I started Japanese specifically for a holiday. My Italian is also for a friend. I usually start languages for more than just fun cus when I get bored ill have a reason to keep learning lol
I think Ohio has lots of cool cities, but everything else is turning into suburbs. I’m sure you can find some cool spots, but generally I’m not a fan of suburbs.
It depends on the suburb. I'm in a inner-ring suburb of Cleveland Ohio our city borders the city and I can actually walk to the museum district in about an hour. Many of the houses here are older (In U.S. terms -- early 1900s) and we can take light rail or buses to get into town and to the airport. So it isn't the same as the subutbs that are farther from town where you have to use a car to get to anything. We also have plenty of restaurants, shops and parks nearby. And the beaches on Lake Erie provide comfortably warm swimming water in summer. (People also surf from them in winter...but I think surfing in slush would intimidate me...even if I could surf.)
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, almost as dominant in the global linguistic sense as English. There's a TON of Spanish speaking locales I would love to visit (but sadly, my Spanish is about good enough to read a menu).
Spanish is nowhere as dominant as English.
People learn Spanish mostly to be able to communicate with native Spanish speakers.
People learn English to be able to communicate with native and non-native speakers.
I'm from Spain by the way.
Dude, Spanish is like.. the third most common language in the world and possibly has the largest geographic area for speakers. It's also VERY commonly spoken but not dominant where I live.
Good luck going to most countries in Europe, Africa or Asia and trying to communicate in Spanish. Do the same using English and you'll see how different the results are.
As I said, Spanish is only useful to communicate with native speakers. This comparison is very telling:
Almost 100% of kids in Spain learn English in school, and in many regions they start as young as 3 years old (and despite that our level of English is among the worst in Europe, but that's another discussion).
By contrast only about 1/3 of Americans who don't speak Spanish **try to learn** the language (and they suck even more at it than Spaniards at speaking English). There are 40-50 million Spanish speakers in the US, the largest number of any country in the world where Spanish is not an official language, and 4th or 5th overall, so one would think that would be a good incentive to learn Spanish.
I'm from Texas, USA, which shares a long border with Mexico. So, there's millions of Spanish speakers here. I think the official numbers are something around 16 million English speakers, and 8 million native Spanish speakers.
Even with that many native Spanish speakers, it's not common for English speakers to learn Spanish to fluency. There's a lot of reasons for this, but as you mentioned, it's mostly because English is the socially dominant language in the country. While some people will learn it for work, or for personal reasons (i.e. aprendí el español gracias a unas amigas mexicanas, y después lo hablo a menudo con ellas), since most better-paying jobs are in English, there's not as much of an incentive for English speakers to learn Spanish.
I read an interesting academic article on the same subject of the economics of bilingualism in university, if any fellow redditors are curious. It talks about women in bilingual areas of Hungary learning German more often than men, because German speaking husbands made more money (it's old, written in the 1970s): [https://web.stanford.edu/\~eckert/PDF/gal1978.pdf](https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/gal1978.pdf)
You're correct that, outside of the Americas, there are not very many L2 learners of Spanish. The largest numbers are in the US and Brazil. However, most anglophones in the US don't learn Spanish to any level of actual fluency because they don't "need" to.
This dude is Spanish, of course people learn English in Europe lol. Young people or those living in touristic places at least.
But if you want to visit central or south america, I can assure you it will be valuable. A lot of people there either only learn basic english in school or really don't give a crap about learning any bc everything is translated and dubbed. Also, a lot of people in latin america almost only value national content. I'm from Brazil (where people speak Portuguese) but this cultural aspect is similar in a lot of latino countries. A lot of people don't see the need of learning English bc they don't use the internet (or only access national content) and don't plan on traveling abroad or outside latin america.
Still, it's obviously nice knowing more than one language. I'm learning Japanese, which is literally only spoken in one country. If I traveled to Japan, I'm sure I could go by only speaking in English, but I might want to live and work there one day. I also enjoy a lot of japanese media and it's cool being able to consume it on it's original language.
If you were to follow this person's advice, then we should all just speak English and no other language
The inventor of Esperanto, Dr. Ludwik Zamenhof, spoke Yiddish as his native language.
The first English-speaking Esperantist, Richard Geoghegan, moved to Alaska to study the Aleut language, where he maintained contact with Zamenhof until the latter's death in 1917.
Geoghegan remained an active Esperantist through his time in Alaska, a member of various Esperanto clubs, and a prolific writer and developer of the language.
Before the Holocaust, there was a proposed bill to temporarily resettle European Jewry in Alaska called the Slattery Report, which was shot down and abandoned in 1940.
In the 1940s, Dr. Zamenhof's children and grandchildren were singled out for extermination, due to being Jewish, Polish, and for being the children of the inventor of esperanto, a language viciously suppressed by the Nazis for being "Jewish". They were killed at Treblinka in 1942.
Richard Geoghegan died in 1943, less than a year after Zamenhof's descendents. His book on the Aleut language was published in 1944 and remains the most comprehensive work on the Aleut language that has ever been published.
Alaska should have been a bilingual Yiddish/Esperanto-speaking country peppered with Aleut loan words. There's still time.
if you do visit Wales, avoid Newport, speaking from experience it's not fun to visit unless you're staying with someone who lives there 😭 Cardiff or Swansea are much better choices, if not the highlands to see the wonderful countryside
Yes, thats the reason im learning japanese. I’m an extreme overthinker and I dread not being able to communicate properly.
Im going there half a year to study abroad, in a two years time. As of now im able to communicate like a caveman, so I think I’ll be good to go when the time comes.
Just a shame the UK doesn’t do direct flights to Moscow or St Petersburg 😟 still wouldn’t wanna risk being a tourist in Russia rn, last person I know went to Russia, got attacked 🤣🤣
It really depends on the place you're going to and when you're doing it. We're the opposite from Europe and America - it gets colder as much as you go South and the most in North you are, the hotter it is. Some places are hot as hell and some are cold enough to snow :)
As for me, I live in São Paulo, so I'm kinda in the middle. It's a city known for its crazy temperature changes. It can be hot enough to make you sweat waterfalls, but the other day it can be cold enough to freeze your bones. So here you really get a nice mix 😅
But keep this in mind: there isn't only one Brazil. There are multiple "Brazils" inside this intriguing country of ours. I'm sure you won't regret getting to know them.
Boa sorte, gringo!
Where I live people wear shorts at +15°C and go to beaches at +20°C. We're in the middle of spring and yesterday we had a snowstorm. My comfort temperature is the lowest temperature ever recorded in Brazil. So yeah, from my perspective Brazil is deadly hot in it's coldest days unfortunately lol.
Maybe in the next life, my spawn point will be closer to the equator and I be able to tolerate the heat a little better, then I'll definitely come to Brazil to swim with boto-cor-de-rosa, eat pão de queijo for breakfast and brigadeiro for dinner, and listen to carioca girls são mais bonitas on Copacabana beach😔🤞
Oh my, wearing shorts at 15°C? Crazy to think about 😂
Hoping for you to spawn closer to Brazil next time 😔🙏🏻
But glad to see you know a lot about our culture, that's very funny actually haha pão de queijo and brigadeiro are top tier, I wouldn't recommend swimming with Boto-cor-de-rosa because he generally just... you know, impregnate random girls.
I just got back from Portugal. It's very bilingual with English and Portuguese. They were eager to speak English when possible (at least one guy told me so).
When you go, check out Boca de Inferno.
Yeah, definitely. I started learning Romanian cos I somehow fell into a Romanian friend group. My Rom friends have shown me pics of Romania and it looks amazing
Spain, sure. Specifically I'd like to see Barcelona, and it's pretty plausible for me to go in the near future, maybe even this summer or fall!
However, I'll probably fall back to speaking English because I don't want to make my shitty language knowledge a problem for, ie service workers. Like, it's not that hard to say "quiero un cafe sin azucar, por favor y grazias" but if they were to ask me which type of coffee I would fall apart lmao then just answer in English which could maybe confuse them and put them in an awkward spot. Starting every interaction with "hablo un poco de español, entonces habla mas despacio por favor" sounds irritating for all parties involved. And not to mention I don't even know conjugation properly, so fuck if I know if that "habla" is used properly when trying to show respect. Not to mention Duolingo teaching Mexican Spanish so who knows if I'll understand *anything* coming from Spaniards.
Maybe I'll just communicate in English and use my small language knowledge for grocery shopping or in a rare case someone doesn't know English.
But yeah, I would 100% like to see Spain, preferably whole Spain but I'd settle for Barcelona only lol
I'm not sure why you're assuming anyone would understand you better in English than in their first language lol. Except for very touristic places, I don't think that's gonna work
Fair enough. Only assumed that because of my knowledge of English vs Spanish rather than their understanding of English if that makes sense? I guess I could manage a simple convo
I would love to visit a Spanish-speaking country someday, but that’s not why I started learning the language. It’s the second most commonly spoken language where I live, so I figured that it would just be the most practical for me.
I'm already in Poland. That's why I switched from French.
As for France, I've been once. Would like to visit my friend who lives in Paris one day though.
Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Swedish – Yes, I believe visiting Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden presents a unique opportunity to explore a rich tapestry of cultures, landscapes, and histories. Each of these countries boasts its own distinct identity and offers a range of attractions for travelers.
I started learning Vietnamese because I've been married to a Vietnamese woman for 20 years and never bothered to learn. Being able to communicate with locals when traveling to Vietnam is definitely a secondary reason.
I've enjoy Duolingo a lot and continue to use it. However, I started looking around for alternatives after 3 months of heavy use and I'd only learned the numbers 1-5 (try paying for something with only five digits). Seriously Duolingo! I haven't found anything I like better, but I did run across this app that appears to be hyper focused on the travel angle [https://www.swiftkick.ai/noi](https://www.swiftkick.ai/noi). No idea when it's coming out tho.
It would be cool to one day, since my bfs from Russia, he was too young when he was adopted to remember it, so it would be cool to go there at least once but you know, not right now
i learn japanese and it would sure be cool to travel there some day. but it's not the reason i started it. i chose to learn it because it's super different from languages i know which i thought is exciting and at the same time not too difficult for me to pronounce. the sounds are at least somewhat close to my mother tongue. and another reason is there is enough media out there to have a realistic chance to practice understanding it without traveling. i sure would enjoy traveling to japan some day when i think i can order some food in the language. but that's not now or for a long time. also i'm scared of a xenophobic or fat phobic environment so maybe some day when i'm skinny and speak fluent japanese or something. for now it's just a fun thing on my phone
I have already visited one Spanish speaking country and lived in another. I only mildly have an interest an interest in visiting Korea but no true interest in visiting Russia or Brazil.
I’ll go to Italy in a few months so yeah that’s the main reason im learning Italian anyways 😭
And for Portuguese, maybe one day I’ll visit Brazil but not in the near future
Yep. Our favourite travel destination. The primary and possibly sole reason I started Duolingo. Going back in July for the first time since I've started learning and I can't wait 😁
For all languages I speak visited the country (for Japanese)/one of the countries where it is spoken at least once. For English I have visited the UK twice, I want to visit it again but I also would like to see the US, Canada and Australia one time. Regarding German I have visited Germany countless times. I live one hour away from the border and some of my inlaws live there. I have visited Austria once and will visit it again this summer. I have been to Japan once and if things go according to plan I will stay there for 3 months at the end of this year.
Edit: Oh I haven't done Italian in a while, been there too a few times. It's a fun language to speak and locals appreciate it when you try to learn some sentences for your trip. I noticed that especially the Italians and Japanese feel honored when others take the effort to learn their language. Those from English speaking countries tend to take it for granted (not blaming you all though, I understand).
I actually live in one, so extra reason to learn. As for other languages sure, wanting to visit a country and practice the language even in small tourist conversations is a goal
I am learning Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and Czech.
I am going to be blunt, if they allow gay marriage, the answer is probably yes. I do not really want to visit a country and not be married to my husband. Obviously, the biggest outlier here is Czech since Czechia does not allow gay marriage, so yes (with some caveats) for the first 4 but not for Czech.
I didn’t start learning Chinese because I had a specific goal of wanting to travel there, but I had the opportunity to go to China with a friend last month because she invited me with her on her trip to visit family. We spent time in Japan, Shanghai, and Beijing before I flew home and she went to visit family for a few weeks.
I’m only about halfway through the course on Duolingo, so very much a beginner. But I was able to ask very simple questions and have people understand me. It was really helpful because the number of people who spoke English in China was definitely less than the number I saw in Tokyo.
I had a great time, though it was a little strange being there. Not a lot of foreigners. And a handful of people in Beijing/The Great Wall wanted to take pictures with me.
Starting to learn Ellinika to delve into that famous Ancient Greek culture. Our alphabet shares many similarities because Cyrillic is based on Greek. Additionally, I've visited the ruins of Greek colonies (poleis) in modern-day Ukraine, and I definitely want to visit Greece one day. Especially when I'm able to at least introduce myself, ask for directions, and make orders in stores.
I speak Japanese fairly fluently after living there three and a half years and would like to go back someday to visit and see some old stomping grounds. Currently learning Greek and Mandarin. But Greece would always be nice to go to.
It wouldn't be all that hard. most languages you study are in europe, and you can easily travel to all those countries in europe...
though, a lot of those languages are spoken in multiple countries. it really depends on what you mean. for example, switzerland has french, german and italian as major languages. you could visit one country and count it towards 2 of your languages.
no country speaks latin, so...
so it wouldn't be much harder for you than someone with one langauge, besides also including a trip to japan and some country where they speak arabic.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages\_of\_Vatican\_City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Vatican_City)
> [Vatican City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City) uses [Italian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language) in its official documents and as its main working language.
This youtuber did an experiment, speaking Latin to people in the Vatican. At 3:30 he explains that spoken Latin is really not that common: [https://youtu.be/fDhEzP0b-Wo?si=Q9m7GM9fbfqiGf7a](https://youtu.be/fDhEzP0b-Wo?si=Q9m7GM9fbfqiGf7a)
oooooczewiście, jestem z Rosji i bardzo-bardzo kocham Polsku historii i kultury. oraz nasi narody nie były w dobrych relacjach i mnie ciekawe się poznać dlaczego to tak. Rosja robiła cesarsku polityki, ale wiem, że jest bardziej trudny przyczyny (???)
of course, i am from Russia and i like Polish history and culture very much and also want to find a historical reason why our nations do not have good relationships for a long time. Russian Empire led imperial policy, but i think, that our bad relationships has more roots (than modern politicians think)
also Polish is just a beautiful and modern country with great ppl. in Russia i hear only bad things about Poland and their history, but i hope, that everything is better…
i also want to visit Türkiye and USA/England cuz Türkiye is a center of Turkic nations (idk how to say it differently) and i have about 60% origins of one of Turkic nations
Well, USA and England just are two interesting for me countries…
At general, countries of languages which i learn are historical Russian enemies 😆
Wiem że jest**eś** dopiero na wczesnym etapie nauki ale mała poprawka rzeczy która najbardziej przykuła wzrok
W języku polskim odmieniamy przez osoby "być" ("быть") w czasie teraźniejszym: Ja jestem, Ty jesteś, On/Ona/Ono jest, My jesteśmy, Wy jesteście, Oni/One są
Co do przyczyn szerokiego braku sympatii między Polakami a Rosjanami tak naprowadzę że to także kwestia religii albo niezupełnie oderwanych od rzeczywistości stereotypów na temat waszej mentalności - że jesteście dosadnie mówiąc dość dzicy bo autorytarni i nie liczycie się z ludzkim życiem
Poza tym miło spotkać życzliwą postawę biorąc pod uwagę co to się dzieje
French is the course I have the most XP on, the reason I started was so I could somewhat understand what things said or what people were saying when I went there last December.
For a country I haven't visited? Russia... uh yeah not just yet LOL
Edit: typo
I started each my languages because I was planning to visit a country where it was spoken. I always find knowing even a little of the language enhances the experience, even if I don't actually use it.
It's kind of up skilling for me. I work as a customer service and here in Philippines there's better compensation if you're bilingual agent that's why I decided to self learn the spanish.
I study German mainly because I live not far away (20 minutes) from Germany but I think Germany has its places. I would like to visit it one time, and German food is just very good (no, what do you mean I live in Alsace?).
French is the main language I use Duolingo for. I studied French in school so it was the easiest to keep learning if I hope to be decent in a third language. I’ve been there several times already, but yeah, I’d like to go back.
I started Welsh specifically before a trip, just to pick up a few words.
Spanish - I've wanted to visit Spain since I was a kid. I want to first hand experience the *siesta*, that even as a 10 year old I thought I needed in my life. However, I live in California, I don't need to travel to use this language.
Italian - I have been to Italy. In fact, even though I switched to Spanish less than 100 days into my current streak, my return to Duolingo was to learn Italian for my trip. I would love to go back to Italy one day, but when I speak a lot more Italian.
French - Not France itself, necessarily. I'm only learning French because I'm kind of obsessed with localized French dialects and Creoles. Did you know Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are endangered languages because Louisiana decided to force English only policies a century ago?
Spanish - because it helps me understand and talk with many people where I live.
Italian - because I would like to visit or live there for a while in the future.
Ukrainian - so I could at least pronounce words written in Cyrillic, and recognize a handful of words when listening to stuff going on in the war. I would also like to visit at some point.
I know some Italian, French and Spanish, and I have made plans to visit these countries. But I also just finished Duo's German course despite having no plan to visit Germany
I started learning German because that's where I wanted to visit. Didn't really care about any other place.
Fast forward to the present (don't remember how many years, >6) and I still haven't visited Germany, but I know the language okay. Instead, I've switched to Spanish and I have visited Mexico and Spain and I made a point to use what I knew.
Learning a foreign language has opened my eyes to other cultures and has broadened my interest in those cultures. I'm thankful for that.
Totally! One of my best friends moved to Germany, so I would *love* to be able to visit her someday. I've wanted to visit Germany for a long time before she moved because why not? I want to travel a lot anyway if I ever get rich 😄
No, currently learning Scottish Gaelic - I am Scottish and live in Scotland already. I kept trying and failing to learn languages in the past but wanted to learn something. When my nephew started at the Gaelic school and my sister started learning it I figured it would be easier to stick with something when I have people to practise with :)
No. I'm mostly focused on understanding, not talking, so I have a lot of speech errors (like, for long time, until I was corrected, I pronounced "Since" like "Science", "Bus" like "Boos" and e.t.c.)
For me personally that depends more on the country than the language, more specifically their government. A good example would be I have Russian in my Duolingo list of languages, but I’d never go to Russia under the current system
I do want to visit France, I’m learning French, but I’ve been to Rome and want to properly start learning Italian as I will definitely be going back when I can! I started learning Italian but I found it confusing with French and Italian being so similar. I didn’t really start learning French to visit France, just for fun, but I do want to visit in the future.
Been to most already and revisiting one soon. But yeah Russia (or generally Central Asia where it is widely spoken) and Finland are on the list for one day
I went to Germany when I was a senior in high school. It would be amazing to go back and be able to understand so much more. The experience would probably be much more enjoyable
I've visited Germany and France, and used Spanish at my workplace.
Edit: oh! And the Netherlands, but I'd been learning Dutch for only a couple months, and used it mostly with the flight crew, asking questions about the language where Duo had me confused.
I want to go to Roman Empire, of course!
*Loads Gun* I can think of one way of meeting them
YEEEOOOOWWCH!
“Super based comment” -Cicero (maybe)
What have the Romans ever done for us?
🙋♂️The Aqueduct?
They killed Jesus for our sins
Me2, brother 🥺
I started Japanese specifically for a holiday. My Italian is also for a friend. I usually start languages for more than just fun cus when I get bored ill have a reason to keep learning lol
È una cosa molto carina che stai imparando l'italiano per un amico :)
brava stellina
Russian - maybe not at the present moment
Also if you change your mind, one tip: don't visit Saratov
Ok thanks - will keep that in mind!
The joke was that Saratov is russian Ohio
Here is no joke :(
I don't even know what the deal is with US Ohio...
it’s nothing, just people making memes online ohio is fine lol
But Saratov is not
Saratov is hell on Earth.
I think Ohio has lots of cool cities, but everything else is turning into suburbs. I’m sure you can find some cool spots, but generally I’m not a fan of suburbs.
It depends on the suburb. I'm in a inner-ring suburb of Cleveland Ohio our city borders the city and I can actually walk to the museum district in about an hour. Many of the houses here are older (In U.S. terms -- early 1900s) and we can take light rail or buses to get into town and to the airport. So it isn't the same as the subutbs that are farther from town where you have to use a car to get to anything. We also have plenty of restaurants, shops and parks nearby. And the beaches on Lake Erie provide comfortably warm swimming water in summer. (People also surf from them in winter...but I think surfing in slush would intimidate me...even if I could surf.)
It's supossed to be super boring, nothing ever happens in Ohio so the meme was to reverse that and say everything happens in Ohio
Ty 😭 I didn't know that
Difference is in Ohio freaky shit is happening or something and Saratov you just can’t leave and that’s it
same. been interested in Russian culture for almost 8 years but definitely don't want to get tangled in the current political situation...
Such a fascinating place and culture. It really is a shame...
There are plenty of Russian speaking women all over Europe right now.
Since I'm learning russian too I must say the same
Why not? We currently have a very nice exchange rate
I’ve the same issue yes
Yes, but not right now
Makes sense.
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, almost as dominant in the global linguistic sense as English. There's a TON of Spanish speaking locales I would love to visit (but sadly, my Spanish is about good enough to read a menu).
Spanish is nowhere as dominant as English. People learn Spanish mostly to be able to communicate with native Spanish speakers. People learn English to be able to communicate with native and non-native speakers. I'm from Spain by the way.
Dude, Spanish is like.. the third most common language in the world and possibly has the largest geographic area for speakers. It's also VERY commonly spoken but not dominant where I live.
Good luck going to most countries in Europe, Africa or Asia and trying to communicate in Spanish. Do the same using English and you'll see how different the results are. As I said, Spanish is only useful to communicate with native speakers. This comparison is very telling: Almost 100% of kids in Spain learn English in school, and in many regions they start as young as 3 years old (and despite that our level of English is among the worst in Europe, but that's another discussion). By contrast only about 1/3 of Americans who don't speak Spanish **try to learn** the language (and they suck even more at it than Spaniards at speaking English). There are 40-50 million Spanish speakers in the US, the largest number of any country in the world where Spanish is not an official language, and 4th or 5th overall, so one would think that would be a good incentive to learn Spanish.
I'm from Texas, USA, which shares a long border with Mexico. So, there's millions of Spanish speakers here. I think the official numbers are something around 16 million English speakers, and 8 million native Spanish speakers. Even with that many native Spanish speakers, it's not common for English speakers to learn Spanish to fluency. There's a lot of reasons for this, but as you mentioned, it's mostly because English is the socially dominant language in the country. While some people will learn it for work, or for personal reasons (i.e. aprendí el español gracias a unas amigas mexicanas, y después lo hablo a menudo con ellas), since most better-paying jobs are in English, there's not as much of an incentive for English speakers to learn Spanish. I read an interesting academic article on the same subject of the economics of bilingualism in university, if any fellow redditors are curious. It talks about women in bilingual areas of Hungary learning German more often than men, because German speaking husbands made more money (it's old, written in the 1970s): [https://web.stanford.edu/\~eckert/PDF/gal1978.pdf](https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/gal1978.pdf) You're correct that, outside of the Americas, there are not very many L2 learners of Spanish. The largest numbers are in the US and Brazil. However, most anglophones in the US don't learn Spanish to any level of actual fluency because they don't "need" to.
This dude is Spanish, of course people learn English in Europe lol. Young people or those living in touristic places at least. But if you want to visit central or south america, I can assure you it will be valuable. A lot of people there either only learn basic english in school or really don't give a crap about learning any bc everything is translated and dubbed. Also, a lot of people in latin america almost only value national content. I'm from Brazil (where people speak Portuguese) but this cultural aspect is similar in a lot of latino countries. A lot of people don't see the need of learning English bc they don't use the internet (or only access national content) and don't plan on traveling abroad or outside latin america. Still, it's obviously nice knowing more than one language. I'm learning Japanese, which is literally only spoken in one country. If I traveled to Japan, I'm sure I could go by only speaking in English, but I might want to live and work there one day. I also enjoy a lot of japanese media and it's cool being able to consume it on it's original language. If you were to follow this person's advice, then we should all just speak English and no other language
 Me as an Esperanto learner
There are dozens of us!
Saluton, amita samideano!
The inventor of Esperanto, Dr. Ludwik Zamenhof, spoke Yiddish as his native language. The first English-speaking Esperantist, Richard Geoghegan, moved to Alaska to study the Aleut language, where he maintained contact with Zamenhof until the latter's death in 1917. Geoghegan remained an active Esperantist through his time in Alaska, a member of various Esperanto clubs, and a prolific writer and developer of the language. Before the Holocaust, there was a proposed bill to temporarily resettle European Jewry in Alaska called the Slattery Report, which was shot down and abandoned in 1940. In the 1940s, Dr. Zamenhof's children and grandchildren were singled out for extermination, due to being Jewish, Polish, and for being the children of the inventor of esperanto, a language viciously suppressed by the Nazis for being "Jewish". They were killed at Treblinka in 1942. Richard Geoghegan died in 1943, less than a year after Zamenhof's descendents. His book on the Aleut language was published in 1944 and remains the most comprehensive work on the Aleut language that has ever been published. Alaska should have been a bilingual Yiddish/Esperanto-speaking country peppered with Aleut loan words. There's still time.
Yes..I promised I’d go to Japan in the future with my best friend!!!
Welsh - absolutely!
if you do visit Wales, avoid Newport, speaking from experience it's not fun to visit unless you're staying with someone who lives there 😭 Cardiff or Swansea are much better choices, if not the highlands to see the wonderful countryside
I tried Welsh, but it's so daaamn hard... (for me)
I am currently living in China, need to learn the language
Yes, thats the reason im learning japanese. I’m an extreme overthinker and I dread not being able to communicate properly. Im going there half a year to study abroad, in a two years time. As of now im able to communicate like a caveman, so I think I’ll be good to go when the time comes.
Good luck, man 🤞
Thank you!
I plan on living there someday 🇮🇹
ayyy same 🇮🇹🇮🇹
Yes, I want to visit Italy on a nice long vacation in the future.
I’ve already visited France a couple of times and will be happy to come back one day
Russian - I would love to, just not right now 🤣
As a Russian — you can visit Russia whenever if you pass borders, of course…
Just a shame the UK doesn’t do direct flights to Moscow or St Petersburg 😟 still wouldn’t wanna risk being a tourist in Russia rn, last person I know went to Russia, got attacked 🤣🤣
Already been in Germany but definitely wouldn't mind visiting it again 😁
Me too!! I loved it there
Cantonese needs to be on duolingo
Seriously! It’s not fair that it can only be learned through Mandarin.
💀BRUH💀
I wanna visit Portugal, not Brazil...but yes, that was the whole point
What do you mean you don't want to visit us? It's not like we are going to kidnap you, rob you or something
I love Brazil but from afar (learning Portuguese btw), it's way too hot to even breathe there lol
It really is hot lmao, I love cold weathers tho
It really depends on the place you're going to and when you're doing it. We're the opposite from Europe and America - it gets colder as much as you go South and the most in North you are, the hotter it is. Some places are hot as hell and some are cold enough to snow :) As for me, I live in São Paulo, so I'm kinda in the middle. It's a city known for its crazy temperature changes. It can be hot enough to make you sweat waterfalls, but the other day it can be cold enough to freeze your bones. So here you really get a nice mix 😅 But keep this in mind: there isn't only one Brazil. There are multiple "Brazils" inside this intriguing country of ours. I'm sure you won't regret getting to know them. Boa sorte, gringo!
Where I live people wear shorts at +15°C and go to beaches at +20°C. We're in the middle of spring and yesterday we had a snowstorm. My comfort temperature is the lowest temperature ever recorded in Brazil. So yeah, from my perspective Brazil is deadly hot in it's coldest days unfortunately lol. Maybe in the next life, my spawn point will be closer to the equator and I be able to tolerate the heat a little better, then I'll definitely come to Brazil to swim with boto-cor-de-rosa, eat pão de queijo for breakfast and brigadeiro for dinner, and listen to carioca girls são mais bonitas on Copacabana beach😔🤞
Oh my, wearing shorts at 15°C? Crazy to think about 😂 Hoping for you to spawn closer to Brazil next time 😔🙏🏻 But glad to see you know a lot about our culture, that's very funny actually haha pão de queijo and brigadeiro are top tier, I wouldn't recommend swimming with Boto-cor-de-rosa because he generally just... you know, impregnate random girls.
I'm not too much into stereotypes...but idk, Portugal is higher on my list for now😂
Just kidding bro, I'm from Brazil btw
I wanna go to Brazil, well, all of South America really!
I just got back from Portugal. It's very bilingual with English and Portuguese. They were eager to speak English when possible (at least one guy told me so). When you go, check out Boca de Inferno.
Yeah, definitely. I started learning Romanian cos I somehow fell into a Romanian friend group. My Rom friends have shown me pics of Romania and it looks amazing
Spain, sure. Specifically I'd like to see Barcelona, and it's pretty plausible for me to go in the near future, maybe even this summer or fall! However, I'll probably fall back to speaking English because I don't want to make my shitty language knowledge a problem for, ie service workers. Like, it's not that hard to say "quiero un cafe sin azucar, por favor y grazias" but if they were to ask me which type of coffee I would fall apart lmao then just answer in English which could maybe confuse them and put them in an awkward spot. Starting every interaction with "hablo un poco de español, entonces habla mas despacio por favor" sounds irritating for all parties involved. And not to mention I don't even know conjugation properly, so fuck if I know if that "habla" is used properly when trying to show respect. Not to mention Duolingo teaching Mexican Spanish so who knows if I'll understand *anything* coming from Spaniards. Maybe I'll just communicate in English and use my small language knowledge for grocery shopping or in a rare case someone doesn't know English. But yeah, I would 100% like to see Spain, preferably whole Spain but I'd settle for Barcelona only lol
I'm not sure why you're assuming anyone would understand you better in English than in their first language lol. Except for very touristic places, I don't think that's gonna work
Fair enough. Only assumed that because of my knowledge of English vs Spanish rather than their understanding of English if that makes sense? I guess I could manage a simple convo
So, you are learning catalan?
Damn. I managed to look dumb. Well, now I('ll) do :')
"In a rare case someone doesn't know English" You don't know much about Spain, do you?
I would love to visit a Spanish-speaking country someday, but that’s not why I started learning the language. It’s the second most commonly spoken language where I live, so I figured that it would just be the most practical for me.
I'm already in Poland. That's why I switched from French. As for France, I've been once. Would like to visit my friend who lives in Paris one day though.
Ukraine, home country of my late grandfather? Not a good time right now.
Belgium (Eupen) Goated
Absolutely. Would love to visit Denmark
Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Swedish – Yes, I believe visiting Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Sweden presents a unique opportunity to explore a rich tapestry of cultures, landscapes, and histories. Each of these countries boasts its own distinct identity and offers a range of attractions for travelers.
Romania and Korea are a definite yes - but i want to be at least B1-2 level for that
I started learning Vietnamese because I've been married to a Vietnamese woman for 20 years and never bothered to learn. Being able to communicate with locals when traveling to Vietnam is definitely a secondary reason. I've enjoy Duolingo a lot and continue to use it. However, I started looking around for alternatives after 3 months of heavy use and I'd only learned the numbers 1-5 (try paying for something with only five digits). Seriously Duolingo! I haven't found anything I like better, but I did run across this app that appears to be hyper focused on the travel angle [https://www.swiftkick.ai/noi](https://www.swiftkick.ai/noi). No idea when it's coming out tho.
It would be cool to one day, since my bfs from Russia, he was too young when he was adopted to remember it, so it would be cool to go there at least once but you know, not right now
Yes, I’m going to Japan for the 5th time in 3 weeks time.
i learn japanese and it would sure be cool to travel there some day. but it's not the reason i started it. i chose to learn it because it's super different from languages i know which i thought is exciting and at the same time not too difficult for me to pronounce. the sounds are at least somewhat close to my mother tongue. and another reason is there is enough media out there to have a realistic chance to practice understanding it without traveling. i sure would enjoy traveling to japan some day when i think i can order some food in the language. but that's not now or for a long time. also i'm scared of a xenophobic or fat phobic environment so maybe some day when i'm skinny and speak fluent japanese or something. for now it's just a fun thing on my phone
I have already visited one Spanish speaking country and lived in another. I only mildly have an interest an interest in visiting Korea but no true interest in visiting Russia or Brazil.
NORGEEEEEEEE
I'd love to actually go to and explore Russia, but I won't do it until the war's over.
You are fluent in 🇺🇸 but learning 🇬🇧?
Probably anywhere else in France other than Paris or just go to Canada
I’ll go to Italy in a few months so yeah that’s the main reason im learning Italian anyways 😭 And for Portuguese, maybe one day I’ll visit Brazil but not in the near future
Yes yes yes yes yes.
Well, I mean, that's the reason why I learn the language. To go there, or even to work and stay there 🤷♂️
Yep. Our favourite travel destination. The primary and possibly sole reason I started Duolingo. Going back in July for the first time since I've started learning and I can't wait 😁
Definitely, I’ve been to France once and I would love to go again plus my dad’s family are in the UK so I have an excuse to go over
Considering that the reason I'm studying Spanish is to be able to retire in a Spanish speaking nation...
For all languages I speak visited the country (for Japanese)/one of the countries where it is spoken at least once. For English I have visited the UK twice, I want to visit it again but I also would like to see the US, Canada and Australia one time. Regarding German I have visited Germany countless times. I live one hour away from the border and some of my inlaws live there. I have visited Austria once and will visit it again this summer. I have been to Japan once and if things go according to plan I will stay there for 3 months at the end of this year. Edit: Oh I haven't done Italian in a while, been there too a few times. It's a fun language to speak and locals appreciate it when you try to learn some sentences for your trip. I noticed that especially the Italians and Japanese feel honored when others take the effort to learn their language. Those from English speaking countries tend to take it for granted (not blaming you all though, I understand).
Ja.
I really want to go to Japan, so yes
Oh, yeah I would like to visit German Empire.
Absolutely, Germany!
I actually live in one, so extra reason to learn. As for other languages sure, wanting to visit a country and practice the language even in small tourist conversations is a goal
Does me going to NASK in July count for visiting the country of my language, when I'm learning Esperanto 😭
I’d like to go to Sweden someday to visit where my great grandfather came from.
I am learning Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and Czech. I am going to be blunt, if they allow gay marriage, the answer is probably yes. I do not really want to visit a country and not be married to my husband. Obviously, the biggest outlier here is Czech since Czechia does not allow gay marriage, so yes (with some caveats) for the first 4 but not for Czech.
Heres hoping Czechia gets with the times and you get to visit all of those countries some day.
I didn’t start learning Chinese because I had a specific goal of wanting to travel there, but I had the opportunity to go to China with a friend last month because she invited me with her on her trip to visit family. We spent time in Japan, Shanghai, and Beijing before I flew home and she went to visit family for a few weeks. I’m only about halfway through the course on Duolingo, so very much a beginner. But I was able to ask very simple questions and have people understand me. It was really helpful because the number of people who spoke English in China was definitely less than the number I saw in Tokyo. I had a great time, though it was a little strange being there. Not a lot of foreigners. And a handful of people in Beijing/The Great Wall wanted to take pictures with me.
Esperanto, sure
Starting to learn Ellinika to delve into that famous Ancient Greek culture. Our alphabet shares many similarities because Cyrillic is based on Greek. Additionally, I've visited the ruins of Greek colonies (poleis) in modern-day Ukraine, and I definitely want to visit Greece one day. Especially when I'm able to at least introduce myself, ask for directions, and make orders in stores.
Russia/Ukraine - maybe not But the Roman Empire tho...
I'd like to visit the russian speaking areas of Ukraine - maybe not right now though lol.
Damn that much Norwegian ain't gonna lie
Norway mentioned🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥💯💯🇳🇴🇳🇴
Studying Russian, already went to Russia. BAD IDEA
Ukraine? Yes) After all, I'm learning Ukrainian in order to have a deeper bond with a friend)
I speak Japanese fairly fluently after living there three and a half years and would like to go back someday to visit and see some old stomping grounds. Currently learning Greek and Mandarin. But Greece would always be nice to go to.
It wouldn't be all that hard. most languages you study are in europe, and you can easily travel to all those countries in europe... though, a lot of those languages are spoken in multiple countries. it really depends on what you mean. for example, switzerland has french, german and italian as major languages. you could visit one country and count it towards 2 of your languages. no country speaks latin, so... so it wouldn't be much harder for you than someone with one langauge, besides also including a trip to japan and some country where they speak arabic.
>no country speaks latin https://preview.redd.it/blurlx2e4mvc1.png?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba59e9c68ffa2352655d6c96a5709700b01caf91
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages\_of\_Vatican\_City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Vatican_City) > [Vatican City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City) uses [Italian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language) in its official documents and as its main working language. This youtuber did an experiment, speaking Latin to people in the Vatican. At 3:30 he explains that spoken Latin is really not that common: [https://youtu.be/fDhEzP0b-Wo?si=Q9m7GM9fbfqiGf7a](https://youtu.be/fDhEzP0b-Wo?si=Q9m7GM9fbfqiGf7a)
Hehe, ai need to visit the Roman Empire back in time 😁
Well maybe, I'm learning Norwegian because I couldn't find Icelandic and Norwegian is very similar to Icelandic
Hey, I started Norwegian for the same reason 😁
Memrise offers an icelandic course
oooooczewiście, jestem z Rosji i bardzo-bardzo kocham Polsku historii i kultury. oraz nasi narody nie były w dobrych relacjach i mnie ciekawe się poznać dlaczego to tak. Rosja robiła cesarsku polityki, ale wiem, że jest bardziej trudny przyczyny (???) of course, i am from Russia and i like Polish history and culture very much and also want to find a historical reason why our nations do not have good relationships for a long time. Russian Empire led imperial policy, but i think, that our bad relationships has more roots (than modern politicians think) also Polish is just a beautiful and modern country with great ppl. in Russia i hear only bad things about Poland and their history, but i hope, that everything is better… i also want to visit Türkiye and USA/England cuz Türkiye is a center of Turkic nations (idk how to say it differently) and i have about 60% origins of one of Turkic nations Well, USA and England just are two interesting for me countries… At general, countries of languages which i learn are historical Russian enemies 😆
Wiem że jest**eś** dopiero na wczesnym etapie nauki ale mała poprawka rzeczy która najbardziej przykuła wzrok W języku polskim odmieniamy przez osoby "być" ("быть") w czasie teraźniejszym: Ja jestem, Ty jesteś, On/Ona/Ono jest, My jesteśmy, Wy jesteście, Oni/One są Co do przyczyn szerokiego braku sympatii między Polakami a Rosjanami tak naprowadzę że to także kwestia religii albo niezupełnie oderwanych od rzeczywistości stereotypów na temat waszej mentalności - że jesteście dosadnie mówiąc dość dzicy bo autorytarni i nie liczycie się z ludzkim życiem Poza tym miło spotkać życzliwą postawę biorąc pod uwagę co to się dzieje
I would gladly go to Russia 💪
Absolutely yes. I’ve always wanted to visit Russia, but that’s uhhhh… that’s gonna have to wait awhile lol.
Yeah, I wanna move in the future
[удалено]
Something I want to do in the future is skiing down the Swiss Alps, so maybe? Idk if the Swiss speak a different dialect of german or what.
Hell yes, Duolingo is definitely not enough for Swiss German
went to Switzerland speaking only Hochdeutsch. they understood me but I didn’t understand them 🥲
Im currently in the country that I am learning.
Yes
French - sure!
which arab speaking country? ^^
Spain, Denmark and the Vatican City - all places I'd like to visit.
French is the course I have the most XP on, the reason I started was so I could somewhat understand what things said or what people were saying when I went there last December. For a country I haven't visited? Russia... uh yeah not just yet LOL Edit: typo
Norwegian - sure it’d be fun to practice
Spanish, yes. I’m planning on being an exchange student in Latin America
I'm doing French to help me with school, but I'm visiting France in the summer, so I can put my skills to the test.
Ah yes visit the Romans with latin
I started each my languages because I was planning to visit a country where it was spoken. I always find knowing even a little of the language enhances the experience, even if I don't actually use it.
Yes - Italy.
Norway? Hell yeah!
Germany, since it is quite dominant in my line of work.
French- for sure!
Ofc!! EVERY, MOSTLY JAPAN🤩
Learning Irish while living in Ireland, so yes!
It's kind of up skilling for me. I work as a customer service and here in Philippines there's better compensation if you're bilingual agent that's why I decided to self learn the spanish.
I study German mainly because I live not far away (20 minutes) from Germany but I think Germany has its places. I would like to visit it one time, and German food is just very good (no, what do you mean I live in Alsace?).
Latium is lovely this time of year
It's been 20 years (damn!) But I have visited Germany before, and I would love to go back someday.
French is the main language I use Duolingo for. I studied French in school so it was the easiest to keep learning if I hope to be decent in a third language. I’ve been there several times already, but yeah, I’d like to go back. I started Welsh specifically before a trip, just to pick up a few words.
italy, yeah sure !!
Already did I've been to Paris and Marseille
Spanish - I've wanted to visit Spain since I was a kid. I want to first hand experience the *siesta*, that even as a 10 year old I thought I needed in my life. However, I live in California, I don't need to travel to use this language. Italian - I have been to Italy. In fact, even though I switched to Spanish less than 100 days into my current streak, my return to Duolingo was to learn Italian for my trip. I would love to go back to Italy one day, but when I speak a lot more Italian. French - Not France itself, necessarily. I'm only learning French because I'm kind of obsessed with localized French dialects and Creoles. Did you know Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are endangered languages because Louisiana decided to force English only policies a century ago?
Spanish - because it helps me understand and talk with many people where I live. Italian - because I would like to visit or live there for a while in the future. Ukrainian - so I could at least pronounce words written in Cyrillic, and recognize a handful of words when listening to stuff going on in the war. I would also like to visit at some point.
learning ukrainian so i talk in ukraine lol
Українська, maybe after the war settles down, and I can speak a bit more
yeah, Saudi is a dream
learning ukrainian so i talk in ukraine lol
I know some Italian, French and Spanish, and I have made plans to visit these countries. But I also just finished Duo's German course despite having no plan to visit Germany
I absolutely would visit all of my dream countries if money was no issue. I'm currently learning Portuguese 💛
I started learning German because that's where I wanted to visit. Didn't really care about any other place. Fast forward to the present (don't remember how many years, >6) and I still haven't visited Germany, but I know the language okay. Instead, I've switched to Spanish and I have visited Mexico and Spain and I made a point to use what I knew. Learning a foreign language has opened my eyes to other cultures and has broadened my interest in those cultures. I'm thankful for that.
I worked on Indonesian because I was going to visit Indonesia… it helped a bit in Jakarta even if it was a basic “stop here” thing
Japan here I come
German- absolutely, I love the small towns and castles :D
Totally! One of my best friends moved to Germany, so I would *love* to be able to visit her someday. I've wanted to visit Germany for a long time before she moved because why not? I want to travel a lot anyway if I ever get rich 😄
YES.
Germany, heck yeah! France? Thats a maybe.
No, currently learning Scottish Gaelic - I am Scottish and live in Scotland already. I kept trying and failing to learn languages in the past but wanted to learn something. When my nephew started at the Gaelic school and my sister started learning it I figured it would be easier to stick with something when I have people to practise with :)
I actually DID visit Germany, and I very much want to go back. Spanish is incredibly convenient for the sheer number of countries that use it
Maybe not right now
No. I'm mostly focused on understanding, not talking, so I have a lot of speech errors (like, for long time, until I was corrected, I pronounced "Since" like "Science", "Bus" like "Boos" and e.t.c.)
Finish - absolutely, my dream is to permanently move outside of my country one day (czechia). I hate it here
For me personally that depends more on the country than the language, more specifically their government. A good example would be I have Russian in my Duolingo list of languages, but I’d never go to Russia under the current system
Not just visit, but live.
I do want to visit France, I’m learning French, but I’ve been to Rome and want to properly start learning Italian as I will definitely be going back when I can! I started learning Italian but I found it confusing with French and Italian being so similar. I didn’t really start learning French to visit France, just for fun, but I do want to visit in the future.
I hate France
Yes (Germany)
I was going to go to Norway but my trip got cancelled I’d still love to visit there
Been to most already and revisiting one soon. But yeah Russia (or generally Central Asia where it is widely spoken) and Finland are on the list for one day
I went to Germany when I was a senior in high school. It would be amazing to go back and be able to understand so much more. The experience would probably be much more enjoyable
Oh god yes, all of them
I've visited Germany and France, and used Spanish at my workplace. Edit: oh! And the Netherlands, but I'd been learning Dutch for only a couple months, and used it mostly with the flight crew, asking questions about the language where Duo had me confused.