to ask if you speak a foreign language, why you chose that one..

[Messyisthenewtidy]

was it to travel to / live in that country, because of a spouse, etc?

Also, do you find it easy? And how are the locals when you speak to them in their language?

I'm trying to get some inspiration to learn a foreign language but I'm not sure which one to choose.

I learnt German & Spanish at school, didn't get along with Spanish at all but loved German. Took it at A-Level, then uni, and did a year long placement working for a company near Nuremberg. Bavaria is absolutely beautiful, as is Austria. Lots of beautiful lakes, mountains, fantastic cafes and delicious cakes. I'm always amazed that people don't see it as more if a summer holiday destination as the weather is usually pretty good too! So, I would totally recommend German. Yes the grammar can be tricky, but they way they put words together is brilliant! X

I became relatively fluent in another language because we lived abroad for a few years. Loved the sound of the language which helped - and I knew I'd cracked it when I could understand the news bulletins.

We could have gotten by with English, as the people we met there all seemed to understand it, but learning the language and engaging in it was so much better.

I learned Russian because I wanted to from a very early age. Alllowed me to immerse myself in a fascinating country and find a job I love. I speak other languages too, but Russian is my real love.

Also depends what you find easier- tonal languages are really tricky for me so Chinese for example is out. Found Swedish and Korean hard because the pronounciation, though Korean grammar is fine (similar to Japanese) and their alphabet is fabulously easy to pick up.

I think German or Spanish would be great to learn. I tried very hard at school with languages but really struggled, couldn’t retain the information and had trouble learning tenses we don’t have in English. I can speak/understand small amounts of Spanish and french but wish I’d pushed myself further.

May I ask the multi lingual on Mumsnet, if you frequently flip between languages day to day, which one do you dream in?

Longdistance - I’ve heard that Hungarian is incredibly difficult for British people to learn. Is that true?
If so, is it conversely very hard for Hungarians to learn English?

My DCs and I are learning Japanese because we love anime. I would absolutely love to go there one day if we can ever afford it!

DD is also learning French now because I suggested another subject just for her (they are home ed and DS has one subject that is “just his” at the moment). She agreed on French as I did well in it at school and can remember a reasonable amount, so I’m enjoying refreshing myself. Much more likely we will go there for a holiday than Japan too.

I would also really quite like to learn Latin someday, I did a year of it in school but can’t remember anything other than amo amas amat :o

Taught German and French at school

Sparklesocks I actually dream in English usually as most of the media I consume is in English. I don't actually really dream words now that I think about it.

I can speak fluent German. I don't have any connections and don't go there (I don't go anywhere as I don't fly!). I found it easy at school and just wanted to be able to say "I speak ...." so learnt it.

I dabbled in Japanese and found it utterly fascinating as a language, but I soon realised that even for a linguist like me, it was just going to take such a long time to get at all good at it because it's so different from any other language I know (no cognates) and because of the added burden of 3 different scripts to learn, one of them with literally thousands of characters! Plus of course, remote likelihood of me actually going to Japan more than maybe once.

I've dreamt in French a few times, but I'm not bilingual so it's not at all the norm for me to dream in anything but English.

I learnt Spanish in school and decided to carry on learning it. I thought it was sexy

I know German, we lived in a remote Bavarian town/village type place for a year. I spoke to them in German and they spoke to me in English so we could all practice. They're very friendly about you getting it wrong and helping you out. It's quite easy to learn and some of the words are absolutely hilarious! I often get told I sound too 'sweet' when I speak it though 🤔

French - chosen at school. I can use it passably, read enough to get the gist, but my writing isn't great without the dictionary.

Mandarin - I started school abroad and this was one of the native languages of the country I was in. Now I understand a little, but the tonality has totally deserted me so I don't like to speak it in case I get it wrong and offend someone! It did mean I found Japanese fairly easy to pick up bits of.

Malay - another early language that I've forgotten all of, bar hello, goodbye, please, thank you.

I'd love to improve my Mandarin.

German, because of German speaking DH (and more recently because we now live in actual Germany). I'd like to say I would have done it anyway but really, I needed a pretty good reason for learning a foreign language because I am shit at it. I've had to crowbar every word into my head.

My native language is German, but my life is now -almost exclusively- in English.
I started learning English in 5th grade, at the age of 10 and wanted to learn quickly to understand what was being said on MTV, which was, at the time, only broadcast in English. It was the late eighties, early nineties and we had just got cable television.
Two years later I added French, mostly because I wanted to, but also due to the fact that the alternatives were domestic sciences or technical studies, neither of which I wanted to do.

My French is quite basic, but enough to get by when I go to France.

German and English are both fluent, but I now feel more "at home" with English.

If I take up another language it will probably be either Spanish or Italian.

I know French, German and Italian. French was a default language as I learned it at school, and then later I lived there and got quite good at it (bit rusty atm tho). German I also learned because I was living there and I'm picking it up again now because my kids are gravitating towards it as a second language. But Italian I learned for no good reason except pure love of it. I love it like I love music. It sounds good, it feels good coming out of my mouth, I feel like it's the language I was born to speak. I also love Italian culture (and food!) and travelling there have found Italians have a wonderful appreciation for visitors who speak even a bit of their language - none of the Gallic snottiness or Teutonic efficiency of just using English as a default.

Italian's where it's at, OP.

I speak fluent Urdu, Punjabi and Swahilli.

I was born here but those are my parents languages and I grew up speaking them. My DC are also fluent and sound like native speakers because I always spoke to them in them rather than english. At the time I was teased by family members who said I was teaching them backward languages. But ya know what? Their kids can only speak/understand English because the parents couldn't be arsed to speak their mother tongue with them.

To me that's a crying shame.

I wish I could speak Italian. Can the Italian speakers start a teaching thread 😅

Oh I learnt some Urdu as a kid. I found it really difficult, but I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer!

I speak German (but not as well as I should), I spent most of my childhood there but went to English speaking schools.

Can’t remeber why but when I was 9 or 10 I asked my Mum if I could learn French. She arranged lessons with a retired teacher and then when I started school I continued.
Those of us any good at French had to take Spanish GCSE. I found it really hard at first but it suddenly clicked and I ended up taking both for A level and found that I actually preferred Spanish so at Uni when I did Politics and English Lit I chose Spanish Lit as an option. After Uni I worked for a holiday company in Spain and France.
I kind of lost both languages as life got in the way but about 10 years ago we decide to buy a property in Spain so I took a few lessons again and it came back very quickly.

Funnily enough I thought I had lost most of my French but a few years ago a friend visited with her French DH and I found I could still understand and speak it pretty well. We went to France last year and I was pretty surprised as how much French I still knew
DH is German and I’ve picked up a bit from him