Chitchat Multiple Languages?

[Neshaiku]

Chances are, many of us were required to take a foreign language in High School/Secondary School, but I find it rather common that said language is dropped after the requirements are met for graduation. I, myself, took Spanish, since I was told it was relatively easy, and a good language to learn in general.

I hated it. It seemed ridiculously difficult and tedious, and I simply didn't enjoy the language. Only two years after taking the required two years of the class, it would be impossible for me to hold a simple introductory conversation.

This month, one of my friends has convinced me to look for another language to begin learning on my own time, and after light research on how people tend to feel about many languages, I've landed on Korean. I initially thought it would be terribly difficult, but it feels much easier than Spanish was for me, and looking back on my old notebooks from the class, I'm learning at a much faster pace, with half the time spent. I study for only have an hour every day, and I feel my progress is great so far.

How many of you out there are learning/have learned more than your native language? What were your experiences with it, and what tips would you give to someone (like me) who's just starting out on their journey to becoming bilingual?

 

[RunawayGirl]

My family is from Argentina, and I hate to say I don't speak a lick of Spanish. But I am learning now since I will be visiting. There's two types of Spanish. Mexican Spanish which I call Spanglish and Castelian which is Argentine/Spain's version of Spanish. Similar roots but not all the same which makes my accuracy difficult since in the school systems they mash the two together, same with programs such as Duolingo. However I am aiming for both types of Spanish since in the United States it's a growing popular language, I also want to learn Madarin! But it's going to be one language at a time.

 

[Neshaiku]

I also want to learn Madarin! But it's going to be one language at a time.

I've heard of people learning multiple languages at once, and it's always baffled me. Even though I said in the OP that Korean seems easier than Spanish for me, but it's still learning an entirely new language, and that's no simple task. Also, isn't Mandarin supposedly one of the most difficult languages to learn as a secondary/tertiary/etc language?

 

[-Q-]

We were taught French at school. We also had an option to take German. Few did so.
I briefly attempted to learn Spanish, but I generally don't have that much time/ I prefer to dedicate my time to other things and forget about my want to learn other languages.

However, I do like to pick up the odd word or so. For instance, One word must be learned in every country visited. I also ask friends who know more than I do to teach me simple words that'll stick. It's not useful, but it's random general knowledge that I enjoy having.

What I would personally suggest is; don't try to learn two similar languages at once, it's easy to get them confused/mixed up and leads to awkward translation situations when in use with a native speaker.

 

[Idea]

Back in my highschool days, I had english, german and latin as mandatory languages. From my siblings I have learned that on my last year of highschool they began giving students the option to take mandarin instead of german, but oh well. It's not like any of these helped that much anyway. I know a tiny bit of latin, but my german teacher was pregnant half the year almost every year, and even when she was around I confirmed with family I have in germany (grandgrandparents were german, so I still got some family there), but that woman didn't even know how to speak the language, much less how to teach it. As a result, I can barely say "good morning" after 5 years of learning german.

English was something else entirely. Most of the english I know, I actually learned it from the internet and from a game called World of Warcraft. I've been trying to play that game since I was like 5, and as a result I ended up learning a lot of english just to be able to understand the game. You'd be surprised how far a bit of personal motivation can take you. In addition to this, my highschool had a partnership with cambridge, which allowed us to take a cambridge english course. Between wow as a platform for my enthusiasm and that course complementing and refining the rougher edges of how I spoke, plus my interest in other things that usually came in english (some books, the internet, magic the gathering) I speak English as well if not better than my native language, to the point where I grew a bad habit for a while of randomly switching languages mid-sentence.

Beyond this, I do sort of have a scratching the surface level of awareness of some languages, like brazzilian and spanish due to their proximity to my native language (portuguese), and I consume industrial amounts of anime, so I have a weeb's knowledge of the languae (not that I would be able to hold a conversation with the eloquence of a five year old though).

 

[Evy]

Where I'm from, we begin to learn English from year 1 (when we're 7). In Year 6 (when we're 12) we have to pick between taking Spanish, French or German, too. So between Year 6-9 (elementary school) we have different courses with three languages, including our native. In high school (three years long), we still have to do english courses and our native language, but the second languages are optional. I studied French for 6 years, but I can't use it if I ever go to France, hah.

I recommend the app Duolingo, it's actually pretty helpful!

 

[Neshaiku]

I recommend the app Duolingo, it's actually pretty helpful!

I've tried Duolingo for multiple languages (Spanish, Korean, Japanese, French) and even tried out Korean to English. Didn't enjoy any of it, personally. But I know it's helpful for a lot of people, so I can't really not recommend it for people who don't know where to go to learn a language.

 

[melz]

i learned spanish throughout my earlier years at highschool, but i stopped at spanish 5. that being said, i'm not really fluent in it, i just knew the grammar and vocab rules enough to pass the class and it sort of... went away after i finished the class?
currently i'm learning norwegian and i have been interested in learning it since 2016, but i just now really got the motivation to actually pick it up again. i use multiple apps and i write out vocab lists and stuff of that nature. i have a binder for it and i actually feel like i'm learning pretty quickly now.​

 

[Anamnesis]

I took Latin [ap] and German through high school and have held on to a lot of both. I've continued trying to practice both of them rigorously over the last couple of years, reading books in each, etc, to try to hold onto it. I'm in university now and currently beginning to learn Korean as well! It feels different, and intimidating, but I'm slowly getting a hang of the phonetics.

 

[Jello]

I took three years of French in school because I adored the language. I had to drop the class my senior year because I was failing my other classes, and I needed to be able to focus on them. After so long of not studying it I've forgotten almost everything. However, my advice would be to focus on vocabulary. I remember proper sentence structure, grammar, and everything like that. But I can't speak, read, or write the language because I simply don't remember the words.