Speaking exams are horrible.  I think the only thing that sorted out my hesitation with speaking Japanese was when I was there fir 3 months and had to use it- at the airport, the municipal office, at the university and to communicate with the family friends who helped me get around  (they had learned English a long time ago when they lived in the uk but had mostly forgotten it) . I kind of had to use it and that made me realise I was capable.

But I still dread being at a conference and having to answer a question on my research in Japanese in front of a whole room. Hasn't happened yet...

Still, probably the more you use it the more confident you will be. Doing my A level in French, we had a weekly meeting with a language assistant from France which was all about conversation and which really helped my confidence speaking in french. Finding someone you can do that with and who won't laugh at mistakes would probably help a lot.

Sorry for such a late reply!

I think speaking exams are what put me off learning new languages 

Yeah, I've definitely got to find someone who I can speak with, I think that would really help me with speaking haha

Best of luck with your Japanese too, I'm sure if you do have a conference about your research you'll be brilliant!

No "new" languages yet but I do try to use Duolingo at least once a week to try and keep my Spanish knowledge from disappearing...  though they really could use some work on creating lessons on verb conjugation and proper accents/spelling as that is where I really struggle, too! 

Sorry for my late reply!

I really need to get Duolingo again haha, I think lessons on verb conjugation and proper accents would be great, it'd be really good practice, there may be other apps etc. that could help in the meantime?

good luck with your Spanish!

I need to learn foreign languages, especially ones like German and French in order for me to be able to go to grad school for my degree (musicology), so I'm actually trying right now. I enrolled in an online French class. I didn't want to do online, but then I also didn't want to go through the hassle of getting to a campus, so... At least it being a class will keep me motivated. However, I'm thinking of supplementing it with an app or something that I can easily bring with me to work for breaks. (my textbook, laptop, etc. will not fit in my work locker, so that's all a no-go!)

An online course definetly sounds like a better option than the hastle of finding a campus and travelling. I was actually thinking about using an app too if I do begin to study another language.


Good luck with your studies, I wish you the best!


Post Merge: September 19, 2018, 02:09:34 PM

I’ve been learning French mostly through Duolingo although my true first experience with French was with Les Miserables. I fell in love with the musical so much that I picked up the meaning of my first French words this way. Duolingo is useful but it’s talen a long time to feel like I’m actually learning what the words mean. I’ve also made a friend that is fluent in French and we write some sentences  in French  in our messages. I have to use Google translate to understand what she is writing to me but it helps me learn new words.

Ponyfan

I used to have a Duolingo account myself I wonder if I can still remember my username...?
That's awesome how you began to study a different language due to a love for a musical, I've never seen Les Miserables...Its on my movie watch list, I absolutely love musicals 
I think I only really did the basics on Duolingo as I could never motivate myself to do more, its totally worth another try, I actually have a friend myself whos learning Spanish and has been for a few years now, Ill have to have a talk to him maybe we could talk to each other in Spanish when I get the hang of it haha

Post Merge: September 19, 2018, 02:29:21 PM

I taught myself Japanese from scratch. I also did French and German at school and then Spanish for A Level. I should warn you that Spanish and French have a lot in common...if you had issues with French, you might or might not have challenges with Spanish.

To clarify, when you say college, do you means sixth form/vocational college or do you mean university? Because the depth of resource material available probably differs between those two. The term 'college' is widely used in the US for university, but you're in England, right? So I wanted to clarify whether that's what you mean.

Either way though there may be language classes or a language club you can join and it would be good to find out.

Language wise I love French, and I did it from year 7 to my first year of university. But what is really important with language learning is to have an affinity with the wider use of the language too. The culture. You need to immerse yourself in things that don't feel like you're working or studying. Films. TV. Music/songs. Of course, you can't learn a complete language without doing any work, but little things like listening to the language for a bit each day (even if you don't understand) helps your brain to acclimatise and improves your listening abilities too. (My A Level French teacher taught me that!)

Ultimately really learning a language takes time. IF you go to Spain a lot, try to find ways in which to use the bits you learn and talk to people there when you visit. There are lots of ways to learn a language, even here in the UK where honestly, language learning options are only really good in big cities (I did not grow up in one of those >.>) so self-study becomes important. But you have to have a certain amount of discipline to keep going.

I learned my kanji by writing them out over and over on the train back and forth from work. I'm a research student now in mediaeval Japanese stuff and I have to read old and modern Japanese for my work - but it all began with those small steps ten years ago. It is a long process, but when you reach that point where you realise you are hearing the language and not needing to think about what it means, it's a great feeling.

Good luck ;D

I think the problem I had with French was the speaking exams, I didn't have the best teacher and I stuttered a lot    Its definitely worth a try again, the last time I learnt a language was back in year 8, I didn't want to do French as a GCSE due to my issues with speaking exams, I think I was just nervous. I probably would of done a language as an a level, like starting at the lowest level (if that is possible?) but I'm doing a CACHE course in college so I'm studying/placements 4 days a week.


Ah sorry I mean like six form/vocational, sorry about that haha. Ill actually take a look at my colleges website, there may be a club or an opportunity to study after hours, then again it takes me over an hour to get to and from the college. I live in a small city but fortunately the next city over is quite a large populated area with a good college compared to the one in my city, its just the travelling that gets me.
I do travel to Spain a lot with my family but I've never really looked into books/music, its worth a look for something new to read/listen to  Griffin recommended the movie Pedro Almodóvar so I've got one for my list!


Your mediaval Japanese studies sound super interesting!  You're totally right about it being a long process but having a great felling in the end when you dont have to search a phrase or meaning to understand, its totally worth it in the end!


Thank you so much for your advice and help, I really appreciate it!

Quote from: Leave a Whisper on September 18, 2018, 09:33:14 AM

Quote from: StrawberrySundance on September 18, 2018, 07:57:50 AM

Quote from: RoseNoire on September 18, 2018, 06:11:40 AM

Have her, but not in her best condition. Her mane and tail are cut pretty short and her symbol is a bit rubbed off. Despite that, she's good looking anyway. I'd like to sew her a black jacket because she's looking like a rock star to me with that haircut. It's a bit of a shame she doesn't have a long and flowing mane anymore because I like her bright colors, I would have liked to see more of it. ^^

A little jacket for her sounds awesome! Especially with the cut mane and tail, I'd love to see it if you do sew one 

Could always have someone restore her for you? That's what I did with an MO Starhopper that I bought with a bad mane cut and rusty tail.

I don't feel like rehairing her, her manecut doesn't bother me that much, especially since I want to make her a "rockstyle/punk" jacket. ^^ I really don't know when I'll make it though, but it will happen eventually. She's cute to me with her short mane. It's just about time until I find another one with longer hair.

That's what I thought about my G1 Sprinkles, the previous owner had cut her mane and she's got a Mohawk now, I think it suits her 

I actually can't wait to see that jacket if you do make one and post it, I think the black would compliment her colours 

I'm not currently learning anything really (at least it's not active / goal-based learning) but I learned German, English and Swedish at school (plus the first two later at the university). I've also taken some elementary courses on Latin and Mandarin, as well as learned Old and Middle English as part of my studies. At one point I tried to learn some Scottish Gaelic on my own, mostly using online materials. It was fun, but like you said, it was pretty hard to keep up the motivation without teaching and scheduled classes. Taught courses have always worked best for me, at least in the initial stages. But you say you already have the basics, so here are some tips and tricks! 

I think the best way to keep up motivation is to find authentic materials in the language, something that you enjoy: reading (books, magazines, blogs and other online texts), listening to music, watching TV or movies, getting a pen pal... anything that exposes you to the language but is fun so that it doesn't feel like studying. The difficult thing, however, is to find something that suits your current skill level so that it's both challenging and easy enough to keep you motivated.

o For example, I believe there is a pony forum for Spanish speaking people, at least there used to be one years ago! I joined a lot of online communities in my teens when I was just developing my English skills, and I think it was really useful. It's authentic communication, and who cares if you make some mistakes as long as people can understand you. That way you also learn a lot of colloquial expressions that you might not learn in a more formal setting, as well as commonly used phrases.

o Look up some films in Spanish (Pedro Almodóvar, maybe? I loved Volver!) and see if you can add Spanish subtitles so that you can both listen to and read the lines at the same time. If your skills aren't quite up to that yet, children's movies are great! I'm sure you can find dubbed versions of Disney films, for example - being familiar with the story helps so much, because you can focus all your energy on the structures and new vocabulary without having to worry about missing something important. This works with books too: when I wanted to brush up my German and Swedish, I read Harry Potter. Both translations were available at my local library.

o If you use Facebook, change the language to Spanish from your settings. You'll figure out soon enough what everything means. Wikipedia is also a great resource - I use it, for example, to look up unfamiliar names of flora and fauna, as you can search in any language and simply click the links to see what it's called in other languages. Wiktionary is a nice tool as well, especially if you have to check how a certain word is inflected.

o If you like cooking, find recipes in Spanish - again, there's an authentic need for knowledge and it's an easy genre with relatively formulaic language and plenty of vocabulary likely familiar to you already. The rest you can look up in a dictionary / google. Generally I advise against stopping to look up every new word when learning to read in a foreign language; it's important to learn to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context, or simply ignore them if not vital for the meaning of the whole text. But with recipes it's pretty crucial that you understand everything. Luckily they are typically short so it doesn't take that much time!

Sorry for the wall o' text, as you may guess I'm pretty passionate about languages! I hope this helps! Luckily you're learning a language that has a lot of speakers so it shouldn't be too difficult to find different materials. Best of luck!

Wow! Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it

Back in school I learnt German for 8 months until we got told we couldn't do it anymore and we had to learn French instead, I quite enjoyed German but with French I just wasn't good so I didn't choose it as a GCSE, I would of loved it if we had a selection of languages rather than just one language.

You seem to have learnt a range of languages, that's awesome! I was actually interested in Latin at one point, but I didn't have time for it due to exams
 I may have to look into my college and see if they have any courses for next year or even after hours, I think being taught it by someone would definitely be the best as I know I'm being taught correctly and theres no 'I'll do it tomorrow' or 'Maybe later'. Luckily I get Fridays off for studying so I may be able to learn then along with my course.

Ill have a search for that forum or even consider finding a pen pal, it'd be something new and interesting to me and will hopefully keep me motivated, there maybe even a Spanish speaker on here? I'll definitely take a look at Pedro Almodóvar too, I like a movie now and then. I like animated movies a lot so Disney is definitely a go to and I'll have a little shop around amazon or ebay for some books, hopefully the library down the road from me will have some in Spanish. Cooking is one of my hobbies too so using a cookbook in a different language will be a challenge! ,hopefully I wont burn anything I might take a look into some new Spanish dishes too, as we tend to cook lots of meals from around the world in my house haha.


Once again thank you so much for your advice, theres no need to apologise for so much text, it has really helped me! I honestly can't thank you enough 
 

Have her, but not in her best condition. Her mane and tail are cut pretty short and her symbol is a bit rubbed off. Despite that, she's good looking anyway. I'd like to sew her a black jacket because she's looking like a rock star to me with that haircut. It's a bit of a shame she doesn't have a long and flowing mane anymore because I like her bright colors, I would have liked to see more of it. ^^

A little jacket for her sounds awesome! Especially with the cut mane and tail, I'd love to see it if you do sew one 

Sundance is added!

Thank you so much! 

Squirt! These are absolutely beautiful, the jackets on the ponies make it even cuter!
 I hope this isn't too much trouble but would you be able to do a Gen 1 Sundance please?
Form:
Pic Reference?: Would my profile pic be okay?
Earth, Pegasi, Unicorn?: Earth
Accent color?: Light blue
Headband/Mug color?: Light blue

Hello everyone!  I'm StrawberrySundance but you can call me Ash (I like to go by my middle name ) I live in the UK, just recently turned 17 and I am studying Education and Childcare in college. I'm really hoping to make some new friends and share my love of ponies with everyone 


I was introduced to My Little Ponies as a young girl (my mum being a fan of them herself) I grew up with G2 and G3 ponies which me and my sister shared. I had 3 G2 ponies (found them again recently  ) and had a huge range of G3 ponies but unfortunately, my younger self never realised how much they meant to her and threw them away 
I very recently got back into collecting ponies during a trip to Spain when me and my mum were discussing ponies (cant remember why whoops) and I now collect G1, G2 and G3 ponies (mainly G1s) I currently have 13 G1s, 8 G2s (got some McDonalds G2s too) and 4 G3s. I've also got a Posey plush who sadly has faded from yellow to white Its not a large collection but with any money I get I buy ponies haha. I have 10 ponies coming my way very soon including A Twinkle Eye Pony, Twice As Fancy, Talk A Lot and an Italian Posey!!! Ive been re-collecting since July this year so I guess the number of ponies is decent for only 3 or so months?

Favourite Ponies!
G1: Sundance
G2: Ivy (her hair is soooo long! Its so fun to style! )
G3: Winter Snow (she was my favourite as a child, I took her everywhere, can't believe I threw her away )
G4: Pinkie Pie


Well, I think that is all, I appologise for such a terrible introduction, I've never done anything like this before