If I Can Only Learn One Language . . .

[montanarose12]

We are booked on the Mariner for 28 nights next April (Rio to Barcelona; Barcelona to Venice). Although I know I don't "need" to speak a second, non-English language, I thought it might be fun to take the year's time to work on one. I could brush up my VERY rusty high-school Spanish -- trust me, I'm a lonnnng way from high-school -- or tackle Italian as a true beginner (I also have some French under my belt from long ago, but was thinking it might be the least useful on this trip).

 

Any suggestions/experiences would be most appreciated!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Well, if you're going to spend time in Rio, consider Brazilian Portuguese. If Venice, then Italian. But basically you have several choices, don't you? It's a fun thing to do, I usually do this before a trip.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Wendy The Wanderer

[freddie]

Rose - Considering that you will be spending at least some time in Rio and will have three other stops in Brazil (including the overnight in Salvador), I would suggest that learning a bit of Brazilian Portuguese would be a good option. Just learning how to pronounce correctly Rio de Janeiro or call the city by its nickname, Cidade Maravilhosa, will endear you to the Cariocas (citizens of Rio). Have fun. Cheers, Fred

[RachelG]

I am pretty fluent in Spanish, and I find that I can do ok with Portuguese if I just slur my words. So I would suggest practicing Portuguese.

[Travelcat2]

I am pretty fluent in Spanish, and I find that I can do ok with Portuguese if I just slur my words. So I would suggest practicing Portuguese.

 

I had a good laugh at your description of doing ok with Portuguese if you slur your words! Really a great post:)

[Caroldoll]

I speak Mandarin and German...however I have two Spanish speaking daughters in law, so I am not "fluent" in those languages, but I do "speak" them somewhat. In Brazil...the Portugese language is the HARDEST language I have ever heard. Good luck, and get a good guide! LOL. I had one, and if you have a question, just email me, ciraulo1@earthlink.net.

 

Carole

[Hambagahle]

For the last 6 months I have been using a really great (and free!) website to improve my German. http://www.duolingo.com They also offer Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. It works really really well and I have found it to be more than a bit addictive.

[Caroldoll]

I am going to give that one a go. Maybe I can get my Spanish going.

[RachelG]

Thanks for the link, I will try it.

[Hambagahle]

Let me know how you both find it! I am currently working hard on German and started refreshing my Italian. It is super "user friendly". Though sometimes the women who speak the Italian are a bit difficult to understand. No such problems with German though. Very precise! (Very German?)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Here is a fun European Spanish site. It's in the form of a story, with episodes that you work through interactively, and it's done extremely well, and it's fun:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/

[RachelG]

Let me know how you both find it! I am currently working hard on German and started refreshing my Italian. It is super "user friendly". Though sometimes the women who speak the Italian are a bit difficult to understand. No such problems with German though. Very precise! (Very German?)

 

I am finding the accent of the woman hard to understand. It is not Mexican or Puerto Rican, both of which I am used to, so it is a little hard. The written stuff is easy, except when auto correct decides to "help" me.

[jklc123]

Let me know how you both find it! I am currently working hard on German and started refreshing my Italian. It is super "user friendly". Though sometimes the women who speak the Italian are a bit difficult to understand. No such problems with German though. Very precise! (Very German?)

 

Thanks for recommending duolingo. I've started working on German for an upcoming trip.

[2old4this]

I'd go back to improving my English. The majority of people we cruisers deal with when in port understand English. Trying to speak some limited Italian, Urdo, or Chinese is time wasted in ports where the few hours ashore is everything. Jack

[RachelG]

I'd go back to improving my English. The majority of people we cruisers deal with when in port understand English. Trying to speak some limited Italian, Urdo, or Chinese is time wasted in ports where the few hours ashore is everything. Jack

 

With all due respect, having traveled all over the world, and having a very large number of Spanish speaking patients in my practice, I can tell you that if you even make an attempt to say a few words of greeting in the person's native language, they are so appreciative of your efforts. And if you do more, all the better. If they feel you are trying to learn their language, it makes a huge difference.

I try to at least learn the basic courtesy words wherever I go. I know I am not going to become fluent, but even a little knowledge lays off.

[OCruisers]

Spanish because it's also become very useful to be able to speak At Home in the USA. :D

LuLu

[Wendy The Wanderer]

With all due respect, having traveled all over the world, and having a very large number of Spanish speaking patients in my practice, I can tell you that if you even make an attempt to say a few words of greeting in the person's native language, they are so appreciative of your efforts. And if you do more, all the better. If they feel you are trying to learn their language, it makes a huge difference.

I try to at least learn the basic courtesy words wherever I go. I know I am not going to become fluent, but even a little knowledge lays off.

 

Absolutely Rachel, I totally agree. I learned to say please and thank you in Thai, Lao and Khmer this winter. It really helped, just that. And when I came home, I used my Thai in our local restaurant.

[jklc123]

And medical research studies have shown that learning a new language is good to keep your brain healthy, a particular concern of those of us getting along in years. I keep reminding myself of that as I do my German lessons on duo lingo. (Is it das, der or den Wasser? Ugh!)

[Hambagahle]

And medical research studies have shown that learning a new language is good to keep your brain healthy, a particular concern of those of us getting along in years. I keep reminding myself of that as I do my German lessons on duo lingo. (Is it das, der or den Wasser? Ugh!)

 

Great!! I have a soul mate. I do the same thing. My motivation was to improve my extremely inadequate German so I could talk to my hairdresser here (she is in the German-speaking part of our canton). Now I realise that doing this is actually good for my brain! I never understood my French-speaking friends here when they complained about the "der die das" in German as we have genders to worry about in French. But German is so much harder and I keep crashing on Duolingo (how I hate that "crashing" music!!) just because I do not know what the word's gender is... I am glad to know someone else is suffering along with me!:)

[jklc123]

Great!! I have a soul mate. I do the same thing. My motivation was to improve my extremely inadequate German so I could talk to my hairdresser here (she is in the German-speaking part of our canton). Now I realise that doing this is actually good for my brain! I never understood my French-speaking friends here when they complained about the "der die das" in German as we have genders to worry about in French. But German is so much harder and I keep crashing on Duolingo (how I hate that "crashing" music!!) just because I do not know what the word's gender is... I am glad to know someone else is suffering along with me!:)

 

 

I studied four years of Latin in high school (not extremely useful except maybe when wandering through Roman ruins) so I get the concept of declining nouns. I never thought I'd be trying to learn to do that again. Switched to Spanish in college and ended up teaching high school Spanish. I found I was able to speak Spanish in Portugal and sort of converse with Portuguese-speaking people.

 

Unrelated question Hambagahle: do Swiss taxi drivers expect a tip? If so, how much?

[Suite Travels]

I think the best route to go is one language at a time. I speak fluent Spanish and my partner is French so that has improved my high school French. German is another language I am working on. Mandarin....I am not ready for that. My brain can only take so much.

[trvlrs]

Let me know how you both find it! I am currently working hard on German and started refreshing my Italian. It is super "user friendly". Though sometimes the women who speak the Italian are a bit difficult to understand. No such problems with German though. Very precise! (Very German?)

 

Totally agree!! the italian lady is too slow and hard to comprehend. It's a very addictive app. Love it!

[trvlrs]

And medical research studies have shown that learning a new language is good to keep your brain healthy, a particular concern of those of us getting along in years. I keep reminding myself of that as I do my German lessons on duo lingo. (Is it das, der or den Wasser? Ugh!)

 

Das Wasser :)

[Hambagahle]

I studied four years of Latin in high school (not extremely useful except maybe when wandering through Roman ruins) so I get the concept of declining nouns. I never thought I'd be trying to learn to do that again. Switched to Spanish in college and ended up teaching high school Spanish. I found I was able to speak Spanish in Portugal and sort of converse with Portuguese-speaking people.

 

Unrelated question Hambagahle: do Swiss taxi drivers expect a tip? If so, how much?

 

I had 6 years of Latin in school when we lived in Rhodesia... so I know about declensions too. But in German it is the article you decline! (I would decline (to do) that if I could...)

 

Swiss Taxi drivers: In this country service is included for everything in the price that is shown. This is true for restaurants, bars, hotels, hairdressers and taxi drivers. We normally do not tip. We round up the amount to the nearest franc or maybe 2 if we are happy with the service. But there is no obligation to tip any further. You have already tipped 15% in the price.

 

jklc123 - what is your Duolingo "name"?? I can follow you and cheer you on! Mine is the same as here - Hambagahle

 

This makes it hard for us when we travel to the US - always have to remember to tip people and we never know how much! Nor really who expects a tip so we assume everyone does. the other thing that drives us mad is your sales tax. Why can't it be included in the price?

Edited May 16, 2014 by Hambagahle

[jklc123]

I had 6 years of Latin in school when we lived in Rhodesia... so I know about declensions too. But in German it is the article you decline! (I would decline (to do) that if I could...)

 

Swiss Taxi drivers: In this country service is included for everything in the price that is shown. This is true for restaurants, bars, hotels, hairdressers and taxi drivers. We normally do not tip. We round up the amount to the nearest franc or maybe 2 if we are happy with the service. But there is no obligation to tip any further. You have already tipped 15% in the price.

 

jklc123 - what is your Duolingo "name"?? I can follow you and cheer you on! Mine is the same as here - Hambagahle

 

This makes it hard for us when we travel to the US - always have to remember to tip people and we never know how much! Nor really who expects a tip so we assume everyone does. the other thing that drives us mad is your sales tax. Why can't it be included in the price?

 

Thanks so much for your reply. My husband always wants to over tip in Europe so I'll show him what you said.

 

On Duolingo I'm 456dusty. My preferred usernames kept getting rejected so I just made one up!

 

I agree about the outrageous sales taxes we have!