Duo lingo

Travel to Hungary a lot with work . We have a large manufacturing plant down the South not a kick in the arse of Croatia . After 15 years the best I can manage is about 10 words :)

I used to go to Oslo a lot with a previous job. I think I picked up two words of Norwegian - "Takk" and "øl" - thanks and beer. The standard of English teaching in Norway is generally better than it is here. People will automatically start speaking English to you before you open your mouth if you don't look Norwegian (and I'm certainly not tall and blond)
 


Travel to Hungary a lot with work . We have a large manufacturing plant down the South not a kick in the arse of Croatia . After 15 years the best I can manage is about 10 words :)
It's a beautiful clean country, but the language is tricky to learn, and master.
I think it's related to the Finnish language in some way.
If you ever get the chance to get out & about in Hungary, there's some fantastic places to visit.
Pécs, is in Southern Hungary and close to the Croatian border and is a beautiful city, and somewhere I'd recommend for a visit.
You'll probably already be aware, but if you partake in a few Palinka's, underestimate them at your peril. 😉
 
It's a beautiful clean country, but the language is tricky to learn, and master.
I think it's related to the Finnish language in some way.
If you ever get the chance to get out & about in Hungary, there's some fantastic places to visit.
Pécs, is in Southern Hungary and close to the Croatian border and is a beautiful city, and somewhere I'd recommend for a visit.
You'll probably already be aware, but if you partake in a few Palinka's, underestimate them at your peril. 😉

We are not too far from Pécs about an hour and half drive , a small place called Nagyatad . I was warned about Palinka on my first visit in 2003 lol . One of the colleagues lost 2 days on one trip :) Egészségedre :) . Thing is as usual I fly out on Monday and back on Friday so no chance to do any tourism . we did have a factory in uj Pest and managed some great night in Budapest
 
We are not too far from Pécs about an hour and half drive , a small place called Nagyatad . I was warned about Palinka on my first visit in 2003 lol . One of the colleagues lost 2 days on one trip :) Egészségedre :) . Thing is as usual I fly out on Monday and back on Friday so no chance to do any tourism . we did have a factory in uj Pest and managed some great night in Budapest
👍😊
Köszönöm, és jó estét.

There are some very scenic towns, cities and villages within Hungary.
Eger, up in the north, is famous for the famous Bulls Blood, red wine, and is a beautiful place to visit and sample the wine.
Budapest is one of my favourite cities, as I love the history, architecture, culture, food and traditions of old cities.
I once worked as a fruit picker in Hungary, during a summer, in a village called Szada.
I was picking plums (szilva) and peaches (barack, pronounced borotzk) for the homemade production of Palinka.
Many people in the villages, distill their own Palinka, and it's often very good & very smooth, but occasionally, there'll be one as rough as a badgers arse, which will scorch the throat out of the fool person who's desperate enough to drink it. :lol:
 
I completed the Duolingo Spanish lessons a couple of years ago. Seen lately that there is an updated version so I have started once again. I know lots of individual words but still struggle to put two words together. As for understanding spoken Spanish, I struggle big time.
My reading of Spanish is pretty good, have read the whole of Harry Potter in Spanish. When I say read, I mean got the gist.
 
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I used to go to Oslo a lot with a previous job. I think I picked up two words of Norwegian - "Takk" and "øl" - thanks and beer. The standard of English teaching in Norway is generally better than it is here. People will automatically start speaking English to you before you open your mouth if you don't look Norwegian (and I'm certainly not tall and blond)

Everyone in Oslo insisted in speaking to me in Norwegian and looked taken aback when I had to sheepishly explain I had no idea what they were going on about. Then again everyone in Spain assumed I was Spanish and the same happened in Portugal so maybe I just have very undifferentiated features.

I'm currently relearning French with the intention of doing some wine tours there when Covid is over. Did it for 5 years at school and surprisingly remember quite a bit. Racing through the beginning of it.
 
I wanted to do Portuguese but unfortunately they only do Brazilian Portuguese; same with most of the providers, like Rosetta Stone etc.

Settled on the Drops app in the end, pretty good but I really need to go to some classes when things get back to normal.
Memrise is excellent for European Portuguese. Duolingo, though it's Brazilian Portuguese, compliments it well.
 
I enjoy it I would recommend using a Paul Noble audio course first then adding the obscure words through duolingo. I never take the lessons but I like the stories and the challenges. Done French, nearly done Spanish, Italian next. Was going to do Portuguese after but might not if you only have the Brazilian option.
 
Memrise is excellent for European Portuguese. Duolingo, though it's Brazilian Portuguese, compliments it well.

I’ve been provided with some European Portuguese learning material by a kind SMB’er but I’ll give Memrise a look.

I’m keen to avoid learning any Brazilian Portuguese so my girlfriends parents don’t start giving me funny looks when I talk to them!
 
No I hadn't realised that sort of thing went on....it's logical it would do though. I'll do a bit research.

Italki is another one mate. It's one on one Skype teaching with a native. You can get a cheap Spanish tutor from Nicaragua or one of the more poorer countries for just a few dollars an hour if you look on there.
I envy anyone who has a natural ability at languages. With me it all goes in one ear and out out of the other and I consider being able to order a beer in any language to be a major success.

I work with a lass who is originally from Barcelona and is bilingual in Catalan and Spanish plus professional standard German and English and can "get by" in French, Italian and a few others at a basic level which she just picked up while on holiday.

My lass (Italian) is fluent in English, Spanish, French and knows a canny bit of Russian. Its great for roleplay like 😂. I'm useless in comparison (at learning languages, not roleplay)
 
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Italki is another one mate. It's one on one Skype teaching with a native. You can get a cheap Spanish tutor from Nicaragua or one of the more poorer countries for just a few dollars an hour if you look on there.


My lass (Italian) is fluent in English, Spanish, French and knows a canny bit of Russian. Its great for roleplay like 😂. I'm useless in comparison (at learning languages, not roleplay)
4 and a bit languages. That's impressive!
 
I’m learning German, although not via Duolingo. I may give that a go.

I’d like to read foreign newspapers and Twitter accounts. German is my preferred language to learn, mainly because I love Berlin and go there often. The standard of English in Berlin is superb, so I doubt I’d use much German over there. But it’d just be nice to have some grounding in the language and read the local press, Twitter etc.

Just my opinion but, assuming you already have a reasonable understanding of the language, this is definitely the best way to improve your skills. You slowly increase your vocabulary with relevant words; news stories often run over several days so you see the same vocabulary repeated in a slightly different context, loads of idioms, loads of different grammatical structures that you see repeated etc. If you can find a news podcast, it also complements the reading.

I'd recommend a website called reverse context which allows you to look up words and it finds multiple real-world examples of their use with appropriate translations. You typically have to look at a few of the sentences but it gives you a way better understanding than a simple literal translation.
 
I've had a brief look at that it's similar to Michel Thomas . Well worth a go . It does make you think "Why don't they teach us like that in school " ? Many thanks .

The standard of language teaching in this country is terrible. It's designed to get kids to pass exams but not be able to do anything useful with the language. I somehow got a grade A in French GCSE after 5 years of lessons but could hardly form a sentence. I'm just good a multiple choice. All I can remember doing in lessons is reciting endless vocabulary list and verb tables (what's the future imperfect or the past subjunctive anyway?). Meet 16 year olds from other countries and they will have a decent standard in English and anyone who graduates university will be fluent.
 
I did 7 years of French in both junior and senior school and left knowing all about my aunties pen and where the tobacconists was.

Useless. Conversational French is what should be taught but untill you use it regularly you will never get truly fluent.

I had a Spanish girlfriend for a while but she wanted to speak English all time so I learnt nowt. She argued in Spanish tho which was tremendous - I could not stop laughing as spanish women do not need to breathe in when they are annoyed.
 
I did 7 years of French in both junior and senior school and left knowing all about my aunties pen and where the tobacconists was.

Useless. Conversational French is what should be taught but untill you use it regularly you will never get truly fluent.

I had a Spanish girlfriend for a while but she wanted to speak English all time so I learnt nowt. She argued in Spanish tho which was tremendous - I could not stop laughing as spanish women do not need to breathe in when they are annoyed.
I know where your aunties pen is . It's there, on the table .
 
The standard of language teaching in this country is terrible. It's designed to get kids to pass exams but not be able to do anything useful with the language. I somehow got a grade A in French GCSE after 5 years of lessons but could hardly form a sentence. I'm just good a multiple choice. All I can remember doing in lessons is reciting endless vocabulary list and verb tables (what's the future imperfect or the past subjunctive anyway?). Meet 16 year olds from other countries and they will have a decent standard in English and anyone who graduates university will be fluent.
UK exams are just memory tests
 

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