Since Lemmy apparently has a ton of people who are bilingual — how do I as a 31 year old man that knows enough Spanish to say 'Thank you, where is the bathroom?' and frequently watches anime in subtitles gain another language? I'm open to all suggestions, except bad ones. Specifically I am interested in learning Mandarin because I hate myself.
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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I'm a native Cantonese and Mandarin speaker and I'll be brutally honest, you need a huge motivation, or else you will struggle to be fluent.
Not just because you like the aesthetics, or like the idea of being bilingual...
What are you gonna even use the language for.
For example, you might wanna learn Japanese for better experience enjoying Anime...
My parents came to the US as adults.
My dad has been in the US for... 16 years... still a non citizen and never really learned English
Meanwhile, mom needs it to do bussiness... investments... and stuff... so she has to learn it... She knows enough to become a citizen...
The biggest thing is IMMERSION. Even then, dad never learner it...
My parents barely understand me lol. Since I only know 2nd grade level of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin share similar vocaublary)... despite being a native speaker.
A westerner is gonna struggle a lot with the tones...
I was "luckly" enough to be just at the perfect time of 8 years old so I know enough basics of Chinese before emigraring... so my brain is in between two worlds.
If I was born in the US, idk if I could manage to learn it.
IMO Mandarin is gonna be tough since Chinese shows are sooo boring... soo cliche... predictable story is gonna kill the will to learn... (unless you love bad tv drama lol)
Ask your self: What are you gonna use Mandarin for? (Also: do you also wanna learn the writing too? Since its logographics, much harder.) Just as a trophy? Or actually gonna regularly have a use for it?
Well, to answer your primary question — many of the people on the team I work with speak... it's either Cantonese or Mandarin, I think they told me Mandarin but I'm not entirely sure. It isn't something that would necessarily help me on a professional level, but it would help me on a personal level with many of them.
That's genuinely my motivation, I don't really care about 'seeming' bilingual — this is mostly to bring me closer to people who have helped me at work.
I mean the best way to achieve your goal of personal connection is just asking them to teach you.
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So i'm fluent in English and a specific proto-sign language that as far as i know only a few hundred people sign. I can order food and ask where the toilet is in about 30-50 languages, depending on the day. My Spanish and German are rusty: i have production issues but my receptive is competent. All my other romance languages (except basque and romanian, i haven't looked at those at all) are decent enough to travel and make an ass of myself. My germanic and nordic languages are worse than my romance ones. Do not ask me anything in Afrikaans I will assume you are drunk.
English, Russian, Serbo-Chroatian, a bit of Ukrainian. Very little of Deutsch.
I want to say spanish, german and english, but the honest answer is none
Bangla mainly and sometimes English but pretty less in daily life (I do understand more languages but I just don't speak them)
Native 'merican and immigrant Mexican
Native: Spanish Fluent: Portuguese, English I can understand almost everything and can sort of speak it very badly: Italian, Catalan I know very basic things and could probably have survival level communication (although I would have to think hard since I haven't used either in years): Russian, German Know how to say random phrases, generally "Excuse me, I don't speak , do you speak English?": Finnish, French, Dutch.
Currently I'm focusing on learning Catalan.
Flemisch.
I natively speak English. I used to be somewhat competent for my age in French because as a child I was in French classes, I gave those up at some point due to a lack of interest. I've attempted to learn Mandarin, Korean, and German without much commitment. Now I'm learning Spanish which is coming along, but I lack confidence in it.
I suppose I also know Newfinese if that counts.
english and korean. i'd like to learn more but i'm too lazy tbh
English (Native), French (B1-B2 depending on the day), and just started trying to learn Ukrainian
English and passable Spanish
American English with a specialty in the dialect of American Regulatory Legalese.
Spanish, Arabic, and Irish I used to be able to read and write, but was always terrible at understanding any of them spoken.
I learned bits of German by proxy from having friends stationed at Heidelberg.
German is my first language, and also my third. When I started school I had to learn English; over the years I didn’t speak much German and I have forgotten a lot. Now I have started to re-learn German again.
Also bits of French, Spanish, Esperanto, Latin, that I picked up or started learning over the years.
English, bad english and worse Finnish.
Kidding, after 20 years in Finland my Finnish is just bad.
English, some Spanish.
I'm pretty shy so I don't really do small talk with anyone Spanish even though I live here. I can get by obviously but it's nowhere near conversational.