Learning a second language as an adult

[PRlady]

I tried Russian for three weeks in my mid-thirties. Since my understanding of English grammar was so faulty - a product of 1960s "new methods" that didn't work -- I literally had no idea what those cases like dative and genitive were, and gave up.

Ten years later, learning Ancient Greek, I finally understood those cases. But even with four years' study I never became proficient, and now I can't remember it at all.

 

[gkelly]

I tried Russian for three weeks in my mid-thirties. Since my understanding of English grammar was so faulty - a product of 1960s "new methods" that didn't work -- I literally had no idea what those cases like dative and genitive were, and gave up.

I don't think I ever learned the names of those cases in English class either, and I do recall diagramming sentences etc.

English doesn't have multiple different endings for nouns and adjectives that you need to memorize -- the function of the word in the sentence is mostly determined by word order, not declensions. Even pronouns, which are declined to some degree, use the same form for direct and indirect objects, so there's no need to distinguish between accusative and dative cases.

Genitive case nouns in English are just the base word with 's at the end -- or just the apostrophe for plurals that already end in s, which is the only thing remotely tricky about that case in English.

Adjectives are pretty much unchanged whatever.

So there just isn't a need to know those case names in English. And not all of them are needed in French or Spanish either. It's not a problem with how those languages are taught, but just the fact that they use less complex systems for designating the function of those parts of speech than Russian or German (or Anglo-Saxon) or Latin.

 

[gkelly]

English spelling is all over the place, but the everyday grammar is more straightforward than most languages.

 

[Tinami Amori]

English spelling is all over the place, but the everyday grammar is more straightforward than most languages.

English is great for stating facts, information, analysis, like you staid, all that is straightforward. I personally do not find it as convenient as other languages to express "emotions".

In English i have to use all sorts of trick, like exclamations in voice and use of hands and face (when speaking) or weird punctuation marks and phrase structures when writing.

English does not have the "sing-y" tones like Italian or French or Spanish, or "snappy and sharp" tones of German, or almost unlimited variations for diminutive word endings like in Russian.

For example if you want to verbalize "endearment" towards a dog, in English you can only use few variations of the word "dog":
- doggy
- little dog
- little doggy

In Russian for a noun or adjective: a) the grammatically acceptable word endings are numerous, and b) almost unlimited because you can MAKE UP an ending (with in a certain range of syllables), and it give you a lot of room for creativity of expression (so to say)....
In russian word for "dog" is "sobaka", here are few examples what you can do with it.

- soba-chka
- soba-chen-ka
- soba-chen-och-ka
- soba-chen-kin
- soba-kush-a
- soba-kush-ka
- soba-kush-ech-ka
- soba-kulya
- soba-kul-ka
- soba-kul-len-ka
- and more..... and you can invent your own in an informal writing or a conversation... "soba-chulya", "soba-chushkin", "soba-chuchkin", etc.

At least in german you can take several nouns and COMBINE them to make 1 noun.... and combine them with some flexibility..

But English is great for studying and learning stuff, that's for sure.

 

[Andrushka]

Good luck with the Maskoke! A close friend of mine is a Maskoke language teacher, and of course we have a lot of fluent speakers here.

One of my many projects of late has been to bring together various tribal language revitalization programs under a single roof. So far we've done Caddo, Kiowa, Choctaw, and Maskoke. We're doing a little bit of Pawnee and Comanche right now, and soon will be adding Cherokee. Sadly, I've had to sit through most of those courses .

LOL sorry..(that you've had to sit through the courses)
I really wish there was a DVD of Mvskoke of I tend to pick it up fairly quickly. We do a lot via Youtube.My son that has autism and has to take speech,speaks Mvskoke easier than he does English.