Jim's Cafe - Thursday, May 1, 2025 "languages"

[Angie]

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I posted a Cafe. The semester is almost over and I am relieved. Next semester I will start learning a new foreign language, Spanish. I am dabbling with French on Duolingo now. So the questions today are:

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

 

[Gonz]

I speak English and understand (but don’t really speak) Spanish.

When I was little, I had some older relatives who only spoke Spanish, and a lot more who were bilingual. They made fun of my pronunciation, or if I’d forget a word and use the English one instead.

I thought it was a personal failing at first, and was embarrassed by it so I stopped trying. Later, I realized these were the exact people who were meant to be teaching me and that I actually did pretty well for a kid with no help.

Worked in a lot of kitchens as an adult. The stereotype about all Hispanics being kitchen workers is false. But the one about all kitchen workers being Hispanic is kinda true. Anyway, I caught a lot more than I’d have expected.

If someone speaks it to me I get 90% of what they’re saying. But if I try to speak it back, I spend a lot of time translating my thoughts and searching my mind for words (that I often get wrong anyway).

English is probably the most practical second language. If you already speak it, it’s really a matter of what culture you find interesting, and who you come into regular contact with. Being from Southern California, Spanish is the obvious choice for me,

 

[Witty_Sarcasm]

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I posted a Cafe. The semester is almost over and I am relieved. Next semester I will start learning a new foreign language, Spanish. I am dabbling with French on Duolingo now. So the questions today are:

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

I speak English fluently and then some German pretty fluently because I learned it in high school. I guess persistence and using the language as often as you can seems to help in learning it. The most practical language to learn besides English is either Spanish or Mandarin Chinese, because those are also widely spoken in the world.

 

[Fbr27]

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I posted a Cafe. The semester is almost over and I am relieved. Next semester I will start learning a new foreign language, Spanish. I am dabbling with French on Duolingo now. So the questions today are:

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

What languages do you speak?

Portuguese and English (not fluent I guess).

I also can understand some 60% of Spanish though (Spanish and Portuguese are very alike).

What tips do you have for learning a new language?

I think the best thing is probably to watch foreign content of the language you want to learn as much as you can.

I remember "learning" english back in the days where most video games didn't have translation to other languages.

You just had to decipher whatever the game was talking to play it. Some people played Final Fantasy with a english dictionary, some just tried to brute force decode whatever the game was saying like me.


What is the most practical language to learn?

English.

For a second language it depends. I know a guy who learned German because he worked in a german firm and his boss was a german guy, so it made sense to him.

Lots of people learn Italian because then you can naturalize Italian if you have italian descendency then you can have a UE passport I think.

 

[seabird]

Hello cafè
I speak English and small bit of Spanish, and over the years have attempted to teach myself Greek to no avail. I'd love to learn it and to live there for a while. I grew up in California, so did my parents, and I was taught Spanish in school from k through 11th grades. During that time I travelled with my family, and it was using my Spanish irl which helped the most to learn to speak the language. I was never fluent. Unfortunately it has now faded away into the depths somewhere. I think English is the most useful language with Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese also quite useful. When I was living in Australia some assumed I came from Canada, a misperception which I did not disabuse them of for various reasons. One man thought I was Irish, so perhaps my native Californian accent is hard to place, I don't know.

 

[cymbele]

So the questions today are:

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

I speak/read English. As a kid in middle and high school I learned Latin not because I was smart but because in my school system one did not really have to speak it just reading and writing. Guess I was lazy back then.

I tried to learn Italian for my trip to Italy last year. I used Duolingo but once the subjects transitioned from ordering food and items and getting directions to buying a washing machine and renting an apartment i lost interest. Besides we were going to major cities in Italy where English is known.

I went to South Korea once to give a lecture. The lecture was in English so I didn't have to adapt (again, major city). However, when the Korean engineers talked they used technical terms which were all in English so we sort of understood what they were saying.

A few tags so this Cafe doesn't get lost:
@JMG @Lane @LumberJack @foreverforgotten @SillyOldBear

 

[SillyOldBear]

I speak English and a very little German. I lived in Germany for 3 years when I was 7-10. My dad was in the army and was stationed there. They hired Germans to teach us the language in school. But all they did was to list vocabulary for us to memorize. Did study German in high school back in the states. But that has been many centuries ago and I remember very little. I found the grammar to be extremely confusing. I do wish I had kept it up. It would be nice to be fluent in two languages.

 

[AmberMarie]

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I posted a Cafe. The semester is almost over and I am relieved. Next semester I will start learning a new foreign language, Spanish. I am dabbling with French on Duolingo now. So the questions today are:

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

*my first language is English. i know extremely little (how to count to 10) in Spanish, French and German. i know a few handfuls of words of Spanish and Italian, and i am semi fluent in ASL.
*i have no tips because i was never good at picking up a language. It has taken decades of learning n relearning several times to become semi fluent in ASL.
*i feel the most practical language to learn is the one that benefits you the most in where you live and where you want to travel, work, or live.

 

[Baywasp]

I am only fluent in my native language of English. I took French for years, and I’d say I’m about intermediate level in French. Took an unofficial test that said I was around B1. I am much better at reading and writing than I am listening and speaking, but I’ve been trying to practice. I was able to get along using French when I traveled to France a while ago, but I mostly asked basic touristy questions outside of talking to my host families.
My mom used to teach French at a college, and she recommended I try to go on an immersion trip in France or Quebec at some point. Quebec would be fun, but I would probably struggle with the accents. Recently I tried to watch a video of a French interview with a Quebecois hockey player and really struggled to understand him.
I have dabbled in a few other languages, mostly Russian and Dutch, to varying degrees but don’t really remember much.
I finished the French course on Duolingo a while ago, but the “daily refresh” functionality they offer after the course is pretty terrible.

 

[JMG]

What languages do you speak?
What tips do you have for learning a new language?
What is the most practical language to learn?

Hey Angie, glad to see a cafe from you again, they’ve been missed That’s awesome about the language learning thing too, I love Spanish and wish I spoke it better. I can usually figure it out pretty well, especially from reading. Sometimes hearing it too. French was mandatory from grade 5-9 in school, so I know a bit of that, but not much at all.

1. English is the only “fluent” language I speak.
2. Don’t really have any tips overall, other than that the more it’s practiced the easier it becomes, but that probably goes without saying lol.
3. French, Spanish, Italian or Chinese, cos they seem to be so widely spoken.

Tysm for the tag @cymbele

 

[Lane]

Thank you for this Cafe Angie and tagging me Cymbele.

I speak English only. When my children were small we had a babysitter that lived with us. She told me the story of how she came to America on a raft and only spoke Spanish as a little girl. She said she learned English by watching soap operas.

Currently my son is listening to Spanish and learning, I have to ask him the name of the program. But it asks questions, or says phrases and then he repeats it while he's cooking.

I'd like to learn Spanish. The girls at work speak it a lot, but they're so fast.

 

[Inastorm]

I speak English but i wouldn't say I'm a fluent English reader as i am dyslexic. You may have spotted this in my posts, as they mostly have mistakes in them.

I can speak a little French.

I generally struggle with just English, but i have attempted learning more French.

 

[foreverforgotten]

@cymbele thank you for the tag :3
Happy weekend :3 I hope yours is good and wishing positive vibes and good coffee

What languages do you speak? English/ Japanese
( year 2 but I forgot most of it).

What tips do you have for learning a new language?
Atleast for me, reading it was easier than speaking it. Because people can speak fast, and its hard to keep up at first. and they have different accents and dailects depending on what cities they're from. Common slangs and metaphors are tricky. I would listen to it spoken as much as possible. Translate stuff you read from English out loud into Spanish for fun. Listen to radio, youtubers, news, music, movies with subs in Spanish..

What is the most practical language to learn?
English, French, Spanish, Mandarin

I do want to revisit my old notes and textbook stuff again someday.. but Spanish is more useful where I am.

 

[Kiwi2016]

I speak English and used to speak French (spent Junior Year in Paris)...was never very accomplished at it as I discovered my "what sounds right" approach to English grammar doesn't translate into another language and had a professor of the Ecole de Sorbonne tell me I had a Long Island accent...guess she saw that as the worst thing she could say.

As far as learning...immersing in it and only speaking the language are key...for my classmates that translated to fluency...for me think I needed another year or more....

Practical languages I think depends where you live/work. While a curator I toyed with the idea of learning Japanese as I was in charge of a Japanese American historic site...but needless to say when I realized you need to know 30,000 characters to read a newspaper that concept faded quickly....

I admire anyone who speaks multiple languages fluently...thinks helps too if you're young when you learn....

 

[Auri]

I love that topic! I'm a big languages and linguistics nerd, but also a big advocate for people to learn other languages, especially in English-speaking countries where being bilingual seems to be more rare. It changes your brain so much, but also offers a kind of openmindedness in my opinion that doesn't come with speaking in only one language your whole life.

Whatever motivates you in life can be a way to learn a language!

I have been very lucky myself, being born in a family of immigrants in a country that has 3 official languages itself, and with a mother who made me take languages lessons every Saturday morning. My favourite subject at school was Latin by far and, I must admit, I was the best at it. :p I cannot talk enough about all the benefits of learning a dead language, I want them back in the curriculums of every school in the world.
My love of languages in general came much later though, at university, when I had enough of the science.

What languages do you speak?
I fluently speak French, English and Polish. I have a very good level in Dutch and Norwegian. I have also learned German and Swedish before but haven't practiced in years.

What tips do you have for learning a new language?
Rewatch series you love in the language you learn, only with subtitles in that language. Research series originally in it too, as well as artists who sing in your language and keep listening and singing.

Reread books you love, find youtubers who speak it, anything else you're passionate about... Put your phone and your computer in that language. When you're out and about, observe and wonder how to say something in it, even just saying it in your head. Research words you want to use.

My last tip is, sadly, some self-discipline. ^^ For me, that means doing all that, and getting a textbook and studying my grammar and vocabulary lists.

What is the most practical language to learn?
Honestly, I don't find that learning a "common" language motivates people. If you have a special connection to a language or a country, that will be the most practical for you to learn. In my case, my husband has Norwegian family and I love Finnish culture, so these are the languages I want to put effort into. I have no interest in Spanish or Italian for example, other than my love for all languages. ^^

 

[puffymilk]

Whoa, I missed this cafe!

What languages do you speak?
Other than English, I also speak my national language, but I can't say it because that would reveal where I'm from :P So I would like to keep it to myself. I'm sorry for the gatekeeping!

What tips do you have for learning a new language?
English is not my first language. I've started learning it in school when I was in 2nd grade (7 years old), but I didn't really care about it much... then as I was getting into my teen years I was really into American and British movies and music. Especially the music. With movies, subtitles can help you, but with music and song lyrics, I wanted to REALLY understand them, because sometimes they use all those poetic and beautiful words and were unfamiliar to me. Also, with song lyrics, sometimes they can be such enigma; what's written isn't always what they mean. So when I was around 12 or 13, I started getting serious about English. I watched tons of American comedy shows (because those were what available to me at the time) and I was getting familiar with all the new words, sentences, and phrases (thanks to the subtitles of course). I also started using English on my blog, with the help of Google Translate, even though I still got it wrong so many times! I even was criticized by some native speakers on the internet lol. But that actually helped me. So I’d say the key is to find content you actually enjoy, like movies, music, or shows, in the language you want to learn and use it as a learning tool. Don’t worry about getting everything right at first. The more you hear it, read it, and try to use it, the more natural it becomes. For me, writing blog posts in English, even when they were full of mistakes, was like a training ground. Every little correction or piece of feedback I got, even the harsh ones, taught me something new.

What is the most practical language to learn?
I wanna say.... English? I think my native language is also a pretty easy language to learn, but yeah, I'm gatekeeping it, so sorry guys lol

 

[FFurry]

What languages do you speak? English and bad English
What tips do you have for learning a new language? No lessons, no books, no studying. Works for kids and anyone else thrown into a foreign country!
What is the most practical language to learn? English