I am a Malayali too. But unfortunately, the national language in my country is English and my mother’s native language is Malay. So I am fluent in both languages without any knowledge of Malayalam.

I think that Malay is the easiest language in the world, which kind of makes it unchallenging. I was more interested in the Latin languages, so I decided to pick up French during my high school and college years. Now I could read and write French well, but have no confidence of speaking the language. I have a close friend who is French and she had to resort to speaking ‘Frenglish’ to me, 50% English and 50% French.

Being raised an orthodox Muslim, I can read and write Arabic and Jawi (similar to Arabic) scriptures pretty well. However, my vocabulary is pretty much limited since I had flunked Arabic consistently during my elementary years in school. I had a year of education in Bangkok, Thailand so I could speak Thai adequately. Even though Thai is a tonal language and is different from all the other languages which I have picked up (or attempted to) previously, I fount it really easy. On the other hand, my written Thai is a disaster, mainly because I really hate to practise written Thai while learning it.

I have a deep love of languages, and in future I hope to speak French, Thai and Arabic eloquently. I hope to pick up my father’s tongue, Malayalam too. It is really nice to see that everyone who has contributed to this blog post either has a flair or a keen interest for languages.

Cheers,
Hafidz

Spanish is easy at first, and while I could survive in a Spanish speaking country and have almost complete a college level certificate in it, the grammar still frustrates me to no end. Mandarin on the other hand, is very simple and logical. I’m far from fluent, but I have no problems with tones and have traveled to China with no problems communicating. They key to Mandarin is managing expectations. Don’t expect anything for a year…don’t expect to feel good or make progress or have conversations. Just listen, absorb and practice. Once you get past that first year (or two), it’s much easier. Oh…and drop pinyin ASAP.

Thai language probably falls into the 3rd category because it’s also a tonal language like Chinese. Many of my foreign friends told me that learning Thai is so difficult, mostly because they can’t get the tone right.

One tip to get the right tone is to practice saying a word with 5 different tones. For example: “ma” (as you pronounce ma in “mama mia”).
“Ma” with different tones have 3 different meanings: come, a horse, a dog.

Keep practicing!

I minored in Japanese in college. LOVED it.

I studied Mandarin Chinese briefly AFTER studying Japanese and found it very difficult. My “laoshi” (instructor) informed me that Japanese usually seems easier to learn after studying Chinese, but NOT the other way around.

I learned Spanish in Peru (where Spanish is spoken beautifully). I had VERY LITTLE Spanish background and initially struggled but I still found it easy to learn because the alphabet is almost exact to my first language’s alphabet. This makes a big difference.

Now that I’m fluent in Spanish, I can converse with native Portuguese and Italian speakers…not fluently, but we manage. I can read Portuguese and Italian pretty well as well, all thanks to Spanish. The similarities are absolutely helpful.

I liken French to Spanish/Portuguese/Italian in the same way I relate Mandarin Chinese to Japanese…I feel that Spanish/Portuguese/Italian are easier to grasp once French is learned, just like Japanese (written) comes easier after Mandarin Chinese (written) is learned.

Funny thing was that when I went to France all my confidence went to the floor! Every time I tried to say something in French, I would say it in Spanish or in English and when I went to Italy, only the French would come out!

I’m not fluent in French but I will be one day when I move to France and learn it where it’s spoken!

Arabic, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense to me, as far as the grammar that I have learned thus far. Also, the method of teaching here at the University of Iowa is less American and more European, considering the chair of Arabic here is from Hungary and has taught all over the Middle East and Europe. I find that I am just as competent at understanding Arabic when I hear the language as much as reading it. I’m still not at the point with my vocabulary where I can have a very fluent and smooth conversation, but my understanding is FAR beyond what I expected it to be at this point.

As was previously stated though, the interest level in learning is very important. Considering that I want to work in the Middle East and become an expert on the culture I have a very large interest in the Arabic language. Once I became familiar with the characters and pronunciation it was simply a matter of memorization of words and the continual learning of grammar.