Random Friday: Speaking Another Language

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I speak English, a little French (I understand a bit more than I speak), and a few signs in ASL.

I think speaking another language other than your mother tongue is awesome and something to be praised. In such a global-minded world, it is important to be able to communicate with others for a multitude of reasons. I admire people who can effortlessly speak multiple languages.

When it came time to choose a language in high school, I chose French "because everyone took Spanish, and French seemed cooler."

I wish I could speak French better. I had two and a half years with Rosetta Stone in high school, but the program stopped accepting my pronunciation of ANYTHING (even on the easiest setting), so I quit out of frustration. My verb conjugation was also very shaky because I didn't understand which ending went with which noun form. My mom, who'd only had a few years of high school French was unable to grade my worksheets if the answer was something that could vary, so that didn't help my sentence/verb conjugation skills.

I managed to test into French II in college; I really should've just started with French I, though, because I felt terribly lost when I started. I did start to remember more things, and I started to pick up some verb conjugation over my two semesters of French (that really felt more like two years' worth since so much information was packed in). One of my friends at school actually picked up a French major because she loved her basic French classes so much.

To retain my skills, I use the Duolingo app, and it's useful for vocab and speaking and some listening. I can definitely read most written French (although there's still a few conjunctions and rarer words I struggle with), but my listening skills are still shaky, just because native speakers talk fast. (And I acknowledge that I speak very fast in English, so it's only natural for someone to speak quickly in their native language.) So I'm a bit nervous about going to Quebec in a week, especially because I've been learning European French, and I know there are a few differences between that and Quebecois. Hopefully I won't make a complete fool of myself!

Do you speak another language? What language do you wish you could speak?