What languages do you speak?

[Moalfas 599]

8 hours ago, ali_fatheroforphans said:

I can speak Urdu and English. I'm currently learning Farsi and I've made a lot of progress.

How are you learning Farsi? 

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

56 minutes ago, Moalfas said:

How are you learning Farsi? 

I'm using multiple resources. I have a Dropbox with all the Farsi books you could ever think of (probs even the ones you'd have to pay for). If you want, I can send you the torrent link? 

I'm also using pimsleur. It's actually such a good way to learn a language, because all you have to do is listen to audios which are 30 minutes long. The course is structured in a very smart way and it's a very active learning process where you repeat what the native speaker says. The problem with traditional textbooks is that we get obsessed about grammar rules etc. And it's very forced. There are different levels for the Pimselur course.

[starlight 12,247]

3 hours ago, Moalfas said:

no Urdu/Hindi cartoons? 

Urdu no, Hindi yes but we don't watch them. Okay, I will give it a try. Let's see how 'what's up doc' sounds like in Arabic. 

[habib e najjaar 2,120]

2 hours ago, ali_fatheroforphans said:

 I have a Dropbox with all the Farsi books you could ever think of (probs even the ones you'd have to pay for). If you want, I can send you the torrent link? 

I would like to have these please.

[habib e najjaar 2,120]

7 minutes ago, starlight said:

Urdu no, Hindi yes but we don't watch them. Okay, I will give it a try. Let's see how 'what's up doc' sounds like in Arabic. 

Shlonich ya duktoor 

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

1 minute ago, habib e najjaar said:

I would like to have these please.

Yes inshallah when I manage to open up my laptop I'll pm you the link.

[Moalfas 599]

 

 

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

I'm still creating the Dropbox. It's taking time because I have to upload all the pdfs and audios on  dropbox. Will have it done soon inshallah.

[313 Seeker 499]

Far from perfectly:

English, German, Swedish, French, Arabic

I'd like to continue my Chinese studies and also learn Italian because I like the way it sounds ..

My grandfather spoke and could translate between 12 languages, so I'm a loser compared to him.

I also want to learn Farsi 

[313 Seeker 499]

I also want Russian and native American.. actually I want to learn all languages.

[Moalfas 599]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:10 PM, AmirioTheMuzzy said:

Yes

Many years ago, I couldn't handle Montreal Québécois so I moved to Toronto lol 

[Ibn Al-Ja'abi 1,432]

5 hours ago, 313 Seeker said:

native American

Which Native American language(s) did you have in mind?

[Guest Haj Karim]

6 hours ago, ali_fatheroforphans said:

I'm still creating the Dropbox. It's taking time because I have to upload all the pdfs and audios on  dropbox. Will have it done soon inshallah.

May Allah include this in your book of amaal. I’ve been wanting to speak Farsi I can understand a little bit but I want to learn it and master it.

[313 Seeker 499]

1 hour ago, Ibn Al-Ja'abi said:

Which Native American language(s) did you have in mind?

Well I don't know to be honest. Don't know much about them, except how to say totonka from dances with wolves. Supposedly means buffalo or bison of something.

[Qasim-Raza 98]

Urdu English Punjabi and learning Persian and Arabic currently 

[SeekingHeaven 99]

On 10/31/2019 at 11:28 AM, ali_fatheroforphans said:

I can speak Urdu and English. I'm currently learning Farsi and I've made a lot of progress. You learn so much about different cultures by learning their language. It makes you more accepting and open-minded. Like I respect Persians more since I started learning Farsi and  I find their culture beautiful.

I also plan to learn Arabic in the future inshallah.

How are you learning it? 

Is there a course you’re using?

[Ibn Al-Ja'abi 1,432]

3 hours ago, 313 Seeker said:

Well I don't know to be honest. Don't know much about them, except how to say totonka from dances with wolves. Supposedly means buffalo or bison of something.

That would be Lakota, a dialect of the Sioux language, itself belonging to the larger Siouan language family.

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/tȟatȟáŋka

Its entry in Wiktionary.

Unfortunately generally with Native American languages generally materials tend to be scarce outside courses at colleges and materials prepared to teach second language speakers. There's a channel on YouTube that has recordings of quite a few Native American languages among hundreds of other languages, modern and ancient.

[hasanhh 7,550]

On 10/31/2019 at 7:57 PM, Moalfas said:

I'm guessing this is Mandarin?

Shi     pronounced Shi-eh quickly

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

2 hours ago, SeekingHeaven said:

How are you learning it? 

Is there a course you’re using?

I started off by using the "learn Farsi in 100 days"  book by Reza Nazari. It's very good because the lessons are well-structured and they focus on all three aspects of learning - reading, writing and speaking (conversational Persian). The book is accompanied with a series of online lessons by the author. I've finished around 20 lessons but then decided to move on a new course which I'm loving.

Pimselur Persian course is perfect if you want to learn actively. A lot of the books out there are great but you require a lot of patience. The unique thing about this course is that you subconsciously learn all the grammar rules. You practice speaking so much that you start to guess the words and make sense out of the sentences. I can speak from experience that this course is just amazing. It's a series of 30 minute audio recordings and you can listen to them wherever you are. It costs quite a bit but I'll download the audio and send it to you if you're interested?  

Also I've watched a lot of Persian dramas. It's very helpful.

Edited November 2 by ali_fatheroforphans

[MehrBanoo 80]

My Original language is Persian but I can Use I can Use and Speak English & Arabic too ! but Should improve my Self in this way ..

I learn a bit Urdu   and like to learn more as speak well !!!

 

[Moalfas 599]

What I've found interesting amongst Shias worldwide is a keen interest to learn Farsi over Arabic.

What would you guys suggest the reasons could be? 

[habib e najjaar 2,120]

Just now, Moalfas said:

What I've found interesting amongst Shias worldwide is a keen interest to learn Farsi over Arabic.

What would you guys suggest the reasons could be? 

I don’t think it is an interest. The hawzahs most Shias attend/can attend are in Iran/run by/linked to Iran. Whatever is more easily available becomes more popular. In my area, the ONLY Arabic learning institutions are run by wahhabis, and they have produced droves of Arabic speakers who also happen to become wahhabi/wahhabi leaning by the time they are done. I have tried attending some wahhabi madrassahs for tahfeedh and Arabic since no Shia or neutral ones were available but then had to quit.

This also means a majority of the muammams/turbans/alims produced by the iranian hawzas are very basic at Arabic. The saddest part is that in hawzahs, the language of instruction is persian as opposed to Arabic.

Further, a large number of desi Shias are Urdu speaking, which is very similar to Farsi so they automatically are more likely to learn Farsi than Arabic with ease.

3. Farsi has no mudhakkar and muannath rules and thus very easy to learn compared to Arabic.

 

[MehrBanoo 80]

8 minutes ago, Moalfas said:

What I've found interesting amongst Shias worldwide is a keen interest to learn Farsi over Arabic.

What would you guys suggest the reasons could be? 

think because of Iranian effects On Muslims as Shias  : )

[313 Seeker 499]

16 hours ago, Ibn Al-Ja'abi said:

That would be Lakota, a dialect of the Sioux language, itself belonging to the larger Siouan language family.

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/tȟatȟáŋka

Its entry in Wiktionary.

Unfortunately generally with Native American languages generally materials tend to be scarce outside courses at colleges and materials prepared to teach second language speakers. There's a channel on YouTube that has recordings of quite a few Native American languages among hundreds of other languages, modern and ancient.

Yes I dream of sitting in a teepee with a tribal elder smoking a peace pipe, and practicing my native American this way. Although there are probably so many different tribes and languages that my lungs wouldn't have time to recover from all that peace smoking. I'd also like to go to some totally isolated tribes in the Amazon forest (at least wearing some kilt or something) and learn from them too.

But thanks for the info. Hopefully I meet some real native American soon to get the chance. God bless

[al-Hashimi- 16]

Arabic and English, alhamdulilah.

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

Actually pm me for the link. I don't want people knowing my name.

Edited November 4 by ali_fatheroforphans

[ali_fatheroforphans 5,542]

Ohh I just realised my name comes up 

Edited November 4 by ali_fatheroforphans

[Ibn Al-Ja'abi 1,432]

Urdu is my first language but when I moved to Canada when I was 5 my English became better than my Urdu. I can still fluently speak it as well as read and, to an extent, write it, but my English naturally remains better -- though with experience it improves. I picked up Arabic when I was in high-school/university rather informally since I was teaching it to myself and I wasn't really sure then how to learn a language, used a variety of means -- including translating, but translating without understanding the underlying grammar makes it really difficult -- but as time went on I became more successful at it. I really consider the proper beginning of my Arabic education four years into really beginning it since it was at that point that I formally began to study a single text (it was a nahw book) and thereafter worked with some other grammars in a more organized fashion. It was a year after that I began to become conversational and read with fluency -- that is I could read without being unsure of the construct, word, or sentence as a whole. I still continue to work with Arabic, feeling now a lot more confident with it than a few years ago but still finding myself looking at grammar to keep my skills sharp while I'm still not in any formal institution for it.

The fall after finishing the nahw book I began Persian because I felt a good enough foothold in Arabic to move onto other things while still being able to work in it well. I used a pretty bad book textbook on the recommendation of someone (to be fair, the book might've been alright if you had a teacher but as far as self studying Persian for the first time goes with it, it was pretty useless). I made it some 2/3 into the book before I just gave up because I felt so confused by how I was learning. To be fair as well I hadn't tuned into using things like flashcards but vocabulary was getting picked up pretty well since Persian is so closely related genetically and culturally to Urdu. Nevertheless, it wasn't a good experience but I still did learn a fair bit. Afterwards I got some other resources to help with studies. I looked at Ann Lambton's grammar but it's so detailed and dense that it's rather difficult for even an advanced introductory student. Wheeler Thackston's book also was rather hard for me at that time since I wasn't familiar with the grammatical terminology he'd use, though now I'd do fine with it. I started working with Basic Persian afterwards which I liked a whole lot more as far as language pedagogy and lesson styles go, I feel a lot more confident in it this time around, this summer when I was at a program in the States a friend of mine who'd studies in Iran and an Iranian would speak (colloquial) Persian and I'd find myself able to understand them which was heartening. As far as materials go, my Persian books are far fewer than my Arabic books -- I think only three or four + some readers to the vast majority which is in Arabic. But online material is widely available, and sites like wikifeqh and wikishia are great for reading practice. I was also given a volume from the Dairatol-Ma'aref-e Bozorg-e Islami by my professor the fall I began Persian because -- though the course I was taking with her was about Balkans history and culture -- she is actually by training an Iranicist and had spent a few years in Iran back in the 80s. Hopefully as time progresses I'll continue to improve and one day have fluency in all aspects of Persian -- reading, writing, and speaking, inshaAllah.

As it regards other stuff, I studied Latin and Biblical Hebrew at university last year, these were the first languages I'd actually formally studied in an institution. I'd done well in both courses getting an A+ in both and learned quite a bit but it was only to an intermediate level. My goal for both was to have fluent reading knowledge, which I did make quite a bit of headway on. With Hebrew I felt a lot better off since it's so closely related to Arabic a lot of the knowledge transferred. Because the Hebrew program at my university is very underfunded I had to do quite a bit on my own afterwards and continue working. I have some materials to help with parsing and reading as well, when I've saved up some money I'll try to buy a reader's Hebrew Bible. In the summer I'd done things like translate portions of the Old Testament into English and around the beginning of Muharram I had begun to read the Bible in Hebrew taking notes in Hebrew but they're limited as of now. I hope as time improves to immerse myself in the Hebrew idiom and be more fluent. After another year of Biblical Hebrew, I intend on doing Rabbinic Hebrew -- the existing grammar for which presupposes at least one year of Biblical Hebrew so I figure two won't hurt. I'd also done Biblical Aramaic a bit in the summer since it is so similar to Biblical Hebrew that many books just teach it as a weird form of BH, I'll work a bit more on it in the future iA.

With Latin I've also continued to work on my own but the friends I had who moved onto do second year Latin -- which I found out is only four people -- I still work with in grammar because I had bought the LLPSI books and a couple of supplementary readers in the summer and begun working through them. These works aim at teaching Latin only through Latin containing no English whatsoever, so you're able to read some easier Latin poets unedited by the end of the first book, and a paraphrase of the most difficult Latin poem by the end of the second book. I work as well out of the Wheelock's Latin textbook to just get that more old school grammar translation practice and because I like his reader. Because my goal has gone on to include wanting to be able to also write Latin I'll be working with some prose composition material next year on top of writing journals in Latin and the other languages I mentioned.

This year I've begun studying Ancient Greek at university and so far so good, have a test to prepare for inshaAllah. Having developed the goal of being able to site read Latin and Hebrew I've gone into Greek with that goal and am trying to ensure I can do it from the start. I have supplementary material as well, one reading course on the model of LLPSI called Alexandros to hellenikon paidion, a short novel called Ho kataskopos, some readers of Patristic Greek. I also have the NT and Septuagint in Greek which I'd bought when I got copies of the Vulgate and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in anticipation. My goal is to read Plato's earlier dialogues in Greek after this course and a bit of practice, and eventually histories which tend to be a bit more complex in their Greek. I've also been working on Syriac since the summer which is moving along well due to experience with Hebrew, Arabic, and Biblical Aramaic. I'm absolutely enamored by Syriac literature so I'm hoping to dig in by the beginning of the new year, though I've already tried my hand at looking at the Peshiitta (the Syriac Bible) as well as some other things. I often speak to a current professor of mine who specializes in Christian Apocrypha and the NT so is quite familiar with Syriac, he even said he'd pick up a copy of a grammar I was hoping to work on for me when he goes to a conference later this month.

On 10/30/2019 at 4:45 PM, Moalfas said:

and what languages would you like to learn?

While I am very much still in the learning phase of some of the above languages I have had considerable experience with them so fall more into the knowing/knowing some rather than not knowing anything at all category. In terms of stuff I've not done at all or have done a very little bit of but want to try my hand at doing more there's a few languages for studies. As academic languages, I'd like to learn French and German. I'd done French in elementary school and the beginning of High School but after a series of horrible teachers I just wanted to be done it. I still remember a bit, but only a bit. German I have next to no experience with whatsoever. A lot of Academic literature tends to be written in them so if you want to be up to date with the newest research you should at the very least have reading knowledge of them. Another less important academic language is Italian, there's fewer works in it but I still find it warranted to perhaps study in the future. I also want to work on Turkish for reading materials written in it, there tends to be fewer works but it still seems worthwhile. It's also a good way to work into Ottoman Turkish, materials in which I want to be able to read -- especially court documents. I've got some textbooks sitting on my shelf for these languages I hope to get to soon.

Ancient languages I plan on learning include Ge'ez/Classical Ethiopic, this is actually rather high on the list because I find a lot of value in the literature written in this language. Similarly Coptic, the aforementioned professor working with Christian Apocrypha and I often speak about both these languages as he intends on learning at least Coptic for his research. I already have some materials for both Ge'ez and Coptic but aside from perusing through them sometimes I haven't had the time or opportunity to study them properly. Because so many manuscripts are digitized perhaps after a couple of years I can begin studying and work my way to reading them, inshaAllah. I also want to try my hand at Old Nubian, it's fascinated me since I found out about it last year, I even got a short grammar and two books of documents found at Qasr Ibrim and Attiri but the materials teaching it are very few, the documents found in it also few, and the materials to study it are incredibly expensive with I just having bought the cheaper things on amazon plus what I could download. It is a really cool language with interesting literature though. I also want to try my hand at Ugaritic and Old South Arabian so I could work with epigraphy, an interest of mine since I began to study Hebrew and later Aramaic, their similarity to Arabic and Hebrew makes them not very difficult either. I have some material for these as well. In the past year my interest in Old English has also increased, I got the Complete Old English book and CD this summer which is published by the "Teach Yourself" language series, the materials in it seem very interesting and after some German it shouldn't be very hard from what I gather.

I also have a list of pie-in-the-sky languages, stuff I'd like to do but I don't really have any plan for beginning in the foreseeable future but it's on a bucket list if I get time some day. These are Uyghur (both modern and Old Uyghur), Classical Chinese (to look at writings in it), Classical Tibetan, Classical Mongolian, Sanskrit, Ancient Egyptian (which is just earlier forms of Coptic so theoretically learning it might even be easier after Coptic which I do plan on doing in the next few years), Akkadian, Old Armenian, Old Georgian (this is a bit of a fantasy), and Tamasheq.

The above seem like a lot, but some of them are necessary to actually keeping up in the fields you're, others don't need to go up to a speaking fluency, and yet others can actually be learned by taking knowledge of closely related languages you know and tweaking it -- like Ge'ez, Ugaritic, and OSA. It is indeed a bit wishful but inshaAllah khayr, I didn't figure myself being interested let alone having studied Latin, Hebrew, or Greek four years ago and I didn't even know what Syriac was in those days.

[Hajji Kadhim 9]

On 10/31/2019 at 11:28 AM, ali_fatheroforphans said:

I can speak Urdu and English. I'm currently learning Farsi and I've made a lot of progress. You learn so much about different cultures by learning their language. It makes you more accepting and open-minded. Like I respect Persians more since I started learning Farsi and  I find their culture beautiful.

I also plan to learn Arabic in the future inshallah.

Salam brother can you share with me the Farsi dropbox you have? I can’t pm you because my account is low ranked.

Thank you and jazak Allah

[Suzy 3]

I only know English. I would like to learn Arabic. Does anyone have any resources they recommend to learn? 

[Suzy 3]

I'd be interested in learning Farsi. Can you share your dropbox with me? 

[realizm 2,293]

French native, then English, Spanish, Arabic - by order of skills. My Arabic is only dialectal and totally exempt of grammatical notions unfortunately. 

@Ibn Al-Ja'abi you are a beast.

@313 Seeker may Allah have mercy on your grandfather, what were those 12 languages he mastered ?

 

Edited November 5 by realizm

[LeftCoastMom 4,930]

On November 1, 2019 at 5:39 PM, 313 Seeker said:

Well I don't know to be honest. Don't know much about them, except how to say totonka from dances with wolves. Supposedly means buffalo or bison of something.

Hayaku, kiyachanyitik.

U'wu' me' apit.

Kaya scolayit.

 

And I speak English, some French and Spanish. Forgot a lot of the Hebrew and Greek. Sucked at Latin. Know a few words  in lots of different languages, like most people. Picking up a little Arabic ... I apparently have to these days because my opposite number in grandmahood sometimes forgets to speak English to me.

(Tribal  language currently unclassified. Apparently unique. Chichoya!)

Edited November 5 by LeftCoastMom

[shadow_of_light 1,619]

On 11/4/2019 at 1:34 PM, Ibn Al-Ja'abi said:

Urdu is my first language ...

I recommend you to study the book below:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Syro-Aramaic_Reading_of_the_Koran

Edited November 6 by Ibn Al-Ja'abi
shorten quote

[Ibn Al-Ja'abi 1,432]

3 hours ago, shadow_of_light said:

I recommend you to study the book below:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Syro-Aramaic_Reading_of_the_Koran

I've looked through a bit of it. This book isn't really thought well of in scholarship — Western scholarship.