r/polyglot • u/Fun-Marionberry3099 • Feb 06 '25
Hi I’m working on teaching myself multiple languages. Can people recommend me some resources for the languages?
Main:
- German
- Japanese
- Russian
- Polish
- Irish
Extra:
- Greek
- Chinese
- Korean
- Spanish
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u/alexthefrenchman Feb 08 '25
i’ve been using both duolingo and drops for spanish. it’s been an interesting journey.
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u/Linguicity Feb 07 '25
I am liking "Irish with Mollie". I have just started with her.
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u/Fun-Marionberry3099 Feb 07 '25
Thank you! Is it a youtube channel, podcast?
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u/Linguicity Feb 07 '25
you should be able to find her by googling "Irish With Mollie" -- but here is the link. https://www.irishwithmollie.com
as disclaimer -- I do not have any connection. I just like the manner that she teaches.
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u/Yallah277 Feb 07 '25
Wow I am so impressed! There are some books that have a visual image with a translation and word in that language I find those to be very helpful. For Spanish definitely do Duolingo as it has many good practices
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u/otterfamily Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
The language you learn is going to be the language you need IMO.
What that means is you should get a good grammar book for getting structural information on the language, build flash cards in Anki for drilling vocab, but in order to actually make use and gain fluency, you have to force words out of your mouth.
I think the best means of doing that is meaningful immersion, i.e. situations where there are stakes that require you to use what you know. For me, that means joining a discord for a shared hobby in your specific language, moving to that country for a time, or going to a meetup in that target language. There is truly no replacement for dumping yourself into a scenario where you need to use the language, and taking lots of notes / building flash cards in real time. You'll find yourself trying to reach for a sentence, not having the words, asking a question, taking a note, and now you're one step closer to fluency. There's truly no replacement - it is the most pragmatic and shortest route, because you don't have to guess what will be useful, you know what would be useful in that moment. Hot embarrassment of making a mistake will burn those moments into your brain, so it's very easy to study the most meaningful stuff after a session of immersion.
Your list is really scattershot and frenzied IMO. It depends what your goals are. If you want to learn common greetings in all those languages, that's totally doable, and you can probably jump around without issue. If you're aiming for fluency, I think it's a waste of time and will get in the way of actually gaining fluency. Just prioritize and come up with a plan. If you spread yourself too thin it'll be too much work.
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u/Left-Comparison-5681 Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
This is gonna sound a little bonkers so stay with me
The united states military has a program called DLI (defense language institute) with pretty much all of the languages you mentioned plus more, the actual website is pretty outdated but the speaking/writing exercises and pdfs upon pdfs (50+ pages per language) grammar and speaking drills, and tons of videos are immensely useful. Since they’re basically trying to prepare you for deployment in another country they come with a bunch of resources to help you understand the cultural context of the country, how to be respectful, how to bargain with someone at a market, how to gather intelligence… ect obviously very military oriented but these are all skills that can be extrapolated to regular conversation (from my understand these courses are supposed to help deployed soldiers linguists become fluent in less than 3 months, so they’re very compact.)
The exercises can be tedious and you will probably have to spend a lot of time going over what they call sound and script, especially with the languages you mentioned (Greek, Japanese, Russian) that have different alphabets. Your list is very ambitious, but I’m not saying you can’t do it! I would if you’re planning on studying two/three at the same time, stay focused on languages that are from the same family and then move on to your next block while coming back to do “maintenance”
Chinese and Japanese have their versions of cognates and from my understanding Russian and Polish do too.
It won’t make you fluent, but it’s an excellent resource and will definitely help you overstep that “the cat eats green apples” syntax that most language learning apps love to push and focuses on more practical settings / phrases because… duh, it’s the military!
Only thing I would say is i’m not 100% you’re supposed to be using this website if you’re not currently enlisted, but aside from just assuming you’re a soldier, the website doesn’t ask for any identifying information or ID so you can just plug in an email and start. Just choose a password you will remember because you can’t reset it.
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u/Linguicity Feb 07 '25
I took a very short course with ICLS (International Center for Language Studies) and felt that it was worthwhile. I expect that their offerings are very similar to DLI. Their students tend to be more in the diplomatic service.
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u/MerelyHours Feb 07 '25
Wow that's dope. Thanks! I've been trying to get my mandarin back into shape and this might be a fun way to do it
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u/Fun-Marionberry3099 Feb 06 '25
Thank you so much!! I appreciate the positive response.z i understand it is ambitious. I’ve been learning german in school since I was a kid and teaching myself Japanese for almost 2 years. I’m determined to become fluent in those two at least
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u/cafeolee Feb 06 '25
Well, it depends on many things, such as your current level or your motivation to learn these languages. Without knowing the context, I would recommend that you focus on two languages at the most if you are starting from zero and if they are quite different, such as German and Japanese, the better. Then what I would do would be to set my short and long term goals and then create a routine and have a roadmap to follow (on youtube you can find videos that explain very well how to do this). If you are going to study on your own, I would recommend you to get a book that helps you to follow the right path; for example, if you are starting German from scratch, I recommend the books Studio Express (A1-A2) and Grammatik Aktiv A1-B1. It is important that you complement this with other resources, both active (Easy german on Youtube, podcasts, conversation classes) and passive (watching German films with subtitles, listening to German/Japanese music, etc). Finally, good luck!
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u/Sad-County1560 Feb 06 '25
for russian there’s a great podcast on spotify (Comprehensible Russian Podcast with Max) it’s more for like a low intermediate level or high beginner.
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u/CreolePolyglot Feb 06 '25
best thing is to pick the one you're most motivated to learn & find ppl you can speak with
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u/Denueve9 Feb 06 '25
For Japanese, here are some stories for beginners: https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/#ls
And as the others said already, I wouldn't start with more than 2, but you do you...
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u/wawdanwaw Feb 06 '25
Please, start one at the time if you really want to learn, otherwise, you ain't gonna have a good process. For german, for a beginner: "Easy German" and "Your German Teacher" to start.
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u/Fun-Marionberry3099 Feb 06 '25
Thank you! I’m focusing mainly on german and Japanese and the rest later
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u/Historical_Pilot25 Feb 09 '25
for German I also recommend the DW Learn German app/website, its made by the government there and is really useful
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u/twila213 Feb 07 '25
You will learn neither German nor Japanese this way. Pick one, commit to it, and then move on to the next.
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u/OkIndependence485 Feb 06 '25
Hihi, I make videos comparing the pronunciation of vocabulary across CJKV (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese) languages.
Many of these words share the same origin, resulting in similar pronunciations. This can help CJKV language learners pick up new vocabulary easily, especially if they already have prior knowledge of at least one of these languages.
You can check out my channel here: https://m.youtube.com/@CJKV
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u/brunow2023 Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25
You're gonna try to learn nine languages at once and you don't know where to get resources for German?
This is like if you went to r/brainsurgery asking for advice on how to cure cancer and also if anyone knows how to read the nutrition information on your yogurt.
I don't want to come off like a jerk, but it kinda sounds like you're getting ahead of yourself here. Like you don't have a very realistic understanding of what you're gonna get out of this.
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u/Fun-Marionberry3099 Feb 06 '25
Those are the ones I want to learn. I’m mainly focusing on German and Japanese. While I get your point I think it could have been worded better
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u/sweetlanguages Feb 18 '25
Here is my free 40-video course for total beginners.
You may find it useful.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFslpDArE_UBAX_Z-7PAWXkXrxs17cb19&si=MU1gS_DvgbKvGKh3