So..
How many languages do you speak?
and what languages are they?
extra questions:
why did you learn them?
and where?
for how long?
In order of proficiency:
1) English (Mother tongue)
2) Turkish (Intermediate level)
3) Arabic (Beginner level)
4) Russian (Beginner level)
I am a Middle Eastern Studies major who has traveled to the Middle East a bit, and I have some interest in Russia on the side, soooo... that's why I am learning those languages.
I am fluent in over six million forms of communication, including Bocce and binary load lifter programming.
These are the languages I speak:
1.Icelandic (very well)
2.Lithuanian (very well)
3.English (very well, I hope..)
4.Samogitian (very well)
5.Faroese (very well)
6.Spanish (well)
7.Russian (understand: very well, talk: not so good)
8.Swedish (understand: well, talk: not so good)
9.Danish (not so good)
10.Latvian (not so good)
Learned nr.1,2,3,6,9 in school
nr.4 is my mother tongue
nr.5 is so much like Icelandic, that I understand it.
nr.8 and 10 are very alike to the other languages I know, so I kinda understand them.
nr.7 learned it from my parents and tv
English-fluent
Spanish-fluent
I'm an American so both of these are a must.
日本語-learning, very basic skills.
I also plan on learning Swedish.
Why Japanse and Swedish? These are both countries I plan on visiting and spending extensive time in, so even though they speak english in both of these places, I want to learn to speak the native tongue andyway.
just two:
Spanish - Mother tongue
English - Adquired through Internet, Magic cards, books and the like (english teaching in my country sucks), Although I'm pretty fluent, my pronuciaton sucks (y'know, the way I learned, it's difficult to learn that)
Also, I went through two years of useless french, don't remember a lot.
And of course, I know the random frequent-in-anime japanese words, although I don't calim to know japanese like those guys that claim that know japanese 'cause they know what kawaii means.
English (fluent, second language)
French (fluent, first language, but lack of practice shows in writing)
German (my German is only mildly better than my Japanese)
Japanese (I don't really speak Japanese)
Italian (I can understand pretty well, if you speak slowly)
Spanish (also a bit, but not as much)
Wow, I don't even know what "Samogitian" is, or where it's spoken. A pretty impressive line-up though, you must have done quite a bit of travel.
English (Mother Tongue)
French (6 years in school.. I hated it, but I guess I know it pretty well
Japanese (been learning for a year, hopefully gonna do it in uni)
Organized by language family:
English -- native.
Thai -- fluent. 4 yrs in college, lived in Thailand for 3 years post-college, and studied the literature as a graduate student.
Lao -- working ability, written and spoken. Lived in Lao-speaking parts of Thailand, traveled a lot in Laos. Plus it's hard not to be functional in Lao if you're fluent in Thai, if you have any head at all for language, as the two are very close.
Spanish -- working ability bordering on fluency. 5 years of much more serious than average study in middle and high school, followed by significant travel and work in Spanish-language environments, including more than a year in a Spanish-speaking environment in California where I needed Spanish daily.
Portuguese -- limited working ability. Worked in an office with a Brazilian branch and lots of Brazilians around; took a half-dozen intensive lessons. Can now read fluently and get by conversationally. Much like Spanish, grammatically, if you can get your head around the very distinct phonology.
Italian and French--can read, understand at least 50% of what is said around me, and have rudimentary conversations. My French pronunciation is terrible, but my Italian one is pretty good.
Romanian--limited reading and conversational ability. One year study in college. Helps to know Russian, as it's a Romance language chock-full of Slavic influences.
Russian -- working ability. 3 years in H.S., 3 years in college, some travel in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
Polish and other Slavic languages--basic functionality. Can get the gist of many conversations/written texts, speak basic phrases, and parse grammatically.
Khmer-- basic conversation & reading. 1 year study, travel.
Japanese--basic conversation, kana, 35 or so kanji. One year half-assed study, 15 years of anime fandom, some travel.
Pali (dead Indian language, cousin to Sanskrit, holy language of Southeast Asian/Sri Lankan Buddhism)--limited reading ability with dictionary in lap. 2 years of study in grad school.
Hindi/Urdu--basic conversation. Self-study, travel. Thanks to Pali, I recognize a surprising number of roots and bits of words when reading the subtitles in Hindi fims.
>>8 hehe...I have..but not for a long time..just driving through the countries and a few summer vocations.
my next goal is Indian or Korean...
Speak:
English
decent Spanish
can cuss in Bosnian
wanna learn:
Mandarin Chinese
Irish or Welsh
Won't touch:
Japanese
Klingon
Lobjan
Hebrew
Arabic
or Esperanto.
English (fluent)
Mandarin (took a semester, want to learn more but it's not being offered until spring and I hope I don't forget what I learned from a year ago)
English - native speaker.
Russian - I can make basic conversation, learned in high school.
Japanese - just started this one because, well, why not?
Native: English
Learning: Arabic, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit
Why? Because they are amazing.
I don't speak any languages at all, my helper monkey, Jub-jub, is typing this for me.
Alphabetically, Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean.
Some better than the others.
i want to learn tha english in sweden thx i want to do my englsih is very wall i hope u provide tha colage scholl'any learning center thx
Lithuanian - native
English - second language-came as second nature too.
Russian - Barely,but i cuss mostly in russian.
Started learniung Japanese when i odn't have anything better to do.
sacdsaadssda
>>20
so you speak sadsac too, eh?
ssdac ccad daassc.
csasd da?
English - Native speaker.
American Sign Language - I learned this in 11th grade for fun. Little did I know how useful and easy it would be! I'm so glad I learned it. I'm always learning new signs, but I'm basically fluent, unless someone is signing really fast or being very 'artistic' with their signs. It's very easy to learn if you learn it from someone in person; learning from books and videos may work for some people, but books and videos were pretty unhelpful for me. If you ever get a chance to take a sign language class, I recommend it.
Spanish - I started picking up Spanish when I was in 3rd grade, because I moved to Southern California, and there, my school was 92% Hispanic, with a majority of the students being Spanish-speaking. I started to really focus on learning it when I was a freshman in highschool (60-something% Hispanic there), and then took a Spanish 1 class when I was in 11th grade (two languages that year, whee!). I am fluent enough to understand the conversations of my friends' Mexican-born parents and grandparents, although I'm too shy to actually say anything.
Esperanto - I began to learn this when I was a freshman in highschool. I was just tickled by the idea of it...Some random Polish guy making up a language that a bunch of people now speak. The language is advertized as being easy to learn, and I think that it is...I've just been too lazy to put forth much effort. However, I am pretty good at it; I can read an Esperanto Wikipedia article and understand most of it, or watch an Eo video on YouTube and get what they're talking about. I'm bad at coming up with my own sentences, though.
Tagalog - I just started learning this recently. I wanted to learn an Asian-ish language, and I know several Philipino people, so I picked Tagalog so I'd have people to practce with. I also like it because it has many Spanish and English influences, which makes it easier for me and interesting too. I don't know enough to have a conversation yet. I have teh colors memorized though :)
Russian - I'm still learning the alphabet. I'm not sure why i wanted to learn Russian...I guess it's just badass.
Finnish - Native speaker
Swedish - Because we have to!!
French - Like million years ago in 4th grade or something.. It was too hard for me.. Don´t really remember anything..
Russian - I know some basics,My grandmothers mom was Russian :D
Japanese - Have been learning it maybe year now.. :P because of my old work i´m behind of my class... SUCKS!!!
Chinese - Began to learn it last week :D If I someday meet my boyfriends parents it would be nice to talk to them ^^
Korean - Like Chinese this I´m learning by myself ... :P
Italian - Too some class at highschool coz i had nothing better to do..Sadly I don´t remember much of it :(
English - almost forgot it.. I started at the 3rd grade.. Dunno if there´s anything else that grammar or slang words to learn after 14 years .. (Wow is it really that long)
I would like to learn these too : Vietnamese,German,better Swedish ,Magyar,Spannish... Too many huh??
Oh and sorry i´m dyslexic so sometimes I forgot words/letter..
Like after Italian... "took" not "Too" hahha
wow..you're awesome!!
English - Native speaker.
Spanish - Fluent. I started learning it in elementary school, but we didn't really start learning important things like grammar or useful vocabulary until High School. So, I've only recently become fluent. It really irritated me that I'd been learning it since 1st grade but hadn't really learned anything 'cause we'd been dicking around that whole time.
Japanese - Basic knowledge. I've been learning it on my own for quite some time now, but I'm lazy, so I've been studying off and on. :/
Italian - I can't speak it, but I can read it and understand the gist of whatever it is I'm reading because I know Spanish.
Korean - Very basic knowledge. I have a few Korean foreign exchange students at my school, and as I became friends with them, I became more interested in their language, so I decided to learn it with their help.
French - I took it for a year in school, so I have very basic speaking skills, though I can read French moderately well.
Russian - After I read A Clockwork Orange earlier this year, I decided to start learning it. I'm not very skilled though.
Latin - I took it for two years in Middle School, so I don't really remember much, but I can read it...somewhat.
English - Fluent. It's my native language and I speak it better than just about everyone else my age (I'm 14 1/2, in England)
American - Ha ha, just joking, though it does look and sound quite grating compared to UK English.
French - I can get around. I'm taking it for GCSE.
German - I can speak very good german actually. I'm also taking it for GCSE and my teacher says I should do a degree in it.
Japanese - Not so good. Been learning it for kicks with books I've bought. Have'nt got far though.
If you don't know how to speak the language FLUENTLY, you don't actually "speak it".
Everyone picks up a couple of phrases in a foreign language nowadays. That's far from getting dropped off in the country where said language is spoken and communicating effectively.
English: Mother tongue
Dutch: Passable
Hint to all 3 of you wanting to learn dutch: DON'T. It's a hideously backwards language with no call for it either outside OR inside the Netherlands. Most of the new words are loanwords taken directly from english and made to match dutch pronounciation standards, or taken from shallow pop-culture books and magazines. It's not even interesting to study, and nobody will ever hire you based on your ability to speak dutch. It's pretty much worthless.
>>28
Oh shut up. There are plenty of space between "know a few phrases" and "fluent". Believe me, you don't have to be perfect in order to communicate.
And like 60% of this board, I am learning Japanese. Mainly out of an interest in language, and not so much for the usual anime/OMG JAPAN! reasons that most people seem to have. (at least the ones I've met in class) Only taken a beginner's course so far, but starting full-time university level courses in a week or two.
Took Spanish, Latin and Greek classes in high school too. Hardly remember a thing, although Latin class was great for basic linguistics.
How many languages do you speak? 3(4?)
and what languages are they?
extra questions:
why did you learn them? English and German mandatory in school. French because I really like it, and I would then cover communicating with most people in north europe :)
and where? school
for how long? EN since 4th grade, GER since 7th grade, FR since last summer
Native English speaker. I can read and listen to Latin with a good degree of understanding. I am learning Sanskrit.
So just one spoken language. monolingual ;_;
Latin over high school and college, Sanskrit right now with books and shit.
I have no interest in Japanese. Ainu seems really interesting though!
English (first language),
Welsh (had to learn it in school),
German (took it for GCSE)
Japanese (currently learning it on my own)
Not very good at the last three, however.
Chinese
English
German
French
....want to learn Japanese :)
OTAKU FTW ^^XD^^
English-Fluent
Japanese-can completely understand it, but not fluent in speaking it yet
Spanish-I know the basics
English- Native. For some reason, though, I think English sounds really ugly compared to other languages... although I wonder if that has something to do with it being my native language (a friend of mine is a native speaker of Chamorro, and she considers that to be the ugliest language in the world)
Esperanto- Fluent. Don't know why I started learning it other than randomly running into lernu.net, but it got me a free room last December through Pasporta Servo, so I'll not argue.
Japanese- Intermediate, although considering I'm spending a year there beginning in a few weeks, I better be damn near fluent before too long.
Russian- Beginner, although coming rather well along thanks to listening to too much Akvarium and Lyubeh music.
Spanish- Beginner-intermediate, I can understand much better than I speak.
English - Native. I love English and I honestly believe that no other language has the same expressive capability, both in terms of lexicon and prosody.
German - Fluent. Learned it at school and spent the summer working in Berlin when I was 16. I don't enjoy speaking it. I'd rather speak...
Frisian - Fluent. Strictly a dialect of Dutch, but it's the Germanic language that's most closely related to modern English with all the phonetic complications that implies.
French - Intermediate. I can carry a conversation in French but often have to pause to re-order my thoughts or ask how to say a word.
Japanese - Intermediate. When I graduate I'm hoping to go on the JET programme so I need to be reasonably fluent by then!
The following languages I know bits of from my studies in linguistics:
Xhosa
Ndbele
Sotho
Several varieties of Sino-Tibetan family (I co-wrote a paper on variation of a particular variable between 3 first-stem languages in my first year - it was ridiculed at the peer review stage, lol)
Djerbil (Aboringinal language)
Tai-Kadai
and various others.
German -native
Italian -home language
English - fluent. 12years school
French -fluent. 5years school
Spanish -2years school
Japanese -studied 1 year but is useless in my place so i stopped
i know 4 languages and 2 chinese dialects:
english (main on the net and school for science/math subjects)
mandarin (school, friends and reading, i don't write much)
malay (i've no choice but to learn this, if i fail this, i'll almost lose my citizen, stupid language though)
japanese (mangas! animes! jrock songs! j-dramas and much more!)
hokkien dialect(for my living regions, my mother's mother toungue)
cantonese dialect(hongkong dramas!! anyway this is my father's mother tongue)
Took a look at Esperanto, but it's made out of fail.
English - native tongue
French - I remember some basics from elementary and middle school (I live in Canada, it's mandatory till 9th grade), but I gave it up and now I want to learn it again
Mandarin Chinese - basic understanding
Japanese - basic understanding
Russian - I wish.
english - native
french - fluent
spanish - fluent
chinese - fluent
german - i'm........ ok
russian - learning
Spanish - Native/ Very fluent
English - Very fluent
Italian - I can understand a bit if i hear it/read it
Portugese - Same as Italian
French - Same as Italian
Japanese - Intermediate
VIPから来ますたや＾＾
Japanese: JLPT 2
English: CPE
German: Native
French: Native
Czech: Native
German: Native
Spanish: Native
English: Fluent
Latin: I had it 5 years in school and because it's a dead language I'm not fluent in the spoken language of course.I understand most texts though.
French: Near fluent,3 years in school
Portuguese: Understand a lot due to my Spanish and Latin
Italian: same as Portuguese
Japanese: Understand a bit through Anime.Currently trying to learn it.
>>45,46
where do you people live or what kind of crazy parents do you people have so as to get such an odd combination of native langauges?
Greek - everything but writing
Swedish - born and and living in Sweden
English - Very fluent, studied it since I was eight in school
Spanish - I understand a lot after studying it since I was 12 but not so fluent speaker....
A bit Italian - Understand more than I can say, partly because of my spanish
A bit Latin - just like italian, understand more than I can say
A bit of a greek dialect - I understand it more than I can speak it
Yeah sorry to bore you with all my "understand more than I can speak".....
English - Fluent
Russian - Fluent
Norwegian/Swedish - Fluent
Danish - Can understand and am understood
Russian - Fluent
German - Good, still learning
Japanese and Arabic - Learning
French, Spanish and Mandarin - Plan on learning
Finnish - Native
English - Good
Swedish - A little bit
German - Only some basic things most of which I have forgotten
Portuguese My mother language
English From school, TV, movies, games, etc.
Spanish Almost everyone in Portugal knows a considerable amount of Spanish, since they are our neighbors and the language is sort of easy.
French From school, movies.
Then i know a little of Japanese (from watching so much anime i unconsciously started to assimilate many many words and its grammar), German (my stepfather is German), Italian (My grandfather is Sicilian).
I would like to fully learn Japanese, Mandarin, Greek and Russian. But I hope to learn, at least Mandarin and Russian, by living in both countries for a few years.
wow everyone can speak so many. i feel ashamed of myself.
English: native
chinese: understand alot but can't articulate myself well
learning
japanese: I want to watch anime without subs
russian: alot of people speak russian so I want to learn
finnish: I just started because its so esoteric but beautiful
korean: want to watch movies without subs
Dutch living
German mother
English fluent
can understand most French (but I HATE it.. because it was a must on High School)
Planning to learn/learning:
Chinese/Japanese/Arabic/maybe more?
Italian: my mother language
English: absolutely the first one of my languages
Spanish: i can understand well and make myself understood...me gusteria mucho de hablar en espanol con todo el mundo
French: learned 9 years at school...not quite worthly...oui, je suis un connard, je sais....
Portugese: my favourite one...força portugal, em todo o mundo
German: two or three things...and understand some easy stuff.. ich bin fertig nicht!!!
then, there are also a lot of other languages i'm interested in but i didn't started to learn yet: Dutch (funny and easy), Romanian (barely easy to understand for an italian mother-tongue), Hungarian (ferociously exciting and soundful...but quite tough to learn) and then swedish,norwegian and Danish (very easy grammar but "unvisible" pronunciation....try to spell Kobenhavn like a Danish, if you dare...)
>>1
English is my mother tongue.
I'm getting close to fluency in Spanish. I live in Chicago, see a large number of hispanophones each day, and hope to travel to Spain and Latin America some day.
My grandparents spoke Polish as children, but I can only ask for beer and the bathroom.
As for what to learn next, I'm stuck between German and Japanese.
turkish:native speaker
english:fluent
japanese:beginner (basic stuff,full kana,145 kanji)
german:some very basic stuff
french:i took a few courses and remember only a few words and no grammatical structure
English - Native
Japanese - 2Native
German - so-so es geht etwas....
French - School
English: Mother tongue (technically Scottish English), but ah can unnerstaun the lallans Scots.
German: fairly good with everyday situations, but I need to spend more time in DE/CH/AT speaking it, as I can understand the written language to a fairly high degree.
I might learn Spanish at some point, as I'm naturally good at rolling my R's, on account of my homeland.
I started learning Scottish Gaelic, but I gave up, as it is essentially useless: only 70,000 people (mainly in very remote areas) speak it.
lol you're all pathetic.
Have any of you heard of Juergen Graf?? He's a famous exiled holocaust revisionist and he can speak EIGHTEEN languages fluently including Chinese, Russian and Thai.
I speak english.
English (native), and learning German.
english native
french 2native
german 3native
latin school
japanese school
chinese friend
russian friend
polish 4native
spanish school
portugese school
^im fluent in
*i want to learn arabic and more middle eastern countries
**i took many languages in college
"i want to learn arabic and more middle eastern countries"?
English(fluent)
Hmong(mother tongue and fluent) ;)
Mandarin Chinese (learning in school)
English: Fluent
Spanish: 4 years and I'm planning to minor in it
Japanese: Enough to read a little bit and converse a little bit
German: Very little
And I've dabbled in
Gaelic Irish
Finnish
Native: American English speaker.
Third year of honors French, I consider myself to be competent in the language. Hope to travel there soon.
Currently in my first year of Mandarin as well, enjoying it thoroughly and can't wait to learn more each day.
Japanese: Mother Toungue, EXTREMELY fluent, also could read up to Japanese Middle-School Levels (hey, it's not easy, considering the fact I've been raised in the U.S.)
English: Also highly fluent, third language
Mandrin: Not too good compared to the other two, second language by the way
English: First language
Japanese: Basic conversational skills, and I understand the meaning of a lot of kanji, but not the readings. Heisig's fault.
French: Speak enough to get by, I studied it for six years but I've forgotten most of it now.
Korean: Tried learning Korean before, but have forgotten most of it now.
Ghaidlig: I know a few words from having family and stuff in the highlands.
English - First language, fluent. I'm currently trying to expand the vocabulary I commonly use.
Japanese - Currently in second year, second quarter. I can understand almost all of what my teacher says in class; even though I can't always recognize a word, I'll be able to guess at it through the context. I can recognize probably 90 - 100 (perhaps more) kanji, so my reading is getting a lot better.
French - Two years in high school. I thought I'd forgotten most of it, but when I picked up a book I'd read back then, I still could understand most of it. I don't think I could formulate a sentence though; I'd probably end up with French grammar but Japanese vocab. I was one of the best students in the class, because I would have these incredibly silly conversations with my teacher. (I loved to use the word "lecher" - "to lick" at every possible opportunity. Oh, and I just tried to to make a sentence in French about licking a cat - came up with "neko ga leche desu ka?" Haha.)
I expect I'll take up French again at some point, as I'm hoping to go into a field of work that involves language.
English and Russian. Used to speak Spanish, but the force of Russian being so awesome killed it off. It is now working on making me write у, и, д, and т in the middle of English sentences, and will probably destroy my ability to write latin script in about a year.