I have an account at Duolingo but haven’t visited in a while. I’d love to learn a language, though I’m not sure which one, but don’t feel like I have enough time right now. I know they say you can learn a language in just fifteen minutes a day, but that would mean giving up something else at the moment, like reading time. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I’d like to learn Arabic and know a few words, but it’s a very difficult language to learn. My boyfriend speaks it fluently, along with his whole family, so it would be nice to be able to communicate with them on that level.
The duo-lingo for it is absolutely trash, so I just learn simple phrases that my boyfriend’s taught me. Greetings, common sayings, etc.
I was learning French for a few months but I started focusing on other stuff like my classes and making my future business.
I’m still going to learn French because I think the language is beautiful.
I also want to be fluent in Spanish. Now, I already know Spanish because i’m Dominican, but I get embarrassed when I have to speak it on the spot because all the Spanish I’ve learned since i was pretty much born just flies out of my memory. I understand everything when someones speaks it to me, but me speaking? I turn into a “no sabo” kid lmaoooo!
I think the main reason this happens is cuz my parents never forced me to respond to them in Spanish. When I started school and started learning English as a kid, it was just me responding in English in the house. My parents also never took me to DR which still upsets me to this day haha. I wish my parents were like those Dominican parents who are always like “En esta casa no me hables en ingles!” (In this house don’t talk to me in English!)
Also my dad never speaks to me in Spanish, only on like little rare occasions To be honest…I wish my parents never learned English because if they only knew Spanish, I think my speaking skills would be so much better, but then the things they accopmlished in their lives would be gone because of the language barrier. I think they made it this far because they learned English.
Edit: I also wanna become super fluent so I can pass the language down to my kids, too. If I marry a white guy who only knows English or a guy who knows another language besides Spanish, then the Spanish is on me.
Once you get a good handle on French, Spanish becomes a lot easier and visa versa. They work with a lot of the same rules and there’s a lot of similarities between certain words/phrases
Oh, yeah, I noticed that already. When I was learning French, my Spanish made it easier to understand since I already know Spanish…I just get super flustered when I have to speak Spanish to people that are not my parents.
If that was me, I would just ignore them even though I knew Spanish
Nah I’m kidding but for real, I taught myself Spanish and I’d say my Spanish isn’t bad but it’s a bit rusty cause I haven’t practiced it in a while since I haven’t been to Spain since 2019.
I know a small bit of the Nahuatl language, but that’s because it’s related to my ONC entry, which is based on Aztec culture and gods. But is a time-traveling story as well.
I know some Portuguese as well, a bit but not as much as Spanish and my Dad taught me some Irish words. A few, not a lot. And I know a bit of French and Tetun (the official language of East Timor) because there are a lot of Timorese immigrants here.
I should really utilize all those languages, to be honest. Learning new languages isn’t hard for me at all an the fact that I never shut up helps a lot.
Between Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, I have to choose between learning three whole new writing systems or learning a tonal language alongside a whole new script. Very intimidating on both ends.
Languages I would like to learn:
Japanese, Hebrew, German, Norse, Old English, Italian, French (well, most European / Scandinavian languages), and maybe Kurdish or Farsi.
Why can’t I learn them?
Neural implants and data uploads are not main-stream…yet…
I’ve been meaning to learn ASL (American Sign Language) for the longest time, but never got around to it. I started to a few years back (thanks to the show Switched at Birth lol) but I got preoccupied that I stopped. Kind of sad, too, because I was starting to learn actual sentences and creating an almost full conversation… Then I wanted to get back into it recently because we had a patron who came in who was Deaf (though some of my co-workers had wondered if he was just mute) but he was Signing to his son and was trying to find the movie section and everyone was having a bit of a hard time in explaining it to him. So, I wanted to be the one who could at least communicate with him but I had forgotten just about everything I learned (besides a few words). But I swear, when he gave me his movies back to check in and I Signed thank you to him, he put on the biggest smile and I felt like I just made his day.
The other language I’ve been meaning to learn is Spanish. I took Spanish in high school (just one year of it) and I could not learn anything for the life of me. I think ASL is probably the most easiest language ever because you don’t have to speak anything. Pronunciation is definitely not for me. I mean, I already butcher English and it’s my first language. But it all started out okay with learning some words, and eventually writing phrases, but trying to remember it all and then putting it all in the correct order because it’s all backwards from English, and then also making sure you pronounce it right… ugh, I could never. I ended up cheating in the class (because thank the heavens it was through my online school at the time) but I definitely had my teacher messaging me about contacting her which I never did because she had said that if we call her (specifically when it came to cheating), she’ll try to talk to us in Spanish to see if we’re being honest and I could not handle that. Thankfully my parents didn’t care, and they knew I cheated in that class (along with my math class at the time since my mom took my Algebra 2 finals… and failed, but I digress). I mostly wanted to learn Spanish just to communicate to my in-laws (my sister married into a Mexican family, and my mother in-law barely speaks English, though all of her children grew up being bilingual). And now, I’ve been meaning to learn Spanish because I live in a town where the majority of the population are Spanish speakers, and many don’t speak English. I tried through Duolingo because it’s free through our library, and I started to, but I’ve been preoccupied with work and everything that I just haven’t gotten around to it.
Other languages I want to learn would include:
Japanese.
Chinese.
French.
Arabic.
Italian.
German.
I think languages are beautiful (despite wishing it was easy to communicate because my brain could barely remember my first language, so like, how can I retain more than one lol) and I mostly want to also learn Italian and German just because I’m part Italian and German (through my dad’s side). It is my dream to visit Italy the most, though, and honestly, I’d saw my legs off just to go. xD The culture, the cities, the history, the language!
Never took the french electives in high school or university, kinda wish I did, I think its a nice language. I figure Spanish being my mother tongue would help in learning it, don’t know where I could start though. Duolingo? Youtube?
That’s technically not so difficult because it’s the same 2-3 radicals repeated a few times, but good luck fitting that in a regular letter-sized row lol
To be honest…I wish my parents never learned English because if they only knew Spanish, I think my speaking skills would be so much better, but then the things they accopmlished in their lives would be gone because of the language barrier. I think they made it this far because they learned English.
But it all started out okay with learning some words, and eventually writing phrases, but trying to remember it all and then putting it all in the correct order because it’s all backwards from English, and then also making sure you pronounce it right… ugh, I could never. I ended up cheating in the class (because thank the heavens it was through my online school at the time) but I definitely had my teacher messaging me about contacting her which I never did because she had said that if we call her (specifically when it came to cheating), she’ll try to talk to us in Spanish to see if we’re being honest and I could not handle that. 