I find other languages fascinating, and I wish that at some point in my life I’d managed to live in another country for long enough to become truly fluent in another language. I didn’t, though, so I haven’t had the chance to learn another language to that level of proficiency. That said, I grew up in Canada and did French immersion for part of my elementary and high school career (pre-school and grades 6-9) so I have the ability to understand a decent amount of French, though not if it’s spoken with a really heavy accent (Quebecois is difficult for me to understand) or a local dialect. I can’t speak as much as I can understand, and I’d definitely never hold my own in a conversation of native French speakers these days.
I also know some Spanish. I lived with a bunch of guys from a few countries in Latin America for a few years and then took Spanish in college, so I know the basics of the language, but again I couldn’t read a book in Spanish or understand anyone who wasn’t slowing down and using simpler language for me. But I can understand the gist of basic conversations and most of the swear words!
I’d like to learn other languages, but realistically if I were going to get back into any kind of language studies I’d just go back to one of these as I love both languages and have the foundation already.
What about you guys? Any of you speak two or more languages? Anyone learning a new one now? Feel free to share a phrase or two in the comments if you’d like!
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Well, somebody else isn’t using Duolingo. Cheers!
Haha I tried and didn’t find it engaging enough to stick with. I preferred learning Spanish swear-words first from a whole group of native speakers! My dad uses it and seems to really be making great progress with it, so to each their own!
now I’m curious, where in Canada you grew up. My stepmother comes from Western Canada, and learned French with a European French accent, but I’ve always assumed that if you lived closer to the East Coast, you would learn French with a Quebecois accent, even if you weren’t in Quebec
I’m from Western Canada as well. I think the biggest factor is who is teaching you – I had a French Immersion teacher who was France French, so that’s what we learned. I would imagine you’d be more likely to have a Quebecois French teacher in Quebec, and then that’s what you’d learn!