<p>My French classes are the same. It’s hard to say what we do in the class. I mostly sit there.</p>
<p>I guess I “self study” ASL. My mother, aunt, and cousin are deaf, but only my cousin needs ASL. She can’t speak either. And I mostly learn from just watching people.</p>
<p>Where do you live, fiona?
If you want to learn Vietnamese that badly, find a church whose population is considerable. Ask them if they have some Vietnamese class. Take them
(I’m a Viet)</p>
<p>
Toi dang song o Singapore, nhung ma toi da song o VN trong 2 thang. Vi vay toi biet noi duoc mot it Tieng Viet roi. I live in Singapore. I lived in Vietnam for two months, taking Viet classes so I can somewhat communicate already. </p>
<p>I’m looking forward to continuing my Viet education, but I dunno if I can cuz I’ll be going to Harvey Mudd which doesn’t offer college-based Viet classes. 
I’ll look into the Viet-church idea, but I don’t think the population of Vnese in Claremont is that high. Cool. (add me on AIM, we can chat ^__^, fffffiona)</p>
<p>Your Vietnamese is pretty good. Just PM me I’ll let you know my YM (I don’t have AIM sorry 
)
So, you want to learn Vietnamese in Singapore or in California?</p>
<p>Fluent in English, Chinese, French, and Spanish (I’ve taken language proficiency tests to confirm my ability); currently self-studying German; want to learn Japanese and Italian at a later date. </p>
<p>w00t</p>
<p>I’m from Vietnam and your Vietnamese is pretty good fiona. Have you considered online self-study sites? I’ve just started learning spanish and they work for me. We can chat sometimes, I’ll add you on AIM later, hope that’s alright with you ^^</p>
<p>The best way to help develop a language after you have the basics is actually using it. Granted we all can’t just show up in a French or Italian, Vietnamese country but thank God for the internet… A good 3/4ths of my friends who I’ve met online and that I talk to are French-speaking natives. I even use Smartkeys to type « à â ç è é ê ô û ù »</p>
<p>What about other kinds of non-“verbal” “languages?”
I don’t really know how to explain it.
I’m referring to like etymology and composition of words and terms for a specific subject.</p>
<p>For my case, I’m referring to the terms of biology because I believe that there’s a specific “etymology” for that subject and that learning it will enable me to figure the meaning of unfamiliar terms.
For a simple example, order apoda = a (no) + poda (legs) = no legged amphibians.
Then there’s organisms/terms like Aaptotoichus, which seems like the constituents of the word might mean something and that the whole meaning relates to the morphology/characterisitcs of the organism, which would be available with knowledge of the biology etymology.</p>
<p>I believe there’s a form of these “languages” (don’t know what to call them) for things like chemistry, too. (ex. dioxide = di (two) + oxide (oxygen) = 2 oxygen</p>
<p>Anyone know any resources I can use to better learn these type of things?</p>
<p>Japanese here!
But I’m going to take a formal class this summer, too</p>
<p>I’m studying German…took the class next year and will keep practicin this summer :)</p>
<p>@concerto
hey I took japanese for a year. If you want a good book genki japan helps and genkijapan.com helps too.</p>