Hello, Saluton, Hola, Salaam,
I'm Alexander King, and I have a problem: I'm only fluent in one language.
In this era of economic and cultural globalization that is a serious issue. Despite what some will try to tell you, you cannot count on English everywhere you go. Not everyone knows it and, honestly, not everyone wants to. If English weren't my native language I doubt I would want to learn it either.
Why not? Well, for one, it's really hard. It has an illogical grammar, spelling system, and the accent is all over the place. Even I, a native English speaker, have trouble with it. Particularly the spelling, but also grammar and punctuation.
This is one of the many reasons I don't believe that English is very well suited for use as the international language, but that can be left for another post.
Moving on. As stated above, I am fluent in only one language: English. My native tongue. And I obviously see this as a problem. So what am I doing about it? I'm working to learn at least one other language and reach a fluency similar to what I have in my native English. Thus the title, "If I Only Know Two."
Of course, I'm not limiting my self to just one other language. But I do want to be realistic. Most Americans don't learn even one language, other than their native English, to fluency, let alone all the languages on my list. But I will certainly try to become fluent in all my chosen languages.
And what are the languages I've chosen? They are: the six official languages of the United Nations (those being my native English, and French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin) as well as German, Farsi and Esperanto.
My two "focus languages" right now are Esperanto and Spanish. Esperanto because of its simplicity and Spanish because it is the second largest native language in the United States as well as the second largest in the world (the first being Mandarin and English is third). After these I intend to learn Farsi, followed by German or French.
After German/French, I really don't know in what order I'll be learning in. Nor do I feel it matters. In fact, that list itself is't very important. As I continue learning and blogging it will be added to, subtracted from, rearranged, and possibly completely replaced. But it's a starting point, which is what's important. I have to start somewhere.
Most of these posts will be in English, but I plan on writing some in Esperanto and Spanish as I improve in these two languages. Hopefully I will be able to post in other languages as well at some point in the future.
That's all for now.
I'm Alexander King, and I have a problem: I'm only fluent in one language.
In this era of economic and cultural globalization that is a serious issue. Despite what some will try to tell you, you cannot count on English everywhere you go. Not everyone knows it and, honestly, not everyone wants to. If English weren't my native language I doubt I would want to learn it either.
Why not? Well, for one, it's really hard. It has an illogical grammar, spelling system, and the accent is all over the place. Even I, a native English speaker, have trouble with it. Particularly the spelling, but also grammar and punctuation.
This is one of the many reasons I don't believe that English is very well suited for use as the international language, but that can be left for another post.
Moving on. As stated above, I am fluent in only one language: English. My native tongue. And I obviously see this as a problem. So what am I doing about it? I'm working to learn at least one other language and reach a fluency similar to what I have in my native English. Thus the title, "If I Only Know Two."
Of course, I'm not limiting my self to just one other language. But I do want to be realistic. Most Americans don't learn even one language, other than their native English, to fluency, let alone all the languages on my list. But I will certainly try to become fluent in all my chosen languages.
And what are the languages I've chosen? They are: the six official languages of the United Nations (those being my native English, and French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin) as well as German, Farsi and Esperanto.
My two "focus languages" right now are Esperanto and Spanish. Esperanto because of its simplicity and Spanish because it is the second largest native language in the United States as well as the second largest in the world (the first being Mandarin and English is third). After these I intend to learn Farsi, followed by German or French.
After German/French, I really don't know in what order I'll be learning in. Nor do I feel it matters. In fact, that list itself is't very important. As I continue learning and blogging it will be added to, subtracted from, rearranged, and possibly completely replaced. But it's a starting point, which is what's important. I have to start somewhere.
Most of these posts will be in English, but I plan on writing some in Esperanto and Spanish as I improve in these two languages. Hopefully I will be able to post in other languages as well at some point in the future.
That's all for now.
