I'm born in Croatia, but am of mixed heritage as my mother comes from Slovenia. I don't consider Slovenian my second mother tongue as I can't speak it. My mother didn't speak Slovenian at home when my sister and I were little, fearing we would mix the two languages up and then have difficulties in school. Now when I'm like grown up, it's very hard for me to speak Slovenian (I understand almost everything) and I'm a bit ashamed because of it so I plan to go on a course and get better at it.

Currently I'm at university studying law. I plan on becoming a lawyer and taking over my fathers office.

I love reading, writing, listening to music, watching films but don't have so much time doing all those things as university is very time consuming.

I love animals, but have written already too much about all my pets in other forum topics so I'll spear you here.

This October I'm starting again with Aikido (Japanese martial art) and swimming trainings. I'm just a beginner in Aikido but have been a very good swimmer for years, even coached others and thought children how to swim in my former swimming club.

I think this is enough for an into but if you want to know more, just ask, I'll be happy to answer.

(The topic name is my username on Latin, it's something of a professional deformation for us law students to use Latin sentences; professors at uni drill us with them...)

Bonsoir sister Black-Magnolia,

So, dear sister you will begin the art of "the way of harmony" ! Is an excellent martial art but, its learning can be difficult if your teacher is playing the "too Japanese" and it takes pedagogical model as the idea is: in Aikido students will steal his technique to his senseï.

I wish you the best in this direction.

Mes hommages.

T.

I have started with Aikido two years ago but had to take a break because I had some health problems, so now that I'm fine I'm going to start again. My teacher isn't "too Japanese", he himself told us about the stealing tehnique part and he's on the whole very relaxed and the training sessions are also like than, no peer presure what so ever.

black_magnolia wrote:
I'm born in Croatia, but am of mixed heritage as my mother comes from Slovenia. I don't consider Slovenian my second mother tongue as I can't speak it. My mother didn't speak Slovenian at home when my sister and I were little, fearing we would mix the two languages up and then have difficulties in school. Now when I'm like grown up, it's very hard for me to speak Slovenian (I understand almost everything) and I'm a bit ashamed because of it so I plan to go on a course and get better at it.

Sad, it is. Had a friend from Åland, a island between Finland and Sweden that speaks mostly swedish but belongs to Finland, that had the same problem - they didn't get to learn finnish in school until they where over 10.

And btw, knowing more languages as a child doesn't mess at all with your knowledge of languages, it's the other side around. I'm living close to a part of Stockholm where mostly immigrants live, and at the preschools in that area the children learn and talk around 5 languages, if not more. Had a friend that lived there, and when he was that age he knew 8 languages without problems, and he speaks perfect swedish

But I understand the logic, I'm just telling you this so you (and other reading this) might not do the same misstake.

One thing is what my parents thought and the other is what I think.

My parents didn't think about learning languages when they got satellite! I was 5 years old when that happened and got hooked on Cartoon Network and German channels which had lots of colorful cartoons while there were only three Croatian channels that broadcasted one or two cartoons per day...

My sister and I are very good with English and German, and often get complimented by tourists how good we speak.

I grew up in Miami, which is essentially bilingual (English and Spanish), and we all learned Spanish in school starting in grade 1, age 6. But I always studied French once I had a choice. But hardly anyone around here speaks French, so I am losing it. My friend's children are bilingual, but they didn't really start talking until they were around 3. I guess it took longer to process and sort two languages out in their minds, but they are fluent in both.