I am a native English speaker and recently started learning Esperanto a few weeks ago. I was inspired by a TED Talk that explained how Esperanto is an excellent first choice for those interested in acquiring multiple languages.
Due to its relative simplicity, learning Esperanto effectively prepares your brain for learning additional languages, making the process quicker and smoother.
So how many here speak different languages and what are they?
My native language is romanian, but I also know english
I technically know moldovan too, but i dont think it counts
English natively and Spanish as a second language. Those I use every day. I can read and write Latin which I use a few times a week, and know a few words and phrases in Japanese, Lakota, French, German, and Italian.
If I were to learn a fourth language I’d prefer Lakota or Gaelic, but French would be the most useful to me and Italian or Romanian the best combination of use and ease.
Arabic and English. I’m learning esperanto, Ukrainian and Latin all at the same time (Latin is most important and Esperanto is least)
I’m also learning a very little amount of Hebrew since it’s similar to Arabic in a lot of ways. Like Scottish and English.
Dankon, amiko!
English, Spanish, Basque, French, some Russian, currently learning German.
日文，Chinese，英語 この三個言語を話すのは有用，but 有時我的brainがバラバラに使いがち。
Native German, fluent English. I struggled, however, with French, Italian, Spanish, as I just can’t wrap my head around it. Languages are super hard for me.
Programming languages, though? I can write about 20 of those. Easy… 🙄
I am jealous fo your programming knowledge. I’d have a lot more money today if I had that skillset!
Yes, that wasn’t the worst decision for my career. My family wanted me to concentrate on languages because they are easy for them, but I always struggled, and struggled hard. It took me a long time to realize I was more of a logical thinker than one of the emotional communicators like the rest of them.
Arabic, English, some German, and can read / write Syriac Aramaic (Mostly use it to write Garshuni).
I can very vaguely understand the Syriac script. How similar is it to Arabic? I assume Aramaic and Hebrew are pairs and so are Arabic and Syriac.
You can read some words or full sentences sometimes, but some letters like taw (taa’) ت ܬ, ‘ayn ع ܥ, het (haa’) ح ܚ, and shin (sheen) ش ܫ are impossible to guess without checking out the alphabet first. The madnhaya script is closer to Arabic than the Estrangela script (which you’re probably seeing on your device).
Instead of the Arabic way of distinguishing similar letters by using dots, Syriac adds fangs or lines to change the “rasm” of the letter except for dal and raa’ which use a dot below and one above, respectively. I used to confuse waw ܘ, qaf ܩ, and mim ܡ a lot at first.
It’s a very interesting script, i’ve always wanted to learn it. thanks for the info :D
Especially since i recognize a lot (maybe not always exactly tho) of the characters, like how Tau looks like ط or how waw vaguely looks like و
Man, TED talks suck.
That guy scammed you into learning a conlang with the excuse that it does something that all languages do and nobody is even telling you.
Just learn a romance language if you want access to a family of concepts that will carry over easily, friend. It comes with the bonus of being able to talk to people.
Anyway, I’m often light on personal info here, but I’m in a bilingual territory, learned English as a kid, the basics of a couple others through life stuff and I get a few more through osmosis because all languages do that Esperanto trick.
Well here in the US, and in the state I’m in, not a lot of bilingual needs. I know Spanish is pretty popular in a lot of places, and I’ll eventually learn it. But since I’m 55 years old, esperanto seemed more fun. And it’s got an interesting history. Thanks!
All languages do that, yes, but as Esperanto is easier than the others, it makes it a very good first language.
I learnt English at school for almost 10 years without being able to have a discussion. I learnt Esperanto in a few months, actually used it to communicate with foreigners, and a few months after I was able to communicate in English. My English is still far from perfect, but without Esperanto I wouldn’t even be here.
That seems more like a teaching methodology problem than a target language problem. Honestly, I don’t know where you are, but the way English is taught in schools in many regions is terrible, so that doesn’t tell you too much about the relative merits of learning Esperanto.
But hey, if you got it out of your system that’s good for you. I don’t begrudge anybody learning a language, even if it’s a made up one. I just wouldn’t want to support the idea that monolinguals should go out of their way to tackle conlangs, or Esperanto specifically. Go learn something you’re curious and motivated about.
Yes, you’re right that it’s a methodology problem (I’m in France), and even more right when you say that motivation is the key. It’s easier to learn a harder language if you’re motivated than an easier one but without motivation.
However, because of its regularity, Esperanto is objectively easier than all natural languages. And it’s a thing to take into account.
French is my native tongue, I can converse in Creole and have a convincing accent because of my family;
I learned English, Spanish, Italian at school (in that order), few words of German later on my own, learned some Swedish vocabulary on Duolingo, Icelandic basics for when I visited, I can only read and pronounce Cyrillic without understanding it.
I’m interested in Korean lately, but haven’t even started
French native, Esperanto and English conversational. Good notions of Italian. Notions of German (the language I’m trying to learn), Luxembourgish and Norwegian. I learnt but forgot Latin, Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew (I still can read them if I have a lot of time and a good dictionary).
Dankon, amiko!
Nedankinde :-)
French and English natively. I did learn Russian at school for 7 years (but I forgot most of it now), and I am currently learning Japanese.
May i ask how you are learning japanese? School, self-taught or online videos?
I use Comprehensible Japanese which uses the concept of Comprehensible Input to teach the language. The website has a nice guide on the concept: https://cijapanese.com/guide/intro
Russian at a Native level, because my parents speak it (so I can barely read)
German at a Native level, because I’ve been living in Germany the past 20 years.
English at a C2 level, just from school and because all my online activity and all my entertainment is in english.
And some French and Latin back from school, but learning those was horrible and I’d like to forget as much as I can.
I absolutely hate learning languages and hope that I will never have to do it again. But the reality of living in Europe is just that you never know whether you’ll wake up one day and decide to move to the Netherlands or Denmark because there are great jobs there 🤷
I’m English (distinction from British as there isnt any programme for or impetus to learn celtic languages like the other countries) and for a long time the only other language I spoke was French to a very, very poor and sub-conversational level (from school).
Since 2016 or so (on and off) I’ve been learning Dutch. When you tell people that, the first question you get (from both english native speakers and the Dutch) is ‘why’?
So whilst I work and live in the UK, my company has a bunch of EU offices and I have worked closely with our large Belgian office for almost 10 years now and as of last year I now work for that EU branch of the company and my current project is with a Dutch client which has spurred me on a lot recently to learn again.
I also have two Dutch friends (from other ends of the country) who help and encourage me.
So I’m currently at a basic/low conversational level, I can deal with every day basic interactions.
Sure, Spanish, French or even German makes a lot more sense to most people but I have so many strong links with the Netherlands that Dutch is the only one that makes sense to learn for me and is the one I use the most by miles.
Native Arabic, fluent English, less fluent Japanese, bad Chinese.
Native German, fluent English, conversational Norwegian (and by extension passable Swedish; and I read 100% Danish but suck at speaking/listening comprehension), passable Dutch, Luxembourgish and French, and basic Chinese (mandarin).
Edit: And I passed Latin in high school (grades 5 through 10), so I do manage to read inscriptions in old buildings and churches, and pick up written Italian and Spanish because of it.
Whoa! I’m having a tough enough time just learning Esperanto, which is supposed to be easy. But bruh, you are a whole other level. Awesome!
Vi devus rigardi Incubus, kun William Shatner! Gxi estas tre stranga.
Dankon, amiko!
Ha, I was going to ask if OP had seen Incubus, but I guess you beat me to it.
