so what language(s) are you learning?

Jay Pentatonic

Well, it's Irish & German for me.
I don't really know why I'm learning them, just ended up doing it:D

I think I'll try Spanish someday

...someday :rolleyes:

unreggd

Did HL French in school so gna work on it again in my own time cos I wanna head to France for the summer next year

Diabhal_Glas

Mandarin, only concentrating on spoken at the moment and pinyin (the romanization system for simplified Mandarin)

Mainly learning from mp3's from the US Foreign Service Institute.

dory

Russian mostly but I'm moving to Kosovo soon so really should get a move on with the Albanian.

irishdub14

Im doing French and Spanish in school (TY) defo droping french for LC spanish is a breeze compared..... Want to take spanish and german in uni, cant wait....!!!:D

plein de force

learning french, well near fluency now and irish which i will drop after school to go and study french and spanish at third level

Niamhf

Studying German and Spanish in college, great fun but a tad stressful at times!

Soccertainer

Yup Japanese! Konnichiwa!

Gaunty

I'm learning Romanian right now. I learned some basics and got my girlfriend last year because i could have a basic conversation with her and it caught her attention. But now she has me learning it intensively for when i go meet her family later this year! Hard language.

Jay Pentatonic

Gaunty wrote: »

I'm learning Romanian right now. I learned some basics and got my girlfriend last year because i could have a basic conversation with her and it caught her attention. But now she has me learning it intensively for when i go meet her family later this year! Hard language.

Wow, meeting the gf's parents, but in another language!!!:eek:
Nasty stuff!!:(

sNarah

Spanish and irish here.

I tried to force dutch upon the (irish) boyfriend but that never worked :rolleyes:

morphem

Hindu, Portuguese here.

djcervi

I'm learning French and Spanish, through my degree. Occasionally I'm improving my Irish, and I plan to study Italian soon enough.

thusspakeblixa

Trying to learn Arabic.
Still on the basics, hopefully I'll do the alphabet after I've mastered basic speech.
Also trying hard to pull my German and Irish up to where they were two years ago.

Einhard

Latin and French. If I ever decide to become a priest in France I'm pretty much sorted.












Well, apart from the minor issue of not believing in God...

FruitLover

Picking up Korean again, but this time studying it through Japanese.

Cravez

Japanese for me and some German.

Half thinking of furthering my education and doing an applied languages undergraduate course in both Japanese & German.

rio1

German and Spanish done, now I'm learning Portuguese.

Jay Pentatonic

Michael Cravez wrote: »

Half thinking of furthering my education and doing an applied languages undergraduate course in both Japanese & German.

Go for it!! I'm thinking the same myself

obriensimo

Gaunty wrote: »

I'm learning Romanian right now. I learned some basics and got my girlfriend last year because i could have a basic conversation with her and it caught her attention. But now she has me learning it intensively for when i go meet her family later this year! Hard language.

Ha me too man, tought I was the only one in Ireland... Just starting off, but BYKI 4 really helps... You should download it... It helps especially with the written part, for remembering where to underline the T's and overline the A's... Where's your girlfriend from...

p1akuw47h5r3it

Russian

Learning Portuguese and Dutch (very on and off)

Have a high level of French and Spanish but they've slipped a lot since I stopped using them on a daily basis.

EoghanConway

Czech! Though I appear to be the only one in the country

flickarius

Hungarian, as it's my wifes native tongue..and it's a tricky one...the language not her tongue!!

Under A Funeral Moon

German for me. I'm dabbling in a bit of Norwegian too.

Echizado

It's very difficult to learn another language with no one to practice... I'm trying to learn Serbian and Hungarian.

I speak Spanish and I'm a fan of Barcelona FC I started learning Catalan which isn't too difficult for me, both languages are very similiar

jackinyogrill

I'm learning basic Polish, I'm heading to Lublin in two weeks for a conference. I've got to recommend the Michel Thomas method for language learning, though. I downloaded a sample mp3 from their site, and already I have enough standard phrases to get myself into, and out of, trouble with the police :rolleyes:

MUSEIST

Russian, for no real reason except its probably the only language I am motivated to learn.

It actually not that bad once you get over the alphabeth.

dory

Echizado wrote: »

It's very difficult to learn another language with no one to practice... I'm trying to learn Serbian and Hungarian.

I speak Spanish and I'm a fan of Barcelona FC I started learning Catalan which isn't too difficult for me, both languages are very similiar

Use Skype to chat to people! It's very weird at the start, but soon it's no different to chatting to a stranger in a bar.
I'm on another language forum (called how-to-learn-any-language) and there is a thread where you can write which languages you're learning and which you speak and you're Skype ID. I had a Russian conversation with someone from Moscow yesterday. Really helps.

I'm also learning Serbian. I live in Kosovo so am learning Albanian and Serbian too. Trying to stay neutral.

deirdremf

plein de force wrote: »

learning french, well near fluency now and irish which i will drop after school to go and study french and spanish at third level

Never throw away a language, I say.
Even years later a language can come in useful again, you never know. Keep your hand in (an cumann gaelach if there's one in college, ciorcal comhrá or whatever, even just watching ros na rún!) if you can. You'll find it's not wasted.

plein de force

deirdremf wrote: »

Never throw away a language, I say.
Even years later a language can come in useful again, you never know. Keep your hand in (an cumann gaelach if there's one in college, ciorcal comhrá or whatever, even just watching ros na rún!) if you can. You'll find it's not wasted.

no i'm not learning it of my own free will, i hate it and am wasting my time. just doing enough to do the LC and then off it goes so i can get back into learning some german

rusty_racer94

Born with Urdu and English.
Learned punjabi through songs.
And going on with Irish now.

deirdremf

plein de force wrote: »

no i'm not learning it of my own free will, i hate it and am wasting my time. just doing enough to do the LC and then off it goes so i can get back into learning some german

I think a lot of people feel like that at school.
But don't waste the time you have to spend on it.
Cut down on the time by making sure every minute that you spend on it is productive rather than half-hearted.
You'll probably find that you will get through twice as much stuff in half the time that way. So less time wasted overall.

sNarah

sNarah wrote: »

Spanish and irish here.

Gave up on the Irish for now, 't is just too hard!

Got the Rosetta Stone for Spanish, and with the new job I'm around Spanish speakers every day, so that should definitely improve soon!

OakeyDokey

I'm teaching myself Japanese right now but I'm also doing a bit of German here and there. I definitely want to brush up on my French and Irish in the future

ciaranmccon

I have Spanish fairly sorted, can speak a bit of Galician but would love to learn more. I only get to use it when talking with friends from there and during the summer when I go back there.

There seems to be no/very few Galician speakers in Dublin, which is a shame, way more in Cork.

Sie

ciaranmccon wrote: »

I have Spanish fairly sorted, can speak a bit of Galician but would love to learn more. I only get to use it when talking with friends from there and during the summer when I go back there.

There seems to be no/very few Galician speakers in Dublin, which is a shame, way more in Cork.

WTF is Galican

AFC_1903

Learning Polish and about to start sign language. I also hope by the end of the year to have started on either Spanish, Persian or Swedish/Norwegian (to be decided).

This is of course all with the major barrier to overcome that is my crippling laziness...

spurious

Four years into Polish, picking up bits of Russian.
Would like to learn Latin and do the JC exam in it some year.

Jay Pentatonic

AFC_1903 wrote: »

Learning Polish and about to start sign language. I also hope by the end of the year to have started on either Spanish, Persian or Swedish/Norwegian (to be decided).

This is of course all with the major barrier to overcome that is my crippling laziness...

Why Persian, out of curiosity?

Sie wrote:

WTF is Galican

I think it's some kind of regional language you find in Spain

AFC_1903

Jay1989 wrote: »

Why Persian, out of curiosity?

I'm not entirely sure! :pac:

There are a few reasons, one being that it's not a language many choose to learn in this part of the world.

I also like the fact that any Persians I've met still refer to themselves as such, and to their language as Persian, despite the fact that they are (in the eyes of the world) Iranian and their language is Farsi.

Another factor is that while the written form is very different to that which I am used to in European languages I have been told it's not so hard to learn.

It would also be handy for me as I hope to spend time hitchhiking in Iran and the general area in the next couple of years. English is not too common there and it's always better to know at least a little of the local language.

On the downside, the lack of possible lessons [in Cork] means it'd have to be self taught, and as I know no Persians here I may not be able to do much here as I will not have the error-catching/correcting benefit that is speaking to natives. But hey, I'm going to concentrate on Polish first, then make my language-learning decision!

Jay Pentatonic

AFC_1903 wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure! :pac:

There are a few reasons, one being that it's not a language many choose to learn in this part of the world.

I also like the fact that any Persians I've met still refer to themselves as such, and to their language as Persian, despite the fact that they are (in the eyes of the world) Iranian and their language is Farsi.

Another factor is that while the written form is very different to that which I am used to in European languages I have been told it's not so hard to learn.

It would also be handy for me as I hope to spend time hitchhiking in Iran and the general area in the next couple of years. English is not too common there and it's always better to know at least a little of the local language.

On the downside, the lack of possible lessons [in Cork] means it'd have to be self taught, and as I know no Persians here I may not be able to do much here as I will not have the error-catching/correcting benefit that is speaking to natives. But hey, I'm going to concentrate on Polish first, then make my language-learning decision!

Sounds really cool, best of luck with it if you decide to go for it, especially with the hitchhiking!!!

Sie

Jay1989 wrote: »

Why Persian, out of curiosity?




I think it's some kind of regional language you find in Spain

oh:cool:

deirdremf

Sie wrote: »

WTF is Galican

Spoken in Galicia, the part of Spain directly north of Portugal.
Very closely related to Portuguese, although in some ways the pronunciation is more similar to Spanish.

Aard

I think it's fantastic that so many people are learning a foreign language here! I read a recent report from the EU, and it says that Ireland has the lowest percentage who speak a 2nd language. (Yes, that includes Irish!) The EU average is 34%, whereas Ireland only has 17% who speak another language.

Anyway, rant over!

===

Me, I'm learning French. I put a lot of effort into it, and I'm making a lot of progress. Tbh, even though I also am learning Danish and Japanese, I find that they get thrown to the wayside: there's only so much foreign language study you can do in a day! Unfortunately, it takes (for me at least) a tremendous amount of dedication to put in the hours and to achieve results. I'd average about an hour a day of "study"-study, then another hour or so of "non-study"-study (French TV shows, French internet, French news, etc).

I'd really recommend similar for anybody who is serious about learning a foreign language. Often I come across people (and I would have been like this in the past) who think that an hour or two on the weekend will eventually make them fluent. It doesn't happen. Even when you get "good", you're still not good. Even when you think you understand everything, you don't understand everything! It's extremely frustrating; the better you become at the language, the more the people you speak to will use difficult constructions. Soon you find yourself almost back at square one!

I guess the point I'm trying to make is this: decide whether or not you really want to learn the language, then as a function of your answer, either throw the books and CDs away and forget about it, or really grab the bull by the horns and make studying the language a priority in your daily life. Anything less, and in real-life conversation you'll never get past "Bonjour"!

wonton

AFC_1903 wrote: »

Learning Polish and about to start sign language. I also hope by the end of the year to have started on either Spanish, Persian or Swedish/Norwegian (to be decided).

This is of course all with the major barrier to overcome that is my crippling laziness...

so how are you getting on with the persian? was thinking of trying to learn abit in the summer, just got interested in it, for some of the same reasons as you, and I didnt realise they spoke it in the other countries either which I found interesting, i would have never guessed tajikistan spoke it.



I started learning swedish a while ago, haven't gotten that far yet but its really fun to learn, its kinda funny considering the amount of swedish words that seem to be just alternative spellings for synonyms of the word!

for example

fun= kul

stupid= dum

annoying=irriterande


oh and the laugh I had when i found out the swedish for beer is "ol", the irish verb to drink .

brimal

Currently learning Hebrew - was attending classes but now self-teaching.
I agree with Aard on the importance of 'non-study'. Watching TV shows in the chosen language really does help you.

Would also love to get into French again. Learned it in school but back then didn't give it too much dedication

Aard

Any reason in particular for learning Hebrew, brimal, or just attracted by the pretty script? :P

Coeurdepirate

Currently learning French, Swedish, Irish and dabbling occasionally in Slovenian and Greek.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I studied German in school but I was never very enthusiastic about it at the time. Now however I'm trying to improve on it and get a good knowledge of the language.

eVeNtInE

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