Languages you disliked but grew on you? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Languages you disliked but grew on you?
Tags: "Louche" Languages
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39 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Fuenf_Katzen
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
notjustajd.wordpress
Joined 4370 days ago
337 posts - 476 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans

Message 33 of 39

31 October 2013 at 6:03pm | IP Logged

Spanish and Italian both do that for me: Spanish for many of the reasons stated--I chose not to take it specifically to be a rebellious teenager because everyone kept telling me I "had" to learn Spanish. In general I never found much of a positive connection with the language--of course I knew Spanish speakers, but we spoke English with each other, so I never really had a positive association with it. With Italian, from having learned classical music, it's another language that's essentially forced on you; everybody wants to hear the same Italian art songs. It didn't help that by that point my German pronunciation was so focused that it kept interfering with my Italian, and I've never felt natural singing in the language. Eventually I discovered Verdi's operas, and it's really the only Italian opera I can handle! Interesting that with both Italian and Spanish one of the reasons I don't connect with them is because I don't prefer the music traditions--apparently that was more of a factor than I would have realized.

I wouldn't say either has "grown" on me except that I'm more neutral than negative towards the languages now.

The one odd-ball would be Latin. I've performed a lot of sacred music, which means I've sung a lot of Latin. I think it's another case of the feeling like I was forced into the language (I actually did enjoy performing that music a lot). I did eventually come to the point where I really enjoyed its expressiveness and the way composers would use the language in music.
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yuhakko
Tetraglot
Senior Member
FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4633 days ago
414 posts - 582 votes

Speaks: French*, English^B2, English^C2, Spanish, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Norwegian, Mandarin

Message 34 of 39

02 November 2013 at 12:27pm | IP Logged

I used to hate Chinese mandarin more than any language in the world... But with so many
chinese in Paris and in my school I started to get used to the sound of it and I ended up
starting studying it a year ago. Now, if I don't have anything chinese during a day, I'll
feel really weird.

German is also one of those languages I used to hate. I can't say I love it now I've
grown accustomed to it. Maybe in the future, it'll be the future chinese? :p
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AbsentM
Newbie
South Africa
Joined 4042 days ago
2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Afrikaans, French

Message 35 of 39

04 November 2013 at 5:12pm | IP Logged

I used to dislike Afrikaans, because it's forced on me at school, and I have never had a teacher for it I really liked, but I find that for some reason I now really enjoy the language.
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Alanjazz
Triglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 4816 days ago
65 posts - 129 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Portuguese

Message 36 of 39

05 November 2013 at 12:44am | IP Logged

For me, it was Spanish. I disliked the way Spanish sounded (even without hearing it very much) and took German in
school, because my twelve-year-old perspective was that Spanish was for slackers ("too easy"), and French was for
girls (and harder than German!?). Now I am crazy about French and two Spanish girlfriends/various Latino friends
later I really love Spanish and think that it is wonderful and very useful.
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haitike
Newbie
Spain
Joined 4448 days ago
25 posts - 35 votes
Speaks: Spanish*
Studies: English^B1, Arabic (Written), Japanese

Message 37 of 39

05 November 2013 at 1:32pm | IP Logged

Arabic. In the past, I didn't like the language and the "sounds". But after 1 years studying it I love all his features. Awesome calligraphy and script, the awesome root system when you can predict the meaning of new words you find, the great amount of vocabulary and synonyms. And now, I like the speaking arabic too!

Edited by haitike on 05 November 2013 at 1:33pm
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maydayayday
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5220 days ago
564 posts - 839 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish^B2, French^B2
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese
Studies: Urdu

Message 38 of 39

05 November 2013 at 6:59pm | IP Logged

eyðimörk wrote:

When I was a fledging celtophile at the age of 14 I had just decided that I was going to plan all of my future schooling around getting into a Scottish university and doing an honours degree in Celtic Studies/Gaelic.

I pretty much felt that the brythonic languages were the redheaded stepchild of the Celtic world. It probably had a lot to do with the way these languages were treated in the anglophone literature; always secondary to the goidelic languages, and the repeated mantra about how all Welsh mythology was probably "imported" from Ireland anyway. It was not until I was actually doing my honours degree in Celtic Civilisation 5 years later, when we studied the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain, that I really came to appreciate Welsh at least as a full member of the Celtic language family. I still didn't see the value of its mythology, though; I had to study far longer for that, and couldn't for the life of me think of a single reason why anyone would want to study Breton. I mean, how Celtic could it be anyway? Brythonic AND in a romance country? Puh! I skipped anything in Celtic literature that had to do with Breton.

And here I am. I've forgotten all of my Gaelic and have no interest in brushing it off, but I'm very passionate about Breton. Whereas with Gaelic I felt that I had to learn it (because that's what you did if you wanted to understand Celtic culture, you learn one of the languages), with Breton it's about love, and values, and a bit of politics.

Cripes eyðimörk! if I had had children with the sister of my French exchange partner - it could most definitely have been you!
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zografialep
Hexaglot
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GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4140 days ago
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Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, English^C2, German^B2, Spanish, Latin
Studies: Russian

Message 39 of 39

10 November 2013 at 9:10am | IP Logged

When I started German I was neutral about the matter, I chose blindly because I had
to take German or french and I hated the second. After a while though I hated the
language to the point that I didn't like to study or hear German at all- a very bad
teacher and the hostility that exists towards Germans(the government mostly) and their
language in my country helped and affected me, sadly.
But then I got a great new teacher and in the summer I travelled alone in Germany and
lived in a camp for a month and I came to love the language and the German people. Now
it is by far my favourite lanuage and I truly miss speaking it daily.
Also, as I mentioned I hated french(a series of awful teachers again and the fact
that the French are too snobs sometimes and expect you to speak their language
perfectly) but now I got some
old teaching books my father had and learn on my own, and dispite the weird and
abnormal way of writing, I surprisingly find myself enjoying the journey :)
I also love Asterix and Ovelix and Les Miserables and being able to understand them
would be a dream come true.

Edited by zografialep on 10 November 2013 at 9:11am

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