Grab a cup of tea and settle down on a comfortable chair. It’s going to be a long one!
1. What is your mother tongue?
My mother tongue is English. Does that make me lucky or not? You decide!
2. What are the official languages of the country you live in?
If we are only talking about the actual COUNTRY I live in, English is the only official language of England. However, if we include all of the UK, that changes a bit as Wales and Ireland have their own official languages too.
3. Are there any minority languages in your country? Are you interested in them?
Yeah, there are several. The only one I have ever actually thought about learning is Cornish, as it is spoken in the part of England with one of the greatest British accents - Cornwall. Perhaps I’ll learn some of it in the future. Who knows?
4. Are there any minority / extinct languages you are interested in?
As I lived in Galicia, Spain for a year, I became interested in the Galician language which I found fairly easy to pick up, due to my previous knowledge of both Spanish and Portuguese. I did a month-long course which was taught entirely in the language and I absolutely loved it. I still listen to Galician music but I have no need to move beyond my “intermediate” conversational proficiency.
5. How many languages can you speak and on what level?
English: Native
Spanish: C1 (I think) I did a Spanish degree and I lived in Spain for a year. I understand almost everything I listen to or read and I am a fairly proficient speaker and writer, although I'm getting a bit rusty just lately.
Italian: I'm going to say intermediate in all areas. My level of understanding is fairly high. Everything else I am picking up as I go along. I should definitely focus more on nailing down the grammar though, and on doing output activities.
Esperanto: I can more or less hold a conversation, but some aspects of the grammar are still shaky.
Galician: I can Galicianise my Spanish...
6. When did you start learning your second language?
I started learning Spanish when I was 11 (2002). I studied it for 5 years at school and 2 at college. Then I went 2 years without doing anything with Spanish because I was convinced I hated it. I re-learned everything I once knew and everything I know now during the 4 years of my Spanish degree which started in 2011.
7. Is second language a mandatory subject in your country and how many hours per day do children learn it?
It has been a long time since I was involved in the British school system, but I think a second language is still compulsory in secondary school (between 11 and 16 years old). I think I had 3 hours of Spanish per week, so it will be something like that.
8. What do you think about immersion? Have you ever / would you like to try it?
If by immersion you mean going to a country where the language is spoken and avoiding using your mother tongue, I think it is the best thing one can do to really master a foreign language. I lived in Spain for a year and I spoke Spanish with my friends most of the time. I definitely improved a ton!
If, however, you mean creating a virtual immersion environment in your home country, that is an excellent alternative to the above option, and it is something I should do more often. I listen to and watch things in foreign languages all the time, but I write in English and speak in English with family and friends a lot too.
9. How many languages are you learning at the moment {self-study counts} ?
I am currently learning 2 languages (Italian and Esperanto) and desperately trying to improve and maintain 1 (Spanish).
10. What languages would you like to learn in the {near} future?
I am happy with the few languages I am currently working on, and would prefer to take them to a high level than learn any others right now. However, I am very curious about German. Whenever someone is learning it I feel a pang of jealousy. This happened to me with Italian (although to a greater extent), which makes me think I will end up adding German to my list at some point in the new year.
11. Do you prefer attending courses / classes or learning on your own? Why?
I prefer learning on my own, because of the great deal of flexibility it gives me. I can literally do anything I want, whenever I want, without having to trawl through exercises and materials which don’t interest me in the slightest.
Unfortunately, I am incredibly lazy and disorganised. This means I just dive into native material and hope I learn something from it. I don’t spend enough time working on establishing my knowledge of a language’s grammar system or improving my vocabulary. In order to be a more successful language learner, I need to be more organised and consistent.
See my Language Logs for proof of my lack of organisation and consistency.
12. Is there a language you have just given up on although you really wanted to master it?
Well I gave up on Spanish when I was younger but I came back to it. Other than that, not really... I started Turkish on Duolingo and was determined to get my head around the grammar but swiftly realised I had no other desire to learn it, other than it being a puzzle my mind wanted to solve, so I left it.
13. Is {are} there word{s} you just always misspell?
I am a native English speaker; this comes with the territory. If it weren't for the Google chrome spell checker, you would see how abysmal my spelling is.
14. Do you have favourite words ?
I used to be a big fan of the Spanish trabajaba for some reason.
I also quite like the way the Italian word ormai sounds.
15. What aspect{s} of language interests you?
I love comedy and wordplay (whether the latter be comedic or not). When I can appreciate a joke or a clever comment in a foreign language, I am exceedingly happy. I also like to reach a level where I, myself, can manipulate a language and use it in interesting ways.
16. What linguistic category interests you the most? {lexicology, semantics...}
I should probably say phonetics, as I am a lover of voices. The way someone’s voice sounds can be incredibly attractive to me. However, as I mentioned before, it’s the actual flexibility of language and the levels of meaning that can be created by combining words that really fascinates me, so I guess my interest falls somewhere between Semantics and Pragmatics.
17. Favourite language teacher?
Does my secondary school Spanish teacher count? He always believed in me, helped me when I wanted to do extra work and still supports me now. He created the spark for Spanish in my head, which dimmed at times but has now grown into a full on fuego.
18. What does your name mean and from what language does it come from?
My name (Cherrelle) is French, and it means ‘Dear one’ or something along those lines.
19. Native speaker or not, as a teacher?
I would say DEFINITELY native speaker, because they are a font of native material and they just know what sounds right, although a non-native knows what it is like to learn the foreign language, and so can also be useful.
20. In case you are planning to have children, would you like to raise them bilingual {multilingual}? Or in another case, what do you think about teaching such young children languages?
First of all, I am not planning on having children. However, I do have an opinion on this matter. I don’t think you should teach a child a language unless you speak it at a native or near-native level. They should have at least one parent who speaks each language natively, in order to expose them to native use of the language, and to correct them.
21. Do you think that one day we will speak only English?
I sure as hell won’t! Seriously though, I think the human race will die out long before this happens.
22. What is the hardest language to learn in your opinion?
The one you don’t want to learn.
23. Favourite foreign name{s}?
The only one that springs to mind is Ainhoa, a Basque name I came across while on that Galician course in Spain. I guess it helps that the girl whose name it was was a wonderful person.
