Learning new languages

Hola amigos, como estas?. I hope everyone is doing well. Its been raining since morning here and so its very cold today but i hope your week started well. I was going through @disconnect post of the list of contest last week when i saw this contest on languahes and was super excited because I'm a huge fan of learning languages so there was no way I couldn't participate but then i didn't cause of my club issue so I'm posting here using the guidelines that were posted.

Source

From secondary school, I've loved to know one or 2 foriegn languages and planed to learn them with time. I didn't really have a list of what I wanted to learn but it came to me one after another through new interest and the rest.

How many languages do you speak? Which of them are your native languages and which ones have you studied?

I only speak English actually and a lot of Cameroon pidgin. I didn't study any of the two because I grew up speaking both of them so I'd consider both my native language.

What methods have you used to learn other languages?

Free apps, websites, movies and YouTube videos. I really love to be able to hear the pronunciation especially from a native speaker since it's faster to stick to memory than just reading the words from a website or app or whatever so I added YouTube videos and some apps over audio along side text.

In addition to the ones you already speak, what other language would you like to learn?

Like I said, I speak English language and pidgin English presently but I have a whole list of others I really like to learn and I am learning presently. First, there's French language that I'm learning but by bit. I picked this because it's also an official language in my country so its going to be very very helpful if I can speak it. Next to French will be my dialect which is mokpe (Bakweri language). I definitely have to learn this since it's very important to know your roots and be able to communicate in your own dialect plus I believe it'll open doors for you. It's also not very wise to desperately want to learn other languages or culture when you don't even know or identify with yours. So bit by bit I'm learning Mokpe and with time I can identify in my mother tongue proudly before boasting about other foreign languages.

Secondly, there's thai which I'm also learning because I love the language. I started watching thai movies and really liked them. I would someday like to visit the country, get to know more about the people, culture and meals. I heard they are very friendly people and I've seen a lot from movies and online that my eyes wants to see in real life. The language is simple in many ways but gets pretty hard cause of the alphabet and the fact that it's a tonal language meaning one word can mean different things based on the tone you use.

Source
Thirdly, korean is another language I'm presently learning. From apps, websites and videos. I got into kpop and k-drama which pushed me into meaning the language. I know I'll visit South Korea someday but then I'll love to converse with ease but for now I just want to be able to watch the drama and songs without subtitles(its very distracting). Its alphabet isn't as complicated as thai but the grammar can be difficult.

Third is Spanish, this has been the very first language I always wanted to learn because I just love it, from the words to the sounds and everything. Its somehow similar to French language and doesn't have different characters in its alphabet like thai or Korean. You just need to learn the sounds and the rest.

Lastly, I love to learn hindi, German and maybe Chinese. But that for sometime in the future, for hindi its cause I love to visit someday and love the language and culture but English is spoken there a lot too. For German and Chinese it's just because they're helpful since on average they're among the most spoken languages world wide.

What do you consider to be the most difficult thing about learning another language?

As someone learning a totally new language, I'd say it's the alphabet and new sounds that are most difficult. Leaving the 26 English alphabets I know to 40 korean letters(ㅛ,ㅊ,ㅎ,ㅍ,ㄱ,ㅁ etc) with it's own sounds that do not all even have English equivalent or 40+ thai letters(ร,บ,ไ,บ,ไ,ล etc) that even have long/short vowels plus tones was a whole new level for me. But then learning new vocabulary completely different from what you know can be tricky too eg English follows sub verb object but korean says its sub object verb plus object markers and subject markers making it more confusing.

Why do you think it is important to master several languages?

Well, first I think it explands your view of the world, makes you flexible and helps expand vocabulary. It also makes travel a lot easier and more enjoyable since you get to communicate better. Again, for me I will get to watch a lot of foreign films much easier since subtitles won't be necessary. Again I think it widens your career path, more job opportunities and also establish cross cultural friendships.

---

Well thats it for this post and I'll be seeing you someother time. Take care🥰

Cc;
@fombae
@fonjougiresse
@bongk