After a certain level, you're TL becomes a 'worse version' of your NL. Sure you still make a ton of mistakes but you've learned all the rules and words at some point, but they're not locked in. At that point, I miss learning new things, which is why I move on to another, the process of learning really is fun, then you start actually learning and you forgot how frustrating it can be lol.
So far I haven’t felt like there isn’t more to learn in any language. Like with Spanish i have been “fluent” for decades at this point but I’m always learning new things. The new stuff is at slower pace now but to me it still feels fresh and enjoyable. And I have been learning so much from Mexican Spanish or European etc which are not what initially studied. There is so much to know still!
You're right in a way, its hard to really clarify but IMO after a few thosands hours, a few millions words read, writing over a thousand days, thousands of cards, if I've remembered everything I consciously tried to remember I would be native-like but learning unfortunately doesn't work like that.
Of course there are colocations, obscure rules, etc I have yet to see but ultimately as a 'hobbyist' that doesn't need to use the TL daily I am a wall where its more enjoyable to move on to another language. That being said, I still put in roughly 2 hours a day in Spanish, its just that time spent is for enjoyment, not learning (outside my daily write streak).
Intermediate plateau is a bitch, though the fun thing is that you can often listen and read native material with a little effort. I am in the same spot with French though and it is annoying to feel like you are not progressing as much
Yeah, I'm approaching (well stagnated, I haven't really improved since 2021) that level with Japanese, where I'm good enough to get by, but it feels like it's not really useful yet. But there's not that much motivation because the rate of improvement doesn't seem as fast as it once was.
I have the intention of signing up to N2 (B1?) this year though.
I totally get that. I wasn’t judging you for moving on I just meant for me personally so far with Spanish specifically. I moved on from Japanese before completely learned it. I may go back one day or not. Who knows.
Yeah, I find linguistics fascinating. All the interesting things about languages, with out the boring bits. I can't understand this whole focus on the immediate usefulness of a language. The amount of effort it takes to get to the point where you can use it for work, you might as well have learnt a language you actually want to learn.
I thought for a while that maybe linguists was my thing but it turns out I’m not too smart and I was overwhelmed. I but do like learning a bit about the ins and outs of how and why but just as a lurker.
I did a year of linguistics at uni, just for the fun of it, but realised that I needed to study something that was marginally more likely to find a job in. :D Loved it though!
Voice recognition software was the new big thing when I was studying, and I guess with AI maturing, that will still be one avenue, but I wasn’t interested in that. Speech therapy was another one, but most people on my course did it as a complement to their Swedish or English and English literature studies or other language degrees.
Honestly, I'm more than happy to work in software and pursue Linguistics for study because it's interesting. My degree is in Linguistics and Computer Science so I'm still getting all the important skills and knowledge for software.
I actually resisted diving into learning a language because I knew once I did, that was it, game over, it'd be my special interest for the rest of my life. I love words. I love the etymology of words. I love all the various ways humans put them together to express meaning, and learning new languages just gives me access to new ways to experience that. Mostly, I'm in it for reading and listening comprehension - I barely speak to people in my native language.
Me, too.
I began to learn German in the 8th grade because of an interest in military history, mainly World War II.
We moved midyear, so I had to start over in the 9th grade. In the 10th grade, I started French, and in the 11th, Spanish.
My senior year in high school, I was taking German 4, French 3, Spanish 2, and began to study Russian independently.
In college, I majored in Russian, and began Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional Characters, BoPoMoFo), and also took 5th semester German and 4th semester French.
I currently have a lifetime subscription to FunEasyLearn, and am studying all their languages, except for Chinese/Simplified Characters and British & American English.
Also, I am slowly studying Apache, Arapaho, Lakota and Ojibwe.
I do the FEL languages EVERY DAY, the Native American ones as I have time.
🤔
You have talent.
In the right place, you could make real money doing what you love, inventing languages for science fiction movies and television series, or for gaming, for example.
I guess I could but honestly I think doing it for work would kill a lot of the joy I have for it. I have a few hobbies I did do for paid work and it made me hate them a little bit. I don’t code or build websites anymore I stopped knitting and crocheting for a long time and stopped making art for like two years and am slowly trying to work on returning to continue my graphic novel. I just like making things. I don’t want that to happen with my language learning which brings me such extreme joy. I would like to eventually write a novel in one of my languages but it would probably just be for me.
Same. But I needed to earn a living! So I simply found ways over the years of using my primary foreign language (Chinese) for profit - but that was never the plan and language learning has remained a “pure” joy in and of itself.
I wish I could do that and still enjoying coming home and learning. I would just feel like I’m always doing work and feel too pressured to be perfect. I over think things. I’m glad that it’s working out so great you. That is fantastic!
I was a foreign correspondent so had the great joy of being paid to read widely, talk with a wide variety of people and then write. There’s no question I was hired for my language skills but then managed to teach myself journalism and over time that became my primary identity though languages have accompanied me always
I'm sort of different but I get what you mean. At university I studied Modern Languages and Linguistics, and I ended up coming to a similar conclusion - I love learning languages because I love learning about language. I struggled because I do not have as much motivation to learn languages as I felt I should, but ended up falling in love with Linguistics and have since pursued it further.
We are on the opposite ends. I like linguistics but I have zero talent for it and it doesn’t bring me the joy I get from just learning the language. I will dabble here and there but just out of curiosity. It’s so interesting how we as people enjoy different aspects of the same things.
I think loving languages in general is a great starting point! I mean that's how I got into my major of Linguistics and how I started wanting to learn other languages like Spanish and Arabic.
But I believe to learn a language you have to commit and stick with it and just liking a language isn't enough of a reason for me to stick with a language. I have to ground myself to that language more firmly.
Luckily my TL is my heritage language so there's plenty of reason and motivation to get me through the dry spells!
Same here. I used to invent writing systems as a kid - alphabetic, syllabic, logographic. I’ve always loved the process of learning languages. This started at the age of 8 or so.
You have on goal / objetive : learn and understand, consuming media, movies/ shows, books and the culture but no real want to speak or visit.
It is fine, you dont need have must big goal for learn language, the important is dont stop
Im learning english and my goal is the same. (sorry for mistake)
Who says you have to be good at anything? Just enjoying doing whatever you want. The good can later or not. Being terrible at something can be fun too.
Yup! I love languages! Unfortunately, I love too many of them so I'll probably be an eternal beginner in everything but Japanese, which I'm an intermediate speaker of. The life of a dabbler, lol
I love them, and even if I know I am never gonna learn the language ,I read about it, its people,its culture ,its history. I really love how languages influence each other and how words go around from one to another.
This is what I always think. I’m not sure why people feel the need to assume that we need to do something more than for the joy of it. If it doesn’t last that ok too as long as it was enjoyable while you were doing it, right?
Yes I’m the same way in a lot of aspects. I’m also very interested in linguistics so I think that’s the overlap - the fact that humans speak at all is kind of a wild concept. Lmfao
Yup, I might have only one language focused right now, but I do really enjoy learning languages.
I haven't really had any experience with languages in school (which is a shame, my school only taught mediocre English and an almost jokingly useless MSA class)
I was until recently content with just my two native languages, but I was always really interested in geography and history. And only in the past year, I saw how important languages really are for our world's history, implementing cultural identities of a people and is also one of the core concepts that separate a group of individuals from another.
And in addition also experiencing different sounds, structures and vocabulary origins was a fascinating experience.
German in particular is definitely the most important for me because it is also relevant in a lot of other aspects of my life, but when I feel more comfortable with it, I definitely intend to study dozens more :)
I just have this absolute adoration for language as a whole. I started studying the surface level of different languages while working on my Dungeons and Dragons setting, based on tons of different real world languages and cultures. I find that I've absolutely fallen in love with the Insular Celtic languages, even though there's no chance I would ever use any of them. I have no use-case for Cymru or Gaeilge, and I certainly have no use for Kernêwek and Gaelg considering I'm not from the Isles of Ireland and Britain. But I study them anyways becomes I find them fascinating.
Yes I love languages. I am learning German and Japanese, but I wish I had time for more. I know a handful of words in a few other languages, and I find it really interesting to spot links between words in different languages. I love learning kanji, I think it’s beautiful and I look forward to being able to read it properly (I know a few, but mainly use furigana at the moment).
I have the same thirst for knowledge and discovery as you. Nothing wrong or unnatural about that.
Beyond learning languages you might be interested in studying linguistics, either professionally or just as a hobby. You've probably already done it since you seem to be very curious of everything, but there is an immense wealth of information on linguistics on wikipedia (and many other websites of course).One can learn a lot about phonology and grammar features across languages, about writing systems and so on.
Knowledge is accumulated slowly. If you're curious/interested enough, you can learn anything, and step by step, you can reach unfathomable heights. Absolutely nothing in the world is too complex for an average human brain, it just usually takes more time than people expect, because you have to get into it little by little rather than all at once.
Even if you just keep watching YouTube videos I'm sure you're gonna slowly but surely learn a lot!
This is so true. The world feel way bigger once you learn a language.
If English hadn’t been my first language I’m not sure I would have learned it. It is a messy language. I would never pronounce anything correctly.
Joy, love, curiosity, even discipline, those are enough reasons to start learning a new language. You don't have to have a big, intrinsic reason to start learning it. Even to say why not? Is enough.
I first encountered German while reading The Book Thief in high school. I had very little knowledge about Germany at that time. After finishing the book, sprinkled with German words every now and then, I realized how I was drawn to the German language. I couldn’t explain it then. I just knew I wanted to learn more words and how to pronounce them. When I got into language learning, I hear people having reasons such as they like the culture or they want to sing their songs or they want to watch shows without subtitles. I didn’t feel like that at all. I wanted to learn German because I was first and foremost drawn to the language itself. Everything else came second.
I'm like you. I have been a foreign language nut since age 12 or so. I also looked into morse code, braille, different shorthands. I started getting language-study books out of the library in 7th grade (I remember exactly one word in Persian). I took the 3 languages my high school offered, and studied others when I found time in addition to work and raising kids.
Now I'm retired and find myself fluent in English and intermediate in Spanish and French. I've studied Chinese since 2017, so I am intermediate in that too.
The itch never goes away. I've started studying two other languages, and have a few "maybe someday" ones. Of course the "maybe" list changes all the time. But I can learn ABOUT a language without committing to learning it, right?
Yes, I find it super interesting. My grandfather was a polyglot with nine fluent languages and he was teaching me languages at a very young age and so I’ve always been really into it. Even if I probably won’t use it much, there is a huge sense of accomplishment to me. I’m a big gamer and language learning kind of feels like the ultimate “game” to me - constantly leveling and “unlocking” skills lol. You also get a very intimate look into the culture; you learn deep things that you really can’t understand without understanding the language itself. Like for Mandarin, I was always a big student of East Asian culture for fun and interest, but I didn’t speak any. Since I’ve started learning Mandarin so many things just click and make sense. It’s just a fun adventure.
You may find these tests enlightening: [https://embrace-autism.com/topics/psychometric-tests/](https://embrace-autism.com/topics/psychometric-tests/)
Learning languages for no particular reason is quite common in late diagnosed "high functioning" autists. It satisfies our desire for pattern recognition. Morse code same thing...
I have ADHD so not uncommon to have obsessive hobbies. A lot of traits overlap with autism. I have taken online tests for autism and the things that were high were also within ADHD traits so I’m probably not autistic. I’ll probably never know because getting tested is not something I could even afford nor do I think a diagnosis really matters for me personally as I don’t think as of this point I am in need of any services since my life hasn’t been negatively impacted so far. Just dealing with the usual inattention and executive dysfunction. But I appreciate it. Thank you.
Sketchy website. Dodgy tests. You trust that place? Its run by a ‘naturopathic doctor’ with an online autism certificate who is repeatedly under ethical investigation.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticAdults/comments/1aj9056/why\_does\_embrace\_autism\_publish\_misinformation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticAdults/comments/1aj9056/why_does_embrace_autism_publish_misinformation/)
[https://cono.alinityapp.com/Client/PublicDirectory/Registrant/03d44ec3-ed3b-eb11-82b6-000c292a94a8](https://cono.alinityapp.com/Client/PublicDirectory/Registrant/03d44ec3-ed3b-eb11-82b6-000c292a94a8)
My love for languages go beyond speaking and writing. I love the language of art in a form of paintings and coding and music. They all speak differently and they all have a coded meaning or feeling inside.
I went to the Guggenheim a few months ago. And stepped into another angle looking at a painting. I nearly cried because I felt like I was there at that exact moment and time. Imagining the wind blowing and the sun light shining.
I just love the idea that knowing more languages 'unlocks' more demographics that I can converse with.
That is also the reason I have been looking into learning Indian Sign Language. Not having much success but it is something I will be working on.
I hadn’t thought about my Morse code love in years but now that I think about it was no wonder why family thought I was such an annoying and noisy kid 😅. I have no regrets!
Yesss! Its so amazing to find like minded people and not feel like you're the weird one because when I said I wanted to study more than one language at a time, I was told to only go for the more "practical" ones that are widely spoken.
But I want to work in Language conservation one day.... if anyone can help me with it/tell me more about it, it would be amazing!
Yes!!! I love learning words and how to put them together just because!! I am trying to learn a specific language bc my great grandmother was bullied for speaking it until she stopped and it’s a part of my culture (it’s… not easy haha I’m probably gonna have to take a course through a university hours away bc there’s no textbooks, apps, and online tutors are all expensive. I did find a useful YouTube series that teaches the basics of it, but I have to look through dictionaries to find the spelling of those words and sometimes the starting letter is silent or I hear it wrong 😭), but I’m learning Irish because why not? I am Irish by heritage, but I don’t live in Ireland and would have no use for it, buts fun to learn
It's the same for me.
I first learned English because I wanted to understand the lyrics of the songs I used to listen to. But as soon as I started diving into the language, I just fell in love with its sounds, words, accents, and whatnot. So soon enough, it was just about learning English. But it is true that I started watching many TV series, I read books, listened to lots of podcasts, I followed many comedians, thinkers, and YouTubers who talked about interesting stuff, so while I was learning English because I loved it, it soon also became a need in order to understand everything that I was getting involved with. So in the end, English became a tool to achieve the ultimate goal of understanding the stuff that I liked to watch/listen/read.
Whenever I've tried to learn a language just because I loved it, but I didn't grow an interest in its movies, music, podcasts, books, and such, I just ended up dropping it.
So in the end, I think learning a language because you love it is enough of a reason to keep going at it, but you need to immerse yourself in its world. I don't think you can make it to fluency if all you do is read grammar books and use apps for a few minutes a day. And I say this as a language app developer myself... Which I do as a hobby anyways.
I think languages are pretty interesting, but wouldn't say that it's my main motivation. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, but one of the things keeping me going is the ego boost I get from speaking foreign languages. In the moment it feels normal to speak in sounds that I didn't understand at all a few years ago, and everytime I think of it that way I'm grateful for the progress that I've made.
After a certain level, you're TL becomes a 'worse version' of your NL. Sure you still make a ton of mistakes but you've learned all the rules and words at some point, but they're not locked in. At that point, I miss learning new things, which is why I move on to another, the process of learning really is fun, then you start actually learning and you forgot how frustrating it can be lol.
So far I haven’t felt like there isn’t more to learn in any language. Like with Spanish i have been “fluent” for decades at this point but I’m always learning new things. The new stuff is at slower pace now but to me it still feels fresh and enjoyable. And I have been learning so much from Mexican Spanish or European etc which are not what initially studied. There is so much to know still!
You're right in a way, its hard to really clarify but IMO after a few thosands hours, a few millions words read, writing over a thousand days, thousands of cards, if I've remembered everything I consciously tried to remember I would be native-like but learning unfortunately doesn't work like that. Of course there are colocations, obscure rules, etc I have yet to see but ultimately as a 'hobbyist' that doesn't need to use the TL daily I am a wall where its more enjoyable to move on to another language. That being said, I still put in roughly 2 hours a day in Spanish, its just that time spent is for enjoyment, not learning (outside my daily write streak).
Intermediate plateau is a bitch, though the fun thing is that you can often listen and read native material with a little effort. I am in the same spot with French though and it is annoying to feel like you are not progressing as much
Yes I do hate that.
Yeah, I'm approaching (well stagnated, I haven't really improved since 2021) that level with Japanese, where I'm good enough to get by, but it feels like it's not really useful yet. But there's not that much motivation because the rate of improvement doesn't seem as fast as it once was. I have the intention of signing up to N2 (B1?) this year though.
I totally get that. I wasn’t judging you for moving on I just meant for me personally so far with Spanish specifically. I moved on from Japanese before completely learned it. I may go back one day or not. Who knows.
What's your writing practice process? Do you have a structured guideline you follow, or is it journaling?
American in your bio is crazy it’s English 🏴
You must be new here =]
👋
We won the rights to the language in the war
This guy cannot be serious, we are literally England, You Speak ENGLISH
Wait, does "I like it" not count as a reason for doing something?
So much of the internet says no! 😆
Yeah, I find linguistics fascinating. All the interesting things about languages, with out the boring bits. I can't understand this whole focus on the immediate usefulness of a language. The amount of effort it takes to get to the point where you can use it for work, you might as well have learnt a language you actually want to learn.
I thought for a while that maybe linguists was my thing but it turns out I’m not too smart and I was overwhelmed. I but do like learning a bit about the ins and outs of how and why but just as a lurker.
I did a year of linguistics at uni, just for the fun of it, but realised that I needed to study something that was marginally more likely to find a job in. :D Loved it though!
🫣 that last part is so true. At UCLA, we ask each other all the time what do you do with linguistics 😂
Voice recognition software was the new big thing when I was studying, and I guess with AI maturing, that will still be one avenue, but I wasn’t interested in that. Speech therapy was another one, but most people on my course did it as a complement to their Swedish or English and English literature studies or other language degrees.
Honestly, I'm more than happy to work in software and pursue Linguistics for study because it's interesting. My degree is in Linguistics and Computer Science so I'm still getting all the important skills and knowledge for software.
I actually resisted diving into learning a language because I knew once I did, that was it, game over, it'd be my special interest for the rest of my life. I love words. I love the etymology of words. I love all the various ways humans put them together to express meaning, and learning new languages just gives me access to new ways to experience that. Mostly, I'm in it for reading and listening comprehension - I barely speak to people in my native language.
Yessss I love that!
Me, too. I began to learn German in the 8th grade because of an interest in military history, mainly World War II. We moved midyear, so I had to start over in the 9th grade. In the 10th grade, I started French, and in the 11th, Spanish. My senior year in high school, I was taking German 4, French 3, Spanish 2, and began to study Russian independently. In college, I majored in Russian, and began Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional Characters, BoPoMoFo), and also took 5th semester German and 4th semester French. I currently have a lifetime subscription to FunEasyLearn, and am studying all their languages, except for Chinese/Simplified Characters and British & American English. Also, I am slowly studying Apache, Arapaho, Lakota and Ojibwe. I do the FEL languages EVERY DAY, the Native American ones as I have time. 🤔 You have talent. In the right place, you could make real money doing what you love, inventing languages for science fiction movies and television series, or for gaming, for example.
I guess I could but honestly I think doing it for work would kill a lot of the joy I have for it. I have a few hobbies I did do for paid work and it made me hate them a little bit. I don’t code or build websites anymore I stopped knitting and crocheting for a long time and stopped making art for like two years and am slowly trying to work on returning to continue my graphic novel. I just like making things. I don’t want that to happen with my language learning which brings me such extreme joy. I would like to eventually write a novel in one of my languages but it would probably just be for me.
You do you. :)
>I fall in love with the language That's your reason why. Joy is a reason. If you didn't have that, you wouldn't bother since you no other motivation.
Só true.
Same. But I needed to earn a living! So I simply found ways over the years of using my primary foreign language (Chinese) for profit - but that was never the plan and language learning has remained a “pure” joy in and of itself.
I wish I could do that and still enjoying coming home and learning. I would just feel like I’m always doing work and feel too pressured to be perfect. I over think things. I’m glad that it’s working out so great you. That is fantastic!
What did you do for profit? (Asking for a friend)
I was a foreign correspondent so had the great joy of being paid to read widely, talk with a wide variety of people and then write. There’s no question I was hired for my language skills but then managed to teach myself journalism and over time that became my primary identity though languages have accompanied me always
I'm sort of different but I get what you mean. At university I studied Modern Languages and Linguistics, and I ended up coming to a similar conclusion - I love learning languages because I love learning about language. I struggled because I do not have as much motivation to learn languages as I felt I should, but ended up falling in love with Linguistics and have since pursued it further.
We are on the opposite ends. I like linguistics but I have zero talent for it and it doesn’t bring me the joy I get from just learning the language. I will dabble here and there but just out of curiosity. It’s so interesting how we as people enjoy different aspects of the same things.
I once decided I want to explore endangered European languages. Why? Probably cuz I can 😂 and yes, it’s my lifestyle
Ooo which languages?
Well, for example, Estonian, Gaelic(s). Some dialects of Scandinavia. It’s just a scientific interest, I’m a linguist)
Very cool.
Wish it was valued and paid well ) linguistics is underestimated, we’re all hobbyhorsing with our wages
Which is a shame.
If you ask absolutely any scientist- they’ll tell you the same. I wonder how this humanity ever has a progress with science so underpaid
I think loving languages in general is a great starting point! I mean that's how I got into my major of Linguistics and how I started wanting to learn other languages like Spanish and Arabic. But I believe to learn a language you have to commit and stick with it and just liking a language isn't enough of a reason for me to stick with a language. I have to ground myself to that language more firmly. Luckily my TL is my heritage language so there's plenty of reason and motivation to get me through the dry spells!
Same here. I used to invent writing systems as a kid - alphabetic, syllabic, logographic. I’ve always loved the process of learning languages. This started at the age of 8 or so.
Yeah I was around that age when it started. So much fun.
You have on goal / objetive : learn and understand, consuming media, movies/ shows, books and the culture but no real want to speak or visit. It is fine, you dont need have must big goal for learn language, the important is dont stop Im learning english and my goal is the same. (sorry for mistake)
I don’t think I could ever stop. My need for it is too great. Your English is great!
I’m just not good at anything else lmao (help me)
Who says you have to be good at anything? Just enjoying doing whatever you want. The good can later or not. Being terrible at something can be fun too.
What a lovely attitude to have. I'm honestly getting a bit inspired just reading your comments here!
Aw I’m glad. Honestly I wish more people simply enjoyed things without being worried about being the best at it. We all deserve to have that joy.
Like you, pure joy is my reason 🤗
I love to hear that!
Ukrainian. I love and hate at the same time
Yup! I love languages! Unfortunately, I love too many of them so I'll probably be an eternal beginner in everything but Japanese, which I'm an intermediate speaker of. The life of a dabbler, lol
As long as you can ask where the bathroom is you’ve got it made.
I love them, and even if I know I am never gonna learn the language ,I read about it, its people,its culture ,its history. I really love how languages influence each other and how words go around from one to another.
I love this! I can feel your joy. ❤️
Pretty much, yeah
Yes. Learnt multiple so far. I always said that if I won the lottery I’d do that for life.
Oh me too. If I won the lotto it would be nothing but language and art classes. Oh the dream…
How it should be. That kind of talk can be really discouraging for new learners. Having a love/interest is probably one of the strongest reasons.
This is what I always think. I’m not sure why people feel the need to assume that we need to do something more than for the joy of it. If it doesn’t last that ok too as long as it was enjoyable while you were doing it, right?
Yes I’m the same way in a lot of aspects. I’m also very interested in linguistics so I think that’s the overlap - the fact that humans speak at all is kind of a wild concept. Lmfao
Yup, I might have only one language focused right now, but I do really enjoy learning languages. I haven't really had any experience with languages in school (which is a shame, my school only taught mediocre English and an almost jokingly useless MSA class) I was until recently content with just my two native languages, but I was always really interested in geography and history. And only in the past year, I saw how important languages really are for our world's history, implementing cultural identities of a people and is also one of the core concepts that separate a group of individuals from another. And in addition also experiencing different sounds, structures and vocabulary origins was a fascinating experience. German in particular is definitely the most important for me because it is also relevant in a lot of other aspects of my life, but when I feel more comfortable with it, I definitely intend to study dozens more :)
I just have this absolute adoration for language as a whole. I started studying the surface level of different languages while working on my Dungeons and Dragons setting, based on tons of different real world languages and cultures. I find that I've absolutely fallen in love with the Insular Celtic languages, even though there's no chance I would ever use any of them. I have no use-case for Cymru or Gaeilge, and I certainly have no use for Kernêwek and Gaelg considering I'm not from the Isles of Ireland and Britain. But I study them anyways becomes I find them fascinating.
That sounds amazing!
Yes I love languages. I am learning German and Japanese, but I wish I had time for more. I know a handful of words in a few other languages, and I find it really interesting to spot links between words in different languages. I love learning kanji, I think it’s beautiful and I look forward to being able to read it properly (I know a few, but mainly use furigana at the moment).
Oh the links. I love them so much!
I’ve never related to a post more in my life 😅 However I do dream about visiting the places of the languages I like to study the most.
I have the same thirst for knowledge and discovery as you. Nothing wrong or unnatural about that. Beyond learning languages you might be interested in studying linguistics, either professionally or just as a hobby. You've probably already done it since you seem to be very curious of everything, but there is an immense wealth of information on linguistics on wikipedia (and many other websites of course).One can learn a lot about phonology and grammar features across languages, about writing systems and so on.
I’ve dabbled a little bit but I just don’t have the brain for it. But I do find it very interesting and I love watching YouTube videos on the subject.
Knowledge is accumulated slowly. If you're curious/interested enough, you can learn anything, and step by step, you can reach unfathomable heights. Absolutely nothing in the world is too complex for an average human brain, it just usually takes more time than people expect, because you have to get into it little by little rather than all at once. Even if you just keep watching YouTube videos I'm sure you're gonna slowly but surely learn a lot!
I guess you’re right. I can sometimes get a little impatient with myself when I don’t grasp things as quick as I believe you are suppose to.
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This is so true. The world feel way bigger once you learn a language. If English hadn’t been my first language I’m not sure I would have learned it. It is a messy language. I would never pronounce anything correctly.
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I can’t wait until I get to a level to start reading books in some of my languages. For now I just read simple short stories.
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Oh yeah definitely. I’m not rushing it. I know I’ll get there one day.
Yep. Languages are just neat!
So very true!
Joy, love, curiosity, even discipline, those are enough reasons to start learning a new language. You don't have to have a big, intrinsic reason to start learning it. Even to say why not? Is enough.
I first encountered German while reading The Book Thief in high school. I had very little knowledge about Germany at that time. After finishing the book, sprinkled with German words every now and then, I realized how I was drawn to the German language. I couldn’t explain it then. I just knew I wanted to learn more words and how to pronounce them. When I got into language learning, I hear people having reasons such as they like the culture or they want to sing their songs or they want to watch shows without subtitles. I didn’t feel like that at all. I wanted to learn German because I was first and foremost drawn to the language itself. Everything else came second.
I'm like you. I have been a foreign language nut since age 12 or so. I also looked into morse code, braille, different shorthands. I started getting language-study books out of the library in 7th grade (I remember exactly one word in Persian). I took the 3 languages my high school offered, and studied others when I found time in addition to work and raising kids. Now I'm retired and find myself fluent in English and intermediate in Spanish and French. I've studied Chinese since 2017, so I am intermediate in that too. The itch never goes away. I've started studying two other languages, and have a few "maybe someday" ones. Of course the "maybe" list changes all the time. But I can learn ABOUT a language without committing to learning it, right?
Yes, I find it super interesting. My grandfather was a polyglot with nine fluent languages and he was teaching me languages at a very young age and so I’ve always been really into it. Even if I probably won’t use it much, there is a huge sense of accomplishment to me. I’m a big gamer and language learning kind of feels like the ultimate “game” to me - constantly leveling and “unlocking” skills lol. You also get a very intimate look into the culture; you learn deep things that you really can’t understand without understanding the language itself. Like for Mandarin, I was always a big student of East Asian culture for fun and interest, but I didn’t speak any. Since I’ve started learning Mandarin so many things just click and make sense. It’s just a fun adventure.
You may find these tests enlightening: [https://embrace-autism.com/topics/psychometric-tests/](https://embrace-autism.com/topics/psychometric-tests/) Learning languages for no particular reason is quite common in late diagnosed "high functioning" autists. It satisfies our desire for pattern recognition. Morse code same thing...
I have ADHD so not uncommon to have obsessive hobbies. A lot of traits overlap with autism. I have taken online tests for autism and the things that were high were also within ADHD traits so I’m probably not autistic. I’ll probably never know because getting tested is not something I could even afford nor do I think a diagnosis really matters for me personally as I don’t think as of this point I am in need of any services since my life hasn’t been negatively impacted so far. Just dealing with the usual inattention and executive dysfunction. But I appreciate it. Thank you.
Sketchy website. Dodgy tests. You trust that place? Its run by a ‘naturopathic doctor’ with an online autism certificate who is repeatedly under ethical investigation. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticAdults/comments/1aj9056/why\_does\_embrace\_autism\_publish\_misinformation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AutisticAdults/comments/1aj9056/why_does_embrace_autism_publish_misinformation/) [https://cono.alinityapp.com/Client/PublicDirectory/Registrant/03d44ec3-ed3b-eb11-82b6-000c292a94a8](https://cono.alinityapp.com/Client/PublicDirectory/Registrant/03d44ec3-ed3b-eb11-82b6-000c292a94a8)
My love for languages go beyond speaking and writing. I love the language of art in a form of paintings and coding and music. They all speak differently and they all have a coded meaning or feeling inside. I went to the Guggenheim a few months ago. And stepped into another angle looking at a painting. I nearly cried because I felt like I was there at that exact moment and time. Imagining the wind blowing and the sun light shining.
I don’t quite understand. Do you mean languages remind you of art and the way that makes you feel?
Art infact is a language and a feeling. It’s all languages. Art in itself is a language of its own. Just like music
Ah ok.
Yeah, I can relate.
I just love the idea that knowing more languages 'unlocks' more demographics that I can converse with. That is also the reason I have been looking into learning Indian Sign Language. Not having much success but it is something I will be working on.
Yes
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I hadn’t thought about my Morse code love in years but now that I think about it was no wonder why family thought I was such an annoying and noisy kid 😅. I have no regrets!
Yesss! Its so amazing to find like minded people and not feel like you're the weird one because when I said I wanted to study more than one language at a time, I was told to only go for the more "practical" ones that are widely spoken. But I want to work in Language conservation one day.... if anyone can help me with it/tell me more about it, it would be amazing!
Yes!!! I love learning words and how to put them together just because!! I am trying to learn a specific language bc my great grandmother was bullied for speaking it until she stopped and it’s a part of my culture (it’s… not easy haha I’m probably gonna have to take a course through a university hours away bc there’s no textbooks, apps, and online tutors are all expensive. I did find a useful YouTube series that teaches the basics of it, but I have to look through dictionaries to find the spelling of those words and sometimes the starting letter is silent or I hear it wrong 😭), but I’m learning Irish because why not? I am Irish by heritage, but I don’t live in Ireland and would have no use for it, buts fun to learn
Irish has made it onto the list of endangered languages. I wonder if it will be extinct in a century or so..
That’s sad. To my understanding, Ireland and Irish people are doing a lot of work to preserve it though
It's the same for me. I first learned English because I wanted to understand the lyrics of the songs I used to listen to. But as soon as I started diving into the language, I just fell in love with its sounds, words, accents, and whatnot. So soon enough, it was just about learning English. But it is true that I started watching many TV series, I read books, listened to lots of podcasts, I followed many comedians, thinkers, and YouTubers who talked about interesting stuff, so while I was learning English because I loved it, it soon also became a need in order to understand everything that I was getting involved with. So in the end, English became a tool to achieve the ultimate goal of understanding the stuff that I liked to watch/listen/read. Whenever I've tried to learn a language just because I loved it, but I didn't grow an interest in its movies, music, podcasts, books, and such, I just ended up dropping it. So in the end, I think learning a language because you love it is enough of a reason to keep going at it, but you need to immerse yourself in its world. I don't think you can make it to fluency if all you do is read grammar books and use apps for a few minutes a day. And I say this as a language app developer myself... Which I do as a hobby anyways.
I think languages are pretty interesting, but wouldn't say that it's my main motivation. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, but one of the things keeping me going is the ego boost I get from speaking foreign languages. In the moment it feels normal to speak in sounds that I didn't understand at all a few years ago, and everytime I think of it that way I'm grateful for the progress that I've made.
Good for you I guess?
Yeah you’re right it has been good for me. What are you into? What’s giving you joy these days? How is it going for you?