A List of Languages

Sometimes, just one or two lists isn’t enough. That’s how much I love languages. And it seems rather providential that this post come so soon on the heels of my recent class disaster. Because I do still love languages, and I don’t want to give them up for anything. To start with, a list of the languages I want to learn before I die:

1. Chinese.
2. Korean
3. French
4. Sign Language
5. Arabic
6. Japanese
7. Italian
8. Chinese Sign Language
9. Spanish

They’re not all easy languages. I realize that. But I’ve had mini crash courses in most of them (either through an interested friend or watching international movies/tv) and I’ve fallen in love. They are in a particular order–the order I want to learn them in–and I’ll go through and explain why.

1. Chinese. I’ve been studying this language for years now, and it’s my dream to move to Taiwan and teach English there for a few years. Maybe not even to teach English–I just want to live there! Out of the far eastern languages it’s probably one of the simplest to learn in terms of grammar, but the culture of face and respectability is so strong it can come off a little cold. I think those values also have things to teach us, however, and have grown to love the culture and the people.
2. Korean. Yay for Kdramas! I’ve only been watching them since 2014, but I’ve picked up so much of the language I decided I should really give it a go in a formal setting. It makes me excited to know I’m starting to work my way down the list. This one follows Chinese because I want to speak at least two of the East Asian languages before I move on to other areas of the world. It would be a shame to make my way over there and not understand anybody if I took a holiday
3. French. This is pretty much were my sense of duty comes in and takes over any self-lit language desires. I spent nearly four years in middle school trying to learn this language and got nothing (it didn’t help that there was a new teacher every year). But I remember the language itself being beautiful, and I want to give it a fair chance at winning my heart. Plus the chocolate is good.
4. ASL has been a long-time dream of mine to learn. I had a friend one who was deaf and couldn’t really speak either. He communicated using Sign Language, and I always felt bad that we couldn’t talk more than we did. If only there was a universal sign language–then I could talk to people all over the world! (Those who spoke it would become instant diplomats. A universal language? That would be amazing).
5. Arabic. Learning this language stems from the desire not to lose to a dear friend of mine. He’s started learning Arabic and German, although doubtless he’s picked up some Chinese from a brother of his who speaks it. For many years we talked… discussed… disagreed on whether Chinese or Arabic was more beautiful when written down–and I finally conceded that Arabic would probably win that round. This sparked a new interest in Arabic, and it successfully landed itself a spot on “the list”.
6. Japanese. I realized at this point I’d strayed pretty far from the far east, but I still didn’t want to change the order of anything on the list. That made this the perfect spot for Japanese, my childhood obsession. I read a lot of manga when I was younger (I still do occasionally) and it was really that which springboarded me into Chinese and Korean. I ought to learn it, just to round out the trio, right?
7. Italian. I honestly think this would just be fun to learn. I don’t know as much about it as a language, but I do have a friend (different from the Arabic one) who will be learning this soon as he leaves for a mission in my church. I’m only a little bit jealous–and I will learn it eventually!
8. Chinese Sign Language. Wouldn’t that be awesome! So long as I can still speak regular spoken Chinese, I think it would be fun to start learning Chinese Sign Language. Then maybe I can start an international ASL community. How fun would that be!
9. Spanish. At this point, learning languages would really just be a fun pasttime for me, and I just picked on off the list. Here’s how the thought process really goes: does it involve learning a new alphabet (three’s the limit for me)? No. Do I like their food? Yes. Ok great! Let’s learn it.

Well, that’s my list of language. Did you think this post was about swearing? Nope–although I could do that too: don’t swear, I don’t like it. ^^ But that would be a lot less entertaining to write and read.

Thanks for reading,

Cozybooks