How many of you are interested in learning or already speak a foreign language?

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

One of the greatest joys in my life right now is studying Arabic.  Anytime I can find freetime for myself during the day, I'm always having my head in an Arabic Vocabulary book.  I look forward to my Sunday Arabic classes (at the mosque) all weak long, I go to two conversation classes on Sunday mornings, I have a Qu'ranic Arabic tutor on Monday evenings, and I teach beginner classes (at another masjid) on Tuesday evenings.  I get irritated at college and work because I always feel like it is keeping me away from my Arabic studies.  I listen to Arabic tapes and cd's in my car, and in a year I have plans to travel abroad to learn the language fluently.

I am ashamed at all the time I wasted in my highschool Spanish class.  I didn't see any relevance at the time of learning any language other than my own.  I would love to take those classes over again. 

It's more than just learning a language, when you learn another language, you learn another culture.  I've had people explain to me that English is a very technical langauge, that it is a very good language for computers, but that when it comes to literature and poetry (the reading I'm most interested in) English is far behind Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and even Russian.

[Sikotic™]

I will learn Armenian and Spanish in the near future. Italian is a dope language too so I'm interested in that.

I've also heard about how English differs from other languages, which makes me want to learn another language even more in order to see how different it truly is.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

I will learn Armenian and Spanish in the near future. Italian is a dope language too so I'm interested in that.

I've also heard about how English differs from other languages, which makes me want to learn another language even more in order to see how different it truly is.

I don't know much about Armenian, but Italian is a beautiful langauge.  It flows off of the tounge easily. 

Another interesting thing about langauge is that when you learn a language of another culture, you also learn their history.  In English for example, many words come from Europe's clashes with Islam in the middle ages.  Words they use to describe people, such as "assasin" (After Amir Hasan) or "philistine" (Palestine) come from this period.  Many people have a cushion infront of their house called an Ottoman, which was a name given by the British for 'what they put their feet on' to show their disrespect for the Ottoman Empire. 

[Thirteen]

my father is fluent in Italian, French, Spanish and English, he speaks conversation polish, russian and japanese and he knows a little vietnamese and korean

i never had the urge to learn another language, i understand alot of spanish and a little bit of japanese

[bLaDe]

One of the greatest joys in my life right now is studying Arabic.  Anytime I can find freetime for myself during the day, I'm always having my head in an Arabic Vocabulary book.  I look forward to my Sunday Arabic classes (at the mosque) all weak long, I go to two conversation classes on Sunday mornings, I have a Qu'ranic Arabic tutor on Monday evenings, and I teach beginner classes (at another masjid) on Tuesday evenings.  I get irritated at college and work because I always feel like it is keeping me away from my Arabic studies.  I listen to Arabic tapes and cd's in my car, and in a year I have plans to travel abroad to learn the language fluently.

I am ashamed at all the time I wasted in my highschool Spanish class.  I didn't see any relevance at the time of learning any language other than my own.  I would love to take those classes over again. 

It's more than just learning a language, when you learn another language, you learn another culture.  I've had people explain to me that English is a very technical langauge, that it is a very good language for computers, but that when it comes to literature and poetry (the reading I'm most interested in) English is far behind Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and even Russian.

That's pretty cool man, the script for arabic is magnificent, but i'm not THAT fond of it spoken.  As for me, in my lifetime I have learned Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, French and English.  But not all of them too well.  For instance, since I was raised in the Middle East and went to a private school, I learned Hindi and Arabic(and english ofcourse).  But I was young, so I never cared much for it, in fact I hated them.  Later I started learning French, which I actually enjoyed a lot.  Then here in Canada I learned how to read/write Punjabi, which is my mother tounge, so I always knew how to speak it.  Also, since i'm from India, and my grandfather knows Urdu, I picked up a little.  But Urdu is written a lot like Arabic, and spoken a lot like Hindi and Punjabi, so it's no biggie.  Anyway so time passed and I stopped taking the classes(they weren't compulsary anymore) and when I came to Canada, again I had no need for them.  Now, sadly enough I have forgotten them.  I know, hard to believe, but like I said, I was young so I never cared much for them anyway.  In the future though I plan on taking some lessons in French and Arabic again.  By the way you're right about the poetic thing, I can personally confirm that poetry in Arabic and Urdu is really beautiful.  I also thought that i'd add that our Holy Book also contains hymns and poems from Muslim and Hindu saints, some of it is even written in Persian and Sanskrit. 

Yeah, learning another language is really great, because you also get to sample the culture.

-b[X] 

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

That's pretty cool man, the script for arabic is magnificent, but i'm not THAT fond of it spoken.  As for me, in my lifetime I have learned Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, French and English.  But not all of them too well.  For instance, since I was raised in the Middle East and went to a private school, I learned Hindi and Arabic(and english ofcourse).  But I was young, so I never cared much for it, in fact I hated them.  Later I started learning French, which I actually enjoyed a lot.  Then here in Canada I learned how to read/write Punjabi, which is my mother tounge, so I always knew how to speak it.  Also, since i'm from India, and my grandfather knows Urdu, I picked up a little.  But Urdu is written a lot like Arabic, and spoken a lot like Hindi and Punjabi, so it's no biggie.  Anyway so time passed and I stopped taking the classes(they weren't compulsary anymore) and when I came to Canada, again I had no need for them.  Now, sadly enough I have forgotten them.  I know, hard to believe, but like I said, I was young so I never cared much for them anyway.  In the future though I plan on taking some lessons in French and Arabic again.  By the way you're right about the poetic thing, I can personally confirm that poetry in Arabic and Urdu is really beautiful.  I also thought that i'd add that our Holy Book also contains hymns and poems from Muslim and Hindu saints, some of it is even written in Persian and Sanskrit. 

Yeah, learning another language is really great, because you also get to sample the culture.

-b[X] 

So you mentioned reading poetry, how about a book?  A novel in English vs. a novel in another langauge.

BTW, are you the infamous Blade?  I thought you went into isolation, lol.  Man, I got my AIM back up again today, with a new name, but I want to get at you, I'll pm you.

[bLaDe]

That's pretty cool man, the script for arabic is magnificent, but i'm not THAT fond of it spoken.  As for me, in my lifetime I have learned Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, French and English.  But not all of them too well.  For instance, since I was raised in the Middle East and went to a private school, I learned Hindi and Arabic(and english ofcourse).  But I was young, so I never cared much for it, in fact I hated them.  Later I started learning French, which I actually enjoyed a lot.  Then here in Canada I learned how to read/write Punjabi, which is my mother tounge, so I always knew how to speak it.  Also, since i'm from India, and my grandfather knows Urdu, I picked up a little.  But Urdu is written a lot like Arabic, and spoken a lot like Hindi and Punjabi, so it's no biggie.  Anyway so time passed and I stopped taking the classes(they weren't compulsary anymore) and when I came to Canada, again I had no need for them.  Now, sadly enough I have forgotten them.  I know, hard to believe, but like I said, I was young so I never cared much for them anyway.  In the future though I plan on taking some lessons in French and Arabic again.  By the way you're right about the poetic thing, I can personally confirm that poetry in Arabic and Urdu is really beautiful.  I also thought that i'd add that our Holy Book also contains hymns and poems from Muslim and Hindu saints, some of it is even written in Persian and Sanskrit. 

Yeah, learning another language is really great, because you also get to sample the culture.

-b[X] 

So you mentioned reading poetry, how about a book?  A novel in English vs. a novel in another langauge.

BTW, are you the infamous Blade?  I thought you went into isolation, lol.  Man, I got my AIM back up again today, with a new name, but I want to get at you, I'll pm you.

I can't recall to be honest, it was a poetry book I was reading as a method of improving my Arabic, so that was ages ago and I can't reallly remember it.  But I have read English translations of poems by Arabic, Afghani and Indian poets.  Khalil Gibran was a popular lebanese poet who wrote in Arabic and some other languages, you might have heard of his works.  Oh and I never read any Urdu poetry, but i've heard it a lot.

Yeah it's me bLaDe, I did go for a year but came back a month or two ago.  There was a thread in Gspot about it.  I don't post as much anymore but i'm still around.  I will expect your pm, peace

-b[X]

[Jimmy Cash2120]

in high school they made us take a language. i can speak Spanish a lil bit, but i can understand a lot more for some reason

[I TO DA GEEZY]

I speak fluent English, Hebrew and Russian I was studying Arabic a couple of years ago but I've forgoten most of what I knew...

[7even]

perfect English and a little French.. and German of course lol. French blows.

[Suffice]

I speak Armenian, Russian, and English fluently, and Spanish more or less fluently. I'm planning to perfect my spanish during my 3rd year in college, which i will hopefully be spending abroad in Barcelona through the UC Study Abroad program. In the future i hope to learn French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Arabic. Hopefully i'll be able to make some kind of benefit from knowing all these languages

[mauzip]

I speak Dutch, English, German and French

[rafsta]

yeh foreign languages are the shizz nit... im learning french, and i speak and write fluent polish... i much prefer polish language to english, because its more complex, english you dont have too many ways of insulting ppl, and its a limited language.. i htink english is very mathematical, although i still like it... i much prefer polish hip hop b'coz the words in polish have so much more meaning in english...

good topic

[Trauma-san]

I took French and Spanish but just remember a few words and phrases.  I'm slowly becoming more fluent at Spanish by working at the local flea market every weekend.  Pretty fun way to learn, just go out there where nobody speaks any english, and you pick it right up, LOL. 

[Lincoln]

I used to speak pretty fluent French, but then I got lazy at school, didn't do well in Grade 10's course, and quite taking it. Now I've lost it completely. I plan on taking some courses once I'm done College because it's something I'll be able to pick back up easily.