Thanks @uglierthanyou​ For The Questions!

Thanks @uglierthanyou​ for the questions!

1. What is your mother tongue?

English.

2. What are the official languages of the country you live in?

Just English (Australia be boring)

3. Are there any minority languages in your country? Are you interested in them?

There are hundreds of Aboriginal ones. I’m only really interested in Turrbal (general Brisbane area).

4. Are there any minority / extinct languages you are interested in?

The only minor one I’m interested in is Turrbal.

5. How many languages can you speak and on what level?

Ich spreche Englisch und Deutsch. Mein Englisch ist sehr gut weil, du kennst. Mein Deutsch ist Scheisse zwar.

(I speak English and German. My English is very good because, you know. My German is shit though.)

6. When did you start learning your second language?

In 2014 I started learning German. A lot of life stuff happened though and I’ve only really just continued progressing.

7. Is second language a mandatory subject in your country and how many hours per day do children learn it?

I’m pretty sure it’s mandatory in every school to have at least one language subject (elective or not). At my schools Japanese was mandatory from grade six to grade eight. Hours would most likely be just one in each school.

8. What do you think about immersion? Have you ever / would you like to try it?

I’d like to try it. However, I think I’d freak the fick out at first.

9. How many languages are you learning at the moment {self-study counts} ?

German and Hungarian. If you count that gosh darn mandatory secondary education, I’m still learning English, too.

10. What languages would you like to learn in the {near} future?

Dutch and French. And, of course, Turrbal.

11. Do you prefer attending courses / classes or learning on your own? Why?

I’ve had to do Japanese for three years and I’ve found I much more enjoy learning at my own pace. Even if it takes four years to become fluent in one language.

12. Is there a language you have just given up on although you really wanted to master it?

French. However, I was six.

13. Is {are} there word{s} you just always misspell?

English- odyssey (I end up screwing it up like ‘oddysey’)

German- their spelling is pretty straight forward (though I do sometimes forget the ‘ä‘ in ‘Mädchen’)

Hungarian- goddamn szepen

14. Do you have favourite words?

Of course I do! It’s Scheisse, duh.

15. What aspect{s} of language interests you?

The formalities. Take English for example. I love and appreciate how we have an informal and formal version for just about every phrase.

16. What linguistic category interests you the most? {lexicology, semantics...}?

*googles linguistic categories* It’s probably ethnolinguistics.

17. Favourite language teacher?

My grade seven Japanese teacher was amazing. Mostly because she didn’t really mind that I didn’t have a great interest in the language.

18. What does your name mean and from what language does it come from?

My name is a combination/mash-up of two names. The first one’s Northern English and is derived from the place name Hailey (apparently). The second one’s Anglo-French and is derived from the occupation tailor.

19. Native speaker or not, as a teacher?

I find native teachers really awesome since you get to learn a lot about the culture of where the language you’re learning originates.

20. In case you are planning to have children, would you like to raise them bilingual {multilingual}? Or in another case, what do you think about teaching such young children languages?

I’d love to raise my (future) children bilingual. Their first word might end up being Scheisse though...

21. Do you think that one day we will speak only English?

With something as monumentally popular as the Internet and our habit of documentation, our world’s knowledge is only going to grow.

22. What is the hardest language to learn in your opinion?

Every East Asian language.

23. Favourite foreign name{s}?

How Julia’s pronounced in German. Yoo-ya!