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Rsandee

Rsandee

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One of my biggest hobbies is learning languages, I really enjoy exploring a new culture and learning to think from another perspective. I currently know 4 languages, Dutch (my mother tongue), English, German and Spanish. I've tried to learn both Swedish and Japanese as well, but I stopped studying them because of other priorities. My current goal is to be as fluent in Spanish as I am in Dutch and English, not an easy objective. Does anyone else here share my passion for languages?

Two invaluable websites that have really helped me with my self-study are Duolingo and Memrise.
You can use them to learn basically any language you want, but I advise you to use more than just 2 methods of learning a language.
 
A few years ago I tried to teach myself German. My few posts in the German forums here probably show that I didn't get very far. :P Well, at least I understand this quote:
Mark Twain said:
Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.
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I have also spent what one might think are disproportionate amounts of time on dead languages, like Latin and Old Norse. Somehow I never retained the willpower to keep them up even though I was quite enjoying them for a while. Other projects got in the way.

Still, I do have a propensity to learn to pronounce words in their original languages, like Ångström.
 
German is a hard language to learn if you're not in an environment where you hear it regularly, in the region where I come from we have a dialect that's basically a mix of dutch and german. Dutch and German are similar languages though so it's even easier for me.
PluMGMK said:
A few years ago I tried to teach myself German. My few posts in the German forums here probably show that I didn't get very far. :P Well, at least I understand this quote:
Mark Twain said:
Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I've heard Dutch is harder though, it's easier for Dutch people to learn German than it is for German people to learn Dutch. The only really hard part is the case system, but you're allowed to mess that up a bit during regular conversations so it's not that bad. You'll get a feeling for it if you get a chance to talk it regularly.
Dead languages are interesting to me, but I personally wouldn't spend time on them because nobody speaks them anymore (obviously). It's cool you're interested in Old Norse, I actually would want to know how to write in runes. :D
 
Been taking Spanish this year. Most of it is pretty basic from sentence structure to replying to someone in Spanish. Struggled with it a lot during the first couple of months, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Only chose to take it for one semester, but since my grade is back to a B I'm now leaning more towards taking the second semester when it's time.

I considered French as well, but my guidance counselor told me that Spanish is easier so I went ahead and chose it. I might start taking French in my senior year. I think it would be cool taking French.
 
While I don't really have the patience or time to be actively studying a new language, I too really like to discover new cultures and learn new languages. The language itself usually teaches you a lot about how its users view the world.

My main languages are Dutch, English, French (I haven't spoken it in years, but I still understand everything easily), C#, Java, C(++), HTML, you know, general stuff.

I know some dead languages too, like a bit of Latin (used to be a lot, but my memory is terrible) and old Greek... and even some Classical Chinese. I had the pleasure of studying that last one for a few months at university. For all of those, I think the main interest I took in them was not the language itself or the culture, but the stories and the poetry. Some of these stories paint worlds that just don't exist in modern literature, and some poetry from back then shows how much the world hasn't changed in all this time.
It's also very nice if you can study a language like this at school: education programs for modern languages usually have you simulate boring casual conversations in class, but those for dead/classical languages have you read huge epics like Homer's Iliad, or translate (and almost sing) poetry about passionate love, or be spirited away to Chinese gardens to ponder on the meaning of life. And while doing so, especially with Latin and Greek, you learn about the origins of so many modern languages, you get to understand all the difficult words in your language you've never heard before without having to look them up.

As for modern languages, I've been very interested in Japanese for quite a while. Since I started anime ~6 years ago (and kept watching like almost every day), I've picked up quite a lot of the language. Granted, it has a lot of similarities with that Classical Chinese I learned, but most of my knowledge comes from anime. Most people laugh at you when you say that, but it has enabled me to understand conversations of Japanese tourists, or watch anime without subtitles, for example. I'm fairly sure I can speak it a little bit too without sounding like an idiot... but writing is a different story. The strokes system is pretty much the same as that Classical Chinese I learned, but memorizing all those kanji would take up so much time. If I ever learn to manage my time better though, who knows... I might try it out. :)
 
Spanish was a language that I was interested in. Not to mention the fact that I already visited Colombia and Panamá in order to get the feel of their perspective and gain more knowledge for a Spanish exam. I took it and got a Really Good Grade. Those trips were worth it.
Thanks to lessons After school and the Spanish club for that experience. I got the hang of Spanish. It was the first easy foreign language to learn.
 
German is actually retarded. I can generally understand it when it's spoken to me because it was my first language, but I haven't spoken it in so long (since I was 5-6) that I've pretty much lost all sense of grammar. I mean, I have maybe a <5-year-old's understanding of it.

French I'm okay at since it's a mandatory in schools through grades 1-8 here. Reading and speaking it is easy for me, and though I rarely write it, I apparently don't make as many grammatical errors as I think I do :?: I don't know if it'll move much past that though since I don't really have any need or desire to learn the language, it's just sort of there.

Since I plan on moving to Poland in a couple years, that's obviously a language I'll have to pick up on. I'm very into Slavic languages and culture, and I'm already pretty quick at reading Cyrillic (though that's not used in Polish), and I understand a fair number of Polish words by this point. Grammar is another story, I can't really make heads or tails of it yet!
 
Bump.

There are several languages that I have a passion in learning aside from English, and so far I’ve learned Spanish, though it’s been quite a long time since I’ve spoken it so I transgressed a little, but I can still make a little small talk though not enough to have a full lengthy conversation. It was really easy for me to learn though so I can probably pick It up again if I practice.

The other languages I’ve attempted to learn are French, Japanese, Italian, Tagalog, and as of late, Portuguese and Irish. Of course the few times I’ve tried writing in French have either had people make fun of me or correct me. But at least I learn something new from all those corrections, and sometime I hope to be able to write off fluently enough to write on the other forums without having people laugh at me. :lol:

I can speak just a little Japanese at this point, though it’s clear I’m not very good since my sister and cousin both call me a weeaboo at it :oops2

As for Tagalog I have only learned how to swear due to my parents constantly getting doing it whenever they are angry, be it my fault or otherwise :mrgreen:
 
Ray502 said:
Been taking Spanish this year. Most of it is pretty basic from sentence structure to replying to someone in Spanish. Struggled with it a lot during the first couple of months, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Only chose to take it for one semester, but since my grade is back to a B I'm now leaning more towards taking the second semester when it's time.
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Continuing to improve on my Spanish as the school year is coming to an end. I've improved a lot on the verbs and using them correctly in basic sentences. Really pleased with my progress. :)
 
I can speak English and that's about it :lol:

I can speak very little Irish and French with a high failure rate :mrgreen:

I only know "que no pare la fiesta" is "don't stop the party" in Spanish because of Pitbull :P
 
Ray502 said:
Oh, so you didn't know "hola" is "hello"? :P
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Well actually yeah, especially with that song a couple years ago which says hello in probably every language :lol:

I forgot to mention that one though, that's self explanatory :)

I also know pendejo from GTA but I'm not calling anyone here that name :P

Amigo is another one. Comprendo, gracias :mrgreen:

OK so maybe I did pick up a few Spanish words along the way actually :)
 
Ray502 said:
Steo said:
I only know "que no pare la fiesta" is "don't stop the party" in Spanish because of Pitbull :P
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Oh, so you didn't know "hola" is "hello"? :P
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Lol :lol:
Me parece gracioso.

Great time for me to leave my translation dictionary at home...

I really do need to practice again though.
 
In English I'm just going to tell you that no I'm not, that's just some Spanish that I know :P
 
Me posiciones saber más español

If that's even right :P

Whoa, OK so I see how bad Google translate could mess one about. Some of the Irish makes very little sense to me so I can only imagine what it would do in other languages :lol:
 
Wow, "disfrutar" is a word? With that awkward "-sfr-"? And I thought Spanish was simple, sound-wise. :fou:
 
Trust me when I say this, but there are some very weird and abstract words in Spanish out there. “Madrugar” would be another good instance of this :mrgreen:
 
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