Foreign languages that you'll love learning and why?

[achow]

Here are some of the foreign languages that I would love to learn or learning. And here they are in no particular order:

Chinese- in Cantonese because my Grandma speaks it and I had to learn it when I small

Spanish- I want to learn because I love learning all types of languages

Hawaiian- which I learned in college and I took two semester of it. I am still learning the language because it is my passion and I also studied the Hawaiian culture while I was in college. Anyone wants to converse with me?

[Lei K]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Fun subject AChow and your language listing almost looks like a break down of my ancestry.

First and foremost 'olelo. Why? Because it's part of my ancestry and an important part of who I am. It makes my tutu proud to see one of her mo'opuna care about the language and culture as much as I do. She is from the time that it wasn't good to embrace being a kanaka publicly. She lost a lot of her identity back in those days. It makes me feel so good to see and hear how very happy she is when I talk in her native language to her. She tells me all the time, "You should have went Kamehameha like your mother." But what can one do when their father moves them to the conus?

I'm always reaching out to people I admire in the Hawaiian community and I love learning from people who know more than me. One never stops learning when it comes to 'olelo and Hawaiian culture. And it definitely makes me feel more complete as a person.

I'd love to learn more Portuguese than just being able to say hi to my great grandparents, well back when they were alive that is. Oh wait, I know more than that, I can talk about food in Portuguese. HAHAHA! I figure if I learn Portuguese then I can basically converse in Spanish as well and kind of understand Italian.

AChow, I would LOVE to learn Cantonese too! How amazing would that be?! I hardly know any. Once again, it's part of my ancestry. (Wong 'ohana in da hale here).

I took a year of French in high school and would like to pick that up again. I took it up because it sounded sexy, quite honestly.

I'm slowly learning Swedish as it's in my kane's ancestry (Grandmother from Sweden) and we'd love to travel through Scandinavia. And it's like Portuguese/Spanish. You know know enough Swedish you can basically converse in Norwegian and kind of understand Danish.

I know there is more I'd love to learn but I think that will pretty much keep my lifetime of language learning full. lol!

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Hawaiian isn't a foreign language. It is the mother tongue of these islands and is an official state language.

</clarification>

I would love to learn at least three Polynesian languages from a linguistic standpoint. As a Hawaiian speaker, it would give me great enjoyment to compare their similiarities/differences with each other.

I would love to be a fluent reader of Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew. If I could access the coursework, I envision it would satiate me for the rest of my life to read the classics through the languages in which they were written, and have next to them different English translations to cross-compare.

Same thing with that dialect of Chinese through which Sun Tzu wrote.

For some, learning other languages is to have contemporary relevance; visiting the world and ordering a beer. For me, because I've known the enjoyment that reading Kamakau, Malo, etc through Hawaiian and translated English, I have a deep reverence for all that gets lost in translation.

[Lei K]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Hawaiian isn't a foreign language. It is the mother tongue of these islands and is an official state language.

Very true.

I answered in the sense of what languages would I like to learn. Wasn't thinking about the word "foreign" in the thread title.

[Lei K]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

I know I should have used multi quote..

I would love to learn at least three Polynesian languages from a linguistic standpoint. As a Hawaiian speaker, it would give me great enjoyment to compare their similiarities/differences with each other.

Do you find, being a fluent Hawaiian speaker, that you understand what is generally being said when you listen to other Polynesian languages? What have you found to be most similar?

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

If the discussion around me is about the universal concepts, then I can follow along. But if it veers onto modern vocabulary and ideas, I get lost. Tahitian, Marquesan, Maori, Cook Isle Maori are more similar to Hawaiian. Samoan, Tongan, Tokelauan, Rapanuian are more different.

[EastCoastTropics]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Had 3 years of high school spanish and wished I paid more attention! I can understand just a little bit....un poco solomente! Here in MA, spanish is second to english....

[Lei K]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Here in Southern California English is second to Spanish. I could definitely stand to learn something in Spanish other than knowing when something not nice is being said.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Post deleted, with apologies for allowing a bad day to leak from my fingertips.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

Now Leo, I didn't quibble about the possibility of the olelo being foreign to anybody. The OP is from Hawaii, this board is based in Hawaii, and my response was appropriate.

But here, hun. You can have my half of this hair.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

But here, hun. You can have my half of this hair.

OOOH! I shall cherish it always - thankew (you are kind - and tolerant - sorry for the nit-pickiness of the earlier post.)

[Jonah K]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

It isn't a foreign language to you; but to someone in Japan (who may be participating on HT), for example, `olelo Hawai`i most certainly IS a foreign language.

Same language, different perspective.

But you knew that already.

For someone in Japan, 'ōlelo Pelekane or "English" is probably a foreign language as well.

I'd like to master the following languages: English, Nihongo, 'ōlelo Hawai'i, El castellano, Hangungmal, Tagalog, and Chamoru. And I have a scholarly interest the following languages: Samoan, Tongan, Maori, Tahitian, Malagasy, Ucināguci, Ilokano, Tsalagi, Diné Bizaad, Mandarin, Latin, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Hindi, German, French, Irish, Thai, Russian, Swahili, Hebrew, Hausa, Yoruba, Arabic and Armenian.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

I'd like to master the following languages: English, Nihongo, '?lelo Hawai'i, El castellano, Hangungmal, Tagalog, and Chamoru. And I have a scholarly interest the following languages: Samoan, Tongan, Maori, Tahitian, Malagasy, Ucin?guci, Ilokano, Tsalagi, Diné Bizaad, Mandarin, Latin, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Hindi, German, French, Irish, Thai, Russian, Swahili, Hebrew, Hausa, Yoruba, Arabic and Armenian.

For Yoruba, press mëjï, followed by the pound key, now.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

the pound key

a/k/a "the octothorpe" (English can be fun, too!)

[akrauth]

Re: foreign languages that you'll love to learn or learning and why?

I'm learning the following languages:

I ko'u kula:
1. Deutsch because my grandmother and father speak it and it's part of my background; I'm half German and half British English.
2. espanol because it's so widely spoken in the U.S.

I ko'u hale:
1. ka 'olelo Hawai'i because it's a language that I think is so u'i; I love hearing it spoken, listening to mele Hawai'i, and love the culture as a whole
I'm going back this year. No can wait!

E achow, send me a leka uila and I can teach you espanol, or anyone else for that matter. This also goes for 'olelo. My e-mail address is on my profile page.