Is anyone here learning a language? (real, not programming)

[mostwanted]

I'm trying to teach myself Chinese (mandarin) for several reasons.

• I plan to go to China early next year
• I might attend Asian Studies at uni
• Lots of people to speak with

Are you people studying any foreign languages? Please tell us why you are studying/ not studying a language. What do you think about learning languages in a world slowly becoming increasingly dominated by English (an estimated 1/5 of the world speaks English as native/second language)?

[Kosimo]

I'm trying to teach myself Chinese (mandarin) for several reasons.

• I plan to go to China early next year
• I might attend Asian Studies at uni
• Lots of people to speak with

Are you people studying any foreign languages? Please tell us why you are studying/ not studying a language. What do you think about learning languages in a world slowly becoming increasingly dominated by English (an estimated 1/5 of the world speaks English as native/second language)?

I'm actually studying Korean.

I speak five languages

Catalan (Native Level)
Italian (Native Level)
Spanish (Native Level)
English (Fluent)
Korean (Basic)

The cultural difference is amazing guys...

[FuturePilot]

I studied Italian for 2 years.

[JacobRogers]

I'm minoring in French because I had some spare electives and wanted to do something with them.

[vambo]

Japanese. Basically because I'm a Japanophile (if there's such a word in English )

[Depressed Man]

I'm slowly studying Chinese.. actually it's kinda funny cause it was my first language. English being my second.

I grew up speaking, writing Chinese at home until I started public school in America (and thus stopped going to Chinese school). It was also because the teachers had thought I was retarded (I couldn't speak english at the time, only Chinese since it's the only language I knew). So my mom had to teach me english (and as a result I slowly dropped Chinese).

I can still translate it when my family and friends speak it (sometimes with translation difficulties cause phrases can mean many things depended on how they are said). But I can't write it, nor read it (besides a few symbols). I can't speak it (well I can if my parents tell me how, and it usually sounds like the real thing).

So yeah I'm slowly learning it just by being exposed to my parents and Chinese TV shows on satellite TV.

[RandomJoe]

What do you think about learning languages in a world slowly becoming increasingly dominated by English (an estimated 1/5 of the world speaks English as native/second language)?

Funny you would say that - around here English is gradually becoming LESS used in certain areas! The Mexican population is growing, and there are parts of the city I can go and not readily understand the signs around me - let alone understand what anyone is saying! (I did have two years of Spanish in HS but that's a long time ago...)

I've thought about learning Spanish again - it would certainly come in handy with my job, I work in a construction-related field, where there are a lot of Mexican workers. But never have done it, just not a lot of motivation to do it.

The language that holds the most interest to me right now is Japanese - I've been watching a lot of anime and other Japanese shows and it would be interesting to listen to them in the original language - or at all, just got The Seven Samurai from Netflix. Great show, even if I can't understand a word. (I'll admit that's not exactly an ideal motivator...! )

After that would be Russian - I've always wanted to learn it, wished it had been an option in HS.

So what's the best way to learn a language? I hear ads now and then for Rosetta Stone, although their claims are a bit "too good to be true" sounding...

[proalan]

I was thinking of learning german (supposed to be easy)

I'm just a bilingual
chinese - cantonese and a dialect called takar
english - (brummie english)
and some very out of practice french.

Does mathematics count as a language? (Lecturers always said it was when I was at university)

For those looking for a challenge Finnish and Polish are said to be the most difficult european languages.

[Epilonsama]

In Puerto Rico most of us are bilinugual so I know both Spanish and English, about learning another language, I might do it in the future but not in the moment.

[Hygelac]

"Yes, on my own initiative."

I'm studying Latin and Attic Greek at university, and am amazed by how much I'm learning about English in the process. Of course, these languages aren't spoken much anymore; if I try to learn a modern foreign language sometime, it will probably be Russian or Mandarin Chinese.