Languages you speak/are learning?

submitted by Vernalmuffins from self.Lesbians

I'm curious what you guys' answers will be :) I speak Spanish and I'm working on learning mandarin Chinese. What do you like about your languages? Have you traveled to where they are spoken?

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[–]VioletRemi 8 insightful - 4 fun8 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 4 fun -  (4 children)

I know Ukrainian, Russian and somewhat English. Can understand Belarussian and Polish, but can't speak on it. I know Korean alphabet, so can read freely on it, but I don't know words, so I can't understand what I've read, lol. Maybe one day I will have free time to laern it normally. In the beginners school we were learning German, but I don't remember anything at all.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]VioletRemi 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    No, they are very different, and it is hard to understand Russian for ukrainians and Ukrainian for russians. It is much easier to understand Belarussian or Polish to ukrainians. And russian is pretty far from any other slavic languages, as they mixed language with French (around 1800th) and Turkish (around Mongol invasion, when they united with them against other slavic countries). Ukrainians often know Russian only because of the USSR, but younger ukrainians do not know Russian in most cases. Plus in Ukrainian everything is read same as written, there no extra rules or exceptions at all. So it is possible to add any new word, and every ukrainian will know how to pronounce it, and how it will be used everywhere - unlike Russian (or English), where a lot of exceptions (especially in English, where there more exceptions to the rules than rules themselves).

    Here about differences, not all are named, there a lot of smaller ones, but biggest ones are named: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQLM62r5nLI

    sounds so beautiful

    Ukrainian in general sounds more "softly" and Russian sounds more "ringing". Video is from first ukrainian movie that showed relationship between two women, by the way. And in general it made lesbian life easier, as before that it was very hard for young lesbians to even know that such thing is possible at all (I struggled with that a lot, for example, and was trying to "fix" myself to become straight). Movie was made by men, and it is mix of one of Sappho verses and Hemingway story. It is about bisexual woman and lesbian woman. Lesbian woman had a crush into bisexual one and was flirting with her, but first move was made by bisexual woman. In the end bisexual woman just used lesbian for short "fun" romance and then returned back to a man she was before this romance happened, while lesbian had her heart broken and she ended her life after that happened. Pretty tragic movie (at least speaks true about most relationships with bisexual women, tho). It is not very good movie in general, but at least something, and on big screens, about any kind of women love that we had.

    Lyrics in song there are "Do you even know how it hurts? And it never goes away. And while whole World asleep - please kiss me" (or more like "be kissing me", meaning not one kiss, but kissing, until world gets awake).

    My favourite ukrainian songs (including one I linked above) are those, tho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0DGNu6L0-8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTWgw86CLI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NZSW4xTE0 (interesting, that most ukrainian artists are soft-rock, reminded me about Finnish artists, who are mostly making metal bands, for some reason). There some nice new ones too, tho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivroIGMAVig

    I've heard they're pretty mutually intelligible

    That is what some developers, especially ones from USA are thinking about all post-USSR countries, so companies like EA or Ubisoft are making games with "only Russian" option for post-USSR, even to countries, where less than 10% of people knows Russian. It is very annoying and serves Putin propaganda on building new USSR under Russian control. So the less people think like that - the better.

    Sorry for huge post!

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]VioletRemi 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

      the hardest aspect of learning it as a second language?

      Well, it was tough to learn for me, as a ukrainian, so it will be even harder for non-slavic native speaker, as slavic languages have different set of rules to other languages. Especially suffixes and case forms.

      you're too hard on yourself, you write excellently!

      Nah, I know the words, but not the rules. I never actually studied English, so I am just trying to emulate what I saw or heard.

      [–]coldbrew 8 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

      Hebrew! My family is from Israel but I grew up in the states, so I speak it pretty well but I recently learned how to read and write it and I want to keep improving.

      [–]Vernalmuffins[S] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

      There seems to be a lot of Hebrew speakers here; it's awesome! I love the look of written Hebrew, it's a pretty language :)

      [–]coldbrew 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Are there?! That's awesome! I've been looking for more Hebrew speakers. Yes! Written it looks lovely. Is it cliche to get a tattoo in Hebrew now? Haha.

      [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      Oh I'd like to learn Hebrew too. It's used a lot in occult stuff.

      [–]coldbrew 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Is it? I had no idea. Good to know though.

      [–]yousaythosethings 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (13 children)

      I speak English, Spanish, French, and I am currently learning a more obscure language from an entirely different language family. Spanish seems like the most logical language I know and is the most practical. It is a simple language for mastering the basics, but there is a lot more to the grammar at the very advanced level, although I think a lot of it is only stuff you have to learn if you're an academic. French is the most romantic language I know. Women seem to love to hear me say words in French lol, although I am not very great at French. It is the opposite of Spanish in that its basics are harder to master but there are some parts of it that much simpler, especially when it comes to speaking rather than writing. But I feel like my mind is at odds with underlying "logic" framework of French. Don't get me started on counting in French. What a clusterfuck. I love French cinema, and honestly need to be watching more French movies while in quarantine.

      I have traveled to and lived in countries where these languages are spoken and with the obscure language, I have traveled there and have a lot of connections to there. By the way, I'm pretty sure that my language teacher/partner is a lesbian and I think she's trying to figure out if I am too, so that's interesting. . . . But she's in a homophobic country so I'm not going to bring up the topic myself.

      Let me know if any of you have recommendations for movies in Spanish and French.

      [–][deleted]  (7 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]reluctant_commenter 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

        (except for counting, I think the french were high when they made the words for numbers wtf)

        Agreed. 90 = four eighties plus ten??

        [–]Destresse 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

        Four twenties ten :))

        Lol. I never questioned it until I saw foreigners try to learn French and be stumped by our numbers.

        [–]reluctant_commenter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Ah shit, I wrote that wrong haha. I'll leave it there for others to be amused. My thinking does not work in French OR in English, apparently!

        [–]yousaythosethings 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Lol yea the numbers are math problems. Like Abe Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago. . . ." for 87.

        99 is even worse than 90: quatre-vingt-dix-neuf. Four twenties ten nine. And when it's just 80 it's quatre-vingts, but if it's 81 then it's quatre-vingt-un (without the s). Lord have mercy. When I was in my earliest French class and I was learning how you say phone numbers in France, I had the absolute worst string of numbers to be repeating.

        At least the Swiss and Belgian francophones say septante, huitante, and nonante for 70, 80, and 90 instead of soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, and quatre-vingt-dix.

        [–]reluctant_commenter 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Yeah, but "score" is an old word that functions like "dozen", at least it's not how the number 87 works lol.

        Ah, interesting, I didn't know that about Swiss/Belgian French! I might just adopt that, lol. Yep, I remember phone numbers being tough to learn..

        [–]Jaded 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

        The only french movies I've seen are "Farewell My Queen" and "Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fey." I should probably expand my horizons haha

        [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Well I haven't seen either of those so I'll take a look at them. Thanks!

        Just saw that Farewell My Queen stars Lea Seydoux and Diane Kruger. I love both, so will def check that out. And the second one, ha I'll have to check it out when I'm in an odd mood.

        [–]al-Amira 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

        La belle saison, not the best movie ever made, but I enjoyed watching it, probably because I stumbled upon it. Haute tension is pretty good if you're into that kind of movies. Raw (don't remember the French title) was pretty good, if you're into those movies. Personally I enjoy most of Audrey Tautou's french movies. Les rivières pourpres is also a decent movie, not the best - not bad either.

        In Spanish I'd recommend [Rec], Amores Perros was good too if I recall correctly. Sin Nombre not a Spanish movie but Spanish speaking. I found El Infierno incredibly funny (dark humour and a lot of satire), not Spanish but Spanish speaking (Mexican movie). Then there's El Orfanato which was good as well.

        [–]yousaythosethings 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Thanks! Great recommendations. Of those, I've only seen [Rec], and for anyone who's interested it's a low-budget found-footage style zombie movie that takes place in Spain. I recommend it for anyone who that genre appeals to.

        [–]al-Amira 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Oh and one often overlooked method of learning or maintaining a language is reading at least one news article in said language per day. Granted, that was a lot easier to do before 90% of the news articles ended up behind payment walls. It might not be as fun as watching a movie, but it generally takes very little time and effort to read a shorter article.

        [–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        I'm sure you know this but portrait de la jeune fille en feu :) Non-lesbienne ones: deux jours une nuit, la cage aux folles (the bird cage in Enlgish— the american version had Robin Williams in it and both are hilarious), intouchables (hilarious), jeune et jolie is a crap movie imo but marine vacth does fuck her pillow in the first half hour. Also au service de la france is on netflix and a hilarious goofy spy movie.

        [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Thanks for the recs! And yes I've seen Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire). That movie will stay with me for a while.

        [–]plotbunny 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        I know French but haven't used it for a while so it's slowly slipping away. Also did a few years of Latin which is useful approximately never, and I took a year of Italian so have some basics but it's very shaky.

        Currently working on Hebrew since I've been to Israel and have plans to go back hopefully soon. It's going ok, but definitely the hardest language to pick up so far.

        [–]lmaonope333 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        aside from English, I'm decent at Hebrew, but not fluent.

        [–]Jaded 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

        I can read Spanish fluently and understand it spoken depending on the accent, but I feel uncomfortable speaking or writing it myself since I was never made to use it growing up. I used to speak a little French when I was very young, but I don't remember any of it. I can read Portuguese and German on a conversational level. I'm currently dabbling in learning Mandarin and Vietnamese. I know the Korean alphabet as well as Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, but I don't understand any of it. I just use it for translating ingredients on my beauty products haha

        [–]Innisfree 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

        Russian, French and another obscure language I occasionally have to use to stand up to anti-feminists and homophobes. Absolutely love the musicality of Swedish. After I watched Kiss Me and a TV Show called The Bridge I got myself straight to Rosetta Stone (yeah, it was a while ago) and got as far as the Beginner level :) Time to revisit that.

        [–][deleted]  (3 children)

        [deleted]

          [–]Innisfree 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

          Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint, but it's mainly translation of human rights terminology into my native language - that's the obscure one. But we we do have some curse words and expressions that are deliciously medieval, think Ottoman times and carnage. Expressions I mutter to myself when utterly exasperated.

          [–][deleted]  (1 child)

          [deleted]

            [–]Innisfree 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            Outlet indeed, more for them though than for me. My language is part of the slavic family, even its phonetics are like a medieval soundtrack. :)

            [–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

            I started learning French in high school because I was a film snob and was particularly into the french new wave, and started up again after high school in hopes of moving to Montreal, which didn't pan out. Now I'm continuing to pursue because I feel breakthrough is imminent, I guess. I can more or less read french, though I still have to look up a lot of words and translate more grammatically tricky stuff, but listening / writing / speaking still elude me.

            I occasionally fuck around with Spanish, but not often, even though I live in a Hispanic neighborhood and it would actually be useful. I should focus more on it.

            And I've glanced at Japanese and German and would like to pursue them more seriously eventually.

            [–][deleted]  (3 children)

            [deleted]

              [–]Vernalmuffins[S] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

              I learned it in school and on my own. I'm not the best at it, but I definitely can get by (and I've been told I kinda have a Brazilian accent?? Hell if I know how I managed to do that). That's an interesting list of languages! Kurdish, especially. Do you have family that speaks any of those languages?

              [–]VioletRemi 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              For some reason it reminded me this videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pik2R46xobA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82FgZEOn89k

              [–]Gearbeta 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

              I'm trying to learn spanish right now! Its pretty fun!

              [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

              That's great! What are you using to learn?

              [–]Gearbeta 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

              Duolingo, I talk to tutors on Italki and sometimes I watch telenovelas. If people speak slowly I can hold a conversation with people but there's a lot of words and grammar concepts I don't know, so still a work in progress lol.

              [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

              Good for you! Is there a particular country’s Spanish you’re trying to learn? Spanish can be tricky because unlike with say French there’s not just one dominant country to use as the standard and there’s so much variety and nuances across countries, regions, and within countries. It helps if you have someone in your life to speak with and then you just model after them. I’m definitely jealous of people who learn languages in the context of a relationship. It’s like having a cheat code.

              [–]Gearbeta 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

              I wasn't trying to learn any particular country's because from what I hear Spanish is much like English in that people from different countries that all speak Spanish can understand each other, there's only minor differences. Like American English vs British English vs Australian English. And considering that I still need to learn a lot of basic things I think focusing on a particular dialect is out of my league at the moment.

              [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

              I mean it’s definitely the same language and not different dialects but one thing to think about is that one major difference with the US/UK/Canada/Australia is that we were raised with each other’s media so you pick up on some major vocab differences and the small grammar differences. With Spanish there are way more countries and none is more dominant over all others but one might make more sense based on your location, who you interact with, and goals. Vocabulary can vary pretty extremely. I’d also say there are more grammar differences across Spanish-speaking regions than with the English-speaking countries.

              [–]Gearbeta 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              Mexican Spanish is probably more common where I live since there's a lot of immigrants from there here. As for vocab, I just need to learn more vocab in general.

              [–]PasLagardere 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

              Native language is Dutch. I speak English, French and German fluently and Italian aswell but less than the other languages.

              I’m a translator :P

              [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              I speak German! And a few choice phrases in a variety of languages

              [–]yousaythosethings 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              For les dames who are learning French and for anyone who wants to understand how lovably ridiculous the language is sometimes, here some short funny videos:

              https://youtu.be/R1K50LLiYXM

              French has a lot of roundabout ways of saying basic things, like the word for today translates to “On the day of today.” Or the way you say “what’s that?” depending on which phrase you use translates to “What is this that it is that that?” or “What is this that this is?” or “This is what that?” It’s just a crazy redundant language.

              [–]Destresse 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              Native French, I speak English, basic Spanish and Japanese

              [–]Disillusioned 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

              Native: Italian and Polish B2(?): English, I mean, I have no problem with understanding. B1ish: German, Spanish (but I have pretty much abandoned it).

              I want to learn Russian but I'm focusing on other things rn.