I've been struggling with foreign languages my whole life, and I'm running out of time...

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by APWiseman /img/forum/go_quote.gif If Japanese is too hard, try Chinese. I hear that simplified modern Chinese is easier than Japanese.

I'm not sure what kind of Chinese is offered at his school however, Mandarin is just as, if not more difficult to learn than Japanese. I had friends who took Mandarin in high school and it was ridiculously difficult.

If I were the OP I'd go back to Spanish. If the first few weeks of Japanese were too difficult you need to get out of there asap as it doesn't get any easier. I took Japanese on and off for 10 years and I hated every minute of it. I just don't understand why you'd want one character to have a bajillion different readings. And btw after all that time I'm still not fluent nor could I read through the average Japanese newspaper.

 

[iriverdude]

If you're not any good at it, why even try?

 

[Benaiir]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeusEx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, crappy teachers...

Agreed... Here's a breakdown of my spanish teachers throughout the years:

K-5: She was a highly religious Cuban who I recently found out rode a raft into America (Obviously illegally; her husband told the whole 8th grade and he's the honors Spanish 3 teacher).... The only way she could get us to cooperate is by making us rap in spanish to a 4-bit cassette. She taught us that a word that sounds like hey-soos means "Bless you". As it turns out it means Jesus. I'm Jewish.

6: She was Italian, teaching Spanish. Need I say more?

7: Also Italian teaching Spanish. We didn't do anything. I played with my rubik's cube most of the time.

8: I had the cajones to switch to Chinese. The teacher cried 3 times and told us "You make my heart breed! (Bleed)". Heaviest accent ever. She quit and the school appointed the guidance counselor to do "Cultural teaching" since they didn't have anyone to teach... For the last month we had a new, more stable Chinese teacher. Ni3 hao2 (Wait, is that right?)

 

[HONEYBOY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benaiir /img/forum/go_quote.gif Agreed... Here's a breakdown of my spanish teachers throughout the years: K-5: She was a highly religious Cuban who I recently found out rode a raft into America (Obviously illegally; her husband told the whole 8th grade and he's the honors Spanish 3 teacher).... The only way she could get us to cooperate is by making us rap in spanish to a 4-bit cassette. She taught us that a word that sounds like hey-soos means "Bless you". As it turns out it means Jesus. I'm Jewish. 6: She was Italian, teaching Spanish. Need I say more? 7: Also Italian teaching Spanish. We didn't do anything. I played with my rubik's cube most of the time. 8: I had the cajones to switch to Chinese. The teacher cried 3 times and told us "You make my heart breed! (Bleed)". Heaviest accent ever. She quit and the school appointed the guidance counselor to do "Cultural teaching" since they didn't have anyone to teach... For the last month we had a new, more stable Chinese teacher. Ni3 hao2 (Wait, is that right?)

haha You're funny!!
The last bit should be Ni3 hao3 but when you speak it sounds like ni2 hao3. Alright this is crazy.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Thanks everybody for your inputs. You all pretty much confirmed what I've been suspecting since the end of the first class.

Unfortunately, the sad twist is that every Spanish class on campus is Waitlisted; some even up to ten people. And according to my friends who are in the Spanish classes I was aiming for, the teachers have already told the waitlisted people they couldn't add them in.

Sooo looks like I'll need to stay the course and ask my friend/tutor, who is fluent in both Japanese and Spanish (among other languages) to help me out here. And she also had the same teacher I have now, so I'm sure that will help out even further.

 

[FallenAngel]

I don't like the idea of "foreign language" - they're languages and it's always a great personal trait to learn as many as possible. English is a very easy, basic and simple language - I learned it in barely a half of a year. I learned Hebrew in 6 months - easiest language ever. Most of the Scandinavian languages are hard but fun to learn. I recommend German as well, it's fairly easy. French is fairly complicated, so is Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and most in the area. Japanese isn't easy but fun.

 

[Kirosia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benaiir /img/forum/go_quote.gif 6: She was Italian, teaching Spanish. Need I say more?

My elementary french teacher is Italian, and she spoke the language perfectly. My current teacher is American and her pronunciation is off, she sounds like a tourist reading from one of those little phrase books.

 

[iriverdude]

Quote:

My elementary french teacher is Italian, and she spoke the language perfectly

yeah yeah that's very interesting, but is she hot?

 

[Kirosia]

^ For an older woman/teacher, yes actually.

 

[dBs]

I feel your pain. I had Spanish all through grade school but retained none of it, Im not even sure how I passed that class. I then took it in high school for two years and had to drop out both times. I switched to Latin and was actually able to get through that. I learned nothing and only passed 2 years of it because of a good sense of mimicry and an easy pushover teacher. Ive never been very good at my native English language either.

Ironically, I took two quarters (not semesters) of Japanese in college and it was really easy for me. I have a very mathematical mind and Japanese is very mathematical in its sentence structure. Theres no Romantic language "'I' before 'E', except after 'C'..." crap. It is what it is and in two quarters you can make a sentence of any complexity. From that point on its memorization of characters.

I suspect that I might be somewhat dyslexic so that might have been the element that contributed to my inability at some languages and ability at others.

 

[rangen]

I'll throw in another perspective here, based on looking back at my own language choices and struggles: pick a language you're likely to want to use someday. It's all very nice and abstract to "speak a foreign language." Where it really pays off is getting to use it to increase your pleasure in travel or, who knows, even relocation. Ask yourself where you'd most like to travel, what culture you have the most affinity for, which place you'd like to plop yourself down for a month or so someday and use that language learning to good purpose.

 

[Sherwood]

Some people have a real proficiency with languages. Others like you and I, mule, do not. I was in a similar situation to you in college -- struggled through Spanish in high school, resented it, got to college, signed up for Latin. I failed Latin, just like you will likely fail Japanese, swallowed my pride, and toughed through three more (consecutive, thank God) semesters of Spanish.

It can be done, it just takes real work. Every day work. Lots of vocab, lots of getting things wrong, lots of being uncomfortable in class. Lots of making a fool of yourself and trying to look inconspicuous. You'll get it done, though.

Drop Japanese. Do that now. No language will ever just "click", and Japanese is the single hardest standard language for an adult to attain proficiency in (according to the US Foreign Service Diplomatic language service). It being exotic will not help you.

Skip this semester and get the jump on Spanish next semester. Then take three consecutive semesters, or you'll never make it out of the first week.

I ended up living in Turkey and learning Turkish. It was harder than Spanish, and I still suck at it, but I take two lessons a week and work very hard. It will always be hard, but it will feel good when you achieve it. How many things can that be said about?

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Yay, more posts. I love reading them all and seeing where everybody comes from, in terms of their experience around the world and other world languages in general.

Unfortunately, like I said a few posts up, all the current Spanish classes are beyond Waitlisted, and there's no hope to get in any of them right now.

I would drop the Japanese class, but that would be the second semester in a row I would have done this shenanigan (last semester I dropped Spanish 102), and I know my parents would be rather upset by my constant flip-flopping.

I guess at this point, I have to force myself to switch gears to only Japanese as my other language, and see where it goes. I just hope that when I sneak back into Spanish next semester, I won't get my wires crossed with Japanese and Spanish like I am right now in Japanese class. Sadly, I was just typing out stuff in Spanish on Facebook this morning.

 

[iriverdude]

If you can't speak to your native oranges, what chance do you of speaking a foreign language?

 

[Sennshead]

I learned spanish as a second language, and I took a bunch of it in high school and learned almost nothing. Then I was a missionary and had to speak it ALL THE TIME. It took about 6 mos to become completely fluent. It was very painful, but it happened. that's why I say spanish b/c I think that immersion is the only way to really learn a language and that's about as close as you are going to get in SoCal. Good luck!