Hello friends, especially to all the lovely ladies on HIVE. :)
This is my entry for Ladies of Hive Community Contest 240, and I decided to answer the first question. Let's begin! ^^

Question:

How many languages can you speak? And what language would you want to learn more than anything?

Answer:

If we're talking about languages that I can speak fluently, that would be two. One is Cebuano, one of the spoken languages here in the Philippines, and English, which is considered an official language in my country.

Actually, there are more than a hundred spoken languages in my country. Because of that, everyone was taught Filipino, which was derived from Tagalog, in school. We need it so we can understand each other. So, if a Filipino isn't born in a Tagalog-speaking place in the Philippines, we become bilingual (or trilingual, including English) when we enter school.

Despite knowing Tagalog, I don't use it often. Perhaps, I can write in the language, but it feels really awkward using it. Isn't it ironic since I'm a Filipino?

At home, I communicate with my parents in Cebuano. I'm most comfortable with it even though there are times when my parents laugh at me because my grammar or the vocabulary I use are all over the place. I like this language, though. It sounds strong. It's funny because despite being friendly people, we're thought to sound aggressive when we speak.

It's the opposite of Hiligaynon, which is another spoken language here. I can't speak the language, but I can guess some words. They sound really sweet. I once had a virtual friend from a place that speaks this language. And she told me that no one takes her seriously when she's angry because she still sounds really calm and sweet. It's the opposite of Cebuano. We're not angry, that's just how we usually sound. hahaha

_{That profile photo was taken more than 10 years ago. hahaha XD}

More than Tagalog, I feel comfortable speaking English. I guess the main reason for this is my job. I've been teaching the language for more than 12 years. I wasn't fluent at first, but now, it's so much better than when I started. I work almost every day, so I've gotten used to it compared to Tagalog, which I hardly use in my day-to-day life.

I've also been into writing in this language since I was in high school. I've started creating poems then, and the majority of the poetry pieces I've made were in English.


As for the follow-up question, I'm actually trying to learn three different languages at the moment, although one of them is my main focus.

One of my goals this year is to be consistent with my language studies, even though just for a few minutes every day. Now, I'm on my 149th day streak. As you can see, there's Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish on my profile.

I've been learning Japanese on and off, and I guess this year has been the most consistent. Despite it being slow, I still progress day by day.

I think it's not a secret how crazy I am when it comes to Japanese anime and manga. That's primarily the reason why I'm learning the language, but aside from that, I just love the country's culture and history. I've been learning a lot of information from my students as well, especially those who are tour guides and those who work in some museums in Japan.

As for the other two languages, I have some reasons for that as well.

My native tongue has a lot of borrowed words and phrases from the Spanish language. It's so interesting! History-wise, our country was under Spanish colonization, so this fact made me curious about Spain. But more than that, there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people in the Anime Realm Community here on HIVE. They sometimes comment on my post in Spanish, so I thought it would be cool if I learn their language as well.

As for Portuguese, I just started barely a couple of months ago. It's mainly because of the awesome Brazilian Hivers I met here. They're so friendly and fun to talk with. I have somehow become an adopted member of their community. hahaha That's why I want to learn their language as well.

Of course, there are translation apps and AI, but I think it's more enjoyable to get to know the language myself. Of course, I don't have a lot of time to study all of them, but I'm trying to do so little by little... after all, small steps forward are still progress, right? :)

I'll keep at it, and I hope to reach a higher level than I am now in these languages by the end of this year.

That's it for this post. Thanks for reading, and see you around! (^^,)/