Are you learning a second language?

[Soldier Blue]

Hey guys, I've been wondering whether any of you have been learning a new language, and if you are, how far along are you. For myself, I have been learning Japanese recently. I have been deciding whether I should add it as a minor to my BBA because I've been having so much fun learning it lately.

From what I understand, Japanese is totally different from English in that the basic form of sentences is Subject - Object - Verb. That has taken me some getting used to. So far I've got most of the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets memorized except for the oddities like ”　じょ　”. I also know some common phrases and words.

Some of the tools that have helped me learn are the Microsoft IME program, Slime Forest, the website Romaji Desu, playing import video games, and library books.

What about you guys?

[Luke]

I speak English and Deutsch, and can hold my own in Mexican, Italian, and French restaurants, but I am trying to improve my Spanish.

Sometimes my wife and I will try to hold entire conversations in Spanish, and although we're not "there yet", it always helps to have someone with the same language goals.

[flojocabron]

I speak English and Spanish.

Back, a long time ago in high school, I studied German too.

I still remember some basic stuff.

Wouldn't mind trying to learn it again.

[jp1]

Just English, but I dare someone to try and communicate with my Cajun family without some serious practice. It really should qualify as a second language.

[laurenhiya21]

Right now I'm studying Japanese. I've gotten the Hiragana down pretty well, and I'm also familiar with a bunch of vocab and some different sentence structures. I tend to mix up what particles to use though, and I'm pretty good at forgetting kanji and verbs ><

I'm taking a Japanese class (the second one so far) and I'm also using Anki and TextFugu to help. I'll also be getting some SuFami games soon, so hopefully that will help as well.

In the future I'm thinking of maybe learning Italian and/or German, but probably not until I'm out of school. Would be a little much to do school and learn more than one language ><;

[grittykitty]

i'm still learning japanese a little at a time after nearly 17 years since i started. i don't go out of my way to learn new vocabulary anymore, but i come across it naturally through working, using twitter, playing games and reading things both online and in print.

i think playing japanese versions of games you are already familiar with in english is a good way to reinforce your grammar skills, especially games with lots of text in hiragana & katakana. mother 2 (earthbound) is a pretty good one, though it's filled with lots of puns and colloquial stuff that would be better for an advanced level.

hanging around native speakers is the best way to learn not only the language, but cultural aspects too.

[terrin707]

I have been learning German for several years on my own and can speak French to a lesser degree, but my preference for the former means my skill in German generally improves with time, while my French erodes.

Wer kann auch Deutsch, und warum lernt ihr denn Deutsch?

[Tanooki]

Back when I was in college, my final full year there I took and passed Japanese with an A both times. When it was fresh I could converse ok enough, write and read all the kana and around a couple hundred kanji but most of it is lost to me now sadly. I attempted to self teach it before that time off and on which probably helped some since I had the non-kanji alphabet down so much I got was some grammar and vocabulary from the courses.

I kept my workbooks, extra books, language charts and dictionary though all these years.

[Nemoide]

I'm not learning an actual language at the moment but I've studied some in the past. I'm seriously considering trying to pick up Latin later this year. I also want to memorize the ogham alphabet, but I don't think that actually counts since I don't plan on using it for more than certain Druid-keywords and the like.

The second-language I'm most comfortable with is Japanese. I took a class in college for a year and then studied independently afterwards. At my peak I was probably about at a first-grade level and was able to slowly work through manga like Sgt. Frog. I could probably remember enough phrases to talk a little bit with someone and I'm comfortable watching anime without subtitles if the show was made for kids. I'm still comfortable with kana, but most of my kanji knowledge is gone and it will be a long path to re-memorize those.
Not having anyone to talk to in the language was a real sticking point. Maybe I'll revisit it someday and boost my skills.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I study Japanese casually. I used to work in a school system with a Japanese language program (kids start to learn it in kindergarten) + Japanese exchange students. That's how I got into it. Fun times!

My wife is fluent and Spanish and has visited and worked in Spain and El Salvador. But I can't speak a word of it.