The Language Game

Today, I tried a game from Steam called The Language Game. I reviewed it in a video on YouTube, but the video kind of got cut short because I'm new to it. Anyway, the whole review is still in there, but for anyone who doesn't want to watch it, I'll write something here.

First off, it only has five languages: English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. You can go from any language into any language. It seems pretty basic. Mostly just simple travel words and phrases, but I haven't gotten through a whole language to find out.

So far, I am bored with it, but I think it was made mostly for the basics, for people who travel, and for people who learn slower. If you fall into any of those categories, the $.49 could be worth it. (Actually, I got it on sale, so I paid up to about 75% off of it.) For me, it's too slow, but I'm continuing on to see what else it has to offer.

At this point, I do not recommend it if you are a faster learner like me who gets bored with things like Pimsleur easily.

Difficult Japanese Words

Look at that! I found something to post about already. Yay!

I found this post from Japan Today through a polyglot group on Facebook (where I find most of my interesting language related stuff). I haven't played the video, yet, but I figured this would be a good thing to listen to for Japanese learners like myself, though I surprisingly don't have much of a problem in pronunciation with Japanese. Mine are with Arabic and Hindi. Anyway enjoy!

Sorry, again.

I'm so sorry for not updating in so long, but I've been really messed up for the past several months. Nothing substance related, I was just always distracted, could never focus on anything for more than a minute, and getting sick more often than usual.

For the most part I am better, but I haven't gotten back into language stuff because I was halfway through NaNoWriMo when I fixed most of it and working on a novel at the time. I'm trying to get to Duolingo again, though, so hopefully I can find some interesting things to share soon.

Happy Holidays!

Sorry for the absence!

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've written anything here and I don't really have anything to write again just yet. A lot has been going on and I'm not very coherent in my writing at the moment, so I'm not sure when I'll be back on this blog. Hopefully soon!

Tagalog

I work with a lot of Filipinos, so I decided to try learning Tagalog. Unfortunately, resources on-line are scarce. I did find this, but for some reason, Java is not working for me, so I cannot utilize it's full potential. I can always ask in the store if I have a question, though. This is the first language I have had almost daily contact with native speakers.

If only I didn't have such a hard time asking for help. When it comes to languages, I have a hard time asking for help when first beginning because most people and classes will help me out as fast as I can learn. If only I could get our hiring manager to schedule all the Filipinos at the same time so I can hear them all talk to each other. :D

Omniglot Website

Pretty much my got to place for scripts and links to learning websites. I particularly like abugidas. There are too many pretty scripts to decide which are my favourites. Anyway, omniglot is pretty extensive, though lacking in some learning websites, though that's to be expected of the lesser known languages. I like the way he has the site laid out and you can get to each script in multiple ways - alphabetical by English name, type, and direction.

Estonian!!

The more I read about Estonia, the more I want to go. I found a linguistics university in Tartu, near the Russian boarder to the east that I want to go to. The university not only provides information on their school and places to eat and whatnot, they also tell you about getting your documents such as visas, tips on how to get a job while studying, entertainment areas, even how to get health and dental insurance! Also, most EU public schools are free to everyone. And I do mean EVERYONE.

I plan on being taught in Estonian. So that means learning the language, but it's proving difficult. Not because of the grammar or pronunciation or even spelling. It's extremely difficult to find a hard copy course here in the States. I don't mind learning online, but unlike in Estonia, I do not have internet access in even the entire city. I want a hard copy grammar, but even that online is hard to find and print out, but in the meantime, here is what I found that has been helping so far:

http://www.memrise.com

https://www.keeleklikk.ee/

http://estonianlanguage.blogspot.com/

I haven't actually looked at any more of my saved links.

10 Languages Still Spoken

I found this through Facebook the other day. Awesome! I had heard of Xhosa, Pirahã, and Pawnee, but not the others. I want to learn them all, including the whistle one, but not the one where they seem to kill the outsiders without trying to make any contact!