ZackF
Puritan Board Professor
This has been a growing passion of mine the past couple of years. It's become quite an obsessive hobby. Language learning easier to fit in time wise and ultimately more practical than star-gazing. Not to mention the costs of a nice cassegrain telescope. If you see a man walking or sitting in Starbucks with earbuds in his ears stammering to himself in a foreign language then it probably is me. I've gotten a few strange looks while driving too.
English: Native
Spanish: I would consider myself an advanced-intermediate reader, an intermediate writer, speaker and and lower-intermediate listener. Typical high school and college stuff...remembered very little. Ive done some pretty aggressive self-study the pass year or two. Will likely hire a tutor by the end of the year. I want to take and pass the C1 CEFR exam by the end of next year. The reasons are many for learning Spanish...communicating with my neighbors, people at church with poor English skills and employment opportunities. If we home-school, I want to teach Spanish to my child(ren). It has obvious utility in the US but Spanish is a great gateway language to Latin, French or any other Romance language for that matter.
Ancient Greek: Had three semesters in college and will continue again someday with self-study to study Scripture more closely as well as Patristics and the Pagan classics.
Latin: One semester in college. At this time, I don't see going into it that much. Who knows...
French: I just started self-study yesterday!! Mrs F. had four years in high school and has retained a lot. It is going to be "our language." Besides French opens a lot of doors culturally, historically and even career wise. Goal is passing C1 exam in 2016. If my wife and I ever do foreign missionary work it will likely be in French. France, Quebec, Haiti and many African countries are all parched for lack of the Gospel.
German: Have not started. Want to learn for cultural and employment reasons. Goal is passing C1 exam by 2017.
Russian: Have not started yet. My goals for this language are more modest, B1 exam by 2019 but higher in proficiency for reading. I've enjoyed the Russian literature that I've read in translation. I think it is a beautiful language to hear.
Great question Ben. I drive my wife crazy talking about Spanish and other languages.
How inspiring!
As far as learning Spanish and Russian are concerned we have a lady in our church (Heartland) who is from Guatemala who offers Spanish tutoring. If you'd be interested in getting her contact info just let me know and I can pass that on. Also, Brad Hansen (one of our elders) was a Russian major in college and lived in Eastern Europe for some time. I was actually just talking to him the other day and he mentioned how hard it was to find people in Wichita whom he could talk with. So if you do start Russian and are looking for a conversation partner I could always put you in touch with him as well.
Thanks everyone for your answers. I'm once again impressed! Keep 'em coming!
Sending you a PM...