# Anyone Ever Take Foreign Language?



## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Anyone ever take it?

I signed up for an introductory Japanese course this semester. I go to class three times a week for an hour & 15 minutes each.

I've heard that they go over in four months what one goes over in 3 years in high school courses. I took 3 years of French in High School & it seemed like a whole lot. So - I'm nervous about Japanese. I'd like to continue French as well although I'm scared that it might be hard in an intermediate course.

I'm so terrified! But I'm excited at the same time. & OF COURSE - I'm terrified about oral presentations & group conversation work.

What's been your experience with foreign languages?


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## rainbowOne (Sep 26, 2010)

I'm starting a French course in November. I already know a fair bit but it'd be good to brush up on my French writing. 
High school language courses aren't usually that well done - generally they aren't that easy to learn from, so that's why you cover much more in other courses.


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## OGirly (Aug 2, 2011)

I've taken two Arabic courses, and in general they were okay. It's a lot of information, but if you study and practice you should be okay  The worst part for me was having to speak aloud in class, but I guess that's really the only way the prof. can be sure everyone is learning...other than that college language classes seem to be really well put together and in depth. You should learn a lot


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## contranigma (Jun 24, 2009)

In college I've taken 2 arabic semesters, 1 chinese semester, and 2 spanish semester. I only had 1 year of spanish in high school, but in my opinion, high school AND college foreign language courses go at a slow pace. If you really want to learn a language, I think you need to find extra resources to study outside of class.


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## Watercoulour (Jul 24, 2011)

Im starting my second year of French. I took french since 5th grade but in 4 years we only covered french 1 and half of french 2, so it would be best if i did french 1 starting highschool seeing as we didnt cover all the hundreds of vocab and some gramma rules. Im hoping to take around 3 or 4 years of french, i really love it, its such a pretty language ^^


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## purplefruit (Jan 11, 2011)

i did french all throughout high school (was in this french immersion type program) then did a few french classes in uni as well. went to a french immersion thingy in quebec for 5 weeks. that's the only language i've done, enjoyable and very practical too

your learning experience greatly depends on your teacher, i've had a few duds. also if you're seriously trying to learn a language it's best to find opportunities outside of school to practice. i used to chat with french people on soulseek, read french books, and listen to french language songs. and of course went to quebec for a bit.

oral stuff was definitely very difficult, as was group work, because despite my grades and enthusiasm in taking french class after french class i was always miles behind in my spoken french compared to whatever class i was in. so i was pretty self-conscious. frankly if you're learning a language there's going to be a lot of oral stuff, be it presentations or even having the prof pick on you in class.


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## NaturalLogOfZero (Sep 29, 2010)

I was in french immersion from kindergarden all the way to grade 12. Which meant that everything was in french (except english class). Even gym was supposed to be in french. It wasn't hard because they started you so early. 

The real challenge was transitioning from french math/science to english math/science in university.


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## britisharrow (Jun 18, 2009)

German for 10 years.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

I really admire all of you that were in immersion programs or spent so many studying a language! You must be really good by now... I know how to read "easy" French books, like Harry Potter which I have in French.

I just bought an introductory book to Japanese. I think I can do this. It seems to make sense so far. & I love trying to pronounce the words. I love the way it sounds. Wouldn't be awesome if I did an immersion semester in Tokyo, Japan? I'd love to do something like that.


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## purplefruit (Jan 11, 2011)

NaturalLogOfZero said:


> I was in french immersion from kindergarden all the way to grade 12. Which meant that everything was in french (except english class). Even gym was supposed to be in french. It wasn't hard because they started you so early.
> 
> The real challenge was transitioning from french math/science to english math/science in university.


I always envied you Immersion folks. I was in this thing called Extended French which just goes from grades 9-12. Our school had Immersion too though, so all the "Frenchies" were lumped into some of the same classes. Many of the Immersion kids were a bit more advanced than us. I felt ripped off because my parents didn't put me into Immersion from the start :lol My cousin was in immersion and was better off for it, she's fully fluent at this point and makes "bilingual" money...:lol

EGD, Learning a language is indeed a great excuse to travel :lol there are tons of opportunities to go abroad and learn a language in its native country :yes Takes a bit of digging for information and might be hard work saving up, but it's worth it in the end


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## NaturalLogOfZero (Sep 29, 2010)

Eliza said:


> I always envied you Immersion folks. I was in this thing called Extended French which just goes from grades 9-12. Our school had Immersion too though, so all the "Frenchies" were lumped into some of the same classes. Many of the Immersion kids were a bit more advanced than us. I felt ripped off because my parents didn't put me into Immersion from the start :lol My cousin was in immersion and was better off for it, she's fully fluent at this point and makes "bilingual" money...:lol
> 
> EGD, Learning a language is indeed a great excuse to travel :lol there are tons of opportunities to go abroad and learn a language in its native country :yes Takes a bit of digging for information and might be hard work saving up, but it's worth it in the end


Haha that happened here to. Only they started in grade 7 and stayed "late immersion" until grade 9. Then got lumped in with us frenchies. My spoken french is okay but my writing is awful. Grammar was always the bane of my existence. But I don't have an english accent went speaking french and I rode that to bilingual mediocrity. Its been so long since I've really spoken french though. High school french classes were all about not speaking it.


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## purplefruit (Jan 11, 2011)

^So true about high school French. There was just too much grammar taught over and over again, and barely any emphasis on spoken French. I'm the opposite though, my spoken actually blows and my writing is okay, partially because of SA I barely have confidence speaking English nevermind another language. Also I tend to lose the French very easily if I go a few months without a class, in general I have a hard time retaining information so French is no different. I tried taking Oral French in uni and it was a disaster (coincidentally there was someone in that class who had SA or at least was as painfully introverted as myself). After that debacle I took a few more classes anyway, got pretty good grades but after 20 years of learning I still can't refer to myself as "bilingue"... /endrant

Ahh French...it's a love/hate relationship


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## Glacial (Jun 16, 2010)

Four years of french; unfortunately, I have not used it in 7 years and, for me, it's one of those things that I lose if I don't use.


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## Logitech (Jul 30, 2011)

I'm taking French for the fourth year this coming school year. We had a substitute once that made us all speak in French all the time. That was probably the best period of French I've ever had. It was so fun. The rest of the time, I feel nervous because I speak very directly, so I have no subtlety in silent accents and things like that. So when the teacher calls on me, I get all sweaty.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

I had four years of Spanish in high school and two conversational courses, third year (I was taking them as a Freshman!)


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## TomRay (Aug 6, 2011)

Yes. English. It's foreign to me.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

I'm two chapters in to my Japanese intro book & it actually doesn't seem too hard! I'm getting it quite quickly. Everyone always had known that I have a talent for languages. I can pick them up quite well. French & German were easy for me to learn. I just didn't continue them as I should have. Although - I "am" planning on taking another French course in college.


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## Piko (Jun 16, 2011)

I've taken 5 years of Spanish and I really like it. I feel like a different person while speaking in a foreign language 

In 4 weeks, I'm going to Germany for a year as an exchange student. So hopefully, by next August I'll have German down pretty good. 

I'd love to learn Romanian one day. :yes


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## papaSmurf (Jun 16, 2008)

I've taken years and years of Spanish, but my anxiety makes it really hard for me to do any speaking. Someday I'll have to just move to Argentina or something and force myself to get over my silly fears. Other languages I'd like to learn include Portuguese, French, Arabic, Japanese, and all the other ones.


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## cafune (Jan 11, 2011)

I've taken French in school for around 8 years but I'm most definitely not fluent in the language. My spoken French is just terrible. My writing's not thaat bad. But overall, I think the classes seemed pointless. Outside of the school environment I rarely ever have to speak French so I don't actually retain much.

Ohh, and I'd love to learn Latin and German though. That would be amazing! Maybe in university...


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## fairyduststars (May 14, 2007)

I'm studying languages at UNI and it's been ok so far. I will have to do more presentations next year but I have overcome my sa a lot from when when i was in secondary school.
Perhaps you can literally pretend to be a different person when speaking the language


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## shygurl25 (Aug 7, 2011)

I took Spanish and it was fun. But be prepared to do many oral presentaions and group work


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## syrella (Aug 4, 2011)

I love studying foreign languages. That's been one of my passions for awhile. I've studied some Japanese, Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean.  I lived in Japan for a year, too.

Sometimes the classes were a little difficult because they involved giving speeches or presentations. I got through it okay, though, and I think they helped me with my communication skills overall.


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## iwanttobenormal (Aug 2, 2011)

Anyone take Latin?


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## chocolatechipbear (Jun 29, 2011)

I've taken Chinese for 4 semesters so far and have really enjoyed it. East Asian languages are very interesting, but I can't stress enough how important it is to study study study and memorize your characters! Practice writing every single day. Anyway, I was a junior in high school when I took started Chinese at a college. My senior year I didn't have time to keep taking the college class so I took Chinese at my high school (it was the first year they had it so I was starting at the beginning). It was the same books and curriculum, we just went through it half as fast and yet everyone was complaining it was too hard haha, I couldn't believe it. So yes it will definitely go faster in college but the important thing is to study plenty and you'll be fine. About half the college kids dropped out after first semester and I'll bet anything it was because they didn't keep up with the work. Study and memorize!


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks for the advice! ^ I'll surely do that.


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## Maninthebox84 (May 3, 2012)

I speak Spanish as a first language. I have been learning Japanese for 2 years (took 3 semesters in college). I want a Japanese girlfriend so that I have someone to practice the language with, as I really enjoy it but don't have many opportunities to speak it  I would also settle for a friend.


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## Fellifax (Jun 27, 2011)

One of my majors in School in Japanese and I've been doing that for about three years. Am going to Nagoya to study abroad next year. Have also taken three years of Mandarin, three years of German, a year of Finnish, and have kind of started teaching myself Thai but that isn't really going anywhere as of now. 

Presentations and speaking tests are tough but they've helped me a lot with overcoming my fear of public speaking. I do tend to freeze up a lot when call on in class because my mind blanks for a few moments but that happens to everyone occasionally. Good luck with the Japanese! It really isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be once you get a good foundation in the language.


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## MF Doom (Mar 12, 2012)

My mother tongue is Dutch, I speak English almost perfect, my French is also pretty good and also German (which I know the basics)


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## farsan (Jun 30, 2011)

I'm studying swedish, english and russian... I'm not good at languages but I have to study all of them .. :/


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