Stelle

Discussion in 'Member introductions' started by Stelle, May 29, 2014.

  1. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Native Language:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
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    Hello language learners!

    I'm Stephanie. I grew up speaking French and English, in a bilingual home. My Dad grew up in French and my Mom grew up in English. We lived in a city in Ontario that was 70% anglophone and 30% francophone, so both languages were very present everywhere we went. While I would say that our dominant language at home was English (for music, books, TV, etc), my siblings and I attended francophone schools with francophone children. We really had the best of both worlds.

    I've been a French teacher for over 10 years, first in French immersion public schools (where non-francophone children learn all school subjects in French) and now teaching adults on a military base.

    Last year - on May 26th, almost exactly a year ago - I started learning Spanish. I jumped right into the deep end and went from nothing to basic conversational skills in about 3 months. My French helped *a lot*, as did the fact that I've spent years teaching adults a second language. I now feel very comfortable in Spanish - I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I can communicate, read and watch TV shows.

    This month I started learning Tagalog. It's much tougher than Spanish was, but lots of fun! My husband is a Tagalog-speaker, but I haven't learned more than a handful of words despite the fact that we've lived together for 13 years. He's actually a bit amused at the fact that I'm learning Tagalog.

    Until 2015, I plan on building up to basic conversational skills in Tagalog, and improving my Spanish through lots and lots of input (as well as weekly Skype chats). I'm not sure if Tagalog is my last language, or if I'll choose to learn a fifth language in the future. We'll see!

    I look forward to talking languages with all of you!
    Big_Dog and Wise owl chick like this.
  2. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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  3. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Hi Stelle, I'm curious, would you say that you learn to read or listen first?
  4. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Neither. I include all four skills - reading, writing, listening, speaking - from the beginning. If I *had* to choose one over the other (which I wouldn't want to do!), I'd go with listening. I don't know how I would learn to read if I didn't have a sense for the "music" of a language. I wouldn't know how to make the words sound in my head.
    Last edited: May 30, 2014
    Bob likes this.
  5. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Hi Stelle,

    Tagalog is a language that has always tempted me as I know a lot of Filipino-Americans. But from reading past discussions on HTLAL, it seems that Tagalog is hyper-agglutinative and thus would take a long time to learn to any degree of competency, assuming there are sufficient materials for someone to do so as a self-learner not in country. Beyond that, it seems that among educated Filipinos, English is the prestige language (same as with educated Hindu speakers), and one would be hard pressed to get a lot of practice. Of course you have the benefit of a "sleeping dictionary", if you can figure out how to best leverage that resource despite his amusement :).
  6. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Nice!
  7. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    I have to admit that most people - including my Tagalog teachers on Skype - express surprise that I'm learning Tagalog. It really isn't *necessary*, especially if you don't live in the Philippines, since most Filipinos speak English very well. But I want to dig a bit deeper into Filipino culture, and what better way to do it than through language? Besides, Tagalog-speakers are just about the most encouraging people I've ever met. They all tell me that Tagalog's a very easy language (ha!) and that I can already speak it so well (double ha!). It's a really fun language to learn! And who knows? Maybe we'll move to the Philippines some day, or at least go for a nice, long visit. I may as well get a head start!
    biTsar likes this.
  8. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Welcome to the forum!

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