My mother tongue is English, but I love tasting different languages.
Learning a new language takes time, effort, and determination, but it’s something that I can’t seem to commit to. Yes, I have commitment issues. Today, I’m going to talk about 10 languages I like, love, or has/have/had an impact on me at some point in my life. I am not fully fluent in any of them, though, but one day, I’ll love to be in a few especially from 6-1.
Ooh, boy, this post looks like it’s going to be lengthy.
10. German
This language is not for me although I can say good morning, hello, a few other greetings and “God is love” in German.
Ich spreche nicht gut Deutsch. Yeah, I don’t speak German very well.
09. Dutch
When I was working at Vie de France, there was a former model working with us, and she spoke Dutch thanks to some of her modeling years living in the Netherlands. She taught me how to count in the language and introduced me to some basic phrases. Dutch is one of the languages closest to English while being in the same family as German.
Now whenever I think of the Dutch, I automatically go back in time to when Robin Van Persie scored that screaming stunner on Spain.
Ah, good times! I look forward to the World Cup this year.
08. ASL
One day, I sat down to write a story about a boy and a girl, but the boy was deaf. I might have spoken about Jai and Diana at some point here last year during the NaNo period. Anyway, Jai being deaf made me look into ASL although I was interested in it before, but never quite got into it until now.
I am currently learning how to sign. I’m supposed to be practicing with an Instagram friend, but your girl doesn’t do Skype. So meet my teacher:
He basically taught me how to say nice to meet someone…
…how to say no…
…and how to say hello with such enthusiasm:
I think it’s beautiful and this is one language that I’ll love to be fluent in. I try to keep up with my learning on Duolingo by using their flashcards.
07. Spanish
A pretty cool language and I understand many phrases although I may not know how to pronounce them despite having Spanish in the family (most of them are from Venezuela).
However, I have no passion to learn this language. When I was in junior secondary school, my Spanish teacher showed no interest in teaching it. She mostly skipped the class with an excuse. When I got to Secondary school, I was the one making up excuses to skip the Spanish class because I wanted to take French, but there was a mix-up and I ended up in the Spanish class with another teacher who was not on fire when it comes to teaching it. 😒
06. Romanian
I love this language! My love for this language began when I started adding diversity to my character pool. I learned some basic phrases here and there, but not enough to get me around any Romanian town! 😆
My interest in this language was renewed when I discovered the Dobre twins YouTube channel. Their mom is Romanian, they speak the language sometimes when they communicate with their non-English speaking grandma and the comment section is always lit with the language.
Dați like dacă sănteți romăni.
05. Japanese
Konichiwa!
I blame Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters for this.
I was never interested in anime before (or after) Yu-Gi so when I came across this one, it was a rather pleasant delightful way to pass time. Eventually, I watched the series in Japanese and I picked up a few things such as one should mainly use “moshi moshi” when answering the telephone. It loosely translates to “speaking, speaking” or “I say, I say”. If you can’t hear the person clearly on the other end, you can ask, moshi moshi kikoemasuka? (Hello, can you hear me?). I also learn that one must not use moshi moshi off the phone too much unless you want to get someone’s attention. You can also answer the phone by saying hai (yes).
Another thing I learned is that Japan loves their karaoke so don’t be surprised if your Japanese friend asks “Karoake ikanai?” Overall, I love this language and I hope to pick it back up soon.
04. Hindi
This language moves me!
And I’m so happy that it exists!
I learned some Hindi from watching Bollywood movies in my childhood. I can sing ‘Malhari’ in Hindi although I haven’t watched the movie (Bajirao Mastani) to date. The language still appeals to me today and I hope to get serious about it one day.
03. Greek
Ya! I am currently learning this beautiful and poetic language. I feel so calm whenever I listen to someone speaks it.
I mean, look at these beautiful words: Kalimera, Kalispera, and Kalinihta. *sighs* What’s not to love?
02. Italian
This is the world’s tastiest language! They make everything sound tasty. Even the word keyboard is tasty: tastiera. I could hug this beautiful language tight and never let it go.
Once I become fluent in it, I’ll be like…
I’m currently learning the alphabet.
01. French
I have to leave the best for last. This language is downright the most beautiful, most romantic, and sensual thing that I’ve ever heard and it pleases my ears whenever I hear it being spoken.
There’s a reason why almost all of my characters are French or why most of my stories are set in France. I won’t go into the language in detail for we’ll be here for a long time, but I’ll be starting French Fridays soon, so stay tuned.
Okay, over to you now. What’s your mother tongue and what other languages can you speak, want to speak or simply excite you?
***All GIFs and photos via Google Images
I speak English and Spanish. And I eat Chinese and Italian. As for women, I love all types.
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Lovely! I had Chinese last evening. 👍I love all types of people, too. 🙂
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hahahaha Dutch close to English but very difficult to speak 🙂 Greek is much easier to learn Diana, take it from me. When we left the states and moved backed to Greece I spoke no Greek at all. Even though my mother spoke to us in Greek all the time, we always responded in English 🙂 I attended the Greek Law Univerity and learned to speak, read and write in about 1 1/2. 🙂 Ive been taking Dutch lessons for a year now and I still get don’t understand this language. 🙂 uffff 🙂
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I have to agree with you. I’ve found it much easier learning the Greek language than Dutch. I have to work on writing my Greek so I’ve downloaded an app in the meantime to help me. Where I live, there is no such thing as a Greek class. 😦 I can only wish you all the best with your Dutch lessons. You’ll get around to being fluent in it. 🙂
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Try Babel.com this app you need to pay not much but learning French and Italian from this app and also Duolingo..this one is free Both of these apps are very good 🙂
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I remember using Babel, but I can’t remember why I stopped using it, though. I love Duolingo and I also depend Podcast. Thank you. 🙂
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I struggle learning new languages, although in high school I wanted to learn French, but they took out French 1 and only had French 2 left. So I had to study Spanish, and I struggled so bad. Not everyone has the same ability, I think schools fail to really get that across, and language is a struggle for me.
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I just can’t commit to learning them, but I’ll try my hardest this year to cover as much as I can. I agree; not everyone has the same ability. Does French still interest you?
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No, once I started taking a language class it just became overwhelming. I think learning phrases of languages are easier. I struggle with grammar in general, so to learn another language’s grammar…I’m done haha. 🙂
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I agree! I always found that learning phrases are definitely easier. Grammar is not my strong forte either, but I’m determined to get through those pesky French verbs.
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You got this! 🙂
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Thank you, T.R.! 💙
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I remember taking a lot of Spanish classes starting in junior high, more in high school, and even more in college, and yet I cannot speak the language. I think it’s one of those things where if you don’t use the knowledge, you lose it. I remember a little ASL from learning it in elementary school. I still know the alphabet and a few other words, but I’ve lost most of that as well. I know a few things in Japanese, but I wish I knew a lot more. One of my grandmothers was from Japan.
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It surely is and I think that’s how I lost interest in French. That’s so cool that you still know the ASL alphabet! I’m currently learning it through. 🙂 That’s awesome, Mandie! And then you could’ve taught me some Japanese. 🙂
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I understand and barely speak a bit of Spanish. I enjoy the beauty of ASL. But I would like to learn Hebrew.
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I hope you get to learn Hebrew, then. It’s an interesting language. 🙂
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I’m afraid if I tried to learn as many as you are familiar with I would be speaking each one in the same sentence and no one would understand me!
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Hahaha! I know what you mean, but I think you got this! Start with the one you’re most interested in which is Hebrew and get a feel for it.
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Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll let you know but don’t look for anything soon.
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You’re welcome and yes, do let me know how it goes whenever you begin it. 🙂
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Wow! You are amazing! I’m so impressed. ❤
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💙💙
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Haha! Enjoyed reading this! Well you already know I speak Spanish and a little bit in de others as French, Italian, German, African, Swedish, Chinese, Hindi and some others lol! I really hope you pick back up on them all! Learning languages is so much fun! I love it! 😊💕
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Of course! 🙂 I agree. Learning languages is fun. It’s becoming a favorite past time of mine again. 💙
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Yup✨ good!
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I find the grammar-part of a new language most interesting; vocab memorization gets boring after a while 😉
My current favorite is the
Spanish Language!
And ‘Malhari’ is a cool pumped-up song ❤
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I agree! It does get boring after some time. Nice. I hope Spanish is going well for you and yes, ‘Malhari’ is too cool!
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Alors, ma belle! Je voudrais te parler en français, si tu veux! L’anglais est ma langue maternelle, mais j’ai entendue parler le français de temps en temp comme enfant, parce que mon père était élévé en france, et nous visitions de la famille francophone de temps à l’autre. C’est pour cela que j’ai décidé d’étudier le français au lycée pendant quatre ans. Comme adult, j’ai vecu en france pendant deux ans et demi.
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I understand everything that you just said in French, but my French is rusty and I am relearning many words and phrases so
je parle un peu français. I’m not even sure if that is right, but yes, I’ll love to speak in French with you one day (hopefully soon enough). That’s so awesome that you lived in France! How was that experience like?
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It took me about 6 months to get acclimated to the culture, things like shops closing up for lunch, everything closing up early in the evening, the streets being empty at night, the shutters closed tight. But there are so many things about the culture that I learned to love! I especially fell in love with the people and the language, which are inextricably joined together.
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What a lovely experience! I hope to experience this one day. Thanks for sharing.
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Nice! 😀 It’s great that you enjoy so many languages!
Hablo Ingles. 🙂 (I speak English.) But I’m learning Spanish. I’m using Duolingo and Memrise for that. It has been a lot of fun! I’ve always wanted to learn it, but I didn’t have the patience for it. I really want to write a children’s novel in which one or two of the characters are native Spanish speakers, therefore, I stopped putting it off so that I could hopefully start working on the novel again soon.
I’ve always loved ASL, so I’m learning that too. 🙂 I finished the alphabet on Duolingo’s tiny-cards, so I’m mostly using the Memrise ASL 1 course now – and it’s free as well. (I believe you can go up to ASL 4.) Here’s a link to the one I’m using if you’d like to check it out: https://www.memrise.com/course/302204/american-sign-language-1/ I really like it so far! One thing that confuses me is the way that you sign “name.” In Memrise, she uses two hands, while the guy in your post uses one. I’ve never seen it signed with one hand. That was very interesting!
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Thank you, Grace! I wish I could speak every single language in the world!
I’m happy that you’re having so much fun! I know some Spanish (enough to get me by), but I can’t get into it. That’s one of the reasons I stopped putting French off as well: most of my characters are French. I hope you can work on that novel one day. 🙂
I’m using Duolingo’s tiny cards, too! I have a Memrise account, but I haven’t used it in a while given that I prefer Duolingo, but I’ll check out the link. Gracias. 💙
I’m not too sure about that, but I’ve been learning a bit with Nyle and he’s so enthusiastic! I guess both ways are right then.
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Me too! 🙂
How fun! 😀 I’m sure that your book will be amazing. 🙂 I hope that you get to work on your novel soon too. 😀
Thank you, I hope so too! I’m writing down ideas. Mostly my mistakes and confusions so that my non-Spanish speakers in my novel can have some comedic moments. 😂
Cool! 😀
I hope you enjoy the Memrise link! 🙂 I like using both Duolingo and Memrise at the same time.
Yeah! It’s neat to learn more than one way to say something in another language. 🙂
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Thanks for saying so, Grace,. I surely hope it’ll be good enough when I’m through with it. Thanks! I am working on 4 different stories at the same time, so I’m having fun! 😃
How is your story coming along? Those are going to be gold moments, Grace! I can just picture it already! I did the same in one of my stories with a characters who learned French to impress her friends.
Yes, I enjoyed it. Thanks again. I hope to log in every day at least for 30 minutes to learn some words. 😆
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Oh wow! 😀 I’m glad you’re having a lot of fun! I’m also working on several off and on. (I can’t wait for Camp NaNo – I’m already planning for it. 🙂 )
It’s going well, I think! I need to edit my November NaNo novel and start the sequel soon; I took a break from it so I could return to it with a fresh mind.
Thanks! 😀 I’m very excited for it! I’m planning to write the Spanish one this April for Camp, actually. We’ll see how it goes!
Oh, that’s neat! 😀 I’m sure that was a funny scene. 🙂
Great! 😀 I’ve been doing the same thing. 🙂 For both languages. 😄
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Ooh, all the best for Camp NaNo. Every year I say that I’m going to participate, but I don’t get around to it.
Same. I took a long break from my NaNo novel, but I’m not too sure when I’ll return to it. I hope yours goes according to plan. 👍
You’re most welcome. I hope it goes well.
Awesome! I have to admit though, I’ve been lagging. I hope to get serious in weeks to come. 😆
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Thank you! 🙂 Aww, haha. Maybe you can this year? 🙂
I hope that you are able to return to it soon! 🙂
😀 ❤
Me too. 😆 This week, I'm getting more serious.
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You’re welcome. No, I don’t think so. I have so much writing going on that I want to focus on that for the moment.
Thank you, Grace. 🙂
Same! How is the writing coming along?
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🙂
Ah, I understand. Have fun with the writing! 🙂
❤
It's coming slowly; I'm mostly planning and cramming more Spanish words in my brain for my project. 🙂 Though I'm also writing some poetry which will show up on my blog soon; maybe even next week. 😉
How is your writing coming along? 🙂
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Thanks Grace! I am having fun with the writing, yes! 👍
Yikes! I just asked you how your writing was coming in another post and here you tell me. I apologize. 😆 YASSS!! Poetry! I look forward to those future posts. By the end of your project, you’ll be speaking Spanish! Which reminds me that I have to log onto Duolingo sometime today to learn some French words. Hmmm…
I am having fun with my writing! I may not want to be a full time writer, but at the moment, I can write for the rest of my life. 😄
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🙂
LOL, it’s okay! 😂
It makes me happy that you are so excited! 😀
Haha, yeah! And that would make me happy. 🙂
Enjoy learning French words! 🙂
That’s great! 😀 Haha, keep writing while you’re on a roll! 😀
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Grace! It’s always so nice to talk with you.
Ah, thank you. I’ve been learning a lot. Tomorrow God’s willing I may feature a post of what I’ve been learning.
Anyway, how are you? Everything good? I just caught up with Criminal Minds and I’m glad that everything is well with the BAU family. 🙂
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😀 It’s always so nice to talk to you too. 🙂
Oh! I look forward to that! **realizes this comment was posted 3 days ago** I am so behind! I can’t wait until I get to it! 🙂
I’m okay! 🙂 Spring is in the air! I know because my allergies tell me so. 😂 And everything is blooming and it’s so pretty! Which means that it’s very likely that next week I will have a post dedicated to flowers. 😄
Yay! I can’t wait to catch up on Criminal Minds – I’m still behind. I’m glad that things are well with the BAU. 🙂
How are you? Are you getting to relax much? 🙂
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Hi Grace! I trust that you had a blessed weekend.
Ah yes, beautiful Spring! I’m sorry about your allergies, but I am so looking forward to that post on flowers. 🌺
Okay, then I wouldn’t spoil Criminal Minds for you. 😄
I’m doing well, thank you. I did relax a little over the weekend, but I found myself cleaning out. 😆
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Hi! Thank you, I did! 🙂
I’m doing okay; I have allergy medicine if I need it. I’m trying not to use a lot of it.
The flowers post went up this afternoon! I may have gone slightly overboard…
I’m caught up now, so no worries of spoiling it for me! That was a wild ride with Barnes. I was glad that JJ told her off. And even more glad that she can no longer go near the BAU! But if in the last case the victim had turned out to be an ordinary girl and not the daughter of a Senator, they would have probably all gotten fired…
I’m glad you are doing well! Oh, haha. I need to do some Spring cleaning too. 😆
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Yay! I’m happy to hear that you did! 😄
No, you did not go overboard at all. I enjoyed every single one of those photos and I wish there were more! 🌺
Yes! I laughed like a mad woman when JJ told her off. Professor Reid, though, poor thing. The girls only joined his class because they thought he was cute. 🤣True. They were lucky that the case did not involve an ordinary girl.
Take care, Grace. It’s always such a pleasure to chat with you. 💙
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😀
Oh, I’m so glad to hear that! 🙂 (I may have more pictures later as the flowers bloom. :D)
Me too! XD I’m glad that all is well again. Haha, I probably would have joined his class for the same reasoning, so… 😂 😂 😂 Though I like the facts and learning stuff, so I would have joined for that reason too.
🙂
Thank you; you take care too. 🙂 It’s a pleasure to chat with you as well! 🙂
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Nice! I look forward to those future photos! You’re one of my favorite photography blogger.
Hahaha! I would take that class to learn everything I can from an expert. The Professor being cute is just a plus! 👍
Have a blessed week, Grace. 💙
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😀
Aww, that is such an honor! ❤
Haha, agreed! 🙂
Thank you, you too! ❤
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Namaste Diana . I am a Hindi teacher . i can help you to learn Hindi . I am a Hindi writer .
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Thank you for the kind gesture. 💙
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My mother tongue is portuguese! My family is from brasil but I can speak fluent English and Spanish, as well write and read as well. So I have three languages. But I’m learning Korean, and Russian.
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Lovely! Thank you for sharing. Brazil is a beautiful country!
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I love your take on the “tastiness” of languages. Isn’t it incredible how they impact us (sometimes in ways we don’t expect or even recognise)? I am a big proponent of learning other languages, even just a few words! It changes your entire world! Like you mentioned with Hindi, they open up entire different forms and areas for emotion. It’s a bit like constant enlightenment 🙂 Thanks again for your post!
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Thank you, and I agree with what you said about the impact they have on us. I love learning new words every week. Learning different languages – even in just a few words as you say – is a beautiful thing. Thank you for your kind comment. 😄
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Learning a new language is really hard than you think. I know how it feels like. My mother tongue is Malayalam (a indian language). I came to the US when I was only 7 without knowing any english. I might have learned some few words and phrases from school back over there. But when I started school here, it was so hard. I befriended another guy who spoke my same language. For almost a year, he translated what I had to say and what the teachers said to me. I really had to depend on him. After a year, we were both in different and I had to eventually speak for myself. The teacher were very supportive. ESL give me extra time outside of class to work on my english. Even though I still have that accent, I am glad I was able to learn english. It taught me to interact with different kinds of people, allowed me to go to college and changed my perspective.
I recently started watching turkish movie and french movies. Even though I have no idea what they are saying, I catch on some phrases.
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I read about Malayalam! I think it’s a pretty cool language. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m currently listening to French music & watching Greek pronunciation videos.
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I just started listening to French music. It is so cool. Some songs make me feel like listening to Latin songs. It’s crazy there so many different languages and even different dialect of one in this small world. 🙂
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Same! I am listening to an artist who was born in France to Spanish parents so it’s a win-win because he sings Spanish as well. It surely is. 😃
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