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Old 10-21-2005, 06:35 PM   #1
Perry Winkle
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Learning Natural Languages

I just started (trying) to learn Czech. There aren't any classes in my area for Czech so I'm stuck learning on my own. So far I've bought the Colloquial Czech CDs/Tapes + Book and have been listening to http://www.radio.cz/. I think maybe finding a Czech pen pal would be beneficial.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? Advice? Comments?

I've mentioned this before but I'm planning on moving to the Czech Republic after graduation in the spring so at that point finding native Czech speakers to practice on won't be a problem. I'm prepared for strange looks and constant mistakes.

Ahoj!
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Old 10-21-2005, 06:41 PM   #2
dar512
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How about the Czech version of Reader's Digest?
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Old 10-21-2005, 06:50 PM   #3
Perry Winkle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dar512
How about the Czech version of Reader's Digest?
Good idea. I found where they claim to publish RD in Czech but I haven't actually found where to subscribe yet.

Thanks.
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Old 10-21-2005, 08:58 PM   #4
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I'd like to know why you wish to live there?
Just want to Czech it out?
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Old 10-21-2005, 09:30 PM   #5
Perry Winkle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
I'd like to know why you wish to live there?
Just want to Czech it out?
I want to teach english for a year or two. It would give me a chance to spend time in a bunch of places I love and see a bunch of places I've never been to. The architecture and history in the CR alone could keep me busy for a decade.

Also, I just think it will be fun. I'm not real excited to start a mainstream career. I'm thinking at some point I'll start a restaurant or some sort of IT Consulting or Game Development company.

My favorite Czech pun so far is "Czech book".
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Old 10-22-2005, 01:27 AM   #6
xoxoxoBruce
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Teaching...restaurant...some sort of IT Consulting....Game Development company. Wow, that's a range.
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Old 10-22-2005, 01:44 AM   #7
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I have made several attempts at language acquisition without the benefit of a structured class setting. As a consequence I have a vocabulary of about 20 or so Vietnamese words, and no understanding of the grammar. On a good day I can remember what letters of the Greek alphabet make what sounds, but that's mostly because I learned the Russian Alphabet in a structured class setting and Cyril stole a lot of the characters from the Greek Alphabet.
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Old 10-22-2005, 10:16 AM   #8
Perry Winkle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
I have made several attempts at language acquisition without the benefit of a structured class setting. As a consequence I have a vocabulary of about 20 or so Vietnamese words, and no understanding of the grammar. On a good day I can remember what letters of the Greek alphabet make what sounds, but that's mostly because I learned the Russian Alphabet in a structured class setting and Cyril stole a lot of the characters from the Greek Alphabet.
I learned the Greek Alphabet from a computer science Phd student of all people. He also taught me how to pronounce some Hindi. The Cyrillic alphabet doesn't seem too daunting to me but I'd never want to attempt any of the writings systems for Chinese, Japanese, etc.

I've tried to learn German on my own but it didn't go very far because of lack of motivation. There was nobody to speak it too and I wasn't planning on visiting anytime soon. I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and a semester in college. I can still understand it pretty well mainly because I'm exposed to it around town.

I'm a bit of a language enthusiast.
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Old 10-22-2005, 01:44 AM   #9
wolf
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Oh, and since nobody asked yet ... What the heck's natural about Czech? They use too many consonants in a row.
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Old 10-22-2005, 10:04 AM   #10
Perry Winkle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
Oh, and since nobody asked yet ... What the heck's natural about Czech? They use too many consonants in a row.
Natural languages are what people use for verbal communication, including writing. Artificial languages are things like computer programming languages.

The prototypical example of too many consonants is "Strč prst skrz krk" . Some letters like 'r' are consonants in both English and Czech. However, in Czech they can function, more or less, as vowels.

(I'm going to respond to posts in reverse chronological order and in individual postings to avoid confusing myself as much as possible.)
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Old 10-23-2005, 10:13 AM   #11
staceyv
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It would really help you a lot to be able to talk to a native speaker that also speaks english.
I taught myself russian for a full year. I would learn things in books or on cd and then try to say them to my husband. Sometimes he would almost cry because he was laughing so hard. Even slight variations in pronounciation can make "I'd like to sit" sound like "I'd like a tit"- know what I mean?
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Old 10-23-2005, 11:17 PM   #12
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....or like in Spanish, where we have had some doozies on our board courtesy of Alta Vista.

aņo = year
ano = anus

A sentence meaning "he is 20 years old" comes out as "he has 20 anuses" We have had even worse than that. The words for frown and breast are very similar too, with predictable results.
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Old 10-24-2005, 11:35 AM   #13
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How can breasts make you frown?
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Old 10-24-2005, 10:04 PM   #14
Tonchi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigV
How can breasts make you frown?
Take the Spanish sentence which should be translated to "He had a big frown on his face." Get the picture?
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Old 10-25-2005, 12:08 AM   #15
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If I had a big breast on my (otherwise undeformed but extremely happy) face, any indication that I had a frown would definitely be an error in translation.
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