Languages

If there's one thing I never managed to get the hang of, it's another language. I spent quite a few years at school learning French but I can barely say anything now. Bonjour and a few other key phrases are as far as I can go with it. Do you guys speak any other languages? And if not, are you looking to learn another language?

I did learn french at school for 3 years but mostly mucked around during the class so never really picked up the language much.

Well I'm working on learning french then German. french is one of the easiest languages to learn so that's why I'm learninag it.

I took Spanish in high school.  However, natural immersion was impossible - so it didn't amount to much.  In fact, there wasn't even any replacement for it - like software.  Anyway, my next experience with language came in South Korea - and I got natural immersion there - rather I wanted it or not!  However, though, I wasn't trying to learn the language much - besides the fact I learned Hangul - the alphabet.

So, who has tried immersion software like Rosseta Stone or something?  Myself, I've never tried anything like that - but it sounds very interesting, though, too expensive at the moment!

For me I've always wanted to learn another language but like Jason has said, the immersion side of things really holds me back. There is only so much you can pick up just from hopping about on Duolingo or HelloTalk. For me, I'm learning Spanish and whilst I can read/understand, my speaking side of it is terrible and it is only when I actually go on holiday to Spain that I feel myself picking up some confidence but then of course comes the time to go home so I'm back to square one. I really need to get into somewhere where I can speak it properly with someone to get any better!

Well, English isn't my mother tongue, it's my second language and I'd say its about as good as my Dutch, which is my mother tongue.

Learning a new language isn't hard, it's just time consuming and most people don't feel like it's worth it.

As someone from a small country I am forced to learn other languages since nobody in the world would be like "Ah lets learn Dutch!". Luckily our languages is a mixture of English, French, German and some Spanish. I can pretty much understand conversations in all those languages making it easier to pick them up more proficiently.

I would say it's never to late but I can image people not willing to spend the extra time if your mother tongue is English since everybody speaks it.

Well, English isn't my mother tongue, it's my second language and I'd say its about as good as my Dutch, which is my mother tongue.

Learning a new language isn't hard, it's just time consuming and most people don't feel like it's worth it.

As someone from a small country I am forced to learn other languages since nobody in the world would be like "Ah lets learn Dutch!". Luckily our languages is a mixture of English, French, German and some Spanish. I can pretty much understand conversations in all those languages making it easier to pick them up more proficiently.

I would say it's never to late but I can image people not willing to spend the extra time if your mother tongue is English since everybody speaks it.

Hmm yeah, I would agree that it's not necessarily hard - as an Englishman I do admit it does feel like there is no point at all in learning another language. For me though, I travel to Spain a lot - as us Brits do - and I always feel that whenever I speak even a little Spanish I get a lot more 'local' experience which really makes the trip that much better for me, hence why I'm trying to learn it. I'm happy I'm at the stage where I can generally understand a lot of things I see/read but my speaking is just atrocious.

Well, English isn't my mother tongue, it's my second language and I'd say its about as good as my Dutch, which is my mother tongue.

Learning a new language isn't hard, it's just time consuming and most people don't feel like it's worth it.

As someone from a small country I am forced to learn other languages since nobody in the world would be like "Ah lets learn Dutch!". Luckily our languages is a mixture of English, French, German and some Spanish. I can pretty much understand conversations in all those languages making it easier to pick them up more proficiently.

I would say it's never to late but I can image people not willing to spend the extra time if your mother tongue is English since everybody speaks it.

Dutch, English, German are in the same language family - and even more related to each other than Swedish or Norwegian.   Nonetheless, from what I've heard of German, it's impossible to pick up anything - me speaking American English.  Anyway, how similar is Dutch to English you think?  I'm sure Dutch would be incomprehensible like German to me.

Also, how close is Afrikaans to Dutch?  I've heard conversations can go on - but it's very different.

If there's one thing I never managed to get the hang of, it's another language. I spent quite a few years at school learning French but I can barely say anything now. Bonjour and a few other key phrases are as far as I can go with it. Do you guys speak any other languages? And if not, are you looking to learn another language?

Immersion seems to be the key. You should be in the country or using an immersion course - or both.

Dutch, English, German are in the same language family - and even more related to each other than Swedish or Norwegian.   Nonetheless, from what I've heard of German, it's impossible to pick up anything - me speaking American English.  Anyway, how similar is Dutch to English you think?  I'm sure Dutch would be incomprehensible like German to me.

Also, how close is Afrikaans to Dutch?  I've heard conversations can go on - but it's very different.

I don't know about those specific languages, although I know some English words were derived from a Germanic background. For me specifically, I've found that the so called 'Romance' languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese) are similar to what you're describing. Since I started learning Spanish, I've found that on my travels - to Italy mainly since I started - I've been able to understand more of what's happening around me. It's most helpful in areas with little English being spoken as I've been able to get the gist of food menus for example or informational notices at stations and such.

I Speak Spanish