Thread 2818087

Any language learners here?

Ive learned conversational Central Thai and Khmer in 5 years traveling the region but always have to go back home every 6 months to make money. During that time my language skills tank despite having friends I talk to pretty much daily. I try to also only watch native content but admittedly their media sucks balls. Is this decline inevitable or does anyone have tips to mitigate this?

My next language, Burmese, is going to be even harder and I'm thinking about just teaching English so I can stay in the country longer and master this language through exposure again. Unfortunately there is a war going on, though Yangon should be safe enough for at least a few more years. What's teaching English like? I'm ok with shit pay I just need enough to pay for rent and street food.

Sorry for rambling, was up late last night and my brain is scrammbllllled. Time for work.

>>2818087 (OP)
You spent five years learning Central Thai and Khmer without a job in SEA and didn't look into English teaching at any point until now?

we don't have to learn the language to coom.
...or maybe we do and that's why we fail to coom.

>>2818087 (OP)
You seriously considering long term residence in Burma?
I'm considering a month there but all the human trafficking into scam centers has me a bit spooked.

>>2818114
I hate pussy faggots like you who shit themselves at any distant or low-level conflict.

>>2818104
Why work if you have the cash to just chill?

Is no one else here into languages like me? Kinda sad :(

>>2818104
I always knew it was an option but never really needed or had interest to do it. Now that I'm willing to take Burmese more seriously I think it could be a fun move.

The thing is I hear so many expats complaining about how awful it is, and I'm not sure if they have unreasonable expectations or if it's really just a bad time. I want to have a minimum effort job to get some money and then focus on learning Burmese myself. Of course if a rare student shows a genuine interest in English I'd be more than happy to help them out. Though to be honest, I expect them to all not give a fuck about school just like I did growing up. No gripes that's just reality.

>>2818112
The satisfaction you get from language learning is better than cooming. For me it's been the most rewarding hobby ever. Imagine a purely intellectual coom. Bonuses are flexing in normie tourists, locals treat you nicer, you become "in the know" about cool spots, and it makes traveling cheaper. Also the "wow you speak x!" compliments don't get old.

>>2818114
It's dangerous but not suicide tier like some other places. For me, it's worth the risk.

>>2818213
>Is no one else here into languages like me? Kinda sad :(
Check the language learning general on /int/ (/lang/) and ask there if you want tips on learning and staving off decline, I'd say.

>>2818087 (OP)
>>2818213
OP this place is for losers. No one here will have a good answer for you.

>>2818087 (OP)
>go back home every 6 months to make mone
how do you do that?

>>2818125
The conflict doesn't bother me. The fact that they pay thousands of dollars to human traffic people through Thailand does. Being shot isn't a fear of mine, but being beaten by metal rods for not making their scam quota is.

>>2818087 (OP)
I dont get GTO. Is there some deep meaning to it, or just a "watch it and forget" type of show?

>>2818087 (OP)
How old are you?

I enjoyed language learning in my 20s. I learned Korean to a conversational fluency pretty quickly at university and I still love surprising people with it.
But then I moved to Japan around when I turned 30 and learning Japanese has been way more of a drag, even though it's so similar to Korean grammatically. It's like my brain used to soak up language like a sponge even in my 20s, but now it's kinda given up and I have to force all information in there.
I kinda regret not learning Mandarin at some point. Yeah it sounds fucking disgusting but it unlocks so much shit, you can talk not only to the 20 billion chinks in China itself but also in all these other countries where there's another billion of them.

>>2818335
Why did you learn Korean?

>>2818087 (OP)
>Ive learned conversational Central Thai and Khmer
Why? I know people even learn bantu or other shit but why would anyone waste time to learn a completely useless meme languages on the level of african click noises NOBODY speaks with ZERO value and now wants to learn another click noise dialect that even less than nobody speaks?

>>2818368
>Why?
You'll see how pathetic it is when you meet an expat who's been living in Thailand for 5+ years but has to phone his wife or daughter to translate stuff for him when he's at the bank or something.
If you go live abroad, learn the language you faggot. Don't be one of those retards who refuse to learn.

>>2818368
Holmey ghoj jIQuchmoH

>>2818386
What fucking loser would want to live in fucking SEA of all places? 14 days are already miserable enough in the region.

>>2818368
Thai is spoke by 60 million people
Khmer is spoke by 20 million people

How is it zero value when OP lives there half of the year?

>>2818391
>What fucking loser would want to live in fucking SEA of all places? 14 days are already miserable enough in the region
>t. Polly Prissy Pants

>>2818397
Exactly. But it's not even about how many speakers there are. If someone fell in love with Sanskrit, only a low IQ loser would criticize it.
For me, the language kind of finds me. If we were 100% practical, we'd all learn Chinese but few of us have the intrinsic motivation. But perhaps, (as I have), you go to Myanmar,fall in love with it, become fascinated by alien spaceship text (ဒီပုံက ဘယ်လောက်ထူးဆန်းနေလဲ ကြည့်ကြည့်လိုက်) and just love getting better at it.

>>2818346
No big reason. I wanted to learn a language very distinct from European ones and Korean was easy to start because they essentially use an alphabet (24 characters to learn as opposed to thousands for Japanese or Chinese). It was easy to self-study because I could read textbooks/books very early on.

>>2818391
you wouldn't get it

>>2818397
It is better to study Chinese. It's an easy language to learn. Just try it. Duolingo has free courses

>>2818368
So they can speak to the people of the country they live in? It's retarded to move to Thailand and not learn Thai. Makes you no different than muzzie rapefugees in Europe.

>>2818470
Is this a bot post? Surely no one can be this braindead

>>2818114
>>2818292
an English speaker with a native accent would be like a bar of gold to them

>>2818292
The scam cities have all been shut down. Thailand cut off their electricity and closed the border. It is safe again to visit now.

>>2818505
Are you stupid? There's still plenty of scam centers. They even have them on the Cambodian side

>>2818505
They're still there they just moved to Kayin state

>>2818542
No, that's what the war was about. Hun Sen was upset about them closing his scam centers on the border. So now it's all over. THailand is safe again

>>2818114
Me too. Where can I apply for one of those scam center jobs? Sounds like a fun life experience. Maybe I can meet some of the Shan State Army guerrillas and some Chinese mafia figures as well. Jumpstart my underworld career.

>>2818386
I'm not a Chatty Kathy like OP. Most of the time I have nothing to say in English. What would be the point of learning another language only to have nothing to say?

>>2818589
Try Golden Triangle SEZ

>>2818589
>>2818608
it's like a little macau on the mekong

>>2818608
Kek are you trying to get anon kidnapped? That's bad karma

>>2818217
/lang/ is majorly a bunch of autists trying to optimize the process with ridiculous strategies. Read/watch, think, and communicate in the language. There you go. Find a community, get a penpal, and immerse in the media.

>>2818470
Duolingo is absolute dog shit now. It‘s a shame because I started brushing up on my Spanish again to try to get it back up to B1/B2 when they changed it for the worse yet again. They switched hearts to energy so you only get to go through a few lessons before you‘re out no matter what. If it were to cost 3€ a month then I‘d reconsider but fuck those idiots. I‘ve worked upper middle management at retarded international companies and seen the stupidest and most corrupt bullshit but their market strategy is laughable.

>>2818683
>Duolingo is absolute dog shit
Agreed. Pimsleur is excellent though. I never used Duolingo again.

>>2818683
That's sad. It was great when I used to use it years ago. Thre are plenty of other apps i guess

>>2818681
There's only like two serb and Brazilian artists who do that the rest of us are nornal

People here are too lazy to learn languages

>>2819062
I lived in a country for 9 years and speak like 30 words of the language but I banged like four women so who the fuck cares kek

>>2819062
'ghobe. 'waDIS poH tlhIngan Hol vIghojtaH. 'teraDaQ lo'laHbe' tlhIngan HoI ghojghach, 'ach jIQuchmoH.
Je parle un peu de français aussi, et 我直在学习中文.

>>2819072
this is the average english teacher's experience in japan

>>2819072
>I banged like four women
A month?

>>2819077
>直在

>>2819084
is this Instagram

>>2819072
>I banged 4 women in 9 years
Weird brag, you know having sex isn't some grand achievement

>>2819130
Yea

I'm learning Japanese for my trip in 3 months. I doubt I'll be able to speak much, but it's worth trying.

>>2819593
Good luck bro

>>2818391
The post that destroyed all of /trv/

>>2818684
>spaced repetition built in
How the fuck has Duolingo not figured this out in the past 15 years? Unironically, are they retarded?

>>2819666
Duolingo has an incentive to make language learning as slow as possible. If you learner Spanish in two years there goes your customer. All they do is give you little dopamine hits of learning while you spin your wheels

>>2819661
Are you a fucking moron

>>2819657
Thanks, bro.

>>2818087 (OP)
Based language learner

>>2820709
Not based

No one does this only try hards

>>2821456
I'm a try hard so what

>>2821456
If i meet another foreigner in Thailand, and I find out they can barely speak Thai after having been living there for over a year, I will simply not be interested in anything this person has to say.
Being able to speak the local language is a litmus test for good character. Ofcourse, we already know what kind of character you are ;)

>>2818087 (OP)
Immersion works both ways my dude and is just how our brains are wired up for language.

>>2818590
So you know what everyone around you is saying.

>>2822187
What if they know around 1000 vocab words but are shy about speaking and still struggle with comprehension?

Asking for a friend

>>2822683
How did you get that far without any comprehension? Not trying to be mean, but are you retarded?
I feel like once you know a couple of words, comprehension comes naturally because you can assume the meaning from context.
Seems like you know more words than I, so idk if I am in a position to give you advice, but one thing that's helped me is to avoid this: someone's talking to you and you don't understand a word so you start focusing on that word to understand the meaning but doing this makes you not listen to the rest of the sentance. Don't do this, try to listen to the whole sentence before you start trying to understand. Yeah it makes you a little bit slower sometimes but it's better than not understanding at all.

>>2822693
He said he struggled with comprehension you dumbass esl

>>2818087 (OP)
No I hate anything but English

>>2822693
Flash card andys who skip grammar day

>>2822187
I'm not a conversational person. Why should I learn a language when I have no desire to speak 95% of the time?

any anon not knowing the local language is LAZY. you know native english and live in the time of high speed internet. literal silver spoon

do you realize how many people have internet access, but can't read the internet. let alone read at all.

shame on u bredren

>>2818087 (OP)
That's pretty normal. You're not special faggot

>>2818346
because there's nothing better to do

>>2819135
also, 4 women in 9 years is vey conservative, the fuck. Were you a hermit or something?

>>2818087 (OP)
Join the air force or army as a linguist/airborne linguist. Get a 40k signing bonus, get additional pay due to obscure languages. Get BAH
>>2818335
In the US speaking Mandarin can guarantee you a 60k year job with no other qualifications. Obviously more money if you have toher shit to offer

>>2834243
really? I speak fluent Mandarin to HSK6 level but I'm a Brit

>>2834271
Oof. No military for you until you get a greencard, but yes. There are tons of jobs mainly in export/import logistics that require Mandarin speaking. FTZ jobs is what you would want to focus on. Like I said without any other experience or qualifications you could get $60-70k a year easy just from speaking Mandarin well enough.
If you have experience or a degree you can get a $100k+ job. Especially in major port cities like, Houston, Portland, Seattle, Boston, LA, Savannah, etc.
There are other industries where it can land you a job. But the biggest would be via maritime logistics or export/import controls compliance.
If you got a green card you could become an NCO in the military and earn 70k right off the bat. If you aren't a degenerate you could join the feds as a linguist.

>>2834243
No way he is even remotely conversational if he forgot how to speak after just afew months

He is jerking off his ego

>>2819832
It is literally possible to learn nearly fluent spanish in 3 months

The fact that people cannot figure it out after years makes me think we deserve to get nuked

>>2834415
give me the breakdown of the 3 month curriculum. how do?

>>2834415
bump
>>2834413
interesting

>>2818213
>>2818217
Not sure how well it's fleshed out for your target languages but the /int/ wiki has some decent resource compilations >>>/int/209973269

>>2818681
To be fair, it sounds like OP is already doing this and does need to optimize a bit.

>>2834319
>>2834243
What kind of remote work exists for Mandarin speakers in the US?

>>2818683
I haven't tried it in a while but you used to be able to cheese the free premium program by signing up fake accounts with disposable emails. The also have steep discounts on year-long plans certain times of year.

>>2819072
If you knew the language perhaps you could have found a loving wife instead of masturbating into a few strange holes.

>>2819593
What's your approach? Are you focusing purely on speaking or are you spending time learning to read signs and such? I've never touched Japanese outside of badly pronouncing some judo-specific terms but I'd like to visit the Kodokan in Tokyo someday.

>>2835791
I never said remote work, I don't think. but you can probably get hybrid work and wouldn't have to be in the office all that much. but still any sort of maritime/air logistics for companies that do business in SEA or China. That would be your best bet. But I imagine full remote work would be unlikely.

>>2835818
>I never said remote work
You didn't, I was just asking if you knew of any since you seemed to know about the broader job market for Mandarin speakers in the US. Thank you for the information.

>>2835634
The three month curriculum is that 90 percent of the words are literally exactly the same

Come on now. Try to be less fucking retarded. I would willingly help someone that could help themselves but you sound useless

>>2818453
learn bapomofo for mandarin instead of pinyin. it is a phonetic alphabet

>>2836230
Does Bopomofo have any added utility over Pinyin or is it just for vibes?

>>2836288
It's a bit more consistent in spelling
But more inconvenient in every other aspect

>>2818683
Hearts are still there. Why lie?

>>2836336
Are they still there for everyone? Duolingo does a lot of A/B testing with customer groups and has additional difference between platforms (e.g. website versus Android app versus iOS app implementations).

>>2818087 (OP)
I've been learning Spanish on Duolingo. I first started it over 10 years ago and stopped after learning the basics because the app was kinda shitty. Then I slowly picked up the language here and there over the years through work and travel. Now I'm no longer working and been living in Thailand so I devote an hour of so to learning on Duolingo daily and it's been pretty great over the past few months. I think I can finish the complete course before I leave Thailand next year.
I want to learn Thai as well but I've haven't figured out a great routine for it yet. I know the writing system, classes, tones, and like 300 of the most common words pretty well. Classes are probably the best option but I don't want to commit too much time or money to that.

>>2836358
If you learn spamish for ten years a d still cannot speak it, you are in no position to judge the quality of an app

Do you people even listento the stupid shit you say? Youre probably mexican or something. No one that isnt mexican is capable of being so thoroughly bad at something

>>2836646
I didn't learn consistently for 10 years. I had a few weeks of free time after graduation in 2015 so I used it to learn the bare basics of Spanish on Duolingo. From then onwards, I picked up bits and pieces from interacting with people that came to my place of work and Spanish-speaking locals during my travels. Duolingo is much better now than what it was a decade ago. I picked it back up a few months ago and kept my streak going since then.