4 ms·

On the other hand, you can talk with me in English, but I can't do much better than a young toddler in German, unless I first spend some serious time and effort

On the other hand, you can talk with me in English, but I can't do much better than a young toddler in German, unless I first spend some serious time and effort to reacquire some fluency. In my defense, I've had some decent fluency a couple of time in the past. I ran into a German couple in Athens once and we had a nice conversation. They said nice things about my German :-). But now in all those languages except English I'm just a dabbler. At least I know that I can acquire some fluency; I've been able at different points in the past to carry on basic conversations in German and Hungarian and Mandarin, and read some of the easier classical texts in Latin and Greek and Tibetan. The idea of improving my skills in any of them (or all of them!) is appealing enough for me to occasionally work on them (especially on Latin and Greek), but my attention inevitably gets captured by my numerous other interests, and my language skills fade again. Worse, there's a long list of other languages that I think are really interesting, and that I would no doubt acquire if only it were quick and easy enough. As it is, though, I mostly just read about languages because they're so interesting. Well, and construct them. Conlanging is a hobby, too.

LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
Hrm. I had that interest when I've been younger, but not anymore. Btw., the English lessons I had in school were rather boring and uninspiring. I didn't really learn it that way, that happened when I had to read Neuromancer by William Gibson, and didn't get it. So I bought a small to middle dictionary from Langenscheid and read it again with the dictionary at hand. Then it somehow clicked for me. That worked for reading, hearing not so much. That came later by watching movies, news(BBC/CNN), listening to radio(BFBS), and having at least some fluency in speaking even later, because of work. Nowadays I'm only caught slightly off guard when someone is unexpectedly speaking to me in English in daily life, like people asking for the way, to some location, or things like that. Sometimes I need one to two seconds until it registers what they said, or asked. Sometimes not at all, instantly. Oh, and under stress my German is getting worse, I'm at a loss for words, have to really 'search' for them, while I could speak it in English without any problem. So strange...
- mikelevins 4y ago
  "I had that interest when I've been younger, but not anymore." Should be "I had that interest when I was younger, but not anymore." I thought you might like the correction; forgive me if I'm wrong. In my experience, differences in the idiomatic use of verb tenses is one of the more difficult things about learning languages. If you hear a native English speaker say, "I've been younger," then what they're saying is, "I'm old."
  - LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
    Yah. I can do better. But not when being awake for 23hrs, reading, reading, reading. Not doomscrolling. And switching to HN from time to time. Good night :-)
    - mikelevins 4y ago
      Sleep well!

LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago

Hrm. I had that interest when I've been younger, but not anymore. Btw., the English lessons I had in school were rather boring and uninspiring. I didn't really learn it that way, that happened when I had to read Neuromancer by William Gibson, and didn't get it. So I bought a small to middle dictionary from Langenscheid and read it again with the dictionary at hand. Then it somehow clicked for me. That worked for reading, hearing not so much. That came later by watching movies, news(BBC/CNN), listening to radio(BFBS), and having at least some fluency in speaking even later, because of work. Nowadays I'm only caught slightly off guard when someone is unexpectedly speaking to me in English in daily life, like people asking for the way, to some location, or things like that. Sometimes I need one to two seconds until it registers what they said, or asked. Sometimes not at all, instantly. Oh, and under stress my German is getting worse, I'm at a loss for words, have to really 'search' for them, while I could speak it in English without any problem. So strange...

mikelevins 4y ago
"I had that interest when I've been younger, but not anymore." Should be "I had that interest when I was younger, but not anymore." I thought you might like the correction; forgive me if I'm wrong. In my experience, differences in the idiomatic use of verb tenses is one of the more difficult things about learning languages. If you hear a native English speaker say, "I've been younger," then what they're saying is, "I'm old."
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  Yah. I can do better. But not when being awake for 23hrs, reading, reading, reading. Not doomscrolling. And switching to HN from time to time. Good night :-)
  - mikelevins 4y ago
    Sleep well!