What Drew You to a Specific Language?

I’m am always interested in learning why people decide to take up a specific language. For love, family, or travel, or because they made you in school. Here are mine:

Spanish — Starting in 6th Grade (a little too late I think), we had to take a language. I think our choices were Spanish, French, and German. I chose Spanish because … I can’t remember.

German — I remember this one. At UNC, we had to complete 3 semesters of a foregin language. I had tested into Spanish 3, so I only had to take one more semester. But, I met this girl at orientation and all of a sudden, I was signing up for German 1. Needless to say, 2 years later, I had completed 3 semesters of German and zero dates with that girl.

How about y’all?

Wanting to get to know someone is great motivation :). I started learning Spanish in Junior high and I never stopped.
When I moved to Atlanta there were a lot of Ethiopians here. Before I came here I had never met anyone who was Ethiopian. I thought the language and people were so beautiful and I just wanted to be a part of it.
I once picked up learning Russian because my husband wanted to translate information he was finding about Socionics.
I have a neighbor from Brazil who wants me to learn Portuguese, so I guess I’ll be doing that too.
If I meet someone that speaks a foreign language I’ll ask them how to say something in their language. The next time I meet someone who speaks that language, I’ll use that phrase one them and bask in the compliments that give just because I can say something in their language :)

I took Spanish in High School but only because I had to. When I got to College I majored in International Relations because it sounded interesting. I found out that I could work in Europe for a summer but I had to have a year of the language. I wanted to go to Germany – so I took German. It was worth it, that was a great summer!

Sandra,

Where in Germany did you go? I took a summer business class in Stuttgart and Eisenach (in the former East Germany) and had a great time. Lots of fun; just a little bit of studying.

French in high school – Well, we had to take a language and everyone was doing Spanish. I’m a bit of a contrarian so I went with French.

Spanish in college – Not really sure. There was a really cute girl in my Spanish class but I think that was an ancillary benefit rather than the reason I signed up. :)

Mandarin in business school – I wanted to push myself and take 26 credits in one term. The 2 credit Mandarin class was incredibly tough. It was supposed to be for people with no Mandarin background. Which was largely true…except for the fact that a few of the people in the class were fluent in Cantonese. Almost failed that one… :)

Ryan,

I worked in a tiny resort village in the Black Forrest – Menzenschwand. It was a hot spot for German travelers who would hike from village to village. I also traveled in and around Munich. I met an American couple (the only ones!) who lived in Baden-Baden where he was posted to NATO. This was before the fall of the wall – it was an “interesting” time.

~Sandra

I started taking Spanish in the sixth grade in Texas – where it is VERY useful! The language is beautiful, pretty easy to learn, and has be extremely useful in both my personal and professional life. I’ve kinda lost most of my speaking abilities due to not using it. SO….you’ll see me on here trying to get caught back up. :) I made the mistake of studying abroad in Vienna instead of a Spanish speaking country. Oh well.

Carrie,

How did you like studying in Vienna? I can’t remember, they speak a combination of German, English, and another language right?

Most Chinese had to learn English for the purpose of getting a good job before, but now most for the purpose of city trending in Shanghai.

In Vienna it was all German all the time! I knew none which presented some challenges. The key word I really needed to know was Entschuldigung (excuse me) because I felt so rude bumping into people on the subway. Fun times.

I began with German when stationed at Spandahlem AB, with the U.S. Air Force. I lived in a small village, Metterich, where the locals spoke no English. I learned how to order brochen from the nice man driving the bread truck and enough words to talk with my landlady, eat out, travel by train, and go shopping. It was a real trick to get contact lenses at a German optometrist—lots of sign language mixed in with German and English!

I started learning Spanish after I became a volunteer teacher of English as a Second Language for Spanish speakers. I was told I didn’t need to speak Spanish, but quickly realized that many of my students spoke no English. I’ve been trying to teach myself Spanish for a couple of years. The grammar is fairly easy, but getting the words to go from my brain to my mouth is hard.

Wow, looks like a lot of German language speakers around here. Maybe one of you can teach me some German to get me through a layover in Hamburg this summer!

Living in North County San Diego I think it should be mandatory to learn spanish!! I started in high school and continued on into college with 4 semesters there. For me it was important to at least learn how to get by with spanish more for my professional growth than anything else. In Southern California being bilingual (English/Spanish) makes one more marketable!

I’m in the same situation here on the Central Coast of California. The problem we run into here is so much racism and predjudice – the attitude that if they want to live here, they should speak English. Those attitudes have filtered down to the high school kids who rebel at taking a language in school. It’s tough because instead of looking at the rich cultural heritage, the political issues get in the way.

Hello all. This is my first post. I’ve been hibernating. When I was in HS in the Midwest I worked with a foreign exchange student from Panama. She taught me to say “Yo trabajo en la biblioteca.” When I had to choose a language in college, I figured I already knew five words, so I had a head start.
After college graduation I spent the summer in Mexico with a short-term missions team.
My two weeks turned into two years in Monterrey, where I lived with a family that spoke no English. I got some one-on-one tutoring from their engineering student son. I was highly motivated to hang out with him, so I put some serious time into my language study! Nothing like “amor de primavera” to enhance the language learning experience.

What I great story! That is the best way to language :)

Everything goes better with amor! :)

Ein bier, bitte – always comes in handy!

But stick to ein (one) or the layover could become a hangover. ;)

Thanks Sandra!

ein oder zwei biere is normally my limit. :) (thank you Mac Translator)

I studied english my whole life and ended up marring an american, so i’m fluent!
But I would love to lern arabic and hebrew, don’t know why it’s just facinating to me.

English was my first foreign language which I started cos I was very bored during a summer vacation in highschool. So, I took a textbook off the shelf and started.

I decided to study Swedish to be able to read the books I read in Russian when I was a child :-)

And my biggest “love” – Bulgarian – I started because I wanted to prove to my gramma (a Russian linguist) that Bulgarian grammar is possible for Russian speakers :-)

I don’t know why, but Germany was always some part of my dreams. I remember my dream in the elementary school: I wanted to build a house in Germany and take all my family to live there with me. Nobody was interested, but I kept dreaming:)
Than by a “bad” luck I didn’t get to my dream high school but to another one, with German and French and no English! (in Poland two foreign languages are required for all 4 yrs of high school)
I knew then only “ich liebe dich” (in case I would need it some day;)) but when I started my real classes with my great teacher – I knew right away: ich liebe Deutsch:)
Then it just started for real: several extra classes, private lessons, German Studies and all the literature, descriptive grammar, old Germanic languages, history and so on; several trips and stays in Germany and crazy love towards Berlin and Gummibaerchen!:)

Not sure, if it is the melody, the “character”, which has no other language… but I am just addicted to German and everything what comes from the language: literature, music, philosophy… words, words, words…

Und es stimmt! Mit Liebe geht alles besser und einfacher!

I’m learning Italian because of its link to the mother of all Romantic languages, Latin, and because of Italy’s role in the Renaissance.

I was born in Italy but my father moved us to Germany when I was 5. I started my schooling in Germany almost immediatly, spending the first year feeling absolutely terrified and not understanding much. Germans at that time were not very nice to “Guest Workers” and their children and I made it my personal goal to learn German and speak it flawlessly so there would be one less thing to tease me about. Spending my summers in Italy, I maintained some level of fluidity but without any schooling in Italy, I do have trouble with writing.
English came very naturally to me— i almost feel like I’d spoken it in a prior life ( I know, sounds kooky).. I absolutely love language and words and would really like to pick up spanish before my brain gets too old.

I studied French at school but I think the school system failed me. Or maybe my brain just failed me because I can’t remember any French…except for the odd expression or word.

Spanish would be my second language and I love it. I started studying Spanish in University as my second language for my honors project. I have to say that I did HORRIBLY in the class (really bad marks) but I LOVED the language and my teacher made it seems so interesting and fun even if I didn’t understand over half of what she was saying.

After that I came to Spain for three months with a back-pack to see what Spain had to offer. After landing in Madrid I realized, while alone in a new country, that my Spanish was really bad and I would have to really make an effort to understand and be understood. After those three months my Spanish improved a little</> and I made the decision to go back to Spain to work for a year.