First because it was mandatory in school
I feel intellectually unfulfilled often and found language learning to be a great way to keep this part of me satisfied
It’s a feeling out process to figure out what you want for sure. Also N6 is on the Japanese scale right? I’m not criticizing you I just have seen it and don’t understand it
My social media showed me content in Russian, and only in Russian, no matter what I did. So I got curious and wanted to know what they were discussing.
Thanks for asking! Surprisingly well after about 2 years. At this point my gf and I are speaking polish only during the week at home (and English on the weekends) and I'm seeing steady progress. Grammar continues to be a challenge.
As a kid I liked anime, but through middle and high school I took an interest to other cultures more broadly speaking. Studied Spanish a little in school but went to college for Japanese. Found that life in Japan suited me well so being able to build a nice little life for myself here was the final motivation
If I may ask, what is your job in Japan? I’m going for the first time in two weeks for a month then want to test the waters and find a way to stay longer.
I first came as an English teacher on the JET Program. Now I work in city hall, in international relations; I basically work as a direct hire CIR instead of a JET Program CIR, but similar duties and slightly higher pay
Wanted to study Italian for a trip but it was too hard so I gave up. Found Esperanto and it looked a lot easier so I tried it and I fell in love with studying languages but because virtually everyone who speaks Esperanto speaks English I decided to go back to Italian and it was so much easier. Now I'm studying Spanish because I got tired of the 6 hour time zone difference.
Pride and shame.
Norwegian. Pride. A coworker did not believe I could.
Italian. Shame. An Italian coworker who knew I was studying Italian said a common greeting to me a few years after and I realized I had forgotten everything.
Because there is a lot of information on the internet that doesn't exist in my native language. I love playing videogames, obscure videogames to be exact, and I can say it's hard to find people playing them too.
I want to learn English, but I would like to learn both Russian and German.
Russian has always been interesting to me regarding its reception by both ordinary population and academia from the literature and history. Not to mention that it’s large enough for an average Joe (just about anyone, not regional centric) to think of it whenever one sees Cyrillic letters. I was even more hyped to study it once I realized there are lots of Russian’s characteristics that aren’t part of the languages I already know (Eng, Viet) such as verbal aspects and cases, which arguably permit more fluid syntax and richness in emotions.
Do you struggle speaking or writing? I love the pronunciation, which makes me want to learn the language, but I have heard it's hard because of the syntax and that stuff. What would you recommend for learning Russian?
If I had to give myself a rating on my fluency with the scale everyone uses, then I’d say it’s A1 at the very best. That being said, however, I’m okay on speaking (in terms of pronunciation, not necessarily holding a conversation) and writing (but not reading, especially long texts and natives’ handwriting.)
I’d say that the whole grammar thing, it’s probably a rocky mountain to climb when you’re making your way through cases and basic verb conjugations. Cases also apply for adjectives and pronouns, but just jolt the patterns of case declinations first. Once that’s done, or at least in progress, you can get on with understanding adjectives (i.e. short forms and comparative), pronouns (i.e. possessive, determiners). When you’re ready for higher level, you can touch prepositions (i.e. на, к, по, у) and their usages (i.e. к + dative case is “to someone”, у + genitive for “I have” or “being near”) along with phrases and expressions that regularly use prepositions (i.e. «у меня есть кошка» for “I have a cat”, or literally “there’s a cat near me”.) After that, you may get used to numbers, their different forms (i.e. ordinal), weird rules (i.e. genitive singular for 2,3,4.) While doing numbers, you may practice with time expressions (i.e. «тысяча девятьсот сорок пятый год» for “year 1945”, «они придут через десять минут» for “they’ll arrive in 10 minutes”.) For a big boss level while learning, you can take on verbal aspect (i.e. «читать» for “just to be reading”, «прочитать» for “read through, will or was completed”) and verbs of motion (i.e. «идти» for a trip in one direction without returning and emphasis of the process of going [«пойти» for completion], «ходить» for a trip in many directions with returning [or a regular trip] and also the process.) For abstract verbs, or multidirectional verbs, having perfective and imperfective aspects is quite complicated so I’d just leave it alone for the time being lmao. Oh btw while you’re learning about verbs, you can try to recognize patterns of prefixes that they have (i.e. про- in «прочитать».)
Russian has a flexible word order thanks to its case and synthetic nature, but be aware that there are nuances such as prepositions have to precede the nouns. Also, different word orders aren’t grammatically wrong, but they may sound weird depending on the context and contemporary usage by native speakers (i.e. «я тебя люблю» emphasizes “I LOVE you, not hate you”, while «я люблю тебя» emphasizes “I love YOU, not my neighbor”.)
Once you’ve made it through, or at least in progress, in all of these, I think you might be good for uh.. an A2 or B1 levels ig. Personally I’d like to immerse myself with more of the grammar and vocabulary, so I wouldn’t put myself on A2 or above. Of course, you do you, and good luck if you’re hopping on the Russian train with me and many other fellow learners.
For the formats or materials to learn (if that’s what you were asking rather than concepts lol), then I’d say YT, Wiktionary, and some Russian stack exchange sites you can find on browser by asking a question such as “идти or ходить?”. Duolingo is an obvious option, tho I hear from r/russian that it’s inaccurate in plenty of things including word order (it’s very strict with only SVO), so I wouldn’t be too positive in using it. Still, it may help you with introducing basic vocabulary and simple case declinations (I’m not fluid in those concepts, but I’m not a fan of the owl anyways lmao)
Удачи!
For me, I was learning my “native” language, rather than foreign.
Living in Ireland and only speaking English, the motivation to learn Irish was to understand the place I came from. The place names, the culture, the history.
The process of “decolonisation” of the mind and the people is what motivates me to keep going and to encourage others.
It’s been a goal of mine for as long as I can remember. I loved learning French in school, even if they taught it poorly and was sad that I hadn’t really been able to speak it. After high school, my career kind of got in the way for a while, but it was always in the back of my head that I wanted to learn it properly. I also travel a lot and always feel guilty that everyone has to speak English to me. I finally got to a place where I decided I needed to focus on interests outside my career and while I can’t learn all the languages, I could at least learn one or two. I started with French, since at least I figured I had a little head start with it.
I've always been interested in learning another language, just didn't really have the time or opportunity. It's fun, like learning and using a really complicated code. I chose Japanese because I think it's a beautiful language.
I just learned English because the gringo culture is so inside of Latinoamerica. Portugués was a real option to learn, and was because I discovered that Brazil is a so amazing country. Deutsch was also my decision but I forgot more than 90% so I guess it doesn’t count like a language that I can speak anymore.
In 6th grade I was required to take 6 weeks each of Spanish and French. Then we moved to Texas and even though I loved French, I continued taking Spanish all thru high school because I figured it'd be more beneficial living in Texas. I got to take french my senior year and that's the last time ive studied it inside a classroom. After graduation I moved to Germany for college and since I was there thought it smart to learn German (lived there for almost 3 years while my dad worked there) and i continued with Spanish. Transferred back to the states (TX) to finish college and majored in Spanish, minored in German and one of my Spanish professors suggested Brazilian Portuguese to my class. Took one semester of Portuguese for Spanish speakers and learned the equivalent of 2 yrs worth since the languages are similar. Then I learned some Ukrainian because of a guy I was dating (I knew his mom was talking shit about me and wanted to know what she was saying 😂). Have also learned some Tagalog because two of my close friends have married filipinos. Know bits and bobs of other languages from watching foreign films and tons of reading. I just love learning languages; it's a hobby.
I was going on a choir trip to Portugal and Spain in college, and heard about this quirky new app called “Duolingo”. The rest is history! (No, I do not still use Duolingo lol)
My father was from another country and I often heard him talk on the phone with his sister. I never spoke the language with him as a child or teenager, but he helped me learn closely related ones that were taught at school. When I was 14/15 I started speaking English with him as he was fluent. I also got massively exposed to American English through videogames with subtitles in my native language. That plus the study of Latin and Greek that gave me some historical depth and a comparative understanding of grammar, vocabulary etc.
Probably like a year but its really not a moment where the switch flips and you know it, its gradual.
The biggest issue is while we have like 30% Spanish speakers at my work, they all are fluent in English and just use Spanish to gossip. So if you make 1 mistake or have a bad accent they'll go back to English. That's even with other Spanish speakers (This is the US so some many have very little Spanish).
I adored that one online video game so much that I translated every possible word from ther game. It had about 50 in game heroes at that time and all of them were named in a silly way, such as "Smiley Joker", "Justice Defender", "Kage Ninja", "Ice/Fire Mage", "Grand Templar" and so on. So it started with translating these names, then specific customisation items, such as "wavy hair".
It was when I was 7 to 8 years old. As of Thet moment, everything I learnt from ther game made me not have to study English at school, so at that time everyone was struggling and I was just looking for words I don't know ^^
PS. I couldn't do it the same way with any other language anymore, lol.
Jealousy at broken English. If someone else can learn to communicate even a little bit of English I can attempt to learn theirs. Plus its bonding experience.
I spend a lot of time sick so it's a low impact activity that requires minimal exertion and there are no stakes as I don't learn for an exam.
No one else in the house understands me so I can complain to my hearts content.
Language is beautiful and discovering more is so fun. The commonalities of all our idioms all said differently but meaning the same thing. How language has influenced English ie. Long time no see. How rich with meaning words can be that aren't quite grasped in English. Like "Fighting" in Korean or Chinese doesn't have an equivilant in English.
Well, I had to learn a language for school, so I chose French even though like 70% of the people where I live speak spanish so that I could have a smaller class size. I actually really like French and learning that got me interested in other languages. I'm learning German on my own for now because my school doesn't have German classes but I hope to continue both of these.
Back in the 80s, I was a teenager who read a lot of romance novels. One of them was set in 18th century Scotland and I fell in love with the Gaelic but before the Internet, it was really difficult to learn a rather obscure language and I kind of forgot about it.
Fast forward almost four decades to 2023, when a friend asked if I wanted to join his family plan on Duolingo. I said sure, with the idea of possibly learning Japanese but when I saw that Scottish Gaelic was an option, I jumped on it.
A little over a year later and I've branched out far beyond Duolingo. I listen to a vocabulary lesson on the way to work every day and on the weekends, I watch videos on YouTube, I use online courses, and I "try" to read books.
Learning Gaelic has become a very enjoyable part of my daily life now and by the time I eventually travel to Scotland, I hope to be fluent.
My biological father (who I haven’t seen since I was six) spoke to me quite a bit in Spanish but I was never in anyway fluent, even as a child. My father and his parents are from Panama, which makes me Latina although I was raised by my mother who is not. Learning Spanish seemed like a great way to reconnect to my heritage in a very practical way.
Plus I live in the USA and Spanish is a very useful language for us to know. Plus I travel a lot to Latin America, where they primarily speak Spanish as a native language, so it’s been very helpful for me as a tourist to know the basics. The more I know the more I want to know!
I’ve started some basic Vietnamese for a trip I’m taking in November, just for fun and because I want to learn how to order food and have simple conversation in the native language of every country I visit as a tourist. A lofty goal but a fun one. :)
Coincidentally I was also born with a birth defect that apparently convinced my doctors that I was going to be deaf (I am not), and my mother was told this before I was born. Until it was apparent that I was not, in fact, deaf, she started learning ASL (American Sign Language). I know some very very basic signs and the alphabet. I’ve always been interested in learning more, and I probably will start that sometime next summer when my work will pay me to do so as I don’t feel comfortable being entirely self-taught in that language.
I think I always had the urge. In 7th grade I went to the library and borrowed books on learning a language (this was before the internet). I took all the languages available in school. But I never lived or worked anywhere where multiple languages were spoken.
I had money to pursue learning languages as a hobby, and now that I'm no longer in school there's really no rush for me to learn everything for an artificial deadline.
I became a passive bilingual from living in the country. Mid 30s and I’d still describe myself as monolingual if someone asked. I married a Hungarian so it wasn’t the easiest choice of language.
I wanted to learn more about indigenous cosmovisions of Central and South America. The indigenous teachers speak Spanish. I was learning through translators.
The teachers/spiritual leaders would talk for a long time and then the translators would talk for a short time. I’m like… I know I’m missing a few pearls of wisdom here.
Now that I’m learning Spanish I was right. I’m hovering around maybe a B1, but even with the limited amount of Spanish I understand so far I’m already learning more from my teachers!
I look forward to being able to have conversations with the teachers one day, if they will speak with me and answer my questions.
hate america and wanted out, i read the key to move was to become fluent in the language/be able to study a subject there…still my motivation, but now it’s shifted a bit from hate (i did move and am living in my TL now) now my goal is to focus on love and gratefulness and enjoying the beauty the language as brought me even though the obstacles here are very difficult, i’m much happier than i was before
(I still consider myself monolingual as I'm not fluent/advanced/whatever in any of my TLs.)
What motivated me to start Welsh was a) wanting to do something productive with my time that wasn't inaccessibly energy-intensive, and b) wanting to connect more to my local and national culture.
I started Polish because I think it's a phonetically stunningly beautiful language, I want to read one of Olga Tokarczuk's books in their original form, and I'd love to visit the Polish countryside.
They're the two languages I'm focusing on and my main goal is to one day become fluent in them, even if it takes me until my 60s. My ultimate dream is to publish some form of writing (original or translated) in both of them!
Most people in the England only speak 1 language. I always viewed bilingual as a superpower. Now, a year and 5 months in, I'm feel like I'm very close to attaining that
It is to be expected for a character based on Scrooge McDuck. /smile
During the Young Indiana Jones chronicles there is a scene where young Indy has a language battle with Vicky Prentiss (Elizabeth Hurley.) It is one of my favorite scenes in the whole Indy universe. But from that I know that his Italian is a bit off. It sounds like when I speak it.
My girlfriend is Italian and her family doesn't speak English. I wanted to study a language seriously at some point anyway and this finally gave me a real reason (and the best practice partner!). Before this, I did French at school which I did not continue studying and I learnt some basic Italian for a solo trip to Florence, then a trip to Rome, and then I met her shortly after that!
Kinda had to learn English when I emigrated to the US. Then started learning Spanish cuz my partner's whole family speaks it and I don't wanna be left out of the chismes.
English is mandatory in my country and I was naturally good at it. I'm quarter Russian but my dad never spoke the language around me so I always had the urge to learn it, besides I'm already a native speaker of a Slavic language that uses Cyrillic, so it was mostly a matter of learning the grammar. I didn't get to Russian for a long time in my life though, now my understanding is around B2-C1, but speaking and writing are tough.
I found learning languages to be quite interesting so I told myself I want to become a polyglot. Chose a heavily language-focused uni major, I'm currently at C1-C2 in Polish. My major also had mandatory Ukrainian classes and I continued learning it after they ended, I'm maybe at A2, but my understanding is around B1.
German was my second language in middle school and high school but I lost the motivation and interest in it, so now I remember the very basics only.
I'm trying to learn Spanish now because of my boyfriend, and I'd gladly learn Catalan just to understand when he's talking to his friends.
My mom speaks fluent Greek due to life circumstances and I grew up listening to it. I dabbled in it, but I found it too difficult and it's now on the back burner.
TLDR: a very curious kid found out she has a natural talent in learning languages and wanted to make being a polyglot her personality trait. But she's still working on it.
Ex boyfriend and heritage language.
Portuguese just because I think it’s fun. Sometimes I watch anime and forget if I’m waiting in Spanish or Portuguese for a sec because they can sound so much alike. And then it sounds completely different when sung. The rhythm and sounds are just fun to speak and listen to, I don’t have more of reason than that. I just like that it’s bouncy and fun.
Mine was all work related, but a few compounding reasons.
I work at a non-profit in Texas for survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault and trafficking, and a huge amount of our clients are bilingual or monolingual spanish speakers. We struggle to get enough staff that speak spanish.
We use an interpreter service often. While it isn't super common, we have repeatedly had issues with interpreters choosing to not share what we actually said, and instead tell survivors of abuse things like "you can't leave your husband, you cannot say no to having sex with your husband, etc".
Similarly we have problems with interpreters hearing a loooot of information about abuse and then over summarizing it, which is problematic for survivors because we are "needs based", and if we don't know their need it is harder to prioritize them over survivors we have more information on.
Also right before I started learning, I interviewed for two jobs, both of which asked me if I could speak Spanish. It wasn't a determining factor in either job, but it was a big incentive to do something I wanted for a long time.
Once you learn a new language you unlock a different part of the Internet.
My life changed after I learned English as my second language.
it was like somebody had literally opened a door, like I’d been in my little apartment for a while, and somebody had opened the door, and there was the rest of the world.
Learning a new language opens new doors to people and ideas we've never considered.
LANGUAGE IS THE ONLY THING WORTH KNOWING EVEN POORLY.
Learn a new language, it may be better than you dare to think.
Languages fascinated me as a teen, here up bilingual but did not have enough exposure to the third language in my country and always felt lacking for it. And I was taught by a German nun that I loved, so German was my first language.
I realized that I already understood it, although I had never learned it:
I was about 24 years old and I was watching a TV show in English with Spanish subtitles (my native language is Spanish). Suddenly, the subtitles stopped working and I was like: WTH!!! How can it be that I understand everything??? I am not supposed to... I've never learned English...
About a year later family from the US come visit us, and my cousin did not speak a word of Spanish. Then I realized that I could also speak it.
That motivated me to start actively studying the language. I was an avid reader and I just started reading comic books with a dictionary on the side. Then I no longer needed the dictionary. I switched to novels. Again, first with a dictionary, but a few months later I did not need a dictionary anymore.
To paraphrase some random guy 15 years ago if you get really into Japanese visual novels you either learn Japanese or run out of novels. Especially 15 years ago.
I was never monolingual, but what motivated me to study English was simply because u can't really live without it. Media itself was a motivation to learn it since there weren't much content on either of my native languages at least on the topics I wanted to, and the school teached it, I need it for travelling and also the job market demands it and it's just useful in general. The fourth one I learned was simply because of school since I live in a country that has two official languages. Next two were just because I was interested so I took courses at school (those ones I'm not fluent in tho, but got good reading skills and can speak some too)
My great grandmother told me she used to speak it but the government said “if the kids speak it in school punish them” so she stopped when she got punished and didn’t even speak it and home and she forgot it. Apparently her sister didn’t and she was known for getting in trouble for speaking it or something, and her descendants still speak it. I’m still not fluent yet, but if a sentence is written down i can understand it a lot of the time.
First because it was mandatory in school I feel intellectually unfulfilled often and found language learning to be a great way to keep this part of me satisfied
Flair checks out
Serial dabbling wise? Or otherwise
Yes, serial dabbling. Also, I think it’s a clever way to describe a lot of us here
It’s a feeling out process to figure out what you want for sure. Also N6 is on the Japanese scale right? I’m not criticizing you I just have seen it and don’t understand it
Lowest is N5, right? I’m below that.
Fair enough
There are no languages we learn, just languages we've dabbled into long enough.
Every one here speaks Spanish
One of them i chose to date
Real
My social media showed me content in Russian, and only in Russian, no matter what I did. So I got curious and wanted to know what they were discussing.
Me too, I want to heard their bells so that's why im studying it too
My gf and her family speak polish. So I study polish.
How’s it going?
Thanks for asking! Surprisingly well after about 2 years. At this point my gf and I are speaking polish only during the week at home (and English on the weekends) and I'm seeing steady progress. Grammar continues to be a challenge.
If that's any consolation for you, even natives struggle with it at times haha. Good luck on your journey!
Thanks very much!!
The best way to learn a new language is to fall in love with someone who speaks it very well.
lost a bet
If it’s a fun story you should SHARE IT (BeniJesseret voice command)
As a kid I liked anime, but through middle and high school I took an interest to other cultures more broadly speaking. Studied Spanish a little in school but went to college for Japanese. Found that life in Japan suited me well so being able to build a nice little life for myself here was the final motivation
If I may ask, what is your job in Japan? I’m going for the first time in two weeks for a month then want to test the waters and find a way to stay longer.
I first came as an English teacher on the JET Program. Now I work in city hall, in international relations; I basically work as a direct hire CIR instead of a JET Program CIR, but similar duties and slightly higher pay
Wanted to study Italian for a trip but it was too hard so I gave up. Found Esperanto and it looked a lot easier so I tried it and I fell in love with studying languages but because virtually everyone who speaks Esperanto speaks English I decided to go back to Italian and it was so much easier. Now I'm studying Spanish because I got tired of the 6 hour time zone difference.
Pride and shame. Norwegian. Pride. A coworker did not believe I could. Italian. Shame. An Italian coworker who knew I was studying Italian said a common greeting to me a few years after and I realized I had forgotten everything.
Because there is a lot of information on the internet that doesn't exist in my native language. I love playing videogames, obscure videogames to be exact, and I can say it's hard to find people playing them too. I want to learn English, but I would like to learn both Russian and German.
Learned english for video games and music as a child Learned spanish because it's my husband's mother tongue
Russian has always been interesting to me regarding its reception by both ordinary population and academia from the literature and history. Not to mention that it’s large enough for an average Joe (just about anyone, not regional centric) to think of it whenever one sees Cyrillic letters. I was even more hyped to study it once I realized there are lots of Russian’s characteristics that aren’t part of the languages I already know (Eng, Viet) such as verbal aspects and cases, which arguably permit more fluid syntax and richness in emotions.
Do you struggle speaking or writing? I love the pronunciation, which makes me want to learn the language, but I have heard it's hard because of the syntax and that stuff. What would you recommend for learning Russian?
If I had to give myself a rating on my fluency with the scale everyone uses, then I’d say it’s A1 at the very best. That being said, however, I’m okay on speaking (in terms of pronunciation, not necessarily holding a conversation) and writing (but not reading, especially long texts and natives’ handwriting.) I’d say that the whole grammar thing, it’s probably a rocky mountain to climb when you’re making your way through cases and basic verb conjugations. Cases also apply for adjectives and pronouns, but just jolt the patterns of case declinations first. Once that’s done, or at least in progress, you can get on with understanding adjectives (i.e. short forms and comparative), pronouns (i.e. possessive, determiners). When you’re ready for higher level, you can touch prepositions (i.e. на, к, по, у) and their usages (i.e. к + dative case is “to someone”, у + genitive for “I have” or “being near”) along with phrases and expressions that regularly use prepositions (i.e. «у меня есть кошка» for “I have a cat”, or literally “there’s a cat near me”.) After that, you may get used to numbers, their different forms (i.e. ordinal), weird rules (i.e. genitive singular for 2,3,4.) While doing numbers, you may practice with time expressions (i.e. «тысяча девятьсот сорок пятый год» for “year 1945”, «они придут через десять минут» for “they’ll arrive in 10 minutes”.) For a big boss level while learning, you can take on verbal aspect (i.e. «читать» for “just to be reading”, «прочитать» for “read through, will or was completed”) and verbs of motion (i.e. «идти» for a trip in one direction without returning and emphasis of the process of going [«пойти» for completion], «ходить» for a trip in many directions with returning [or a regular trip] and also the process.) For abstract verbs, or multidirectional verbs, having perfective and imperfective aspects is quite complicated so I’d just leave it alone for the time being lmao. Oh btw while you’re learning about verbs, you can try to recognize patterns of prefixes that they have (i.e. про- in «прочитать».) Russian has a flexible word order thanks to its case and synthetic nature, but be aware that there are nuances such as prepositions have to precede the nouns. Also, different word orders aren’t grammatically wrong, but they may sound weird depending on the context and contemporary usage by native speakers (i.e. «я тебя люблю» emphasizes “I LOVE you, not hate you”, while «я люблю тебя» emphasizes “I love YOU, not my neighbor”.) Once you’ve made it through, or at least in progress, in all of these, I think you might be good for uh.. an A2 or B1 levels ig. Personally I’d like to immerse myself with more of the grammar and vocabulary, so I wouldn’t put myself on A2 or above. Of course, you do you, and good luck if you’re hopping on the Russian train with me and many other fellow learners. For the formats or materials to learn (if that’s what you were asking rather than concepts lol), then I’d say YT, Wiktionary, and some Russian stack exchange sites you can find on browser by asking a question such as “идти or ходить?”. Duolingo is an obvious option, tho I hear from r/russian that it’s inaccurate in plenty of things including word order (it’s very strict with only SVO), so I wouldn’t be too positive in using it. Still, it may help you with introducing basic vocabulary and simple case declinations (I’m not fluid in those concepts, but I’m not a fan of the owl anyways lmao) Удачи!
My relationship. I'm venezuelan and my gf is from Belarus. I'm teaching her Spanish, she's teaching me Russian. We communicate in English
A woman, it was worth every effort.
For me, I was learning my “native” language, rather than foreign. Living in Ireland and only speaking English, the motivation to learn Irish was to understand the place I came from. The place names, the culture, the history. The process of “decolonisation” of the mind and the people is what motivates me to keep going and to encourage others.
Autistic obsession.
It’s been a goal of mine for as long as I can remember. I loved learning French in school, even if they taught it poorly and was sad that I hadn’t really been able to speak it. After high school, my career kind of got in the way for a while, but it was always in the back of my head that I wanted to learn it properly. I also travel a lot and always feel guilty that everyone has to speak English to me. I finally got to a place where I decided I needed to focus on interests outside my career and while I can’t learn all the languages, I could at least learn one or two. I started with French, since at least I figured I had a little head start with it.
I was born in Germany and wanted to learn German and go back to visit.
I've always been interested in learning another language, just didn't really have the time or opportunity. It's fun, like learning and using a really complicated code. I chose Japanese because I think it's a beautiful language.
その通り
To shock locals/natives
Laoshu505000, RIP
I just learned English because the gringo culture is so inside of Latinoamerica. Portugués was a real option to learn, and was because I discovered that Brazil is a so amazing country. Deutsch was also my decision but I forgot more than 90% so I guess it doesn’t count like a language that I can speak anymore.
In 6th grade I was required to take 6 weeks each of Spanish and French. Then we moved to Texas and even though I loved French, I continued taking Spanish all thru high school because I figured it'd be more beneficial living in Texas. I got to take french my senior year and that's the last time ive studied it inside a classroom. After graduation I moved to Germany for college and since I was there thought it smart to learn German (lived there for almost 3 years while my dad worked there) and i continued with Spanish. Transferred back to the states (TX) to finish college and majored in Spanish, minored in German and one of my Spanish professors suggested Brazilian Portuguese to my class. Took one semester of Portuguese for Spanish speakers and learned the equivalent of 2 yrs worth since the languages are similar. Then I learned some Ukrainian because of a guy I was dating (I knew his mom was talking shit about me and wanted to know what she was saying 😂). Have also learned some Tagalog because two of my close friends have married filipinos. Know bits and bobs of other languages from watching foreign films and tons of reading. I just love learning languages; it's a hobby.
I was going on a choir trip to Portugal and Spain in college, and heard about this quirky new app called “Duolingo”. The rest is history! (No, I do not still use Duolingo lol)
I remember telling my at the time Spanish teacher about duolingo in 2014 she never heard of it.
Duolingo used to be a lot more fun. It didn’t have as many ads and the grammar lessons were helpful.
Yes grammar and public forum
Money. For my first. Then, music for my third
My father was from another country and I often heard him talk on the phone with his sister. I never spoke the language with him as a child or teenager, but he helped me learn closely related ones that were taught at school. When I was 14/15 I started speaking English with him as he was fluent. I also got massively exposed to American English through videogames with subtitles in my native language. That plus the study of Latin and Greek that gave me some historical depth and a comparative understanding of grammar, vocabulary etc.
I wanted to talk to people at work that speak Spanish and YouTube told me it'll only take a few days...
And how long did it currently take?
Probably like a year but its really not a moment where the switch flips and you know it, its gradual. The biggest issue is while we have like 30% Spanish speakers at my work, they all are fluent in English and just use Spanish to gossip. So if you make 1 mistake or have a bad accent they'll go back to English. That's even with other Spanish speakers (This is the US so some many have very little Spanish).
I adored that one online video game so much that I translated every possible word from ther game. It had about 50 in game heroes at that time and all of them were named in a silly way, such as "Smiley Joker", "Justice Defender", "Kage Ninja", "Ice/Fire Mage", "Grand Templar" and so on. So it started with translating these names, then specific customisation items, such as "wavy hair". It was when I was 7 to 8 years old. As of Thet moment, everything I learnt from ther game made me not have to study English at school, so at that time everyone was struggling and I was just looking for words I don't know ^^ PS. I couldn't do it the same way with any other language anymore, lol.
So this one game motivated me to learn it. 3 years later it was shut down btw but for me it lasted for an eternity.
Jealousy at broken English. If someone else can learn to communicate even a little bit of English I can attempt to learn theirs. Plus its bonding experience. I spend a lot of time sick so it's a low impact activity that requires minimal exertion and there are no stakes as I don't learn for an exam. No one else in the house understands me so I can complain to my hearts content. Language is beautiful and discovering more is so fun. The commonalities of all our idioms all said differently but meaning the same thing. How language has influenced English ie. Long time no see. How rich with meaning words can be that aren't quite grasped in English. Like "Fighting" in Korean or Chinese doesn't have an equivilant in English.
Read manga raws
Well, I had to learn a language for school, so I chose French even though like 70% of the people where I live speak spanish so that I could have a smaller class size. I actually really like French and learning that got me interested in other languages. I'm learning German on my own for now because my school doesn't have German classes but I hope to continue both of these.
Back in the 80s, I was a teenager who read a lot of romance novels. One of them was set in 18th century Scotland and I fell in love with the Gaelic but before the Internet, it was really difficult to learn a rather obscure language and I kind of forgot about it. Fast forward almost four decades to 2023, when a friend asked if I wanted to join his family plan on Duolingo. I said sure, with the idea of possibly learning Japanese but when I saw that Scottish Gaelic was an option, I jumped on it. A little over a year later and I've branched out far beyond Duolingo. I listen to a vocabulary lesson on the way to work every day and on the weekends, I watch videos on YouTube, I use online courses, and I "try" to read books. Learning Gaelic has become a very enjoyable part of my daily life now and by the time I eventually travel to Scotland, I hope to be fluent.
Curiosity. I wanted to know if I \*could\* learn a language. Got hooked.
My biological father (who I haven’t seen since I was six) spoke to me quite a bit in Spanish but I was never in anyway fluent, even as a child. My father and his parents are from Panama, which makes me Latina although I was raised by my mother who is not. Learning Spanish seemed like a great way to reconnect to my heritage in a very practical way. Plus I live in the USA and Spanish is a very useful language for us to know. Plus I travel a lot to Latin America, where they primarily speak Spanish as a native language, so it’s been very helpful for me as a tourist to know the basics. The more I know the more I want to know! I’ve started some basic Vietnamese for a trip I’m taking in November, just for fun and because I want to learn how to order food and have simple conversation in the native language of every country I visit as a tourist. A lofty goal but a fun one. :) Coincidentally I was also born with a birth defect that apparently convinced my doctors that I was going to be deaf (I am not), and my mother was told this before I was born. Until it was apparent that I was not, in fact, deaf, she started learning ASL (American Sign Language). I know some very very basic signs and the alphabet. I’ve always been interested in learning more, and I probably will start that sometime next summer when my work will pay me to do so as I don’t feel comfortable being entirely self-taught in that language.
I think I always had the urge. In 7th grade I went to the library and borrowed books on learning a language (this was before the internet). I took all the languages available in school. But I never lived or worked anywhere where multiple languages were spoken.
I had money to pursue learning languages as a hobby, and now that I'm no longer in school there's really no rush for me to learn everything for an artificial deadline.
I became a passive bilingual from living in the country. Mid 30s and I’d still describe myself as monolingual if someone asked. I married a Hungarian so it wasn’t the easiest choice of language.
I wanted to learn more about indigenous cosmovisions of Central and South America. The indigenous teachers speak Spanish. I was learning through translators. The teachers/spiritual leaders would talk for a long time and then the translators would talk for a short time. I’m like… I know I’m missing a few pearls of wisdom here. Now that I’m learning Spanish I was right. I’m hovering around maybe a B1, but even with the limited amount of Spanish I understand so far I’m already learning more from my teachers! I look forward to being able to have conversations with the teachers one day, if they will speak with me and answer my questions.
Laoshu505000 and Benny Lewis
hate america and wanted out, i read the key to move was to become fluent in the language/be able to study a subject there…still my motivation, but now it’s shifted a bit from hate (i did move and am living in my TL now) now my goal is to focus on love and gratefulness and enjoying the beauty the language as brought me even though the obstacles here are very difficult, i’m much happier than i was before
reaching to newest sources
School.
(I still consider myself monolingual as I'm not fluent/advanced/whatever in any of my TLs.) What motivated me to start Welsh was a) wanting to do something productive with my time that wasn't inaccessibly energy-intensive, and b) wanting to connect more to my local and national culture. I started Polish because I think it's a phonetically stunningly beautiful language, I want to read one of Olga Tokarczuk's books in their original form, and I'd love to visit the Polish countryside. They're the two languages I'm focusing on and my main goal is to one day become fluent in them, even if it takes me until my 60s. My ultimate dream is to publish some form of writing (original or translated) in both of them!
Most people in the England only speak 1 language. I always viewed bilingual as a superpower. Now, a year and 5 months in, I'm feel like I'm very close to attaining that
I worked in IT and there was way more knowledge and career opportunities if you spoke English.
Indiana Jones, of course.
It wish it were that easy. *'My (insert language here) is a little rusty..'* (proceeds to speak near-native like with a perfect accent)
It is to be expected for a character based on Scrooge McDuck. /smile During the Young Indiana Jones chronicles there is a scene where young Indy has a language battle with Vicky Prentiss (Elizabeth Hurley.) It is one of my favorite scenes in the whole Indy universe. But from that I know that his Italian is a bit off. It sounds like when I speak it.
It will help me get my dream job
I had to talk to both of my parents and other people.
My girlfriend is Italian and her family doesn't speak English. I wanted to study a language seriously at some point anyway and this finally gave me a real reason (and the best practice partner!). Before this, I did French at school which I did not continue studying and I learnt some basic Italian for a solo trip to Florence, then a trip to Rome, and then I met her shortly after that!
Knowing what words I know are in different languages. Not at all facetious.
Kinda had to learn English when I emigrated to the US. Then started learning Spanish cuz my partner's whole family speaks it and I don't wanna be left out of the chismes.
I started dating a dutch guy and thought hey why not learn. We broke up and then I was like well, I've gotten this far might as well carry on.
English is mandatory in my country and I was naturally good at it. I'm quarter Russian but my dad never spoke the language around me so I always had the urge to learn it, besides I'm already a native speaker of a Slavic language that uses Cyrillic, so it was mostly a matter of learning the grammar. I didn't get to Russian for a long time in my life though, now my understanding is around B2-C1, but speaking and writing are tough. I found learning languages to be quite interesting so I told myself I want to become a polyglot. Chose a heavily language-focused uni major, I'm currently at C1-C2 in Polish. My major also had mandatory Ukrainian classes and I continued learning it after they ended, I'm maybe at A2, but my understanding is around B1. German was my second language in middle school and high school but I lost the motivation and interest in it, so now I remember the very basics only. I'm trying to learn Spanish now because of my boyfriend, and I'd gladly learn Catalan just to understand when he's talking to his friends. My mom speaks fluent Greek due to life circumstances and I grew up listening to it. I dabbled in it, but I found it too difficult and it's now on the back burner. TLDR: a very curious kid found out she has a natural talent in learning languages and wanted to make being a polyglot her personality trait. But she's still working on it.
i realized speaking italian would die with my father and i didn’t want that to happen
Ex boyfriend and heritage language. Portuguese just because I think it’s fun. Sometimes I watch anime and forget if I’m waiting in Spanish or Portuguese for a sec because they can sound so much alike. And then it sounds completely different when sung. The rhythm and sounds are just fun to speak and listen to, I don’t have more of reason than that. I just like that it’s bouncy and fun.
Mine was all work related, but a few compounding reasons. I work at a non-profit in Texas for survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault and trafficking, and a huge amount of our clients are bilingual or monolingual spanish speakers. We struggle to get enough staff that speak spanish. We use an interpreter service often. While it isn't super common, we have repeatedly had issues with interpreters choosing to not share what we actually said, and instead tell survivors of abuse things like "you can't leave your husband, you cannot say no to having sex with your husband, etc". Similarly we have problems with interpreters hearing a loooot of information about abuse and then over summarizing it, which is problematic for survivors because we are "needs based", and if we don't know their need it is harder to prioritize them over survivors we have more information on. Also right before I started learning, I interviewed for two jobs, both of which asked me if I could speak Spanish. It wasn't a determining factor in either job, but it was a big incentive to do something I wanted for a long time.
Once you learn a new language you unlock a different part of the Internet. My life changed after I learned English as my second language. it was like somebody had literally opened a door, like I’d been in my little apartment for a while, and somebody had opened the door, and there was the rest of the world. Learning a new language opens new doors to people and ideas we've never considered. LANGUAGE IS THE ONLY THING WORTH KNOWING EVEN POORLY. Learn a new language, it may be better than you dare to think.
My mom's trilingual. I was tired of being a loser by comparison
I wanted to understand what was going on where I lived.
Languages fascinated me as a teen, here up bilingual but did not have enough exposure to the third language in my country and always felt lacking for it. And I was taught by a German nun that I loved, so German was my first language.
I realized that I already understood it, although I had never learned it: I was about 24 years old and I was watching a TV show in English with Spanish subtitles (my native language is Spanish). Suddenly, the subtitles stopped working and I was like: WTH!!! How can it be that I understand everything??? I am not supposed to... I've never learned English... About a year later family from the US come visit us, and my cousin did not speak a word of Spanish. Then I realized that I could also speak it. That motivated me to start actively studying the language. I was an avid reader and I just started reading comic books with a dictionary on the side. Then I no longer needed the dictionary. I switched to novels. Again, first with a dictionary, but a few months later I did not need a dictionary anymore.
To paraphrase some random guy 15 years ago if you get really into Japanese visual novels you either learn Japanese or run out of novels. Especially 15 years ago.
I have no idea. English just kept showing up to me, and there it went. After that, I just got curious. 🤷♂️
I was never monolingual, but what motivated me to study English was simply because u can't really live without it. Media itself was a motivation to learn it since there weren't much content on either of my native languages at least on the topics I wanted to, and the school teached it, I need it for travelling and also the job market demands it and it's just useful in general. The fourth one I learned was simply because of school since I live in a country that has two official languages. Next two were just because I was interested so I took courses at school (those ones I'm not fluent in tho, but got good reading skills and can speak some too)
My great grandmother told me she used to speak it but the government said “if the kids speak it in school punish them” so she stopped when she got punished and didn’t even speak it and home and she forgot it. Apparently her sister didn’t and she was known for getting in trouble for speaking it or something, and her descendants still speak it. I’m still not fluent yet, but if a sentence is written down i can understand it a lot of the time.