Questions with Katie: Jake Baker Edition

Jake Baker is 17 years old and a junior at LHS. He is Lewiston- born and is native to the English language. Though lately, he has been expanding his vocabulary by six more languages. To anyone hearing about this, it seems like quite the challenge, but to Baker, this difficult task is manageable, and even fun.
Q: What foreign languages are you learning?
A: German, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Japanese. I plan on studying Xhosa and Bengali this upcoming summer.
Q: Is there any significance behind each or do you just think they sound cool?
A: I’m learning German and Hebrew because I’m German and Jewish. I’m learning Russian, Arabic, etc. because I have friends native to those languages. I’d also like to visit countries which speak those languages.
Q: What are you doing to learn each one?
A: I use a lot of things such as YouTube, online classes, foreign friends and Netflix, although I learn a lot in my German class.
Q: How far are you in learning each one?
A: I’d say I excel most in German and Hebrew. A tier down would be Russian and Arabic, and the ones I need most practice on are Mandarin and Japanese.
Q: Which is the easiest to learn?
A: I’d say the easiest to learn is probably German, because English is a Germanic language.
Q: Which is the hardest to learn?
A: Mandarin and Japanese are probably the most difficult, due to having to learn specific characters for each word.
Q: Do you plan on becoming fluent in each language?
A: I’d say becoming fluent in a language would take decades, if it’s not your mother tongue.
I’d like to become advanced in the languages I study, though.
Q: What do you plan to do as far as making sure you retain the knowledge of what you learn?
A: All of the studying strategies I use seem to work just fine, although I hope to improve on them as much as I can.
Q: HOW IN THE WORLD do you keep them straight?
A: I don’t know how I keep them straight, my brain just kind of sorts them out. Sometimes I mix up Hebrew and Arabic verbs, due to how similar they are.
Q: I can barely speak Spanish, and I’m taking it because it’s required for out-of-state college. Is that what got you interested in language? Because you had to take it in high school?
A: I started taking Spanish to get into college, but this last summer I started studying German and Hebrew.
Q: Were you bilingual before deciding to learn more?
A: I didn’t start studying any language until my freshman year. So, no.
Q: What is your favorite thing about learning all these languages?
A: My favorite thing about all of this is being able to connect with so many other people, even if it is just me attempting broken Russian over Skype. Knowing other languages means understanding a totally different culture, and a different way of thinking.
Q: What is most interesting or unusual about learning different languages?
A: I would say something really important that everyone should know is that you can learn and study any language! You don’t need a physical classroom setting — the internet is just as good of a source!