Rosetta Stone

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Originally Posted by CycloneErik

Dude, pick up German. You'll have a background in the case system before hitting Russian, and you'll be a lot more confident when you start Russian.

Sure, Russian adds a case, but you'll know the basics of how the system works.

On another plus, you'll have a background that will translate well into Greek when you pick that up.

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You know, that's actually not a bad idea, since that's another language I am "interested" in.

Has anyone tried German with RS? I would be interested in doing that.
It is ridiculously expensive though...

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Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

You know, that's actually not a bad idea, since that's another language I am "interested" in.

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German's the most straight-forward of the languages I've picked up. They actually seem to follow their grammar rules, which becomes quite shocking with the more of this that you do.

My Wednesday morning Hebrew group will probably discuss this again tomorrow. It seems like we always stumble into exceptions.:no:

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Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

You know, that's actually not a bad idea, since that's another language I am "interested" in.

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Just don't ask him how first year Greek went:wink:

Actually it was due to work hours. :no:

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Originally Posted by CycloneErik

That's how she taught me, too. I think the workbook made a bigger deal of it than she did.

The philospohical approach to verbs that they use is enough to boggle the mind. Am I talking about walking, or the process of walking, or walking with the intention of a destination? Hmmmm.

I am totally forgetting declension modes. Can you refresh my memory?

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I'm probably not using the right terms.

You have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter

And you have six cases, of which I remember accusative, genitive, objective and there are three others.

Oooh, plus you have singular and plural! I forgot all about those. And then there are two plural cases, too!

1 year = god, 2-4 years = goda, 5+ years = lyet

So, a word can be masculine/plural^2/accusative, or feminine/singular/genitive and is decined accordingly.

Head... hurts... thinking about Russian construction...

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Originally Posted by motorCYcle

Has anyone tried German with RS? I would be interested in doing that.
It is ridiculously expensive though...

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I successfully completed German in '06, while living in Germany. It went well.

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Originally Posted by Phaedrus

I'm probably not using the right terms.

You have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter

And you have six cases, of which I remember accusative, genitive, objective and there are three others.

Oooh, plus you have singular and plural! I forgot all about those. And then there are two plural cases, too!

So, a word can be masculine/plural^2/accusative, or feminine/singular/genitive and is decined accordingly.

Head... hurts... thinking about Russian construction...

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Oh, you're combining cases and gender. That makes sense.

You got me started into nerdville (OK, I live there). I think the cases for Russian would be:

1) Nominative---subject in the sentence
2) Accusative---direct object
3) Dative---indirect object/location
4) Genitive----Possession
5) Instrumental--I'm forgetting my definition here.

I think that's it. Off to check my Russian book. Oh, here it is:

6) Prepositional----What every other language does by declining nouns to fir their prepositions in different cases, Russian does by adding a completely different set of noun/adjective endings, so you know that there was a preposition. Even though you would have known this already.

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Originally Posted by cyrevkah

Just don't ask him how first year Greek went:wink:

Actually it was due to work hours. :no:

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Studying languages at two different schools taught me a whole lot about teaching/learning languages.

It definitely made me an effective Greek teacher during our first round in Jamaica! :yes::yes::yes: That was a fun time.

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Originally Posted by CycloneErik

Oh, you're combining cases and gender. That makes sense.

You got me started into nerdville (OK, I live there). I think the cases for Russian would be:

1) Nominative---subject in the sentence
2) Accusative---direct object
3) Dative---indirect object/location
4) Genitive----Possession
5) Instrumental--I'm forgetting my definition here.

I think that's it. Off to check my Russian book. Oh, here it is:

6) Prepositional----What every other language does by declining nouns to fir their prepositions in different cases, Russian does by adding a completely different set of noun/adjective endings, so you know that there was a preposition. Even though you would have known this already.

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H..e..a..d h..u..r..t..s, really hurts.

When I was taking beginning French in the Fall 63 quarter, the instructor asked who spoke two languages. I was the only one of all who raised their hands to say "Profanity and English...and I'm a damn-site better at profanity." The comment did not bring the house down and I had trouble passing that class. It almost keep me from graduating in four years. That would have been disasterous as we only had a four year deferment for obtaining a college degree. I received my 1-A classification, as I finished up my foreign language requirement in summer school.

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Originally Posted by IsUaClone2

H..e..a..d h..u..r..t..s, really hurts.

When I was taking beginning French in the Fall 63 quarter, the instructor asked who spoke two languages. I was the only one of all who raised their hands to say "Profanity and English...and I'm a damn-site better at profanity." The comment did not bring the house down and I had trouble passing that class. It almost keep me from graduating in four years. That would have been disasterous as we only had a four year deferment for obtaining a college degree. I received my 1-A classification, as I finished up my foreign language requirement in summer school.

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I'm not into profanity, but you probably would have made me chuckle until I cried.

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Originally Posted by IsUaClone2

H..e..a..d h..u..r..t..s, really hurts.

When I was taking beginning French in the Fall 63 quarter, the instructor asked who spoke two languages. I was the only one of all who raised their hands to say "Profanity and English...and I'm a damn-site better at profanity." The comment did not bring the house down and I had trouble passing that class.

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I R ammused :yes:

After my first half hour of German in Rosetta Stone, I can tell you one thing - the der's, die's, and etc (I've already forgotten the other one) are confusing the SNOT out of me!!! It was so much easier in Spanish - el, la, los, and las. For the most part, that was it.

As far as the nouns, verbs, and adjectives, so far not bad, as they seem to so far follow what I know in English and Spanish. What I do know is this isn't going to be easy...

[quote=sunset;915199]I've heard the same thing about Mandarin. Very easy to learn to speak, extremely difficult to learn to read or write.

Ha Ha! Mandarin is certainly not easy to learn to speak. The four tones (sometimes 5) make it really pain in the butt for those of us whose first language is English. Oh that and some of the words make sounds that my mouth just doesn't seem to want to make. According to a bunch of organizations Mandarin is one of the tougher languages to learn.

Your are correct in that the grammar is very basic but the vocab is tough as hell.

This is my opinion based on the my time spent in Hsinchcu, Taiwan and taking some Chinese at National Ching Taio Univeristy.

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Originally Posted by jdoggivjc

After my first half hour of German in Rosetta Stone, I can tell you one thing - the der's, die's, and etc (I've already forgotten the other one) are confusing the SNOT out of me!!! It was so much easier in Spanish - el, la, los, and las. For the most part, that was it.

As far as the nouns, verbs, and adjectives, so far not bad, as they seem to so far follow what I know in English and Spanish. What I do know is this isn't going to be easy...

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If you want a hand, just say the word. I love that sort of thing.

[quote=CySmitty;917529]

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Originally Posted by sunset

I've heard the same thing about Mandarin. Very easy to learn to speak, extremely difficult to learn to read or write.

Ha Ha! Mandarin is certainly not easy to learn to speak. The four tones (sometimes 5) make it really pain in the butt for those of us whose first language is English. Oh that and some of the words make sounds that my mouth just doesn't seem to want to make. According to a bunch of organizations Mandarin is one of the tougher languages to learn.

Your are correct in that the grammar is very basic but the vocab is tough as hell.

This is my opinion based on the my time spent in Hsinchcu, Taiwan and taking some Chinese at National Ching Taio Univeristy.

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Just think of how the Chinese students feel here. I had one in this week wanting to buy a WoWo. Eventually, I figured out he was trying to say Volvo. :smile: