What language do you take/will you be taking? Why? Do you enjoy it?

Originally Posted by Nosh

I haven't really got a noise I use for loud car engines, I'll grant you that.

I accomplish machine gun noises with more rapid movement from the diaphragm. I'm not sure where the hell I learned to do that though.

Chewbacca impressions can be done with a similar sound produced in the back of the throat. (Not sure how I learned that one either.)

Of course, you already acknowledged that there were probably other ways to do those sounds, so I'm only giving examples. My initial point was just that it doesn't appear in English words, and sounds are more often described than actually replicated.

Funny, I can only do those when I'm sick.

*tries*

Nothing, that means I'm healthy.... Ahh... If only that was true.

Now I'm getting off topic... Has any one also tried/plans/have considered/managed to learn Esperanto? Just a bit curious, I wonder why it failed so hard, being so easy and all that...

Originally Posted by Khao

Has any one also tried/plans/have considered/managed to learn Esperanto? Just a bit curious, I wonder why it failed so hard, being so easy and all that...

I considered it a while back. I finally decided against it because I felt that it's development was based on a bit of a misunderstanding about how language works. Historically, languages are prone to splitting. It's just something that happens. It begins with slang terms, then those terms become accepted while other terms fall out of use. Over hundreds and hundreds of years they become separate languages altogether with different rules. Many languages that hardly resemble one another at all are all branched off from Latin. Language divergence is something that happens and fighting it by applying a single language across the globe wouldn't change that.

Unification of language (while I still find it silly) is probably more plausible now than it was in '87 when Esperanto was conceived. Advancements in communication create links across the whole world through which people may converse. This helps the chances of language evolving in a unified manner rather than splitting as it always has when large distances come into play. I still don't think it would hold forever though. This is evidenced by the subtle variations in how words are used between English speaking countries alone. If those things haven't been reconciled one way or another since all of this new communication came about, I don't see how a new language like Esperanto would fare any better.

To me, the concept of unifying language across the globe seems like a poorly contrived pipe dream, and in practise I feel that it would be a temporary solution at best.

I'm trying to learn Japanese. I haven't been studying lately and can't make my own sentence yet. I can't even read the "alphabet" and don't know any kanji o.e (besides the number system) but I do know some words like "uso" or "yume" (I can't type Japanese letters on my phone >.>) And some inappropriate phrases like--
Anyway, I also want to learn Tagalog (a Filipino dialect) since I'm Filipino and can barely undertsand what my mom is saying when she talks to me like that. (I'm 100% Filipino ((Which makes me 100% Asian)). I'm just a total weaboo, that's all)

1) What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?

I have taken latin for the last 4 years of high school. going to take something else in college but I am not sure what yet.

2) Why did you pick it?

I love the classics. from the mythology to the literature to the history. translating vergil and catullus was amazing. <3

3) Do you like it? Why?

yes! as described above, adore the classics so the language was just another piece to that puzzle.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?

the fact that it is very logical and there are not too many exceptions to rules (such as english e.e)

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?

the vocabulary. vocab is not my strong point. but it's probably the best weakness to have with latin as you don't speak it and can just refer to a dictionary when need be.

Originally Posted by Cheeze

the fact that it is very logical and there are not too many exceptions to rules (such as english e.e)

I've heard that a few times about Latin. That's certainly a nice thing. I do, however, find it somewhat tragic when people try to apply Latin rules to English that shouldn't be applied.

I frequently hear people say that you can't end a sentence with a preposition. If I'm not mistaken (and feel free to correct me if I am) that rule originated in Latin and is only applied to English to to it's Latin roots. That rule doesn't serve a function in modern English because it did not retain all of the grammatical rules from Latin, and most sentences will carry the correct meaning with a preposition at the end.

(It is still not okay to say things like "Look where the dog is at." because "at" is extraneous rather than just supposedly placed incorrectly.)

I'm, of course, not trying to say that you try to enforce any such rule. I just brought it up because the subject of Latin brought it to my mind.

Jeez, another language thread. So let's get down to business! (:

1) What language do you take, or what language will you be taking?

English, German and French. And my native, Hungarian, but that doesn't matter now. Three languages is quite a lot, though, so I won't take another language as long as I don't have a language exam in all three. I made a language exam in English um, a few months before, but that's just a "normal" level, and I want to have a hard one too, so I cannot stop learning.
And anyways, I like English. ^^

2) Why did you pick it?

English - Obvious. This is the language of the world. If you can't speak it, you're dead. But I've grown to love it, so it's all good. English is great.

German - Well, at the age of six I went to a school where kids have five German lessons per week. I didn't really have the choice as a kid, mom decided which school would be the best for me. In fact, I just want to have a German language exam, and then I'll drop it, because I don't really like it.

French - Ah, so when I went to high school, I decided I'd take French. Why, why? I dunno. It was rather just an "I want to be better than the rest of my family!" thing, for no one else speaks French in my family. Also, I thought French is such an elegant language, so the reasons why I picked French, they're all emotional. x3 I didn't regret taking it though. German and English knowledge helps a lot, when it comes to learning French, and I'm happy that sooner or later I'll speak three languages fluently. =3

3) Do you like it? Why?

The only language I don't really like is German; it's damn hard and I despise the way it sounds. The two others: I find them awesome, but can't really tell why. The only thing I can say: when you're talking in English, you feel "cool", and when you're talking in French, you feel like a mademoiselle. x3 Oh, I have no realistic reasons. I'm waay too emotional.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?

Well, English conjugation makes me laugh. It's really-really easy compared to all the other languages I know. I can't find anything that'd make German learning easier for me, and French; it's easy if you have some knowledge of English and German; I find the grammar similar to German and the vocabulary is similar to English. That's why French is not a pain in the ass for me; but without German and English, I'd probably suck at French. So, huzzah. :]

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?

In English I have a huuuge problem with all those tenses. Which one should I use in a certain situation? Which one is a complete failure to use? And the pronounciation! Those are the worst. The other stuff is pretty simple, though, for me at least. German and French are hard with the conjugation things (German: the Brechung verbs, and French: the verbs that end with -re, -dre, -ir, etc.) and the tenses are just as complicated as in English.
So I can go ahead and say out loud: there's no language that'd be very easy to learn. But the most interesting and useful things to learn are languages, definitely.

tl;dr: English = <3

1) What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?
- none, currently. but i have taken four years of spanish and fifteen of french. and i still can't speak french fluently x__x so i guess i just really suck.

2) Why did you pick it?
- i picked spanish because it was the cool thing to do in grade 10 (but i grew to love it), and my parents gave me the choice of english or french-immersion education when i was five. that was nice of them. but then we moved, and i just took regular anglicized french classes. but i stuck with it because french is one of the most beautiful languages out there.

3) Do you like it? Why?
- i grew weary of spanish classes, because i already knew most of the grammar because it's so similar to french. and i grew weary of french just last year, because the university forced me to take a class in which we did no speaking, just sentence-deconstruction. it ruins the fun if you're just labeling words all of the time.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?
- i love it. love is a great motivating factor!

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?
- i'm impatient with myself. i know fluency takes years and years and years of actual practice (which i never actually got at university...) but i'm just so very impatient.

1) I'm going in my 4th year of spanish

2) I picked it cause i didn't want to take French and those are the only 2 languages in my school i can learn

3) NO not at all it was boring and i hated my teacher(as a teacher not a person in general)

4) nothing i suck at spanish i can't speak AND i can't write in it, but i can understand single words

5) hmm... well it was hard to pay attention and i would just doodle(that was the beginning of the year), oh and my teacher would "make it fun" by making the class play bingo and "spanish volibol" (vollyball) it wasn't fun AT all, i hope i get a better teacher next year so much -_-

1) What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?
I took Spanish from sixth grade to the end of last semester (for those of you unwilling to break out the calculators: that is seven years.) I still sick at it.

2) Why did you pick it?
I chose it because it was the only language offered in middle school. my high-school program was suck-ass, so our only options were Spanish or French. given that yo vivo en los estados unidos, hay muchas personas aqui que hablan espanol. so it just seemed like the wiser choice, especially considering I had a background of 2 years of (terrible executed) Spanish education.

3) Do you like it? Why?
I enjoy it, but it's difficult because I am so OLD. however, I'm not sure if I will continue with it in the future. I satisfied my university language requirement; now I am unsure whether or not there is room for it in my schedule.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?
as others have said, it is close to english and has a lot of english root words. I also listen to a lot of music in Spanish. me gustan Julieta Venegas y Banda de Turistas. :3

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?
...you mean difficult? :3
um, well, first of all that I am pretty old to be learning a new language. second of all, although I started young, I have had some pretty terrible teachers. none of my middle school spanish teachers really spoke any spanish at all. in high school I feel like I learned very little. and I don't think it was just me: all of my incredibly gifted/talented/hard-working peers who got put into AP Spanish took the test and we only had one person pass the AP Test. .-.

I took German over French, because I'd always preferred the sound of it and it was easier to get my head round. However shortly after choosing the course I began to enjoy French way more, but by that point it was too late. ;(
I'm not failing German and I don't hate it, but I think I'd find French way more interesting, not to mention the fact my mother's fluent in it & could probably help me out a lot. The only thing I think I'll remember to say in German once I've finished this year is "ich habe ein kaninchen".
I'm sure it would be interesting (as most things tend to be) if it was taught well, but it well, isn't. Even if French wasn't either, a preference for the language would probably be a good enough motivating factor.

well here, we had to take french for 3 years in school. I didn't really like it to be honest, learning a new language is too hard for me, I could have probably done better if I had revised more, but I wasn't too bothered.

1) What Language do you take?

I am taking Latin, and I am entering my second year.

2) Why did you pick it?

I didn't pick it- my parents made me. I wanted to take French or German

3) Do you like it? Why?

I HATE IT our teacher is absolutely MENTAL!!!!!!!! The language isn't that hard, in fact she gives us fairly easy work, but she will forget assignments and say sheassigned us different things... Not to mention she can't control a class, and is rather mean, and made me move cause somebody asked me what time it was even though I didn't respond.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?

Well, you don't really have to speak the language, you just have to have endings and such memorized. I'm really good at memorzing things, even if it's 25 words 5 minutes before a test.

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?

The fact that I really do not want to be in that classroom...

1) What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?

Well, in college I've signed up for a first-year interest group called "Classical Myth and Modern American Culture", and one of the core classes for that interest group is Elementary Latin. I'll probably continue that for the second semester of my first year for credits, then continue on to take Spanish, French, or Italian. This should be interesting

2) Why did you pick it?

Besides it being part of my required classes for my interest group, I think it would be good to learn Latin, because then it will be easier to learn any other of the romantic languages, such as Spanish or French. Also, if I decide to go into medicine, it will be easier to know which diseases mean what, since so many medical terms are based on Latin words.

3) Do you like it? Why?

Though I haven't actually started it yet, I think I will come to enjoy it. I've always been fascinated with ancient Rome and the Latin language itself, especially since it is the basis for quite a few of the major modern languages.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?

Since English takes so much influence for Latin, I may catch up on a few of the terms before hand. If I know the word, I might be able to guess the Latin root.

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?

I've heard Latin has a more complex grammatical system than English

Originally Posted by Anima XI

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?

I've heard Latin has a more complex grammatical system than English

It is more complicated because for each tense (I think there are 5) there are different ending for I, we, you, you (pl), s/he it, and they. There are also different endings depending on whether is nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, etc. If you do not get a mental teacher, you should enjoy it though

I'm gonna take a German class when school starts up again this year. I WANT to learn Italian, BUT MY SCHOOL DOESN'T FREAKING OFFER IT.

I took Spanish in junior high, and I liked it... I should like learning German.

Originally Posted by love to play zelda:D

It is more complicated because for each tense (I think there are 5) there are different ending for I, we, you, you (pl), s/he it, and they. There are also different endings depending on whether is nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, etc. If you do not get a mental teacher, you should enjoy it though

Thanks for the reassuring words ^_^

I am currently learning Mandarin Chinese.
I chose it because I thought it would be useful were I to travel in Asia. It is taking a role much like English, except in Asia.
I like it no more than my other classes. I always have loved to learn (and languages especially), but my teacher isn't amazing. She's funny though.
Nothing makes it easy. It is by far the hardest language I have ever attempted to learn.
There are many, many different rules and exceptions to the grammatical structure of speaking/writing. It is also a logographic, rather then phonetic language; it has over 50,000 characters. I have to learn 5,000 to 10,000 to be fluent according to my teacher. Also, there are different tones, so that, for example, the word "ma" pronounced as such could mean horse, mother, to scold (more like f-word), or to indicate a question.

1) What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?
I will be taking French. I was going to take the class in 6th Grade, but the school I moved to had only a Spanish teacher, I'm not at all interested in learning that language.

2) Why did you pick it?
I actually want to speak many languages, and French is usually available at a school. I started Hungarian over the Summer, but it would be better to get a teacher than attempt to teach myself.

3) Do you like it? Why?
I'll find that out once I start the class. Hopefully I have a good teacher this time.

4) What makes it easy for you to learn?
For certain words, I can identify the similarities between the two. It's also easy for me to remember words.

5) What makes it hard for you to learn?
I have trouble with the placement of words in sentences, as well as formal and informal, masculine and feminine differences.

What Language do you take, or what language will you be taking?
I'm going to be taking French.

Why did you pick it?
First of all, my French teacher is freaking awesome. Secondly, I prefer French over my only other option: Spanish. I think it presents more of a challenge, and challenge is something I like.

Do you like it? Why?
I like French because of how it sounds. It sounds so... nice.

What makes it easy for you to learn?
I haven't really started yet... so N/A

What makes it hard for you to learn?
N/A

Well I DID take Japanese for four years in high school. I caught on to the writing pretty quickly, but in 3 and 4 the structure just got too hard for me to keep up with so I didn't do as well as I wanted to. But that was two years ago--I can still surprisingly write hiragana and katakana pretty well. =)