Learning languages

[Libertine Seguros]

No such thing as ancient Icelandic, ha. The language has barely changed on the island since the days of Old Norse. It would likely be no different to reading Shakespeare in English, Cervantes in Spanish or Lessing in German.

 

[The Hitch]

Take your bike and go ride/eventually end up walking the Bola del Mundo and use every opportunity to speak Spanish when you come across other people on the bike. Or do your best durianrider impression and go to Pinto and follow Alberto Contador around when he trains.

In all seriousness, do you have any friends/associates in Madrid that are Spanish and can help you out? Otherwise use every opportunity to speak Spanish when at the supermarket, bar, nightclub etc.

i was going to recommend bars, too... go for tapas, bar to bar, until you find someone chatty and willing to talk... better yet if you go when a sports event will be televised, as that is a good ice-breaker.

Thanks guys. So you would reccomend, find a hotel, check in, then put stuff down and just walk out into the city looking for bars to find people to try to talk to?

 

[Granville57]

...I can't decide between doing that, improving my German, finally putting some serious work into Old English or just saying "to hell with all that" and going for Icelandic.

Icelandic! Hell yeah! I love the look of Icelandic, all the archaic letters like þ and ð, the complex endings system, it's everything the Germanic languages used to be.

Agreed, Icelandic would likely be a lot of fun.

Anyone here speaks Icelandic? Is the reward worth the effort?

Wow, I just finished reading through this entire thread and I can't believe I didn't spot this months ago.

Libertine Seguros, thanks so much for the depth of your posts.

I have a few things of interest that I wanted to share, the first of which fits quite nicely into the above quotes!

How many of you are familiar with Daniel Tammet?
He is one of the rarest of rare savants—immensely talented in mathematics and a variety of other skills. The entire documentary about him is very well worth the time, but here's the relevant part:

In the ongoing attempt to test his capabilities, the producers decided to test his language and comprehenision skills.
The test? Try to teach him to speak Icelandic...in one week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMz3gjl9x-M
Utterly fascinating.

 

[Cobblestones]

How many of you are familiar with Daniel Tammet?
He is one of the rarest of rare savants—immensely talented in mathematics and a variety of other skills. The entire documentary about him is very well worth the time, but here's the relevant part:

In the ongoing attempt to test his capabilities, the producers decided to test his language and comprehenision skills.
The test? Try to teach him to speak Icelandic...in one week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMz3gjl9x-M
Utterly fascinating.

Actually, when you have a tutor and spend all the time focused on the task, then to learn a bit of a foreign language in seven days isn't all that hard. In particular when you already know a few other languages. Now, I think the amount this guy was able to pick up in seven days was quite good but I also think that some 'normal' people I've known, under the same circumstances, would produce similar results.

 

[craig1985]

I'm going to China in about three weeks time, how hard/easy is it to pick up a few phrases for me to use? I've traveled heaps and I've never had too many problems being in places that don't speak English, so I know I will be alright. But I like to learn some words out of curiosity/politeness.

I also noticed on Saturday as I was filling out the form for my Visa, that they ask for the year first, then the month, and the date (so 11/03/28), is this a cultural and/or language thing?

 

[Cobblestones]

I'm going to China in about three weeks time, how hard/easy is it to pick up a few phrases for me to use? I've traveled heaps and I've never had too many problems being in places that don't speak English, so I know I will be alright. But I like to learn some words out of curiosity/politeness.

I also noticed on Saturday as I was filling out the form for my Visa, that they ask for the year first, then the month, and the date (so 11/03/28), is this a cultural and/or language thing?

You could buy a bag of fortune cookies. Each has one Chinese phrase on the back.