I’m tad late to the party but I’m a native Polish speaker who learnt Russian as a child (old enough to remember times behind The Iron Curtain). We were also taught German which I’m embarrass never to master having German roots. My English adventure started later in life, i was around 25 when I decided to give it a go. Next challenge is to become fluent in Welsh (moved to Wales in 2009) since I managed to convince villagers I can already speak it
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Dzień dobry, Nutria7! 
My mum is a native Polish speaker too — her father was Polish and her mother was Belarusian. Mum and her brothers and sisters grew up in Australia speaking Polish at home and English everywhere else. In my generation of the family we don’t speak Polish (except for a few useful words — we always sleep under a pierzyna and we all love pierogi and barszcz!), but I would love to learn at least a little of the language one day. If we ever get SaySomethinginPolish, I DEFINITELY will… 
Good luck with your adventures in Welsh! 
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I bet you also understand "dostaniesz w dupę"
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No, not at all — had to put it through Google Translate. Mum never taught us anything like that! (If it’s the equivalent of “You’ll get a smack!”, she only ever said that in English.)
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I feel the same way! I am also a monolingual english speaker, with a miniscule knowledge of german, french and spanish. A couple months ago I began looking, again, at Irish and was considering putting effort into that, then…I stumbled upon Manx, and something about Manx filled me with such joy that I have become absolutely obsessed with it. I listen to a Manx podcast most days on my way to work and am slowly working my way through SSIM. All credit for my discovery goes to @adriancain as he has created so much material that I found all over the web, then I found www.learnmanx.com, and that led me here. I plan, one day, to be fluent in Manx and be one more voice that carries that beautiful language forward at least one more generation.
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Hello! I am new to the forum. 
I can also relate to being obsessed with languages. I’m not really sure where it came from. English is my native tongue. I have always been interested in learning German. I love the sound of German so that was the first class I signed up for at college. I fell in love with it and then that lead me to consider learning other languages as well. I took classes in French, Spanish,Russian and Arabic. I eventually changed my major and got my degree in Applied Linguistics. Sadly, I remember very little of French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Somehow I managed to keep German with me much longer.
Currently Welsh is my passion. I love the sound of the language. I love the culture. I have been to Wales a couple times but it was not until I saw Huw Edwards series “The Story of Wales,” that I became obsessed with the language and the country. I had been wanting to learn Welsh for a few years before I managed to stumble upon SSiW online and I have to say I am loving every minute of it! I am so excited! Since I live on the west coast USA, I never thought I would be able to learn Welsh with any real success as I don’t know a single person that speaks it. However, this program works so well with my learning style. I feel like I am really progressing and I can’t wait to go back to Wales to practice all I have learned.
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I’ve always liked languages but never have been good at learning them. The only foreign language in which I am somewhat fluent is English.
Native: Czech
I also understand Slovak (my husband is Slovak) but it is so similar to Czech that it doesn’t count 
More like two dialects than two languages. Obviously, I don’t speak Slovak, the similarity makes it very hard to switch between these languages. I can do it to some extent when I am drunk and surrounded by Slovak people, I just naturally start to mimic the pattern.
At school:
English: For ages, 11+ years.
German: 4 or 5 years, almost forgotten now. But I think I would be able to get it to conversational level fairly quickly if needed.
French: 1 year, haven’t liked it, too many letters unpronounced, doesn’t make sense.
Latin: 3 years, I think? To read and translate, not to speak.
Self-taught:
Spanish: I got to simple conversation/tourist level on Duolingo but stopped it to focus on Welsh. I can’t do two or more languages at once.
Japanese: Long time ago, beginner level only, nothing left now.
Welsh: Let’s see where it goes
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It has been many months since I have looked at this forum. I am spending one year in Bosnia and it would be way easier to learn if there was a Bosian/Serbian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Whateveryouwanttocallthislanguage SSI course
Keep up the good work. I will get back to Welsh once I have Bosnian under my belt
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Several - boosting on French ‘ German & Spanish to try to get functional. Seriously trying Arabic, Fon & Czech. Dipping into Hebrew, Basque.
Pushing hardest on Welsh & Czech at this time.
Sorry, no rationale 
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We’re very lucky here to have a strong Basque community & an originally Welsh community in Malad, not too far away. Idaho USA
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The reason I really got sick into Welsh is because I was planning trip to Germany and started using Duolingo to brush up on the German I learnt a very long time ago at school. I noticed a Welsh course on Duolingo and then discovered SSiW. I’m hooked. I know enough French to get by as a holiday maker and have dabbled with Italian but Welsh is just totally different and all the better for it.
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First time poster. Long time fan of Aran and the SSI method. I’m a native Welsh and English speaker. I studied French at school and loved the speaking and listening bit. (I did not do so well with writing in particular!) I just never gave it up. I kept it going for the next 10 years until I discovered SSIS. My mate and I were blown away by how good it is so we decided to go on holiday to Spain to try it out. It’s amazing! Since then I’ve done 7 months of Italian (pre holiday) and now I’m learning Portuguese because I want to go on holiday there. There seems to be a theme of learning languages so that I can go on holiday! I spread the word about SSIW to anyone who’ll listen!
Peace out everybody.
Dafydd
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I have enjoyed reading this thread, so thought I would add to it!
I was exposed to languages from a young age because my late mum loved German. My great language love has been Spanish, which I studied to PhD level, spending three years in Peru and various periods in Mexico. My fascination with Latin America also led me to teach myself Portuguese. I spent a fair amount of time in Portugal a decade or so ago, and am fairly fluent, if a bit rusty. My wife grew up in Italy, and my Italian is OK - I surprised myself during a recent work trip to Rome!
I had a bad experience with French at school, dropped it at 14, but picked it up again a couple of years ago after falling in love with Lyon. I have been studying it pretty intensively since then. I went to Lyon again last week for work, and was pleased with how much French I could use - several meetings and a working dinner’s worth, as well as the usual shop and cafe stuff! I did German to A-Level and still get by, but am sorry to say I have not fallen in love with it the way I have with other languages I know.
As for Welsh, I started it in August after a lovely family holiday in Aberystwyth (having meant to do so for years; I have loved Wales since I was a child), and have been amazed at my progress with SSiW, and delighted with the friends I have made. I am already having conversations and listening to media in Welsh. Learning it is such a joy!
In sum, languages are my first love and have added hugely to my life!
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I have done all of SSiSpanish and reckon I can speak well enough for tourism and also go to Meetups where I speak with “Nativos” for an hour or two. Before I did SSi, I did some free online courses Introduction to Spanish with the OU.
I am a native English speaker and teach ESOL.
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It’s a very interesting thread! I wonder how people who speak more than a couple of languages maintain them. I speak Russian, English and German equally well and I really struggle to give each of them the necessary attention despite being a Russian native who speaks German at home at English at work. Fluency and eloquence need commitment as well as time to read versatile texts for fun and produce quality texts regularly.
This is why it took me a very long time, about two months, to decide that I am ready to carve out a place in my heart for one more language. This is also why I am so grateful for all the additional tasks that come with my Welsh lessons and help me get to know the culture and the people too.
I used to be a more or less causal learner of French (school), Spanish (uni), Italian and Icelandic. Failed to really connect with any of them on the level needed to keep going, however.
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@Irina
Hello from a fellow native Russian speaker:) Somehow finding another native Russian speaker who is learning Welsh is a thing that never ceases to delight me.
Russian would be the only language I can say I speak really well, at the “beyong proficiency level”, then I read and understand Belarusian and can speak make myself understood in it. I speak Italian and English fluently, and can speak and understand French and Spanish (though I would say that my listening/reading are much stronger here than my speaking/writing - but then I don’t have many French or Spanish people to talk to, so I suppose it’s fine)
Welsh is the language I love most and care about most (together with Russian) - maybe because of its sound and grammar, maybe because of the culture, maybe the fact that it was, at a time, so endangered makes me care more and take my learning more responsibly. I know I will never achieve a native-like proficiency in it, but I can now read non-graded books, and follow a conversation, and say something (though my speaking skills leave much to be desired).
This month I decided to join a thing called “speak in a week”. It’s a kind of an experiment held on a social networking website, where you have to start learning an entirely new language for a week and then decide if you want to keep going. I will either take Scottish Gaelic or Breton (have been thinking about them for a while).
Learning languages is so very fun on the one hand, because it makes your world bigger, but, at the same time, it makes you understand your limitations as, perhaps, few other things do. It really upsets me that none of the languages I speak will ever become as familiar and easy as Russian to me, and I will never be able to achieve the fluency and eloquency my inner perfectionist desires. But maybe it’s part of the reason why I’m learning languages - to see these limitations, accept them and be happy with what I actually can do - say “diolch”, buy a Welsh-language book, understand an article etc.
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Hi @seren! 
I’ve just started learning Welsh and you are right, meeting other Russians with the same (rarely practical) interest in Welsh is a treat every time!
I’ve heard Scottish Gaelic spoken on Skye, it sounded beautiful and mysterious! Don’t have any experience with Breton, but I wish you a wonderful time getting to know any of these languages!
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Oh! Is “speak in a week” the set of courses offered on the fluentin3months website?
If you do choose Gàidhlig ( = Scottish Gaelic), I would love to know how the course is, as all Gàidhlig courses I have ever come across seem to just be long lists of grammar rules to learn!
The only course that I have really stuck at is the ‘Teach Yourself Gaelic’ book, but it is pretty tough going and mostly based on reading, with a bit of listening if you have the CD.
Gàidhlig is such a captivating language - how difficult it is to learn seems to make it even more so.
I really hope there is a SSiG some day!
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My thoughts ON WELSH exactly! 
Good luck with Gaelic you wonderful people!
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Thanks - we need your good luck to have any hope with Gàidhlig!
At least we have SSiW to help with Welsh, enabling people to be captivating everywhere 
I so wish there were an SSi course for Gàidhlig, as well as so many other languages.
In the future, I’m sure there will be!
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