Why hello there!

Bonjour, 你們好, こんにちは, 안녕 하세요, Hola, Buon giorno, Dia dhaoibh, Guten Tag, etc...

I'm Tasha, known also as seoulless. I've long considered myself a language nerd in the foreign language sense; every one I wrote in above I have taken at least an intro course in... I just wish I had time to be good at all of them! Even so, knowing just a little bit helps, and that's what I intend to show. I wrote the comic posted here last week, and I hope everyone enjoyed it, because I'm going to try posting one weekly or at least bi-weekly, as well as other anecdotes about my linguistical adventures in Europe. I'm keeping a travel blog as well, but sometimes the interesting bits about language aren't always a good fit there.

Basically I'm a college student with fleeting interest in various languages and the wanderlust to go with it all. I spent half a year in Fukui, Japan as an exchange student in high school, 6 months doing two very different programmes in Suwon and Seoul, South Korea summer and fall 2007, and this spring semester I'm studying abroad again in Montpellier, France. This time I have free weekends, and am trying to see as much of Europe as possible, but since I don't speak every language here, it's the mix that sort of falls out of my brain that makes it all interesting!

At least, I hope I'm not the only one who finds it interesting.

Miyaunna, checking in!

Ayo!

In my neck of the woods, that means, "Hey, you!". This is my first venture into group blogging, and I can say that I am ready to have some fun along the way!

I'm a pretty outgoing Midwestern girl, currently teaching English and (half-arsed) French in Tokyo, Japan. I love languages, and so far, they seem to love me...although I've never really asked. I am a native English speaker, but also spoke a little AAVE and Louisiana French (thanks to my late Grandma who thought it was *just adorable* hearing us swear in another language) while growing up.

In college, I studied Film, Linguistics and International Relations but spent most of my time getting into philosophical arguments with my friends while simultaneously drowning out my rowdy next door neighbors with my Amadou et Miriam CD.

When not ranting about some linguistic rarity, I can be found with a film camera and a microphone or can be caught strumming my guitar next to my twin sister as we both veg out on my couch. You can also check up on me at my blog.

During my time here at Language Nerds, I will write on the origins of language, upload videos and interviews of second generation speakers and try to generally explore all the oddities and idiosyncrasies of the English language.

I speak English, Spanish, am pretty good at Portuguese and French, and have had varying degrees of experience with Arabic, Chinese, and German. Drop me a line in any of these languages and we'll see what I come up with!

I hope you'll join me and maybe we just might figure this whole "language thing" out.

Stay tuned!

I'm Kyle?

A quick summary of my life: I was born & raised in Minnesota, been here my entire life, I did insanely well in high school, went to the U of Minnesota but hated it (the school part anyway), dropped out after 3 years, got a job that I've now been at for almost 3 years, and I've been going back to school slowly but surely at a nearby community college for a few years now.

I like to believe I have a pretty firm grasp of the English language. I got A's in around 98.7% of my English classes, and I've always been told that I am a good writer. Not that I could write as a living or anything - I just know how to not make mistakes (usually). I never "liked" English classes, but I never "liked" much of anything we were forced to do in school really. Except lunch and gym class, of course.

I've played my fair share of online video games, so I've been exposed to some of the worst grammar and spelling in the world. It amazes me sometimes how some people just plain suck at using the English language. I know that internet-English isn't the same as English-English (what with the acronyms, half-sentences, and extreme lack of punctuation), but it's statements like "I could care less" that always make me want to reply, "How much less could you care? Maybe you could care less to the point where, say, I don't know, you couldn't care less, which is what you meant to say in the first place?" That's usually when they reply with, "Huh? Oh, uh, I don't care." And then I reply with, "Exactly."

That's all. Hi, nice to be here. :-)

Ich heiße Amanda

For as long as I can remember, I have usually had my head stuck in a book, and though my mother has told me that she used to have to force me to read, I cannot remember this. Instead, I remember unsuccessfully trying to smuggle books into church by sticking them up my sleeve. At a time when most kids my age were getting in trouble for not reading, I would repeatedly get in trouble for reading when I was supposed to be doing other things. As I grew older, I also developed an interest in both writing and learning foreign language.

I've been a language nerd for a long time now, but have never fully embraced it until recently. Even though I majored in German while in college, I saw this merely as a fondness for foreign language, and after graduating, had narrowed my job search to German related jobs. Not too surprisingly there was nothing to be found. Convinced I needed a more specific set of skills, I went back to school for computers. That lasted about half a semester. It was at this time that I realized I had a passion for language, and a desire to devote my professional life to it. The language nerd in me was finally beginning to surface.

I have since applied for graduate school for teaching English as a second language, enrolled in an introduction to linguistics course, and begun to volunteer for a local ESL program. I have come to realize just how important language is in our lives, whether we love language or hate it, and this blog is my way of trying to share my passion with the world. I've assembled fellow language nerds, and urged them to share with you their adventures in and with language.

Nice to Meet You! Un Gusto Conocerte!

I'm Sara. I have another blog, but when Amanda asked me if I would be interested in joining this blog, I said yes immediately. I have been a self described language nerd since I learned how to talk, which was younger than some of my daycare going peers.

In high school I excelled in Spanish and German, plus my creative writing classes. When I got to college I decided to chose a major that I loved and was easy, so I studied more Spanish and German.

The Spanish is a part of my daily life now as I balance my life between the United States and Chile. The German sadly is not, and I fear my German would come out like two year old with cotton candy in his mouth.

For seven months, I lived in Santiago, Chile teaching English. It made me realize how fortunate I am to have been born speaking English because if I hadn't I probably would never learn it. English, like French is not phonetic and that drives me crazy. It's why my Spanish speaking students doubted me when I told them about spelling bees. Why would anybody stage a competition around spelling when it's sooo easy? They had forgotten for a moment their own struggles to spell and pronounce some of our more difficult English words.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I am any expert in language. I know next to nothing about phonetics, linguistics, syntax, and grammar. However, I do live most of my life in two languages: English which I think in and Spanish which comes out of my mouth. It's a a constant struggle and one I hope to write more about in the future as I move to Santiago (again) indefinitely.

Saludos!