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What language do you wish you could speak (and/or read)?

I wish I could speak Finnish. But, actually, there are tons of languages I wish I could speak. All of them, really, but Finnish is the first one I thought of just now.

I’m in the US and English is my my primary language. I studied Russian but have forgotten a lot of it. I know a few words of German and French, but very few.

Edited to add: Please tell me what your primary language is. It would also be interesting to know what other languages you speak, if any, and where you currently live.

Tester ,

I used to be quite conversationally fluent in Japanese and Portuguese. Now it’s difficult for me to remember either. When I hear it, I can understand a lot, but not like before. I would love to be able to speak those again. I speak English, French, and Hungarian now, but I wish my French was better… When you don’t use it, you lose it…

FroggyAnya ,

First gen American here, Russian and English are my primary languages and learning German. I wish I’d taken Spanish lessons more seriously so I could actually hold a conversation in Spanish. Also wish I could understand/use ASL.

cwagner , (edited )

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    ken_cleanairsystems OP ,
    @ken_cleanairsystems@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    That would be so cool, though! Has your wife taught you any?

    Flyspeck ,

    I would’ve taken Spanish more seriously in high school if I knew I’d end up living on the west coast as an adult. Besides being better able to communicate with people whose first language is Spanish it would also open up so many movies and novels that aren’t translated or subtitled. Arabic would also be cool to learn.

    IsoSpandy ,

    Machine code. You know, zeros and ones. With total fluency

    MedicPigBabySaver ,

    As an American, I’d begin with Spanish considering how many others speak it.

    Then Norwegian. Language of my ancestors and living extended family. Although all my relatives speak English just fine.

    sparklingsquirrel ,

    I’m a German native speaker and also speak English. I learned Spanish in school but never used it afterwards and therefore have forgotten a lot. So I’d like to be able to speak Spanish again. Knowing Arabic and Mandarin would also be quite cool.

    circuitfarmer ,
    @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    I minored in Japanese as an undergraduate. I kept studying it during grad school, where I got both a Masters and PhD in Linguistics.

    I still really wish I could read Japanese. Conversationally I’m OK. But literacy as a non-native takes extra commitment.

    karmiclychee ,

    My family’s language, Gujarati. I’m a third gen immigrant (UK/US) and for Reasons, I didn’t get taught the language as a kid. It’s not one of those languages you find on Duolingo or at the community college or anything either. It’s a real bummer not being able to connect with your elders.

    In the meanwhile, I studied Chinese in college and Spanish in high school, both in the US. I know (or knew, at one point) just enough to get myself around while traveling.

    nkiru ,

    Spanish and Mandarin. But since we’re playing Fairy Tale, I’d pick all of them. They are all so beautiful sounding in their own unique way. And they are extremely fascinating when you think about it.

    HidingCat ,

    German and Japanese, though of late, Malay as well. The first two because many interesting tech articles are in those two languages (watching anime unsubbed in the latter would be a nice bonus too), and Malay because it'd be helpful for work and volunteering.

    NoneOfUrBusiness ,

    Arabic speaker currently learning Japanese (N2). I wish I could speak Japanese because god this language sucks.

    XTL ,

    Pitkä ja kivinen tie. 😁

    I’m Finnish and besides the school English and Swedish I’ve been learning a tiny bit of Italian, Spanish, Latin, and enough Russian and Greek to be able to read names and other little things, slowly.

    Japanese I can’t get any sort of grip on. So maybe something like that. A completely alien language. No! A properly alien language. Klingon. Or Sindarin. Or Lojban. I’m going to go with Lojban. That might not be totally alien, but it might be the language I’d like totally fluency in just to know what it’s like.

    marron12 ,

    Does music count? I don’t have much trouble with languages, but music theory has always been Greek to me.

    Arabic would be interesting. Or Italian. Finnish is pretty. It has a nice rhythm.

    I’m in the US and speak German and Spanish. I can understand a little Romanian.

    southsamurai ,
    @southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Well, I’d like to “speak” the two that I’ve tried to learn well enough to get near fluency first. Spanish is kinda meh from me, I sound like a five year old at best. My signing (hence the “” around speak) is maybe a tiny fraction better, by vocabulary, but my arthritis has killed my ability to use it.

    English is my first language, American version, southern dialect (if you consider it distinct enough to merit that term).

    If my brain could pick up languages easier, I would pick up gaelic/erse first. One side of my family is heavily irish, and I love the sound of it.

    After that, I’d go for Japanese because I love the sound of it and I’d love to be able to watch my favorite Kurosawa films without subtitles or dubbing.

    Back over to Europe for German because the other side of my family runs heavy to German ancestors.

    I have a list in my head of this general question tbh. It goes on a while.

    But, realistically, without a magic wand, it won’t happen. I took years of spanish in high school and college, dated a Mexican girl during part of high school, then a very lovely lady from Columbia later on. So I had access to native speakers over time, but never could really “click” into fluency. Since then I’ve lost a bunch of the grammar and vocabulary I used to have. The chances of me actually learning any other language now approaches zero since I don’t have the advantages I had then.

    I’ve always envied folks that pick up languages relatively easy

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