What sparked your interest in Language learning

I’m just curious as to what all your experiences were in that led you to want to learn languages. I think the first time I was interested in language learning was after watching the movie “Boondock saints.” This is one of my all-time favorite movies and the two Irish brothers in the movie could speak quite a few languages. My favorite scene was when they were in the Interrogation room with William Dafoe and they spoke like 5 or 6 languages to him, when I first saw that I just so amazed that one person could speak so many languages. I was only a kid at the time when I saw that movie so I didn’t start learning any languages until I started taking Spanish in High school and that’s when I realized I really wanted to learn a language but I knew it wasn’t Spanish.

So that’s when I started listening to different languages and I finally decided on German for a number of reasons. The culture really interested me, the language sounded so unique and different from all the others to me. I knew I wanted to do traveling in Europe and I also thought German would be a great first language to know since its in the center of Europe and spoken by so many people there.

I first started learning when I was 17, but as I got into the military I didn’t have time to study when I first started doing training and then once I did have time I put it off for awhile. I’m out of the military now so it was about February this year I decided to pick up on it again and I’ve been amazed at my progress so far, short of a few exceptions I’ve studied every day since I started then in February and it has been an amazing journey so far. I’m far from fluency but I feel I really have true motivation that is going to keep me going because I honestly enjoy the process now where in the beginning I had to push myself a lot to study, now I look forward to it.

So enough about me, what is all of your reasons for studying a foreign language and was there a specific moment where you knew you wanted to really pursue it?

4 Likes

I think the biggest reason why I am learning a second language is that I always felt like a failure that I was not able to do it with earlier attempts. It was this cloud over me. Some people regret not going to their prom. I regretted that 4 years of high school Spanish and many attempts to self-teach were all failures. I could read, but I could not speak or hear. I tried another language, German, and 9 months of study didn’t get me past greetings.

So now I am 50 years old and trying to teach myself how to learn a language. I didn’t pick an easy one for me. Korean has a different character set, a different word order, and I started not ever having traveled to Korea or met a single Korean in my life. I came to the language learning reluctantly, fearful, timid, frustrated, feeling like I could never learn languages.

Yet … I kept feeling curious about Korean, after I discovered Korean dramas.

I’m still flailing, trying to find my way, but I made the decision to learn the Korean language, and it is an interesting journey. I have hope this time I will be successful.

2 Likes

i love reading, and know how much joy i get from reading english books. german and french have lots of great literature that i want to enjoy in the original form. though, when i started learning i soon discoveren the benefits go way beyond just being able to read.

2 Likes

I decided to go back to study at the age of 59 to conquer two things that I was told or I thought I could not do when I was in school:

  1. Learn a language
  2. Succeed in learning mathematics
    I did an arts degree majoring in Spanish and Greek language and did one year of engineering mathematics in my first year. My Spanish teacher was amazing - he knew that learning depended mainly on comprehensible input. He talked in Spanish almost all the time and drew pictures or did actions to make sure we could understand. It was an great encouragement to me to find I could communicate with people in Spanish. I would listen to people talking in buses, airport queues and so forth and would ask them where they came from, or some other simple question, in Spanish. I have had some really interesting conversations as a result. Now I am learning German and Mandarin on LingQ. I also passed the maths course quite well and intended to go on and complete a degree in maths. Instead, I am working in Ethiopia teaching Chemistry in an international school. learning again at an older age really opened my mind!

@Ginko - a rose just doesn’t express how truly amazing and inspirational I think you are! :slight_smile:

1 Like