14 February 2009

Learning Languages...

I have always had a fascination with learning, and in particular learning languages. I guess this stems from the fact that I have always had a knack for picking up languages easily. I once tried to learn Vietnamese, perhaps tried is the wrong word, and after 16 hours of learning my teacher, a South Vietnamese refugee who ended up re-settling in Australia, could not believe that I had never had a lesson before. He seemed to think I was pretty good at it.

I also learned French for a couple of terms in junior high school. I was pretty good at French too. However, much to my mum's horror, I stopped learning French after a couple of terms because I succumbed to peer pressure. My friends were adamant that only "gay" people spoke French, and at 12 I really did not think that I wanted to be gay. Not that I am really sure that I knew what gay was all about back then.

However, I recently bought "French for Dummies" and I am going to teach myself (or re-acquire the limited skills I once had) French. The reason for this undertaking is nothing more than I want to learn and I am keen to learn at least three more languages. At the moment those languages are French, Welsh, and Arabic. I have decided to start with French.

Maybe my next post will be in bad French :D

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good on you! I love French language. I took a course in CCCL Surabaya and was rather fluent after a year but then I stopped it altogether because I was quite busy with my study and now my vocabulary is limited to whats written on the French comic books

Rob Baiton said...

Writer...

I have been listening to a CD for the last few hours. Surprisingly, or not, I seem to recognize lots more than I thought I would.

When I sign out later I am going to go watch some French TV (the beauty of cable TV) and see how I go.

This is going to be fun :D

Rani said...

try using Pimsleur system.. it worked for me very well

Rob Baiton said...

Rani...

I will have to look it up to see what it is. I have never heard of it before or if I have, then I have forgotten it.

Thanks.

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