Discussion Any other linguaphiles here? Which languages are you studying?

[Oheao]

I've been trying to get back into language learning this year, to mixed results. I have made some progress but I definitely haven't advanced as much as I would have liked so far, and definitely need to change that. I've been studying this languages:

• French - My second language and the biggest priority as I'm Canadian and it's the most valuable for jobs here. I am pretty good at passive knowledge but it's been a while since I bothered to speak in it so I'd probably be bad at that. Other than that I'm at least good enough to be in situations where there is only French and no English
• Spanish - I guess this is my third language if you go by comprehension. I'm nowhere near fluent but I have been trying to expand my vocabulary and do some grammar exercise. I have been practising recently by playing Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
• Mandarin Chinese - I got fairly decent at this actually but then depression and a sense of pointlessness in life resulted in me stopping and it has been about 5 years so I'm very rusty. I would like to get back into it though because I don't want it to go wasted
• Japanese - This is the language I'd really like to learn most because I am a Japanophile and love Japanese video games, wrestling, music, etc. and would really like to be able to consume the media in its original language. I studied this for a few years too before slacking off like Mandarin Chinese
• German - I studied this years ago but then put it on pause, however someone tried contacting me in German and I was appalled at how poor my German had become. So I decided to study some grammar again to at least be able to make simple sentences
• Swedish - Yeah, this was pretty random but I figured why not. I know Swedish people to practise with, I like Swedish metal and I figured it'd be cool to try a less-spoken language (though of course Swedes seem to just prefer conversing in English)

I did study some Greek and Portuguese in the past but I don't know if I'll ever return to them. Finnish is a language that interests me but it is very complicated, not being related to any other languages I'm studying so it'd be like starting from scratch. Korean and Russian are two others that maybe would interest me but I have decided not to pursue because there is just too much on my plate.

 

[neil]

I studied German at school and I’ve started learning again with Duolingo. It’s pretty fun.

I spent quite a long time studying Japanese and I loved doing it, but in the end I gave up as I had no real use for it. But I hope to visit Japan for the first time next year.

 

[aus89]

"learning" Japanese on Duolingo but I mean its more like learning a few phrases you can say and understand, idk that Japanese is really learnable across written and spoken in just duolingo really needs proper lessons but its ok.

 

[Armoured_Bear]

I’m a native English speaker from Scotland but have lived in mainland Europe for 30 years so I’ve been lucky enough to become fluent in Spanish, French and German . I speak Italian to intermediate level, when in Italy I can do everything in Italian but would struggle to write much.
My main language to learn now is Japanese, I’ve been studying for a few years but nowhere near intensively enough.
If I were to learn some more kanji, I could probably scrape a pass in n5 but should be way better by now.
With European languages I could get away with intermittent studying and gradually improve but for me , I really need daily Japanese.

Hoping to really progress this year in Japanese, only other language I’d realistically like to learn is Portuguese but no idea if I’ll ever manage it.

Languages are awesome and the more you learn , the easier it becomes.

 

[oldpuck]

Out of curiosity, what are folk's approaches to learning languages? My partner went deep on Comprehensible Input over Covid, and came out having made Spanish her second strongest language (behind her native English).

 

[Catsylvania]

I keep telling myself I’ll continue learning French. No one signed up for French in high school so they had to pick names from a hat, and I was one of them. Ended up getting “forced” into it. Turns out, I really like the language. A lot of starting and stopping over the years.

I also wanted to learn Japanese though the first time that came up, I was watching a lot of subbed anime in college. Still think it’d be a neat thing to do. Not sure if I’ll ever have the motivation or time.

 

[merp]

I'm trying to re-learn Spanish.

I'm Latino and forgot the language a long time ago.

 

[Síriocaz]

My native language is Spanish, my mother is a sociologist who worked in central Mexico, so I had the enormous honor of learning Huasteca Nahuatl when I was little, and since I've learned to speak two other varieties of Nahuatl on my own.

English, I've been studying it since elementary school, and then French in middle school, and I garnered proficiency at both only recently, or at least I would like to think that lol

 

[Mekanos]

"learning" Japanese on Duolingo but I mean its more like learning a few phrases you can say and understand, idk that Japanese is really learnable across written and spoken in just duolingo really needs proper lessons but its ok.

I just hit 300 days on Duolingo, but I need to transition to Wanikani (which I bought lifetime access for on sale a few months ago). Got hiragana and katakana down but kanji is very intimidating lol

 

[merp]

I just hit 300 days on Duolingo, but I need to transition to Wanikani (which I bought lifetime access for on sale a few months ago). Got hiragana and katakana down but kanji is very intimidating lol

You should try to avoid Duolingo for, say, Asian languages.

Duolingo is only good for Spanish and even then I don't use it.

Also, do you have language exchange partners?

 

[Mekanos]

You should try to avoid Duolingo for, say, Asian languages.

Duolingo is only good for Spanish and even then I don't use it.

Also, do you have language exchange partners?

Not sure what language exchange partners are but I have multiple friends who speak Japanese or are learning it.

 

[merp]

My Language Exchange

Language Learning Community for Safe Effective Practice

www.mylanguageexchange.com

Find A Language Exchange Partner With Tandem

Conversation Exchange Partners Are Waiting For You Wherever You Are. Find A Perfect Language Exchange Partner On Tandem!

www.tandem.net

Tandem is the best one.

I'd pick that or HelloTalk.

HelloTalk | Free Language Exchange | Language Partners

Language learning app - learn a language by chatting with native speakers around the world. iOS or Android.

www.hellotalk.com

Basically, you can speak with multiple people around the world who speak the same language that you're trying to learn.

Meanwhile, they learn the language that you already know, typically your native language.

There are several apps for language exchange partners.

There are also a few apps for asking questions to multiple people about their countries or how to say certain things in their own language (sort-of like Quora), but that's different from language exchange (even so, I bring it up because it's an idea you can pursue sometime).

 

[Oheao]

Honestly I've never used Duolingo because I prefer resources that are a bit more intensive and grammar-focused. Also there are Discord servers too you can join to practise a language or try to find partners. As for kanji I started learning Mandarin Chinese before Japanese so it was not as daunting and I was actually hoping we'd start learning it sooner when I took classes for Japanese at university.

 

[merp]

Honestly I've never used Duolingo because I prefer resources that are a bit more intensive and grammar-focused. Also there are Discord servers too you can join to practise a language or try to find partners. As for kanji I started learning Mandarin Chinese before Japanese so it was not as daunting and I was actually hoping we'd start learning it sooner when I took classes for Japanese at university.

Yeah, try your hand at a Discord server as well, if that's your thing. @Mekanos

 

[HowardAllison]

Hello! It's great to meet someone else who is passionate about languages! I'm currently studying French, German, and Spanish, and I love exploring different cultures through language. I've been thinking about immigrating to France recently because I find the country so attractive, especially the culture, cuisine, and lifestyle. I want to share with you some useful information about France https://globetrottergirls.com/the-f...ties-and-challenges-for-immigrants-in-france/! It encourages me even more to learn French!

 

[Bulborb]

Iv been learning Greek off and on for over a decade to try and talk to my family and family friends in Greece who dont know english. I say off and on because I took lessons as a kid but when I got into college I was so busy I stopped speaking Greek and learning it and last time I went to see family in Greece I learned that I lost like alot of my knowledge like legit years worth of learning the language because I stopped hearing it, speaking it, or reading it for about 4 to 5 years. So now I am starting to Teach myself it again.

Also I try to learn a bit of Russian to keep in touch with my ex gf who lives in Russia. the nice thing is Cyrllic Script is based of Greek Script so about half of the written letters in Russian are the exact same as the ones in Greek which they are based off of. So in that sense its like if you know one letter in one script its the same in the other.

 

[Bulborb]

Hello! It's great to meet someone else who is passionate about languages! I'm currently studying French, German, and Spanish, and I love exploring different cultures through language. I've been thinking about immigrating to France recently because I find the country so attractive, especially the culture, cuisine, and lifestyle.

French is the most beautiful language to my ears. I dont know hardly any French but I love listening to French music sometimes. Language is legit ear candy to me lol.

 

[T-Hell]

My native language is spanish since I'm from Spain, and since I was a teen I've been a huge fan of English and since then been learning a lot and I'm in touch with it every day, from youtube videos, to videogames, to forums like this one
I'd love at some point to get to learn some italian and greek, as I find them to be two of the most beautiful languages in the world.

 

[Brock Reiher]

I'm horrible at learning languages and still struggle with English from time to time. Despite that I am currently learning Bengali. I think language apps like duolingo are mostly worthless outside of being an alternative to flash cards. I can only make real progress by talking to native speakers. I recommend tutor finding apps like iTalki and Preply. They can be surprisingly inexpensive for what you are getting.

If you want to actually speak and language and not just read it, the verbal communication is essential to practice pronunciation imo

 

[HowardAllison]

French is the most beautiful language to my ears. I dont know hardly any French but I love listening to French music sometimes. Language is legit ear candy to me lol.

For me too!!! The French language is wonderful.

 

[merp]

I'm going to try and devote myself to re-learning Spanish more.

It's my mother tongue, after all; gotta re-learn how to speak it one of these days...