What languages do you speak or are learning?

[clownbaby]

I will go first! I know English, Spanish, and American Sign Language and I am currently learning Portuguese! 

My first language is English and my second language is Spanish. I am learning Portuguese for a college program abroad in Brazil.

[CoryWithAKatana]

Wow thats cool! I am currently learning Spanish, maybe you could help me with my homework, just kidding lol. What made you want to learn Sign Language?

[GoofyGarra]

English is my first language, I'm halfway competent at Hebrew. I'm learning a tiny bit of German right now but not making much progress.

[Mississippi fish guy]

English and Spanish.

im taking my first Spanish course this year but my vocabulary list is stacking up and I’m trying to get time to practice it.

[clownbaby]

On 9/2/2024 at 10:35 AM, CoryWithAKatana said:

Wow thats cool! I am currently learning Spanish, maybe you could help me with my homework, just kidding lol. What made you want to learn Sign Language?

Being in foster care made me realize just how broken the system is, so I want to foster & adopt children just like my parents did, because I was very lucky to get a good home. A lot of kids in the foster care system are disabled and often nonverbal, which makes people not want to foster them. I've worked in Special Ed classrooms before and I just don't understand how people think those kiddos are any more difficult to handle than "normal" kids. They just have different ways of communicating! And ASL is often one of them. So I took ASL (and am taking more courses at my university right now) to help talk to kids who can't talk. 

One boy in particular was very sweet. He definitely motivated me a lot. He loved popcorn and was one of the few foods he would eat. The sign for popcorn is really fun and he would do it every time he ate a singular popcorn. He would also always give you a big hug at the end of the day and then do the "i love you" sign before he left. He was so sweet there was no doubt that I wouldn't want to keep learning how to talk with him!

On 9/2/2024 at 5:27 PM, Mississippi fish guy said:

English and Spanish.

im taking my first Spanish course this year but my vocabulary list is stacking up and I’m trying to get time to practice it.

I would highly recommend joining a language circle / chat group! I did this for Spanish and am currently attending one for ASL. They are very helpful because duolingo spanish and fluent / native spanish are a bit different. Getting practice having conversations will give you more confidence and it is much more helpful than learning "I like to eat apples and drink milk." You will also learn subtle cultural aspects of the language you might otherwise miss, such as when to use formal and casual language (ustedes, for example). 

My local library hosts a chat group for a wide range of languages. If you're interested, maybe see if your library has something similar! I wish the best of luck to you!!!!! It is so much fun to learn

 

Side note: I actually love duolingo and think it is super helpful for learning a second language, but sometimes the practice sentences crack me up

[clownbaby]

On 9/2/2024 at 2:43 PM, GoofyGarra said:

English is my first language, I'm halfway competent at Hebrew. I'm learning a tiny bit of German right now but not making much progress.

Wow! Way to go. Hebrew is not easy. That is SO COOL! I remember having to read a tinyyyy bit from the torah on my first sabbot and it was so confusing. I was just ready for it to be over and get back to smelling cinnamon and drinking grape juice 😂😅

[yancylow]

I know English, Romanian, a bit of Russian, a bit more Italian and I know the Hangul Alphabet, in other Words I know how to read Korean

[Tanked]

English and two or three words in several other languages.  After night school I was briefly able to converse with any German 2 yr. old.  I can still read the menu and count.  Use it or lose it!

[Katherine]

English is my native language, and I'm learning Spanish. I understand an awful lot when listening, but I can't speak very well and reading is hard still.

[Retrophyllum_minus]

English, Spanish, Swedish, German, some of a few others. 
 

oh, and I can read classical Latin and Middle English, as well. 

Edited September 12 by Retrophyllum_minus

[beastie]

Speak is a hard definition.

I know english, ofcourse. But I spent like 5 years learning French some years back, and while I will understand some written parts, my latest visit in France showed I do not speak nor do I understand much anymore either, and they always reply back in english 🙂

I have been learning Greek for 5 years now (modern) and tbh, I dont know anything. I keep failing at retaining any verbs, when asked a question I often confuse the meaning and I am so disappointed in myself because I obviously do not give it the time it needs, and compared to how easy english was for me, this is just killing me. I am going on vacation in two weeks to Greece and I am hoping I will understand them / have a discussion and that my frustration is just with grammatical part.

Because I am Czech, I can understand polish, serbian, croatian, slovenian, slovakian,... and because I sort of understand French and Greek, I understand some Italian, Spanish and latin :)) yay me, none of that is too useful

[Retrophyllum_minus]

On 9/12/2024 at 3:04 AM, beastie said:

Because I am Czech, I can understand polish, serbian, croatian, slovenian, slovakian,... and because I sort of understand French and Greek, I understand some Italian, Spanish and latin

That's similar for me, because I know Spanish and Latin I can sometimes read Portuguese or Italian texts, and because of those plus English I can understand rudimentary French in the written word.
 

The same goes for Croatian, because I speak that I also speak Serbian and Bosnian. Czech is a little bit harder to understand for me. I can't really make that out as well. I've never tried with Slovenian or Slovakian. I can also make out Danish to a degree and Norwegian pretty well because of my Swedish. 

[Shiba]

I want to learn Korean and Italian. So far that isn't working out but I will be getting back into doing it again

[DorisLacy]

On 9/12/2024 at 12:34 PM, beastie said:

Speak is a hard definition.

I know english, ofcourse. But I spent like 5 years learning French some years back, and while I will understand some written parts, my latest visit in France showed I do not speak nor do I understand much anymore either, and they always reply back in english 🙂

I have been learning Greek for 5 years now (modern) and tbh, I dont know anything. I keep failing at retaining any verbs, when asked a question I often confuse the meaning and I am so disappointed in myself because I obviously do not give it the time it needs, and compared to how easy english was for me, this is just killing me. I am going on vacation in two weeks to Greece and I am hoping I will understand them / have a discussion and that my frustration is just with grammatical part.

Because I am Czech, I can understand polish, serbian, croatian, slovenian, slovakian,... and because I sort of understand French and Greek, I understand some Italian, Spanish and latin :)) yay me, none of that is too useful
That's awesome! I speak English primarily, but I can generate text and assist with many languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. I also have a general understanding of various language structures. Your goal of learning Portuguese for your program in Brazil sounds exciting—immerse yourself in the culture, and you’ll be fluent in no time! How’s your Portuguese journey going so far? While helping my sister prepare for her language class, I came across these https://www.topessaywriting.org/samples/language interesting ideas about how learning a new language can reshape your perspective on life. It's fascinating how different cultures think in completely different ways just because of the structure of their language. I might explore this more since it connects to a few topics we’ve been discussing in my sociology class.

Nice, I have recently started learning French.

Edited September 26 by DorisLacy