A few thoughts on learning languages

I have learned a lot of languages. Some are easy, some are really hard...

German is my mother tongue. I'm pretty good in German but it's not a language that always makes sense. You need to practice a lot, learn many things by heart and get used to almost as many exceptions as there are regular grammar rules. It's a rich, poetic and beautiful language though with a lot of different words. I would choose to learn other languages such as English or Russian well before starting to learn German which is definitely tougher.

My second language is French. When I started to learn it, I had seven classes a week. I had exchange programs of several weeks and went to schools in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and later on Villeneuve-d'Ascq. Many people say that French is hard but I always thought that the grammar was much more logical than German grammar and I never got any troubles with this language. I'm living in Quebec since 2009 and have become perfectly bilingual over the years. I also have a strong accent by now and prefer the different local idioms over school French. This is not always a case for immigrants as many can't make sense of the local idioms and still speak school French. If you want to integrate and identify with the culture of a country, you should at least be able to tolerate and speak some local idioms.

My third language is English. I was neither good nor bad and I had a lot of mediocre teachers. It started to get better when I began to write reviews on the internet. This made me revise some important grammar rules and look up a lot of new words. Written practice really helped me to improve my English as well as reading books and watching movies in English. I decided to go further and taught some basic English at a local language school. If I meet foreign or bilingual people, I try to practice my English as often as I can. Each year my English is getting better.

The fourth language I have learned is Latin. You really need to work hard and spend a lot of time to learn this language. It's really tough but Latin grammar is precise and always makes sense to me. While I was learning Latin for four years, all my other languages improved as well because Latin influenced many of them. I haven't practiced this language for almost eight years by now, so I'm obviously a little bit rusty.

The fifth language I have learned is Russian. Many people think it's hard but it isn't. It's easier than German and French and not as hard to digest as Latin. Grammar rules are rather easy and the vocabulary is rather close to English/German as well as to French at some points (this has historical reasons). Knowing these other three languages definitely helped to learn Russian. I had the chance to go on a school trip to Saint Petersburg for one week and in only one week in this country my Russian improved incredibly. For a while, I was seriously thinking of doing my studies in Russia but I later moved to Canada. I took a few Russian lessons again at university but I haven't practiced this language for four years by now. It's maybe the most beautiful language I have ever learned.

The sixth language I have learned is Innu-Aimun, a First Nation language spoken in the North-East of Quebec. This language is incredibly hard to learn. There is no real alphabet and there are almost no languages to compare it to. I only took lessons for about four months and even though I was intrigued by the language, I'm not able to speak it at all. This kind of language needs a lot of patience and practice and you really have to speak to Natives to learn it. I learnt much more about Innu culture than the language itself when I took classes. This is definitely the hardest language I have ever learnt.

My seventh language is Mandarin Chinese. I took lessons for about four months and was able to practice with a few people as well. Grammar is not so tough but the pronounciation is really hard because many words may sound similar but have completely different meanings. As most of you know, even communication between Chinese can be difficult. When I was talking to people from a Southern province like Sichuan or Guangdong for example, they easily understood me despite my big accent. People from northern parts like Beijing basically didn't understand me at all. I have no clue why that was so. I would really like to learn more about this language, apart of Russian it's definitely the most beautiful and intriguing language I have learned so far.

My eighth language is Japanese. I was always into Japanese culture and it was a childhood dream for me to learn Japanese but it's an incredibly tough language. Many people say it's easier than Mandarin Chinese but I don't agree at all. The pronounciation is not so hard, that's true. Japanese grammar is quite complex though and the fact that they sometimes use three alphabets at the same time is incredibly tough and incoherent in my opinion. You need to learn a lot by heart and practice regularly to make sense of it and it will still be hard. I took some lessons for about four months. The first few classes were easy but after two months and a half, I was completely lost. It's the first time (apart of Innu-Aimun) that I thougt a language was almost too tough for me to learn. Maybe I will try again with a different teacher and some more discipline one day.

I always wanted to learn languages that I thought were challenging, different and exotic most of the time. Today, I'm eager to learn easier languages as well. Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are definitely not tough if you know Latin and French as in my case. If I had some more time, I would like to improve my Russian and my Mandarin Chinese and still learn some of these other languages.

The best way to learn a language is taking classes (high school, college, universities, language schools) and travelling / immersions. If you want to learn a language on your own, here are some advices: Practice regularly - no excuses! Try to write down some vocabulary each day, let's say about ten words a day. Learn a new grammar rule every two or three days. Practice regularly with real people instead of the internet (even though you can start and find some people there). Don't hesitate to ask foreigners to help you and practice with them. Most of them will accept and will be happy to see that somebody is interested in their culture and language. In every bigger city, there are things like "language circles" for natives and foreigners and you can easily find information about it at language schools, colleges and universities or on social media. If you ask a girl as a guy or the other way around, be careful because some people tend to think you just want to flirt and not really learn a language. Prove that you are serious and set things clear right from the start. Buy different books from different publishing houses to improve your language. Don't only focus on talking but also on reading and writing at the same time even if it's less interactive.

Some people think that watching movies or listening to music might be incredibly helpful. I don't agree. This might help if you already have a really solid base, otherwise it's overrated and pretty much a waste of time in my opinion. 

Never give up on a language. If you want to learn it, then there is a way.