this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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I'm learning Korean, Russian, and Mandarin right now! It's a bit difficult at times, but I really enjoy them.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Mandarin

Ayyyy, Native speaker here. I went to school in China up till 2nd grade before emigrating. Also speaks Cantonese at home.

Could probably help you... I mean for the basics at least πŸ˜‰

(sorry I couldn't resist but felt the urge to low-key brag a bit xD)

Forgot how to write, but I can read the basics and can type 2nd-grade level thoughts in pinyin.

I'm just dipping my toes into the water with German via Anki and Goethe Institutes' A1-Deutsch app.

Last night I briefly tried to find a simple grammar primer/textbook. Found a candidate or two but hoped to find some guidance here on Lemmy, so excellent post timing!

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Yep, been hitting Japanese pretty hard the last eight months and finally feeling like I'm making progress on that intermediate plateau.

Come join us at !languagelearning@sopuli.xyz too, we're active every week!

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I'll check out your community. I could use the encouragement.

[–] wattanao@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What have you been using? I've been on and off with Japanese for a while, was using some Anki decks but was getting frustrated with it. Now for the last while I've been using JPDB, which I like, but wish I could customize more. I also wish I could use it offline, because sometimes it lags when I'm hitting an answer, and that gets annoying.

[–] Ashtear@piefed.social 6 points 1 day ago

Currently Anki for flashcards, Tobira for grammar and miscellaneous other practice, the Tadoku graded readers for reading practice and the Japanese with Shun podcast for listening (my listening comprehension is behind).

Anki certainly has a learning curve, but it can't be beat for content and flexibility. However, I have a background in web design, which really helps a lot with making the most of it. My Anki workflow is rather customized at this point.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I second the community recommendation! :)

Always great to see the progress everyone's making. It helps keep my motivation up.

[–] nore@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Currently studying japanese so I can play more jrpgs ;/

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

It's crazy how much you can save on retro games if you can read Japanese lol.

[–] zlatiah@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes! Been learning French for almost half a year now. It's more of a necessity for me & it gets really difficult at times, but I do find it quite enjoyable to be able to understand a lot of cultural stuff. Like yesterday when I was mindblown by the fact that Notre Dame literally means our (notre) lady (la dame)

[–] eltoukan@jlai.lu 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

bon courage :)

[–] mintiefresh@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

I split time between Japanese and Korean. I should probably just pick one.

Love learning about other languages and cultures in general though.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago

Japanese, though I've kinda plateaued and put it on a backburner for now, and Norwegian. Norwegian so far is fairly simple (I've previously studied German and am a native English speaker so it's decently related to both), though I'm only around A2 (a bit more in reading, a bit worse at speaking).

Once my current Norwegian material runs out on Babbel, I might see what their Japanese course is actually like, but I doubt they have anything for where I'm at.

[–] slackassassin@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've spent time studying multiple languages at once and, imho, it's better to focus on one at a time. I've limited my focus to French, currently!

[–] Libb@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Excellent choix, if I dare say so as a French myself ;)

[–] slackassassin@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It was the first language I studied early on in school. But I visited cern a few times for work and really struggled to speak even though I tried to keep up with it, along with Spanish and German. That's when I decided to commit to just French, for now.

Je ne parle pas très bien français, mais j'essaie!

I should be, I sporadically dip in and out of it but I have never been good at languages and currently have zero motivation for it so haven't done any learning for quite some time (Spanish)

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

mentally its the thing I am worst at with subjects related to my native language being not much better. the physical equivalent for me is running. I swear I can walk about as fast as I can run long distance and for a much farther distance.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I'm attempting to learn Esperanto and Spanish. I've been procrastinating a lot. I'd love to learn Indonesian, Afrikaans, and Polish. Polish is the most beautiful sounding language in the world to me.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Mi lernas Esperanton! Mi faris la kviran Esperantan komunomon, !glat@multiverse.soulism.net! Se vi povas legi Δ‰i tiu, venu paroli!

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Mi legas ĝin iomete. Mi legas kaj skribo Esperanton tre malbona sed me lernas.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Gratulon, Mi povas legi via vortojn! Bonvenon al !glat@multiverse.soulism.net se vi estas sameseksema, ambauseksa, neseksema, transgenro, neduuma, interseksa, aΕ­ aliancana!

Is that how you say LGBT+ in Esperanto? 🀣

[–] emb@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I had been practicing some reading in Spanish, and now back to grinding Japanese. Japanese is tough! But I will eventually make progress out of sheer stubbornness.

[–] vfscanf@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

Currently learning french, but itβ€˜s only good enough for very casual smalltalk at the moment. I donβ€˜t find it as difficult to learn as some people said.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Learning how? Using an app?

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I used to use Duolingo, but they enshittified, so now I use Drops. They've got plenty of problems, but they let Me choose which vocabulary to learn. I jumped straight into the Pride topics after revising the basics

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Try Busuu. I tried it for free for couple of months and subscribed during black Friday sale.

Ĝi ne havas Esperanton :(