Question Which language do you want to learn? And why?

[Foxy]

Well, the title speaks for itself 🙂

I am learning Estonian at the moment, because my gf is from there.

I would love to learn Spanish, because it is such a widespread language!

What about you?

 

[Priceless]

I've always wanted to learn Italian, it's so beautiful, expressive and romantic. And I love Italy 🙂

 

[Foxy]

I've always wanted to learn Italian, it's so beautiful, expressive and romantic. And I love Italy 🙂

Have you been there?

 

[Priceless]

Have you been there?

I've been twice, to Rome and to Florence. One of my dreams is to take 6 months off and tour the country. Have you ever been?

Have you been to Estonia? I imagine that's a tough language to learn?

 

[Foxy]

I've been twice, to Rome and to Florence. One of my dreams is to take 6 months off and tour the country. Have you ever been?

Have you been to Estonia? I imagine that's a tough language to learn?

I'm jealous! I lived with a couple of Italians last year they were very lovely people. I would love to tour through Europe for a year and discover all the places. I haven't been to Italy. My parents were never really well off so we only went to France for the holidays.

I haven't been to Estonia, I might go this summer, but it depends on how much money I have left over. It is one of the most difficult languages I have encountered. It is so different from any language I know...it is crazy. But I can watch the news and know what they are talking about and I can ask for some stuff. We might live in Tallinn (the capital) for a year in a few years time since it is very cheap to live there and I could reall learn the language then.

 

[Priceless]

You must have a real aptitude for languages, and I'm jealous of that! I can only speak English. It's an adventure to live in another country, especially one with a different language, I envy you that too.

I imagine Estonian to be a bit like Polish - all consonants and very few vowels.

 

[Foxy]

Language aptitude doesn't really exist actually. Anyone can learn a language if you set your mind to it. I'm dyslexic and that didn't stop me. I'm living in England right now (doing an exchange year) and English is not my first language. It is a great experience and I've learnt a lot about myself as a person and about how my culture is part of me.

Estonian is actually more vowel focused 🙂 So example: Tule minuga kaasa! (this means come with me) or Kas Sa saaksid seda korrata (Please say that again) It is a very soft language, so I definitely struggle with that as Dutch is quite a harsh language 😉

 

[Bluebird]

I always wish I'd stuck with learning German. It's said that it would be much easier for me, than say an English or American person, to learn German because of the 'ch' after a vowel being similar to Scots words. And the guttural sounds of the accents themselves are quite similar too.

 

[Athena]

I'd like to learn Spanish, I never got the opportunity at school. I speak very basic French only, even less German. I know a little Dutch from an old penpal and a little Slovak from some colleagues.

I'd love to learn Japanese, so I could watch all my anime movies without subs or dubs. That'd be nice!

 

[Washburne]

Chinese. It's the language of the future. The world is more than just the western world after all. Had it been an an option to study it when we started 7th grade I would have chosen it. It's perfectly understandable that it wasn't an option though. Had to chose between german and french. I went with german.

I've studied german for 5 years, two years worth of spanish in a years time (not my choice and did not work out well) and learned some polish due to some vacations there. We started learning english in the third grade which at the time was unusually early but is nothing compared to now. I haven't used any language besides swedish and english for a long time. I can still understand some german and spanish but wouldn't be able to have a conversation in either language. When it comes to english I manage pretty well when it's written but having a real life conversation would make me stutter myself through it and my pronunciation sucks. If you got an accent chances are I won't understand half of what you're saying.

Estonian is actually more vowel focused 🙂 So example: Tule minuga kaasa! (this means come with me) or Kas Sa saaksid seda korrata (Please say that again)

By the looks of it I'd say it seems to have a lot in common with finnish.

 

[Buffy Summers]

After I finish with Norwegian I want to hit Swedish and Danish, then probably Russian and Romanian.

 

[Taake]

So many languages, so little time... pretty much all of the ones mentioned in this thread for me.

Specifically though I would like to learn mandarin, but mostly to retroactively make it up to my grandmother who tried to teach me when I was young and too busy doing other stuff, like playing with Barbies and watching cartoons.
Then comes Hebrew and Arabic.

 

[Professor Walsh]

@Foxy , is the question which language I can see myself actually putting in an effort to learn, or which I dream of speaking?

Right now, I'm doing a very limited effort to dust off my German. The next step is to get reasonably fluent. After that ... It depends on where life is taking me. The language I dream of mastering without actually doing an effort to learn is Latin. And as a child, I actually borrowed a Dutch cassette course at the library. I did learn a little on my own before giving up. Icelandic would be fun, too.

I'm jealous! I lived with a couple of Italians last year they were very lovely people. I would love to tour through Europe for a year and discover all the places. I haven't been to Italy. My parents were never really well off so we only went to France for the holidays.

Ach, there's the short distances of a BeNeLux upbringing for you ... "We only went to France". I've grown up sufficiently close to the borders to have been to Sweden and Denmark as an adolescent. France is still on my "exotic-list".

After I finish with Norwegian I want to hit Swedish and Danish, then probably Russian and Romanian.

I didn't know that you were studying Norwegian. Can I ask how you came to do that? Swedish and Danish shouldn't be too hard to add afterwards. Russian on Romanian on the other hand ... Colour me impressed.

 

[Foxy]

@Foxy , is the question which language I can see myself actually putting in an effort to learn, or which I dream of speaking?

Right now, I'm doing a very limited effort to dust off my German. The next step is to get reasonably fluent. After that ... It depends on where life is taking me. The language I dream of mastering without actually doing an effort to learn is Latin. And as a child, I actually borrowed a Dutch cassette course at the library. I did learn a little on my own before giving up. Icelandic would be fun, too.

Ach, there's the short distances of a BeNeLux upbringing for you ... "We only went to France". I've grown up sufficiently close to the borders to have been to Sweden and Denmark as an adolescent. France is still on my "exotic-list".
.

I think both, in sense. Do you know a bit of Dutch? Generally, people who learn or attempt to learn the language just get asked WHY. Honestly, we are too accomodating 😛

Yea for me France is 4 hours away, so yea sometimes I don't appreciate the distance. I'm sure there are exotic countries where you live? There are so many countries that I want to visti and explore!

 

[Blaze]

I would love to learn a different language that I could use in Canada, so maybe Anishinaabemowin. Or sign language would be really cool to learn.

Language aptitude doesn't really exist actually.

I'd beg to differ 😛 I'm a 4.0 student in sciences, but it took me years and years to even come close to being fluent in English. I am finally at the point where my English is nearly perfect (at least perfect enough to publish stuff in English), but I know people that could master the language in 1-2 years, whereas it took me a good 10 years! I do think anyone can learn a language, but some people are definitely better at it.

 

[Professor Walsh]

I think both, in sense. Do you know a bit of Dutch?

"A bit of ..." is exaggerating. I know a little. Seeing as I speak a little German, though, and have had an interest for the language, I think I'd learn it fairly quickly if I moved to the Netherlands or (the right parts of) Belgium.

Yea for me France is 4 hours away, so yea sometimes I don't appreciate the distance. I'm sure there are exotic countries where you live? There are so many countries that I want to visti and explore!

All those places different from what we know are exotic. 🙂

 

[Foxy]

I would love to learn a different language that I could use in Canada, so maybe Anishinaabemowin. Or sign language would be really cool to learn.

I'd beg to differ 😛 I'm a 4.0 student in sciences, but it took me years and years to even come close to being fluent in English. I am finally at the point where my English is nearly perfect (at least perfect enough to publish stuff in English), but I know people that could master the language in 1-2 years, whereas it took me a good 10 years! I do think anyone can learn a language, but some people are definitely better at it.

Sign languages are amazing, you should go for it!

To some extent it does exist, in the sense that some people might be faster, but the notion of aptitude is a bit broken since there are so many factors that come into play with this (as you can see I've studied this thoroughly 😛).

4.0 is like GPA, right? That's good?
 

"A bit of ..." is exaggerating. I know a little. Seeing as I speak a little German, though, and have had an interest for the language, I think I'd learn it fairly quickly if I moved to the Netherlands or (the right parts of) Belgium.

All those places different from what we know are exotic. 🙂

The Netherlands is a great and very welcoming country 🙂 We are far from perfect and we are not as library as people think it is, but it is a good country. If you know German, Dutch is very easy to pick up especially regarding vocab.

Hallo mijn naam is Foxy 😉 Doesn't that look similar to German! 😀 and yes indeed 😉

 

[Blaze]

Sign languages are amazing, you should go for it!

To some extent it does exist, in the sense that some people might be faster, but the notion of aptitude is a bit broken since there are so many factors that come into play with this (as you can see I've studied this thoroughly 😛).

4.0 is like GPA, right? That's good?

I have a cousin that speaks sign language and it's awesome! I was gonna take lessons last year but I'm already too busy with school, once I'm done I might look into it again.

But yes, you're right, there's a lot of factors involved. (and ya 4.0 is GPA, it's comparable to an A+, but that's only for sciences. Languages were always a different story 😛 And it was not for lack of trying)

@Professor Walsh Indeed, French is my first language 🙂 Ou comme on dirait, moé j'parle le franglais! (if anyone understand that, they are probably French Canadian).

 

[Buffy Summers]

I didn't know that you were studying Norwegian. Can I ask how you came to do that? Swedish and Danish shouldn't be too hard to add afterwards. Russian on Romanian on the other hand ... Colour me impressed.

Well, I had bought a book on it years ago because I had a friend from Norway. Then it kind of fell to the wayside until a bit ago when I got interested in it again. I like studying languages that are different - not just romance languages where it's basically the same just memorization. It's very interesting to see the parallels to Irish language.

 

[Professor Walsh]

I had entirely forgotten about my childhood attempts to learn signing.


Looking back at how easily languages came to me, I sometimes wonder why I chose science. Let's just say that it didn't come easily ...