Female Forum

I’m seriously thinking about taking up a new hobby in the new year. I have ALWAYS wanted to learn another language, but I seem to make excuse after excuse as to why now isn’t a good time. Well enough. In the new year I am going to do it. Trouble is, which language?

I always wanted to learn German, but it’s quite a hard language to learn. My daughter is learning at and she thinks it’s really hard. There are so many different ways to say the same thing, plus there are feminine and masculine versions of different words which makes it confusing.

I thought about Italian or maybe Spanish. Does anyone know of any language that isn’t too difficult for an oldie?

New year, new hobby. Anyone else thought about a new hobby for a new year?

Hiya, and good on you!  I’ve heard Spanish is much easier than French, so it should be tons easier than German. Go for it!  I don’t know much about Italian.  Are you going to go to classes or do one of those recorded courses?

I was planning on buying a CD Rom from amazon. I’ve seen some by Rosetta Stone but boy are they expensive!! I’ll have to have a good look round. I’m certainly not paying their prices.!

I just want to learn the basics, ie how to hold a conversation and just get by really. It’s just something I want to do for me.

I took German for two years when I was at school and actually found it much easier than French. However, I didn’t pursue the subject - after all, who speaks German outside of Germany?!?

I’d love to learn Spanish, though - and like you, Souxi, I’ve looked at the Rosetta Stone DVDs - yes, they are expensive but they look promising. At least in one respect if you pay that much money, you’ll be more motivated to succeed! I’ve heard that Rosetta Stone do free ‘taster’ discs - might be worth giving them a try.

A great idea.. I keep saying Im going to further my French but I never get round to it!

Before I moved to the Netherlands I tried to learn a bit of Dutch via one of those CD courses, the first hurdle was finding Dutch major stores had everything from Greek to Swahili but no Dutch and eventually I went into a small shop and asked there.
The girl behind the counter said ‘Dutch right dats da the one wi da windmill an da tulips right? ( I still think she needed the English course)

I got it home and the ‘teacher’ had a right snotty voice, lesson one.. yes/ ja no/nee thankyou/ dank u wel. Everything was going well and I could see myself mastering this in no time! But then....
Lesson two would you please speak more slowly/ wilt u alstubleift wat langzamer praten..

I played that cd so many times but it just sounded like one long garbled word and I gave up.
I still moved though and learned Dutch at school with other non Dutch ladies which was a great laugh..

I love it Cassandra!  I think sometimes learning in a group can be very motivating!

Maybe you could think about which country you would most like to visit and learn the language as a motivation you could book your holiday for the year there.

Did you ever get round to giving Spanish a go souxi, how did you get on?

My new hobby for my new year is ballet. My classes keep getting canceled and pushed back further into the year… very discouraging. March 1st will be my second class - and I start in February. :(