Berta once asked me how I would feel if I were fluent in Swedish. Before I could even say “I’d be happy”, a huge smile had spread over me and I realised that I am in love with Swedish! The mere thought of fluency in Swedish produces a warm, cuddly feeling in me. No doubt linked to childhood.
To be what I consider fluent in Spanish or in French would be great, but I’d regard it as something I should have become much earlier - a duty. No doubt linked to school days.
Italian would be a bit more fun, although a much more remote possibility.
Russian I still consider a grave duty, something I have to do. No doubt linked to childhood.
The mere thought of fluency in German produces a warm, cuddly feeling in me. I will check the word ‘cuddly’ in my dictionary after posting this comment.
If I were fluent in Arabic (and/or Hebrew) I would feel…well I dunno about cuddly, but certainly “special”. (The same thing probably goes for Mandarin and Cantonese…)
As for German? Hmm, I remember one occasion (during my time living there) when it occurred to me that it didn’t really feel different to English - just different words, scrambled sentence structure, etc… But in some essential way it seemed the same.
Perhaps the ghost of Anglo-Saxon still lives on - deep inside the brain and soul of the modern Engländer?
every time i hear Swedish I get the cuddly feeling inside too, especially when I hear people I love speaking it. This feeling is my main motivation to learn.
I like to think I love all my languages equally, but of course I’m lying to myself because German is definitely my ‘cuddly’ language. I get random bursts of obsession for all of them, though.
I´ve used German as a “cuddling language” for many years and I gotta say, there´s nothing more beautiful than a woman with glassy eyes saying “BEI DIRRRRR FÜHLE ICH MICH SICHER UND GEBORRRRRGEN!” with a cute grin on her face.
I think Corean is the language, which maybe will remind everyone about smile. Just look at it’s writing. It looks like little emoticons. There are smileys in every character. =) 안녕! 어떻게 지내세요?
