Passion for Languages

Posted by: Garcia | on December 1, 2014

Languages, languages, languages etc.

Spanish along with English were both my first languages as my parents enforced that I learn both when I was younger, another reason being my Mexican heritage. In my household we mainly speak Spanish to each other in order to practice and fluently speak the language. When I began high school I decided to take introductory Italian and ended up taking and passing the AP Italian class and exam my senior year, while also earning the senior standout award for Italian. Italian came easy to me because I already spoke Spanish fluently, and these languages belong to the same family, which is the Romance language family. This family currently also includes French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan. The results of these languages belonging to the same family include similarities in phonology, semantics, morphology, and even syntax.

Example of phonological/semantic similarities and differences in Spanish-Italian:

Italian/Spanish: Verde-Green

Rosso (Italian) Rojo (Spanish)- Red

Example of syntax similarities in Spanish-Italian (Noun before adjective):

Italian- La macchina verde…

Spanish-El carro verde…

English: The green car…

Spanish-Italian Comparison: How are they similar?

http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/letchfoa/comparison/comparison.htm

Italian vs. Spanish: Listen to the differences and similarities (may want to skip to about 2:00)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unCmwgnE59o

Romance Languages Overview: what are they?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages#Modern_status

Comparison of the Romance Languages: how are they similar?

http://www.nativlang.com/romance-languages/grammar/syntax.php?e=0

Learning the Romance Languages: Curiosity helped the cat learn new languages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoaoDTY4FuU

Map of the Romance Languages: Where in the world?

http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/ital/rom.html

Translator…Maybe?

Over time I have come to realize that I have a sort of passion for languages although I do not speak many. I believe that learning other languages create bridges between cultures while also destroying borders. Because of my passion for languages, I am planning on learning all the Romance languages, along with many others. The language I am planning to focus on aside from the romance languages is Mandarin Chinese, because apparently it’s the “language of the future”. Also, due to my passion for languages I have highly considered to go through with it as a career. Some careers include translator, interpreter, or even teaching a language. Learning other languages may also help in different career fields such as marketing in global business. Ultimately understanding different languages are important in the world because it makes communicating far easier. As stated before, with my background in Spanish and Italian, the Romance languages will hopefully come easier due to my understanding of the phonology, semantics, syntax, and morphology.

Languages: Building Bridges, and fighting borders

http://lingqcentral-en.lingq.com/learning-foreign-language-bridge-cultures

Mandarin Chinese: Is it the language of the future?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17105569

Careers: Language-based careers?

http://www.omniglot.com/language/careers.htm

Careers: What is translating? What is interpreting?

http://www.languagescientific.com/translation-services/multilingual-interpreting-services/interpreting-vs-translation-services.html

Careers: Language can come in handy

http://www.careerbuilder.com/article/cb-2640-job-info-trends-fields-in-need-of-second-language-skills/