#and the cursing

[aibhilin-atibeka]

I just saw an ask game :D and I do have a question that I think would be fun for you.

What actually interested you in learning multiple languages in the first place and what draws you to a language that makes you want to learn it?

Oohhhh, now that's a fun one! :D

Well. I learned my first "real true" (no, seriously, honest) foreign language at the age of 9 and I felt absolutely neutral towards it.

Meh, 'twas another subject at school, so what? XD younger!me was not specifically very interested in languages at all. I had the world to explore, after all! What's languages compared to manga? Compared to anime? Compared to books?

Compared to the real world? Darn, no, I sure am not throwing time at something I might never use again at a later date in life, see me go "nope" at languages and "yes" to life experiences.

And then my sister went and learned to fluently speak five languages somehow. It seemed very much like "all of a sudden she can speak five languages" to me. Dammit all, I had to learn at least as many, didn't I?

That - along with my school offering languages as their educational focus - helped. Still wasn't ideal, but I'd gotten that certain nudge into this direction then. And at that point my love for Japan was noticeably not fading, so I got gifted a Japanese language class. And... sort of haven't stopped learning Japanese since. Whoops?

At the same time my school offered French and in a choice between Italian and French? Sure, I'll choose French (the language sounded nicer at that time and the teacher kinder). I can learn Italian later on, once the school offers another language choice two years into the first one, right?

Right?

Wrong. Had to choose between Spanish and computer science, so no Italian for me back then. But Spanish is basically Italian on crack, isn't it? (pls don't dunk on teenage!me, teenage!me was a bit of a teenager back then) They're 1:1 understandable to one another, right? Right?

Also wrong.

But that didn't stop me from starting Italian on my own at university.

And a friend offered to teach a class of Turkish right in-between school and university, so there we went~

And university itself offers language classes too, how could I not check them out and study Hindi for a bit?

... somehow, without even consciously being aware of it, I'd accumulated a starting vocab for about twenty languages before I was twenty (how do I know that exact number at that exact age? I had to do a language autobiography collecting, chronologically listing and presenting all my language studies and some of the knowledge I'd obtained in detail for a class shortly after turning twenty).

By now it's probably stayed *roughly* the same in number (... maybe I added five to ten-ish languages since then? no clue), though I couldn't say whether or not that's simply because of where I live or what opportunities I had or what little time I've had to spend on accumulating more languages since. Life's a busy bee, sometimes, and the life of an author/linguist/leisure-social-media-scroller (tumblr I'm looking at you) feels even busier. Never mind any other engagements I have ended up in so far.

I have an ongoing interest in languages cause I find it fun to be able to communicate with the world in whatever language I can. They're a means to reading, listening and interacting with people and there's wordplay to consider. ;) In short, I find it fun.

To answer your questions:

What actually interested you in learning multiple languages in the first place

I stumbled into them like Winnie the Pooh might stumble into a pot of honey XD there was no definitive moment of "Oh, I'm interested in becoming a polyglot now" - at the point in time that I had that realisation I already was one.

and what draws you to a language that makes you want to learn it?

Depending on the language, I have different motivations for learning them:

Japanese: "stopping now makes just as much sense as a prisoner breaking out might stop in front of the 9th out of 10 walls they'd have to climb", also "I've got manga to read in Japanese just to get all the jokes in them" and "I bought and imported books from Japan that I still have to read"

French: "I still haven't read all of the Arsène Lupin series" and "from time to time the Frenchspeakers release funny movies that I wanna watch in the original language"

Italian: "darn, originally I was in this for the bit but I'm committed to learning it now with whatever means necessary"

Spanish: is "just sort of there" and "Sometimes I find articles and news pages and books I want to read that just so happen to be in Spanish, so why not read them in Spanish, I don't even need a translation"

Korean: "I want to be able to read you at one point, darn it all to hell"

etc. ad infinitum. I didn't even mention all the ones I'm fluent in here, never mind all the ones I started to learn at one point in my life, so yeah.

I love the challenge? I love the way learning languages open up a whole new world view to you as you go along? I adore being able to read yet more books by just learning a language? I love word games?

All of these and more count towards my interest in languages. :D Gotta say, languages rock. Polyglottism ftw.

@stereden cause I can

@a-knight-owls-curse thanks for the interesting ask!

[greseadraws]

dungeon meshi but they end up in the back rooms, a cursed idea that was eating away at my brain

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[barkeroodle]

… I just needed an excuse to draw cursed cat Alastor before it dies out

[curtaincallforalastor]

I wanted to hope on board the #CursedCatAlastor wagon over on Twitter, even if I was a bit late. It's just so perfectly stupid. 😂

[pani-artz]

Cursed cat Alastor x Lilo and Stitch

[cicadaart]

I can’t get him out of my head

[lucdoodle]

Charlie meeting him

[eleyalvarez]

Twitter made me do it!

I imagined Keekee not liking him. I mean, just look at that face!

[shaylai]

Aunt Rosie brought a weird cat as a present for the residents of the Hazbin Hotel 🌹

[nicolekart]

With my “amazing” ability to draw cats, I just had to…

[greykolla-art]

If Cursed Cat Alastor talked I imagine it would say so many upsetting things.👌

[qdkdraws]

My contribution to the #cursedcatalastor on Twitter

[akkpipitphattana]

if alphas in the omegaverse knew that we referred to it as the "omegaverse" and not the "alphaverse," they'd throw a fit

[and-corn]

shoutout to the "foolproof" bread recipe I fucked up entirely for inspiring this