language

19 January 2014



Although I didn't set out at the beginning of this year with any real resolutions, one of my longterm goals is to work on my Japanese, and to improve my French.

When I moved to the UK aged 9, I spoke next to zero English. Thanks to very patient and kind teachers and friends (and my young, sponge-like brain), I became 100% fluent in about two years.

Along with that, my Japanese got lost. I speak it, but reading and writing is a huge struggle and I have been wanting to rectify that for a long time. It's just one of those things that always got put on the back burner, with other, more pressing matters taking priority.

Which sounds silly, because what is more pressing than being able to read and write your mother tongue (I consider it my mother tongue, but not my first language)? It is definitely something I need to make time for this year.




As for French, I really should be better at it, considering I studied it at school for 7 years. My (somewhat feeble) excuse, is that whilst living in Austria for three years to complete my masters degree, I had to learn a basic level of German, and that pushed the French out of my brain. There's only so much space in there, you know?

Wrong. There is enough brain to go round and anyway, it's not even as though I learnt a huge amount of German (my uni was so international that everyone ended up speaking English). I could understand and speak very simple conversations, follow my lessons and know the basic language to work in a little shop once a week. I hope to retain at least what little I learnt.

So, French. I understand about 70 per cent of what is being said, provided they are not talking about anything too intellectual. I don't speak it well, at all. I can listen to people talking in French and catch enough words to get the gist of the conversation, but I can't find the words myself to join in.

I have always loved the language, and being married to a Frenchman really gives me no excuse to avoid learning it properly, once and for all. I think I'm incredibly lucky to be exposed to different cultures and languages, so I need to make the most of what I'm given.

Any languages you're working on right now?


21 comments:

  1. Since the new year, I'm trying to learn basic basic basic french, and I've lived most of my life oversea so my mother tongue is not my first-language in a sense, I am ashamed that I speak English more than my native language, it is frustrating and sad :(

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    1. i sympathise with you so much - it's the exact same for me. we can still try :) x

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  2. Oh goodluck!

    I tried to learn myself Japanese a few years okay, with some travelbooks and Istart Mirara(sp?) Language systems, but I stopped. (Not that I got very far though). Now I have the Korean app, but that's very hard!
    And I studied Spanish for one year, but I already lost it! :/ If you don't use it, you quickly forget it.

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    1. you're right, you really need to use it and listen to it to get a good grasp of any language. that's the hard part! x

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  3. I envy everyone who can speak another language! I really wish I had bothered to pick up Malay from my mother, I can only catch tidbits here and there in conversation. Robin speaks Cantonese fluently, but cant read or write it to save his life!

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    1. i think it is so much easier when you're younger, and now i wish i had learnt more back then too x

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  4. I am trying to get my Japanese back but it is so hard! I have a friend or two that my son plays with their kids that are Japanese but they want to make their English better so always ask me to speak English to them lol, I can never really improve it because I have no one really to speak it to.

    Good luck! It's so hard to keep a language if you never use it.

    I am also finding i'm learning the English language all over again by teaching my son to speak right now.

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    1. yes! you have to actually speak it to improve, which is the hard bit. it's great that you feel like you're picking up new things by teaching your son x

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  5. I'd love to learn Italian. I don't really have anyone to teach me though…

    In the mean time, I'm trying to teach my boyfriend how to speak French since that's where I'm from. Actually very much like you he can understand a few words and gather from that what people are talking about but he finds it difficult to have a proper conversation.

    To give you guys credit, French is SO difficult to learn. Rich often asks me questions I don't even have an answer for. We've got many grammar rules and exceptions. I think exceptions to the rules are probably the worse to get your head around...

    Anyway, wishing you the best of luck with your french lessons. Let me know if you need help to practice :)

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    1. ahh italian! i would love to speak it too. and i sympathise with your boyfriend! E and I have tried to have a day a week (when we were long distance and only spoke on the phone) of talking in French, but that failed quite miserably…. x

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  6. I wish I had the ability to learn another language, I feel like I only have a basic grasp on English though so I don't think it's going to happen any time soon hehe

    Jennie xo | sailorjennie.com

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    1. haha i don't believe it though! you write beautifully x

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  7. Ha jinx! I just wrote a blog about how I'm definitely going to try harder on my German - weird!

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    1. just read yours, good luck with your German!! x

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  8. Haha this is the second post about improving languages that I've read this evening! I think it must be a sign :) I definitely want to work on my French…perhaps this is the year to do it!!

    Rachel [at] AMomentInTime.

    xo

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    1. i hope we can both improve somewhat over the course of the year! x

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  9. I'm the same with Finish, it was my main language as a kid (I'm born in Sweden but my parents are from Finland). I still speak Finish but I really struggle with reading and writing! I even write and read better in English (that I started learning at the age of 10).

    I hope you'll do great with your goals :)

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    1. it's funny how languages become different to you when you're brought up in different places. i'm so glad that i'm not alone! x

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  10. So so so so true, for some reason learning a language is always near the top of my list of things I want to do and also ends up on the back burner most of the time. I don't know why. And like you, I make all kinds of excuses for myself about why languages get "pushed out" haha. But really there's plenty space for everyone in there, I know people that can speak four languages and have heard of people who speak like ten. I want to be able to do that! For now, I want to work on my French and try to pick up some Spanish and Arabic, but I don't know if I have time for three right now. I want to eventually learn German and Turkish, plus so many others haha but those are the main five I want to do first.

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    1. i think the good thing about latin based languages is that there are some similarities (E can understand quite a lot of Italian for example, even though he doesn't speak it), and Italians can understand a lot of Spanish, etc. so i feel like if you have one of those under your belt then you're on the right track. we can do this!! x

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  11. wow that's really great how you understand so much of french! i also forgot how to speak korean but relearned it in college and post college. i am still bad at it but i can have some level of normal conversation. reading and writing are still hard for me though. and i actually studied japanese for six years. still no way good at it but i love the language. i love listening to people speak it :)

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