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

Psst-- the first 1,000 people to use this link will get 1 month FREE on Skillshare! skl.sh/elyssespeaks12221
Whether they were too hard, too easy, or not exciting enough, these are the languages that didn't make the cut for me. At this point in my language learning journey, I just crave a perfect combo of challenging and interesting. If a language doesn't challenge me, and I don't have an interest in the larger world of that language.. I don't see it happening. (and that's ok!)
Have you ever given up on a language? If so, let me know which and why! ⬇️
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elyssespeaks.gumroad.com/
☕️ buy me a coffee (if you are so inclined!)
ko-fi.com/elyssespeaks
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💌 social media:
📷 instagram:
/ elyssedavega
🐥 twitter:
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🎵 spotify w/ english, german, spanish, and portuguese playlists
open.spotify.com/user/elysse....
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💌 about me: my name is Elysse, I'm 22 years old from the southern U.S. I've been learning languages for about 8 years, and I speak English (native), Spanish (C2), German (B2/C1), Portuguese (B2), French (B1/B2), American Sign Language (advanced), and Turkish (A1). I'm interested in learning Hebrew, Chinese, Georgian, and maybe Náhuatl as well :)
00:00 i've given up on a couple of languages.
00:49 try out Skillshare!
01:51 Russian, i'm sorry.
03:42 why did i even try Korean?
06:07 Dutch was a very cringe moment
07:19 Italian AND Catalan.. CANCELLED
08:12 what we can learn from my fails
#polyglot #languagelearning #learnkorean

[@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.

[@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

[@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 ❤️🇧🇷

[@elyssespeaks]

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.

[@user-rw7mf4oo1h]

@@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.

[@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 😭

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@haveyoumetmanvi]

@@elyssespeaks 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.

[@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

[@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

[@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!

[@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.

[@echelonangel98]

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

[@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

[@user-sl5rl8cu8c]

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)

[@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

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@foreverdreamwithinadream6871]

I am just self studying for the fun of it so the topik thing really came up on KZbin, so it was never really a thing for me and not stressing over it as it probably doesn't matter much as I am not planning on moving or working in Korea where it would be more important, I have mainly been focusing on French (or once, I feel like I am really learning something even though I still got a ways to go. I just find it so pretty to listen to and figured it can also help me with Spanish later on), so I hadn't put much time or energy into Korean. I don't really listen to much Kpop or watch KDrama (I do enjoy someone; but not the reason why I am learning). I just like how fun it is write in Hangul and is a bit of challenge; but also doesn't feel quite impossible to learn either. (some forms you aren't going to use that often. Mainly the polite and plain form and maybe another one) Japanese isn't as hard as Mandarin; but still need to learn a lot of kanji and wasn't as flowy. I think I liked reading it more than speaking or listening to it; but there was just too much to learn for it to really get me to stick with it. I might go back to it someday.

[@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

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@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)

[@jasonedwards6878]

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

[@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

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@adventureswithmadison]

Hey I'm learning Swedish right now!

[@adventureswithmadison]

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.

[@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. :)

[@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!

[@elyssespeaks]

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?

[@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

[@jLjtremblay]

A very good presentation. I am happy for you that you learned this at your young age.

[@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.

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@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!

[@user-tr3qf4pg4d]

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.

[@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... :(

[@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.

[@sammiec.1496]

Love your chanel keep the content coming...Btw...your Swagg is on 1000, love it!!

[@elyssespeaks]

this is my favorite comment of all time

[@Kamy199]

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

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@WilliamWallace444]

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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[@Sapphireia]

Agree with you on almost all points. For me, a big part of the fun of language learning is to discover new sounds and grammar patterns, so learning closely related languages doesn't interest me as much. Turkish is my first agglutinative language as well (and also first SOV language!) and I love it!!

[@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 (:

[@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 💀

[@elyssespeaks]

you must have been in the minority !!

[@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 😁

[@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

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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 😿🙌

[@elyssespeaks]

Hahaha wish u the best

[@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!

[@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)

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@dreamysol]

i'll be looking forward to the mexican spanish skillshare class! defnitely agree with the exam things for korean as well as the politeness levels. i have some interest in korean but all of the formality registers put me off. maybe i'll get into it someday but for now no!

[@elyssespeaks]

ooooo glad to hear there’s some early interest in the class!

[@msmichellewinchester]

I have been learning Korean on and off for over a year and honestly, the politeness levels aren't so bad. They look scary, but as a foreigner, I think you get away with just using the polite form, maybe deferential in some established phrases. But I understand finding out about a feature in a language and nope out because of it, I did the same with German 😆. As for the kpop thing, I'm not a fan of kpop in general, but I am a fan of BTS, so being in that community helped me. It's also obviously a handy study material. But I also get why you would want to avoid kpop spaces. Carving out a good space for yourself in these spaces is difficult in itself and someone who's there for reasons outside of kpop don't stand a chance. I think with self-study it's possible to avoid it, though. Maybe 😅

[@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.

[@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.

[@elyssespeaks]

Ooooo so fun for you!

[@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

[@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.

[@elyssespeaks]

Glad you liked the vid! 👍

[@desexplicando]

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

[@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.

[@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 😂

[@user-hq1yx3sw4n]

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

[@mariotedesco]

Thank you for sharing! I actually learnt Greek at the university just because it sounded good! 🤣 It worked for me!

[@sheeliekittie9298]

this video came at PERFECT timing. especially for the new year and into 2023, I'm trying to put a schedule f study for languages. I'm struggling b/c of the language guilt. Letting go of languages when you feel obligated due to, any reason really - the brain is smart and will trick you into that guilt no matter what! ' you put sooo mmuch time and effort into it already, XY years ago....' you already started it, why would you not keep it''' oh it's so frustrating =( thanks Elysse I really welcome any all feedback xoxo

[@elyssespeaks]

Exactly! You don't owe anything to the language, it's purely about what's best for you. I'll be planning a 2023 goals video soon so I think you'll enjoy that one too ~

[@sheeliekittie9298]

@@elyssespeaks lol i need you to coach me. I love your language learning philosophy!! And you honestly make me laugh you are by far my favourite in the polyglot community!! I also like Robin he is someone who consistently upholds quality of languages over quantity.

[@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.

[@elyssespeaks]

aww that sounds so fun!

[@thato596]

I agree. Your reasons they do make sense. With me i gave up on italian because it is not mostly spoken compared to other western euopean languages. They told us to learn italian because there is some similar words to portuguese & spanish. Like why would i do that. i rather learn spanish directly.

[@user-mx1rb2vz3v]

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

[@RenMVlogs]

Crys in 1st Year Linguistics and Korean Language University degree 😭 I knew it would be a 4 year+ marathon of a challenge, so I can't blame anyone.😄 To anyone neurodiverse and who has trouble with learning new sounds/processing/basically doesn't have any natural talent for languages, don't think language learning is impossible for you! I have two foreign languages that I love to study and my disability assessment clearly explains why that should be the hardest thing for my brain to do. What you lack in nautral talent you can make up in sheer determination and perseverance. Take the challenge 💪!

[@azriel3921]

I feel you with the romance languages! I'm on my third and I don't know if I can handle another for a while yet after this

[@Luboman411]

Or definitely do learn a language for the aesthetics. You have no idea how many times I've tried to give up on Chinese, but those beautiful characters just draw me back in and spur me to learn even more in fits and spurts over the past 15 years. Right now I'm presently going through another spurt of learning this magnificent and frustrating language.

[@polyglotsjourney]

I totally agree that tests literally take fun from the process of the acquisition of the languages. Any chance that you will come back to some of the mentioned languages? :D

[@elyssespeaks]

Nahhh I think i’m done with these for good!

[@polyglotsjourney]

@@elyssespeaks Ha, no "Never give up" spirit 😂 I like that, I kinda do the same thing 😄

[@hexreyes0]

i study foreign language in college and my main language is Spanish. when i tried to learn French for the first time it was way too similar to Spanish and it was so hard!! now that i am C2 in Spanish and have a solid base, i am learning Italian and it's so much easier :) my goal is to reach B1 in Italian before going back to French

[@annasominska8297]

I'm trying to learn Dutch recently because I'm thinking of moving to Belgium in the future, but so far I got about 2.5 years to end my school where I have to study German because that's the only option (I study English as a foreign language as well but still we have to choose 2 languages), and I have to admit it's really confusing learning both at the same time I'm not focusing on German as much and I'm forgetting words 😭 and then I make up my own words with Dutch + my knowledge of how the words look like in German which of course never works and I'm just writing or saying some imaginary words, but it's not all so bad and I'm doing pretty good at German in school so I dont have to worry about passing etc. One thing I gotta say is that knowing some German at the begging of learning Dutch was helpful and lots of vocab is easier to memorize, the spelling is quite different but it's not that hard to learn, I still remember how I was confused about "zijn" being pronounced pretty much the same as "sein" For me it's just the begging of learning languages and idk too much about good technics or ways of learning them and I find you and many other polyglot channels inspiring 😁

[@estherandherlittleworld7821]

Wowww very interesting! Hahaha i've been learning Russian for 3 years and started Korean recently, the polite levels looks scary 😂 and i'm having trouble to form sentences but I really like how it sounds. I think I gave up on Polish 🇵🇱 in 2017 because I was also dabbling in Russian gave up on Russian at that time too because I was also trying German, all kinda from scratch 🤡 so of course that didn't work.. but I came back to Russian in 2020.

[@elyssespeaks]

Good on you for coming back to Russian though!!

[@CarlosMiau]

Nice vid and reasons. Totally relate as a nativo català language lover myself. JLPT and the L.L community "me sacan de equicio"... Anyhow, have a lovely nadal y próspero new année! ^^ (sorry for el mélange de idiomas XD)

[@elyssespeaks]

Hahaha thank u for such a sweet comment

[@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

[@meliodys]

same for me but with italian lol

[@elyssespeaks]

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

[@simonledoux8519]

Wow, I find this topic really interesting and can relate to it. First, I want to say that it is impressive to hear that at 22, you already speak 4 languages including English. Or am I missing an extra one that you speaK? You will probably learn even more languages in the course of your lifetime. I can predict that you will at the very least, master and refine the ones that you already know. I get that some languages simply are no longer a priority or worth our time. When I was in high school, many decades ago, I took Spanish and Italian. I fell in love with Italian but after those two years of study, I never needed or had the opportunity to use the language again. Spanish, on the other became a priority and I lived in Spain for a year and returned over a dozen times. I picked up French as an adult and became fluent but it took a while. It helped that I lived in Quebec. Then Portuguese came along! I didn't even want to learn it but I fell in love with Portugal and finally surrendered. Now I am about a B2 or maybe a C1 level on a good day. Portuguese is the language that I feel the least confident but I get by and love it. I won't give up on it and I might move to Portugal. Back to Italian. I think it is a beautiful language but I don't foresee spending a significant amount of time in Italy other than an occasion trip there. Over the years, unfortunately, I became complacent with my Spanish because I dedicated more time to French and Portuguese. There are some topics in French and Portuguese where my vocabulary is better than in Spanish. Recently, I have decided to focus again on Spanish and I went to Spain a few months ago.It was amazing to be immersed once again in the language. It boosted my confidence in the language. I apologize if I am being a bit random with my thoughts on this subject. It's just that I really appreciate this video and find it thought provoking. So Italian probably won't happen! I am in my early 60's and taking on another language might not be where I want to focus my time. However, if I go to Japan or Turkey, two places on my bucket list, I would definitely consider learning a few basics of the language.

[@elyssespeaks]

I speak more than 4! I'm comfortable in around 5. thanks for the nice comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the video & wish you the best ~

[@RedPandas3111]

I speak three languages, Spanish is my first language, I acquired English an an early age because I’ve lived in the US since I was a teenager then I fell in love with French and today I even have French friends, so pretty much I use my three languages on a daily basis… I’ve tried so hard to connect with another language the same way I did with English and French but no success whatsoever, I keep getting bored.

[@josesoro8315]

Me acabo de suscribir a tu canal, y me gusta la forma como te expresas en varios idiomas Saludos

[@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 :)

[@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

[@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

[@elyssespeaks]

maybe my russian teacher was ukrainian but also spoke russian!

[@glib4571]

@@elyssespeaks 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 ;)

[@AlexCouch65]

I tried learning Russian back in spring/summer of last year (2021) but i failed cause i was also super sick from my Crohn's disease (all good now) where i basically nearly starved to death (had to get surgery but like i said, all good now). My brain wasn't working so i stopped learning it. I instead picked up Esperanto while waiting for surgery and lemme tell you, even the condition i was in, i could still learn a lot of esperanto. I was mostly using duolingo cause that's all i could do. I couldn't practice or anything, i was quite limited but i still learned a lot. And yes i still study it. I'm quite advanced with it now after about a year of studying. Now I'm learning Dutch and I'm learning quite a bit of Dutch. My advice to you is, don't learn two languages at the same time, unless you get far in one (B1-B2 level, the higher the better) then you can pick up a second. Once you get to a certain point with one language, it becomes more natural for you to remember and distinguish that from other languages. Learning more than one is difficult cause your brain is trying to categorize information from two (perhaps similar) languages. You basically delay the acquisition of those languages while they conflict in your head. Esperanto comes quite naturally to me these days so learning Dutch is pretty easy to do as long as I have the right materials.

[@cogitoergosum9069]

I had to give up on studying several languages that I found super interesting because I'm a broke ass college student and there wasn't enough material online to learn from in a meaningful way. This was the case for Lithuanian and Gascon (a specific dialect of Occitan). Maybe I'llget back to them when I'm older, but also, maybe not. And I totally get the new language excitement thing. I started learning Polish a few months ago (although I've only been seriously getting into it for about 2 months) and the difference between it and my other languages (French, English, Spanish) is just so fascinating to me.

[@lmusima3275]

I speak Italian and my knowledge is on the C. I learnt also Greek which one of the most unique languages, reading 📖 mostly, musical lyrics, listening through Greek movies which I found the hardest. I’m now learning German for which I’m mastering reading 📖 articles, at the same time learning to read Dutch as well. I went to the Netherlands 🇳🇱 recently, so I’m ever so curious about the Dutch language as it’s partly similar to English and German. I don’t want to give up on any of these languages but find a way to include them in everyday life

[@Jademoonx]

That's amazing! Do you speak more languages?? I speak Dutch maybe we can help each other out!🥰

[@franciscoflamenco]

I've studied the 3 "main" asian languages you mentioned, and I think I understand why there's so much emphasis on test taking. To begin with, there's a cultural thing. Living in Japan, people will usually ask the TOEIC (reading and listening test) score in order to gauge someone's English level, despite the fact that you don't actually need to speak the language in that exam. There's also the game-like feeling of leveling up through the different tests, that helps people stay motivated.

[@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.

[@brigc7755]

It's kind of odd that the politeness levels is what stopped you because they're quite easy for me 😅 good on you for not forcing yourself to learn any language you didn't want to and understanding when to quit.

[@valentin.cuber.polyglot]

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 ;)

[@Noor-vv9sm]

I'm learning Korean for about 2 years now , and i just knew about these 7 politeness levels a couple of days ago ,, because as a bigenner you really don't have to know all 7 of them ,, you just have to know the basic 3 and the extra one. ( The plain form ) ,, just those and each one has it's own conjugation rule so you dont have to worry about that , and the difference in use is also okay and you can get it easily, even if you don't catch when to use what you can just stick to the 요 form as a bigenner for all situations ,, because you know ,, some of these 7 are not used anymore or like historical and some are actually not conjugations ,, this lingo dear article just looked for like everything that's function is related to politeness level and counted it but it just doesn't work like that ...

[@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

[@maikopasma9176]

I gave up on some languages but not because It thought I wouldn't be able to learn them, I knew I could, but it's just because I got so good at some other languages I was studying, that I decided to dedicate all I had to those ones so that I'd be done quicker and it's working, now I'm learning faster cause I'm not focusing on too many

[@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?

[@korean79]

5 언어는 힘들어요. 그렇지만 도전해본 당신이 멋져요 👍👍 노력은 배신하지 않아요. 저도 언어공부에 관심이 많아요. 그래서 당신의 영상이 저에게 많은 도움이 되었어요. 좋은 컨텐츠 고마워요 ❤❤

[@chrisamies2141]

I learned Catalan while I was doing my degree in Spanish. Nice language, especially then as it was starting to be used more widely; but I've also found it is too similar to Portuguese which I've been learning the last couple of years, and tended to 'bleed through' into it and also into Spanish. And TBQH it suffers from the issue of the minority language; just about everyone who speaks Catalan also speaks Castilian (or possibly French). So it's more useful to keep on with the Spanish.

[@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.

[@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?)?

[@acaenbethel]

I agree about the Romance language word cognates. I speak Argentine Spanish and I don't feel the need to learn Portuguese on its own because it's usually possible to listen carefully and understand what is being said in Portuguese.

[@andyottaviani4379]

I like the familiarity with some Italian language and dutch sounds a little bit like english somewhat. Italian is something more of an adventure too really fun. French is a whole different thing all together.

[@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 😭

[@muhammedhamza4596]

i from Turkey and i live in netherlands. thats why i am learning dutch. but if wouldnt live in this country no one can teach me dutch. i learn because i must. i understand you. if you dont have to learn any language that can be boring in long term. btw in 2 year i have aim which is learning german. after i got the b2 on dutch i want to learn german. because why not. i hope you success in your language learning term (turkce yazsam anlardin belki sdaklasdjkldasjkl)

[@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

[@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

[@gabslanternfestival2323]

7:22 No but I felt so personally attacked 😭 My first foreign language was Spanish and followed up with the remaining Romance languages (although consecutively, not simultaneously) with Duo and here I am today 😅 I’m glad you made peace with not pursuing these languages if they don’t resonate with you any longer tho! 💙

[@elyssespeaks]

hahaha we all have different paths

[@jamiececilielange5249]

I used to try and learn languages that I couldn't find other people speaking IRL, (like Korean) and I've let those languages go. I'm learning Polish, since there are a lot of Polish people in my country, and I will also learn Spanish, since I love the language and I know I can find who speak Spanish.

[@marummm]

i just started learning korean - for fun - and decided that for now im only learning the two main levels. Not here to get overwhelmed but to get to communicate :') and language exams.......... oh how i hate them !!

[@elyssespeaks]

Give yourself a lot of grace and patience!

[@calebl6586]

I think with cefr for the most part people aren’t planning on taking them they’re just a more specific way to talk about what level you feel like you’re at. Also I think they’re a big gimmick in the language learning industry like every product claims to get you to a certain cefr level

[@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

[@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.