Languages

Hey all!

I was just looking through classes I could sign up for, and I started considering taking a language class.

That made me wonder, what languages do you speak?  How did you learn?

I took 2 years of French in high school and left feeling like I didn't learn a thing!  I'm debating on taking French again in college to further my knowledge of it, or trying a whole new language.  I think Spanish would be very useful, and fun too!

I have always wanted to learn Italian but..I don't think I'd ever really have to use it haha.  I almost bought one of the programs (I think they're called Rosetta Stone or something?) to learn a language I might not need, just for fun =)

So yeah, what languages do you speak?  How did you learn? Would you like to learn more? Which one(s)?

I'm just curious ;)

If you're interested I'll send you a link where you can download Rosetta Stone for free (it includes 12 languages on it I think).

I studied Russian and French for a long time but haven't in a couple years so I'm going to take more classes once I start grad school in February. I'm learning Korean now but I just study with friends and on my own. I need to learn Korean since I live in Korea.

I would like to perfect my Russian and French. And I'd eventually like to learn Arabic.

I studied french and german in school and ended up using my french with a previous job, so I must have been ok at it!

I'm currently learning swedish as I moved to Sweden about a year ago and it's always helpful to understand the locals ;-) I used the Rosetta Stone package when I first moved here and found it a really useful tool for beginning to learn a language. It's a bit pricey, but I picked up a great bargain on ebay!

Good Luck :o)

It really depends what else you are studying and what you think you might want to do when you finish university. In the US I guess Spanish is pretty useful, if you want to work for the UN then French and/or another UN language is required.

I speak Indonesian, learning German and some Dutch. I took Indonesian at university, the Dutch and German I've been learnt since I've been in Europe.  When it comes to food though I'm also fluent in French and Italian (got my priorities right). Learning a language at university can actually involve quite alot of work memorising vocab etc. unless you have some background or natural talent, they aren't easy credits. 

I'm definately not a language person though, I'm great at understanding, but suck at speaking.

I would recommend going main stream though, although it might sound interesting to speak a smaller language, when it comes to alot of them (particularly the northern european ones) they aren't actually that useful unless you actually live there, and most of the people from those countries will speak almost perfect English anyway.

I'm actually not really planning on learning anymore languages, perhaps Swahili if I end up marrying my boyfriend and he wanted to move home, but right now improving my German is enough for me.

my french is passable (it should be: grades 4-11, plus two undergrad courses), and i'm tourist-functional in spanish, italian, greek, and german. 

i'd recommend spanish, because it's spoken so widely and is so closely related to so many other latin languages.  college classes may not be the most useful route, though: they tend to focus on academic reading and writing than on real-world communication (try speaking classroom french in northern africa or quebec).

Norwegian (first language)

I took English as a required course in school, but living in America makes you learn pretty fast as well, hahah.

I learned German on my own for a few years before taking a year in formal classes.

I want to learn how to speak an Asian language, something like Mandarin Chinese or Korean. Or heck, maybe even Japanese, Though Korean and Mandarin top the charts first.

- English: native speaker  (what? it's a language ...)

- French: 4 years of high school, 4 years of college, traveling/living/working in Quebec

- American Sign Language: combination of formal classes and real-life experience (lots of Deaf social events, having jobs where I was the only hearing person or one of a few, etc.)

- Quebec Sign Language: combination of formal classes and working in a Deaf school in Montreal, socializing with the Deaf teachers, etc.

- scraps and pieces of a few other languages, acquired various ways, none of which are good enough to have a real conversation in (e.g. enough Arabic to help my grandmother in the kitchen, enough Irish Gaelic to recite poetry, enough Spanish to pass a reading exam, enough Catalan to help me pass my Spanish reading exam, enough German to mostly be able to read signs...)

My next language is going to be British Sign Language, which is a bit of a sticky one, since there's no one around to practice with; I suppose I'm going to have to find a British Deaf YouTube buddy.  But it'll be useful, because unlike American SL and Quebec SL (and French SL, to a lesser extent German and Hungarian SLs, and others), which are historically related, British SL belongs to a completely different language family.  So it'll expand my range of possibilities in terms of people I can even *attempt* to communicate with (e.g. Australians, Irish, approximately 35 elderly Nova Scotians...)

As you can probably tell, though, my definition of "useful" is a bit skewed, so I'm the last person to be giving advice.  I will say (just to insert a tiny plug here) that ASL is the third most spoken language in the U.S., so if you're choosing based on number of speakers, it's definitely a contender.  *grin*

I know sign language because I'm hard of hearing and used to sign regularly.  It's been a long time since I carried on a conversation in sign language, but I still remember quite a bit.

Other than that, I know enough Spanish and French to say, "DON'T MOVE, I'M SHOVING A NEEDLE IN YOUR ARTERY."

I speak Russian because I was born in Moscow. I learned Spanish on my own at first because I was really into this Mexican singer so, I listened to all her songs and with the help of a dictionary deduced what she was saying. The biggest help is to actually here and see the words at the same time. The most helpful thing was watching all of her soap operas and the news in Spanish, especially with subtitles. Later in college I took a summer of spanish which taught me grammar. Now I want to learn French just because it sounds elegant but, Spanish or even Japenese or Chinese would be more practical depending on which field of work you will go into.

No offense... too many PMs.

http://thepiratebay.org

click applications
search Rosetta Stone

Have fun.

I find that Spanish is the most useful here in the states (especially considering that I live in TX and have lived in CO and AZ).  The best program that I have found so far is called Viual Link Spanish.  I bought it off of the internet and have used it to brush up on my Spanish.  It's a very common sense approach and people have rated it better than Rosetta Stone, plus it's not near as expensive......

Alibsam thanx for the link.

I speak Greek,English,German and French.Except for German everything else I found pretty easy.I think you should take up Italian if you like.It's easier than Spanish and more melodic.But also it depends on what you want to do after your finish uni.

Anyone else having trouble downloading from that site?