How Many Languages Do You Speak?

 One, basically. Plus a mediocre amount of some others.

This question comes up almost every time that I mention I enjoy languages during some casual conversation. I imagine that the asker of the question expects a more impressive answer than the one I give, but I just feel icky claiming any fluency in anything other than English. No one wants to be a poser. Posers are icky.

 After seeing the flash of disappointment at my answer, I usually give a bit of follow up to justify myself, because while I may not be reading Voltaire sans problèmes, I do in fact know a tad bit more French than your neighbor (unless, of course, they happen to be a big fan of Voltaire). If you'll indulge me, I'm going to talk about myself some more, and tell you about where I'm at with the few languages I've been dabbling in for a while. We'll go in order from best to worst, yeah? Good.

French

French is sexy. French is cute. French is popular to boot. French is not very useful in my regular life, but I like to keep her around. As I've mentioned before, I ended up learning it as somewhat of an accident, but it's been a happy accident overall. I took my first steps in French in Fall of 2011, my freshman year of high school. My teacher was Armenian, and was fluent not just in Armenian, but in Russian, English, and French as well. She's a language boss, and if she hadn't made that first year as enjoyable as it was, I may have had given up on French at the end of it. Luckily, I kept going, and got to spend the next three years with a new teacher, who ended up becoming one of my favorite teachers in all of my educational experience, and encouraged my independent French study.

In terms of practical ability, my French sits right between the B1 and B2 level, which is considered intermediate according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Europeans have a lot of acronyms, I've come to find. 

Fake it till you make it, babes.

Basically, if I watch a French film with French subtitles, I can understand it all well enough. If the subtitles are gone, I may miss some important bits. I can express myself decently through speaking, and can describe a word if I can't remember the term exactly. You won't, however, find me participating in a fast conversation with multiple native speakers. I'll zone out into space as their super sexy French words melt into my poor English brain. 

Nine years in and I've hit a bit of a plateau. If it held more pertinence to my daily life I think I'd put more effort into it, but I'm content with it for the time being. So I'll keep my French YouTubers with captions on for now, thank you very much.

Summary: Could function somewhat in a French environment. Please take turns speaking so my brain can process the input.

Korean

This is an interesting one. I learned how to read Hangul (the Korean alphabet) in middle school, and spent a little bit of my own time during high school trying to pick up some simple grammar and vocabulary. And I did! But I didn't progress very much further beyond that until my freshman year of college, when I met one of my best friends (you know who you are, cutie), who just so happens to speak Korean. How serendipitous. I was really nervous to try speaking Korean around him, because at that point I was still pretty embarrassed about making mistakes (have no shame, children!), but he constantly encouraged me to try, and it helped me a lot. 

I remember a specific night when we went out for Korean barbecue, he made me ask one of the lovely ladies working there for some sesame oil, but in Korean. The audacity! I practiced how I was going to say it in my head a couple of times before finally doing it. 저기요! 참기름 주세요! 고마워.The waitress laughed. I had thanked her using very casual language without realizing it, as you might address a close friend or family member. I was embarrassed. Using the proper level of formality in speech is extremely important in Korean culture, but my friend reassured me by saying that my mistake came off as endearing, and that the waitress appreciated the fact that I was trying to use her own language.

 I took that moment as a lesson moving forward. Mistakes happen. It's an integral part of the process. 

My Korean journey has been independent, and although it's far from being at the level where I want it to be, I'm able to (slowly but surely) talk about myself, my interests, and my experiences and be largely understood. Huzzah! Having a friend who lives in South Korea keeps my motivation up, because the Korean language is a massive part of his life, and I want to be able to keep up with that side of him. 

Summary: Slow down and simplify your speaking, please. I can talk to you as if I am small child. 

Mandarin Chinese

This is one that I'd love to become a master of. I took two years of Mandarin courses at UCSD, with amazing professors. I was originally drawn to it because of its notoriety/difficulty for English speakers. It has a reputation. It has street cred. And, similar to Korean, one of my best friends is kind of intrinsically connected to Mandarin, so it holds more personal interest than does, say, Pashto. That being said, my Mandarin skills are eh. They're 还可以. I can order food. I can ask for directions if I'm lost. I can complain about the weather. The real important stuff. 

After staying in Taiwan for four months in 2019, my Mandarin was in a decent place. Not great, not terrible, just decent. I've noticed recently that it's been slipping away, and it's made me angry. I've been a lazy bum! I am better than this! I am going to buckle down and set a schedule to learn, or I might lose whatever skills I still have. And I don't want to disappoint my professors. 

There's also a huge presence of Chinese netizens, and I want to be able to make friends with them, or at least effectively talk smack while playing a video game. 

Summary: I am baby. I can express the most basic of things.

Everything is relative, comrades.

Spanish

Jajaja. Lo siento, hispanohablantes. I will try harder. Vivo en California, pero no puedo hablar español. Qué triste.

Overall, it just seems that I need to devote more time to these little saplings. The roots are there, mainly. I'll give some updates down the road as I progress. Or, this might just turn into a confessional blog, where I tell you how I have not been devout enough in my language learning journey. Either way, there will be some sort of accountability.