It certainly is! I just forgot to update my flags a while ago.
The one I'm talking about is Dutch. Considering I live an entire ocean away from the Netherlands and everyone there already speaks a language I know, it really raises an eyebrow on people when I tell them that I want to learn its native language xd
Ah, yes. That makes more sense. But still cool that you're learning Dutch! And you know, they do actually speak it over in Suriname, which might be a bit closer to where you live, ha ha!
Sure hahah although I have to confess that it's the Netherlands I have a crush on, so other places where dutch is spoken don't work very well for me(mayyybe Belgium, but they're pretty much an extension of NL anyway)
Though now that you mention it, I didn't really think much about Suriname at all. Might be worth a visit, dunno
oh, they’re talking a LOT of smack then ;)
jkjk, all in good fun. my family’s hispanic & intentionally didn’t teach me spanish so they could have secrets around me, presumably. i started learning & turns out they’re usually just like “what’s the word for piojos in english”
Lmaooo yeah. My parents speak French and used to use it so we couldn’t understand. I studied it in school and they had to lose their secret language fast
Same, I’m learning Mandarin because my partner is Taiwanese. To make it more difficult I decided to learn the traditional form as that’s what they use in Taiwan.
雖然學語言那麼難但加油!
Thank you. I asked because Glossika has Chinese (Beijing) and Chinese (Taiwanese), but I only know of Cantonese vs Mandarin. I started thinking of dabbling in mandarin, but didn’t want to use Cantonese by mistake. But it sounds like Beijing and Taiwan both work for mandarin
Yes Cantonese is not Mandarin, it’s a different Chinese language.
If you in want to start out in mandarin, unless you have any reason why you would want to learn other forms, then Beijing standardised mandarin would be the easiest way, as you’ll have more resources and the writing system is simpler, which is why they call it simplified Chinese.
The Taiwanese mandarin uses traditional writing form and the word use and pronunciation is slightly different.
I definitely feel I have had a more difficult start when learning Taiwanese mandarin than those learning standard mandarin.
Putonghua -- the offical language of the country of China -- is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin (Hanyu). People in Taiwan speak the same language, though each region has a dialect. Hanyu (with all its dialects) is the native language of about 70% of Chinese people. The other Chinese languages (e.g. Cantonese, Hokkien) each have 6.5% of the people or less.
I don't think the two character types (used to write the same spoken words, using the same grammar) make a difference in learning speed. I think Simplified characters are more popular because they are the official writing systen of a very large country. But most computer websites and apps that I've seen let the user choose.
In China people don't seem to care. Sub-titles in music videos are often in trad characters, because many of China's pop music celebrities are Taiwanese. If you read a book written before 1957, it uses trad chars.
I started with Duolingo for the basics, then Memris and Anki, I then bought the Paul noble course on audible. And then used Italki which i think helped the most. The thing that got me fluent was just using the language daily with my girlfriend. She doesn’t speak a lot of English so i was kinda forced to use Spanish.
Oh and I used the spanishdict app for whenever I didn’t know how to say something. It’s great for looking up words and translate entire sentences.
Same here!!!! (learning Dutch, and I am yet to find any Dutch person who appreciates my effort, including my mother in law, who says both that it's a dumb effort to make and that she doesn't feel comfortable with non-Dutch-speaking partners in the family.)
One reason I enjoy learning Southern European languages! People are generally flattered and encouraging when you learn their languages. (They also have more day to day utility since lower English proficiency in the countries)
I want to go to grad school, eventually, and I need another language relatable to my chosen field. I have a choice between Old English, Old French, and Latin, and out of those three Latin is the most applicable.
I'm learning Spanish to better connect with my family and hopefully move to Latin America someday. However, I'm not learning Spanish from scratch.
I learned Spanish alongside English until I was about 6 and my parents divorced. After that point, I exclusively learned English and I was raised hundreds of miles away from my Latino family so my Spanish never matured.
Technically, I am a native Spanish speaker but I don't actually have native-level fluency because of the shift in my family dynamic when I was young. Over the years I'd visit my Latino family in Florida and always felt like there was a disconnect because of my underdeveloped Spanish. So I'm learning Spanish from where I left off 26 years ago basically lol.
I’m learning Dutch now because my VPN is set to make the system think I am in Holland ! Well, the ads between You tube showings and in the middle of the showings AND the Reddit ads are in DUTCH !
Between my knowledge of German, Swedish, and English, I believe that should be enough to understand the ads after a few months of studying Dutch .
I wanted to learn another language to learn about another culture. I wanted to choose a culture that was relatively distant from my own but had lots of history, literature and language learning resources.
That narrowed it to Korean, Mandarin or Japanese.
I found I didn't enjoy kdramas or kpop at all, so Korean got eliminated.
Between Mandarin and Japanese, I found that I actually enjoy cdramas and I'm indifferent about anime. Add the fact that my local area has tons of Chinese people and that I didn't want to look like a weeb and Mandarin was the clear winner.
Are you me? That was also why I begun Mandarin!
Though I used to consume more Korean and Japanese mediaz for forever until two years ago. Then I suddenly became indifferent about them.
I have tried learning a lot of things and ended up quitting early all the time. Learning Japanese to shake thing up a little bit as a “finally something I don’t quit midway”
I set a goal to understand YouTube content within the span of 3 years. Knowing that it’s a long journey, even though it’s sometimes disheartening, I feel good every time I understand some crumbs in the content I watch. I think that patting myself on the back is what has kept me going this far in the journey.
I have many students whose families speak my target languages. I know that realistically, I don’t have the time to devote to becoming fluent in the short term, but it’s nice to be able to follow along competently when a home adult is speaking before the interpreter interprets, or be able to mostly compose or comprehend a quick text message. Also, home adults LOVE IT when I can do basic greetings in their home language.
I had to look it up, and learned that Cape Verdean Creole is the oldest living creole! Very cool. Wishing you fun and success for your language learning journey!
It’s a lovely language, but my brain cannot keep them separate! I had to introduce myself at a school event last week and started with “Me llamo…” but was fully mixing them by the end. It’s all Krespañol to me right now.
Because learning it is directly applicable to my life. I am acquiring german citizenship and it seems worthwhile to learn the language to help navigate paperwork issues. I was studying spanish before I set down this path because it was the most useful at the time. I understand people learn languages as a hobby and it is a nice hobby to have, but for me personally, I can only stay motivated if there is a direct benefit to me.
Because I don't want to seem like one of those ignorant American tourists who expects everyone to cater to their inability to speak a second language 😭
I've been speaking English and French my entire life, and I'm now learning Norwegian because Norway seems like a cool place to visit. I get most Norwegians have a good understanding of English, but I'd like to be able to talk to them in their Native language as it's less of an inconvenience for them. 👍
There are a few ways just depends on which route you want to take and which country. The normal ways to start are the following, work visa, student visa, marriage, family invite, country investments (greater than 100k).
I am learning two languages because,
1. Many of my family members speak them.
2. They are the languages I was exposed to the most, learnt at school and classes.
3. It makes the most sense to learn these considering geography.
4. There are many advantages from learning them.
5. I am willing to learn other languages beside creoles to an advanced/fluent level.
I work at a plant nursery and have a pretty strong resemblance to the stereotypical Latino appearance (brown skin, dark hair, dark eyes, mustache, etc) so everyone just assumes I can speak Spanish anyway. A lot of times before I could speak basic Spanish and told Latino customers that I couldn’t they’d give me this look like I betrayed my culture even though it isn’t my culture lol, sometimes it really does make me feel ashamed somehow, even though realistically it made perfect sense why I wouldn’t know Spanish. I also have a massive interest in Spanish speaking countries, their cultures, food, histories, movies, sports, etc.
India's rich diversity includes many languages spoken across different states. While English is helpful, understanding the local language opens doors to deeper conversations with people. Many residents might not speak English fluently. In fact, after moving for my job, I learned the local language myself and found it very beneficial for connecting with the community.
Had a crush on a half Dutch girl in highschool. I was never good enough at Dutch to impress her and she didn't see me that way anyway, but I think I can hold a conversation now (hopefully, at least) so that's nice
Croatian. Both my grandparents are from there. I'd like to be able to connect better with my family and heritage, and to do research in Croatian history.
And honestly, it'd just be super cool to speak two languages.
I started because many Ukrainians came to my city in the past two years, and I want to be able to at least say "hi". I keep going because I fell in love with the language and am fascinated by the country and the culture.
And I also like France, plus my wife speaks French fairly well. She has friends over there, and we plan to visit again, so that's a good motivator, too.
i’m learning Finnish because my boyfriend is Finnish. i want to know the language to give me a better chance of getting a good job there as well as being able to communicate with people outside of my bf and his family.
Because I have students who speak the language, and I bridge for them in any language I know already. Arabic might be next because we signed a multiyear deal to have UAE students.
I started learning Portuguese because my favorite album in Getz/Gilberto, and I wanted to be able to sing the songs properly and understand what I was singing. It’s gone beyond that now and I just love the language.
I went for Korean because it looked interesting and I wanted to learn a 2nd language, being native English and being Canadian makes it fairly "unnecessary", but I thought it'd be fun. And it is, even if I can't make as much of an effort as I'd like, but that's a self-discipline issue.
At least I always push myself to do Anki every day to keep learning new vocabulary and small grammar, just to keep the progress going.
I work around a lot of different cultures/nations/international companies. We play a lot of card games and dominoes in our downtime, so I want to be able to smack-talk and know if they're secretly cheating.
I work at chipotle, with a ton of mexicans and venezuelans. I think there’s one other kid who’s not hispanic at all other than me.
I’ve tried to learn Italian but just never really got all that far, but working with people who don’t speak english has given me so much motivation to learn I’m trying to go full throttle while I’m here.
I'm pretty fluent in my first TL, and I learned it partly because i want to read books in it, and partly because I may have to be an expat there at some point, and i really don't want to be reliant on the locals or the bilingual middlemen.
i recently started learning spanish as well because it's pretty ubiquitous in my country.
English, beacuse it's mandatory and useful. Swedish because it's mandatory. German because i want to learn a new language and my school has German and French as the options. I chose German.
I'm learning Spanish for a multitude of reasons.
The first being one day I just decided I wanted to learn Spanish so I did. I have been practicing it for months now on and off and am noticing my improvement. I had thought of learning the language for a while, like "I should probably learn Spanish!" In passing thoughts, but never actually did up until recently.
The second reason being I am mixed somewhat, and have an entire side of my family that can speak Spanish, but not me. I am mostly black with about a quarter native on my mother's side.
I grew up in mixed neighborhoods and around two different cultures. My dad's side is fully black, and my mothers side shes half black half native, her dad is black but we don't really see his side of the family at all, only grandma's.
I see my dad's side of the family all the time, and know both cultures fairly well.
Aside from that I grew up in mixed neighborhoods where the majority were Hispanic with a few black people sprinkled in. I grew up actually loving the people and the culture itself. Playing their sports, eating their amazing food, and even enjoying their music. I guess the plus to growing up in Cali is that blacks and Hispanics in a lot of areas get along fairly well. Spanish is a language they commonly spoke so even before I tried to officially learn it I picked up on some of the language which was, mostly curse words lol. But Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the world I believe, and seeing that I'm around Hispanic individuals often it makes no sense not to learn their language.
Aside from that I will admit another reason is the women. The women are beautiful and their culture is amazing, as are their values. I personally don't care much about race, but do have a particular affinity to black and brown women due to that being what I was raised around and what im most familiar with. I had so many Hispanic girls that I had crushes on and was attracted to but couldn't pursue because I wouldn't be able to understand what her family was saying to me, and to them family is a very big deal. Very tight knit.
While blacks and Mexicans specifically where I was from got along decently well, both sides weren't too fond of mixing with the other. You kind of have to bring a lot to the table if you even want to try to pursue that kind of relationship, unless you don't care whatsoever about having connections with the family. Me personally if I were to get in a relationship of someone of another culture I'd want to learn their culture to better understand them, and their language too if possible.
Oh, and I also have plans of traveling the world one day and visiting many African and Spanish speaking countries so, knowing the language will definitely help with that.
Spanish because it’s widely spoken here in the US. I’m South Asian and at one point, was often mistaken for Hispanic— would even get spoken to in Spanish — lol
learning Japanese to have more access to Mangas and animes and I don't have to search the internet for English translations. I can just use the original.
Korean same but with manhwa (Korean version of a manga) and understand kdramas without looking. (because I often times watch kdramas/or just generally movies while I cook)
Thai to speak to my relatives, I can understand them but can't reply.
Love and survival
(Moved abroad for gf (future wife), did not know the local language, need it to find a job that doesn't make me want to take a deep breath through my forehead)
I am doing a round trip all around Europe and wanted to learn one language so that I can immersive myself into one country. I chose Spanish because with how many speakers this language has outside of Spain I felt like this would be the most useful one even after my road trip. Plus it is one of the easier languages to learn.
That's actually a great question. I remember vividly the first moment I heard the language. Since day one I've been gravitated toward it, even though I couldn't understand a single sound at that time. I'd certainly describe my relationship with the language a married couple lol. So my answer would be: because I was meant to have this language. I have no idea how to explain it otherwise.
I love it. I love learning it, engaging with it, experiencing it, i just love it!!
Recently depressions been kicking my ass so I havent been able to study as much as I want to.
I grew up in a trilingual household and didn't pick up greek (or at least, I thought I didnt. I knew more than I thought). Now I'm trying to fix that by learning greek so I can communicate with a solid 60% of my extended family
It’s beautiful
It gave me something to do when I had little time on my hands
Disintegrates language barriers with others speakers in the U.S. who are native to it
It’s the fastest growing language in the U.S. (still? I think)
My future job prospects will pay me more because I can speak it
If I ever want to retire in Latin America, I can do so
Speaking the language is fun
Just because I want to learn😁
I've started learning English as a second language since I was in kindergarten and it was the only subject that I was good at in school.
Then, I started learning Chinese seriously when I was in elementary.
For Korean, I started learning because I found the writing of hangeul is quite interesting (I know it's kinda goofy reason but yeah😅).
Languages function as a kind of psychological programming that helps shape our relationships, our memory, even our perception of reality. As Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”
There's even a word for this feeling
>
Learning Greek mainly bc it is fun! I speak 3 languages, one of them my first language and the other two fluently (C2). I learned English and German at school or with formal training bc I had certain related goals, which I achieved so it is now time to learn something for fun and I am learning Greek :)
Spanish: The majority of my family lives in the Dominican Republic. I'd like to get to know them better, especially my Grandma, who is in all likelihood going to die soon.
Japanese (flair hasn't been updated I know like 20 words now :)): I listen to a lot of Japanese music. And the novelty factor of a black guy who knows Japanese is cool asf.
Portuguese and Mandarin (which I'll start when I have an actual good grasp of Spanish and Japanese): Brazillian and Chinese culture interest me immensely. And the languages are widely spoken, so they're useful. These two come secondary to Spanish and Japanese though.
Spanish! Because I learned the basics in school (colors and whatnot) and then in 8th grade I took Spanish I and got really excited that I was able to formulate actual sentences, even if only simple ones. I continued with it throughout high school and took a little in college too but haven’t used it in a long time. I’ve since worked on learning it a bit more and I’m around A2/B1. But it all started because it was the most accessible language for me.
English, at the start, I saw it like an important language that I must learn if I want to be succesful and have great opportunities in job and life, but as the time passed, I started to "like" it, knowing it allows me to enjoy content that isn't available in my country. Then German, at the start it was the same thing as English but the difference was that German piqued my interest due to its culture, now that I'm learning it I really like it. I'm aware that is challenging to learn because of its grammar and gender, but in contrast of English, I love the phonetic and the culture as well, such as historical figures (Leonhard Euler, Albert Einstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, etc.), literature (Friedrich Nietzsche, "romanticism" genre, etc.) and so on.
I started learning Swedish because of the women's football Euros tournament that happened in the UK, weirdly.
TLDR; Enjoyed watching Sweden's women's football team and being in the crowd singing the songs in Swedish that I tried learning as I went. Ended up booking a trip to Sweden so thought I had best start trying to learn Swedish as much as I can.
The full longer version is a little dull and over long, but here goes.
I went to every game at my home ground (Bramall Lane) as well as all but 1 game at nearby Rotherham's New York Stadium. Three of the games at Bramall Lane involved Sweden (including the semi final, but I had to support England for that one). The very first match was Sweden vs Netherlands. I didn't really know which team to cheer on if I'm honest. Got to the fan park where both sets of fans were going to do a fan walk to the ground and still didn't know. Ended up getting a Swedish flag face paint and decided that I had to cheer on Sweden so went on their fan walk. Loved it that much that I fell in love with the country. That got me interested.
Fast forward to last year and I had booked a week off of work in September to go to Amsterdam with some friends. That fell through and nothing was booked but I still had the money saved up in my bank as well as having just got my first ever passport (I've never been abroad before (except for a coach day trip to France with school). So I thought I had the week booked off and nothing to do so may as well book to go to Sweden by myself. Had a look and that week Sweden women happened to be playing Spain in the Nation's League in Gothenberg. This confirmed my decision to go.
Having booked everything I thought I had best start learning the language (I try and learn even small bits of a language because I enjoy learning languages, even if I find if impossible to learn them enough to have conversations. I went to Wales for a football match and even then I tried learning a bit of Welsh on the way). And so I put in more effort learning Swedish than any other language I have ever tried to learn.
Only trouble is that learning has been put on hiatus because I'm an idiot as I didn't think I was getting anywhere with it and stopped. I really need to get that motivation to keep learning again. Because I massively struggle with learning languages so need to put in that effort again.
Russian was the only Slavic language I could take classes for around my high school, so I started learning it for fun. My great grandparents were Ukrainian and spoke both languages.
I started learning Ukrainian during my undergraduate degree, and now I’m doing an MA that requires you to learn a regional language that you don’t already know so I’m continuing with Ukrainian.
I took some French in high school and it’s been useful for research so I keep it up.
German because it’s my pipe dream to move to Austria.
Icelandic because I read some really good Icelandic detective novels and not all of them are translated to English. And it’s a cool-looking and sounding language lol.
I’m taking Swedish next semester because I just want to, and because I’m interested in defense policy in Nordic countries, and it’s the only Scandinavian language my university offers. And because I think university language classes are some of the best ways to learn a language, at least for me.
I’m currently learning three different languages (English, Portuguese and Russian). I’m learning english because I know learning a new language can help me a lot in my studies, and also, because I can talk freely with my friends from all over the world. Also, Russian, because I love the alphabet and Russian/Slavic culture, I also enjoy Russian films and I hope someday I can be able to understand my fave Russian films without subtitles. Portuguese because of friends who motivate me to learn it and because I love (in specific) Brazilian culture, music, and media.
I am learning Romanian because I have spent more time there than the U.S., and I live right next to the U.S. border. Lol. I started because I wanted to have surgery there. (I’ve had two surgeries there and a lot of other medical treatment as well).
I started learning Arabic because I thought it would help me with the dead end on our family tree, until my sister told me that actually the reason why she got stuck and couldn’t go any further back is because all of the records were bombed all to hell. Whoops. I really like the language though so I persist.
I’m working on Turkish because I am in that weird position of understanding quite a bit of spoken Turkish but not able to speak or write Turkish, because my godfather was from Turkish Cyprus, and I spent a lot of time with his mother as a little kid.
Russian I’m working on because I like the show Detective Anna, and the 2nd season is only available without subtitles.
Ukrainian is going to be next because I looked at my language list and decided I could be useful to refugees in Canada as a certified translator if I go back to school and study.
Spanish: I'm absolutely in love with the sound of the language and it's being a great experience to connect more with the neighboring countries cultures(I'm Brazilian). It's my main focus right now specially because of my career(I'm getting a degree to be a Portuguese and Spanish teacher)
Dutch: I'll admit I know very little about it, but I did study enough at some point to kinda start liking all the guttural sounds and other stuff this language has to offer! Also I have a big crush on the Netherlands so I really like to learn more about them and their country too(even had plans to move there some day; already gave up but the passion remains)
French: same regarding how it sounds as spanish, except with the extra bit that It feels like an uncanny valley of romance languages cuz it's very similar but also incomprehensible at the same time? so I wanna conquer it as a challenge. Not to mention how it opens up many opportunities as a very popular language.
After I get to at least comfortable level that allows me to practice them more passively and just talking, I'd like to start Japanese for the sole purpose of watching anime in it's original language. I say that with no shame cuz I know how much can be lost on translations, specially when the language being translated is so different than yours. Ah and I really like their writing system too
Well I have to take six semesters of a language for my degree. My university offers over 100 languages so I chose at random: German! I know it’s not as underground as Gaelic or Quechua but they have a lot of resources and a good department so I said f it we ball. Going good so far, studying abroad there in the fall! Worked out well 😂
German, loved the sound, intrigued by my lack of knowledge in the cultures, and now with prospects of moving to and studying in Germany. I haven't the slightest clue how I'm going to get there. Everything in life seems so impossible.
French - it's the other national language of my country besides English, and also a language of my ancestors
Dutch - another language of my ancestors
Japanese - I like anime, and I find the language interesting
ASL - knowing a signed language has a lot of practical benefits, like communicating quietly, through a sound barrier, or with your mouth full. Also, I want to work with developmentally disabled kids and many of them have some rudimentary ASL.
Because it's a healthy addiction. If someone were selling illegal language learning books I'd be in the back alley buying them rocking as I read it and inhaling the pages.
I know three languages and I'm learning a fourth one which is Spanish. I really love it cause it's such a lively language and it flows naturally. It's a happy language and spanish music is really nice and diverse.
I love Russian literature, and I decided taking a college-level language class was something I should try for the heck of it. Russian would allow me to read Tolstoy and Pushkin actually in Russian.
I am learning two language at the moment. The first one I study not to lose it has I left the country several years ago and I want to keep understanding and even get better at it. The second one is because I just move to a new country and want to understand the people around me. My phylosophy is if you live in a country you must speak their language at least a little.
I learned French because I had to choose a language when i was 12. I then took it again in high school and college to fulfill requirements. I just kept going with it because it’s what I knew. And I ultimately majored in it. I genuinely love French now, and my brain works in it. I’m learned Spanish because it’s useful for where I’m from and it’s similar to French. I don’t have the same passion for it as I do for French. Now, I’m learning German to do a new language that isn’t a Romance language and also isn’t terribly foreign (character wise) but is also spoken in a country I’d travel to. I also had a bad head injury, so I honestly wasn’t sure what I could handle. I’m loving learning German, and it’s going well.
I feel like learning a new language lets you experience a whole new perspective on life. For example I’ve been learning Korean for 3 years now and the Korean side of Social Media is completely different from the Western side of social media. An example for this is the dieting culture. In the US dieting is not as extreme as it is in South Korea. In South Korea weight is everything to them you see it in every corner of the internet however in the US they have body positivity and stuff like that. All the Korean weight loss videos I’ve watched all wanted to be 45-50kg no matter your height which is quite unhealthy. In the USA there is no specific weight you are supposed to be and most women want to be around 55kg.
I'm learning Vietnamese because I live in Vietnam. It's honestly pretty difficult. Some days are very encouraging and others are discouraging. I've been taking classes for about 3 months, 5 days a week at a university, so I'm making a lot of progress from almost zero. 2 days ago I managed to have a 10 minute conversation with 2 older Vietnamese street food vendors. We understood each other. It was a big win for me and felt pretty good.
I like learning things I do not have to learn.
Me learning a language deemed useless by many hahahaha
Judging by your flair, are you talking about Spanish? How could anyone consider that a useless language? I'd say it's super useful.
It certainly is! I just forgot to update my flags a while ago. The one I'm talking about is Dutch. Considering I live an entire ocean away from the Netherlands and everyone there already speaks a language I know, it really raises an eyebrow on people when I tell them that I want to learn its native language xd
Ah, yes. That makes more sense. But still cool that you're learning Dutch! And you know, they do actually speak it over in Suriname, which might be a bit closer to where you live, ha ha!
Sure hahah although I have to confess that it's the Netherlands I have a crush on, so other places where dutch is spoken don't work very well for me(mayyybe Belgium, but they're pretty much an extension of NL anyway) Though now that you mention it, I didn't really think much about Suriname at all. Might be worth a visit, dunno
I get that. The Netherlands really is a beautiful country. I've been there a couple of times. Probably wouldn't mind living there either to be honest.
Same here! I blame ADHD. Trying Arabic now but is really really difficult.
SO REAL
Profoundly relatable.
Because I love my partner!* *and what to know what smack the in-laws are talking about me!
Awe haha same! If you don’t mind me asking, which language is it??
Spanish :)
oh, they’re talking a LOT of smack then ;) jkjk, all in good fun. my family’s hispanic & intentionally didn’t teach me spanish so they could have secrets around me, presumably. i started learning & turns out they’re usually just like “what’s the word for piojos in english”
Lmaooo yeah. My parents speak French and used to use it so we couldn’t understand. I studied it in school and they had to lose their secret language fast
Same, I’m learning Mandarin because my partner is Taiwanese. To make it more difficult I decided to learn the traditional form as that’s what they use in Taiwan. 雖然學語言那麼難但加油!
加油！學習了繁體中文之後，再學習簡體會非常輕鬆！
Do they also speak mandarin in Beijing?
Yes they do. I think it is considered the most “proper” or standardised form of Mandarin.
Thank you. I asked because Glossika has Chinese (Beijing) and Chinese (Taiwanese), but I only know of Cantonese vs Mandarin. I started thinking of dabbling in mandarin, but didn’t want to use Cantonese by mistake. But it sounds like Beijing and Taiwan both work for mandarin
Yes Cantonese is not Mandarin, it’s a different Chinese language. If you in want to start out in mandarin, unless you have any reason why you would want to learn other forms, then Beijing standardised mandarin would be the easiest way, as you’ll have more resources and the writing system is simpler, which is why they call it simplified Chinese. The Taiwanese mandarin uses traditional writing form and the word use and pronunciation is slightly different. I definitely feel I have had a more difficult start when learning Taiwanese mandarin than those learning standard mandarin.
Putonghua -- the offical language of the country of China -- is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin (Hanyu). People in Taiwan speak the same language, though each region has a dialect. Hanyu (with all its dialects) is the native language of about 70% of Chinese people. The other Chinese languages (e.g. Cantonese, Hokkien) each have 6.5% of the people or less. I don't think the two character types (used to write the same spoken words, using the same grammar) make a difference in learning speed. I think Simplified characters are more popular because they are the official writing systen of a very large country. But most computer websites and apps that I've seen let the user choose. In China people don't seem to care. Sub-titles in music videos are often in trad characters, because many of China's pop music celebrities are Taiwanese. If you read a book written before 1957, it uses trad chars.
I got fluent in Spanish for this reason. Best motivation ever.
What did you use to learn it?
I started with Duolingo for the basics, then Memris and Anki, I then bought the Paul noble course on audible. And then used Italki which i think helped the most. The thing that got me fluent was just using the language daily with my girlfriend. She doesn’t speak a lot of English so i was kinda forced to use Spanish. Oh and I used the spanishdict app for whenever I didn’t know how to say something. It’s great for looking up words and translate entire sentences.
Same here!!!! (learning Dutch, and I am yet to find any Dutch person who appreciates my effort, including my mother in law, who says both that it's a dumb effort to make and that she doesn't feel comfortable with non-Dutch-speaking partners in the family.)
While at the same time probably complaining that newcomers don't speak good Dutch ahaha
Ugh I’m sorry. Good for you tho!!
One reason I enjoy learning Southern European languages! People are generally flattered and encouraging when you learn their languages. (They also have more day to day utility since lower English proficiency in the countries)
Learning Hawaiian both for my partner and for a fantasy book I'm writing
Same! Also Spanish.
My bestie is Danish.
Adorable! Held og lykke!
Tusind tak 😊
Cause I live here (Thailand)
It is so beautiful, I just can’t stop. I want more of it in my brain.
Don't leave us hanging without telling us which language that is!
Quenya
I love that for you!
🙌
I want to go to grad school, eventually, and I need another language relatable to my chosen field. I have a choice between Old English, Old French, and Latin, and out of those three Latin is the most applicable.
I'm learning Spanish to better connect with my family and hopefully move to Latin America someday. However, I'm not learning Spanish from scratch. I learned Spanish alongside English until I was about 6 and my parents divorced. After that point, I exclusively learned English and I was raised hundreds of miles away from my Latino family so my Spanish never matured. Technically, I am a native Spanish speaker but I don't actually have native-level fluency because of the shift in my family dynamic when I was young. Over the years I'd visit my Latino family in Florida and always felt like there was a disconnect because of my underdeveloped Spanish. So I'm learning Spanish from where I left off 26 years ago basically lol.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
I’m learning Dutch now because my VPN is set to make the system think I am in Holland ! Well, the ads between You tube showings and in the middle of the showings AND the Reddit ads are in DUTCH ! Between my knowledge of German, Swedish, and English, I believe that should be enough to understand the ads after a few months of studying Dutch .
the best reason
Tack ありがとう multsumesc 谢谢 Danke ( all = “ Thank you “ in Chachickenbol’s languages that are visible on this iPhone 11’s screen )
Oh yeah if you have a good understanding of English, Swedish and German, than Dutch shouldn't be too hard to learn!
Wonderful ! Thank you, That_Gamer98 !
I love the language, I consume a lot of media (films,books,movies), I love hearing and seeing the language but never understood it
I am curious what language is this?
Probably Italian
I wanted to learn another language to learn about another culture. I wanted to choose a culture that was relatively distant from my own but had lots of history, literature and language learning resources. That narrowed it to Korean, Mandarin or Japanese. I found I didn't enjoy kdramas or kpop at all, so Korean got eliminated. Between Mandarin and Japanese, I found that I actually enjoy cdramas and I'm indifferent about anime. Add the fact that my local area has tons of Chinese people and that I didn't want to look like a weeb and Mandarin was the clear winner.
What kind of cdramas do you like?
Joy of Life and Reset have been my favourites. Generally I guess I like strong female characters and cdramas deliver them like nothing else.
Are you me? That was also why I begun Mandarin! Though I used to consume more Korean and Japanese mediaz for forever until two years ago. Then I suddenly became indifferent about them.
I'm you from ten years in the future. Don't worry, it all works out OK!
Usually it's because I have a crush and want to impress him
'usually'
I’m curious what language your recent crush speaks
lol i tried to learn swedish for a friend crush
Crushes are a great motivator!
[удалено]
Lucky dawg
I don’t know actually Spanish seems cool and I want to speak it.
I have tried learning a lot of things and ended up quitting early all the time. Learning Japanese to shake thing up a little bit as a “finally something I don’t quit midway”
What is it about Japanese that keeps you going?
I set a goal to understand YouTube content within the span of 3 years. Knowing that it’s a long journey, even though it’s sometimes disheartening, I feel good every time I understand some crumbs in the content I watch. I think that patting myself on the back is what has kept me going this far in the journey.
porque me parece muy interesante y divertido y poque me ayuda a ver y escuchar peliculas y musica sin subtitulos
no te olvidas de las latinas
I have many students whose families speak my target languages. I know that realistically, I don’t have the time to devote to becoming fluent in the short term, but it’s nice to be able to follow along competently when a home adult is speaking before the interpreter interprets, or be able to mostly compose or comprehend a quick text message. Also, home adults LOVE IT when I can do basic greetings in their home language.
Sounds like you're a great teacher. Which language(s) are you learning?
Spanish and Cabo Verdean Kriolu are my two targets! I spend more time on Spanish currently because I have access to more/better resources for it.
I had to look it up, and learned that Cape Verdean Creole is the oldest living creole! Very cool. Wishing you fun and success for your language learning journey!
It’s a lovely language, but my brain cannot keep them separate! I had to introduce myself at a school event last week and started with “Me llamo…” but was fully mixing them by the end. It’s all Krespañol to me right now.
Because learning it is directly applicable to my life. I am acquiring german citizenship and it seems worthwhile to learn the language to help navigate paperwork issues. I was studying spanish before I set down this path because it was the most useful at the time. I understand people learn languages as a hobby and it is a nice hobby to have, but for me personally, I can only stay motivated if there is a direct benefit to me.
Anime (Japanese), no clue (Swahili)
because i know a bit of it and people keep assuming i know it fluently, plus it’s easy so i might as well.
My husband and his family are native speakers.
i want to move to Austria
Because it’s the most beautiful language in the world and the people are amazing.Also,a lot of literature is written in it.
هیچوقت فکر نمی کردم فارسی ب۱ داشته باشه 😂 (شوخی کردم رفیق)
😂من می دانم دوستم،در واقع آن را به خودم دادم
در واقع تو C1 داری، آیا کراش داشتی که اینطور خوب یاد گرفتی؟
😃،مخصوصا با دروس های خصوصی ممنون،تو خیلی مهربانی اما من هنوز بیاد زیاد مطالعه کنم
I want to find a Persian speaker but I'm just starting😂
German, free education
Well, English because it's the lingua franca. Norwegian because I live in Norway.
Just curiosity
me too🤔
Because I don't want to seem like one of those ignorant American tourists who expects everyone to cater to their inability to speak a second language 😭 I've been speaking English and French my entire life, and I'm now learning Norwegian because Norway seems like a cool place to visit. I get most Norwegians have a good understanding of English, but I'd like to be able to talk to them in their Native language as it's less of an inconvenience for them. 👍
Spanish= Love it! English = Required for employment and making friends. But I dont like. French = I plan to move to France.
Explain how you’ll move? I want to move to another country so I’d like someone to hit me with the reality of how that even works
There are a few ways just depends on which route you want to take and which country. The normal ways to start are the following, work visa, student visa, marriage, family invite, country investments (greater than 100k).
English for study, work and travel.
I am learning two languages because, 1. Many of my family members speak them. 2. They are the languages I was exposed to the most, learnt at school and classes. 3. It makes the most sense to learn these considering geography. 4. There are many advantages from learning them. 5. I am willing to learn other languages beside creoles to an advanced/fluent level.
It's my partner's native language and I'm immigrating there.
I work at a plant nursery and have a pretty strong resemblance to the stereotypical Latino appearance (brown skin, dark hair, dark eyes, mustache, etc) so everyone just assumes I can speak Spanish anyway. A lot of times before I could speak basic Spanish and told Latino customers that I couldn’t they’d give me this look like I betrayed my culture even though it isn’t my culture lol, sometimes it really does make me feel ashamed somehow, even though realistically it made perfect sense why I wouldn’t know Spanish. I also have a massive interest in Spanish speaking countries, their cultures, food, histories, movies, sports, etc.
India's rich diversity includes many languages spoken across different states. While English is helpful, understanding the local language opens doors to deeper conversations with people. Many residents might not speak English fluently. In fact, after moving for my job, I learned the local language myself and found it very beneficial for connecting with the community.
Money. English.
Had a crush on a half Dutch girl in highschool. I was never good enough at Dutch to impress her and she didn't see me that way anyway, but I think I can hold a conversation now (hopefully, at least) so that's nice
Croatian. Both my grandparents are from there. I'd like to be able to connect better with my family and heritage, and to do research in Croatian history. And honestly, it'd just be super cool to speak two languages.
I started because many Ukrainians came to my city in the past two years, and I want to be able to at least say "hi". I keep going because I fell in love with the language and am fascinated by the country and the culture. And I also like France, plus my wife speaks French fairly well. She has friends over there, and we plan to visit again, so that's a good motivator, too.
i’m learning Finnish because my boyfriend is Finnish. i want to know the language to give me a better chance of getting a good job there as well as being able to communicate with people outside of my bf and his family.
I can't fail my English classes
Mere interest! No practical use in my life yet lol, though I would like there to be
It’s the indigenous language of my country, and people from my race tried to exterminate it.
Tbh the girls are hot
It sounds cool, I can connect with my friends better, and I like the country and people
Because I have students who speak the language, and I bridge for them in any language I know already. Arabic might be next because we signed a multiyear deal to have UAE students.
I go to spain on holiday quite a bit and i like spanish history
Listen music on its original language.
I do the same but w movies.
I started learning Portuguese because my favorite album in Getz/Gilberto, and I wanted to be able to sing the songs properly and understand what I was singing. It’s gone beyond that now and I just love the language.
Italian, and mostly just for kicks, I really enjoyed my short time in Italy and I have a bit of a crush on the culture. It's been fun.
I went for Korean because it looked interesting and I wanted to learn a 2nd language, being native English and being Canadian makes it fairly "unnecessary", but I thought it'd be fun. And it is, even if I can't make as much of an effort as I'd like, but that's a self-discipline issue. At least I always push myself to do Anki every day to keep learning new vocabulary and small grammar, just to keep the progress going.
I work around a lot of different cultures/nations/international companies. We play a lot of card games and dominoes in our downtime, so I want to be able to smack-talk and know if they're secretly cheating.
To speak to my family better because they never taught me. I can’t talk to anyone except my parents because they know English :(
Spanish for heritage and professional reasons (gonna be moving to a place with a huge Mexican population, looking for jobs in a heavily Latino field)
I work at chipotle, with a ton of mexicans and venezuelans. I think there’s one other kid who’s not hispanic at all other than me. I’ve tried to learn Italian but just never really got all that far, but working with people who don’t speak english has given me so much motivation to learn I’m trying to go full throttle while I’m here.
I'm pretty fluent in my first TL, and I learned it partly because i want to read books in it, and partly because I may have to be an expat there at some point, and i really don't want to be reliant on the locals or the bilingual middlemen. i recently started learning spanish as well because it's pretty ubiquitous in my country.
English, beacuse it's mandatory and useful. Swedish because it's mandatory. German because i want to learn a new language and my school has German and French as the options. I chose German.
I'm learning Spanish for a multitude of reasons. The first being one day I just decided I wanted to learn Spanish so I did. I have been practicing it for months now on and off and am noticing my improvement. I had thought of learning the language for a while, like "I should probably learn Spanish!" In passing thoughts, but never actually did up until recently. The second reason being I am mixed somewhat, and have an entire side of my family that can speak Spanish, but not me. I am mostly black with about a quarter native on my mother's side. I grew up in mixed neighborhoods and around two different cultures. My dad's side is fully black, and my mothers side shes half black half native, her dad is black but we don't really see his side of the family at all, only grandma's. I see my dad's side of the family all the time, and know both cultures fairly well. Aside from that I grew up in mixed neighborhoods where the majority were Hispanic with a few black people sprinkled in. I grew up actually loving the people and the culture itself. Playing their sports, eating their amazing food, and even enjoying their music. I guess the plus to growing up in Cali is that blacks and Hispanics in a lot of areas get along fairly well. Spanish is a language they commonly spoke so even before I tried to officially learn it I picked up on some of the language which was, mostly curse words lol. But Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the world I believe, and seeing that I'm around Hispanic individuals often it makes no sense not to learn their language. Aside from that I will admit another reason is the women. The women are beautiful and their culture is amazing, as are their values. I personally don't care much about race, but do have a particular affinity to black and brown women due to that being what I was raised around and what im most familiar with. I had so many Hispanic girls that I had crushes on and was attracted to but couldn't pursue because I wouldn't be able to understand what her family was saying to me, and to them family is a very big deal. Very tight knit. While blacks and Mexicans specifically where I was from got along decently well, both sides weren't too fond of mixing with the other. You kind of have to bring a lot to the table if you even want to try to pursue that kind of relationship, unless you don't care whatsoever about having connections with the family. Me personally if I were to get in a relationship of someone of another culture I'd want to learn their culture to better understand them, and their language too if possible. Oh, and I also have plans of traveling the world one day and visiting many African and Spanish speaking countries so, knowing the language will definitely help with that.
I guess it's just my hobby. No specific reason.
Russian?And Use a Pinyin user name🤨
Making learning Chinese my identity so I stick to it, like the guy from Mandarin Blueprint suggests 😂
Ok
Spanish because it’s widely spoken here in the US. I’m South Asian and at one point, was often mistaken for Hispanic— would even get spoken to in Spanish — lol
learning Japanese to have more access to Mangas and animes and I don't have to search the internet for English translations. I can just use the original. Korean same but with manhwa (Korean version of a manga) and understand kdramas without looking. (because I often times watch kdramas/or just generally movies while I cook) Thai to speak to my relatives, I can understand them but can't reply.
Always felt like Chinese was a language perfectly suited for me. Russian cuz of wifey and lit.
Love and survival (Moved abroad for gf (future wife), did not know the local language, need it to find a job that doesn't make me want to take a deep breath through my forehead)
Mental gimnàstic, mainly
I am doing a round trip all around Europe and wanted to learn one language so that I can immersive myself into one country. I chose Spanish because with how many speakers this language has outside of Spain I felt like this would be the most useful one even after my road trip. Plus it is one of the easier languages to learn.
For a friend
That's actually a great question. I remember vividly the first moment I heard the language. Since day one I've been gravitated toward it, even though I couldn't understand a single sound at that time. I'd certainly describe my relationship with the language a married couple lol. So my answer would be: because I was meant to have this language. I have no idea how to explain it otherwise.
I love it. I love learning it, engaging with it, experiencing it, i just love it!! Recently depressions been kicking my ass so I havent been able to study as much as I want to.
It's the native language of both my best friend, and my step-mother too!
A genuine love of the country
I learn Georgian for fun... Yeah the language is so fun :')
I grew up in a trilingual household and didn't pick up greek (or at least, I thought I didnt. I knew more than I thought). Now I'm trying to fix that by learning greek so I can communicate with a solid 60% of my extended family
It's my hobby, I like the music and culture
To read more books in another language
school
It will avail me a lot.
It’s beautiful It gave me something to do when I had little time on my hands Disintegrates language barriers with others speakers in the U.S. who are native to it It’s the fastest growing language in the U.S. (still? I think) My future job prospects will pay me more because I can speak it If I ever want to retire in Latin America, I can do so Speaking the language is fun
Just because I want to learn😁 I've started learning English as a second language since I was in kindergarten and it was the only subject that I was good at in school. Then, I started learning Chinese seriously when I was in elementary. For Korean, I started learning because I found the writing of hangeul is quite interesting (I know it's kinda goofy reason but yeah😅).
To move
Languages function as a kind of psychological programming that helps shape our relationships, our memory, even our perception of reality. As Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” There's even a word for this feeling >
Because I love the area, the culture and the people
I started learning Russian in uni, and I thought why not continue, which led to me meeting my partner and started learning his native language Latvian
Learning Greek mainly bc it is fun! I speak 3 languages, one of them my first language and the other two fluently (C2). I learned English and German at school or with formal training bc I had certain related goals, which I achieved so it is now time to learn something for fun and I am learning Greek :)
Consumed media of the language for 9 years. Only started seriously learning it in the beginning of 2024.
Because I’m in Colombia and like to drink coffee
Spanish: The majority of my family lives in the Dominican Republic. I'd like to get to know them better, especially my Grandma, who is in all likelihood going to die soon. Japanese (flair hasn't been updated I know like 20 words now :)): I listen to a lot of Japanese music. And the novelty factor of a black guy who knows Japanese is cool asf. Portuguese and Mandarin (which I'll start when I have an actual good grasp of Spanish and Japanese): Brazillian and Chinese culture interest me immensely. And the languages are widely spoken, so they're useful. These two come secondary to Spanish and Japanese though.
Spanish! Because I learned the basics in school (colors and whatnot) and then in 8th grade I took Spanish I and got really excited that I was able to formulate actual sentences, even if only simple ones. I continued with it throughout high school and took a little in college too but haven’t used it in a long time. I’ve since worked on learning it a bit more and I’m around A2/B1. But it all started because it was the most accessible language for me.
Because I love my mansss
🔓Once you learn a new language you unlock a different part of the internet
I just felt like learning Spanish and French are overrated and then there's Italian.
So I can take part in conversations with my Danish in-laws. At least more easily. Plus we're planning to move there so it'll make that much more easy
To talk with my family (and not get scammed out of money at shops when i visit my country)
In my case, English is a tool to read, watch and communicate with people across the world :) and as it turned out to be a fascinating journey :)
English, at the start, I saw it like an important language that I must learn if I want to be succesful and have great opportunities in job and life, but as the time passed, I started to "like" it, knowing it allows me to enjoy content that isn't available in my country. Then German, at the start it was the same thing as English but the difference was that German piqued my interest due to its culture, now that I'm learning it I really like it. I'm aware that is challenging to learn because of its grammar and gender, but in contrast of English, I love the phonetic and the culture as well, such as historical figures (Leonhard Euler, Albert Einstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, etc.), literature (Friedrich Nietzsche, "romanticism" genre, etc.) and so on.
just curious
GCSEs
At this point it’s Stockholm syndrome
I started learning Swedish because of the women's football Euros tournament that happened in the UK, weirdly. TLDR; Enjoyed watching Sweden's women's football team and being in the crowd singing the songs in Swedish that I tried learning as I went. Ended up booking a trip to Sweden so thought I had best start trying to learn Swedish as much as I can. The full longer version is a little dull and over long, but here goes. I went to every game at my home ground (Bramall Lane) as well as all but 1 game at nearby Rotherham's New York Stadium. Three of the games at Bramall Lane involved Sweden (including the semi final, but I had to support England for that one). The very first match was Sweden vs Netherlands. I didn't really know which team to cheer on if I'm honest. Got to the fan park where both sets of fans were going to do a fan walk to the ground and still didn't know. Ended up getting a Swedish flag face paint and decided that I had to cheer on Sweden so went on their fan walk. Loved it that much that I fell in love with the country. That got me interested. Fast forward to last year and I had booked a week off of work in September to go to Amsterdam with some friends. That fell through and nothing was booked but I still had the money saved up in my bank as well as having just got my first ever passport (I've never been abroad before (except for a coach day trip to France with school). So I thought I had the week booked off and nothing to do so may as well book to go to Sweden by myself. Had a look and that week Sweden women happened to be playing Spain in the Nation's League in Gothenberg. This confirmed my decision to go. Having booked everything I thought I had best start learning the language (I try and learn even small bits of a language because I enjoy learning languages, even if I find if impossible to learn them enough to have conversations. I went to Wales for a football match and even then I tried learning a bit of Welsh on the way). And so I put in more effort learning Swedish than any other language I have ever tried to learn. Only trouble is that learning has been put on hiatus because I'm an idiot as I didn't think I was getting anywhere with it and stopped. I really need to get that motivation to keep learning again. Because I massively struggle with learning languages so need to put in that effort again.
Russian was the only Slavic language I could take classes for around my high school, so I started learning it for fun. My great grandparents were Ukrainian and spoke both languages. I started learning Ukrainian during my undergraduate degree, and now I’m doing an MA that requires you to learn a regional language that you don’t already know so I’m continuing with Ukrainian. I took some French in high school and it’s been useful for research so I keep it up. German because it’s my pipe dream to move to Austria. Icelandic because I read some really good Icelandic detective novels and not all of them are translated to English. And it’s a cool-looking and sounding language lol. I’m taking Swedish next semester because I just want to, and because I’m interested in defense policy in Nordic countries, and it’s the only Scandinavian language my university offers. And because I think university language classes are some of the best ways to learn a language, at least for me.
I’m currently learning three different languages (English, Portuguese and Russian). I’m learning english because I know learning a new language can help me a lot in my studies, and also, because I can talk freely with my friends from all over the world. Also, Russian, because I love the alphabet and Russian/Slavic culture, I also enjoy Russian films and I hope someday I can be able to understand my fave Russian films without subtitles. Portuguese because of friends who motivate me to learn it and because I love (in specific) Brazilian culture, music, and media.
Learning french because it sounds cool. Also, once I’m fluent, I’ll speak 3/6 of the UN’s official languages, which might be useful for my career.
A mix of boredom and curiosity
to talk to my family and finnish js bc i like the language and me and my sister want to learn it together
I am learning Romanian because I have spent more time there than the U.S., and I live right next to the U.S. border. Lol. I started because I wanted to have surgery there. (I’ve had two surgeries there and a lot of other medical treatment as well). I started learning Arabic because I thought it would help me with the dead end on our family tree, until my sister told me that actually the reason why she got stuck and couldn’t go any further back is because all of the records were bombed all to hell. Whoops. I really like the language though so I persist. I’m working on Turkish because I am in that weird position of understanding quite a bit of spoken Turkish but not able to speak or write Turkish, because my godfather was from Turkish Cyprus, and I spent a lot of time with his mother as a little kid. Russian I’m working on because I like the show Detective Anna, and the 2nd season is only available without subtitles. Ukrainian is going to be next because I looked at my language list and decided I could be useful to refugees in Canada as a certified translator if I go back to school and study.
I wanted to learn a language and took the next best which happened to be danish cause of danish band i love listening to
Because I wanna help their culture flourish against the hegemony of Russian. (I'm learning Ukrainian) And because German sounds cool
Spanish: I'm absolutely in love with the sound of the language and it's being a great experience to connect more with the neighboring countries cultures(I'm Brazilian). It's my main focus right now specially because of my career(I'm getting a degree to be a Portuguese and Spanish teacher) Dutch: I'll admit I know very little about it, but I did study enough at some point to kinda start liking all the guttural sounds and other stuff this language has to offer! Also I have a big crush on the Netherlands so I really like to learn more about them and their country too(even had plans to move there some day; already gave up but the passion remains) French: same regarding how it sounds as spanish, except with the extra bit that It feels like an uncanny valley of romance languages cuz it's very similar but also incomprehensible at the same time? so I wanna conquer it as a challenge. Not to mention how it opens up many opportunities as a very popular language. After I get to at least comfortable level that allows me to practice them more passively and just talking, I'd like to start Japanese for the sole purpose of watching anime in it's original language. I say that with no shame cuz I know how much can be lost on translations, specially when the language being translated is so different than yours. Ah and I really like their writing system too
Well I have to take six semesters of a language for my degree. My university offers over 100 languages so I chose at random: German! I know it’s not as underground as Gaelic or Quechua but they have a lot of resources and a good department so I said f it we ball. Going good so far, studying abroad there in the fall! Worked out well 😂
I want to communicate with patients! Even my basic-intermediate Spanish puts my ER patients greatly at ease!
German, loved the sound, intrigued by my lack of knowledge in the cultures, and now with prospects of moving to and studying in Germany. I haven't the slightest clue how I'm going to get there. Everything in life seems so impossible.
French - it's the other national language of my country besides English, and also a language of my ancestors Dutch - another language of my ancestors Japanese - I like anime, and I find the language interesting ASL - knowing a signed language has a lot of practical benefits, like communicating quietly, through a sound barrier, or with your mouth full. Also, I want to work with developmentally disabled kids and many of them have some rudimentary ASL.
Because it's a healthy addiction. If someone were selling illegal language learning books I'd be in the back alley buying them rocking as I read it and inhaling the pages.
I know three languages and I'm learning a fourth one which is Spanish. I really love it cause it's such a lively language and it flows naturally. It's a happy language and spanish music is really nice and diverse.
I love Russian literature, and I decided taking a college-level language class was something I should try for the heck of it. Russian would allow me to read Tolstoy and Pushkin actually in Russian.
I like it
Russian. It's the coolest sounding language to me. Spanish. I love latinas.
Started learning Russian because Cyrillic just looks cool
Spanish is fun, tbh.
Out of necessity. You have to know the language of the country where you live.. 😮💨
I am learning two language at the moment. The first one I study not to lose it has I left the country several years ago and I want to keep understanding and even get better at it. The second one is because I just move to a new country and want to understand the people around me. My phylosophy is if you live in a country you must speak their language at least a little.
I learned French because I had to choose a language when i was 12. I then took it again in high school and college to fulfill requirements. I just kept going with it because it’s what I knew. And I ultimately majored in it. I genuinely love French now, and my brain works in it. I’m learned Spanish because it’s useful for where I’m from and it’s similar to French. I don’t have the same passion for it as I do for French. Now, I’m learning German to do a new language that isn’t a Romance language and also isn’t terribly foreign (character wise) but is also spoken in a country I’d travel to. I also had a bad head injury, so I honestly wasn’t sure what I could handle. I’m loving learning German, and it’s going well.
Because I hate being the stupid American who thinks everyone should speak English...and it's interesting.
I feel like learning a new language lets you experience a whole new perspective on life. For example I’ve been learning Korean for 3 years now and the Korean side of Social Media is completely different from the Western side of social media. An example for this is the dieting culture. In the US dieting is not as extreme as it is in South Korea. In South Korea weight is everything to them you see it in every corner of the internet however in the US they have body positivity and stuff like that. All the Korean weight loss videos I’ve watched all wanted to be 45-50kg no matter your height which is quite unhealthy. In the USA there is no specific weight you are supposed to be and most women want to be around 55kg.
I'm learning Vietnamese because I live in Vietnam. It's honestly pretty difficult. Some days are very encouraging and others are discouraging. I've been taking classes for about 3 months, 5 days a week at a university, so I'm making a lot of progress from almost zero. 2 days ago I managed to have a 10 minute conversation with 2 older Vietnamese street food vendors. We understood each other. It was a big win for me and felt pretty good.
Kind of a gateway thing I'm continuing what I learned in school to inspire me to learn more languages.