Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

[Carmody]

My apologies if this has already been asked, but I am interested in why people choose the foreign language that they have picked to study.

I am not a polyglot but I am studying French because I like the sound of the language and the literature of the country.

[galaxyrocker]

To be honest, I don't really have a good reason for picking Irish. I knew only the stereotypical views of Ireland before picking it up, and am not of Irish descent (because for some reason that stuff matters to Americans), so I really had no reason to pick it up. I had already been oddly interested by Scottish Gaelic, but never would have studied it in depth. However, when I heard Irish could secure my study-abroad place in Ireland, I decided to pick it up. And from there I feel in love with it. The teachers were just super enthusiastic that it rubbed off on me. And then I went and studied in the Gaeltacht, where just the joy of the older people that I was learning it kept me hooked. I've kinda been in love with it since, though I have had periods of burnout.

[Finny]

I originally started learning Spanish in high school (well, technically 8th grade) because I wanted to understand what Ricky said in I Love Lucy...

As an adult, I focused on Spanish to get work as a bilingual preschool teacher and to teach it to my kids. I added French this past summer to add it as a 3rd language for the kids. Daughter (2) definitely speaks and understands English and Spanish, and understands simple read and spoken French right now. Son (1) understands English, Spanish, and some French, and has a few independent words in English. I'm still learning French, and know that for them to learn it well, I'll need to learn it well, so...working on it, ha.

[Marais]

My apologies if this has already been asked, but I am interested in why people choose the foreign language that they have picked to study.

I am not a polyglot but I am studying French because I like the sound of the language and the literature of the country.

How did you know you liked the literature of the country before learning any of the language?

I was learning German, because i was going to move to Germany.

Our plan was to move to Germany for a few years and then look to buy a farm in France. Instead, at some point, we decided to skip the Germany part and just go straight to France. The day we decided that (June 16th last year) i ditched German and started learning French.

[MamaPata]

I had the opportunity to do French, Spanish, and Latin in school. I really enjoyed them so am trying to continue with them (well, Latin has disappeared, but maybe one day!). I started Russian because I moved there. Arabic just sort of seemed useful?

(The short answer: I don't really have any reasons to learn any of them! Just seemed interesting?)

[Elenia]

How did you know you liked the literature of the country before learning any of the language?

Probably through reading in translation?

My apologies if this has already been asked, but I am interested in why people choose the foreign language that they have picked to study.

I picked French because my mother learnt it, and also because I wanted to understand the French words scattered liberally throughout the literature that I liked reading when I was younger and more erudite. I first wanted to learn German because it sounded funny. And then I actually heard the language and fell in love with it. Also, I love hearing Germans speak French (not that that has anything to do with anything!) Swedish came because I wanted to pick up a Scandinavian language. I was all set to pick up Danish because of Hans Christian Andersson and because we have a Danish family friend, but then I met my Swedish boyfriend and dropped HCA for John Ajvide Lindqvist instead. The other languages are mostly because impulse control is a thing that happens to other people. Apart from Korean. Korean is delicious.

[tastyonions]

Started learning French as a sort of experiment, more or less, to see what it would be like to study a language independently and how far I could get with it. Then things just kind of snowballed from there.

[Egwene]

My first foreign langage was English, which we had to learn at school. Then I picked up German, because I started to work in hotels. I worked a lot with German children who didn't understand English at all. It was really fun to learn a language like this, but also very frustrating at other times. Then I moved to Italy for a summer and I loved this language. I sadly forgot lots of it, but I hope to relearn it soon. From there my work brought me to Turkey. I hated the language. I didn't like the sound, the words.. I stopped with the necessary basic phrases. And then I went to Greece and started to learn Greek. I really like this language. It sounds like a mix of Turkish and Italian. My extra reason to continue with this language is my relationship with a Greek man. He helps me, when I ask for it. So, many times my choices are work-related.

[garyb]

I studied French at school and then a few trips to the French Alps made me want to pick it up again. I couldn't say or understand very much, but the fact that I already had some knowledge made it seem much more approachable compared to starting from scratch. Then we all know how it goes, my interest in French became an interest in languages in general, and at the time I was hanging around a lot with Spanish and Italian speakers so I got curious about these too.

[James29]

To make money... by providing Spanish speakers valuable services in their native language.