Language Learning

[StellaB]

I lived for 12-13 years in Poland and whilst there learned the language naturally and several years later I'm still pretty much bilingual in Polish (anything I can do in English I can do usually in Polish). I also learned French at school, Russian, Spanish (at least three times but I keep forgetting), Czech, Italian and some German, but usually Germans and Austrians visibly wince when I try to speak German and other non-native speakers tend to become confused.

[Sir Real]

I've just started learning Japanese through Pimsleur and I love it.  I've always loved the English language and grammar and I'm really bummed that they don't teach grammar in high school anymore! What's up with that?? Anyways, French is next on the list and then Mandarin.  But language is fascinating to me, I can't really put my finger on why.

[Darkie]

I'm learning sign language so that when I go to conventions as a boy I won't have to talk.  And because  I want to become an ASL translator.

[Yukari-sensei]

Although I live in an area where I really should try to refine my Spanish, I have always wanted to learn Japanese. I even took a semester of it before our local university lost our only instructor.

Currently, I am planning on continuing with Latin. My Latin professor was the first person I ever encountered to speak of being transgendered as a non-negative. Consequently, she is the first person I came out to at the University and out of loyalty I'm inclined to continue with it... not to mention it's a fascinating language. 

[Tristan]

I lived for 12-13 years in Poland and whilst there learned the language naturally and several years later I'm still pretty much bilingual in Polish (anything I can do in English I can do usually in Polish). I also learned French at school, Russian, Spanish (at least three times but I keep forgetting), Czech, Italian and some German, but usually Germans and Austrians visibly wince when I try to speak German and other non-native speakers tend to become confused.

Dobreze.   

[kira21 ♡♡♡]

I speak English and Dutch fluently, pretty reasonable Italian and I am learning Japanese (yatta! ^_^). I want to start Korean too soon.

[lolife]

Languages! Yay! I'm a native English speaker, but proficient in Spanish.  I can read/write it better than I can speak it due to disuse.  I have studied Italian in the past, but remember very little of it.  I am currently attempting to learn Modern Greek on my own.  It's an adventure! Yassou!

[Naomi]

あたしは三年ぐらい日本語を勉強している。

I'm double minoring in Japanese.

[Edge]

Thank you so much for the links!

[Ltl89]

I'm a typical American.  I only speak English fluently.  I did study Spanish in high school and Italian in College, but never mastered them.  I even studied in Italy for a while and never really learned the language.  However, one day I do hope to master Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Russian (Italian and French being my first priorities). Will it happen?  I don't know. For those who live in a Scandinavian country, how easy is it to get around without knowing the respective native language? Just curious. 

[Mary81]

English is my native language. As a Canadian I had to study French in school. Also, my mom's family are French Canadian. Sadly, my French is miserable since I have spent little time in the past 15 years or so practicing it . I can still read ok, but am completely lost when someone tries to talk to me. Some day I hope to take some classes.
I do speak Russian, which I studied in Uni and in Russia. I also speak passable Czech (please don't judge me too harshly Sarah84 when you hear me speak! ) - Some situations in Czech are second nature to me at this point, but I often find myself in the middle of a conversation where both the grammar and the vocab are lost on me  I am also having some crazy problems with my doctors at the moment where I struggle when trying to decide which gender to use when using verbs in the past tense do describe something I did I am too used to using the masculine ending when talking to people..

[DriftingCrow]

I am now trying to learn some Punjabi, starting very simply with the Gurmukhi alphabet.

[Sammy]

Latvian is my native language (to those who might wonder, it is one of the two remaining languages of Baltic branch of Indo-European languages. My Russian is on par with my Latvian, English coming in as my third language.
I have also taken courses or studied German (for 6 years during school), French and Chinese for about 3 years. These are my "sleeping" languages - I can "reactivate" them if needed, but because of the lack of practice, I cant improve my proficiency with them  .

[DriftingCrow]

Latvian is my native language (to those who might wonder, it is one of the two remaining languages of Baltic branch of Indo-European languages. My Russian is on par with my Latvian, English coming in as my third language.
I have also taken courses or studied German (for 6 years during school), French and Chinese for about 3 years. These are my "sleeping" languages - I can "reactivate" them if needed, but because of the lack of practice, I cant improve my proficiency with them  .

How cool, Lativan (as well as Estonian) sound like fun languages. Funny, my husband can sing the entire Latvian national anthem in Latvian by heart. 

[Sammy]

How cool, Lativan (as well as Estonian) sound like fun languages. Funny, my husband can sing the entire Latvian national anthem in Latvian by heart. 

Is he a child of WW2 aftermath exiles? Estonian sounds very much like Finnish, but as far as I have talked with my Estonian friends, it is even more complicated than Latvian and Russian... We have only 7 possesive cases - Estonians have 14!!! Though we still conjugate the verbs to match gender, tense and singular/plural.... Ah yeah, and the joy of pronounciation - being Latvian, I never had trouble to pronounce Chinese words correctly

[Beth Andrea]

I took 2 years of French in high school, about 30-32 years ago...have forgotten nearly all of it. A couple years ago I took a semester of German in college, and often I would automatically slip in the correct French words (Once an entire sentence) during presentations, and not notice it until the instructor mentioned it.

Practice, practice practice. Not only at home and the classroom, but everywhere you go. Carry a little notebook too, so you can write "what is the word for..." and look it up later. And don't let the rhythm of speaking be interrupted by embarrassment of not knowing the word...just use your native language for that word.

Wir haben...err...fun...mit unsere language!

[Sammy]

I took 2 years of French in high school, about 30-32 years ago...have forgotten nearly all of it. A couple years ago I took a semester of German in college, and often I would automatically slip in the correct French words (Once an entire sentence) during presentations, and not notice it until the instructor mentioned it.

Practice, practice practice. Not only at home and the classroom, but everywhere you go. Carry a little notebook too, so you can write "what is the word for..." and look it up later. And don't let the rhythm of speaking be interrupted by embarrassment of not knowing the word...just use your native language for that word.

Wir haben...err...fun...mit unsere language!

Aber natürlich haben wir Spaß!

[DriftingCrow]

Is he a child of WW2 aftermath exiles?

Lol, not quite. He was dating this girl who was born in Soviet Latvia and her family had moved here to the US. He was trying to impress her father. 

[Lajs]

I study Classics, so I speak both Latin, which I've been learning since I was ten, and Ancient Greek. I'm also starting Ancient Akkadian this summer at the British Museum, which I am tremendously excited about.

I also speak Spanish, which is very easy for me as it's just simplified Latin with all the scary bits taken out. And I can get the gist of modern Greek if it's written down, because it seems it hasn't changed that much. Strictly, however, that doesn't count.

I just which I could speak Italian! Now that is a beatiful language. The language of Dante.

[Sammy]

Lol, not quite. He was dating this girl who was born in Soviet Latvia and her family had moved here to the US. He was trying to impress her father. 

On a side note, I am not surprised at all... Latvian girls actually are very pretty. Well, most of Eastern European chicks are hot .