Last year I was in French. I wanted to take French II , but, I descided to go with Spanish this year. I also would like to teach myself Greek. If I take Spanish and Greek this year, by the time I take French II, will I have to learn it all over agian, or is it like "riding a bike", you never forget?
199976
Trust me, you will definitely lose it. I have known many immigrants who, after living in this country and almost exclusively speaking English for several years, forgot much of their native language. One of these is a member of my family; he's a smart guy, but that has nothing to do with it--learning a language and retaining your knowledge of it requires constant practice. If you're only taking a year off, you'll probably remember some when you go back to it, but you'll forget a lot. So if you wait longer than that, a lot of your work from last year will have been wasted--it's like taking two steps forward, one step back. The people who said you wouldn't lose it have obviously never studied a foreign language before. I'm studying French, and I forget a lot of vocabulary when I go just a few weeks without studying.
666012
I do. I took 2 years of classical Latin in High School, and I'm continuing with it next semester in college. I think I've got the pronounciation down--I took classical Latin, and the pronounciation we learned is thought to be the closest to the original. I've got a dictionary and phrase book, so simple conversation shouldn't be too hard. \nI know a little swordplay(self-taught), I can handle a horse pretty well, and I can make fire. I'm in pretty good health, no allergies or anything.\nWhen are you planning on leaving?
230819
Keep up what you're doing.  It takes quite some time.  When you are an intermediate learner (about 3rd,4th year high school, or late 2nd year university) yo could benefit from moving to a French-speaking area.  (Quebec or  Montreal might be easier for a US person.)  Once you can even half-way read French, read.  Read children's books, baby books, magazines, websites (yahoo.fr, insolite is usually interesting.  It has weird stuff).  Don't worry about what you don't understand.  Don't both with the dictionary.  Just read.  I know that there are podcasts in French and that some French newspapers (le monde) have spoken interviews on the computer.  Listen to what you're interested.  You might also want to download or buy French CDs of the type of music you like and listen to them over and over until they get in your head.\nI took 1 year in highs school, minored in college, listened to this one French record album 17 zillion times, fell in love with the book "the Little Prince" in French, started teaching it...and eventually I can open my mouth and let French fall out--but this is a loooooooong process.
10122
I'm not positive but im pretty sure that Foreign languages in middle school dont count. At least mine didnt so i took French 1 in High School and am Taking French 2 in college and then transferring to a better college once i get that credit.
642828
Hi!  Besides the obvious fact that learning Spanish as a second language opens up a huge door in communicating with many more people in the world, I found that learning Spanish as a second language was easy, fun, and gave me a ton of confidence.  When I travel to parts of the world that speak Spanish, I get a lot more respect from the people who live there because I have chosen to learn to speak a language other than my native English.  Speaking Spanish -- or any second language, for that matter -- makes you feel part of another community other than your own.  Also, there is a certain aspect of speaking another language that makes you think differently.  Each language carries with it is own culture, and in that its own way of thought.  That might be difficult to understand, but once you have a mastery of a language, you will learn what I mean by this.  I wish you luck!!
500972
You are very wrong my friend. Look up the history of languages and you will see that there were other languages before that.\nPhoenician greek latin...\nMost languages derive from these ones. And don't try to convince us that phoenician greek and latin come from arabic cause that's a bunch of bull.
106394
Well I lived in hong kong for a month and people there speak cantonese for their daily life, but almost all the people speak mandarin because its mandatory in most of the schools to learn it so its better if you learn mandarin, cantonese is harder.\nAs for french, its my 3rd language and I gotta tell you once you know spanish, french is a piece of cake , so go for french I say , french is also wide spoken, once you learn it I'll say go for mandarin.
448031
Hola,\nHay pocas diferencias entre French y Cajun French, el Cajun French usa frases de ingles traducidas literalmente en francés, pero se entiende bien (si una habla ingles...) y en el caso que evocas me imagino las diferencias.... \nAsí se diría en francés  "notre passé, notre présent et notre futur... C'est un beau voyage. Que vienne le bon temps!", pero pienso que lo pronunciarían  y tambien lo escribirían así en cajun : Not' présent,not' passé et not' futur... C't'un beau 'trip', on 'go' pour l'bon temps!"... 'Trip ' usado por viaje, y 'go' por anda....\n\nMe alegro si te sirve para algo.
404637
It's going to depend on which languages you want to learn.  If the languages you want to learn are European in origin, I have a suggestion.  \n\nWhen I was in High School, I wanted to take a foreign language course, and I had to choose between Spanish and French. I chose Spanish, but for various reasons, I failed it. For the next 24 years I was under the impression that I couldn't learn a second language.\n\nThen when my daughter was taking Spanish in High School, I found that I still remembered quite a bit of it, and began to rethink my impression about my linguistic ability.\n\nOne day I read that Esperanto was the easiest language on earth to learn. I began learning it as an experiment to see if I really could learn a foreign language. Now I'm fluent at it, and have gone on to learn Spanish (I finished the 3 Pimsleur's Spanish courses in 1 year), and moved on to German. Later I learned a little Polish (to take a business trip to Poland) and studied Mandarin Chinese (just because a friend told me about the free course work on chinesepod.com).\n\nKnowing Esperanto first, helped greatly in my other linguistic experiences, but the thing that surprised me the most was that there is a culture around Esperanto that is alive and vibrant, with Music and Literature (both translated and original). Esperanto is my favorite of all the languages, and the easiest to learn of all my language experiences.\n\nPope John Paul II has called Esperanto the "New Latin".  \n\nThis article on Wikipedia is a very interesting article about the benefits of learning Esperanto before other languages.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_value_of_Esperanto
181679
Study french! How interesting!\n\nI was once going to Canada to go do some french courses but i changed my mind. But i was directed to this link to make out where i would like to study. It is a great site where you can choose from the lot. Here...\n\nTAKE A LOOK AND SEE....
159712
Q: What do you call someone who speaks two languages?\nA: Bilingual.\n\nQ: What do you call someone who speak one language?\nA: American.\n\nIn many parts of the world, it's common to speak two or three languages.  Many places speak a European language as a second to their own, or a "lingua franca" for their region, such as Arabic (you can hear it from Morocco to Afghanistan) or Swahili (20+ African countries and 50+ million people).  \n\nThe Europeans, North Africans and Middle Easterners speak several languages because they are exposed to them regularly.  You'll find many Scandinavian and Baltic (Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian) athletes who compete at the world level speak English because they receive English TV transmissions.  (The Baltic states listened to Finnish transmissions illegally.  The Finns didn't mind, but Moscow did!)\n\nFortunately, most who do listen to English broadcasts listen to BBC, and NOT to Mouthpiece of America - oops, Voice - VOA.  Sad to say, it's the English speakers who are the biggest morons and don't speak more than our own tongue.  Not taking my French classes seriously in elementary and high school was the second biggest mistake of my life.  (Listening to my parents was #1.)\n\nAnd to see idiot reichwingers in the US who think Americans speaking Spanish is a problem, I can only shake my head.  South America is 500+ million in size, is a growing economic power, they speak Spanish (except for Brazil), and the US wants to ban Spanish in schools and government.  Incredible. 9_9
256452
Everything is relative from your mother tongue. You could say that Spanish is easy for you if you speak Portuguese but it might be not so easy for English speakers. Gaelic is such a small language that is really worth learning just so you can say you speak a rare language. GO FOR IT!!
188691
It should be a big help to know Spanish already. I'd suggest finding a Brazilian in your area to speak with, as the biggest problem I faced with my previous knowledge of Spanish, was the speaking part. That being said, there are big differences and one shouldn't write them off and think they can just use Spanish in Brazil, for example.
265973
If you are thinking "future", which you should be right now, then spanish is the only class you should be taking. Our spanish population has exploded in the past 10 years, think about what it will be like when you graduate from college. Look at the want ads right now....companies are seeking bi-lingual applicants.\n\nIn 10 years from now if you can't speak spanish, the job market is going to be slim pickins for you and me my friend.
344537
I know English and Spanish...\n\nbut i dont know if English would be my foreign language, since i am Puerto Rican, though i speak english as my main language...\n\nyou know what i mean?\n\ni want to learn italian and even greek...
186002
well French is not my mother tongue and I learned it in my twenties. I feel in English and that is why it means more to me as I can understnd every nuance. I will go so far though to say that sometimes something will be said or sung in French that just touches my soul.
98518
I go to Limewire to download songs that I want in Greek, but I go to greek sites to listen to music with no download.  I dont know what language it is you want, but limewire has greek, italian, spanish, arabic etc..