What do you love about your second language(s)?

[Serpent]

And the regions of the world that it opens up to me. With English, French, and Spanish - I cover all the important bits.

You may want to add "important for me"

[Bakunin]

And the regions of the world that it opens up to me. With English, French, and Spanish - I cover all the important bits.

You may want to add "important for me"

Hahaha, I thought exactly the same... for me, English, French and Spanish don't cover the 'important bits' at all! But I'm sure @extralean didn't mean this as a general statement...

[coler1]

My reason to love Estonian is a little more sentimental - its my heritage as my grandparents were forced out of Estonia/through Europe in WWII and as children and had to assimilate to Australian English speaking culture and so have suppressed almost the entirety of the language. So learning it feels like connecting with my heritage and like its meant for me.

[extralean]

My reason to love Estonian is a little more sentimental - its my heritage as my grandparents were forced out of Estonia/through Europe in WWII and as children and had to assimilate to Australian English speaking culture and so have suppressed almost the entirety of the language. So learning it feels like connecting with my heritage and like its meant for me.

This is the best thing. Where are you in Aus? Is there an estonian community?

[extralean]

And the regions of the world that it opens up to me. With English, French, and Spanish - I cover all the important bits.

You may want to add "important for me"

Nah, I'm good.

[coler1]

My reason to love Estonian is a little more sentimental - its my heritage as my grandparents were forced out of Estonia/through Europe in WWII and as children and had to assimilate to Australian English speaking culture and so have suppressed almost the entirety of the language. So learning it feels like connecting with my heritage and like its meant for me.

This is the best thing. Where are you in Aus? Is there an estonian community?

I'm in Victoria! There is an "Estonian House" in Melbourne but I've never been to an event... very intimidating! But on 11 October there is a Baltic Festival event so I might see if I can have a look at that...

[extralean]

My reason to love Estonian is a little more sentimental - its my heritage as my grandparents were forced out of Estonia/through Europe in WWII and as children and had to assimilate to Australian English speaking culture and so have suppressed almost the entirety of the language. So learning it feels like connecting with my heritage and like its meant for me.

This is the best thing. Where are you in Aus? Is there an estonian community?

I'm in Victoria! There is an "Estonian House" in Melbourne but I've never been to an event... very intimidating! But on 11 October there is a Baltic Festival event so I might see if I can have a look at that...

You should totally hit them up, they're there to help!

[Iversen]

I learnt Danish because I lived (and lives) in Denmark, and that started already when I was born.
I ought to have learnt hardcore Western Jutish because I lived Ringkøbing in Western Jutland while I learned to speak - but I missed the opportunity .
I learnt Danish because I lived (and lives) in Denmark, and that started already when I was born.
I learnt English because I had to learn it in school, and almost at the same time we got TV with Flintstones, which even gave me a reason for learning it (yabba dabba dooo)
I learnt German because Germany was just 100 km South, and we bought stuff there. Later we also got German television.
I learnt Latin vocabulary because I got interested in zoological nomenclature when I was around 10-12 years old
I learnt Latin grammar much later
I learnt Italian because I played classical music, and I wanted to know what the exotic words on my note sheets meant
I learnt Spanish because the people (2 x Kirchheiner) who had written my Italien textbook also had written one for Spanish
I learnt French because I got the chance in the 'Gymnasium', and I was already studying Italian and Spanish at home
I learnt to understand, but not speak Low German because of "Talk op Platt" on NDR
I learnt to understand, but not speak Dutch because the words are like German and the grammar like Danish. Later I have also learnt to speak it.
I learnt to read Old French because I studied Modern French
I learnt to read Old Occitan because the same teacher who taught Old French also taught Old Occitan
I learnt Catalan because we had a teacher at the university who was a specialist in that language so he offered courses
I learnt Romanian because we suddenly got a native Romanian teacher at the university
I didn't really learn to write and speak Norwegian because they have so many dialects and it's hard to choose - and the Norwegians don't write nearly enough in New Norwegian (Bokmål is boring). However I understand it fluently, even when spoken.
I learnt to write and speak Swedish a few years ago because it was idiotic not to try when I already could understand everything
I went to courses in Icelandic in the 70s, but didn't learn the language properly until a few years ago
I learnt to understand and write, but not speak Scots because of Billy Connally and his dirty jokes on Youtube
I learnt rudimental Portuguese in 2006 because I had booked a trip to Cabo Verde one month later (later I learnt it better)
I learnt a little bit of Esperanto because it seemed to be common among polyglots
I learnt the Greek letters because they were used in physics, and I learned the rest later because I wanted to know another branch of the Indoeuropean languages
I learnt the Russian letters because I visited the place in 1975, and I learned some more later because I wanted to know another branch of the Indoeuropean languages
I learnt some Serbian (and therefore also some Croatian) because I wanted to have one more language which was written with Cyrillic letters - and besides I participated in the conference at Novi Sad in 2014
I learnt some Polish because it is fairly near Denmark and prices are fairly low there = travel opportunities
I didn't learn nearly enough Irish, partly because the Slavic languages took over, but also because I never really got on nodding terms with the pronunciation.
I learnt some Bahasa Indonesia because I had intended to learn Bahasa Melayu, but the two parallel guidebooklets I had bought in Singapore turned out to be written in English and in Indonesian and then I changed my target. But in Berlin in May this year I heard to my dismay that the spoken language is totally different so now I can only claim to have studied the written version.

[sillygoose1]

French:

It's the next biggest Western language beneath English as far as quality of music, literature, movies, and tv goes. When written formally with use of all of its tenses, it's an extremely beautiful language. Even after studying it for 4-5 years, I still find a certain charm and cultured feeling when speaking it or hearing it spoken.


Spanish:

Like someone else said, it's very "sassy" and expressive. Swear words and insults are highly creative and hearing certain speakers argue can be pretty entertaining. It's also extremely varied with a very rich vocabulary spanning tons of countries. Some would say even more varied than English and I'd have to agree with them. Also if anyone has ever watched Aguila Roja or Isabel, you may agree with me when I say that peninsular Spanish is basically the de facto Church language and the two just fit together so well. Watch one of those shows where they give a sermon/mass in Spanish and you'll see what I mean.


Italian:

Melody and expression. I wouldn't class it as diplomatic as French but it sort of has that refined sound mixed with that Spanish sassy-ness. For some reason, I don't really like the written language all too much. It just seems kind of cluttered or something. But the dialectal variety and spoken language make up for that ten fold.


German:

I love the culture associated with German more than the language itself. Its status as a highly refined civilization up there with Japan and Scandinavia as well as its fame for being a scientific/philosophical language makes it highly attractive to learn. I mean, a German invented calculus for God's sake(depending on who you ask, I still go for Leibniz). That's cool as hell.


Portuguese:

Brazilian culture mainly. When we think of Brazil in the US, we think of gorgeous women and sunny beaches. Well, I'm speaking for myself I guess.


Latin:

I love everything about it. The civilization associated with it, literature, philosophy, medicine, architecture, politics, various types of Latin through each century. Westerners are highly influenced by the Romans and they certainly left their mark in regards to Romance languages. I don't see them ever being forgotten.

[getreallanguage]

Spanish is my native language. I owe to it a red carpet into the Romance family, and I love Old Spanish, and the languages it in turn helped me understand: Ladino and Asturian.

English was the first foreign language I ever learned. I did it over several years with no method other than pure love and curiosity. It's my adopted "other native language", the one I chose to be with, as opposed to the one I just grew up with. I get mistaken for a native all the time, and I like it not because of the bragging factor, but because people are listening to what I have to say and not to how I'm saying it, and I get welcomed into a culture I find fascinating to this day.

When it comes to Italian, I love the people and the culture more than the language, to be perfectly honest. Not that it isn't a beautiful language - because it is - or that I don't like it - I do - but I like a good helping of novelty and strangeness, and that's lacking because of the Romance angle. And also because the music of it is a little too familiar. I speak Rioplatense Spanish, and it's no myth that our cadence and intonation has been greatly influenced by Italian.

Now, Dutch, Dutch I love. Totally still in the honeymoon stages. I absolutely love the sound of it, its beauty and strangeness, and how it flows in its difficulty as it rolls off the tongue. I love all its vowels, and lord does it have a bunch. I love Dutch proverbs, the raw germanicness of it, and the strange romance-like aspects of it. Studying it is pure joy.

Swedish is a lot of fun. I picked it because I was interested in learning a north germanic language and it was the coolest sounding one I encountered. I just study it for no more than 20 minutes a day, at night before going to sleep, and it's fun with its postfixed definite articles and cool sound inventory.