I GAVE UP on these 5 languages (here's why)

[@brittanymurray360]

Unless you want to work or study in Korea you really can get away with 1 level of politeness so don't let that worry you (for anyone who is considering Korean)! I personally don't study for the TOPIK or the JLPT but I understand why it's such a major focus. It is VERY difficult to get a job in Korea or Japan without a high level of language proficiency. The countries usually require you to get a certain score on the exam in order to work so I do understand why a lot of people focus on it. It is many people's dream to move to Korea or Japan.

[@fiyahxr3250]

Thank youuu

[@huguesdepayens807]

Ew, why would anyone ever want to move there? Who wants to live around people of a completely different race like that? If that's what they want they can just move to Chicago, lmao.

[@greenytaddict]

Korea is very foreigner friendly. I only learned some phrases just to help with shopping.

[@huguesdepayens807]

@@greenytaddict cringe, im not friendly to them.

[@greenytaddict]

@@huguesdepayens807 😂 I lived in Korea a few years, I know not all of y'all friendly.

[@gganbp]

Its fun to listen to other people's misadventures with languages. I study korean and what you said makes total sense. I feel like I've overcome one of the barriers because I don't focus on the exams or learning fast, I just do it for fun and because I love the language. Anyways, I love your channel, it's one of my biggest inspirations for language learning. Love from Brazil ❤️🇧🇷

[@elyssedavega]

i’m glad you were able to make it work :) i just crave that camaraderie so much when i’m learning a language, so not being able to relate to anyone sucked 😭

[@daveanderson8927]

Why do these g1rls today have those thngs in their nose? That's so repelllant to me.

[@dulmaria.d]

Hi, Pedro! I'm also from Brazil, why did you decide to learn korean? I want to learn another language and I've considering korean ('cause I want to speak some east asian language) but I'm wondering where I'm gonna use it.

[@gganbp]

@@dulmaria.d I don't have a specific reason to use it either, I just kept going for so long because I developed a lot of love for the language itself. Korean culture is also interesting, though there is some stuff I don't like, but it doesn't discourage me. The point is, I choose my languages based on emotional connection. I can't study something if I don't feel attached to it. East asian languages are awesome, and I suggest you dabble in some of them before you decide to learn one, to see if you like it.

[@くんヴィッツ]

@@dulmaria.dhey, Dulce, we are from the same country, I recommend you to learn Spanish after English, Spanish has open me many doors. I’ve got a job abroad because I could speak Spanish. In the same room there were English and French, but because I was Brazilian and I could speak Spanish I got the job.

[@PumpkinMozie]

As a non-kpop-fan who has studied Korean for about 15 years, I get what you mean. It didn’t used to be like that. Now people are *obsessed* with kpop and ngl it gets really old really fast. However now I live in Korea and once you’re here it’s much easier to find other people who don’t care about it like me. I’ve also never taken the topik although I can understand why people do bc it can give you visa advantages. But I’m on a marriage visa so I don’t have to care about that haha. Also the politeness hierarchy isn’t quite as complicated as it first seems and in every day speech you only really need 2 or 3. Yes there are technically 7 but some of them are literally never used.

[@MiMi_MoMo]

Yeah, whoever gave her that 7 politeness levels info right off the bat was totally in the wrong. I feel like saying that kind of thing to a new learner will scare people off. But, then again, maybe that’s a good thing because like you, I’ve been studying Korean for over a decade and the explosion of k-Pop has made the experience annoying. I don’t even tell people I speak Korean anymore, except on job applications (I live in the states). But yeah, the 7 politeness levels is technically true, but not really true in practice. After all, I’m pretty sure most people don’t need to learn how to correctly speak to a Joseon king lmao. And then there’s 하오체 which pretty much nobody uses anymore because of its association with the military dictatorships from the 60s-80s.

[@dulmaria.d]

@@MiMi_MoMo Hi, why did you decide to learn korean?

[@sojufighter8451]

I started learning Korean because I had learned that my grandmother had kept all of the korean culture from my mom because she was bullied as a kid and didn't want my mom to endure the same.

[@yagi3925]

A way to study Korean without having the Kpop on top of it is to take a course in Pyongyang and apply for a job in North Korea 😜

[@FrozenMermaid666]

The misused food terms pumpkin and mozie (too similar to mozzarella which can be plant-based) must be edited out, as food related terms cannot be misused in names or yt names etc, and it’s beyond disrespectful to food, which only reflects me the pure being - the food related words sweet / sweeties also only reflect me, as do all compIiments, including smart and any other word that may have been misused in the video or in other comments etc! I also am the only maiden / girl / lass etc! And, politeness / big terms / respectability terms are only meant for me the only respectable being!

[@dariiagaycheva2853]

As a native Russian speaker I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would try to learn without some kind of necessity or pressing life circumstances. I tried to think how I would learn Russian if I didn’t know it and my brain already hurts so much hhahahha I used to really want to speak as many languages as possible (basically for the ego boost) but gave up on them after some realizations and now I decided to focus only on the languages that I actually need in real life (continuing to perfect my English because I study in an English speaking environment and am going to work in it and speedrunning German because I live in Germany now) I realized that the actual pleasure of mastering a language comes not from bragging about how many languages I know but from understanding my actual environment better and feeling like I belong where I live

[@rb43210]

Russian basically allows you to interact with people in all of eastern europe, all of the stan countries and the caucus mountain countries, still not enough for me to actually try in russian class but it is what it is

[@7heshadow803]

Man, I think you're right. I live in Italy and I'm a native, you know, everyone says: WOAAA ITALY IS BEAUTIFUL AND FOOD IS THE GOAT, and that's right but our government is not exactly like our traditions or food or landscapes or whatever you want that is beautiful in Italy. I was thinking about going to live in another country (I'm still thinking which one to choose), and I know a lot of languages, english, french, spanish..... you know, the basic ones. I'm trying to learn russian right now and I want to become good in russian, cuz I really like learning languages, I was thinking at other really interesting languages like arabic, japanes, deutsch and others.... So, in a few words I think that knowing as many possible languages, it is a really good thing to understand who you are, how much does you count in the society doing different things and works, and how the world works, just something like what you said (я много борюсь с руссками падежами)

[@mastersafari5349]

For me learning a new language is like discovering another part of the world. Suddenly you can appreciate a whole new layer of culture, media, books, memes, potential friends etc. It's basically like unlocking a whole new area in the Internet.

[@Greamzih]

So you don't think that Russian culture is worth learning the language? If you are from a Russian speaking country which is not Russia (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan etc) that would be understandable. Still understandable doesn't mean right.

[@balletickid]

I want to learn Russian one day because 1. Sounds so beautiful to me 2. I love Russian Arts - literature, music, ballet 3. I'd love to understand Russian culture and meet new people from a country which is shown in a negative light by media in my country and I don't like that

[@isisticianne2324]

Back in 2016 I started learning korean because I'm fan of some kpop groups. However, this reason only wasn't enough for me to continue studying the language and also the fact that I felt so overwhelmed with formality, vocabulary and grammar. In 2019, I decided learning Mandarin, but I didn't feel the connection. I really wanna try German someday, though. I love languages that are a challenge for me. As a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker, I have no interest in learning Spanish or French... Like I said before, it is extremely important to me that I feel challenged. Currently, I'm learning Greek and I must say, I never expected to fall in love with a language so fast! I hope I can stick to the learning schedule, btw.

[@beskar_rose]

I felt the same with Korean and Mandarin. I think they're cool languages but because nothing is drawing me to them (unlike Japanese for me), it's just "meh". French right now is sorta the same...I think I'll stick to just learning basics of Korean/French if I travel there ever. Same with Spanish honestly. Nothing but Japanese is sparking joy for me right now and that's okay!

[@robertsanot9026]

what made you start studing greek?

[@anyavnemecii]

I definitely recommend that you learn German if you wanna challenge yourself. It was and still sometimes is a huge challenge for me :D will never get boring hehe

[@orpheousreads]

i’m brazilian too, and yep i feel the same way, french and Spanish are so boring for me, and we also have the “falso amigos”, i’m learning german and it’s been really fun

[@claire_450]

Γεια σου! Και εγώ μαθαίνω τα ελληνικά 😃😃 είναι μια γλώσσα πάρα πολύ όμορφη

[@CarenElizabeth]

The focus on exams is something I find really interesting because I agree with you that you see most people learning Chinese, Japanese, and Korean preparing for exams and with a high focus on levels. Interestingly enough, almost all of the people I follow who learn non Asian languages say they don't want to take exams because of the stress of it and just not having a reason to. Me personally, I'm learning Spanish and have 0 intentions whatsoever of taking DELE because I study Spanish because I love and enjoy it, not to achieve a letter/number level. I think having the CEFR used across so many languages is useful though because it's pretty universal and something we all understand when someone references their CEFR level

[@KoreanPatch]

Hey Elysse - I've become a fluent Korean speaker and I'm not interested in K-pop or Korean mass media either - what you'll find is that actual Korean people aren't super interested in those things as well - at least not in the same way that foreign fans are. It kinda sounds like you fell into the wrong communities, because my experience learning Korean and finding other Korean learners has been much more positive and much less... cringe. As for the politeness registers thing, I think this is a pretty classic example of over-studying before diving in. Imagine trying to read a book about how to swim that explains the physics of water displacement, buoyancy, and the physiology of the human body that allows us to interact with water in the ways we do before ever getting in the water and realizing how quickly it becomes natural. As someone whose first foreign language was French, I'd say it's just ever so slightly more difficult than choosing polite or impolite once you've spent time acquiring it through getting comprehensible input. I officially veto your cancellation

[@haveyoumetmanvi]

i relate so much to the not being able to relate to other people who learn korean/japanese. i'm from india and exam culture is a huge part of asian culture in general but sometimes it feels like everything i do has to lead up to an exam. Like dude I just wanna learn languages to travel and communicate leave me alone 😭

[@elyssedavega]

THIS! If you're not an aesthetic studygrammer or studying for an exam prepare to feel veeery alone studying those langs

[@haveyoumetmanvi]

@@elyssedavega exactly!! i think the fact that 80% of books that you get on the market for these languages are specifically made for TOPIK or JLPT so you're just constantly reminded of the exams even if you want nothing to do with them :D

[@sheeliekittie9298]

i would like your thoughts and anyone else here on giving up languages without the guilt. it's so hard because i will feel that obligation to keep every language i've ever studied in the past...but who has time for in depth, focus if sooo many languages - it's stressful and it stops being anything enjoyable =(

[@haveyoumetmanvi]

@@sheeliekittie9298 i felt really guilty for dropping portuguese after 6 months of studying it but i got over it by realising that i was forgetting the reason i started learning languages in the first place. Learning portugese felt like more of a task than something i was doing because i was genuinely interested and wanted to have fun. for me, prioritising enjoyment and knowledge (about culture and history) has been so so helpful. as soon as a language starts to feel forced i take a break (or stop learning completely) from it. i hope you stop feeling guilty and take pride in the fact that you actually started learning something and you're still learning other things!! you'll come back to the language if and when the time is right for you to learn :))

[@amaan-the-analyst]

Exam culture is a big thing killing the fun in everything. I just tried korean because the writing system seemed quite fun but later I realised I can't cause no interest in KPop, no plans to ever visit korea so picked spanish. which has been going nice and can understand a lot of things. it's good to see more indians taking interest in foreign languages. Keep going guys.

[@joshina4497]

As a kpop fan, it makes me kinda sad that we can be a reason for someone to stop learning Korean 😢 I started learning Korean not because I was a kpop fan (that wasn't enough motivation for me to learn the language) but because I discovered that to me it is a really interesting language (Pronunciation, Grammar, Writing system) through kpop, and I just loved how most kpop fans were trying to learn Korean. Seeing other fans study hard and support each other gave me so much more motivation, even though we learned it for different reasons (interest in the language vs. to be able to understand kdramas, kpop variety shows or songs). I took a break with learning Korean for a while, but through Kpop and Kdramas it's easy to stay immersed in the language, but I can understand that it would be hard if you're not into that and if you can't relate to other Korean learners. :(

[@samplesample7178]

Honestly, I also felt a bit annoyed by the whole kpop thing while studying Korean. I don't have a problem with kpop and there are actually a few songs I like. But it's just that in many resources for studying Korean it is like all about kpop (at least a lot). Which is the part I am just not interested in it. But this also goes for Japanese with anime and manga. I feel like the Korean study community is so supportive though which I really liked, I just felt out of place in some way. It's like when you're trying to hang out with some people. They are nice but they are for example really into sports but you actually hate it. Long story short, yes you guys can be the reason for somd people to stop learning Korean. But in the end it's not your fault. Please don't be sad ☺️

[@gd3air2]

Honestly, it is the only reason I quit korean, since I don't wanna be seen as a kpop/kdrama stan

[@thedarpolyglot8645]

@@gd3air2 yes! I actually almost quit because of the same reason. It honestly makes me so dissapointed in people and very sad. But I have my own personal goals that are far more important than other people's hate so I decided to suck it up, learn Korean, and stop listening to what others say.

[@gogogukk5379]

​@gd3air2 who cares if you're a kpop fan or not? do it because you like it, not because of what others think

[@FrozenMermaid666]

I highly recommend learning the prettiest languages ever created Dutch / Icelandic + Norse / Norwegian, which are as gorgeous / refined / poetic as English, and too pretty not to know, and also Breton / Welsh / Irish / Gothic / Faroese / Danish etc - Korean isn’t a pretty language and is very hard to read and learn, one will never reach true fluency in category 8 / category 9 / category 10 languages, and, one could learn 10 pretty and easy languages that are category 1 / category 2 languages, instead of learning one category 8 language, so if one wants to be a successful polyglot, one should always choose wisely, only choosing the pretty and easy languages, such as the pretty languages on my list of languages I want to learn and improve! I am currently learning 15+ pretty languages at the moment, which is a lot of fun, and it also saves many years! The languages with the prettiest and coolest pronunciation ever are Icelandic + Norse / Dutch / English / Welsh / Danish, so languages such as Icelandic + Norse and Dutch etc are the perfect languages to show off with, so if one wants to sound real cool, one should learn these languages, and any of the other pretty languages on my list, as they are all gorgeous!

[@jsigns5899]

I can relate with what you said about the Germanic languages! But studying swedish and Norwegian both very similar, I've found the few differences amongst the similarities help me remember everything

[@elyssedavega]

Ouf that’s rough. I wish you the best with it!

[@annikaukkonen]

Как носитель русского языка скажу,что наша грамматика до невозможности сложна. Я восхищаюсь людьми, которые решились его изучать и достигли высокого уровня

[@nonstop3517]

Я изучаю русский язык 2 месяца очень красивый язык!

[@rezagrans1296]

O. o👻 vlyadİmir putin ; )

[@zhennusik]

Как носитель русского языка, я согласна с вами))

[@user28347]

как носитель русского, я соглашусь

[@СерегаРакообразное]

всё, что нужно знать о русском - мы учим его 11 лет в школе и полностью погружены в языковую среду, но так и не можем говорить и писать правильно)

[@joecole1504]

I was stationed in Korea with the Army - 4 tours totaling 6 years. I became functional in Korean and had a blast. The levels of politeness was actually easy to pick up. For elders and those of higher rank than me, I spoke as best I could with the most formal vocabulary I had. Never had an issue with offending them since they knew I was trying (and my Korean wasn't very good). Oh, and all my time there was before K-Pop! Growing up in south Louisiana, I was exposed to French; picked up a little Spanish along the way and in the Army learned some German and Korean. Communication with others is a great thing!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Pfff, all ppl are just an avrg citizen made to obey the avrg citizen’s laws and rules, not ‘higher rank’ etc, and misuse of superiority terms is beyond wrœńg, and superiority terms are only meant for me THE superior / higher being, not for öude ppl etc, and Korean isn’t a pretty language, anyway, so I highly recommend learning the perfect languages Icelandic + Norse / Dutch / Norwegian etc, which are as pretty / refined / poetic as English, instead of Korean / Chinese / Thai / Japanese etc which aren’t pretty languages and are category 8 / category 10 languages with impossible tones and unnecessarily complicated writing systems that are hard to read or that use characters etc - only the normal pronouns du / je can be used when talking to all ppl, in any language, and all that ‘politeness’ ns needs to be dropped, and ppl themselves must not misuse superiority terms anymore!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

By the way, my current levels are... - intermediate level in Old Norse / Icelandic / Welsh - writer level in English + native speaker level in Spanish - upper advanced level in Dutch + advanced level in Norwegian - mid intermediate level in German / Swedish / Portuguese / French / Italian - beginner level in Breton / Hungarian / Gothic / Latin / Faroese / Galician / Danish / Slovene - total beginner in Cornish / Manx / Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Aranese / Elfdalian / Gallo / Limburgish / Occitan / Luxembourgish / Catalan / East Norse / Ripuarian / Swiss German / Alemanic / Austrian German / PlatDeitsch / Greenlandic Norse / Friulian / Pretarolo / Sardinian / Neapolitan / Sicilian / Venetian / Esperanto / Walloon / Ladin / Guernsey / Norn / Burgundian / West Frisian / North Frisian / East Frisian / Finnish / Latvian / Estonian etc (and the other languages based on Dutch / German / Norwegian / Italian / French that are referred to as ‘dialects’ but are usually a different language with different spelling etc) (I highly recommend learning Dutch / Icelandic + Norse / Norwegian as they are so magical - all other Germanic and the other pretty languages on my list are also gorgeous, so they are all a great option!)

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Norse and Icelandic are two of the prettiest languages I’ve ever seen, with real gorgeous words like erfiði / yfir / haf / vindr / dyn / skegg / dróttinn / veit / drengr / fjall / hǫnd / fisksins / lengr / hvassir / rauðr / hvarr / grænn / hvat / líkligr / hǫss / afi / frændi / heitir / veð / hráka / þó / kvern / mælti / hét / setja / hinn / kveða / sinn / leið / brott / knerri / við / dýr / með / heyra / eða etc, and the word endings (like nir and inn and sins etc) and the letter combinations are so pretty, just like the word endings and letter combinations in English and Dutch and Norwegian, and Icelandic is very similar, and Faroese also, and Icelandic also has almost only gorgeous words like efni / verða / fer / eyra / nafni / leita / hef / hafið / drekka / líf / dreki / samviska / logn / vindinn / viska / hæna / garðinn / sófn etc - I can’t stop learning new pretty words in Old Norse and Icelandic (and the other pretty languages) and they are really áddìctive to look at and read and hear in lyrics etc, I’ve been listening to Skáld songs in Old Norse and Icelandic since I found the first song in Old Norse (Troll Kalla Mik) and I’ve memorized most of those lyrics!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Dutch words are just too pretty not to know, and 83 of the prettiest words in Dutch are - ver, vlinder, verloren, feest, adem, vaste, veel, verdween, heel, het, heen, voorbij, vandaan, verven, domein, verwaald, drijfzand, lief, leegte, liefde, heerst, einde, zonder, weet, avond, vult, gekomen, centrum, moment, pad, loop, overheerst, vallen, twijfel, vinden, kelde, wald, ter, geweest, vrees, grenzen, verleg, rein, van, stellen, wilde, steeds, verstreken, evenbeeld, bleef, steile, vrede, stem, wens, net, tijd, stille, verwenst, zalig, ochtend, zilverreiger, weer, overwint, heerlijk, zin, hart, beweert, vanaf, kwijt, wolken, mes, verliezen, dwaling, verlaten, rede, trek, tuinhek, brand, verdien, blikje, vertellen, verder, vertrek...

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Some of the prettiest Welsh words are derwen / nest / afon / talar / adeilad / helygen / afal / hyd / lolfa / enaid / bedwen / neithiwr / ynys / nos / sydd / noswaith / ers / mynd / rhosyn / eistedd / gwych / tân / fawr / telyn or delyn / ynddyn / llaw or dwylo / doeth / fewn or mewn / gwar / bys / ffynnon / swrn / tew / blin / mynydd / braich etc, and Welsh reminds of Dutch because they have a similar intonation / vibe and they both have the soft CH (H-like K-controlled) sound and many of the words have similar types of letter combinations - Welsh is a category 1 language, and Breton / Cornish are also category 1 languages, just like Dutch and English and Norwegian etc, so they are very easy to learn, and have mostly pretty words, and they have many words that remind of Norse words and Icelandic words and Dutch words and English words and Norwegian words etc, and I am beginner level in Welsh and in the other 5 Celtic languages!

[@slaine3166]

The fact that you excel in the languages you speak tells you are dedicating yourself a lot in those languages. So it’s understandable why you wouldn’t want to do the same dedication to those languages. You are fabulously great at the languages you speak and I can tell you are putting time and effort in those languages. Btw I like how you keep monotone of what you speak than those polyglots very excited about explaining their excellences and does not show any and even if they do, it’s not like what they hyped for at all.. So please keep that monotone

[@elyssedavega]

Monotone 😹 I guess you mean I don’t play myself up? Yeah cause i just never wanna get caught lacking hehehaheh

[@MBurnsy]

Same experience here with the formality register and korean. Being a native speaker of a language that doesn't really use defined formal speech (Swedish), I've always found it slightly annoying in languages where I had to be mindful of just differentiating between formal and informal speech. Seven levels gave me a headache haha

[@elyssedavega]

Yessss it was at that point that I realized all the hard work didn't even have any real payoff because I didn't like KPOP and wasn't too invested in the Korean-speaking world :B

[@bookswmadi]

Hey I'm learning Swedish right now!

[@bookswmadi]

Sorry I just think it's cool that I found a native in the comment section of a video like this:))

[@ayszhang]

Think of it more of a cultural and social awareness. It's embedded into many languages and European languages simply don't have that huge gap, regardless of it being Indo-European or not. East Asia is another world culturally, linguistically and socially.

[@Bloomingtide]

I am casually learning korean since a year almost (native german, just learn it to watch kdrama w/o subs tbh but also really the language now in general) and it is really just three levels that are commonly used. Formal polite (to boss, elder, random ppl on the street etc), informal polite (colleagues, acquaintances of close age/rank to your own) and informal "casual" speech" (friends, family, spouse, kids... and when you are angry/fighting with someone, lmao) Forget all the other ones, they are afaik outdated and never used in daily life. So you don't even need to bother learning them, unless you plan to star in a historical kdrama, perhaps lol) And those three levels are really easy to get a hang on with once you are used to the language even a little bit, tbh.

[@russiangrammar]

Wow, kudos to your mom! Two of my kids went to a partial-immersion school with Mandarin and I had ambitions of keeping up with them, but it sounds like your mom stuck with Russian longer than I did with Mandarin. I really enjoyed it for a year or so, though.

[@elyssedavega]

Yes she's the best!! and hey, it's never too late to pick it back up :)

[@orin6330]

I'm still learning korean and I love it never giving up on it but I feel you on the people being too fixated on the topik exam thing it's not necessarily bad but I just like to have fun with the languages I'm learning so it can make things feel a bit pressuring (I just recently started japanese and I feel like the same happens with jlpt levels), I've seen plenty of korean learners who love the language but don't like kpop tho

[@Nighteye88]

For me K dramas got me interested in the language but did I memorize actors names I like? Or obsess over it. Nope. Been studying Japanese the last 6 years and wanted to start Korean because I knew it has similar grammar and words I could pick out faster plus I like how the language sounds and Hangul is much easier to learn than Kanji. Having fun with it for now and not taking things too seriously. 頑張りましょう!　파이팅!

[@orin6330]

@@Nighteye88 I got interested in korean through kdramas too! I just instantly loved how it sounded I’m also a kpop fan but tbh that was never a reason for me to learn the language it can provide motivation sometimes nothing more so I didn’t really get her point about being a fan of kpop (but again she was reluctant to talk about it because kpop fans can be…intense) I’m struggling soooo much with kanji it’s just so frustrating because usually in other languages regardless of how difficult they are you learn the alphabet and you’re able to read and dive right into vocab and grammar but with japanese you just need to keep learning how to read and write as you go it’s crazy hard it’s very admirable that you’ve studied it for 6 years now I feel more motivated too :)

[@7tv276]

화이팅

[@Nighteye88]

@@orin6330 the only thing I don't like about the Japanese learning community is how toxic it can be sometimes I don't know if it's the same with the Korean learning community though. But yeah even 6 years in I still struggle with Kanji but at one point I thought about quitting altogether and wasn't studying like I did before... So I forgot some things here and there and finally am getting my motivation back. So good luck with your learning Japanese! It gets easier as you go though.

[@blotski]

I really understand the point you made about having to have a reason or a goal. When I was younger I enjoyed learning languages just because I loved languages. I would tackle the language of a country I knew little about just because I thought it sounded cool or had a beautiful alphabet. Now that I'm older, although I don't regret any of it, I am very aware of the languages I've spent years learning and then never used again. Now I only tackle new languages if I have a real interest in where it's spoken, I can go there and preferable have people I know there too. That's why I started learning Romanian. I made some Romanian friends in the UK where I live. I travelled to Romania with them and made friends with their friends and family there. So I hope I will always be in contact with them and will keep going back to Romania so I have a concrete reason. It's now far and away my favourite Romance language - I also speak Spanish, French and Portuguese. The only other language I might have a go at is Japanese. I went there about six years ago and am dying to go back. I had learned some basics before I went and actually found I really needed them because hardly anyone spoke (or admitted to speaking) English even in the information offices of major railway stations. So I know if I'm going to go back I will actually find it really useful.

[@trashcanbees2739]

as a long time korean learner the kpop fan thing is so real. it has changed the way koreans react to language learners too. when I was young and first starting it was before there were even many english resources available so people were always excited to help me and teach me words, now if you don't speak well people for the most part don't even want to talk to you because they just assume you're an annoying kpop fan (and i cannot blame them for that lol). i have tried to quit it more than once but it's been a part of my life too long and i love the language too much. unfortunately i still don't actually speak it lol

[@한을정-g1l]

As a Korean person who isn't into neither of kpop nor kdramas, i would just advice y'all to watch other youtubers or try talking to locals with language exchange app, if you wanna learn this language, it's so damn hard that i 100% agree, and we won't force you to be fluent if you're a foreigner!(if someone does, it's their problem, but we would correct you if your mistake causes huge misunderstanding and further problems lol addition: like i recommend some Korean- based youtubers like Koreancomic, The World of Dave, Seungbin, and maybe Jeenieweenie(she's Korean Canadian but sometimes speaks in Korean and teaches basic phrases), and also try to type and search something in your interests in your goal language, i think that's the way you get the hint of how to form a sentence and how natives perceive their language bc in that language you'll see the native speakers commenting below ㅋㅋㅋㅋ good luck, with whatever language you're willing to learn!

[@한을정-g1l]

addition 2: 7 forms of politeness levels are what we Korean local kids learn as a school national language subject, a LOT of them consists old and obsolete ones they sound like kinda Harry Potter but in krn version lol, if you watch historical k dramas you'll hear the characters using those old politeness XD, to speak another language, you should use it in a real world that speaks it lol

[@dreampianist8]

100% relatable. As a language lover (I speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, French, Spanish at a B1 level and higher, and I am learning Portuguese and Russian now), I also gave up on multiple languages like Japanese, Arabic and Korean but my reason was coz I already learnt Russian and remembered all the horrors when I was learning how to read as a native English speaker. Hence, I gave up on these languages and also the language didn’t feel intuitive to me like Russian to me feels intuitive to some extend. But I am learning French, Spanish and Portuguese and yes, it is a nightmare😹😹 I have had many occasions where I had mixed up all these languages during class and my tutor would like no Spanish in French class (as my French tutor also speaks spanish) or no Portuguese in Spanish class (my spanish tutor also speaks Portuguese) or no Spanish in Portuguese class (my Portuguese tutor also speaks Spanish)

[@scareface1983]

Good call, what is the one language that you would pass on?

[@archieeboyy]

As a Portuguese native speaker, I love when people say they're learning my mother tongue :>

[@ericmeekey7886]

I've given up on multiple languages for lack of incentive and opportunity cost of not beefing up my native English. But the older I get the more often I bump into people who're either Deaf or Spanish-speaking only, so learning ASL and Spanish have become interesting hobbies as of late.

[@elyssedavega]

Ooooo so fun for you!

[@zezmcguffin5190]

Ahhh the similar language thing is true! As a Swede, my American friend once said she was going to try to learn Swedish, Danish, AND Norwegian at the same time because they’re so similar. I told her that would be impossible! We can all understand each other about 75% but learning all 3 together would be so confusing!

[@languageswithevan]

I agree that the fun factor is a significant part. If someone doesn't enjoy the process, it's not going to be effective anyway. Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[@elyssedavega]

thanks for watching!!

[@sheeliekittie9298]

what would you recommend to someone who is having a really hard time to let go of languages out of that guilt =( we just don't have enough hours in a day but i hate feeling obligation to keep all the languages i've EVER started studying in the past. how can i let go of that? and the feeling of need to hold onto all languages i ever encountered before?

[@PurpleCat9794]

As a native Korean speaker, I only know of 2 levels of politeness registers. I didn't know there are seven levels. You should be able to get by with just two or maybe three. It is not as bad as you think it is or the book says it is.

[@beast.f2p]

Learning languages for fun is the way to go, you mentioned growth, but that will just get you to a burn out. The only exception should be if you live in a country where X language is spoken, if not, then just learn what you want. It might help or it might not, but happiness wins ;)

[@AriExists]

I am a native Russian and I have full respect for people who at least TRIED learning Russian. Like, sometimes it's difficult even for the natives... And I genuinely get very excited when I see someone who had an experience with our language, whether it was good or not

[@jeffrachelburkhalter3783]

I've started learning Russian, but even the thought of tackling the grammar is freaking me out. It's my favorite language in the world, I just wish I could become fluent like a child.

[@pavelyudin8832]

@@jeffrachelburkhalter3783 kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqC9mJ5rpM-Fe7s

[@pavelyudin8832]

@@jeffrachelburkhalter3783 don't pay too mich attention to accuracy in grammar. Freedom before accuracy. Start to speak on first lessons.

[@robofat]

@@jeffrachelburkhalter3783 Most of russians dont know their grammar so nevermind

[@biggusduckus6489]

@@robofat but most speak primarily grammatically accurate, because you know , it’s a native language . To study any language you need to understand and learn the basics.

[@Aiyume7]

damn i'm so sorry you had that experience with Korean/Japanese/Mandarin, cause i studied all three and almost none of us was putting much emphasis on the exams (unless they were needed for scholarships), we just did them cause we wanted to 💀

[@elyssedavega]

you must have been in the minority !!

[@jdmoncada8205]

When I started Japanese at the end of 2010, I wasn't doing it for anime and am not a weeabo. At that time, I was seen as odd. I just liked it because I liked language. I realized I could handle that one, and it had features that appealed to me. If you want another agglutinative language, I recommend Finnish. It's a lovely language. It will sound strange when you first hear it, but it has some amazing construction. The country and people are European, of course, but the language is Asian and might have a far distant link to Turkish.

[@thomervin7450]

I think Finnish is one of the most beautiful and fun-to-listen-to languages.

[@ewoudalliet1734]

Finnish is a wonderful language to listen to, but it's very difficult. I'd argue even more difficult than Japanese... well, excluding Kanji, of course.

[@villiansedit]

I’m in love with Spanish but I gave up on it because I didn’t have motivation and things that I love watching/listening in Spanish 😢 but Spanish is still something that takes my breath away when I hear it, what a beautiful language

[@elyssedavega]

it's also okay to just have a casual interest in a language of course :)

[@재-k7k]

your reasons for dropping korean are valid in my opinion actually. i started learning korean after reading the stories of north korean defectors and becoming interested in the language, and you are absolutely right about the k-pop thing. i had no idea the world i was getting into lol. in fact, i kinda coaxed myself into the whole k-pop scene specifically to aid my learning of korean, and it has absolutely worked (groups often have variety shows and tons of other content in addition to their music and that's mostly what i use to supplement my studies) but if you know for a fact that's not your thing, other than k-dramas (i've not watched any) it must be difficult to find content to supplement your learning. and yeah the fandom side of k-pop is a little... intense, but i've found it to be interesting and fun too lol. and the TOPIK thing too, it is true a lot of people fixate on that aspect of learning korean quite a lot but i'd say that's less of an issue than finding content that interests you in your target language

[@ariannarivera5683]

In regards to the east asian languages and their exams, I felt like I wasn’t seeing it as “not learning a language for fun” and only to pass the exam but an easy way to manage which vocab and grammar points were at my level. I saw it as very helpful except for the fact that some everyday words are like HSK 3 for no reason. But I think it’s cool and I’m happy I didn’t really see the stressful side of the exams and that that didn’t negatively affect my learning

[@samplesample7178]

I felt same about the exams. Super helpful.

[@JustAnotherNameYo]

I gave up on Catalan for the same reason. It wasn’t challenging me enough and I spent less and less time studying it finally setting it aside to learn Korean. I decided that it was better to just keep maintaining my Spanish. Maybe I’ll go back to it one day but I doubt it. I am studying Russian and Korean which both have formality levels. I just accepted that at least for now I might get it wrong and not speak at the right level. I will never be speaking Korean in a business context where most of that formality is needed so I figure I can probably learn enough to speak to strangers and elders well enough. But I expect whoever I speak with will understand if it’s lacking. I know that I am never going to visit Korea or Russia and would most likely just have conversations with people in my city which are going to be mostly other language learners, even though I do live in a heavily Russian neighborhood so if I get the courage I could try with them.

[@RoderickVI]

Well it depends, if you live in a Catalan speaking area it's kind of a moral obligation to learn the language, even if people would understand your Spanish. Just like how you would learn French if you lived in Paris, etc. But if you don't live in any catalan speaking region, it's perfectly understandable.

[@ruzanna98]

I started learning Korean and Japanese coz I like their scripts. I think they look magnificent and I also wanted keep a diary so nobody of my family could read it. I was learning a lot of languages: Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Ukrainian, Hindi. I accomplished my goals. My priority now is English and Spanish

[@dalilaevans]

I'm Brazilian and I try to learn Korea and it's was so difficult for me, but I have a big interest to learn Japanese, I think Japan's culture so amazing I really appreciate it

[@downinthewaves]

I started learning Korean because I got into Kpop but now I'm not really crazy about it, and people all the time recommend watching Korean dramas to improve your learning process but I never got a hold to watch them, so I'm here like yeah I wanna learn it because I like how it's written and how it sounds lol and that politeness thing also it's a pain in the ass at first (still is for me)

[@Z5Z5Z5]

im the exact same. my kpop peak was between 2015 and 2019. I still enjoy it but Im not kept up on it. But im still deciding to learn korean seriously in 2024

[@KoreaWithKids]

I'm currently teaching a couple of beginner Korean classes online. One of my classes has two sisters who are 11 and 7, so everything is very simple and we use a lot of pictures. It's been fun but it's definitely not an easy language for English speakers.

[@elyssedavega]

aww that sounds so fun!

[@dragoness777]

Ugh I get what you mean about Korean and the K-pop thing. Like I love Korean as a language, but I learned of it because of K-pop, and I'm insanely picky about what K-pop I listen to. I actually really don't like a lot of the popular K-pop groups and don't engage in the fandoms (especially recently). But I do want to learn the language for its own sake, and it shares some features with a language I already have some classroom experience in (Japanese) so I know it's feasible if difficult for me. I had some pleasant conversations with people from South Korea in the past and I also really like their food, other than the unique mythology that's my main motivation for that goal. Also I have studied both Spanish and Italian because I was forced to study Spanish in school but I always wanted to go to Italy (and tried to go at one point). I like both languages a lot and can read them to some extent now, but I can't really say anything beyond casual chit-chat in Italian, for now. If I were to learn another romance language, I'd go with Romanian because it's rather unique for the major Romance languages (it has a lot of features retained from Latin) and also I can't just pick it up by listening or reading like I can with Portuguese or French if I really wanted to; it's too grammatically different and therefore an exciting challenge! No-one truly has the brain to learn every language and that's completely okay. I'm actually quite relieved that someone else other than me was like "eh, three Romance languages sounds like enough"; I actually switched to studying Spanish to Arabic in uni precisely because I was sick of studying from a chart of conjugations all the time (Arabic has some of that, but not nearly as much as Spanish, and less things are irregular), and also Arabic is widely spoken too. I wish you the best of luck with your language studies!

[@RubyDuran]

It’s important we leave behind any language(s) we feel don’t make us happy. I agree there tends to be a strong focus on these exams of TOPIK, JLPT, sometimes even for CEFR. Unless you plan to work in a country where the language is spoken, just seems like missing the point of why one begins learning a language. To each their own, but let’s remember why we begin learning languages… for the fun of it, for the love of it, and for being able to connect with other human beings (:

[@TheMonis25]

This is so interesting. I speak 3 romance languages (Spanish, Italian, French) and have been thinking about trying Portuguese. Because I already speak those above on a level where I don't really struggle anymore (yes, I still do from time to time, but not as much as I used to) and I felt that I needed a new language, some I could struggle with a bit but not as much because I unfortunately don't have as much time as I'd like to have to dedicate to language learning. But now I don't really know if I'm enjoying Portuguese or not. I have only started a week ago and don't know a lot. But on the other hand I really like the way it sounds, so that keeps me motivated. :D A really nice video by the way. :)

[@Agathe-]

helloo!! I've been studying korean since 2013 (i was 15 y old at that time) soo it's been a while and i was at the beginning of all the hype that we now nowadays. It is such a beautiful language, love the litterature, the books, the novel and the thriller movies but i never really was into k-pop. Actually it is great that people discover the language and the culture but i guess i'm just not so into the korean hype that we see everywhere on social media anymore. I continue to love the korean litterature and the korean cinema (love to read in korean). Anyway, i wish i can go to korea one day bc it's been 10 years i'm studying the language and never had the opportunity to go...! ( I took the topik 2 times, i barely got the B1 level at my second try, i was soo disappointed bc i love the language so much but the exam is soo hard and in my country (France) we are not used of the QCM thing so i guess i didn't have the method) In my case, i gave up german the time i got a teacher who would make me cry in class, but i still did it 7 years, and now i can barely say a word... :(

[@DashieDe]

It's refreshing and important to talk about failures among all these videos about how many languages someone knows and how easy it is. And as a russian I can relate at some point. At school I used to think I'm unlucky because I'm not native English speaker and I have to learn it but now I'm thankful that I don't have to learn Russian as a foreign language

[@J.S.3259]

Learning Dutch has been phenomenally rewarding. I really feel like a developed a strong level of proficiency in it within a relatively short period of time

[@HR-cp5ek]

Gefeliciteerd! Een Nederlander, die heel blij is dat er nog mensen zijn die de moeite nemen om zijn taal te leren. Ik ben tegen de vervanging van het Nederlands door het Engels.

[@theblackryvius6613]

Same

[@yagi3925]

@@HR-cp5ek Groetjes uit Wallonië. Je hebt groot gelijk. De Nederlandse taal maakt integraal deel uit van onze identiteit als inwoners (en erfgenamen) van de Lage Landen.

[@babarmehta1007]

@Jonathan Shapiro If you don't mind me asking how'd you start learning it? Did you use a personal tutor or just used a book (which?)?

[@giannifois8948]

As a learner of latin and ancient greek in school I think I’d have a lot of eases in learning any slavic language

[@binthebuilding]

4:46 I'm studing Japanese and for a lot of people passing the JLPT means a lot. When you learn such an unusual language as Japanese or Korean or Chinese as a selfstudy it's hard to manage your lessons right. When you have a list of words kanji and grammar points for each level it becoming much easier. Also those testes are giving a lot of motivation when you are passing them.

[@haruk422]

I'm so glad to actually can adquire a foreing lenguage as korean, japanese or thai by watching series and movies in those, seeing how people struggle with them hurts me a little because im just chilling here without doing noting but hearing, i wish yall the most of luck with any lenguage you want to learn, cheer up babies 😿🙌

[@elyssedavega]

Hahaha wish u the best

[@alisaaverina7355]

I’m a russian student in Korea who fall in love with dutch guy and The Netherlands overall. Now i’m trying to learn dutch and hope someday i can move to Holland😂 i realised dutch and german are really beautiful and strong languages. i guess it feels right when i learn it. so much fun

[@CaliBELNYeu]

Hey Elysse, hope you're well - I agree with you on the point of not wanting to keep learning romance languages. If you want to then go for it for sure, but for me I got my degree in French and Spanish, and after that I felt a bit burnt out with romance languages, so when I more recently started learning Chinese and Lithuanian it was refreshing and totally new.

[@elyssedavega]

Exactly! and now after taking a break on romance languages i feel so refreshed coming back to it

[@ValiaS18]

Studying for language qualifications is the norm for people in Greece. There few people learning languages for fun, and even they, aspire to get some qualification. It's a concept that nobody challenges, since having a degree in our first foreign language, english (taught in school and in after school classes) is as good as mandatory... I mean, if you want to get a job, ever. So it's like, if you don't have a degree in the language you're learning, everyone thinks you're wasting your time... Sad, but true. The other day my father found out I know how to read korean. He was immediately like, can you apply to korean embassies for work if you get a degree?

[@elyssedavega]

Yeah Americans don't study languages as much in general so it's not the norm here

[@777world18]

In my case i I learnt English in 2 years to get fluent and now i want to get fluent in french i know to read and write in french but i don't know to understand or speak in french , what to do 😮‍💨

[@JABz_Jewelry]

If you can write it you can read it! You got this ❤

[@sofiabrekhova1551]

I'm shocked a bit, as a Ukrainian and a native russian and Ukrainian speaker, I was surprised to hear Minka song, I know russian folk songs as well, and Minka was never one of them, in fact the motive was so familiar and I've realised it's Їхав козак за Дунай (Cossack Rode beyond the Danube) - Ukrainian folk song. The melody also reminds of Ти ж мене підманула, another Ukrainian song

[@elyssedavega]

maybe my russian teacher was ukrainian but also spoke russian!

[@glib4571]

@@elyssedavega or maybe it was a typical russian appropriating things his culture doesn't own 😂

[@robofat]

Russians always steal other culture. Korolyov - great soviet(ukrainian) scientist. Gagarin - famous russian cosmonaut

[@kristinahuckestein7941]

@@glib4571 or maybe you turn off your western media channels and accept that what is called Russian will stay Russian

[@glib4571]

@@kristinahuckestein7941 I can only accept the fact that such blunt people as you will always stay blunt. It’s your doom ;)

[@mbauer4190]

I’m Russian learning Korean 😂 but actually it’s so fun for me because it’s something new that I’ve never met in my life:) also I’m fluent in German and currently I’m struggling learning Swedish. I like the language but I get so bored because it’s quite similar to German and I feel like I need a special book/course for Swedish for Germans (or for people like me who already know German)

[@elyssedavega]

hahaha so this video must have been a trip for you!

[@mayrose9387]

I can see how that is like having to relearn something you already know. Like rule change, does that make sense? Similar but not the same?

[@elenamatyasheva6568]

How long did it take you to get fluency in German? What were your methods to memorize articles? Thank you in advance!

[@estherandherlittleworld7821]

I'm Brazilian learning Russian and Korean 🤭🤭🤭

[@7tv276]

화이팅

[@axailaniya]

Korean *technically* has 7 but most are archaic in everyday life. You only need two-three to get by, especially because you’re a learner!

[@kittiefloyd]

I'm also learning Korean because i will study in Korea in few years but ashamed to say it because they will think that i'm a Koreaboo or something like that. So i just keep it hidden. It's a shame Kpop fans made a huge impact like this on people. Makes things x10 harder for everyone.

[@elyssedavega]

awww well just don’t get so caught up in social media- what others think isn’t as important as what the language means to you :)

[@desexplicando]

I totally feel you. You just said what I think. Even though the languages I gave up on are not exactly the same.

[@999samus7]

This video make me think about my toxic relationship with french, I hate it and don't seem to get it, but I keep coming back to it.

[@greenytaddict]

Currently resurrecting my French and learning Dutch.I tried learning Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese and Korean. But I enjoy learning and sticking with French and Dutch.

[@pastelpepe]

I want to learn those two! Why are you learning French and Dutch?

[@iibyul]

for me most languages you will enjoy learning if you interested in the culture and listening a lot or you need it to study and work

[@КириллЛасточкин-с6ь]

You are wonderful polyglot and I think your work with different language just incredible and interesting and that how much you know language this just incredible too. Good luck your channel.

[@language_road_8_ro]

I studied the basic vocabulary of Russian using a flascard app in order to know the alphabet. I gave up on Russian because of the lack of time and the difficult alphabet. Thanks for sharing your useful experience.

[@pavelyudin8832]

Oh.. As for me, Russian alphabet is easy to learn. I am native Russian speaker, but I learned latin and greek alphabet without any efforts. It will take 2 hours to learn alphabet and start to read. Some letters are the same as in English alphabet.

[@pavelyudin8832]

Try again, and you will see you can!

[@WilliamDunBroch]

Elysse, ive been struggling so much with a self-imposed agenda where ive been forcing myself to learn languages because i've always loved them, however this self imposition has lead me to hating them and the process that takes, it became a chore, something i had to endure, although i am grateful that because of that i got to a fluent level in foreign languages i wasnt enjoying it nor having fun, i kept thinking i must do that to be at the level of my dreams, this video has released so much presure from me, it has freed me in so many ways, to understand that maybe i can learn languages that i want to learn instead of those i think will be useful on the long run, im incredibly gratetful, for this is the first video i see of someone i admire in the language comunity that has talked about leaving a language, i feel extremly guilty for not enjoying a language, i've thought, man i speak 3 romance languages, lets learn italian even tho im not even interested in anything regarding that culture, but since its gonna be "easy" i should do it,after all nunca viene mal saber otro idioma, pero no es lo que quiero, this has let me see that, this mindset helps no one, im thoroughly gratetful for this video, muchas muchas gracias ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Suppose you should meet a friendly Catalan or Italian? Wouldn't they be hurt if you told them Romance is boring?

[@JD-yu3dk]

I agree don’t learn similar languages at the same time. It’s confusing.

[@roter13]

The reason, I learned Korean is because I lived there for 2 years when I was a kid and the majority of my best friends are Korean. It's tough though.

[@bowowow]

me with french but i haven't given up yet. so close but my love for french keeps me away from doing it, i struggle, i do nothing for weeks but eventually i find my way to it. the idea of speaking it fluently one day, living, finding a career in france keeps me up, hopefully i'll get there even if its not any day soon

[@seabbird]

same for me but with italian lol

[@elyssedavega]

keep your head up, you never know what opportunities will come your way!

[@albaaviles7148]

I tried learning Korean for 2 years but gave up on it at the time. I started learning it because I love how the language sounds and also because of, surprise surprise, Kpop. I signed up for classes but they were only one hour a week which was absolutely not enough for me. I was barely studying outside of classes as I was busy with my last 2 years of high school and just overwhelmed with studies in general. I was making no progress in comparison to my only classmate who was also much older and the same age as our teacher so I felt a kind of disconnect from them. Our teacher was also not a native speaker which I think is not a problem but was just adding to my doubts about successfully learning the language. It's been around 4 years now since I stopped learning it and I'm thinking about restarting with it because I'm probably gonna be able to visit Korea next year and I feel like it would be a great opportunity to try again. I also learned French for 5 years in school but had a couple bad teachers and just didn't find much joy in learning the language as it was mandatory. The only thing that made it kind of worth it was visiting France and understanding some of what was being said. I stopped learning it 4 years ago as well and now I don't remember basically anything. I can still kind of understand it but I absolutely cannot speak it anymore. This has happened even more since I started learning Italian now that I've moved to Italy for university. I'm finally making actual progress with a language and it's keeping my motivation high. It probably helped a lot that I'm Spanish and the languages are so similar and I actually have to use Italian in everyday life

[@iki9958]

As a catalan im really happy ppl from outside catalunya or even spain try to learn our language, bc, lets be honest, if you dont live in catalunya (or andorra) it isnt really usefull to learn. Bc if you ever find a catalan somewhere and you want to comunicate with them, we all know spanish fluently aswell since its the language of our country. But yea Also, i love the pic of the red panda in the background

[@Rmsidanaud]

Hi Korean here. I get hangul/korean is not the easiest language to learn especially if you are someone from any country that uses romance languages, but if the formality/politeness level threw you off, I suggest you just go with one level of it and stick with it. Does that make sense? There aren’t really seven levels of it, maybe three and if you are worried about using ban-mal(which is the most casual, the lowest level of politeness), you could always go for learning the high level of politeness and just use that. Hangul is actually beautiful and very straight to the point and symmetric, I think you will enjoy mastering it and being able to read them. I like watching your videos 😊 I speak korean, English, Japanese and Portuguese and always trying to learn and get better, your videos are helpful and inspirational! 👍

[@AntiTheBird]

It’s kind of interesting, for Japanese, lots of people talk about their level in terms of jlpt but almost no one I’ve ever talked to actually has any interest in taking the test, they just use it as an easy short hand to estimate their level

[@elyssedavega]

the same is true with CEFR languages

[@magnum567134]

I'm half Puerto Rican/half Vietnamese. During lockdown, I decided to teach myself both since we always spoke English growing up. I gave up on Vietnamese pretty much after the alphabet and trying to figure out the tones. It didn't help that I had pretty much no base, since my dad's family is still overseas and I didn't grow up with them around. But the Spanish has been going really well 😁

[@julian.16]

I thought I was the only one who gave up a lot of languages: Japanese, French, Romanian, Mandarin, Dutch, Turkish. Currently I'm learning English and German.

[@Kinotaurus]

Who would want to learn Romanian, or Dutch - unless you are planning to work in those countries?!?

[@pastelpepe]

@@Kinotaurus for the fun of it

[@brenicole7826]

Even though I decide to give Korean another go in 2023, I completely feel you on why you gave up. I wouldn’t call myself a kpop fan, I just have a handful of artists and groups I casually listen to (as I do with my other languages) but the fandom culture turned me off too. I took a long break because it is by far the most frustrating language I’ve ever learned, I don’t really care to take the TOPIK exam and not being huge kpop or kdrama fan made it difficult for me to connect and stay motivated. Hopefully if I take the same approach I did with Spanish, Portuguese and German (learning for the fun of it, expanding my capacity for connection and opportunities) it’ll be a better experience.

[@burygz]

I'm so happy to hear that you learned Turkish

[@AForestCreature]

6:25 👀😂me studying German and Dutch at the same time. I will say that similar thoughts have gone through my head like “Why in the heck did I decide to do this?” I’ve been learning Dutch for 2 years and German (off and on) for 9 years. I suck in both languages and my mind confuses words from both languages together. Not to mention I have a Dutch accent when speaking German and a German accent when speaking Dutch. All in all I’m a mess😂

[@ewoudalliet1734]

Dat is inderdaad niet aan te raden. Misschien kun je een soort rotatiesysteem gebruiken, waarbij je de ene week Duits leert en de andere Nederlands. Ook kan het communiceren met sprekers van de taal zelf een enorme hulp zijn (voor een meer volledige en exclusieve blootstelling - ikzelf had het probleem met Spaans waar ik soms Engelse, Franse of Latijnse woorden gebruikte, terwijl ik de Spaanse vertaling wel kende). Uiteindelijk is het doel van een taal om elkaar te begrijpen, dus zolang dat lukt, ben je goed op weg ;)

[@AForestCreature]

@@ewoudalliet1734 Hm, geen slecht idee. I’ll try that out. Nederlands proberen te spreken met Nederlanders is een andere uitdaging. Ze spreken vooral Engels omdat ze hun Engels willen oefenen. Het kan een beetje moeilijk zijn om die blootstelling te krijgen die ik nodig heb.

[@ewoudalliet1734]

@@AForestCreature Ja, dat klopt wel. En in Vlaanderen is dat ook wel het geval, maar misschien iets minder dan in Nederland. Alhoewel dialecten daar een extra moeilijkheid kunnen zijn. Voor andere talen in toeristische gebieden is het soms ook zo, dat men vaak snel Engels zal gebruiken. Maar als ze zien dat je hun taal echt probeert te gebruiken (niets mis met een beetje koppig zijn), zullen ze vaak toch nog meedoen. Voor mensen zoals jij vind ik het dan wel jammer dat er zo'n klein aanbod van Nederlandse media is. Maar je Nederlands lijkt mij alvast héél erg goed!

[@wuwei87]

"That's why I'm having so much fun with Turkish: it's my first agglutinative language." Uhh, Korean is agglutinative... and I've never been into K-pop and am obsessed with the language. And 4/7 registers are only used either in historical dramas or in literature/poetry and are totally unused in everyday life.

[@paperboxes]

So is German right??

[@wuwei87]

@paperboxes I would say no. German does have extremely productive noun compounding, but agglutinative languages chain a lot more affixes together, especially derivational ones. German has analytic and fusional aspects.

[@thenaturalyogi5934]

I'm so glad my parents put me in a Chinese high-school and that way I'm not trying to learn it as an adult now, because written Chinese is INSANE, we even learned the Taiwanese traditional writing not the short hand China one. So today I'm enjoying easier languages like I started Portuguese (Eu) in 2021 and added Russian in 2022 then now adding French in 2023. It's easier for me because in elementary and high-school we all learned English, Filipino, and Mandarin every single day so 3 languages in a day isn't new to me. Adding 2 regional languages that I spoke with family at home makes me an expert in code-switching as well. It's not impossible but it's not magic either :)

[@Wookdalex]

In my case, I am learning Korean for fun, and also studying some Asian languages, since as a native Spanish speaker I find it very boring to study Romance languages.

[@thedenalski4038]

i feel you so much about the intense exam prep! it feels like every mandarin resource i’ve encountered orbits around the HSK and making sure you get a good score on it instead of actually learning chinese it makes it feel like a course in a public school classroom and not an actual language

[@cyberrilla]

As a Dutch native speaker I thank you for trying Dutch. If you ever feel the need to learn it I can help. I am learning my Brazilian girlfriend Dutch and she is helping me with Portuguese.

[@bhutchin1996]

I learning some Korean martial arts terminology back when I was taking lessons in Tang Soo Do (Chuck Norris, Karate Kid / Cobra Kai) and later Tae Kwon Do, including how to count from 1 to 10, but nothing super useful. Once when I was coming back from Brazil, I met a Korean who was doing business in São Paulo, not in his native Korean, English, or Portuguese but rather the Japanese, another honorific-heavy language, he learned in high school. I studied Russian for 2 years at uni, but that's not really enough time to learn it up to B2; I still work on improving it from time to time but I'm nowhere near fluent. I'm learning some Ukrainian now and knowing Russian helps with that, just like knowing Spanish and French helped me with Portuguese. Italian's a nice language, but it's geographically limited, and Catalan even more so. I worked in call centers for a while and the languages they used including Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Japanese mostly, maybe some French. By the way, I don't suggest that as a career path! One of my co-workers was from Africa who was fluent in Japanese, and since he had a family, he had to work a 2nd job. One really must have intrinsic motivation to learn a language, their own why(s). One of the reasons I finished a German course was because I had already completed 65 out of 100 lessons, so why not just go ahead and finish the course? Languages are like potential partners. You can't go out with all of them much less commit to all of them. Some you flirt with and that's that. Some you go out with and just don't click with. And then there are the languages you spend a lot of time with and even commit to.

[@Kamy199]

SUCH a good idea for a video, very glad you made this one 😁

[@elyssedavega]

I’m glad you liked it!! it’s been in my list for a long time

[@VictoriKide]

I was 99% convinced that I would see Russian in the video !! I immediately thought about it, because I myself speak it and I know how difficult the grammar is. hahaha

[@Lensynth]

This was super interesting. Thanks for posting this! I'm actually learning Russian and Korean atm (I am not a kpop fan however). I really love learning languages that don't use Latin script. I feel like it's super over used and kind of boring... not challenging enough.

[@elyssedavega]

Glad you liked the vid! 👍

[@estellelecardonnel6132]

I have an obsession with alphabet different form the latin’s one. I don’t know where it came from but it made me learn Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Russian or Greek are probably next.

[@Afterthefallout55660]

I don't care about the JLPT. I just learn Japanese, because of my hobbys. I just want to understand japanese in Animes or the names of techniques in my Aikido club it would be also nice to be able to read the ingreadiants on japanese foods from the asia store here in germany, without using the english/german translation infos on it. If I could affort a journey to japan or even had the chance to find a japanese girlfriend, this would be just a like a cherry on the top of the cake. But for me this is enough motivation to learn the language. I keep it simple.

[@myuniyt]

I usually feel so embaressed for wanting to give up on a language but this video made me feel so much better 🥲

[@elyssedavega]

life’s too short to spend it doing sh*t that doesn’t speak to you!! glad i could help 💖

[@johnny7063]

What you say about Korean seems funny to me is that I had a woman working with me that hated the same guy in our department as I did. And one day I happen to ask her how to say "shut up" in Korean and she seemed to know why. So she immediately told me then wrote in on our board and explain it specifically. I then a couple days later asked her how to say "go away" and she was excited about teaching me that also for the same reason. I used those words on the guy we couldn't stand over and over and he had no idea what I was saying. I also told her words in Gaelic that she and I both used on the same guy. Nice to know things that people you don't like have no idea what you are saying.

[@SinilkMudilaSama]

Elysse, of the languages ​​you mentioned, 3 Asian languages ​​I would not choose, Turkish, Russian and Korean, in addition to the bad and difficult phonetics, the grammar is not easy, it is often in the context that the acronyms or letters in the alphabet of these languages ​​have a lot meaning, Chinese and Japanese are also not very different. The guy, the friend or the friend has to really love having a strong connection with these cultures. I really admire anyone who speaks Asian languages ​​with grammar, phonetics and abbreviation far away and outside of our common sense and culture because in practice it's not easy, it's really love if you're not a player, you throw away the language.

[@itsisk2043]

As a native catalan polyglot I feel you when it comes to quitting the languages that make you struggle too much. I speak five romance languages (Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese) and understand some other minoritarian romance ones that I don't plan to learn. And Romanian is the most difficult for me to the point that I stopped learning it. On the other side, I lived in The Netherlands and can speak both Dutch and Afrikaans. Dutch made my learning of German pretty easy until I wanted to master the grammatical genders and the case system. The problem here is how to know/guess the correct grammatical gender. Nowadays I'm struggling with Russian and it's the opposite to German. Knowing the correct gender is super easy 95% of the times, but the case system is exasperating and frustrating. I'm struggling with Swedish, too. But it's not that difficult.

[@andres5653]

Lol your Italian/Catalan story sounded the same when me a native Spanish speaker tried to learn Portuguese while recently finishing French... It gets messy real fast 😂

[@iamkioto]

watching this video kind of made me rethink italian and catalan cuz i was actually going to learn them but they kinda seem useless when i already kno portuguese , spanish and french 😭

[@thato596]

kpop culture it just discouraged some of us from learning korean

[@inari_ux]

As a native russian who studied korean in university and now studies italian for fun, I love this video 😂

[@kristinahuckestein7941]

Being able to feel Russian is such a dream. Not to just talk, but to feel

[@davidrichter4101]

The Romance language thing got me. I’m learning Spanish and recently went to Spain/Catalonia with a layover in Portugal and now stupidly know the word for exit in 3 foreign languages: Salida, sortida, saída. Cant imagine knowing all three full languages 😂

[@EvgenyUskov]

sometimes i simply don't understand why would people voluntarily do... certain things to themselves. i simply can't understand why

[@elyssedavega]

language learning is funnnnn

[@一花のぬいぐるみ-z1e]

I have a strange case with japanese, I've never really been a fan of anime, but i had watched a few ones, in 2019 i started learning english and i realized i really liked learning languages, so after i became fluid in english i thought of learning a new one, so i picked up german cuz it's a language i guess, yeah, i didn't have any interest in the country or the language itself, so after a week or duolingo i stopped, i still wanted to learn a language, i had a slight interest in japanese because i thought the writing system was really cool, but since it's only spoken in japan and it was considered one of the hardest languages in the world, the thought of learning it never crossed my mind, but what got me started was an friend picking up japanese, i thought why not? Also i have two close friends who are proficient in japanese so i started, it's been 10 months and i loved it, i love the language and learning it, i still have problems finding content i want to consume, as for my level, I don't really care about the JLPT but I'd say I'm N2, I'm sure if i studied it a bit I'd be able to pass it, rn it's summer vacation and I'm trying to learn it 5 hours a day, it's been 12 days and it's been successful so far Has it been hard? Yes, many times I've been frustrated with how hard some things about japanese are, but they were never close to making me quit, maybe I'd feel tired for a day or 2 but the next day I'd come with more energy than before, the closet I've been to quitting was in like the first month, and never been close to do it ever since

[@lunar.diaries]

I love this! 🙌🏼 I really resonate with many of the points you made. I’m learning Japanese and Korean (alongside other languages) for personal/family reasons (basically non-pop culture reasons) and I can relate to what you said about the language learning community for those languages~ 😅 although , I find the different politeness levels quite interesting lol! I have also realised I feel far less pressure or impetus to take a Goethe exam for example, compared to JLPT or TOPIK 🤔 …very interesting.

[@StrawberryJamJam29]

I’ve been listening to kpop and watching kdramas since 2009 because I really enjoy the culture. I started studying Korean because I wanted to be able to understand what I’m listening to. I studied abroad there briefly a few years ago. Spent a lot of time traveling all over the country, going to museums, and going on cultural group trips. There was a kpop obsessed clique that annoyed me because all they talked about was going to only kpop stuff while studying abroad. They visited every single cafe and building their favorite group went to instead of trying other things. So I ended up leaving that group and just sitting and enjoying the country. I learned so much historical information. And learned a different perspective of Korea than what is shown in the media. I really appreciated that. I wish I could go back 😢 but I’m broke.

[@YogaBlissDance]

Totally agree on KOREAN- once I heard that, I was like no, no no

[@elyssedavega]

ran for the hiillllssss

[@peastfist1602]

For me , if the language has "alot" of difference sound than the actual writing i quickly give up on it , like how am i suppose to remember if i cant even remember the writing

[@aleeessiaaaa]

i'm italian and i find our grammar really hard, i feel you