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How did you get involved with languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5353 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 25 of 35 12 April 2010 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I started with English in 5th grade when I was 9, but before that I remember having a few A4 sheets with about 100 words and phrases I had picked up from cartoons (we don't dub foreign shows).
Two years later, French came along. I had a total of 8 years of English and 6 years of French. I always did very well in both of them. Learning a language by myself is something far more recent. I started German in late 2008 at the local Goethe Institute, but my professional commitments made me miss a lot of the classes, so I started to take the Deutsch Interaktiv course by Deutsche Welle. Seeing how I was actually getting higher scores in the tests than my classmates who attended every class, once that semester was over, I decided to just stick with the online course. In late 2009, I also took BBC Italian Steps and Talk Italian, and then BBC Spanish Steps, Talk Spanish and Mi Vida Loca, to gain a better understanding of two languages I could comprehend but not quite speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5533 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 26 of 35 12 April 2010 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting thread indeed.
As many of us, I didn't care much about languages when I was young. I struggled with compulsory Russian at school. We had Russian classes from 3rd up to 11th grade so in theory we all had plenty time to learn it all the way to fluency and back again. Yet we never did, a true testament of the motivational powers of educational system. By 10th grade many of us, including me, would still struggle with anything more complex than introducing himself and his family. But being curious kid as I had always been I discovered that there were cool magazines available in Russian only (Юный техник and Техника-молодёжи for the equally curious) and I had no other option as to start reading them. Little by little I got better without myself noticing it, my own motivation masked all the efforts. To this day I'm more confident reading popular science than fiction in Russian. Same was with English. I lagged behind the class up to peunultimate year, scoring low marks, occasionally on the verge of failing. I just didn't get it. There was no Internet, we had virtually no English books on sale apart from some textbook companions -- there was nothing to hold my interest. Learning seemed so artificial. Then I somehow obtained some English books which I really wanted to read and while my English clearly was not up to the task I said to myself, to hell with it, I'm going to read anyway. I did. I had great amounts of coherent input. From D pupil I became an A pupil. But it was all fun and games and I am still conciously clueless about grammar. At school I sucked at grammar and later I aquired it all via texts so I really have no idea what subjuntives are or how one is supposed to form present perfect continuous though I probably use it all the time. I haven't really learned Finnish, it just came as a byproduct of watching television. I mean, how can any teenage boy not watch Knight Rider or McGyver, even if the show is in another language? It is not possible. So I sponged everything I saw and heard on screen. One day I dicovered that hey, not only can I watch TV, I can read books too. And, if I really try, I can even speak some! Cool. I left it at that, never needed to put my skills into active use. The real fascination with languages started later when I attended sign language classes. That got me thinking about how differently humans can express themselves and still be understood. I suddenly became aware how different languages really are and that is a small miracle that some people can derive meaning from seemingly random strings of letters or sounds. I mean, if this is not fascinating subject then what is? Yet all these thoughts remained dormant until few years ago, having been fed up with work-home-work-home schedule I decided to sign up for an Arabic course just to get some change into my life. Though I later dropped Arabic for scheduling reasons it had sparked something new which has lasted till today. And here I am, few years later, having Dutch, Spanish and Japanese stories on my nightstand and many other languages awaiting patiently their turn on the bookshelf. The awe of miracle of languages is still there. Edited by aabram on 12 April 2010 at 2:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5697 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 27 of 35 12 April 2010 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting story Aabram
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| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 28 of 35 12 April 2010 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish- I encountered my first native Spanish family at a theme park, and I didn't realize people could understand each other without using English. It didn't click for me. I thought "I walk" was "I walk" in every language, like it could only be walk, not "yo ando" or "yo paseo" in Spanish. They were laughing and talking so fast and it sounded so cool. I was more interested in the multicultures around me than I ever was in the theme park. I picked up Spanish the next year, and I don't think I'll ever stop studying.
German- I heard a German rap song "Carmen" by the German rapper Sido. It sounded amazing. Weeks later when I could understand the general meaning of the song (it was actually pretty bad) I still thought it sounded SO cool. :) I hope to master both German and Spanish entirely, and maybe Russian too. Portuguese - I had a girlfriend from Brazil, she was really cute and her family didn't speak English very well (she did though) It is VERY similar to Spanish, so I learned very quickly. She cheated on me, but at least my love and knowledge of the language has lasted :) Russian - I saw Russian from the movie "Mission to Mars" when the guy was on Mars and had to get of the planet using an old Russian rover. The guy screamed "I CAN'T READ S@#$ IT'S IN RUSSIAN" I looked at what Russian looked like, and I LOVED IT. I honestly can't wait to learn it. So cool looking, and not many Americans can say they speak Russian (or any language) :D Italian - Romance language, very similar to Latin without the difficulty as many say :) I like it but I never really have the opportunity to use it. I really liked how it was used in the movie "Angels and Demons" (I actually hated that movie) but I loved the little language bits Japanese - I LOVE JAPANESE CARS. I drive a 1983 Datsun 280zx, most of the labels and manuals are written in Japanese and I thought it was so cool. I loved watching old racing shows in Japanese and drifting. It sounds so cool and can't wait to be able to read it :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 30 of 35 12 April 2010 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
Well thars your problem! I liked Rammstein too, before I figured out what their lyrics meant. Granted, they still put on a heluva show. Now I'm hooked on classical... weird transition that. I've posted it before, but my first encounter with a foreign language was with two Quebecois kids in Maine, talking to them the entire time in English without them saying a word. Until they talked to their parents and I was fascinated by the sounds. Thus being introduced to the concept of other languages (between the ages of 4-6). I began learning German, from learning of my Austrian/Bavarian heritage. Which I studied sparingly for a number for years, before promptly forgetting it all when I began a pre-med program in college. Since changing my majors gave me more time for other activities, and that I was never a big drinker. I started taking languages in College. Starting with the most perceived difficult, Mandarin... for no real reason other than that I figured I liked Chinese food, the Asian girls in the class were cute, and that I wanted to impress friends and family. But I was there mostly cause of the cute girls. then... *BAM* Learning the first few symbols and sounds of a completely alien (to me) language got me hooked and I've been learning and adding ever since. Though I stopped studying Chinese due to increasing difficulties/responsibilities in other classes when I approached my Senior year in college. Then with my last semester, having all my necessary classes passed and all that was needed to graduate was a few random credits and a final project. I took on Japanese on a lark. And instantly fell in love with it and continue to pursue it out of the sheer pleasure of being able to speak it. That and I have a solid obsession with learning and reproducing new sounds my tongue has never made. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rina Newbie United States Joined 5544 days ago 35 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Korean | Message 31 of 35 12 April 2010 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, in an odd sort of way I guess my road to languages began when I was 10 years old and hiding behind a large armchair to escape bedtime. A long, somewhat irrelevant story which led to a point 3 years later when I found myself memorizing Tokio Hotel lyrics with no idea what they meant (I'll give you a few minutes to laugh at the music choice)
At that time I was still under the impression that you could just substitute the German words for the English and there you go, speaking German. But I loved the foreign sounds that made no sense to me. I would listen to German shows and news and music with the limited vocabulary I had picked up from scattered learning and just absorb it. I guess that contributed to the considerable amount of ease I had when I started actual classes. I had, if I may such a thing, marinated in German for so long it almost didn't seem foreign anymore. Looking back, I can't help but to feel a sort of admiration for the passion I had for German. Somehow I developed an interest in Turkish also, but time didn't allow for me to pursue it. Then that led to Japanese, so I learned that for a while on my own. Then, once again, time got in the way. My Japanese is, however, significantly better than my Turkish. Which is currently at, well, 0. That led to Korean. Ahhh. Korean. Feels like a breath a fresh air. I originally got into it because of music and television. Then I just fell in love with the language in general. The sound, the look. To me it's the most satisfying language out there. I made friends with a Korean guy who is here studying English for a year and the relationship has progressed to more than friends, so that's a major motivation. :) And then Chinese writing grabbed my attention. The first time I gave it any real consideration was when I read a book where a Chinese girl asked her grandfather if there was really any reason to study Chinese characters at all. Let's just say his reason was more than good enough for me, so here I am, learning Chinese. So all that led to where I am now. Now I'm focusing on German (I want to get even better before I study there this summer). But after that, I plan to dive back into Korean with everything I have. :) Edited by Rina on 13 April 2010 at 2:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5622 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 32 of 35 13 April 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Argentina, English is obligatory starting in the first grade. I was generally a good student at school, but, to be honest, I didn't know any English grammar. In fifth grade (I was 9 or 10 years old) I failed an English test. My parents wanted me to raise my grade, and they sent me to take one-on-one classes with a teacher that lived in front of my house. She turned out to be an excellent teacher. I learnt from her that I had to learn English not only to pass English at school, but to actually use it and have fun with it. I remember working with songs and Disney movies. I eventually started getting As at English, so I decided to take a Cambridge Exam (KET). I spent more years building my English and ended up being fluent in it. I was eager to learn a third language, but I never had the chance to go to language classes. At 15, I was infatuated with a German guy, so I started to learn German on my own. I didn't achieve a lot, but that experience thaught me that going to classes is not necessary to pick up a language. Now I'm learning French and languages are one of my favorite things to do in my free time. I even want to work in something related with them in the future :) Edited by Carisma on 13 April 2010 at 12:39am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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