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The Language Thread

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Inspired by a profile post on @takoyaki 's profile where I asked him (and @Galactic_V ) about learning a language (specifically Japanese, though later we talked about other languages like Spanish).

Are any of you learning a language. If so, what language(s), how, and why?

My first language is English, and I began taking Spanish classes in school. When I got into Pokémon, I began teaching myself Japanese. Currently, Spanish and Japanese are my main focuses (with some Greek in between), but every now and then, I'll do a bit of other languages.

I'm pretty good at Spanish and decent at Japanese... when it comes to writing and reading. Speaking and listening? Not so much.

I use every free resource I can get my hands on: library books, online vocabulary lists, etc. I try to write notes and color code everything. My biggest challenge is motivation; I'll be really excited to learn and do a bunch for a few days, only to burn out, only to come back and continue the cycle (that's a problem in a lot of aspects of my life, though).

My reasons for learning languages vary: sometimes it's for work/communication, sometimes it's for cultural/personal reasons, sometimes it's because of the things I'm interested in, sometimes it's for writing.
 
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Currently learning Japanese, getting a little better with it over time, using the following resources:
  • Duolingo
  • KawaiiNihongo
  • www.tofugu.com
  • And some language course textbooks
I also use Tofugu and Duolingo! (rip my 50 day streak). I've bought a bunch of Japanese textbooks. Most recently, I got GENKI I, which is supposed to be really good.

I also use JapanesePod101. While there's a subscription service, there's also a bunch of free resources that I try to take advantage of.

There's also Omniglot, which has a ton of information about languages, their history, the types of languages, and further resources.
 
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I'm learning Japanese. In middle school I used to learn Spanish for credits.
Right now I'm in Japanese 2, but I have been studying since 7th grade, so I know quite a bit more than the level.
I have the meanings of 100-200 kanji memorized, but I need to memorize their readings.
AP Japanese has 400 kanji so I'm working on that for my big goal.
I'm taking the Japanese 3 course on my own time, so I can do AP Japanese next year.
I try to use Japanese in my daily life a lot. It helps that I have a fluent friend IRL that I can discuss language with.
Having friends who are learning the language is a big advantage. Part of it is motivation, part of it is the sense of community.

I know people who are also learning Spanish and French. I know some who might be doing Japanese. Greek and Polish? I know absolutely no one who would even be interested (maybe I know people who are and I just don’t know that they are).
 
I plan on going to an international school in Japan for college, to advance my language skills, so I'm trying to get as good as I can here.

Sometimes you remind me of myself as a teenager lol I had the same goal, but switch Japan to USA and Japanese to English xD
 
I was taking French classes before the pandemic. Unfortunately, that has now been a long time, so I've kinda forgotten stuff. D:

I need to be fluent at a couple of Western European languages to go into music history in grad school. I couldn't get them in during my bachelor's degree due to limited class offerings. Things have been such a mess since I graduated and I've really fallen behind. D:

German is the number one language to learn for that degree, I'm sure, so I need to get on that. I've tried using the programs/apps (free) but have struggled to keep myself motivated.
 
Other than English and Japanese (I consider my English to be fluent already, since I've been living in Canada for 4 years by this point and am pretty used to it, but I still forget stuff from time to time), I got really good in Spanish by playing both Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone\Chamber of Secrets (Playstation version), which you have the options of English, French and Spanish (interface and dialogue).

Because Spanish is very close to my mother language (Portuguese), I'd choose to always play them in this tongue as to understand the lines better (and to not get stuck in the game like happened to me multiple times in Pokemon when I was a kid). Then Spanish became a mandatory subject in middle school, which gave me room to improve a lot. Too bad I stopped practicing, thus I forgot most things I used to know.

I also took a few classes of Italian because of my heritage and a possible plan of moving to Italy (never happened because I came to Canada instead), it's been a few years I stopped studying, so other than the stuff I probably forgot I bet my level'd be at most basic intermediate I believe. And I also took French as an elective in my college here, in a subject called "French Language and Culture", which was mostly about Quebec's culture slapped with some basic French grammar lessons.
 
I would love to learn more languages but unfortunately I've always been too lazy to pick them up seriously. Learning even one new language can be a daunting task after all. I'm someone who moves into different hobbies from time to time so who knows, maybe one day I get in the mood to seriously study a new language. Spanish or Italian would have my preference. Japanese has my interest too, but that seems like an ever bigger mountain to climb.

As for the languages I do speak: Dutch is my native language, but I'm just as comfortable (and sometimes even more comfortable) in English, which has been the case since I was very young. I don't even remember studying English (except in school of course, but by that point I was already fully proficient in English), it just came naturally by watching a lot of subtitled movies and tv series, playing games and spending a lot of time on the internet.

I also speak a tiny bit of French and German, since those are languages I studied in school, but unfortunately I've become quite rusty in both and I've forgotten a lot of stuff. I can't really watch French and German television or movies without subtitles, but reading goes fine for the most part, if I take the time for it (especially with German, which has certain similarities with Dutch). I can also understand (but not speak) (West-)Frisian, which is a rather obscure (but official) language in the area where I live.
 
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My first language is Portuguese and I’m fluent in English. I took Spanish classes in school, but I’ll have a harder time writing or speaking it compared to understanding.

I also understand some Italian due to how similar it is to Portuguese and a few German words I picked up from my dad’s family, though I won’t be having conversations in either of these.
 
I suspect if I had a more disciplined nature, I'd have a lot more in terms of second language(s). I've got a smattering of French and Mandarin, but I'm very rusty on both. I know bits, pieces, roots and derivations from more languages than I can recall, but it's all very much a farrago of loanwords and random codeswitching.

Something I may do this Winter is go back to learning Old English in earnest
 
My first language is Czech. English is an unoptional school subject + we have to study one other foreign language, I have German. I also want to learn myself Norwegian and I have already started, but I don't have much time for it recently.
 
My first language is English. I picked up Japanese again after about two years a month or two ago. I'm okay-ish at what I do know, but I dont really know any katakana or kanji, and it took me a bit to remember a lot of the hiragana. I definitely do better with verbal understanding of it than written, there are a lot of words I have to read out loud before I can get what they mean.
I also know some Spanish as it was mandatory for me through from like first through seventh grade, though I doubt I could hold a conversation in it.
 
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My first language is English. I picked up Japanese again after about two years a month or two ago. I'm okay-ish at what I do know, but I dont really know any katakana or kanji, and it took me a bit to remember a lot of the hiragana. I definitely do better with verbal understanding of it than written, there are a lot of words I have to read out loud before I can get what they mean.
I also know some Spanish as it was mandatory for me through from like first through seventh grade, though I doubt I could hold a conversation in it.
I'm the exact opposite lol; I'm awful at picking up a language verbally, but when I see it on paper, I can go "yes, I memorized this conjugation and vocabulary list".
 
I'm the exact opposite lol; I'm awful at picking up a language verbally, but when I see it on paper, I can go "yes, I memorized this conjugation and vocabulary list".
Huh. Conjugation in Japanese isn't too hard for me since the Japanese conjugation (that I've learned so far) is super simple, but I have not memorized a lot vocabularly that I can see on paper and know immediately (or a lot of vocabularly at all, but less that I can see on paper). It's particularly strange for me because I definitely feel I do better with written English than verbal, so I'm not sure what the difference is except for the entire alphabet.
 
japanese conjugation is a mixed bag of "okay, this is fine", until you get into keigo. keigo makes me sad.
I haven't gotten to Japanese conjugation yet. I like learning the rules (and exceptions) to things like verb conjugation so I can just plug in vocabulary. I know that some people learn better by learning phrases, but I'm a very structure-oriented kind of person.

Spanish conjugation was daunting until I broke it down into aspect/mood/etc.
 
Spanish conjugation is a nightmare. In 7th and 8th I could barely get it down. And I had no motivation.

Now I actually have motivation, and right now for the extra work I'm doing I'm doing te+iru/imasu form.
I certainly know a lot of people who find conjugations to be difficult. Different people find different things difficult, and different people learn in different ways.

Motivation is such an essential part to learning a language. I know you did Spanish for credits, and while I can’t pinpoint specifically why I like learning/want to learn Spanish (I have a lot of reasons), that motivation helps me a lot.
 
I don't know if this counts, but I've been trying to learn British Sign Language for the last few years, since a majority of my coworkers are deaf or have hearing loss and some communicate this way.

I know how to say hello and thank you, but finger spelling my name is tricky.

As for spoken languages, I have considered going back to learning French, since I enjoyed the classes at school.
 
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