Your favorite languages

We all have our language that we want to learn immediately, some later on in life. So, if you guys are up for it, list (at least) 3 languages you want to learn in the order you want to learn them or are learning them, and why…?

1: German- It’s a good sounding language to me. I want to speak my grand mother in German one day.
2: Russian- Learning it because the current events and also to surprise my friend, who also speaks Russian.
3: Italian- It’s a close language to my French, that I’ve grown up with. The country is also beautiful and I want to visit Italy one day.
4: Swedish- My interest in Scandinavian languages.
5: Norwegian- My interest in Scandinavian languages.
6: Icelandic- My interest in Scandinavian languages.
7: Captchese- Because of my interest of LingQ making this new language. XD

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I´ll do a timeline instead of a ranking.

German (started learning at “age zero”) - it´s my native language

English (started learning at the age of 8) - Because, even though I don´t speak it perfectly, it feels like my second native language. There´s nothing “foreign” about it anymore. And of course, there´s a huge amount of English media and a ton of people who can speak English.

French (started learning two years ago) - I like watching movies, playing games and having conversations in French, because it feels more “mysterious” or “exotic” than English and German, but I´m still good enough to understand what´s going on. Besides that, it´s a useful language for someone who lives in the middle of Europe.

Japanese (started learning a few months ago) - It´s just a beautiful language. The writing system is a piece of art. It´s insanely difficult, but I feel like a genius everytime I understand something. The spoken language sounds pretty cool, too. I don´t know why, but many Japanese women sound very “feminin”, in a good way. It´s hard to explain.

-I want to start on a specific dialect of captchese that utilises the sound function played backwards. I heard it is a good way to create a new cult. Already I am finding I am needing to beat new cult members away with a stick.

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Timelines are cool. Here is mine.

  1. I started ‘from the age of zero’ with English. I originally had a bit of an American accent, since I lived in Berkeley (in a week, I will go back to the city form which I came for the first time in almost 18 years). When I moved to Scotland, I was made fun of for having this accent. I then developed a Glasgow accent, and when I moved to London, I was made fun of for having this accent. I then develpped something of an English accent, for which I make fun of myself from time to time. Now my accent is just a messy mixture of all of these.

  2. From the age of around 18, I have been learning a dialect of English spoken only by physicists around the world (a lot whom can barely speak normal English).

  3. At the age of about 24, I started learning Chinese because I had a native speaking girlfriend, and because I wanted to get a job in China.

  4. I got a job in Austria instead, and have been learning German for almost two years. I thought it would be useful here, but it turns out, German is barely spoken in Austria.

  5. Since about a year and a bit ago, I have been trying and failing to learn Russian for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

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My timeline^^

  1. English – my native bzw. my best language

  2. Pseudofrench – it’s mandatory for Canadians to take French classes from grade 3 to grade 9 or something like that, but we learn nothing. Like, seriously, NOTHING. I was surprised/appalled when I realized just how much I didn’t learn in those several years. Also, nearly everyone comes out of the program hating French.

  3. Japanese – developed an interest in Japanese because my friend made me read some manga, I think. “Studied” it on and off throughout high school without actually really learning anything.

  4. German – I can’t remember how, but I got really into German music about two years ago and started learning the language by more or less dropping everything English and creating my own artificial immersion at home. It’s always been my favourite language ever since. I don’t really know why, it’s just… so… awesome. It’s generally pretty logical and, contrary to the opinion of every non-German-speaker, sounds oddly cute…

  5. Swedish – started learning Swedish about a year ago because I have no idea why. I love Scandinavia, though. Swedish sounds so fascinatingly weird and is pretty easy if you already speak English and German.

  6. Finnish – started at the same time as Swedish, just progressed much (much much much) more slowly. Finnish is one of the most beautifully intense languages I’ve ever encountered (both in its pronunciation and its insane grammar) and it feels really awesome when you can understand things in it. If you had to describe Finnish in one word, I don’t think you could go with anything but “badass”. Also the Finnish music scene is great (well, at least if you like metal or weird music)

  7. Japanese – started studying Japanese EFFECTIVELY (around the same time as Swedish and Finnish). Like Finnish, Japanese is one of those languages where you feel really awesome when you understand things (as an English native, at least). It’s a very nice sounding language and Japanese culture in general is pretty interesting.

  8. French – started learning it last December or so. There were a number of reasons for that – I’d been gradually unhating French throughout the previous year (mostly Paul’s fault for talking about it a lot and showing me fantastic French music), I had too many friends that were fluent in it to not learn it, and I kinda felt like I ought to learn the other official language of my country as a language nerd…

And that’s it… for now. Unless I die in the next few years, my ultimate language timeline will be much longer^^

My favorite languages are Scots, Yiddish, and North American dialects of French.

I don’t particularly care to be able to speak any of them. I’d be happy to understand them better than I do now though.

Scots? Oh man, you ever read Tam O’Shanter? There was actually a time, a couple of years ago, that I could recite the entire poem.

My timeline:

  1. Brazilian Portuguese – my native language.

  2. English. I lived in England for 6 months at the age of 7, then once back to Brazil I continued to learn it very gradually. It took me many years, a lot of reading and exposure (mostly to American English). Nowadays, I have a quite good command of English as a second language (C2 maybe?) – although I’m conscious it is not perfect and I don’t speak like a native. It doesn’t feel like a foreign language anymore, and I feel at ease with using it. It opened may doors to me (including the fact I can now write this post, and I can also learn other languages with resources developed for English speakers!!).

  3. French (part I) - I wanted to learn a third language and French looked like a good choice, since it was supposed to be easier than German (for a native Portuguese speaker). I took classes both at a language school, and with a private tutor. I did learn a bit, but eventually lost motivation and stopped. More recently, I decided to try RS (yeah yeah I actually like the product, but I didn’t know LingQ at the time…) and completed the course in 12 months. That was about 3 years ago.

  4. I decided Spanish was going to be more useful for my, both personally and maybe professionally (I live in the south of Brazil, close to Uruguay and Argentina). Spanish and Portuguese are quite close. But the reality is, as a Brazilian, if you want to have a conversation in Spanish, and feel at ease with the language, other than struggle through basic conversations, you do have to learn the language!! It took me 1.5 years to achieve a level I estimate as C1. I can talk (not perfectly, but with some fluency), read books, understand almost everything I hear, etc. It was definitely worth the effort, as I enjoy listening to Argentinian and Spanish radio, reading Isabel Allende in the original, etc.

  5. French (part II). I moved back to French in January of this year, using LingQ. After 3-4 months of hard work, a lot of listening and vocabulary building, I’m happy to realize I can now understand most of what I hear as real content. I can also speak to some extent, and started to read a book in the language. Progress should be easier now (I’m at B2 maybe?), and I intend to continue working on it for a while. It doesn’t feel as useful for me as English or Spanish, but I’m starting to enjoy it a little more.

  6. German. My father’s first language (well, actually… it is Riograndenser Hunsrückisch). It would be cool to speak to him and some of my aunts in the language… I also have a brother living in Berlin, and may want to visit him some day. But right now this is only a future project to me.

I may also want to learn a non indoeuropean language eventually, but haven’t made up my mind as to which one to choose.

@Colin

I found a nice recording on youtube, and I am proud to say that I can understand almost 40 percent of it! Absolutely gorgeous poem.

I think we’d all love to hear your Scottish-East London Americanish accent interpretation :wink:

French is still in my wish list. It was the 1st language of Pushkin (Russian was the 2nd one for the great Russian poet). The sound of French makes me regret I still don’t understand the meaning.

Dutch. It would be funny to tell I can speak Dutch, “Netherlands”, “Hollandish”, understand Flemish and Afrikaans :wink:

Turkish. I have been to Turkey 3 times. I had a phrase-book to cheat the natives “speaking” with them like “hi - good morning, how are you - thanks I’m fine and you, … - I don’t speak Turkish”. It has the latin alphabet but looks like abracadabra for me.

These are the 3 languages I’d like to learn but I don’t know when I will start to do it.

Currently I feel I need to improve the languages I already speak.

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I don’t have any sort of American accent anymore, but some Brits say so sometimes.

  1. English. When I was a kid I found an old dog-eared English textbook from the 60s of the previous century in my basement (no idea how it got there). That’s how I’ve become infatuated with the English language (especially its American version). The main reason to learn English was I just wanted to understand the actors and actressses in the Hollywood movies.

  2. Spanish. I just began studying it last November and that’s how I got here. I came across one of Steve’s videos on YouTube and I found this site. As I like both the general idea and how Lingqs work I am here. I just wanted to be able to compare Engish to other languages. I love watching movies and one day I saw the famous Spanish horror movie “REC” and that’s how I decided to choose this language. I liked the melody of the language and also it’s going to be more and more influencial in the future.

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Well these are languages I may never learn as they would be very difficult…but if I could snap my fingers and be fluent in them…these are the ones:

  1. Arabic…due to my love of Islam.
  2. Chinese…as I have a strange feeling that I’ll be going there in the future…and I love the ancient Chinese Culture (pre revolution).
  3. Yoruba…as I have a strong interest and experience in the religion and culture (a strongly tonal language …very difficult)

Now as a youngster I took German for 4 plus years at school , French for a couple years, and private lessons in Italian (the language of my father’s lineage). I took these all as I was a vocal student many years ago.
I am studying Spanish now and that is a priority …so no desire to be a polyglot (sp?) now. In the past I dated many hispanic women. Unfortunatley at that time I had no real desire to learn Spanish ; (

I’m a native English speaker, born in the USA. So English was the first thing I learned.

1)Spanish
I found my mom’s old high school Spanish textbook when I was in second grade and just loved it. I didn’t learn much, but I tried. I could count to one hundred and knew all the stock phrases…" hello, how are you, " etc. I never lost interest and it killed me having to wait until high school to take classes (imagine if I had had internet back then!). I started out going to college for ESL but eventually changed my major and minored in Spanish instead. Studied in Spain one summer and a few years ago went back with my husband. Spanish and Spain will always have a special place in my heart. I love talking any chance I get, although I’m still far from perfect.

  1. Japanese
    I became good friends with the Japanese exchange student at my high school who stayed for one year. I had already been loving anime and manga and the way the written language looked. We taught each other. I didn’t learn a ton, but I did learn hiragana and katakana and gained exposure to magazines, videos, and more that she had brought along. Now all these years later I’m excited to be undertaking learning the language in earnest. I also have a good friend who moved from Chicago to Japan five years ago, so I live vicariously through him sometimes, haha. I’d love to visit Japan someday.

  2. German
    I did learn a small handful before our short trip to Munich and I would love to learn more someday. I also have a friend in Germany (another person that was an exchange student at my high school for a year) and I would love to talk to her in her native language. I also love Rammstein… so there’s that, too. Lol!

  3. Russian
    This is another language that I would love to learn someday. Again, I feel drawn to it for the writing system and I just love how it sounds. I think it would be an enjoyable language to learn.

  4. Romanian
    There is a large group of Romanian friends and family that work at my husband’s company. They are just the warmest, most friendly bunch and wow… do they know how to have fun and throw a good party! This group is so generous and such good hosts- they have always made me feel like “part of the family” even though I barely know them.
    This alone had made me think it would be awesome to learn the language someday. :slight_smile:

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My timeline:

  • German (my mother tongue)

— English (I first started it at school at the age of about 10)

  • French (at school as the second foreign language in 1989)

  • Italian (this language - like all the following - I started learning on my own in 1990)

— Spanish (I started learning it in 1992, but only for several weeks, and I’ve resumed my studies about 2 and a half year ago with Lingq).

  • Dutch (about two years ago), because the Netherlands are not too far away, and therefore it’s very probable to get there much more times than in other countries.

  • Portuguese (I started learning it 1 and a half year ago, but only for several weeks, because I first want to improve my Spanish, because it’s much more spoken and therefore more important.
    I prefer a bit the Brazilian pronunciation, because it sounds - in my opinion — a little softer, and as a guitarist I often play music from this country

In case I decide to learn more languages in the future, I’ll learn one or more of these ones: Japanese, Russian, Swedish.

Greetings — still - from Spain (Andalucía). Frank

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My native language is Dutch.

English is the second one in my list, I consider it as my second native language more or less, I have been reading, speaking, and listening to music in this language for as long as I can remember.

Spanish is my third language now, I started learning 1 year ago and I have studied ALOT, I feel quite comfortable talking to language partners that I have met and I can read books and watch entertainment based video’s on youtube without any difficulties (hooray!).

I do have wild dreams for the upcoming future which includes learning 2 languages at the same time(!), Saturday I finally started learning Swedish to make a ‘head start’ on the least difficult one first. I am going on vacation to Spain (Mallorca) in July and after I return I am dedicated to spend most of my free time on learning Japanese. (having some Swedish for dessert afterwards). I hope that I can reach my goals as good (not specificaly as fast) as I have done so far with my Spanish.

I don’t know if it is fair for the rest of the list to pick a ‘favorite’ language out of all of them, but I will go with Dutch. It is the language I was emerged in since day one and in which I have learned to listen, read, talk, express my feelings etc.

But as in favorite language to learn next: Japanese :slight_smile:

-I am looking foreward to the future and I am enjoying the taste of every single reached goal at the moment.

<3 from The Netherlands :wink:

Spanish - I love the sound of the language on the tongue, I think it’s a really fun language to learn. I also want to do it at College level and University level.

Norwegian - I’ve always wanted to visit Norway and live there when I’m older, so I’d like to learn that as a third language.

Danish - It’s another Scandinavian language I’d like to get involved and I could learn it from Norwegian.

Dutch - It’s quite similar to English in some sense. I also think it would be a great country to go for a year. I also want to study it at university when I’m older alongside Spanish as a BA course.

Czech - I have a lot of friends on skype who’re from the Czech Republic, they taught me some basics of the language and it’s quite a nice language. Although it’s very difficult to learn in my opinion.

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  1. Japanese. Because this is my mother tongue. Of course, my father spoke Japanese. My wife, whose name escapes me at the moment, also speaks this.
  2. English. If for no other reason than that George Orwell wrote his essays in this language, one ought to learn English.
  3. German. One should not write a secret diary in English or in their native language.

(Edited)

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Does that mean you are keeping a secret diary in German? And does your wife know?

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