university/city budget cuts, etc. etc. etc.

about the language thing....well my wife is korean, so like I have no excuse not to be fucking fluent in that shit. I've just got so much shit on my plate

Actually, budget cuts really piss me off. That's prolly a good place to start. I did some work for SEIU, the union that my high school librarians used last year. The school district was getting rid of one of our part-time librarians, which means that it would be impossible for the librarian to actually *OPEN THE LIBRARY* to students before/after school/during break/lunch hours because there was an issue with the number of adults able to supervise the students AND work the library. So basically, the school district wasted X amount of dollars on buying books/computers and now the students aren't actually able to check things out, unless they get a pass from their classes. FUCK BUDGET CUTS.

Hahahaha, my ex was deaf so I learned ASL for her. When we broke up, it occurred to me that I can widen up my 'sphere of available girls' by learning more languages. HMMM! Anywho, yeah, good idea to learn Korean asap. Women think it's pretty cool when you learn their language. Plus, you get to learn how they think and how their culture works -- sapir whorf hypothesis and all that jazz. Finally, you'll be able to watch Korean soap operas with her!!! :O

Reading whilst shitting

These better not be library books. >:O

if the definition of hobby is what one does in its free time, then i guess it's homework. real free time to play games and watch movies and tv shows is non existant for me in these times.

You know those "learn language x in 10 days" audio books? They're bullshit of course, but when I started learning Japanese I first downloaded all of the Pimsleur audio courses and rigorously practiced with them every morning at 7 AM. They did exactly what you'd expect: provide a solid base, PARTICULARLY in pronunciation, for when you start learning the language in a classroom setting.

You're never going to learn a language with a couple of audio books, but being able to blurt out most of the basic grammar structures without thinking is very useful in the long run.

this is one of the huge problems im having learning french write now. im only in my first year and the reading and writing are pretty easy for me, but the speaking part is killing me, because a lot of the sounds are so different from english, and the spelling is so foreign that its hard for me to work anything out phonetically.

if you can get into learning french it's easy as hell once you get used to the pronunciation. a good teacher will get the pronunciation down for you but those listen and repeat recordings will wor too

im going to community college so our teacher is just some guy that teaches at night (but his day job involves speaking french and he lived there for a while), so he's not the best teacher, but he really tries. ive been trying to think of things i can listen to while i work out though so i might go ahead and find some french cd's for that so i can multitask.

I'm pretty much the exact opposite with every language I've tried to learn so far 

In high school I wasn't that interested in German (it was mandatory until the fourth year) and got bad grades for not doing anything but I eventually managed to pull through by scoring very high on the listening/oral tests they did at the end of the year.

taking french is a really weird experience for me. the only other language i ever studied was latin and that has very straight forward pronunciation and we hardly did any oral exercises in class, because theres no point. but with french i can almost feel myself getting bored with the vocabulary and grammar, but being lost with the oral portions. its a really weird sensation to be aware of such a sharp split in my learning of a single subject.

I'm enrolled in an accredited architecture program so 95% of my time is pissed away on schoolwork every week.

other than that I've been learning mandarin for a year and a half for both self-interest and my girlfriend's mother demands it so we can communicate. i get together with some buddies once a week to jam/write songs and I take pictures sometimes/have a pretty strong interest in photography.

outside the normal MUSIC MOVIES GAMES HANGING OUT W/FRIENDS (although im sure i go to concerts more than most people), i don't really have that many... real hobbies?? i play squash occasionally and go to gym 2-3 times a week (though i haven't really gotten back to the normal schedule after breaking my arm) and sometimes i take late night walks and that's it p.much?? sometimes i play other sports too but not much. those are my hobbies. i drink way too often to be able to focus on any real hobby lmao.

Juris, I just recently began studying Mandarin Chinese on my own.  I'm taking a year off of school but next fall I'm going to uni to study Anthropology with a minor in Chinese studies.  I wanted to get the basic grasp of the language before I take the classes so I'm not overwhelmed.  It's surprisingly pretty easy (although I did just start).

I'm not very familiar with anthro, but isn't it true that some archaeologists unearthed a hominid that predates Lucy by several thousand years in China somewhere? That's pretty cool. There's prolly a wealth of information to be found there.

I'm thinking to do Mandarin, too. It seems to be the main dialect. I'm just a bit concerned because the language makes huge vowel distinctions that I don't think I can replicate with my western mouth.