Is anyone else trying to learn a language?

[Nkeyika]

Besides wearing skirts, another thing I like doing is studying Korean. I was wondering if anyone else is studying a language? If so, I'd like to know why.

[6ft3Aussie]

I'm trying to pick up some of my wife's local dialect from her home region (Waray), plus Tagalog, the common language throughout the Philippines, which is she is from originally.

I'll never likely be able to fluently speak all of the 5 languages she speaks though (Her local dialect, the dialect of an adjoining province, the common language Tagalog, English and Japanese). Most of the time, English works for us.
Tip for learning another language - give yourself exposure, We can get some Filipino programming of satellite TV, and watching the news, say is a good way to get spoken every day language.

Our aim is to be able to teach the language(s) to our 13 month old boy, as that's part of his heritage.

[floatingmetal]

I'm trying to learn Arabic (Modern Standard), as a means to keep the brain active, mostly using the Duolingo app but also a few podcasts as well. When I get some time I will try and find an in-person class too. I chose it as a widely used language that might be useful both at home and abroad. It was either that or Welsh.

Over Christmas, I also picked up a discount "lifetime" subscription to a British Sign Language course. Haven't started that yet though.

[SkirtsDad]

I love languages. Apart from breaking down barriers they also provide an insight into a culture. I speak Hebrew as I lived for seven years in Israel. That was a long time ago. This week, however, a friend of mine's mother was visiting and she speak Hebrew, so we've been having a good old natter in Hebrew.

I went to Brazil in 1990 to spend a few months with a friend. At that time around half the people were illiterate (according to my friend when I asked why all foreight films were overdubbed - most wouldn't be able to read them) and virtually no-one other than my friend spoke any English. Therefore I set about learning Protuguese. I would study many hours a day. When I got back to the UK I wanted to continue studying Portuguese, but they only had very basic level classes, so I did Spanish to A level.

Apart from that I have studied Arabic, Italian and French, all at night school. Sadly with the cut-back there are very few night school courses left, so I haven't done any language studying for a few years now.

[Myopic Bookworm]

I am studying German on Duolingo at present, having also dabbled briefly in Polish, Finnish, and Ukrainian.

[KiltedBigWave]

I studied Spanish at the age of 40 for my job in Colombia and it was extremely difficult at that age. good luck

[Seb]

I do some Japanese on duolingo and with a few books. I did read a half year after high school in college and recently picked it up again as something more productive then mindless scrolling when there is nothing better to do.

I would like to learn finnish, but my dyslexia really hates double consonants

[TonautBrom]

Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg ar hyn o bryd!

[Kirbstone]

I'm far too old to dabble in languages now. Some 40 years ago I knew that I was likely to spend some time working in Germany and embarked on intensive one-to-one tuition while still in England, which went on Berlitz language school lines, designed for businessmen.
When I eventually did get there and into a total immersion experience I discovered that ordinary Germans used colloquial speech to each other, very different from formal Berlitz speech and that is what I learnt, to help me communicate with patients who wanted Dentistry. I also watched a lot of German T.V., where colloquial speech is the norm except National news bulletins, always delivered in High-German or Hochdeutsch.

I still brush up my 'Umgangssprache' annually by spending some time with my old Shanty-choir singers.

Tom

[greenboots]

I studied Spanish at the age of 40 for my job in Colombia and it was extremely difficult at that age. good luck

I started Spanish in my 40s and found it very easy. I went to evening classes and got in with a group of similarly educated people, so that helped. I did the B1 certificate at 54 and the B2 at 59. The biggest help was weekly conversation at a language cafe in Edinburgh. I now speak regularly with a colleague who was born in Venezuela. I have also used Spanish DVDs “Los misterios de Laura”

[Stu]

Several decades ago, while waiting to catch a train, I walked into a bookshop and picked a thin book pretty much at random. The book was Danish in Three Months. I bought it on impulse and started reading it on the train. My wife found the book and asked me if I was having an affair with a Danish woman or something, which of course I wasn't. I later supplemented the book with a set of cassette tapes (remember those?) and completed the course in more like six months. I still didn't feel confident in the language, so I bought a more advanced book called Colloquial Danish and began working through that. My employer discovered I was learning Danish and I was told there were funds available and the possibility of study time for staff learning European languages, so I enrolled on the Bachelor's course at a nearby university and completed it. Having subsequently made some Danish friends, I became close to fluent. In 2009, I moved to Sweden to take up an academic position. I attempted to speak Swedish, which is a sister language to Danish, but everybody thought I was a Dane because of my accent.

Incidentally, once I had completed the Danish course, I had the bug for learning and qualified first as a teacher in higher education, then a Master's degree in English and finally a PhD in linguistics. That tiny book Danish in Three Months was the acorn from which a new career and life came about.

[Bill]

I was never much for learning another language. I had seven semesters of college French - to pass the required four. I did take French 3 and 4 in a condensed summer program - to help me pass the requirements. At the end of those six weeks I started to feel "comfortable" with French. I was offered a chance to study in Quebec for another three weeks of a total-immersion program - but, sadly, could not afford the experience. I am always sad to think what I missed back then. I really believe the "immersion" experience really works.

A few years back our son was in the military and stationed in Germany. We went to visit him twice - once for 10 day and later on for a full month. I had no prior experience with German but after that full month I began to get by with a good amount of conversational German.

Hopefully next year (2025) my wife and I will visit France - with Normandy being on the bucket list. If/when we do that I am curious to see if my 55-years-ago-French-classes will help enrich my experience there.

[crfriend]

That tiny book Danish in Three Months was the acorn from which a new career and life came about.

Oh my word! How lovely is that story?! Magnificent, and very, very well done!

[Stu]

Oh my word! How lovely is that story?! Magnificent, and very, very well done!

Thanks!

[FranTastic444]

I've always wanted to be able to speak a second language, but despite several attempts I've never managed to progress beyond schoolboy French. I went through a period of reading Le Monde and listening to a French-language Swiss radio station (Couleur 3) but I never got it to stick - partly because I didn't get to use it day to day and partly because my hearing loss and dodgy regional UK accent made listening to people speak in French and then responding in a way that didn't sound like Ozzy Osbourne guest appearing on Allo Allo a real challenge.

I got coerced into taking French for 'O' Levels and hated every minute. The teacher hated me and took great pleasure in ridiculing me at every possible opportunity. At this stage of my life I was this dirt-poor kid who just assumed that, like my dad, I would never travel. I told my teacher that we were wasting each others time as there was zero chance of me ever visiting France. Little did I know back then that I'd go on to travel to France a number of times with work and on holiday AND I'd end up working with clients in Montreal who prefer to hold meetings in French