Language learning discussion

[Koeshi]

As a child I found Asia really interesting and decided I would like to learn a Chinese language or Japanese.  As I grew up my interest in Japan grew and I was less than enamoured with China's political and social situation.  By the time I got to uni and had a chance to study one of them I had developed a love for anime and manga, so Japanese was the obvious choice.  I would like to spend some time in Japan working as an English teacher, but so far haven't had any success.  I've also forgotten most of what I learnt at university so I really need to get back into the swing of things at some point.

[StellersJayC]

I started leaning German two and a half years ago because my high school requires two years of foreign language. I didn't want to learn Spanish because "everyone learns Spanish" and I didnt want to learn French because I'd had one too many pronunciation mishaps in Chior. Plus, my mom and my grandpa had taken a little bit of German themselves in high school.
After learning to count to ten the summer before ninth grade, however, I realized that learning a language is fun. Recently language has become one of the most fascinating things ever to me and I hope to one day know german really well. Then a few months ago I began thinking about what language I could learn after German and I somehow rationalized that Italian would be the most logical next step. A few days later my Chior announced that this summer it is going to Italy and I learned there are several people who know some amount of Italian here. Overnight "I'll learn it someday" became "I'm gonna learn it now!" (Though I only have a few months, so even possessing basic reading skills would make me very happy.)
Now I have this overwhelming desire to learn all the languages.

[Sigrid Marie]

Well, I've been learning Spanish at school for the last five years. The reason I chose that one is because there are so many Spanish speakers in the world - just imagine all the people I'll be able to communicate with! The other reason is simply that I really like the sound of the language. I don't know how to explain it, I just find it really comfortable to listen to.

As for Japanese, I don't really have a very good reason cx I guess I'm doing it as a way to challenge myself, sort of. And I think it's an interesting language because it's so different from my own.

[Auleliel]

My background:
I'm a native Midwestern American English speaker.
I started learning Spanish in middle school because it was required, but I think we also had a bit of Spanish in my kindergarten (I can't remember for certain). My middle school class was really boring because the teacher thought she could teach us by immersion when we only had class for 25 minutes per week and were mostly absolute beginners. I think I only learned four or five words in that class. Luckily I've always thought languages were interesting, so when I had a chance to start some high school classes a year early, I took the opportunity to take Spanish at the high school instead of at the middle school. So I ended up having 5 years of high school Spanish.
My sophomore year of high school I had some extra room in my class schedule so I added German. Our German class was really slow though--we only did two years' worth of coursework in three years. I took another semester of German at college, and minored in Spanish. I studied in Cuernavaca for three weeks in an intensive summer abroad course, and then got a license to teach Spanish (which I've never used... oh well).
Throughout high school and college I had several friends who were international students. I had friends from Norway, Finland, Korea, Taiwan, Jamaica, Ghana, Tanzania, Brazil, and more. Usually I was able to convince them to teach me bits of their languages. Also in high school I learned Tengwar (the writing system for Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin), and in college I learned Aurek-Besh (one of the writing systems in Star Wars).
I learned Korean while I was teaching English there, and I'm learning Japanese now while living in Japan.
My Finnish friend in high school taught me more than some of my other international friends, and I always had a desire to pick it up again someday. And then I found aRtD and SSSS, and decided to continue learning Finnish, and add Swedish to the mix.
I'm also working on making my own conlang(s), but it is slow going.

Unfortunately I tend to forget old languages as I learn new ones, so don't expect me to be able to hold a conversation in any of the above languages, at least not without a ton of mistakes.

Some of my reasons:
I sometimes think of languages like secret codes. I like to be able to keep secrets, and I don't like people keeping secrets from me. 
Also I love to travel, and my dream job is to travel the world as an English teacher while learning the local languages. I already have my dream job. 
Another reason is that learning languages helps me understand different points of view better, because in some ways the languages in which people think also influence some of the thoughts they have. And it also helps me understand why I think the way I do, and how my own language works.

[Ann Marie]

Well, I'm not really talented with languages but I've tried a few.  I took Spanish in high school, cause we had to take a language and that seemed the most practical out of what was offered (living in the US southwest).  I took it again in college, and also tried Italian because, hey, I'm half Italian.  I was terrible at Italian.  Writing exercises went ok, but my accent was apparently very, very bad.  Personally, I think I wasn't using my hands enough.  XD  I dabbled in Irish a bit, again, because hey, I'm half Irish!  That was before internet, and I gave it up mainly for lack of time and access to classes.  I studied German about... a decade ago?  Because I fell hard for a German girl... that's a valid reason, right?  And now I'm trying to relearn German, because my daughter's choir is going to Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg this summer, and Czech seems... daunting.  And also trying to learn Finnish because Finland is cool!  and I want to go there, and also because it's.. interesting.  How do I say this, Finnish translated word for word into English is just different than languages I'm familiar with.  I think it would be fun to try to wrap my brain around it.

[Kata Kissa]

I have a huge love of languages, and always have as long as I can remember.  I've dabbled in learning to speak Welsh, but the course I found the most useful has a long period of avoiding reading/writing in order to focus on listening and pronounciation, which is great, but makes it hard when I have no one to speak to in Welsh.

Currently I'm... sort of loosely working on Japanese, because I fell in love with Sailor Moon 15 years ago and have wanted to learn Japanese ever since.  It's also nice because there's such a large amount of Japanese language media that's easily available, thanks to the popularity of anime and manga, so once I get enough of a grasp to start struggling through looking/listening for words I recognize, I'll have plenty to practice with.

Finnish is something I'm tossing around and trying to find a good learning resource for.  Realistically it would probably be easier for me to learn Norwegian, especially as I have a couple of Norwegian friends I could practice with, but... I don't know, Finnish is just so PRETTY.  I've tossed around the idea of learning Norwegian before (because of said Norwegian friends), but my interest in Finnish is pretty much entirely "saw it in SSSS, thought it was super pretty". ^^;;  so many vowels.

[Kata Kissa]

Do you ever have a day learning languages when you're like... feeling it?  REALLY feeling it, just on a roll and like you should just shove more learning into your head until it starts falling out your ears?

But at the same time, you're worried that doing that might be pointless at best and detrimental at worst?

I hate days like that.  It makes it so hard to decide if I should keep going on my lessons or not.

[Sunflower]

First reaction:  Don't quit while you're ahead!

But can you continue it in a more low-pressure way, like put on a radio show or some music in your target language, and sing along as you cook dinner or whatever?


e.g. if it's Finnish, play some Varttinä.  Or I'm told Finland has a thriving metal scene, though I'm hardly the one to ask. 

[Kata Kissa]

I could, in theory.  I'm just having a good day so I'm all LEARN ALL THE THINGS!

I'll probably find some music or a podcast or something to put on in the background.

[Nimphy]

Ooooh, me and ruth today had a spontaneous conversation in Norwegian, pretty fun, and the words come a bit more easily than I expected!

[Blackjazz]

I have the same thing happen to me. Especially with learning Korean (the first one I've studied outside a classroom), I'll have really great days where I feel like a genius and I'll do six or seven lessons in a day and then a solid week where I won't do anything. I try to slow myself down and pace a bit, but that usually ends in me struggling to find motivation to do even one lesson every day.

So I guess it's just how I learn? I'm a binge-person. If you have a good day and want to learn everything, then do it! I think it's important to learn things when your brain is receptive to it most and you're enjoying it most. After binging, just find some music or shows or podcasts or whatever just so that the language stays in your head an you can apply what you learned and hear it in everyday use. This, I think, is most important.

A more calm, daily schedule works well but at the same time you shouldn't force it. Language-learning can be a complicated process and you should find whatever method works best for you. These are just my thoughts though. Hah.

I hope that helps!

[Ann Marie]

I'm going to say, binge as long as your brain is receptive, and the in-between days when you don't feel like studying, just passively enjoy media like radio or tv in your target language? 

[starfallz]

I simply cannot binge with Finnish. It is hard to get the new words to stick. Or I may be out of practice with learning a language.

[Ann Marie]

Did you try these?  They are kinda fun.

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Finnish.htm

It is surprisingly hard to do simple arithmetic in another language.

[Kata Kissa]

Yeah, it's definitely helped the last day or so to have a little bit of passive input when i've been too busy/stressed/distracted to do my languages.