# Are you learning a foreign language?



## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

I'm learning spanish, but I only practice a little bit everyday. It's slow going.


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## Marlon (Jun 27, 2011)

I am learning Tagalog


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## cybernaut (Jul 30, 2010)

Learning arabic. And _improving_ on Spanish. Spanish is my next best language after English.

I love learning languages..if I wasn't lazy I would also learn Hindi and Urdu.


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## 50piecesteve (Feb 28, 2012)

i have no reason to


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

I'm not studying anything currently. My classes suck up too much time to take a Japanese course and none of the colleges around here offer Portuguese. Only UC Berkeley, Stanford, and a few expensive private language schools have it. They do have Spanish but my heart is just not in it. I prefer Brazilian culture over Spanish American culture.

I'll pick Japanese and Portuguese for the poll though.


Why did fruitcake choose all of them?


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## To22 (Apr 6, 2012)

I will eventually get around to learning at least Spanish, FLUENTLY TOO not this awful American school standard crap.

It'd be nice to learn a couple more but I'm having a hard time choosing since I don't know which ones (besides Spanish) will come in handy =/


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## shyshisho (Apr 19, 2009)

I've been studying Japanese in my spare time for about six years and am still only lower intermediate at best. The pop culture keeps me with it.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

I have studied Spanish. That's "He estudiado espanol" :lol

I am also trying to learn Hungarian.


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## Matomi (Sep 4, 2011)

Skyloft said:


> I really want to learn Japanese.


Pretty much this...


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## Secretaz (Sep 10, 2011)

I'm learning english, russian and swedish.


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## Ortelius (Aug 22, 2011)

I'm currently studying English and Spanish. I would like to learn more languages in the future, but I'm not really sure which ones though.


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## gusstaf (Jan 1, 2012)

I am not currently enrolled in any German classes, but I did study the language for several years. I still try to chat on the phone with some of my German relatives from time to time...it's amazing how quickly you lose it if you don't practice!


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## AfarOff (Mar 29, 2012)

I have been trying to learn Italian for a while.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

What are all these votes for "other"? What language did I miss?


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

i wanna learn mandarin


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## Ortelius (Aug 22, 2011)

Right now I think I would like to learn French, Latin, German, Mandarin and Japanese. I don't have time for it though.


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## straightarrows (Jun 18, 2010)

we learne a 2nd language during school years,,,,,that's the system
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I can understand italian (better than what I thought!!).... I

tried to learne few Swedish words ,,,,, tried to learne a little bit of polish but could not!! ( love their music)

It's hard coz I don't have a motivation


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## BornInTheWrongPlanet (Jul 22, 2011)

I speak Portuguese and English and I'm now trying to learn Swedish.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

How long did it take you guys to get fluent? (able to understand spoken conversation with native speakers and talk back to them without asking them to slow down)


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## Canadian Brotha (Jan 23, 2009)

I know a series of random words & phrases in French but I can't really do anything with it as it stands. Learning the language properly is a lifetime goal of mine though


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## leave me alone (Apr 1, 2011)

Not really, I've recently learned few swedish words, but thats it.


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## Fruitcake (Jan 19, 2012)

komorikun said:


> I'm not studying anything currently. My classes suck up too much time to take a Japanese course and none of the colleges around here offer Portuguese. Only UC Berkeley, Stanford, and a few expensive private language schools have it. They do have Spanish but my heart is just not in it. I prefer Brazilian culture over Spanish American culture.
> 
> I'll pick Japanese and Portuguese for the poll though.
> 
> Why did fruitcake choose all of them?


Just saw this. Did you mean my reasons for selecting each of them or like why did I choose so many?

I took extracurricular courses in Latin, Portuguese, German and Japanese at school. I basically just took all the language courses I could, I didn't specifically choose those. French I just liked most out of the languages we could take as classes so I took it for a couple of years. Once I had a small basis in each I wanted to keep learning them. But I'm mostly focusing on French and then I'd like to become fluent in Portuguese.


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## madsv (Mar 19, 2010)

My wife´s Brazilian so I am learning Portuguese every day to talk with the family


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

Theologic said:


> I will eventually get around to learning at least Spanish, FLUENTLY TOO not this awful American school standard crap.
> 
> It'd be nice to learn a couple more but I'm having a hard time choosing since I don't know which ones (besides Spanish) will come in handy =/


Yeah schooling was a big waste of time for me. It wasn't until I started reading books in spanish that my comprehension really got good.


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

arnie said:


> Yeah schooling was a big waste of time for me. It wasn't until I started reading books in spanish that my comprehension really got good.


I studied Japanese for 2 years at city college before moving there and I thought it helped immensely. It's true I couldn't talk very well and it took a while to adjust to the speed and to learn the slang but I saw people who hadn't studied it before moving there and their Japanese was much worse than mine. It really helped to know the basic grammar and the most common words. And since less than 3% of the population can speak English, I pretty much put my Japanese to use from day 1.


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## odd_one_out (Aug 22, 2006)

I'm currently brushing up on ones I've already studied, such as French, Japanese, Spanish, and Latin. I took a short test and it turns out I've an aptitude for learning them in general, but haven't properly explored this. It's also adding more structure to the day. It doesn't worry me I'll never get to use them.


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## imaginger (Apr 6, 2011)

im learning the foreign language of love


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## Nekomata (Feb 3, 2012)

Generally Japanese, but I gave up on it so I'm just studying it passively now by watching anime.


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## Olesya (May 8, 2011)

I am Russian, but I also speak English and learning German.


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## Innamorata (Sep 20, 2011)

Italian.


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## Twelve Keyz (Aug 28, 2011)

girls should be required to learn Spanish... hottest language ever


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## low (Sep 27, 2009)

BornInTheWrongPlanet said:


> I speak Portuguese and English and I'm now trying to learn Swedish.


Hur mår du? =)

Jag lär mig Svenska också


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## xvxSarahxvx (May 19, 2012)

I have been studying Swedish for a few years now. I lived there for 3 years (i Göteborg) and unfortunately due to my SA and bipolar I hardly spoke to anybody men hej! Jag gillar att pratar svenska speciellt med icke-infödda talare! Hihi xD Kram! <3


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## sansd (Mar 22, 2006)

I'm not actively working on any right now.

In the past, I've taken courses in Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Swahili, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, and ancient Greek. I studied German for a little while on my own and was in an Arabic class for a few weeks. I might start Portuguese, a Scandinavian language, and/or Thai at some point.

I haven't given up. I'm just trying to focus on other things now. If not for the constraint of time, I'd love to learn any language. I'm thinking about starting language classes again soon, most likely in Chinese or Arabic, but maybe Japanese if I get around to reviewing enough to feel good about taking the next course (I took it 12 and 8 years ago).


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## Relz (Oct 31, 2011)

I took Japanese at both high school and college levels. I liked it a lot, but I was too scared to speak it both in class and my apartment with my roommate. I felt like I needed sound-proof room for one. That held me back from being as good as I could have been.

I took a little French in middle school, but I didn't care for it. French is hard!


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## komorikun (Jan 11, 2009)

Relz said:


> I took Japanese at both high school and college levels. I liked it a lot, but I was too scared to speak it both in class and my apartment with my roommate. I felt like I needed sound-proof room for one. That held me back from being as good as I could have been.
> 
> I took a little French in middle school, but I didn't care for it. French is hard!


Yeah, I thought Spanish was way harder than Japanese. Japanese grammar is extremely simple in comparison. The Latin languages have the worst verb conjugation!! Only easy thing about Spanish is that you don't have to deal with kanji and the pronunciation is almost as easy as Japanese.


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## 84929 (May 10, 2012)

I would love to learn Spanish and French. I see if my sister will lend me her copy of Rosetta Stone for Spanish.


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## Relz (Oct 31, 2011)

komorikun said:


> Yeah, I thought Spanish was way harder than Japanese. Japanese grammar is extremely simple in comparison. The Latin languages have the worst verb conjugation!! Only easy thing about Spanish is that you don't have to deal with kanji and the pronunciation is almost as easy as Japanese.


Haha, yeah Japanese conjugation is easy compred to other languages. And I especially like how japanese doesn't have different pronunciations for vowel sounds.
I may be the only person who loves Kanji, lol.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

Relz said:


> I took Japanese at both high school and college levels. I liked it a lot, but I was too scared to speak it both in class and my apartment with my roommate. I felt like I needed sound-proof room for one. That held me back from being as good as I could have been.
> 
> I took a little French in middle school, but I didn't care for it. French is hard!


But why would you want to learn it? If you're going to japan that's one thing, but outside of there who speaks it?


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## Relz (Oct 31, 2011)

arnie said:


> But why would you want to learn it? If you're going to japan that's one thing, but outside of there who speaks it?


Because it's a great experience. Why does any American learn any language? Other than Spanish, but even then you'll only use it if you live in a place with a large Spanish-speaking population.

I've had an interest in Japanese culture for a long time. It's a beautiful language to hear and speak, and the language itself is so closely tied to the culture & history of the country, making the study of the language even more interesting. I enjoy it, so why not study it?

I'd love to visit Japan, but unfortunately that's just not an opportunity I've had yet.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

"In French: “Oeuf” means egg, “chapeau” means hat. It’s like those French have a different word for everything. "
--Steve Martin


:haha


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## BobtheBest (Aug 27, 2011)

Spanish/French


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## blue the puppy (Jul 23, 2011)

i studied french in school for a long time, forgot it (actually never really learned it to begin with) and am now taking a course in it again.


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## Monotony (Mar 11, 2012)

I've been planning on learning German for a while but I've been putting it off to give me something to do this summer.


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## Octal (Aug 2, 2011)

Studying French at university as a side course next semester.


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## hoddesdon (Jul 28, 2011)

Why does nothing happen in the German Discussion Group?


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## Donnie in the Dark (Mar 15, 2011)

arnie said:


> I'm learning spanish, but I only practice a little bit everyday. It's slow going.


ah same here. I plan to pick up the pace when I break for summer.


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## A SAD Finn (Sep 16, 2007)

English and Swedish. I've looked into the very basics of Russian but haven't had time to really study it. There are too many languages that I'd love to learn.


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## Gunter (Aug 24, 2011)

I'm learning spanish right now highschool im takin college spanish next year. I love language would love a job where i would speak another language besides english. I think French and Spanish are the sexiest languages ever. Over the winter break i had started French. Once you have a good grasp on one Latin language its not as challenging to get the rest. 
French is easier anyways for example the past tense conjugation, its the same endings no matter what/whom/how many you are talking about.

Japanese is another language i want to learn badly. I just love the culture and i love anime:clap even though i would watch an Eng Dub anime over a jap dub w/ subs any day. Would like to Learn Hmong one day to. In MN they have a huge population of Hmong people. To know what my neighbors say about me each day i cross the street would be nice:yes


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## ravagingthemassacred (Aug 2, 2011)

I shall learn Norwegian and German someday! I'd love to learn Dutch and Swedish as well but they're not priorities. I feel idiotic that I've put almost no steps forward yet in this desire


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

50piecesteve said:


> i have no reason to


You're in TX, so aren't you surrounded by folks who speak Spanish? How does one pick up real cheap workers to install all the goodies they buy at Home Depot with out knowing Spanish?

I don't care to learn any other language. In HS I took two years of German, which was a total waste of time. 21 years later and guess how many German-speakers I've met who don't know English? Not even one! I met a German citizen, but she was a linguistics professor, meaning she could speak English better than most native-born Americans. Note: I'm of German ancestry & I still hate German. Like French is has this great annoyance of having to assign a gender to every damn noun (without rhyme or reason it seems). I really don't give a damn if a table is male or female.

Everything in German though does sound tough & mean -- you can't tell a death threat from a love song.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

UltraShy said:


> You're in TX, so aren't you surrounded by folks who speak Spanish? How does one pick up real cheap workers to install all the goodies they buy at Home Depot with out knowing Spanish?
> 
> I don't care to learn any other language. In HS I took two years of German, which was a total waste of time. 21 years later and guess how many German-speakers I've met who don't know English? Not even one! I met a German citizen, but she was a linguistics professor, meaning she could speak English better than most native-born Americans. Note: I'm of German ancestry & I still hate German. Like French is has this great annoyance of having to assign a gender to every damn noun (without rhyme or reason it seems). I really don't give a damn if a table is male or female.
> 
> Everything in German though does sound tough & mean -- you can't tell a death threat from a love song.


I agree with this. If you ever go to a national park, you see hundreds of germans running around taking pictures, but they will all talk to you happily in English like it's no big deal. Many European countries have mandatory english classes in grade school, when it's easiest for kids to learn so literally most of the country can speak english far better than you will ever learn their native language. So what's the point?

Spanish is far more useful. All of south america (except brazil), central America, and Mexico speak it. Most of these people have very poor or no english skills so the language is actually useful.


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## Kaylee23 (Sep 5, 2011)

I know the international phonetic alphabet :b lol took a class for it.


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## pythonesque (Jun 16, 2012)

UltraShy said:


> Everything in German though does sound tough & mean -- you can't tell a death threat from a love song.


:lol Sounds like my kind of language.


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## Jinxx (May 10, 2011)

No. I took Spanish in school from 8th to 10th grade though but I never could get the hang of it.


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## aloneanddizzy (Jul 1, 2012)

Relz said:


> Because it's a great experience. Why does any American learn any language? Other than Spanish, but even then you'll only use it if you live in a place with a large Spanish-speaking population.
> 
> I've had an interest in Japanese culture for a long time. It's a beautiful language to hear and speak, and the language itself is so closely tied to the culture & history of the country, making the study of the language even more interesting. I enjoy it, so why not study it?


Absolutely right. I think it's healthy to expand your mind and understand that language can be something other than the familiar A-B-C-D. And the exposure to another culture you gain just through the language is beneficial, too.

I wouldn't go so far as to claim I am making any sort of concerted effort to learn another language, but I have at least been dabbling at learning a little bit of Korean over the last few years.


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## Jollygoggles (Mar 3, 2011)

I learnt a little bit of Spanish in my spare time.

My dad speaks fluent German. I think it'd be wise to learn German as I am going into engineering and being able to travel and work in German opens up a whole host of benefits ($$$ and respect). 

Always flirted with the idea of Italian but I realised that's just because of nothing other than mafia movies. Not really a basis to learn a language.

I will see if I can squeeze German into my spare time while studying. At least I can practice with my dad instead of going out and making a fool of myself first.


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## Vuldoc (Sep 8, 2011)

I'm taking a German class this fall semester. I also want to learn a few others mainly Russian, Latin, Arabic, Japanese and probably Norwegian. By the time I'm 90 I'll be fluent in all those.


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## BrookeHannigan (Mar 29, 2012)

No, I already know 4 languages I dont need more,
some better than others,
And I learned some dari phrases from my boyfriend...
but thats all love phrases so its not like I can actually speak it, :')
And I always had a thing for indonesian but too lazy to study.
I learned Japanese as I spend quite a lot of my teen years in japan,
but its becoming quite rusty, as I dont go every summer holiday to japan anymore, and I kinda dont feel like keeping in touch with my jp friends over there,
also some russian cause my grandmother is russian,
My dad is spanish but I dont want to learn it I absolutely hate the sound of it, and english in school,and my native language estonian.


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## au Lait (Sep 8, 2010)

I started teaching myself Portuguese awhile back. I'd like to pick it up again.


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## Queen of Spades (Mar 17, 2012)

Yes I'm learning Japanese at the moment.


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## Cheskey (Jul 6, 2012)

We had three years of compulsory spanish and french, but I didn't learn a thing except random grammar rules. I'd like to try learning french again, but nothing sticks anymore xD


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## brandini734 (Jan 15, 2012)

I'm currently learning German right now and future languages that I hope I will try to learn later on are either Italian, French, or Swedish.


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## LilianaAbby (Mar 27, 2010)

I’m trying to learn Croatian, my mom’s side of the family live in Croatia.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Nope.


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