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I watched Maigret Tend Un Piège in French class at school after we read the book, that must have been the first. A bit later I became a fan of French actress Clémence Poésy and watched some of her movies that had no English translation available, without understanding very much however. I have also seen some Buffy episodes in French, because my friend accidentally bought the wrong DVD box, so we watched those for a laugh when we had only just started learning French at school.

Thank you! Yes, I'm German.

I think there has never been a better time to learn anything, there is so much amazing technology. You can literally learn a dead language without leaving your bed, how exciting! I'm doing the French course on Duolingo, currently without using any other resources, because I know a lot of basic French already, so I didn't start from scratch. I definitely want to finish the course, and I'll probably build on it afterwards. Maybe I'll find some French books or podcasts. For Hebrew I'm doing Pimsleur, and various Memrise courses to build a bit of vocabulary. I'll probably get some books eventually, but I just started about two months ago, so I wanted to wait a bit and see if I seriously want to learn it. Hebrew resources are not as easily available as for example French, so some of the recommended books are a bit pricey. I want to be sure Hebrew and I are in a committed relationship and not just a fling. Luckily there's a Hebrew Duo course on the horizon as well, so that's something to look forward to. I don't think there's one most effective method. Everyone's brain is different. Some people swear by Rosetta Stone and say it's the only way to learn anything at all, others say it's not for them. For me personally Pimsleur is really effective and enjoyable so far, but I've heard from people who didn't like it at all. I think the key is putting the effort in, no matter what your preferred method is.

I'm still VERY bad at writing cursive Hebrew, but I installed Hebrew keyboards on my phone and tablet and have made it a habit to take notes whenever I have a moment. I don't really know a lot of real sentences yet, but for example in a doctor's waiting room I'll open a memo and write down all the animal names I remember, or a list of pronouns, days of the week, whatever I can think of. Once my handwriting doesn't look like a toddler's scribblings anymore I'll be doing that as well. Physically writing things down really helps me visualise and memorise a lot better.

I dropped a Spanish class at school after a year. It didn't work out, for reasons that didn't have that much to do with the language. I was struggling with all sorts of things and the class wasn't mandatory, so I got rid of it to reduce my stress levels a bit. I still like it though, and I might pick it up again someday, who knows? So it's not so much "giving up" as simply a very, very long study break...

If it works for them, why not. I don't think I could do it, I would get confused between them. I learned French for 5 years at school, and after 4 of those years I took up Spanish, and it wasn't ideal. They were too similar, I constantly got them mixed up. French and Hebrew are a good combination for me right now because they are nothing alike, and I'm much more advanced in French. Maybe it wouldn't work so well if I was just starting out with both.

Conscientious.

Same here. I've got social anxiety, and English is the only language I feel comfortable enough speaking. I don't even like it when my English-speaking friends ask me to say something in German, my native language. It's always a bit awkward. My French is probably somewhat decent by now, but I'm super shy speaking in front of anyone, particularly French people, before I'm fluent. Too much of a perfectionist.

Me too! And I'm very excited for the Hebrew course.

When I was very little. I know I was desperate to learn English long before I started learning it in secondary school, asking my parents to teach me some words. I remember trying to create secret codes and ciphers - possibly inspired by many a childhood reading of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men". When I was about 12, my friend and I made up our own language. It was pretty silly, but in the end we had a notebook full of vocabulary and grammar. It always felt like a hobby in a way, a fun thing to do, never a boring chore. If I liked a band from Finland, my first impulse was to learn Finnish. Something related to Italy I liked? Maybe I should learn Italian, just because. And that's how it is to this day.