Languages
Languages, linguistics, phonetics, grammar, syntax, spelling, semantics. They all have a large place in my heart. I love communication, and I love the diversity all the world's languages offer. Ideally, I would learn and master each and every language on the planet, but I know that's not possible.
I am planning on learning quite a lot of languages in my life though. My current goal is to speak ten (10) languages fluently before I die. I have heard that it is easier to learn languages when you are young than when you are old, so I've got no time to lose. That being said, I've also read about people in their fifties and sixties who started learning a language and who since became fluent in it, so I'm not losing hope just because the biological clock is ticking.
Contents |
Languages I know
These are the languages I know. Since I already know them, I will probably not write much about them. I am more interested in writing about the languages I'm learning and that I'm going to learn.
Norwegian
I am Norwegian. Having Norwegian parents, family and friends made my native language Norwegian. Since I am from the capital city, I naturally have the dialect of the capital. Most people consider the capital dialect the purest/most standard (and thus also the most boring) dialect. Having been born and raised in the eastern part of town, among the "worker class", I use the more “vulgar” of the two main sociolects in town.
English
I started learning English in elementary school. I've been speaking English since I was 8 years old. Although it all started in school, it was not the English they taught in school that made me as fluent in English as I am today. Instead, it is a result of my own desire to become perfect at the language as well as the constant exposure from music, TV, computers, the Internet and the people on the Internet with whom I communicate with in English. I consider myself extremely fluent in English, and I communicate with others using English with ease. I've heard from several Americans that my English is better than many native-born Americans' English. Not the pronunciation, mind you, but the vocabulary and/or grammatical correctness. All jokes aside about Americans' intelligence, I think that's a very flattering thing to be told by people who speak English as their native language.
More in-depth stuff concerning English:
German
This one is a bit of a stretch. I was supposed to learn German in school. I got off to a horrible start with the worst teacher ever, and since I did not really learn anything on the basic level, I was never able to catch up when we later proceeded to the more advanced stages, not even with different (read: better) teachers. It is unfortunate, but I am utterly unable to communicate effectively in German today. I've decided to pick it back up and bring it to fluency sometime in the near future. Probably after I'm content with my Korean progress.
The language I'm currently learning
Indeed, there should only be one (or no) language here at any given time. I don't have a clue how I'd cope with learning more than one language at a time. Learning just one is hard enough as it is.
I'm currently learning Korean.
Languages I like and want to learn
These languages are my very favorite languages, which is why I want to learn them, obviously. The reason why I like each language (if I have one that I can specify) will be put into each language's separate page. They are listed in the order I currently want to learn them.
- Korean (한국어)
- (German (Deutsch))
- Japanese (日本語)
- Mandarin Chinese (官话)
- Russian (Русский язык)
- French (Français)
- Dutch (Nederlands)
- Turkish (Türkçe)
- Finnish (Suomi)
Languages I like, but that I do not have immediate plans of learning
One cannot really take time for them all, and I think learning all the languages I listed above is challenge enough. However, if I am able to learn all of the above, and still feel like learning more, I do not see anything wrong in moving one of the ones here up to the category above. These are listed in the order I like them.
- Polish (and most other Slavic languages)
- Icelandic
- Spanish
- Italian
- Swedish
- Danish
