Languages

[DBZgirl88]

[COLOR=#004a6f]Does anyone here know more than one language? Anyone studying a language in a particular at school? Although grammar in general can get pretty dry at times, it's still quite interesting how languages differ from each other and how they are similar. Certain parts of speech are missing in some languages, yet they have other components that make up for it. And certain sounds are also missing, or there are extra sounds. Word order varies from language to language aswell. It's also interesting how expressions used in certain languages make complete sense to their native speakers, yet leave others scratching their heads.

For example, English is the only language which has the concept of the word "it" (as far as I know). In French, there is only "il" and "elle". These mean "he and "she", yet they are also applied to inanimate objects, so in a way, "il" and "elle" can also mean "it" in a sense.

I think many other latin based langages apply genders to inanimate objects. Arabic has this too. In addition, arabic applies genders to all of it's pronouns except "I", "we" and dual pronouns:

I -Ana
You (to a male) -Anta
You (to a female)- Ante
You (to two people, m/f) -Antooma. (Dual)
He -hoowa
She -heeya
We (2+ people m/f) -Nah'noo
You (to 3+ females) -Antun
You (to 3+males) -Antoom
They (2 people m/f) -Humaa (Dual)
They (3+ males ) -Hoom
The (3+females) -Hoonna

Heh heh heh, a little confusing right?

Anyway, it'd would be interesting for people to share the little things about the languages they know that make those languages unique, or that make them similar to languages from completely different regions. Maybe we can share vocabulary, weird expressions and stuff like that.[/COLOR]

[poo62.2]

Well I?m forced to learn French and German at school. I would know stuff but my teacher is an absolute old hag and we learn nothing because everything is shouted at us....no one in the class can even remember 1-10 in French yet we are in the top group! :mad:

[AzureWolf]

[FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]One of my biggest regrets is never learning another language. I hate being bound to english, but I really never got a chance to learn another language.

I remember I wanted to take Japanese in high school because of the beautiful writing, but one honors class was conflicting, so I couldn't. Instead, I took Latin. I took two years of Latin and then it started to conflict with other classes my Junior year. If nothing else, I did get an interesting grip of Roman languages from Latin.

As for college, Stevens doesn't offer languages, not even Latin or Greek. Provided you have one free weekday, you can take a language (or any humanities) at NYU, but I've always had a 5-week program, so there wasn't even a chance to try it.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Panda]

My first language was Japanese. At home that is all my parents, and grandparents, spoke. My dad has many recordings of my brother and I playing and telling stories that were all in Japanese. That all changed when my brother started school.

He didn't speak english so he was put into "English as a second language" class with all the hispanic kids who didn't speak english. After that my parents made us speak english at home so we would do better in school. I still understand Japanese but when it comes to speaking my language skills are very much lacking. My parents will speak to me in Japanese and I end up answering them in english! Oh well.

I really wish I would have kept up with my Japanese language skills but at the time my parents wanted us to do well in school. Basically I can translate only one way with ease- Japanese to english. If only I could master the other way I would be applying for high paying job translating for big business!

[Mitch]

I took one year of Spanish my Sophomore year, didn't like it, and went to Latin. Right now I'm in Latin II, and I'm a senior. When I go to the uni after this coming summer, I'll be taking my generals, etc, and probably more latin. Also, I believe to get my major, it may require I take another language.

[DBZgirl88]

[COLOR=#004a6f][QUOTE=Panda]My first language was Japanese. At home that is all my parents, and grandparents, spoke. My dad has many recordings of my brother and I playing and telling stories that were all in Japanese. That all changed when my brother started school.

He didn't speak english so he was put into "English as a second language" class with all the hispanic kids who didn't speak english. After that my parents made us speak english at home so we would do better in school. I still understand Japanese but when it comes to speaking my language skills are very much lacking. My parents will speak to me in Japanese and I end up answering them in english! Oh well.

I really wish I would have kept up with my Japanese language skills but at the time my parents wanted us to do well in school. Basically I can translate only one way with ease- Japanese to english. If only I could master the other way I would be applying for high paying job translating for big business![/QUOTE]I know how you feel. I was born in Saudi, so my first language was Arabic. My family came to Canada during the Gulf war. I had just finished grade 1, so I am lacking in reading and speaking skills. Noting that Arabs speak nowadays differently then they write, and even different grammar and vocaulary, I find it difficult to understand books that I am reading. In addition, instead of using vowels like english does to make each syllable in a word (in the syllable "ba", the letter b is followed by a to complete it), we put a specific marking on top of the letter, so we would have our letter for b, and then put a line on top to make "ba" a line under to make "bi" and a weird marking for "boo" and just a circle on top if the b ends the syllable, as in bo[B]b[/B]. Adults are knowledgeable enough to read without these markings, because no two words are alike in arabic, even without them. In newspapers, these markings are left out. I can read them a bit, but barely.

I am also low on vocabulary, though I can still recognise whether the word is a noun, verb, or adjective. It's like someone telling you: "I adore cats". Maybe I don't know what "adore" means, but I know it's a verb.

My younger brother, who's 16 was also born in Saudi, but never got Arabic education. He started SK in Canada. My mother has a done a good job in teaching him considering she isn't a teacher. He reads better than I do. Grammar, however, I think I'm better at. My little brother and sister were born in Canada, and my sister knows how to read a bit but she's really low on comprehension. My little brother is only five, but he knows his letters and knows what the accents on them do. I was trying to teach him how to read small words but he has a very low attention span. Oh well. :rolleyes:

I also know french, but I think I'm losing it a bit. I was in extended french for grade 7 and 8, so we were taught in french 60% of the time. I stopped that particular program when I went to highschool, but continued taking french as a course till grade 11.

I tried spanish too, that was pretty fun while it lasted.

Finally, I'm taking Japanese now as my elective. The course I'm in is going at a really fast pace. I can barely keep up. I also noticed that my biggest weakness in learneing languages is reading out loud and speaking. I usually have a very good accent, and my Japanese teacher thinks I sound almost japanese when I speak, but I'm too slow. I need to practice the sentence a few times before getting it right.[/COLOR]

[Syk3]

[quote name='Panda']My parents will speak to me in Japanese and I end up answering them in english! Oh well.[/quote]Hahaha, that's so awesome. I just think it would be so cool to watch one person talking in one language, and someone else replying in a different one, just holding a conversation like that. And then maybe switch halfway through. XD I suppose understanding Japanese (as opposed to necessarily speaking it) really helps when watching an original anime. ^_^

I took Spanish for about.. six years, starting in an after school program in third grade, skipping a year in sixth grade, and finally taking Spanish III in ninth grade. And yet, after all that, I only remember the basics of the language. You'd think that starting early would have really helped, but I really didn't have any motivation to learn it. I saw the after school programs as a bother, and being in elementary school at the time I would look out the window and day dream about playing on the blacktop and jungle gym outside. My parents put me in there to start the language early, of course, but I agreed to only because my friends were there too, I think.

After skipping a year of it in sixth grade, I started up in Spanish A and B in seventh and wasn't doing too bad. The idea was that we would learn A during the first half of the year and B during the second half. Well.. I moved right smack in the middle of the year, lol. And this new school had Spanish A [b]or[/b] B, so I had to choose between them. At first, I chose Spanish A, but at this time I wasn't too bad at the language, and the class turned out to be much too easy for me, so I switched to B. So I go into this class which is already proficient at Spanish A and has been doing B for a whole half of a year, and I was lost from the beginning. -.- Add that onto the fact that I don't think that the teacher liked me very much, and I believe that this is where I went wrong.

The following year, I was in Spanish II with a teacher who really didn't care about teaching us anything, lol. And not only that, but she gave us a lot of hard work as if we were expected to know it, bleh. By the time I got to Spanish III in ninth grade, I had just about had enough and only wanted to do it to get my credit for the class out of the way. No incentive to learn the language + moving + evil teachers = ..no good. With my parents on my back about it, really studying hard, and even getting a tutor for after school, I was able to pass the class with a very low D average. That was it. No more.

I'm really hoping now that I don't have to take a foreign language in college, but I think that might depend on the college. If I do, I'm not going back to Spanish; I'll try something that I'd actually be interested in learing, which is, of course, Japanese. :p

[Gin]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=black][font='Comic Sans MS']It?s not the same as you, Chabichou, forgetting some Arabic but when I came back from Saudi Arabia I lost my British accent. When we lived in Saudi Arabia we lived in an English speaking community and so were not exposed to as much Arabic as you?d think someone living there would hear. We only lived in Saudi Arabia for the first three years of my life (though I wasn?t born there) and the community we lived in were mostly British and the Preschools I went to were British English so not having spoke English for too too long I learnt to speak with an British accent. But coming back to the states when I was still young I lost it. Oh and my dad is the opposite of you, he can read Arabic but has no clue what he is saying. [/font][/color]

[color=black][font='Comic Sans MS']Anyways I too take Spanish. I?ve been taking it since first grade. From first through third grade I was in a public school that had Spanish-emersion. ?Half the day was spent learning things like spelling and grammar in English and the other half spent learning science and math in Spanish. Of course when I switched to SSSAS in fourth grade it was the first year to take a language so I ended up just relearning stuff I already knew. Fifth grade wasn?t much better because it was still just learning stuff I already knew. Sixth grade was the first year of middle school and since there were quite a few new students who hadn?t learned any language it was still much of the same stuff. Over those three years I started forgetting what I had been learning. In our school 7th grade languages are 01A and 8th grade 01B, but last year Mrs. New left and Senor McNear took her place. Mrs. New taught 6th grade and half the 8th grade so Senor McNear took her place and? I wound up in his class along with my friend Lauren we also ended up with most of the less bright more popular kids. Senor McNear wasn?t a good teacher and we didn?t have many good students so *makes face* you can guess how our Spanish class was last year. I envied Profe. Gray?s students. Finally I?m in 8th grade and all the Spanish taking 8th graders (and half the 7th graders) get Profe. Gray, who is an actual good teacher, so I actually get to learn something this year!!! [/font][/color]

[color=black][font='Comic Sans MS']Last year in Spanish Lauren and I sat in the back of the class and Lauren would write fanfics and I would sometimes read but usually do work in Mass Practica from an Etapa or two ahead of what we were studying? or else read ahead in the Spanish book an Etapa or two? In other words 7th grade Spanish was spent teaching my self what Senor McNear didn?t. Recently I?ve been looking into learning either Japanese or Korean. (I?ve always wanted to learn a language with a different alphabet!) And I got a few books on Japanese for Christmas. [/font][/color]

[/size][/font]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#B33D79]I took up Japanese once but the teacher could speak very little English and conversed to us in simple Nihongo+gestures. I had to quit her class 'cause studying with her is like playing charades!

And oh, I also tried learning Egyptian hieroglyphics some 4+ years ago. Sadly, I've a very poor memory and am unable to recall what the glyphs meant. No hope there.

Love and Peace!
[/COLOR]

[Retribution]

Well, I think learning a new language is a very important skill to have, but I don't want to put forth the effort to do so. I guess I'm just lazy, and I don't find learning languages to be particularly interesting. I'm doing mediocre in Spanish III Honors, but I just don't like it. Where I live, the hispanohablante (spanish-speaking) population is on the rise, so my parents want me to learn it.

Personally, I don't think I'll learn all that much in High School. I mean, I could go to a Latin market, and buy food, and maybe even talk to people, but I couldn't live in a Spanish speaking area. And if I did, I would learn a heckuva lot faster. If I need to know how to say "When can I eat?" then I'll learn it, if I want to eat. ^.^

And I think it's just me, but it annoys me when people who've watched a few animes all of the sudden want to learn Japanese, just because it's anime's mother-tounge. Just like the people who want to go to Japan just because it's where anime came from. It's so annoying. And then they start studying Japanese, learn a few words and characters, then throw in the towel because it's oh-so-hard! Well, duh, it is! It's proven that if your mother language is latin-based, it'll be alot harder to learn any Eastern language. And vice versa. [/rant]

*sigh* Ahh well... what happened to those sci-fi worlds, with a standard world-wide language where everyone had to take it in school? You know, Basic, if you've read the Ender's series...
I bet people will say that English is the soon-to-be equivalent of Basic, but that's not quite true. Yet.

[Manic Webb]

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. I've forgotten most of it, however. I'm a little disappointed in how much I forgot, as my Spanish II teacher had us writing essays and translating song lyrics. I can still remember a few basic words, though. I can't hear the spoken language to save my life, but I can still read through it... barely. It makes watching Spanish soap operas awkward, though, as I always have to turn on the Closed Caption.

[quote name='Panda']My parents will speak to me in Japanese and I end up answering them in english![/quote]
I have a friend born in the Philippines who moved to the US when he was about 9 or 10 years old. He's nearly forgotten how to speak his first language, but he understands it perfectly. So whenever I go over to his house, I always hear his parents speaking their language, and he and his siblings reply only in English.
I can't for the life of me remember which language they speak, though. It's similar to Tagalog, but has a strong Spanish influence. You can tell whenever they tell the time.

[Nomad]

[SIZE=1]Right now I am only able to speak one language. And that is English. For the simple fact that I was born in America to an English speaking family and have been around English speaking people for most of my life. But I've been wanting to take German soooo badly this past year. I just really have the urge to learn it. Before I used to want to learn Japanese. It was easy at first with parts of sentence development and a few of the basic words & rules. Then it got hard. Then I realized if I learn to speak it, then to complete it, I'd have to learn the Kanji writing and whatnot. I just thought it too much trouble to do without proper teaching.

A language that I've been accustomed to, besides that of English, is Spanish. I've been taking Spanish since the 5th/6th grade. I took it all the way through middle school, and I'm currently in 3rd year Spanish in high school as a junior. I think of myself as partially able to speak the language. I can read (pronounce) almost perfectly, and I can usually understand what someone says by context. The only thing I have trouble with is tenses and conjugation of the verbs, especially the irregular verbs ( :flaming: ). But, I like learning more and more from this language rather than switching to first year French.

But as I've said before, I really want to learn German. I know a few phrases, and a few.... rude? phrases. I know some other random words, and I also know some lines from songs and what they mean (like "weh mir, oh weh..und die Vögel singen nicht mehr").

I like not being tied down by one language, especially when you already don't speak that one language well enough for people to understand you lol. Knowing other languages also means that I'll have a better chance of having a better career when I get older. Ah well. We'll just have to see if I can take some independant/private courses after school or something. :D [/SIZE]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]In Primary School and my first year of High School, I studied Japanese, and I'm sorry to say this, but I hated doing it. It was only in the last year of it that I even started to get decent marks in it. I just didn't enjoy studying Japanese...it held no interest for me. If I wanted to learn anything, I'd like to learn German...if only because I like how the words sound.[/size]

[future girl]

[size=1]I learned Spanish and English at pretty much the same time when I was a little girl so I'm proficient in both. I plan on learning French soon and maybe a couple of others. I wanted to minor in Japanese Litarature, but I think I may have to learn Japanese according to the course descriptions. I used to take some light lessons with a friend and know how to say a couple of words and such, but I'm no where near being an expert. Apparently my accent was pretty good though, but that was a while ago as well so who knows if it's still upto par. I'd probably have the most luck with the romantic languages since I know Spanish so well though. I love knowing languages and I find others that I don't know very intriguing. I wanted to get a degree in foriegn languages for a while but I'm not sure what you'd do with that as a career heh.[/size]

[Syk3]

[quote name='Altron']And I think it's just me, but it annoys me when people who've watched a few animes all of the sudden want to learn Japanese, just because it's anime's mother-tounge. Just like the people who want to go to Japan just because it's where anime came from. It's so annoying. And then they start studying Japanese, learn a few words and characters, then throw in the towel because it's oh-so-hard! Well, duh, it is! It's proven that if your mother language is latin-based, it'll be alot harder to learn any Eastern language. And vice versa. [/rant][/quote]In general, yeah, English and Japanese are probably considered two of the most difficult languages to learn. I'm not going to lie -- anime is, to an extent, an incentive for me to want to learn the language (maybe it might help with subtitled anime, haha), but over the years I've really had the chance to come to an appreciation of Japan's culture and history, and would really enjoy learning more about it. And I think if I ever did go to Japan one day, which my friend wants me to after he went last summer, it would help to learn the language at least a little bit. It would just give me satisfaction, I think, though I am aware of how potentially hard it can be.

[Pumpkin]

I wish I knew another language besides English. I'm half-Hungarian and my mom and grandma speak Hungarian. My mom never taught me the language because she felt there was no use for it, I wish she did. As for responding in english, [B]Panda[/B] My mom does that all the time. I guess it comes from only using it around the house, my friend calls it "Pigeon Talk" lol since my grandma will ask my mom something and she responds to english. But hey, atleast you know another language right? ( I wish I did so then I knew when they were talking about me, which I know they do! XD ) [B]Chabichou[/B] that is amazing that you can learn so many languages, its useful and I actually heard once your bilingual with two languages, it makes it easy to learn another one. I don't think you'll have much trouble learning Japanese.

[B]Syk3[/B] if it makes you feel better I had the same problem. I only know the basics of spanish after taking it from Kindergarden to the 6th grade and then two more years in highschool. People ask me all the time why I never learned it and that I should know it fluently, the problem is that I don't use it in my everyday life. Which is a must if you're going to learn a language otherwise you'll forget it. Which I did, sadly. Even after all that time, I was never really interested in Spanish even though it would be "So" useful and all since I live in California. Sad enough I'll most likely have to take spanish again in college although I'd love to take Japanese (No brainer there, you knew I was going to say that) since thats what interests me at the moment.

[B]Altron[/B] Well I agree with you to a certain extent, going to Japan JUST for anime or because thats where its from is wrong but its okay to be inspired by it! If you have determination to learn Japanese you can do it, it just takes alot of time, effort, because its so hard. I want to take Japanese because it would be fun to me for a language course, then to do an easy close-to-english language that I clearly dislike. I don't expect to be fluent but I think it would be fun to learn a few things too (maybe figure out a kanji letter in a manga, how is that not an accomplishment?) Another reason anime fans often like to go to Japan is because it sparks an interest to learn about their culture. Is that wrong? Is it more wrong to want to know about Japanese culture from greek? I know I want to visit there because I want to see the temples and get a sense of their lifestyle because it is SO different from ours. When things are different to you, and your lifestyle (Im assuming you live in the U.S) yeah its interesting. So don't always jump to the conclusion that thats the only reason. Anime is a big part yes, but there are lots more things in Japan then anime that appeal to people. Tokyo is the biggest fashion city if you didn't know, just an example of why people might visit Japan. There are many different reasons.

[Retribution]

Well, Syk3, I'm glad you admit it, and aren't some rabid fan, not appreciating the culture or the language itself, but only for the anime.

Anyway, I wish sometimes, my parents had immersed me in another language at a young age, so I could be fluent in it. Even if it were... (heaven forbid) [i]french[/i]. But I'm just kidding to all the French here. It's just that the language is so... hard to pronunciate.

[Juu]

[size=1]I speak English and Korean fluently, and it's easiest for me when I can mix the two up. Other Korean families are often surprised I can speak Korean well, because I've lived in mainly English-speaking countries since I was three (and because I've refused to attend Korean school). So far, I've lived in Korea, America, Denmark, Germany, England, and Norway. (...Hmm, that's odd. I always thought it was just five, but I got my dad to list them all again, and it's six! X_X;') And because of that, I speak a little bit of Danish/Norweigian and German. But also because my dad's side is rather traditional, I've learnt a bit of Chinese and Japanese. I also took a semester of Japanese at school, but don't remember a thing when it comes to reading/writing it. I can count to seven in Spanish, but don't know if that counts for anything, lol.

I'd love to learn French and Italian, though. =)[/size]

[DBZgirl88]

[color=#004A6F][quote name='Panda']My parents will speak to me in Japanese and I end up answering them in english! Oh well.[/quote]Lol, it's even worse in my familty! Not only do we answer our mom in english, we mix up arabic and english in the same sentence. For instance, when we want to say "do the dishes" we say "do the jali". Tea is called "shai" in arabic, so my sister says to me "Yo, go make shai". I do make a lovely cup of tea if I do say so myself :). On top of that, we even go so far as to take english verbs and conjugate them as though they were Arabic! After doing so, we realize how strange it is and all of us end up laughing at whoever does that. To make nouns plurar, we usually add "at" at the end of the word, and we even end up doing that with english words! Example, "the magazines" would become "el magazinat". It's so weird...and not neccesary. The arabic word for magazine is "majala", so I don't know why we mix up the two up. My family likes to call this mixing up "aangalizi".

Altron -Speaking of french pronounciation, arabic actually has a letter that has the same pronounciation as the french "r". My sister and I found our selves better in french and spanish pronouniciation, simply because of our knowledge of arabic. It's cool how languages can be so different yet so similar ina way.

Another cool fact: The only sounds the don't exist in arabic are g, p, and v, though arabs have no problem pronouncing g and v. In fact, certaain arabs, particularily Egyptians, replace j with g. Others replace a with g. Yeah I know that's weird. Meh. The letter that trouble arabs the most is p. When you spell omething for them that has the letter b or p in it, they always check by asking, "b with the stick up or down?" *In arabic accent ofcourse :D.[/color] Edited August 23, 2012 by DBZgirl

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#696969]I, like Juuthena, am able to speak english and korean fluently, as well as Konglish, which is just mixing the two. It's strange because I've lived in the U.S. my entire 15 years and korean adults tell me how well I speak and the kids ask me if I came from Korea, but I just learned at a young age and I've watched lots of korean drama, which is actually good for you XP. I also went to Korean School at my church, as well as various places because my mother made me at such a young age. I also went to Korea in the summer and winter to visit my mother's side of the family. I actually went to Korea alone when I was only eight and people find that surprising. I suppose it is.

At school, I am currently learning Spanish. I am in my second year because I started last year and I asked my parents whether I should take Spanish or Japanese and my dad said, "Take Spanish. You'll use that language more in life. Japanese, you only use that sometimes." And so, I took Spanish. I forget some things, but I'm mediocre at speaking Spanish.

At my middle school, we had this elective called "Wheel". We basically had different classes for different semester or trimesters and took those classes at each tri or semester. I had taken General Music, Art, and Foreign Language. In my Foreign Language, we learned the basics of Italian, German, French, and Spanish.

This is not an official language, but I can speak gibberish with my friends. LOL, it's quite interesting because when I talk to my friend in gibberish her boyfriend and her friend just looks at us like we're crazy and tries to copy us. Not sure if that counts, but oh well. It's an interesting fact.

I would love to learn a lot of languages, but particularly Japanese, Italian, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese. I guess you can say that I'm a lover of languages or just like to learn a lot ^_^.[/size][/color]

[M.Ali]

[color=green][font=trebuchet ms] :babble: Hmm let's see now...since my granddaddy is from Puerto Rico, and my daddy lived in Puerto Rico a few years, they both know spanish but only my dad knows english,and since he lived here so long, he doesn't have the accent anymore.

But I was borned and raised in the U.S. so english is my first language, then comes spanish, it's sad because I can only speak a little bit of it even though I've been at it since I was a kid, the really sad part is that I'm 18 now...>_< but I'll get it soon enough, then comes french, I took french all four years of high school, so I pretty much got most of that down, learning spanish really helped me learn french since most of the words and phrases are the same.

I really hate it when people expect me to automatically know english because of my dad's side of the family, they don't get that I was born and raised with my mama in the U.S...it's really irritating, and I'm pretty sure that there are some out there who agree with me too...[/color][/font]

[animejunkee]

Of course I know english, I started taking German in 7th grade and I am in the 8th grade and still taking it. In 6th grade I learned a little bit of spanish and french. When I go to high school I am going to take Japanese. I also speak a non-national language, pig latin.

[Juu]

[quote name='Neuvoxetere][size=1][color=#696969]I, like Juuthena, am able to speak english and korean fluently, as well as Konglish, which is just mixing the two. It's strange because I've lived in the U.S. my entire 15 years and korean adults tell me how well I speak and the kids ask me if I came from Korea, but I just learned at a young age and I've watched lots of korean drama, which is actually good for you XP. I also went to Korean School at my church, as well as various places because my mother made me at such a young age. I also went to Korea in the summer and winter to visit my mother's side of the family. I actually went to Korea alone when I was only eight and people find that surprising. I suppose it is.[/size'][/color][/quote]

[size=1]Haha. =D I haven't watched much Korean drama at all recently! My dad and I usually just sit around and count the amount of 'OPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAA T_______T'-s there are. And in one of the episodes 'Chungook Eau Gehdahn', we counted approximately 32 'OPPPPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAAAAA'-s (or just an 'oppa') every minute!

Gah, I always go to Korea alone, too. It's fun, though! My first time - when I was six, the stewardess-es gave me a lot of neat stuff, and I got to go up to first class.

As for Korean church, blergh. A lot of the 'traditional' Korean families drive me insane. You know, the whole 'men with the men' 'wives with the wives' 'children with the children' deal. _._;

EEEE. *glomps fellow Konglish-speaking ...person!*[/size]

[PWNED]

I speak English as a first language but I a mgetting fairly good at Italian and am still quite poor at Japanese. I plan on changing the Japanese problem this year when I go to Japan later this year on a school trip.

[Guest Crimson Spider]

I can't even get english right, let alone another language. My school doesn't require foreign language, so the only rreason why I am taking spanish right now is out of necessity (and to look good on paper). Scary thing is my grade in Spanish I is higher than my American Literature, and I sparsely speak spanish. My instructor (who ironically is the same for both Amr. Lit. and spanish, with clases placed consecutive chronologically) says I'm one of the best in that class, though my grade does anything but reflect it.

The community around Vegas has become a predominantly spanish-speaking one, and I had a very uncomfortable time when I was amongst the plebian. Long story. Personally I would've rather taken Latin or French, but those two languages in this area would only serve to make my semblence ever-so-slightly resemble one of the higher famed. I'm a shirt & Jeans man (phrase used to describe someone who isn't sophisticated (sp?) and is direct in solving their problems), so I took Spanish.