What languages do you study/speak?

[Joseph]

Today, we want to ask what languages you have studied and/or currently speak?

As for me, I'm a native English-speaker (American English). I'm fluent in Spanish. While learning Spanish, I caught the bug and moved on to Portuguese and Latin. I'm probably about an Intermediate in Portuguese and Latin, and I have to say, every time that I hear or read one of those languages, I am always motivated to study more!

So, let us know a little about your background!

Saludos,

Joseph

[Bouks]

These are the languages I studied, in order of my exposure to them:

Spanish
French
Persian
Arabic
Japanese
Korean

The only one I am fluent in is French...the others are in varying stages of disuse
My strategy was to cram as many languages in my head as I could, so I'd have a "base" in each one, and they would be easier to come back to when I get older Do you think it will work?

[mariposa]

Hi,
I'm a native German-speaker, at school I learned Russian, English and French, from these 3 languages I understand and speak still English and French, as for Russian, I can read at least the kyrillic alphabet and understand some words and phrases - maybe I should try the new russianpod101.com
After school I studied French and Portuguese. During the studies I had do learn also a bit of Latin, but I think Latin makes only sense (at least for me) if you learn it before you begin to study it before other Roman languages. Portuguese is today my "best" language, because I need it in my job and speak it every day.
Some years ago, I've started learning Japanese, I like it very much, but it is by far the most difficult language I've ever learned, first because nearly every word is really new, it's very difficult to find analogies to German or Roman or even Slavic languages, second it demands another learning strategy which works more with visual incentives (there are so many kanji ) and I'm more the "aural-learning-type"
Finally I've been starting with Spanish, that's comparetively easy for me because it's very near to Portuguese, the only problem is not to confound to many words.

[Joseph]

Mariposa,

Just a note about learning Latin and it's role in learning other languages. On one hand, I think you're right. Here in the States, say as later as 40 years ago, Latin was commonly taught in both public and private schools. Unfortunately, it has rapidly disappeared from the curriculum. I wish I had begun to study it before I began Spanish. However, I began studying Latin just before I moved on to Portuguese, and I have to say, it made all the difference. I got halfway through an advanced Latin grammar book and it helped me in one major way: I learned a lot about what in linguistics is called "grammatical logic". For example, as a native English speaker, one big task in learning Spanish and Portuguese has been figuring out when to use the subjunctive mood. The rules for this in Latin are much stricter than they are in Spanish or even Portuguese, and often, when I have a doubt, if I think it through in Latin, I can figure it out in Spanish or Portuguese. Also, of course, the vocabulary! I kind of feel the same way about learning German. I would love to take an introduction to Anglo Saxon before emarking on that venture.

Bouks, you should be the poster child for Innovative Language! Wow! I can only imagine all the rules going through your head... I am not fluent in French, but I really enjoy speaking it (aka butchering it), when I find a patient and willing French-speaker. Just this last weekend, I was speaking with a French-Canadian. It was really interesting to hear her talk about why the French scoff at Canadian French, it being a vulgate. I've often felt that there are many similarities between the Romance languages spoken in the Americas. It would be an interesting comparison to make...

[Bouks]

Hahah...Joseph, I forgot to mention that I studied Latin in high school as well. It did wonders for my SAT score

It may seem like chaos would reign in my head with all the grammar rules, but I can still actually compartmentalize them very well. (Chaos reigns in my head for different reasons ) I don't have so much of a "language mixing" problem as you would think, except in the case of Japanese and Korean -- which is why I'm leaving Japanese aside for the time being. I will get back to it after I have spent enough time with Korean.

I don't understand French Canadians well, but I am not exposed to it often enough. I am also very interested in Cajun Creole, but it's hard to come by lessons or other materials on it.

[ninjaxjschick]

English is my native language (I'm American, so maybe I should more accurately say American-English ^^)
I've been learning Spanish for many years (since 7th grade) (I'm fairly proficient in Spanish and can hold a decent conversation ^^)
I wanted to attempt Japanese ... which I will sometime. Also Chinese, but I would really like to tackle really starting Korean, and I just have not been able to really start myself up with it. I don't know, I get so motivated... for such a short time. And then I stop. I really have to start pushing myself with it.

[cacevedo222]

Hey ninjaxjschick!
You are quite ambitious with your language learning. Motivation is like that though, fleeting. That's the beauty of a Podcast like SpanishPod101.com. These lessons are little bursts that will not take up your entire day. Day by day as you listen to the lessons you will be amazed how quickly you are learning. In my experience it is one of those things that comes as a pleasant surprise. Luckily for you, we have Pod101 courses for most of the languages that you mentioned.

Thanks for listening!
Carlos

[Keith]

Hey ninjaxjschick!

We also have a subscription for all our languages under 1 extremely discounted price. If you would like to sign up for all of these for a small price, please let us know by contacting us at

[serena07]

I wanna go abroad for higher studies and i have to learn English for my proficiency in the language and i am going to tefl course to prepare for TOFL.[url][/url]

[syn70]

I study Spanish primarily, second is Korean, and lastly German. A looooonh while ago I had a bad hand at Manderine Chinese but nothing stuck but ni hao and xei xei.

[hartstaken5280]

im learning japanese and spanish