If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you’ll know that I’ve done several articles on how I became interested in several specific languages. I’ve covered Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, and Spanish. Next on my list was going to be Romanian. I have these things grouped by language families, you see, and Romanian is a Romance language like French and Spanish. No, not that kind of Romance. Romance as in Roman/Latin based. 🙂 But I realized I am so new to Romanian that I don’t know I could say much about it at this point in time. So, I stepped back to consider the other languages I’m studying that I haven’t written about yet, and I’ve realized the same may be true of them. So, I’ve decided to give the remaining languages a paragraph, rather than a page. In time, I hope to be able to say more about them because they are no less special to me than the others. They’re just newer, so the journey has been short and only just begun.
Romanian
When I was a little girl, one of my sports idols was the amazing Nadia Comăneci, a Romanian gymnast. In general, I am not a sports fan, but I’ve had a handful of gymnasts over the years that I’ve followed, and she was and always will be at the top of the list. At the same time, I’ve always been a big fan of vampires. … And you see where this element is going, right? If Nadia had been a vampire, I’m sure I would have adored her even more, but Dracula was the next best thing since the world is not ready for vampire gymnasts yet. Now, I’m sure that Romanians get tired of being pegged by these two cultural tags, and neither have anything to do with the language or culture of the country itself, really. But me being me, I take something that interests me and run with it until it explodes. So, two curiosity items like these DO turn into language and history lessons and a deeper appreciation of the culture they come from. So, never bash someone for having a stereotypical interest in a perhaps not-so-serious topic. You never know where it may lead. Learning can begin anywhere with anything!
I had no initial plans to actually study Romanian, but it has always intrigued me. One day I was reading email when I noticed the Romanian flag on the Duolingo blog newsletter. Are they offering Romanian now?! I checked the website. Yep! They’re offering Romanian now. I told myself “NO!” because I was already studying 11 other languages. And yet … I was just curious to see how these lessons would be. So, I clicked in … just curious. You don’t click on a lesson and NOT do it, though, right? (sigh) I am hopeless. And Romanian is now among my list of languages that I’m trying to learn. It’s only been a few months, but I’m loving it. My knowledge of French and Spanish are a big help. So … I’m glad I followed my curiosity. And I hope to learn a lot more over the coming years.
German
I became interested in German because my dad’s side of the family is German-Swiss-English. But also, my best friend and roomie at university was a student of German in high school. So, I spoke French, she spoke German, and another suitemate spoke Spanish; and the three of us would speak to each other in our second languages and respond in kind without really knowing what each other was saying. So, that was loads of fun. And eventually, we did learn words and phrases from those languages we had not studied just from playing around with them like that. So, I liked German. I loved German folklore and fairy tales. This language feels oddly familiar, like I should know more. But every time I tried to start lessons, I failed to be consistent and eventually dropped it.
I’ve been studying German for a little over a year now consistently. More if you patch in the moments of starts and stops from the past. My German lessons come from a blend of Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, music, and TV series. I’m maybe beginner 2? I’m not ready to begin reading literature in German yet, but I’m getting better at listening comprehension. Sometimes, I can still hear my roomie speaking to me when I come across words or phrases she frequently used. But mostly, I’m just glad that German is becoming part of my knowledge base, too.
Norwegian
Why Norwegian? I’ve always loved snow and snowy places, so part of me has always wanted to live in Norway. My ancestry is also a bit Norwegian. Norwegian folk art, mythology, and history have always been super interesting for me, and when I became interested in Old Norse through those things, I was blown away by how similar it is to English. I know everyone classifies English as a Germanic language (which Norwegian is, too), but English is closer to Scandinavian languages than German by far. So, if I was fascinated by Old Norse and all these other things from this part of the world, it only made sense to learn modern Norwegian, too.
I’ve been studying Norwegian for about a year now, via Duolingo and LingQ. I’m focused on listening comprehension right now. And I will admit I haven’t made as much progress here as I would like. I think it’s because I had to make the most of my Spanish Rosetta Stone lessons before that subscription expired, so some of these languages had no choice but to become minor studies for a while. That subscription expired today, so I should be able to bring those languages that haven’t been getting as much attention forward now. The thing that I’ve gained the most from studying Norwegian (funnily enough) is an “ear” for hearing cognates in Swedish, Dutch, and Icelandic. 🙂 I’m not even studying Swedish and Dutch, but I hear Norwegian words in them, just pronounced differently. I have a feeling 2022 will be a good year for advancing in Norwegian. And eventually, I would (still) love to live in or visit somewhere very north. I’m just a polar bear when it comes to preferred environmental settings.
Finnish
Almost everything I said above regarding Norway could be duplicated for Finland, except any Finnish heritage possibility was eliminated and pushed into Norwegian DNA results. And I honestly don’t know as much about Finnish culture and history as I do about Norwegian. I loved how Finnish sounded, and I thought it was related to other Scandinavian languages, so I thought … why not. But then I found out Finnish is NOT as Scandinavian as one would think based on location. It’s actually more Slavic and is a close cousin of Hungarian. I’m not studying any Slavic languages, but Finnish and Romanian are two languages heavily influenced by Slavic cultures; so when I found that out, I was actually quite happy and more interested to keep learning both.
Finnish has been fun. The only lessons I’m currently doing are Duolingo because this was also one of the languages I haven’t been able to advance quickly in due to other languages needing a more dominant time allowance for now. But they are probably some of the most animated lessons in my notebooks. And for some reason it’s really sticking with me well, despite the fact that I’m not spending hours upon hours with it yet. That’s a good sign, so I’m looking forward to stepping up my game with Finnish soon.
Icelandic
I’ve always been interested in Old English, ever since I first heard it read aloud. So, when I found out Icelandic is English’s oldest “living” cousin (and how English might have sounded today had the Norman invasion not introduced so much French into the language), I HAD to learn more about it. Iceland itself, being relative to both Scandinavian and Scottish cultures is yet another part of the world that I’ve felt drawn to personally for some inexplicable reason. But the language is absolutely melodic to my ears. So, this was another “If not now, when?” learning interest for me.
Icelandic is the only language I’m studying that is NOT offered by Duolingo. (At least not as of the date of this article.) I picked it up after testing a bunch of other apps for other languages: after spotting it on Drops, I immediately added it to my list. But then I dropped Drops and have had trouble finding Icelandic resources since. LingQ has said they will be adding Icelandic in the future, so I look forward to that. Meanwhile, I’ve tried Memrise and a few other language websites, and I just can’t find anything that works for me that I can afford right now. So, I’ve opted to jump straight into media and see how that goes. I bought myself a beginner reader of Icelandic short stories for Christmas Eve. I have a few bookmarked videos and a TV show so far. Needless to say, lack of easy-to-find resources that might work for me means progress has been slow. But if anything, that will only make me more determined to learn Icelandic. 😉
The Celtic Sisters: Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
The final three languages I’m studying are Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. All three are Celtic languages, though Welsh is a different branch from the two Gaelic ones. Arguments abound whether Scottish Gaelic is merely a dialect of Irish Gaelic or a separate language. I just take each separately, though it is obvious they are related and the parallels help me keep them separate or ladder my learning with similarities. (For example, sentence structures are similar, but accents are not.) My mother’s side of the family is HEAVILY Celtic. As such, I’ve held an interest in these regions of the world, particularly Scotland, for as long as I can remember. My best friends’ mother was Scottish during my very early developmental years, so I know that also shaped my thoughts and feelings about it, since I spent so much time with them. By the time I was enrolled in kindergarten, my teachers had trouble understanding me because my accent and vocabulary. My world view was also very strange. For example, years later I found some play money I crafted on the backs of some old checks that my parents gave me after they switched banks. And I was shocked to see that I didn’t create US dollar bills. I created British pound notes with the queen on them. What American 4-year-old does that? That’s not normal. And it wasn’t until I was a teenager buying a child’s birthday gift that I realized the American version of a game I played growing was NOT called “Snakes and Ladders”; here it was “Chutes and Ladders”. What happened to the snakes? Was that my imagination? No. It was because I literally grew up playing a game bought overseas. So, my brain is just … weirdly wired when it comes to UK stuff.
Anyway, for ages I wanted to learn Scottish Gaelic. I went to highland games. I bought a grammar and dictionary with full intention of teaching myself at least a little. But then we moved to Japan. Japanese had to take the front seat, so Gaelic was pushed to a back burner and sat there ever since … until the 2020 lockdowns began. My DNA results came back showing just how disproportionately Celtic and English my ancestry is, so I finally decided, “If not now, when?” I pulled out my books and dusted them off. I had been using Duolingo to brush up on my Japanese and study Korean, so I found Irish, Scottish, and Welsh and added them to the lineup.
Welsh is relatively easy so far for me. Irish is, in my opinion, the hardest of the three and one of my most difficult languages overall. But I love what I’m studying, and the why and the enjoyment are the most important things when it comes to learning languages. So, though none of these languages are necessary, should I ever make my way to the “Motherland” someday, and I may never actually use them for more than identifying obscure elements in folklore or history, I still really want to learn them. They are in my lesser studies because they don’t rank high in the practicality category for my current circumstances, and they are a little difficult to find media resources for. But I will continue studying nonetheless. It’s super fun and surprising when they DO make an appearance on occasion in a BBC show, website, or story. I’ve gotten stupidly excited over simply seeing the Welsh word for “Welcome” (“Croeso”) on a gas station receipt or hearing the cast of “Outlander” say something I recognize. So that encourages me to keep learning, no matter how far-fetched it seems.
Summary
And there you have it: the final roundup of all my journeys through various language studies. My goal is not to be native-fluent in every language I study. Language learning is, by nature, something that takes a lifetime to master, especially with languages that are not native. My accent is probably really weird because of all the places I’ve lived and the various influences on it in linguistic interests. I may never get to use what I’ve learned in terms of travel or living overseas again. But my goal is to have fun following my curiosity and interests. I would love to eventually be fluent enough to read and translate literature. I would love even more to someday be fluent enough to communicate well in person. And, yes, of course, I would also love to visit the parts of the world where all of these languages are spoken. But even without travel and immersion as possibilities, I learn languages for ME.
Where do I go from here? I haven’t decided yet. I’ve thought about offering some of my lessons as I do them. I’ve thought about posting on linguistics in general, but that might bleed into writing articles. I’ve also considered offering English lessons. I am, after all, a native English speaker with an education in English studies, an author of 6 books, and a TEFL certification. ^_^ If you are a fellow language learner, whether it’s multiple languages or one or two, what kind of content would you like to see next?