Learning a language for love 💖

Usually, in many countries this month they celebrate Valentine’s Day and that made me think about learning a language for love. I think we all learn a new language for different reasons, and love is one of the most beautiful ones :heart_eyes:.

Not only is it a proof of love, but also a way to open yourself to your partner’s culture :exploding_head:, family :family_man_woman_boy_boy: and more :shallow_pan_of_food: :mountain:! It opens a whole new way to see the world through your partner’s language.

Have you learned a new language for love :heartpulse:? How was that experience for you? :thinking:

Or has your partner learned your mother tongue :star_struck:? How did you help him /her?

Learning a new language may not be easy, but having such motivation and someone who can help you to practice can make it definitely easier :revolving_hearts:.

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I learnt Spanish because of love!

I even moved to a different country because of love and until now i have not regretted it, hahaha.
It was very strange to change the language with which i spoke to my husband because we got to know each other in english and he was really the last person I started to speak spanish to. I am not sure why, it just felt weird not speaking English with him.
He is now trying to learn German but finds it very difficult and has little time to take it seriously.

I have made another observation. It sounds crazy but I feel like I am a different person depending on the language I speak. For example I find it super easy to swear in English and Spanish, like it literally just rolls off my tongue and my mother in law just looks at me like I just killed someone.
But in German you will not get a single swear word out of me. Seriously I dont know why. So could all the psychologists on here please explain?
haha, thank you!

AND make love, not war :heart_eyes: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Wow, to move to a different country is definitely a lot of love :star_struck:.

I understand what you mean, I had friends here in Germany who only talked to me in English and when we switched to German it was weird :see_no_evil:.

It doesn’t sound crazy at all! I’m not an expert in psychology, but what’ve learned in linguistics is that a new language gives you a new form of thinking because the way we express things are different. Specially the swear words, it happens to me as well. :face_with_hand_over_mouth: For example, when I swear in English, I don’t feel that I’m saying something bad, it just feels like any other word. This happens as well because we have only one emotional language, and this language will be the one connected to the strongest emotions of all. I bet if you’re furious, your brain will automatically try to use German.

Years ago I found this TedTalk and I think it partly answers your question as well:

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I fell in love with my partner partly because he speaks the 4 languages that I do, plus 1 more - his native language, Basque! Now I am slowly trying to learn this language too (I must catch up to him!).

We mix our languages up quite often depending on where we are and who we are with, but funnily enough, when we are alone we try to speak German together because it is a non-native language for both of us and we want to keep practicing it together. :slightly_smiling_face:

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where and why did you learn 4 languages Maddy? So cool and such a blessing!

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¡Qué bonitos! :blush:

I think there is nothing better than to have a partner that can understand the struggle you’ve had to learn a language, and that can help you to improve the one you’re learning :star_struck:.

Good look with learning Basque! You will catch up to him, I’m sure :muscle:.

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Well, after my native language English I learnt 3 others at school (French), university (Spanish), and after moving to Berlin (German). Which is perfect! Now I can communicate with all Chatterbug tutors and learners. :grinning:

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I’m a really bad language teacher at home. That’s why my dear wife hardly speaks German, although she understands a lot.
Maybe that’s out of convenience. Whenever I leave my office and the Live Lesson ends, I automatically switch to Spanish, which is my everyday language :thinking:
The good news is that this year, we’ll go to Germany for three months. There Yessy has to speak German, although everyone in my family speaks Spanish.

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Wow, :open_mouth: how cool that your family also speaks Spanish! I’m sure Yessy is going to practice as well. Maybe you can start helping her to practice before the trip :blush:.

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So far, I can’t say I have learned a language for love…but maybe that will change! :sweat_smile: :see_no_evil:
What’s also interesting are the cultural aspects of expressing love for others in different languages.
When I was learning German, I learned the difference between “Ich liebe dich.” and “Ich habe dich lieb.”

Easy German explains this topic very well!

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This is such an interesting topic @JoAnn :blush:! In Spanish, we have so many different levels to say “I love you”:

:heart_eyes: = Te amo
:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:= Te adoro
:relaxed:= Te quiero (mucho)
:slightly_smiling_face:= Te aprecio

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