Post by thread:[OT]: Nice one... languages

> Imre - I know for sure that I don't understand a word of Hungarian, I tried > reading labels on Hungarian green peas and came across some Hungarian > websites that I could not read. It is a mystery why you speak a language > totally unrelated to Slavic. :-) Hello Vitaliy, Once You decide to learn our strange language, don't worry, it isn't hard at all. Example: Me, and a few fellows of my age were teached russian for 10 years at different schools. Now, I know a very little russian: "otiec tsitajet, mama rabotajet," "aga, natsala vorona" that's about all. Isn't too much for 10 years of teaching, isn't it? So, I vas never told a joke from Moscow, we never read anything from Tolstoj or Puskin. But, my little kid had to learn so much things: walking, eating, etc, etc. Along with these difficult things, he just learnt Hungarian in two years. Hi: Bela (just another hungarian) -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

Bela, I know exactly what you mean. I was born in Kazakhstan, one of the Central Asian republics. For approximately seven years (K-7 grade) I was trying to learn Kazakh. Even though I was getting straight A's, I was never even remotely fluent in that language, because there was simply no incentive - practically most of my Kazakh friends spoke Russian far better than their native tongue, the rest of the subjects was taught in Russian, and I was hearing Kazakh maybe 1% of the time. English was another story. :-) When I got my first computer, nobody thought to provide the manual in Russian. And so began the agonizing experience of reading with a dictionary - word by word, sentence by sentence.. My psychology professor told us about his experience with languages. While in high school, he was a state champion in Latin. Thirty years later, the only thing he could remember was the Lord's prayer. Twenty years ago he, along with other Americans, traveled to Equador to teach. There they were offered free afternoon language classes. The classes were taught by a man who didn't speak a word of English, he just pointed at things and said their name in Spanish, or did something and said the corresponding verb, etc. According to the professor, this is the most effective way to learn any language, for he can still travel to Mexico without an interpretor and ask for a drink, give directions to the taxi driver, and so on. And I believe our Prof was right - sometimes I have to think really hard to remember the Russian equivalent of an English word. So I guess the bottom line is - you have to actually *think* in the language you want to be fluent in. Take, for instance, VB and C++: one is interpreted, and the other is not. We both know which one has more power. :-) Vitaliy {Original Message removed}