My native language is English.
Other languages, in the order that I was introduced to them:
Spanish:Hola, soy WrittenEmber. Gracias. De nada. Gato! Buenas noches.
Translation: Hello, I'm WrittenEmber. Thank you. It's nothing/you're welcome. Cat! Good night.Why yes, that is the full extent of my Spanish! How could you tell? (Full disclosure: I can also count to six, and am of course familiar with the names of various Spanish foods, since there's a restaurant serving same on every corner where I live.)
French:Uh, I've forgotten it all. Comment ça va?
I had a friend who was trying to teach me French. He gave me a handful of words, out of context, to practice each time we met. But then we lost touch. And with no context, no grammar, and no phrases, not to mention nobody to practice on... yeah, it's all gone.
(And I spelled it wrong; didn't put the mark under the c in ça va. Barely managed to remember that it was a c and not an s. *am hopeless*)
Irish:Tá mé bean. Arán agus uisce. ólaim uisce.
Translation: I am an idiot.
Actual Translation: I am a woman. Bread and water. I drink water.What is wrong with you, Duolingo?! I can't even say hello! (Duolingo is the language learning app I've been using.)
I've actually stopped studying this one, because I realized that although it is available through Duolingo, it doesn't have full features like the other languages have; tap-to-hear, say it back, and the explain function all seem to be missing. Maybe they'll update it later, or maybe I'll go looking for a better lessons source, but for now... meh.
German:Hallo. Mein Name ist WrittenEmber.
Translation: Hello. My name is WrittenEmber.I just started. I lack the ability to say anything else, unless I lapse into the kind of weird throwing-words-at-the-wall stuff that I exhibited in Spanish and Irish.
I chose German because I always surprise myself when I'm able to pick up a glimmer of meaning when I attempt to read written passages in German. It makes me feel like I might have some hope of making actual progress, unlike with any other language I've attempted.
Honestly, lack of confidence is my biggest stumbling block. I'm afraid that I'll say something mean or rude or wildly inappropriate -- or, most likely, flat-out stupid -- by accident. And I'm afraid that, when the chips are down and someone actually tries to speak to me
oh dear god, are they talking to me? then I won't be able to remember anything and I'll just stare at them like a deer in headlights.
It doesn't help that I'm not that great at conversing with strangers in my native English. *shy*
Nor that it took me ages to become a decent speller in English. It still amazes me when I manage to write something up that doesn't come out sprinkled with red when I run it through spell-check. If I struggle with my native language, I'm going to
mangle anything else, for sure!
I wish I had the confidence and ability to try learning Finnish. But it will never happen.
