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Wikipedia for learning languages?
¿Es la Wikipedia un buen sitio para aprender idiomas? Ciertas personas abrigan dudas relativas al uso de idiomas menos populares en dicho sitio debido a que gran parte de los artículos es traducida directamente del inglés o de otro idioma de uso generalizado y por eso no parece completamente natural... ¿Están ustedes de acuerdo?
Is Wikipedia good for learning less common languages?
Why would anyone want to learn a language through wiki in the first place?
It'll give you a nice introduction to the history and grammar (in other words, whether or not you want to spend time learning it) but for ACTUALLY learning a language you'd be better off getting audio materials or, better yet, finding a cute member of the opposite sex who speaks that language. I'd say the two years of German in college gave me 20% of my knowledge of German while the rest was learned from about two weeks of hanging out with a cute Berlinerin.
If you're looking for reading material (besides the audio, as Skippy suggested), then Wikipedia might be a good idea. For one thing--especially for "minor" languages--it's hard to find a lot of material in one place, which Wikipedia has. Secondly, regardless of language, you can look at a translation into a language you know better. Yes, the translations may not be exact, and yes, as was mentioned, the translations may not be totally natural, but I think they're a good source in one place. There are also usually links to terms within every article, which will give you further explanations and material.
I do agree with Skippy that audio materials are great, especially for beginners. (A boyfriend or girlfriend too, but alas, not always available.) But as is stressed in Antimoon and elsewhere, reading is a tremendous way to increase vocabulary and general language knowledge at your own pace--and Wikipedia can provide a good source in without having to cruise the entire Net.
I visit the Spanish Wikipedia from time to time for this reason. But one thing you have to be aware of is that all versions of Wikipedia tend to have sloppy spelling, grammar, and punctuation, thanks to its "anyone can edit" philosophy. The most heavily-edited articles will have few problems there because the mistakes generally get caught and fixed quickly, but of course there can only be so many such articles.
Тhanks furrykef, guest2, that is intention of the original question. I meant, is it good for practicing reading, for intermediate-advanced students.
Wikipedia is a good resource for on-the-fly information but you can't expect to be able to learn a language on this site. It is a great internet reference and I find myself referring to it from time to time but I could never use it for any serious study.
Nathan http://www.spanish-help.net
>>It'll give you a nice introduction to the history and grammar (in other words, whether or not you want to spend time learning it) but for ACTUALLY learning a language you'd be better off getting audio materials or, better yet, finding a cute member of the opposite sex who speaks that language. I'd say the two years of German in college gave me 20% of my knowledge of German while the rest was learned from about two weeks of hanging out with a cute Berlinerin.
I agree with everything above. It must be an approach I shall recommend anyone sharing my culture... We don't even need X years of "study". No, we do learn, but we'd better live with it; and no, we don't live with "it", but "him", "her", and "them". It might happen anywhere: that the "language" itself gets reduced to nothing more than conjugations, cases, strokes and tones or anything else dreadful...
The language and the people is completely different! The language is pure, austere and beautiful, whereas the people are the same idiots as everywhere. I study languages for the language, not the people.
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