foreign language meme
From annaserene...
1st foreign language learned
German.
1st language you self studied
Arabic.
Language you wished was your native language
I think English is by far the most useful native language and i'm privileged to have it.
Language you wish you studied more
French or Arabic, they would both be useful when traveling in certain parts of the world.
Language you wish wasn't so hard
I find lots of languages hard for lots of reasons. Chinese is hard because there is so much rote memorization involved. I found French daunting when i got into the long list of complicated verb conjugations and tenses, but Spanish has them too. German gender rules are complicated.
Language you have officially quit
French. Did it for a couple of years in high school, then just gave up. Arabic, too. Learned a bit during the Iraq War, then lost interest as it dragged on.
Language you wish you could speak everyday
I feel like it'd be nice to speak Dutch all the time because it has lots of fun pronunciations and i have a cozy association with it. It's the language of my teens.
Language that everyone speaks but you never want to try
I suppose Korean is kinda popular amongst people interested in their entertainment scene. But i am not interested in their entertainment scene and hence have no interest in learning it.
Language everyone speaks and you want to try
Japanese would be useful. I don't think i have the mental capacity to invest a lot of time in it unless i move there, but it would be cool to understand more of the Japanese entertainment scene, which i have slightly a closer connection to than Korean entertainment scene due to computer games and wrestling.
Language that makes you nervous
I'm always worried i'll get the grammar wrong in German, French and now Spanish too.
Language that feels soothing
I kinda like Cantonese because i don't understand 99% of it, but it also sounds sort of familiar due to kung-fu movies, Chinese restaurants and so on.
Language that feels like a businessman in a suit
Beijing-accented Mandarin Chinese.
Language that feels like grandma's home cooking
One of my grandmas was Dutch, so i suppose i should say Dutch. It does sound a bit cooking-y because of funny words like aardappel and andijvie and kaas.
Language that feels like a mad scientist’s experiment
German. Hands down. What other language you can stick 3 different words together to make a new word, and still have it sound so intellectual?
Language you think is overrated
French. It's not as romantic in reality as people who don't speak it think it is.
Language you think is underrated
Of the languages i know? Dutch. Of the languages i don't know, probably a pidgin or creole. I really like the idea of languages that simplify the best parts of other languages. Singlish? Manglish? Something like that.
Language with the hardest pronunciation
Mandarin Chinese is hard at first, but once you figure it out it's not so bad. It's gotta be one of the tonal languages, though. Or maybe one of those African languages with clicks and stops.
Language with the easiest pronunciation
Spanish.
Language with the easiest grammar
Chinese. There are some grammatical rules in it, like putting time before location, but they're not very complex. No plurals, no genders, no tenses, no verb conjugations, no nothing.
Language with the hardest grammar
Of the ones i have learned so far, both Spanish and French. I hate these weird tenses of like "if something maybe might have happened, but then it didn't, there's a whole nother fucking set of conjugations".
Language with the best writing system
I am tempted to say phonetic writing systems like Zhuyin (Chinese) and Katakana (Japanese), but because i don't know those systems it's just a guess. Spanish is mostly phonetic, and Dutch too. That makes life much easier.
Language with the worst writing system
Chinese. It's fucking useless. You can't deduce either the meaning or the pronunciation from the character, you just need to learn it by rote. Also it's unnecessarily hard to type on a computer and it's extremely difficult to write by hand. The absolute worst of the worst. You couldn't invent a worse writing system if you tried. That said, Chinese characters are quite pretty to look at.
Your language learning guilty pleasure
I don't really have one. I only learn languages that are useful to me.
Edited to add...
I think this meme is missing a question, so i will add it myself...
Language you would like to learn, but haven't
Swahili!
1st foreign language learned
German.
1st language you self studied
Arabic.
Language you wished was your native language
I think English is by far the most useful native language and i'm privileged to have it.
Language you wish you studied more
French or Arabic, they would both be useful when traveling in certain parts of the world.
Language you wish wasn't so hard
I find lots of languages hard for lots of reasons. Chinese is hard because there is so much rote memorization involved. I found French daunting when i got into the long list of complicated verb conjugations and tenses, but Spanish has them too. German gender rules are complicated.
Language you have officially quit
French. Did it for a couple of years in high school, then just gave up. Arabic, too. Learned a bit during the Iraq War, then lost interest as it dragged on.
Language you wish you could speak everyday
I feel like it'd be nice to speak Dutch all the time because it has lots of fun pronunciations and i have a cozy association with it. It's the language of my teens.
Language that everyone speaks but you never want to try
I suppose Korean is kinda popular amongst people interested in their entertainment scene. But i am not interested in their entertainment scene and hence have no interest in learning it.
Language everyone speaks and you want to try
Japanese would be useful. I don't think i have the mental capacity to invest a lot of time in it unless i move there, but it would be cool to understand more of the Japanese entertainment scene, which i have slightly a closer connection to than Korean entertainment scene due to computer games and wrestling.
Language that makes you nervous
I'm always worried i'll get the grammar wrong in German, French and now Spanish too.
Language that feels soothing
I kinda like Cantonese because i don't understand 99% of it, but it also sounds sort of familiar due to kung-fu movies, Chinese restaurants and so on.
Language that feels like a businessman in a suit
Beijing-accented Mandarin Chinese.
Language that feels like grandma's home cooking
One of my grandmas was Dutch, so i suppose i should say Dutch. It does sound a bit cooking-y because of funny words like aardappel and andijvie and kaas.
Language that feels like a mad scientist’s experiment
German. Hands down. What other language you can stick 3 different words together to make a new word, and still have it sound so intellectual?
Language you think is overrated
French. It's not as romantic in reality as people who don't speak it think it is.
Language you think is underrated
Of the languages i know? Dutch. Of the languages i don't know, probably a pidgin or creole. I really like the idea of languages that simplify the best parts of other languages. Singlish? Manglish? Something like that.
Language with the hardest pronunciation
Mandarin Chinese is hard at first, but once you figure it out it's not so bad. It's gotta be one of the tonal languages, though. Or maybe one of those African languages with clicks and stops.
Language with the easiest pronunciation
Spanish.
Language with the easiest grammar
Chinese. There are some grammatical rules in it, like putting time before location, but they're not very complex. No plurals, no genders, no tenses, no verb conjugations, no nothing.
Language with the hardest grammar
Of the ones i have learned so far, both Spanish and French. I hate these weird tenses of like "if something maybe might have happened, but then it didn't, there's a whole nother fucking set of conjugations".
Language with the best writing system
I am tempted to say phonetic writing systems like Zhuyin (Chinese) and Katakana (Japanese), but because i don't know those systems it's just a guess. Spanish is mostly phonetic, and Dutch too. That makes life much easier.
Language with the worst writing system
Chinese. It's fucking useless. You can't deduce either the meaning or the pronunciation from the character, you just need to learn it by rote. Also it's unnecessarily hard to type on a computer and it's extremely difficult to write by hand. The absolute worst of the worst. You couldn't invent a worse writing system if you tried. That said, Chinese characters are quite pretty to look at.
Your language learning guilty pleasure
I don't really have one. I only learn languages that are useful to me.
Edited to add...
I think this meme is missing a question, so i will add it myself...
Language you would like to learn, but haven't
Swahili!