll never again be the uncanny learning machines we were as toddlers, the brain is capable of mastering new things and retaining a high degree of neuroplasticity even into old age. Even neurogenesis is possible as an adult. And certain activities -- such as exercise, social interactions, and learning new things -- support the brain's neuroplasticity and overall health. So I would argue that, not only are you not too old to learn Chinese, but in fact learning Chinese would be good for you and your brain 8-)

If you decide to pursue Chinese studies and want someone to compare notes with, let me know.
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owens3341
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:54 am
Languages: English, Chinese and Korean
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Re: Introduce yourself here

Postby owens3341 » Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:16 am

Hi I am Owens from Malaysia !! I think the best way to study English is practice, practice and practice... moreover, read articles, books as much as you can!
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