I'm very seriously considering the foreign service, but I've never been any good at languages. Will I likely be able to learn a language, with the intense training the Foreign Service provides, without a natural apptitude for languages? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 18, 2009 - 7 answers

Verb conjugation tester for OSX? [more inside]
posted by djgh on Sep 10, 2009 - 3 answers

Cheap, efficient way to learn German online. [more inside]
posted by ekpyrotic on Aug 22, 2009 - 15 answers

What are some interesting blogs that touch on both the language and culture of a country? [more inside]
posted by ElectricBlue on Jun 28, 2009 - 7 answers

What are the most common 20% of words in any language? [more inside]
posted by jinatrix on Jun 14, 2009 - 12 answers

Looking to purchase some awesome linguistics-related posters. I've searched for hours on the internet and I can't seem to find any family tree posters, IPA posters, or even anything remotely related to linguistics that is interesting and somewhat academic. [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on May 28, 2009 - 8 answers

In the English version of Star Wars, Yoda speaks using some interesting word-order. In other language translations, is this technique carried? [more inside]
posted by nikkorizz on Apr 30, 2009 - 6 answers

Help me sound like I know a lot of foreign languages. [more inside]
posted by blahtsk on Dec 17, 2008 - 22 answers

What materials should I keep an eye out for in my quest to study Cantonese? I'm currently working my way through the Pimsleur Cantonese audio course, and I don't know what I should check out after that ends. [more inside]
posted by Xere on Nov 17, 2008 - 3 answers

Slightly-random-but-interesting-filter: I've noticed that French books tend to be longer than English books, and German books tend to be longer than both. If given a normally written (so no really fancy words, just sort of... average) English book of 100 pages, which language of translation (using same font and size, as well as same sized pages) would make it the longest? the shortest? Bonus points for approximate page numbers! (thanks!)
posted by Planet F on Oct 21, 2008 - 21 answers

What are your favorite online resources for learning, practicing or getting exposure to the languages you speak? I'm looking for things that go beyond a textbook and a couple of CDs: things like interactive tools and study materials, well-written blogs written in / about the language, and especially audio, video or reading materials that people learning the language might not be able to find easily. [more inside]
posted by shirobara on Jun 4, 2008 - 8 answers

What can I buy, download or find online to help me learn as much Polish as possible in the next ten days, with a budget of about £50? [more inside]
posted by Lebannen on Feb 20, 2008 - 9 answers

I need to review Russian badly (up to the speaking/writing/listening level of a minor in Russian). I have a semester (two is doable but pushing it) to devote to this. I need some kind of structured process to go about this--while I have textbooks and some materials from years ago it's not enough. Does anyone have any suggestions for other good tutorials? Syllabi? Quick-review websites?
posted by schroedinger on Sep 6, 2007 - 9 answers

Hawaiian has only eight consonants. Pirahã purportedly has even fewer phonemes and no numerals. What other languages have properties which would be considered unusual by Indo-European language speakers?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 16, 2006 - 33 answers

How do I learn what goes on "under the hood" of programming languages? [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Aug 14, 2006 - 34 answers

For those of you fluent in Japanese, I'd like to hear your best advice on the subject. I've studied for about 4 years, and have been living in Japan for nearly a year, but despite this, achieving true "fluency" still seems like an insurmountable task. Although I am conversationally fluent, at times I become incredibly frustrated. How long do you think it takes to become fluent? And now for the oh-so-impossible question: what should I do to speed up the process? Advice, experiences, suggestions would be welcome from any students of foreign language.
posted by dead_ on Feb 13, 2005 - 9 answers

Inspired by this thread on programming languages, I have a question on learning programming if you have no programming experience. (more) [more inside]
posted by TeamBilly on Jan 30, 2005 - 30 answers

International animal sounds : In English, dogs go 'woof', cats go 'meow' and ducks go 'quack'. Does anyone know what noises they make in other languages (or maybe other countries)? [I don't mean to limit this to those three, it just seemed like a good selection to show what I meant...]
posted by twine42 on Nov 1, 2004 - 22 answers

When I was in high school (91-95), I learned three computer languages -- BASIC, LOGO, and a third that I don't remember the name of.

It involved putting everything in nested parentheses, so you'd end up with some code that looked like this: (((object a)go to)object b)

I looked on google, and found something about LISP and SCHEME, but I couldn't find anything that would narrow it down a bit further. I know that we used a piece of software that would make certain we had the right amount of parentheses (by highlighting each closed parenthesis when we included it), and that the software ran on Macintoshes. We learned how to form graphics with the software -- circles within circles, that sort of thing.

Anyone know what it was? Because it's bugging me, and I kinda think learning that helped me later on in life with keeping track of nested tables and HTML in general.
posted by Katemonkey on Jan 27, 2004 - 19 answers