Welcome to Gaia! ::

I started French in grade seven, and I'm closing up French III now. Still, I really wish I could have started learning at a much younger age-- although I do love the language (so romantic!) I am swiftly loosing interest in areas aside from music and such (i.e. grammar, vocabulary-- I can hold a tiny conversation, but I just can't keep my attention on the words!).

It's actually been studied that when a child is young and learning to talk is the time when they can absorb languages very easily and quickly. That's why some preschools are offering foreign languages-- because even if the child stops taking it after a year or so, they'll have that ability to understand and comprehend the language faster if they pcik it back up again later. One of my friends took French as a child, and although she stopped for a few years, she says it's coming back as she learns more in class.

Still, I adore listening to songs I know that are dubbed in French and other languages (French is premiere because I know it, ha ha). Example: the Icelandic version of For A Moment from The Litle Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea is incredible, the French almost bumping it from first. Also, the Arabic version of We Are One from Lion King II: Simba's Pride is great; the actor really lets the emotion flow. Really, I've found that listening to songs in different languages is rather enjoyable, because you aren't concentrating on the lyrics. It's the emotion put into the words that really grabs at you, and although this is found everywhere in your own language, it still is great to be able to forget about following a plot in the words and letting the music wash over you.

(**WOW I haven't been here in a while!**)

It's called English. biggrin

I think you're right about the younger children being able to learn languages faster; I was taught Hebrew for my first six years at school, then French for two, and now I'm in my third year of Latin. I really love Latin, despite hating the first two. It's just a pity it's so difficult to memorise information now - for my exam next week I have to learn five different passages in Latin, and their translations (word for word).

I am very fluent in English.

Mein Deutsch ist ganz gut.

Jag forstår lite Svenska. (spelling?)

Farsi ye kami baladam, amma farsi khaili khoob nemitoonam harf bezanam.

Watashi wa sukoshi Nihongo ga wakarimasu. (that being the current extent to my understanding of Japanese)

etc.

I've been teaching myself eleven languages in addition to taking a college German course.

in order they are: German, Swedish, Farsi (Iranian), and Japanese (of course)

I've been using the, rather excellent if I may say so myself, Pimsleur language tapes (well...CDs actually).

I am, primarily, an auditory learner so I find the audio to be much more effective for comprehension than the rote memorization of word lists, grammatical rules, et cetera; that is not, of course, to say that the latter does not have it's respective merits (indeed, if you happen to have a visual mindset, it may be the better option).

I also happen to be very good at distinguishing and imitating phonemes, the individual units of sound which make up a word, so I'm afraid I tend to have a bit of an advantage in learning foreign languages (it is to my utter mortification that I realize the fact that a number of people in my German class still pronounce 'ich' as "ick"; to whit, it drives me freaking nuts >.O).

The most tiresome languages to learn are those with tonal distinctions (Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, etc)...at least in my opinion...
...so my understanding of Vietnamese goes about as far as "doi hiao mot it dyeung viet" (as with the majority of the phrases above: "I understand a little Vietnamese", which is, quite possibly, the most dangerous phrase you could possibly use...anywhere)

Drives me insane, too, along with people who insist on pronouncing every consonant in French ("les" does not rhyme with "less" DX )
You know, it surprises me that someone who is good at imitating languages wouldn't particularly like tonal languages. Maybe I'm weird, but one of the reasons I love learning Chinese is because I find tones fun and challenging. *shrug* I don't mean to dis, but that's just a thought.

Very cool, though, language talents are very useful in today's globalizing world.

Usually I don't remember my dreams, and usually if I do remember them, they're in English. I've had dreams in Chinese before, but usually they take place in China or in my Chinese classroom so I dunno if that really counts. I actually had a dream once in Japanese but it was really short and lame (most of my dreams are, though...)

Yeah.. I tried learning Russian once and the characters confused me and I gave up.