I have always wanted to learn Japanese, started many times but have lacked to dedication required. In my teens, I read Shogun by James Clavell and became fascinated by the country and its history. I have never been a natural linguist, even French at school I really struggled with. I admire people who can pick languages up quickly and I do think us English speakers get a little lazy because so many countries teach English as a second language from a young age.

This question has sparked my interest again and I’m off to check out duolingo ??

ooo o love your HA what is the hair you chose its ;lovely i love your HA... is the sweater o are wearing i thinK it is the same one aS CASSEYGEE?

Thank you! I love your HA too! :)

I love to train my French more, I'm a teacher in that language but there is still so much to learn! For a new language I'd really like to learn Mandarin, it's spoken by so many people and the Chinese culture is really interesting so it would be nice to be able to read texts and speak to the people.

I want to learn Spanish. I live in the southern US and want to be able to communicate with more of my community members. I'm trying to arrange my work schedule after the holidays to allow me to take a class at the community college.

I want to learn Spanish and ASL. I've had a couple Spanish classes, but I'm nowhere near being able to communicate. As a future teacher I think it's really important I know Spanish so that I can communicate more effectively with Spanish speaking students who are learning English. I also love ASL because I'm a very visual person. I took a class in highschool and have been enamored with it since.

I would love to learn more Hawaiian. Only around 2000 people are really fluent nowadays in this wonderful language. I only know words and some phrases yet I would love to talk more.

ooo i would LOVE to learn some hawaiin i love hearing it it is a beautiful sound!

I’m currently learning French. A while back, my father got stationed in Belgium by the Air Force, and in the area in which we lived, the main language was French. I took two years of it in the high school, but ended up being placed a year ahead along with two of my classmates because we were advanced. It was hard work, but fun, and it was very fulfilling to be able to speak the language to my neighbors and at stores and restaurants.

I love languages, and would learn all of them if I could, but I think I’ll stick with French for now. I would really, really love to become fluent in it, so that if I ever have children I can immediately teach them two languages (although being fluent just to have a conversation with French people would be awesome, too)I would also like to learn at least some ASL soon, just so I know some basic words and phrases if I encounter someone who only speaks ASL. I already know the alphabet and a few words, but knowing enough to have a basic conversation is a goal of mine.

I really admire foreign people who have learned English, no matter how hard it is for them and how different their language is.

- Good luck with Korean! I've learned some and it's... well... far from easy.

- I'll learn Russian next year. It's not too much of a choice, but the university only offers a couple of languages for the distance classes (only Portuguese, Russian, Greek, and Occitan). I already took Portuguese last year, and I took a general knowledge class this year. I know Russian is very useful if you travel in the area, I have to admit I am not drown to the culture at all, I doubt it will be useful for me. At least grammar is supposed to be easy...

- Esperanto is an interesting idea, but a bit pointless in my opinion. I've taken a year of Latin when I was in collège (the equivalent of middle school iirc). It's an interesting mental exercise! As a French speaker, it was good to learn more about etymology.

- and then you could help translate the games :p

- I took 3 years of German, not a great memory... but I can still understand some of it but can't speak it for the sake of my life though.

- I'm learning Arabic at the moment. Not to speak it well, just to have enough understanding of the language since I often help Arabic speakers to learn French. The writing system is indeed very beautiful... unless I'm the one writing, then it's a disgusting mess :p Overall I don't find Arabic as hard as it looks.

& - I can never stick with Duolingo (maybe something to do with the crazy sentences... "Cat is not food" <- One of the first sentences in the Korean lesson). And you can answer every time even if you just won. I probably won't pick your answer twice in a row for the big prize... like I probably won't pick someone who won the trivia prize to win the forum one...

- Logographic writing systems are soooo difficult to learn... good luck learning Chinese!

- I can't argue, I'm currently getting all the certifications needed to be able to teach French...

- Well... I guess it still counts

- There are very few people who can pick up language easily, they just know how to learn! :p I've learned 3 foreign languages + Latin in middle and high school... it's not that uncommon here. And French people are known for being horribly bad at speaking foreign languages.

- oh... I'm training to teach FLE. French is my native language, that helps...

- yay! French! Making a child learn two languages at once is a smart move. Especially considering a baby will only learn sounds during their first year. So talk to babies in as many languages as you can!

And prizes sent up to post 349 (so much at once... urgh)

I would love to learn more French, my province is bilingual and having both English and French opens way more opportunities around here.

I'm the same way with other languages I have learned. I went through a lot of Spanish in school (5-6 years in primary school then another 2 in high school) and sadly I'd say a lot is lost. I took 1 year of French in school as well and don't remember much. You really have to continue practicing to remember. But knowing how those two languages worked helped my foundation in German at the time, but being a beginner so long ago I can't remember a single thing. 😔 I planned to restart my spanish and french in duolingo after I made some headway in german but like I said I abandoned it some years ago Dx I should go back. Thank you for my participation prize.

And... Round 9 is over! Onto week 4 (can you believe it?)

A Spanish class on subeta might be an idea... anyway, I4ll go with answer as the winner, for being such an involved teacher! prize :

Trivia's winner is (out of 30), who gets Possible answers were: softball, skateboard, karate, climbing & surfing (and it all sounds quite fun)

The winning jokes : A guy walks into a bar and orders a fruit punch. The bartender says "Pal, if you want a punch you'll have to stand in line" Guy looks around, but there is no punch line. - “The trouble with internet quotes is that it’s extremely hard to ascertain their true origin.” - Martin Luther King - What's the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter xD - What do you call a fish with no eyes? fsh - A man was driving down the road when a policeman stopped him. The officer looked in the back of the man’s truck and said, “Why are these penguins in your truck?” The man replied, “These are my penguins. They belong to me.” “You need to take them to the zoo,” the policeman said. The next day, the officer saw the same guy driving down the road. He pulled him over again. He saw the penguins were still in the truck, but they were wearing sunglasses this time. “I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!” the officer said. “I did,” the man replied. “And they liked it so much..that today I’m taking them to the beach.” -

ROUND 9 : Forum - Share a fun animal fact

Trivia - Who voiced Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove? Trade Lot

Grab Bags Just offer on one of the trades with a joke (any kind). Trade Lot - Trade Lot - Trade Lot - Trade Lot - Trade Lot You can enter as many trades as you want, as long as you try a different joke each time. The best joke gets the trade. You can recycle last round jokes as long as they didn't win.

, When Quokkas are in danger, they'll throw their babies at an oppressor to get away. Those cute little photogenic creatures will literally TOSS their children at enemies. Glad I wasn't born a Quokka...

Also, thank you so much!

- Quokkas are my spirit animals... I have absolutely no maternal instinct.

Cuttlefish skin has the highest resolution of any other cephalopod. Which means they have more color changing chromatophores per square inch of their skin than any squid or octopus

Thank you so much! I'm glad you thought that was funny xD

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

That is a lot of pee!

Locusts have leg muscles that are about 1000 times more powerful than an equal weight of human muscle.

  Turtles can breathe through their butts

Thank you so much for the prizes and the compliments <3