Welcome to Gaia! ::

Not at all. Actually C1 isn't a college course, it's a level on the European language proficiency chart. C1 is basically low to mid level fluent, I suppose you could say.

So, how did you get interested in foreign languages?
Like many of you, I was also interested in languages at an early age. I remember when my family and I took a trip to Canada and there were these little cards in many different languages at our hotel. My brother and I picked up the Japanese one, because at that time, we were both big anime fans. I remember skipping around a store reading random phrases. The two ladies working there, I am not sure if they were Japanese or not, but they looked really suprised. XD But I really didn't start learning languages until I started high school. Also, since my grandpa used to travel all over the world, I got to learn about all the places he'd gone, which got me interested in many cultures. =)

What was your first foreign language?
When I was in first grade, we had high school students come in and teach us basic Spanish. Also, since every so often we would have a spanish-speaking student move here that didn't know English very well, we always had the Spanish language around. Often, they would pick different students and we would learn the Spanish and english of the numbers, animals etc. I did have a little french in Junior high, but it was only for a day. I lost all my french notes I got from there. sad It wasn't till by freshman year of high school that I started to learn languages seriously. Since our school only offers Spanish, I took it and now love it. This also sparked me to learn other languages as well.

How many years have you studied foreign language?
I've studied Spanish for about 4 years in school. Japanese, I've only studied about 4 months, but have stopped for awhile. German, maybe a month. All the others, hardly enough to consider studied. I really need to get going. lol

When I look back, I can see that I was always interested in foreign languages, though I didn't realise it until much later. As a child I loved the trial rosetta stone software on my computer and always wanted those muzzie videos. In third grade I studied Spanish before school, but for a variety of reasons I didn't continue the lessons. I was also really obsessed with codes, which I think is similar. Then in middle school, even though Spanish was required I had a different class that period and never took it, so my love of languages still wasn't recognized. Like frozennight, I really liked hieroglyphics in 6th grade, but I never acted on that. I did manage to teach myself to read the runic alphabet in middle school, though, so not a total waste. As a freshman in high school it was this, along with my French I class that finally made me realise that I love languages. I can't believe it's been so long already.
As for my first foreign language, well, I studied welsh the most with rosetta stone, and then there was Spanish. I'm not sure which was first. My first serious language was Japanese, though that was only a few months before French.

In the end, it frustrates me that I didn't realise sooner that I love foreign languages, but I feel lucky that I knew what I wanted to do with my life before most of my peers.


Edit: Oh yeah, and I also used to just look at the safety cards every time I would fly(I flew a lot as a kid) wishing I could read them. I also have a Hawaiian and an ASL dictionary from when I was a kid. So the interest was definitely there. I just wish my dad had taken it more seriously.
I suppose my first non-serious language would actually be when we learned to count to 10 in Swahili in first grade. I know someone who still remembers it- and we're going to graduate in the spring!

我爱你。。。(Wǒ ài nǐ...)

So, how did you get interested in foreign languages?
- I've always been interested in different cultures, and with difference cultures comes different languages. I have a pretty multi-cultural family which basically gave me the motivation to learn more about what my family was speaking. My grandma and her family speak Spanish. My grandpa and his family speak German and broken Russian. French is a fading language in my area (Louisiana). All the other languages I picked up are off of pure interest in learning and a admiration of the culture it stems from.

What was your first foreign language(s)?
- Spanish. My grandma and her sisters insisted I learn it from an early age. I grew up with English and Spanish. I knew a lot of German from my grandpa, but he mostly taught me words and simple phrases as a kid.

How many years have you studied foreign language?
- Infinite years of Spanish (I took it in middle and high school too... Easy A)
- 2 years of Japanese
- 3 years of German (I'll be taking proper classes for the next 2 years)

永远。。。(Yǒng yuǎn...)

Well I became interested in German because all my great-grandparents on my dad's side came from either Germany or Luxemburg. As for Japanese I'm not really sure. I liked anime and manga years ago but always thought Japanese would be way too hard. I have no idea when that idea changed. Now I love learning Japanese and don't really watch much anime or read much manga. Weird how things work out.

I've always (ok since I was like 4) wanted to learn Russian. Be only since the beginning of this year did I realize how much I love learning languages.

I happen to agree. I think for me a very irritating part of life is how one one side you've got to a hell of a ******** humongus ammount of beurocratic work to get an education. on the other side the education system is laughable good, WTF? Have I only ever went to the worst schools in the entire country wow the schools here are quite frankly ******** s**t!

I just know a lot of languages because I am European. I only learned much later that being multilanguistic was something of value for American standards. So here I am to your aid lol!