Languages I have studied/are interested in:

Finnish

One of the official languages of Finland, spoken by a little more than 5 million people. It is a Finno-Ugric language, and its only relatives (that I know of) are Estonian and Hungarian.

Before I started studying this language, I barely even knew it existed. To the best of my knowledge, it is the second most difficult language to learn. The only way to speak it perfectly is to have started learning at age 3.

It has difficult grammar and a very complicated case system. There are 15 cases in Finnish. Note: this is not gender; cases are completely different. Finnish uses these cases (which are usually suffixes) instead of prepositions in English.

I'm still not sure exactly how I became interested in Finnish, but since I started learning about it, I've learned a whole lot. My friend Jessica from the Netherlands (but speaks Finnish) has helped a lot. Kiitos paljon Jessica!

As you can see if you look at my collection page, I have more Finnish music than any other foreign language. I just love the way it sounds, although spoken Finnish sounds much different from the singing.

I hope to learn more Finnish and possibly take a class at a university, and eventually travel to Finland.

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French

French is a very cool language, although my interest in it has waned since I started learning Finnish and the other less common languages.

It is a Romance language, derived originally from Latin. The French invasion of England in 1066 also caused an influx of many words into English, which makes study easier for me :).

I am currently taking French in school, and I'm in 3rd year French as a Sophomore (2nd year). My teacher says I should even be in 4th year. She's an awesome teacher.

My dad majored in French in college, so I have learned a LOT from him, and I have taught myself a lot. I'm glad my dad speaks French, so he can help me with my homework and I can practice with him. He is the reason I know so much, started learning so young, and have a good accent. Hearing a language at a young age really helps you understand. Thanks, dad!

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Russian

Russian is a very cool language as well. It is a Slavic language (similar to Polish, Serbian, Czech, and other languages in that area).

My grandpa speaks it fluently, so I have fun talking to him once in a while. Russian is also a difficult language, although not nearly as hard as Finnish. It has things called "declensions" of nouns, which I still don't really understand, but I'll get to them eventually :).

I got a set of audo CD's for my birthday last year, called "Pimleur's Russian" and a teach yourself book. I've finally finished the CD's but I haven't really gone far into the book (it's not very good).

I hope to learn more Russian as well and possibly take it at the university level.

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Icelandic

Icelandic is a rare, difficult, but very interesting language that I have just started learning. The Tarzan soundtrack in Icelandic is awesome, and I want to learn more of the language. Unfortunately, the only places to learn it are the University of Manitoba and Iceland itself. :( Unfortunately I don't know much, but I hope to learn much more as time goes by!

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Spanish

I enjoy Spanish, and have just recently started taking it again in school. Tons of people speak Spanish where I live, and so it is a very useful language to learn. It is also incredibly easy. Spanish must be the easiest language on the planet. I know more than most of the people in my class, and I can now understand a fair bit, but I'm not anywhere close to fluent. I will be eventually. :)

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Chinese

Chinese is considered by some to be the most difficult language in the world. This has been part of the attraction for me, because I always like a challenge. Unfortunately right now I only know a few words, and no grammar at all, but I will learn more eventually. I might take a class in college, but I'm not sure yet. This is another language that definitely has possible uses.

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Danish

I've just recently started learning Danish. Right now I know very little, but I hope to learn more as time goes on. I don't know what has attracted me to Danish, but it's pretty fun. The pronunciation is just very difficult, and I'll have to work on that. I just like the sound of the language...it's another kind of exotic-sounding language like Finnish. I hope to be able to speak more at a later point in time. :)

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