Life of a Blogger is a weekly feature hosted by Novel Heartbeat! This is just a way for my readers to get to know the person behind the book blog a little bit better. This week’s theme is…
Languages!!
Growing up, I went to elementary school with around 50-50 Japanese/American kids. My first language is English and I’m from the US. My area had a popular program so whole families would come over and live in our neighborhood for around five years. All of my best friends from elementary school were Japanese, and since everyone around me spoke Japanese, I picked it up second hand. I was able to speak some words and figure out enough of what they were saying. As I got into 4th and 5th grades, I started attending Japanese school so I could learn how to write it.
In high school, we were required to take two years of Latin before we could transfer out to another language. It was so much work and suffering, but it actually helped so much in learning other languages! I still can translate pretty well from Latin to English, but not the other way.
After finishing Latin, I started taking Spanish. My first year of Spanish was really bad. Our teacher barely taught us anything the entire year and no one cared about the class. Because of that, I have never really liked Spanish. I am in my second year of Spanish and it hasn’t gotten much better.
I still love language though – even though Spanish just isn’t my fit! I tried learning French for a while, but I found without having to take it for school or some other motivation, I just couldn’t dedicate myself to French. I did find my favorite singer, Stromae, though the language though! I hope one day I’ll return to French with some more dedication.
Right now, in addition to Spanish, I am starting to learn Arabic! I have really found a huge interest in the Middle East and the culture of that region. Arabic is such a beautiful language and I love both writing and speaking in it. So far, I have really found a great connection to Arabic. I am hoping to continue with that in college as well.
What languages do you all speak?
Neon Yeti Reads 
My Spanish class isn’t the greatest either. Especially when it comes to speaking. But you speak so many languages! That’s amazing.
My Spanish class was really just a mess…and thanks! I’m not that close to being fluent in most of them, although I am hoping to major in Arabic.
That’s a lot of languages! I took Spanish all through elementary and high schools, but never liked it. So, when I needed a language requirement for college, I picked Italian. I LOVE Italian, where I hated Spanish, even though they have a lot of similarities, and ended up minoring in it. 🙂
Oh wow that’s awesome! I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish but our school never gave a class. My first language is French (french canadian) but I’m also fluent in English since before I even started school (just from TV and radio etc which we all listen to in English). Arabic is really a beautiful language I love listening to people talk other languages. I also love listening to Italien. It sounds so.. sophisticated! 🙂
That’s a pretty cool range of languages! I am currently learning French, Spanish and Russian. X