Is there a language you always wanted to learn but never did

[Geoffrey]

Hi Laura

I just read your message again, there are only a few mistakes, and it is for sure fully understandable, so don't worry about that. The fact is that almost nobody went into this thread for a long time, until I tried to bring it back to life.
Even now, we're only 3 on this forum to post regularly on that thread, Judith, Rena, and myself. SubEspion, who is also learning German, also left some messages there. Anyway, my own experience of learning foreign languages (namely English) makes me think that practice is the best way of learning/keeping a language, and the more we are, the easier it will be to find interesting topics to discuss ;-)

Geoffrey

[tobias]

Hi

I also have always wanted to learn Icelandic and now finally I have started to do so a while ago. I know that is is very expensive to get good books & courses. However Iceland is really leading when it comes to the internet. I recommend you following link.

www.bragi.org

You will find a complete course on the internet!

Sæl og bless :þ

[j u d i t h]

I think I would jump at the chance to learn any language I don't know -- which is most of them! Well, except maybe Spanish ... I guess I find it boring. Dunno why. I could probably get use out of that one living in the US.

I've always been interested in eclectic things, and language is no exception. The only 'normal' language I've learned is French. Of the languages I know (aside from my native tongue, English), my best is Klingon. I love it because it's so different from English, and probably because I'm a Star Trek fan. My Latin is busy rusting away to nothing, which is bad. I need to remedy that. Oh, yeah, and I have some materials for learning Lenape, the language of the Lenni-Lenape Indians (also known as the Delware Indians), who used to live in these parts. Haven't got too far with that just yet.

If I had to pick a few languages to learn, I'd probably choose Russian, maybe Swahili, Polish for sure (I'm part Polish -- I have this vague memory of my grandmother singing me a song in Polish -- something about an apple tree...). I'm interested in Japanese as well. So many languages, so little time! (So little brain power/space!)

I've just signed on as a translator of English into Klingon, so if you need anything, let me know!

Thanks for answering, jIqel!

Well, I can understand that you don't feel like learning Spanish if you're interested in much more exotic languages!

I feel exactly the same. Everybody where I live seem to love French and Spanish and Italian, so I always chose other languages. The only exception is English, which I like quite a lot.
That doesn't mean that I don't like Spanish, French and Italian - I would LOVE to speak them perfectly - but it's much more fun to learn languages noone else seem to care for... (weird????)

[j u d i t h]

hi judith,
well your topics are always very interesting and raise so many discussions on languages and linguistic questions in our forum. congrats!!!!

...

People who love languages, are much more demanding with them selves than other ones. I love languages and I would like to possess them and master them in the best possible way.
at the moment, I am keeping myself busy with German, I am trying to improve it. day by day, I realize how difficult it is to remember words and acquire an active knowledge of it.

BYE!!!

Thanks for answering, Laura!!

And thanks for your warm words

If you need any help concerning German - just let me know!

[tim]

i could help you with dutch. sergeyevitsj73@list.ru

[Nephilim]

i could help people with : czech / slovak / romanian / french...i also speak a bit of spanish, italian, german, polish and japanese...but i'll leave these to fluent speakers contact me thru MSN if you're ever interested

and here's my two cents on the language i want to learn...
in fact, i'm already struggling with japanese and frankly, i doubt i'll manage to get it to some honest level. i'm learning it on my own, thanx to songs and manga - i'm not gonna get far, that way
but what attracts me the most is the language of signs ! the one mute people use ! it's not only damn useful, but also pretty beautiful to watch (and not to "listen to" ).
then, hungarian fascinates me, and besides, i like the way it sounds...but i'm definitely far from putting myself down to it i'd also like to know more about the baltic languages (estonian-latvian-lithuanian) and suomi/finnish.
oddly enough, i despise arabic languages...sorry but it's a fact that's not gonna change; i really find they sound terrible - and on the contrary, i looooove the sound of german, which a lot of people hate dutch is really weird-sounding too...if i ever had to learn a nordic language, it would be (apart from suomi) perhaps dansk (the closest to german )
portuguese could be useful and easy, too; regarding the fact i already speak romanian, french and bits of spanish & italian...but portuguese from Brazil, tho, not the one from Portugal...this latter sounds awful
well...i think that's all...not bad, aye?

[Cãlin]

Hi!

I guess my greatest nostalgia in terms of foreign languages is that I never ever managed to learn Finnish. It's not that I don't have the necessary material resources. Well, my computer is full of courses of Finnish, excellent courses, all types and all levels, with audio support... EXCELLENT COURSES. For some 5 years I tried hard to learn Finnish, I spent several hours a day in front of my computer... It's just that I'm a stoopid idiot and Finnish just won't stick to my brains... There is a Romanian saying, for people like me, who just can't learn something => Finnish would stick to my brains as a nut sticks to a wall.

[didine]

I guess my greatest nostalgia in terms of foreign languages is that I never ever managed to learn Finnish.

I've just opened a Finnish language topic here.

[marinala_b]

This could have been posted as a poll :-)

I've always wanted to learn italian, and now chinese.
But I started. I worked on an italian method to learn for around 3 weeks, doing half an hour every day. It results I understant it more, I read it better. But I still can't speak.
As for Chinese, that's quite new to me. I bought an exercice book for beginners, had fun with it, but still has not finished it. I asked a chinese girl to pronounce for me some of the words, but could not find it her speech what I was supposed to hear... So I suppose I should take a real course of Chinese.

Marina

[marinala_b]

but what attracts me the most is the language of signs ! the one mute people use ! it's not only damn useful, but also pretty beautiful to watch (and not to "listen to" ).

Me too, I'd like to learn this one too.