Does anyone here learn foreign languages for fun?

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I can't learn languages at school, I get zero points there, but I love teaching myself languages. I taught myself English and it only took me 4 weeks. I also like French, though I'm not sure when to start, I was thinking to start reading a French book in my Christmas holidays when I have more time and can enjoy it.
I take Russian in school, but I'm the worst student in class. Since I brought myself a Russian Harry Potter book and another book for learning with all kinds of stuff like grammar and exercises a few days ago, I think I'll be great in school as soon as I get to finish these two. I already started in the second book and got to page 30 in a few hours on Sunday, but didn't do further reading since then.
I did take ancient Hebrew one single year, it was fun and I just kept the books we got from school because they didn't ask me to give it back, so I may learn to read this as well when I’m out of school.

I started learning French at college last year but being in a room full of strangers and having to say things out loud in front of everyone was too much so me so I quit.

Like most things I start, I never finish lol

I started with chinese on a whim, just for fun.
But I have since found uses for it, namely working as a teacher in China.
I'm not very good with rote memorization, but I'm good with association, so every word or phrase I learn, I associate with an image, scene object or perhaps a sound, to make me able to remember the word and how it's character is written.
Since they have 4 possible tones, I have associated them with 4 colours, blue, yellow, green and red, and work those colors into the image in some way to remind me how the word is pronounced.
There are a few tricks like that that I use to remember them.
But if you want to learn a new language, the important thing is to keep at it and repeat.
You should at least one thing that has to do with that language every day, without fail.
Perhas even something like watching a film in that language, or just reading a word or phrase, or perhaps trying to translate a phrase to it.
Find someone who's a native speaker that perhas wants to learn your language, use skype or email to communicate with them.
Skype is good because you don't need to look at them, but because of the time difference I can't talk with chinese people that often...

Even if being in a class can be tough, a professional teacher is worth it.
My professor if the best I've had, and by now my class have been narrowed down to about 10 people, so I feel less confused.

I learned English by immersion when I was 3 (we moved to the States for a few years), so it's like a second mother tongue (except my pronunciation, I used to speak like a native until I moved back home - I'm too shy to talk it with other people).

At school I'm in 2nd year French and Latin (and I do great at both), and I've been trying to learn German from books/Internet ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ ), but don't have enough self discipline or time right now. Plus I don't think the book has a very good structure. But I do plan to keep trying.

Next I'll probably try Portuguese and Italian, which should be easy, and then maybe Russian (just to try a not-so-Occidental language).

Thanks for the replies, guys!

I've already started trying to learn French, and I don't find it that hard so far. However, I better try to keep this hidden from all NTs I know, because they all find it weird if you have anything intelligent as a hobby.

A little latin for fun is always amusing. My signature is a paraphrase of the old Austrian national anthem in latin, meaning, "Austria will stand forever". I've changed it into "Asperger's/'Aspergerland' will stand forever". Double or even tripple comic, since Asperger was an Austrian.

Learning foreign languages is one of my favorite pasttimes. I am trying to learn Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic for business reasons after I graduate from college--since most of the geology jobs are in the oil and gas industry.

Spanish = Pemex, Citgo

Portuguese = Petrobras

Arabic = Saudi Aramco

Tim

I took up Spanish "on my own" when I was about 12-13. At the same time I was studying Latin at school (which I didn't like very much). Since then I've studied (mostly on my own -- really the only way for me) Portuguese, French, German, Dutch, Greek, Japanese (a year of it in the Navy Oriental Lang. Sch. during and after the War), Sanskrit, Pali, more Latin (I enjoyed it when I didn't have to put up with the teacher, and vice versa!) etc., etc.

I'm 81 years old. The study of languages has been my saviour for close to 70 years.

I've NOT excelled at immersing myself in the cultures of those speaking the other languages because of my innate standoffishness. I generally listen and speak very little with the "natives".

THE ETERNAL SPECTATOR

I have studied all of those languages you mentioned.

Tim

Si, senor. Comos estas? ((Can't find accent keys.))
?Tiene cuantos anos? Tengo quince anos. Tengo epolo marron y ojos verdes.

In my early teens i tried out a few languages for fun, mostly dead languages, latin, ancient greek, anglo saxon... i tried russian once but didn't get too far. I used books for all of these and really enjoyed it for a while, especially ancient greek, but lost interest....am thinking about looking into latin again......or possibly a made up language, like tolkiens.....that would be just as fun....after all, i have no intention of speaking to other people i just like languages....and more specifically alphabets and codes...actually, using some internet resources i may soon be working on the gramatic details of my own made up language, now that will be fun ! !!

Wow I would love to be good at learning languages like some aspies are! I just have such a poor memory for words and pronunciation, maybe I just need to concentrate harder!

Holy crap, the only other language I ever tride learning was spainish when I was in 7th grade (i am now in 10th grade) and I sucked at it so bad that my school woulden't let me take it anymore. I guss I just wasen't properly motivated to learn the lanuage i always made fun of as a kid lol.

I find Dutch very easy to understand but I don't speak it very well. As I'm interested in etymology, I know basic Latin and Greek as well. I just started with Hebrew, which a jewish friend of mine is teaching me.

I'm Dutch but I don't know a trifle of it except numbers and the words Bedside Table and Washing Cloth. I still get my friend's tounges in knots when I get then to try and say Chocolate Hail in Dutch, though!