What have you given up on?

[vijayjohn]

Is Nilo-Saharan one as well?

Nah, Nilo-Saharan is just a proposed language family. Some of the languages actually are related, but it's not clear that all of them are (in particular, the Songhai languages are problematic, IIRC).

Also, in writing my previous reply, I learned that Khoisan is no longer considered a valid language family! Man, I'm so behind the times in some linguistic stuff!

It's okay. Everyone is at first!

[Iván]

French.

I hardly ever use it. I can still understand it pretty well when it's written, but sadly I don't have any interest whatsoever in improving it. However, I know it's an important language if I'd like to work at any of the European institutions, such as the European Commission or the Parliament.

[vijayjohn]

Do you want to work in one of those institutions?

[Vlürch]

I haven't really given up on any language, although I'm not actively trying to learn most of the languages I'm interested in. Thankfully, for me language stuff is just a hobby (although the second biggest one at that, only behind making music), so there's no pressure.

I think the last wanderlust I had was a brief attempt to learn some Finnish a few months ago, which fell flat on its face about 2 weeks in and I probably won't be back to it.

Did you try to learn formal or informal Finnish?

Then there's Ainu - the reason I found this forum years ago - I would love to learn it, but it's just not doable from where I am as far as I can tell. I tried twice to learn it, but you can only get so far and then unless you have people to talk to/teach you, you're kind of screwed.

Every time I have Ainu wanderlust, it shocks me that there's only a literal handful of native speakers left. Same thing with Haida, although I just checked on Wikipedia and it says there are 50 speakers left; IIRC it used to say 5 or something?

Yeah, I guess you could call Vijay exotic.

In fact, after all the years I've been exposing myself to different languages and such, I wonder what I would call exotic. Vijay?

Papuan languages? Nilo-Saharan languages? Oirata, Fataluku, Teiwa, Alor, Dinka, Koyra Chiini?

Hadza, Yuchi, Kusunda, Rotokas, Archi, Seri?

[vijayjohn]

I should actually correct myself. Alor isn't even the name of a language; it's the name of an island where a bunch of Papuan languages (closely related to each other and to Teiwa) are spoken.

[dEhiN]

Archi

:yeah!: (Dammit, why doesn't phpBB have the emoji with two hearts for eyes, like Whatsapp does?? Is it so hard to get a standardized set of emoji??!!)

My actual response:

[vijayjohn]

UniLang does have that:

[Karavinka]

Then there's Ainu - the reason I found this forum years ago - I would love to learn it, but it's just not doable from where I am as far as I can tell. I tried twice to learn it, but you can only get so far and then unless you have people to talk to/teach you, you're kind of screwed.

Every time I have Ainu wanderlust, it shocks me that there's only a literal handful of native speakers left. Same thing with Haida, although I just checked on Wikipedia and it says there are 50 speakers left; IIRC it used to say 5 or something?

I can imagine how it can be pretty tough, esp. since much of the Ainu material can only be accessed in Japanese. Recently, I've been making some attempt to re-gain what Ainu I used to know and build up on it. After all, since I'm at least partly responsible for causing Wanderlust to Unilangers by translating the lessons on the site, I should at least count as a learner, if not a speaker...

Ciarán's comment made me remember how I found Unilang back in 2004. I was trying to find Finnish resources, probably my first "Wanderlust." I haven't touched the language since then though. I guess it counts as a language that I've "given up."

[dEhiN]

UniLang does have that:

Sneaky UniLang (or phpBB) - accepting emoji codes that aren't listed on the right-hand side!

[vijayjohn]

UniLang does have that:

Sneaky UniLang (or phpBB) - accepting emoji codes that aren't listed on the right-hand side!

UniLang. It has nothing to do with phpBB AFAICT; I'm on another forum that uses phpBB, too, and their smilies look nothing like UniLang's and are not nearly as varied. UniLang has a LOT of smilies, but only a few of them fit on the right. Hence the "View more smilies" button.

[dEhiN]

UniLang. It has nothing to do with phpBB AFAICT; I'm on another forum that uses phpBB, too, and their smilies look nothing like UniLang's and are not nearly as varied. UniLang has a LOT of smilies, but only a few of them fit on the right. Hence the "View more smilies" button.

Yeah but that one you showed me isn't on any of those pages under the "View more smilies" button either. (And I didn't realize they were labeled as smilies because the forum is in French for me so I see Émoticônes and Accéder à davantage d'émoticônes!)

[vijayjohn]

Yes, it is! It's on page 2, second row, smiley #2.

[dEhiN]

Yes, it is! It's on page 2, second row, smiley #2.

Getting back OT, I'm starting to miss knowing a few words in a bunch of languages. Or I guess in general, I was thinking how in all the time I've spent learning languages, I've learned some NT Greek as well as some basics in a number of other languages. My signature even reflected this at one point. But this past year I've focused on 3-5 languages for the sake of actually getting them past a basic A1 stage. But I miss learning a little bit here and there about different languages.

[Ciarán12]

Did you try to learn formal or informal Finnish?

I really only tried to memorise the most common 1000 words, I was more using Finnish as an experiment in memorising the most commom words before actually studying the language properly to see how that would affect my progress.
The effect was that halfway through learning the word list I got bored/couldn't keep up with the pace for learning I had set for myself and gave up.

I can imagine how it can be pretty tough, esp. since much of the Ainu material can only be accessed in Japanese. Recently, I've been making some attempt to re-gain what Ainu I used to know and build up on it. After all, since I'm at least partly responsible for causing Wanderlust to Unilangers by translating the lessons on the site, I should at least count as a learner, if not a speaker...

Ciarán's comment made me remember how I found Unilang back in 2004. I was trying to find Finnish resources, probably my first "Wanderlust." I haven't touched the language since then though. I guess it counts as a language that I've "given up."

I forgot you were the one who created this: https://unilang.org/course.php?res=58, that was how I found this site! But... I joined in 2011 and you said you join in 2014, so I'm confused...

[vijayjohn]

No, he said 2004.

[kevin]

I really only tried to memorise the most common 1000 words, I was more using Finnish as an experiment in memorising the most commom words before actually studying the language properly to see how that would affect my progress.

I need to keep this method in mind for the case that I get an urge to start something new. It should be pretty effective in killing any wanderlust before I get into it properly.

[Ciarán12]

No, he said 2004.

That would make more sense...

I need to keep this method in mind for the case that I get an urge to start something new. It should be pretty effective in killing any wanderlust before I get into it properly.

Glad the method is useful for something!

[Iván]

Do you want to work in one of those institutions?

Yes, I do. I would like to do a master's degree in conference interpreting. Working as an interpreter for the EU institutions is one of my goals because I would get to use most of my languages daily.

[Luís]

I decided not to give up on German after all. I'm going to finish the book I'm currently going through (just a few more pages left) and keep on doing my daily Anki reviews. I won't be studying it actively (or adding new words to Anki) after that, though

I decided to archive my Anki deck today.

Sorry German. It's not you, it's me.

[linguoboy]

I decided not to give up on German after all. I'm going to finish the book I'm currently going through (just a few more pages left) and keep on doing my daily Anki reviews. I won't be studying it actively (or adding new words to Anki) after that, though

I decided to archive my Anki deck today.

Sorry German. It's not you, it's me.