Foreign languages, anyone?

[Zach]

Is anyone else in here interested in foreign languages? I'm really into them, and it's my goal to become fluent in as many as I can as soon as possible...It will probably take a long time, but I'm going to do my best. There is one man I know of, his name is Barry Farber (he's written a book, viewable here), and as far as I know he was been qualified by the US military for work in at least 10 different languages.

As of now I can hold a conversation in Spanish, and I'm casually studying Italian, French and Portuguese (they are all from the same family, and are very similar)..just acquiring a little now and then.

What about anyone else?

[sourceofmiracles]

I speak Ebonics and Jive.

Cut me some slack, Jive turkey.

[Maciek]

Polish, English, German( not fluent ) and now I just started learning Russian and Spanish

[PhoenixOwl]

I have a great passion for Japanese. I can't quite hold a conversation, but I've got down hiragana and most of the basic grammar (verb conjugation, adjective conjugation, sentance structure, etc.)

I also know a little German. Again, not enough to hold much of a conversation, but I'm getting there.

[floramorada]

Originally Posted by Zach

I'm really into them, and it's my goal to become fluent in as many as I can as soon as possible...It will probably take a long time, but I'm going to do my best.

I am into them too. I'm currently studying Spanish and Russian. I studied some Latin in the past, and I'm lucky to have been exposed to German, French, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese. I also intend on becoming fluent in Tagalog. And my list of languages that I want to learn keeps growing - ASL, Swahili, Portuguese, Gaelic, Arabic, Greek... However, my skill level in all of these is minimal because I dabble. Spanish, at one point, I had an intermediate grasp on, but four years away from the language mostly negated that.

I'm currently trying to fashion a major around learning multiple foreign languages, but I'll probably end up picking a different major. I don't know how effective it is to take classes on different foreign languages simultaneously, if the end goal is fluency. Especially, if those classes are the only exposure I have to the language, and my focus is divided between four or five other subjects. I end up dabbling and then losing what little I did learn.

I'm impatient and easily become frustrated myself.

That book sound interesting, I'll try to find it here. Thanks for mentioning it!

I look forward to hearing what others have to say about this. How is it that in almost every other country, people are at least bi- or tri-lingual? I'm hoping that people might post stories about their journeys toward fluency, or any ways to more effectively learn languages.

[Mark Lapierre]

Learning new languages can be a heap of fun

I'm sorely out of practice at the moment, but I've learnt a fair amount of Japanese, and studied French all through high school. Next will be German. I'd also love to learn Mandarin.

PhoenixOwl-san wa nihongo ga daisuki desu ne? Watashi mo, demo matta jozu janai.

(I would have written that in hiragana but I haven't installed support for Japanese input )

[Daniel Terhorst]

Oh, yes!

Japanese is my primary interest, but I gladly gobble up bits of other languages. I hang around blogs like Polyglottery and Omniglot.

Some kind souls out there make language-learning podcasts freely available. The best I've found is Japanesepod101.com. Chinesepod.com is also pretty good. Both try to push their (paid) website services on you (especially chinesepod.com), but the free podcasts alone are well worth looking at! Listening to podcasts lets me focus on many languages at once--effortlessly, in my free time.

I also highly suggest watching Jerry Dai's speech here.

The textbook approach really hasn't worked for me. I've made a lot more progress after deciding to focus on conversational skills. It's a lot more fun, too.

-- Daniel Terhorst

[falcon]

I did quite a bit of French, German and Latin at school (most of which I've forgotten ) and have dabbled in a little Portuguese and Italian.

I would love to be bi- or even tri- or more lingual, but it's difficult to find the time and opportunites to practice. I think, to really become fluent, you really need to live in a country that speaks the language you want to learn as the main local language. Without that level of immersion (and regular practice thereafter), it seems very difficult to master another language as an adult.

I'd also love to learn Japanese (I watch far too much anime ) but have been rather intimidated by stories from friends who have tried to learn it and given up because it was so difficult!

[Alejandro]

I speak Spanish, so if someone need help with it i will we glad to help.

[Minishark]

I wish I was better at foreign languages. I've taken classes in French, Spanish, and Latin. I even did pretty well in the classes, because most everything is written, but whenever it came to actually trying to carry a conversation, I freeze up. I have trouble thinking fast enough to remember vocab and conjugate verbs on the spot. The idea is that you're supposed to practice enough that you're not even having to think about those things, but I never could find the time/motivation to practice enough.
I think I may give Spanish another try, because if nothing else being able to say I'm fluent in Spanish would be a huge boost on my resume, for those of us here in the US.

[Fusebox]

I am currently fluent in English and Urdu (native tongue), however I will make the effort to learn spanish. I bought some audio CD's to listen to which I havent yet completed. I'll definitely post some questions if I have any.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by falcon

I'd also love to learn Japanese (I watch far too much anime ) but have been rather intimidated by stories from friends who have tried to learn it and given up because it was so difficult!

I strongly encourage you to give it a shot! If you've already been exposed to the language then you'll have a head start, and a great motivational tool. It's fun to be able to pick up on when anime subbers get things wrong, or leave interesting things out, or tone down the insults characters throw at each other

Japanese can be hard, but I think the difficultly can easily be overcome with enough motivation (to state the obvious). And I'm sure you'd find it encouraging to be able to grasp the basics fairly quickly. Japanese, at the basic levels, follows grammatical rules that are straight-forward and easy to remember.

However yes, it does get hard. It always amused me when my teacher would tell the class that when she told us about a certain rule in an earlier class, and that there were no exceptions to the rule, she lied. Thankfully she could teach the altered rule in a way that fit with the previous without confusing us. Domo arigatou gozaimasu Sato-sensei!

Also, if you decide to do it, and also want to visit Japan, an ideal way to learn Japanese is by living with a Japanese hostfamily and going to a Japanese language school. I did a two week course last year (organised via STA Travel), had an amazing time, and learnt more in those two weeks than I did in the 8 months before!

[stalker]

I love foreign languages! My native language is romanian and I am fluent in english, german and french. I also started with russian. Next year I will be moving to China, so I am going to learn chinese too.

[ahimel]

Ha! I thought I was the only one with a desire to learn every language on the planet. I live in Colorado and have visited the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona, so my lifelong dream is to someday learn Navajo. (For those of you who are not obscure-language fanatics, Navajo is a language so difficult to learn that they used it as a code in WWII.)

Zach -- have you read They Have a Word For It? It's one of my favorite examples of why I love learning foreign languages. It's a list of interesting words that don't have an equivalent in English.

The French have a word (esprit d'escalier) for "The witty insult that comes to you just AFTER it's too late to deliver it."

The German have a word (fisselig) (I don't think I spelled that right) for "flustered to the point of total incompetance due to people watching you, especially a superior."

And I don't remember which language it is that has a word (Orenda) for intention-manifestation. He describes it as somewhere between a goal and a spell -- a focused concentration of will that causes a thing to come to pass. Sounds like IM to me!

Nice to meet a fellow expert in gibberish.

Amanda

[nikewong]

i know malay, english and chinese.. and i blog in chinese.. will learn more in the future

[Pavel Alasheev]

my only foreign language is English. and very basic German, just enough to be able to understand and sing Rammstein songs.

And actually i don't see the point in learning many languages. It's a huge time investment and what do you get in the output?

Most of the planet speaks english, so english is quite enough for any practical purpose like travelling and socializing with people from other countries.

The only reason i can think of is reading fiction literature (watching movies, listening to music) in original language. From my experience, once you read both the original and the translation of any book (or movie) you understand that a translation never comes close. A lot of author's style and wit is lost in translation.

But being a good reason, still it's not good enough for me to devote a significant portion of my life to learning another foreign language. IMHO it's better to polish the one you already know. In my case it's english and i try my best to practice it any time i can. (hope i do a good job here )

[PhoenixOwl]

Mark Lapierre:

Hai, watashi wa nihongo daisuki desu.

(My vocabulary is rather... limited at the moment. I put to much emphasis on grammar. Silly me. Now I'm going to have to up my vocab. )

Daniel Terhorst:

Those look like awsome podcasts. I think they will definately aid in learning Japanese.

falcon:

I love anime too. It's what got me interested in learning Japanese. Anime and manga are far too addicting for their own good. Don't let those stories scare you. Japanese can be hard at times, but it's fun.

[Light]

Yet another anime fan to add to the list. I'm currently attempting to learn Japanese (mostly via Nihongo Resources). I've got Hiragana and Katakana down, and I'm just starting on some basic stuff. (The only thing that intimidates me is kanji ). Currently my plan for college is to minor in Japanese, so hopefully I'll be able to get ahead before I start those classes.

I'm also fairly decent in German. While I'm not fluent, I'm currently taking my 4th year of the course, so I can get by fairly well.

[Nico Kempe]

I thought about learning to photoread and then just go through some dictionaries of other languages.
It doesn't help you to properly speak or write that language, but at least you'll know the words..)

[Kenpachi]

I'm definitely into them too :] I know Russian(native), English(my grammar is awful, and I have no confidence in speaking), Japanese(pretty decent level, yeah, yet another anime freak ;p) I also have a plan to learn Chinese, Korean and Polish :]

If anyone needs help with Russian - feel free to ask.

btw, I found this site - thelinguist.com, I like their idea of language coaching via skype

[aelle]

I LOVE languages! I can speak French, English, Spanish, some Japanese and I used to speak German but forgot most of it. As soon as I am satified with my level of Japanese I want to start studying Russian.

Pavel, I find that learning languages teaches me a lot. Not only about other people and other cultures, obviously, but also about myself. For example when I started studying Japanese (the only foreign language I know that doesn't use the latin alphabet) I realized how everything in my mother language -and my culture- was pure convention (I taught myself to read when I was 4 or 5 so this came as quite a revelation)
Also, studying kanji (chinese caracters) involved a learning process verry different from what I had ever used before.
Finally, I think the structure of a language influences the thoughts themselves. If I think (or dream) in a foreign language, it sometimes leads me to different conclusions than if I had followed a think pattern in French!

I have a question for you multilingual people : how many languages can you handle at once? I found out that 3 is my limit. I found myself in a situation where I was studying Japanese in the US, while still working with French people, and it worked just fine, but when my friends found out I spoke Spanish and wanted to talk in Spanish with me, it became impossible.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by aelle

...how many languages can you handle at once?

I can only handle the three that I know, but since my current grasp of two of them is not all that strong, that's not a difficult feat, and handling means fumbling

However in Japan I met a Danish guy who was fluent in English, German, Danish, and while not fluent in Japanese he was very good. If I remember correctly he could also speak French, but there was no-one else speaking French at the time.

I also remember a tour guide in France who spoke in 6 different languages with the other tourists and my family. She knew 11 in total (can't remember what they all were though).

[WayToTwilight]

I was born an ABC (Already Been Chewed... I mean... American Born Chinese ) and my parents are from Hong Kong and so I am semi-fluent in Cantonese. I say semi-fluent because I probably have really good grammar and syntax but probably the vocabulary of a 5 year old Cantonese kid.

I'm also really interested in learning Mandarin, I know basic mandarin because I took a years worth of courses in it but I haven't really used it for over a year now so it's quite lacking.

I've also been quite interested in Japanese but now I think my focus will be the two Chinese dialects. I've been listening to lots of Chinese songs, both Canto and Mandarin, as of late and I really want to get back into Chinese cinema but right now there isn't that many great Chinese movies since Infernal Affairs. Feels like Koreans dominate Asian cinema now.

[rvgrinsven]

fluent in Dutch, semifluent in english, enough to have a conversation with people in French and German. Oh and a little bit of Swedish and Danish

[Leaf]

Portuguese and English... A bit of Spanish and French and a tiny little bit of Japanese.

[BlueCrane]

I am thinking about doing something in German, as soon as I am a bit more familiar with this forum. Anybody else interested ?

[Daniel Terhorst]

Originally Posted by Pavel Alasheev

And actually i don't see the point in learning many languages. It's a huge time investment and what do you get in the output?

A lot of enjoyment.

Originally Posted by Pavel Alasheev

The only reason i can think of is reading fiction literature (watching movies, listening to music) in original language. But being a good reason, still it's not good enough for me to devote a significant portion of my life to learning another foreign language. IMHO it's better to polish the one you already know.

Once you reach the point of diminishing returns, it becomes less and less effective to sink more of your time into learning a language you already know... I could certainly improve my only fluent language--English--but it would take a lot of effort for discouragingly little return.

I'm a pretty avid reader (something I seem to share with many other members of this forum), but, speaking for myself, sometimes I tire of the selection. There are always good books out there in my own language, but learning a foreign language opens up a whole new, fascinating world. Since I don't think it's a chore, it's well worth the effort to me.

I can certainly understand that not everyone would benefit to the same degree.

Originally Posted by PhoenixOwl

Those look like awsome podcasts. I think they will definately aid in learning Japanese.

Glad to be of service.

-- Daniel Terhorst

[zpivat]

Fluent in English, Spanish, Indonesian, Malay, some German, Swedish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, French, Dutch and Portuguese. Also know basic/daily greetings of some other 10 to 15 languages, and able to recognise any spoken European and Asian languages quite instantly........

[marieke]

I read this in a (Dutch) magazine, a few months back.
The Dutch speak the highest number of languages on average.

Although I wasn't one of them, I always saw myself as someone who is more a beta person than an alpha person.

My mother tongue is Dutch, but lived in the US and learned the English language there (after suffering 8 years in the Netherlands and not feeling confident).

Later on studied in Brazil, and learned to speak Portuguese there. Now I am studying Japanese at the University. But I guess I will learn it quickly once I move to Japan to live the language.

Next to that I studied French, German and Spanish, but never mastered any of those languages.

So... 3.6 languages is really my number now (the 0.6 for Japanese)

[Ibanez]

I'm currently learning Greek, if anyone knows Greek and wants to help pm me.

I then plan to either move to russian or german, it will probably be German though since that's my heritage. Although, I really like the sound of the slavic languages.