Second language?

Or Arabic....

 

I took 3 years of French and 1 year of Latin in high school to meet requirements. French was a waste, but I was against taking Spanish at the time for personal reasons. I can say "yes", "I dont know" and a few other words in French. Latin was (or at least in my mind seems to have been) an even bigger waste.

I should have taken Spanish, if nothing more than so I could understand what a lot of the seasonal, and not so seasonal, folks around here are saying (when they don't think you know what they're saying....).

 

Whatever you learn, use it at every opportunity. I lived in a French speaking country for the better part of 20 years, and spoke and read French all day long, and I am starting to find myself rusty after only 10 years away.

I am borderline wierd when I hear French being spoken, because I will find some way of inserting myself into the conversation.

 

I am also learn Spanish with Duolingo. As for me, it is the best app for learning languagesю This is useful for replenishing vocabulary
As for grammar and correct pronunciation, I learn Spanish via Skype (3802 Spanish Tutors and Teachers Online • Online Spanish Lessons). Of course, live communication with a native speaker will not replace anything

 

I tried high school French a long time ago, no go. Lately the Book of Instruction in Canada, to be read if all else fails, is often trilingual with Spanish included. The French version always has been longer than the English version. Now it seems that the Spanish version is intermediate in length.

 

Bump. I'm on an almost 5 month daily Duolingo streak learning an east Slavic language now. I've decided (for me) that Duolingo with the incessant harassing bird is good to get you going, but it's even better to supplement that with immersion through YouTube videos and especially podcasts. If pattern recognition isn't your thing, then having someone explain the reasoning behind the grammatical patterns is super helpful. Oh yeah, the case system in Slavic languages is brutal! We take for granted that in English words don't change their endings much (I love, you love, we love, they love, etc.) That's not the case in many other languages. The plus side to the Slavic language family is that there are a lot of similarities between them (just like the Romance languages) Case in point, I was at the beach last month and overheard a Polish family speaking. I couldn't follow the conversation, but certain words were easily recognizable. Progress...

 

I was learning Spanish enough Duolingo a couple years ago. I was progressing really well, then the tablet died and I want able to pick it back up.

I should do this again. It was really good to know Sunday and have a third language

 

Living in a mono language culture was not helpful when traveling. Canada has become much more diversified over the last few years. If I was thinking ahead more, I would have attempted a French immersion program. Thankfully, the people we interacted with were far more bilingual than us and were willing to find someone who was if they were having difficulties.

 

I grew up in a small country.
I learned English, German, French, ancient Greek, and Latin.
The first three were necessities given that travel meant going out of the country, and that those there did not speak my language.

The latter were interesting.

Yet, not having used them much for the last 25 years, all has been forgotten except for English...

I do note that attempting to speak a local language when traveling there gets the locals in a much better mood and willingness to help than starting off with English. Nowadays they often switch to English, seeing how I struggle in their language. But they appreciate i tried and are more helpful after that.