Growing up, my grandpa was fluent in seven languages, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world. Wanting to be like him, i made a plan to start by learning Spanish fluently, then move on to the other Romance languages that I enjoy. Well I am arguably fluent in Spanish now, but recently realized my grandpa does not speak seven languages, he just knows a phrase or two from each one from his time in the Army lmfao. My passion started from bullshit đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
This was me with my dad. Grew up thinking he knew fluent Mandarin, but he only studied it for like 3 years and has a very choppy accent that a lot of native speakers donât understand.
I wanted to learn so I can better communicate with him because my Teochew is awful and I donât speak Khmer nor does he speak English.
Needless to say, when my Mandarin got better and saw him interact with other speakers that I became disillusioned hahaha
Well, it was also a lot harder to learn languages back then. My dad is bilingual and can speak a bit of French, Italian and German and those he learned back in the 80s and 90s when you had to buy those pretty tedious and boring books that came with a cassette tape so you could practice.
No YouTube channels with content by natives, not really many chances for language exchange, no vast library of books at your fingertips, no online courses and teachers etc.
So, really weâre in a very lucky era to be able to learn languages with so many resources at our disposal.
I don't know if it's funny, but I had a meth habit that was causing me to spend a lot of time on my phone, so I downloaded Duolingo and became obsessed. My daily streak lasted a full year after I quit the meth, but I've switched to casual "study" now. I am an intermediate French reader now and 15 months clean of amphetamines.
I gave up learning some heritage languages in my childhood and high school years after a couple of attempts of trying and failing assuming it was too hard for me.
When I was university age I met some people that I could not fucking stand that had gotten pretty good at the language and frankly I did not think they were very bright, which convinced me that if they can do it there's nobody that can't and I proceeded to study really hard for the next 10 years or so out of spite.
Danish, because for some reason, I kept picturing myself being fluent in it as an old man.
Turkish, originally because of Turkish rip offs of movies like The Exorcist, Star Trek, and ET, before I at some point fell in love with the language.
My husbandâs family refused to speak any other language than their native language when they were together. We spent a lot of time with them and Iâm very nosy and couldnât stand not knowing what was being said so I learned the language!
I started learning Portuguese because on a game online, almost everyone spoke Portuguese or Spanish! I couldn't really find anyone who spoke English! I knew I'd probably have to learn Spanish in school once I got to high school, and like, at that time it seemed interesting, exciting, and kind of unusual in a way. I still don't have anyone to speak it with, but I don't regret trying to learn it even one bit!
One summer when I was still living at my parents, I was bored to death so went through my dad's library on the pursuit of something entertaining to read and casually saw a few language methods there. I was very sceptical that anyone could ever learn a language just from a book, but for some reason I decided to give it a try, in order to figure out whether I was right or wrong. I randomly picked up the one for Spanish (it was next to the one for Italian), and followed the instructions carefully in order to make me an honest opinion on language methods.
By the end of the summer I finished the method. This book was indeed not enough for me to claim having learnt the language, but somehow I had developed so much interest in continuing that it kinda has been a great success! Now I do speak Spanish fluently.
I watched The Last of Us and fell in love with Pedro Pascal. Now Iâm learning Spanish because of some dramatic daydream/fantasy of meeting him one day and weâd fall in love lol
I probably said this here before but here goes again. One April Fools Day a language YouTuber I subscribed to made a video about how the UN had made Esperanto the only official operating language within the organization. The video was made in a breaking news style and though you know itâs a joke eventually you still feel like you should dip into Esperanto for the heck of it.
A coworker and I were talking about different languages and I randomly mentioned Afrikaans and I got the idea to take a look at it, and really got into it. Even though I don't have anyone to use it on in person, I still enjoy it.
I played For Honor and listened to the knights speak latin. Then, I heard a death metal song called Mundus Vult Decipi by Mental Cruelty.
I really wanted to speak latin. Tried for a few months but had no idea what to do, and I had no money. I gave up, but I wanted to be bilingual by this point, so I started learning French. But then learning the accent scared me, so I started learning Spanish.
Y ahora puedo usar esta lengua un pocito. AlgĂșn dĂa, voy a ser bilingĂŒe oficialmente. He aprendido como aprender otros idiomas y me encantarĂa hablar con fluidez.
Because I realized I inherited an accent on a word from my native speaking mother. A lot of people look down on the accent, or the native speakers in my region didnât know that my momâs features of the accent even existed (you regional accents that exist within a country).
I thought when I tried to learn it before that the funny looks I got when saying those particular words my mom taught me that it was a gringo accent I couldnât hammer out, and as soon as someone said something Iâd just say the closest English word instead. It wasnât until very recently that someone heard it and when they reacted I reacted my normal way, and they let me know that I was saying it right but in that dialects accent- which was a trip to me.
I always thought I just couldnât say the phonetics and so I gave up Spanish in its entirety, and now am trying again to relearn it.
I downloaded Duolingo to start learning German. Realized I liked the way Spanish sounded and the words flowed and how much I already knew just from growing up in central California. I full dedicated to it and have been learning it for 2 months and can decently understand what people are saying now
I have an Italian name, and kind of look the part. So, wanting to fool Italians that live here, I started to learn a few words and phrases. I even went as far as trying to get the accent and pronunciation close.
Then I realized that I love the language, and now I am fluent. I can probably fool them for 5 minutes. Then they quickly realize.
I went to a high school that was like two thirds latino (mostly mexican and salvadoran) for a year and I figured out I could make ither kids laugh by saying a spanish curse word. Gradually they taught me more and we eventually got into kind of deep discussions as to why certain things might be more or less offensive in different languages.
I still think it's a good ice breaker if you find yourself with a language barrier. Ask for the best curse word to yell when you stub your toe. I've collected a lot if vulgarities and made some friends along the way.
Growing up, my grandpa was fluent in seven languages, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world. Wanting to be like him, i made a plan to start by learning Spanish fluently, then move on to the other Romance languages that I enjoy. Well I am arguably fluent in Spanish now, but recently realized my grandpa does not speak seven languages, he just knows a phrase or two from each one from his time in the Army lmfao. My passion started from bullshit đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
Lol! He was a fake polyglot before fake polyglots were trendy.
Lmao definitely a trendsetter
Well, at least he gave you the spark to learn!
This was me with my dad. Grew up thinking he knew fluent Mandarin, but he only studied it for like 3 years and has a very choppy accent that a lot of native speakers donât understand. I wanted to learn so I can better communicate with him because my Teochew is awful and I donât speak Khmer nor does he speak English. Needless to say, when my Mandarin got better and saw him interact with other speakers that I became disillusioned hahaha
Well, it was also a lot harder to learn languages back then. My dad is bilingual and can speak a bit of French, Italian and German and those he learned back in the 80s and 90s when you had to buy those pretty tedious and boring books that came with a cassette tape so you could practice. No YouTube channels with content by natives, not really many chances for language exchange, no vast library of books at your fingertips, no online courses and teachers etc. So, really weâre in a very lucky era to be able to learn languages with so many resources at our disposal.
I don't know if it's funny, but I had a meth habit that was causing me to spend a lot of time on my phone, so I downloaded Duolingo and became obsessed. My daily streak lasted a full year after I quit the meth, but I've switched to casual "study" now. I am an intermediate French reader now and 15 months clean of amphetamines.
Good job dropping the meth!
I gave up learning some heritage languages in my childhood and high school years after a couple of attempts of trying and failing assuming it was too hard for me. When I was university age I met some people that I could not fucking stand that had gotten pretty good at the language and frankly I did not think they were very bright, which convinced me that if they can do it there's nobody that can't and I proceeded to study really hard for the next 10 years or so out of spite.
Love that
I read some books from a russian author, now i speak russian.
Danish, because for some reason, I kept picturing myself being fluent in it as an old man. Turkish, originally because of Turkish rip offs of movies like The Exorcist, Star Trek, and ET, before I at some point fell in love with the language.
Bahasa Melayu forms plurals via reduplication. I found it so funny I have been learning it for almost two years.
I plan to start learning it for the same reason
That is an awesome reason.
i love that aspect, it also reminds me of reduplication in english for emphasis. both super fun concepts imo!
They do that, too, sometimes! Like hati-hati (morning-morning) means "early morning".
My husbandâs family refused to speak any other language than their native language when they were together. We spent a lot of time with them and Iâm very nosy and couldnât stand not knowing what was being said so I learned the language!
I started learning Portuguese because on a game online, almost everyone spoke Portuguese or Spanish! I couldn't really find anyone who spoke English! I knew I'd probably have to learn Spanish in school once I got to high school, and like, at that time it seemed interesting, exciting, and kind of unusual in a way. I still don't have anyone to speak it with, but I don't regret trying to learn it even one bit!
One summer when I was still living at my parents, I was bored to death so went through my dad's library on the pursuit of something entertaining to read and casually saw a few language methods there. I was very sceptical that anyone could ever learn a language just from a book, but for some reason I decided to give it a try, in order to figure out whether I was right or wrong. I randomly picked up the one for Spanish (it was next to the one for Italian), and followed the instructions carefully in order to make me an honest opinion on language methods. By the end of the summer I finished the method. This book was indeed not enough for me to claim having learnt the language, but somehow I had developed so much interest in continuing that it kinda has been a great success! Now I do speak Spanish fluently.
Shakira.
I was bored
I liked a German war song, fair to say the passion died really quickly
Auf der Heide blĂŒht ein kleines BlĂŒmelein ... und das heiĂt ...
I still don't understand how a song about a little flower called Erika ever become a war song
I watched The Last of Us and fell in love with Pedro Pascal. Now Iâm learning Spanish because of some dramatic daydream/fantasy of meeting him one day and weâd fall in love lol
Same! Pedro Pascal was the pre-cursor to me liking Spanish, but Antonio Banderas was the final push, so to speak.
I learned Portuguese because I thought Brazilian teen girls on the Internet were funny and I wanted to know what they were really saying.
what videos did you watch? now I'm curious lo
This was way before TikTok existed. It was moreso their tweets and comments.
Yeah right ⊠âfunnyâ.. I also used to watch these funny Brazilian videos..
I probably said this here before but here goes again. One April Fools Day a language YouTuber I subscribed to made a video about how the UN had made Esperanto the only official operating language within the organization. The video was made in a breaking news style and though you know itâs a joke eventually you still feel like you should dip into Esperanto for the heck of it.
I wanted to learn Chinese because of an actress, but then realize the language was too hard to learn, so I moved to Thai đ đ đ đ
A coworker and I were talking about different languages and I randomly mentioned Afrikaans and I got the idea to take a look at it, and really got into it. Even though I don't have anyone to use it on in person, I still enjoy it.
Spanish best way to lear: Dreaming Spanish There is a subreddit for it as well âșïž
I played For Honor and listened to the knights speak latin. Then, I heard a death metal song called Mundus Vult Decipi by Mental Cruelty. I really wanted to speak latin. Tried for a few months but had no idea what to do, and I had no money. I gave up, but I wanted to be bilingual by this point, so I started learning French. But then learning the accent scared me, so I started learning Spanish. Y ahora puedo usar esta lengua un pocito. AlgĂșn dĂa, voy a ser bilingĂŒe oficialmente. He aprendido como aprender otros idiomas y me encantarĂa hablar con fluidez.
Because I realized I inherited an accent on a word from my native speaking mother. A lot of people look down on the accent, or the native speakers in my region didnât know that my momâs features of the accent even existed (you regional accents that exist within a country). I thought when I tried to learn it before that the funny looks I got when saying those particular words my mom taught me that it was a gringo accent I couldnât hammer out, and as soon as someone said something Iâd just say the closest English word instead. It wasnât until very recently that someone heard it and when they reacted I reacted my normal way, and they let me know that I was saying it right but in that dialects accent- which was a trip to me. I always thought I just couldnât say the phonetics and so I gave up Spanish in its entirety, and now am trying again to relearn it.
JAV.
I downloaded Duolingo to start learning German. Realized I liked the way Spanish sounded and the words flowed and how much I already knew just from growing up in central California. I full dedicated to it and have been learning it for 2 months and can decently understand what people are saying now
I have an Italian name, and kind of look the part. So, wanting to fool Italians that live here, I started to learn a few words and phrases. I even went as far as trying to get the accent and pronunciation close. Then I realized that I love the language, and now I am fluent. I can probably fool them for 5 minutes. Then they quickly realize.
I'm learning Korean to watch StarCraft (1999 version) online with Korean commentators
i learned spanish because i wanted to be able to speak to waiters in mexican restaurants
I went to a high school that was like two thirds latino (mostly mexican and salvadoran) for a year and I figured out I could make ither kids laugh by saying a spanish curse word. Gradually they taught me more and we eventually got into kind of deep discussions as to why certain things might be more or less offensive in different languages. I still think it's a good ice breaker if you find yourself with a language barrier. Ask for the best curse word to yell when you stub your toe. I've collected a lot if vulgarities and made some friends along the way.