Your Languages?

[obsessed]

Sorry for the many questions tonight.

What's your first language?

What other languages do you know, and to what extent? [i.e. can read, understand, write, etc.]

What about you guys?

[Marceline]

pretty fluent in it?! You write better in English than 99.99% of Americans. XD

my first language was English, although I am kind of fluent in Spanish- been taking it for seven years. I can read, write, speak, etc.

[Raining Strawberry]

Cool! I'm such a linguistics freak, so I'm looking forward to seeing what people say.

My first language... I don't want to be super-specific, in my paranoia of somehow being found out by the general public, so I'll be semi-vague and say it's a Scandinavian language. I learned English as a toddler. Also took four years of Spanish between middle school and high school. I've probably forgotten most of what i learned, but I can piece some Spanish together.

I'd love to pick up some more Indo-European languages someday, but haven't had the opportunity (or decent instructors at my college) so it has yet to happen.

[melonbun]

I don't remember what my first language was.

My parents told me I spoke such and such with babysitters, but I don't recall any of it.

I'm all "woah, I could speak that?!"

[English] Pretty fluent, I think.

[French] Not quite fluent, yet. I've been taking french since I was 6.

[Japanese] Can read, write, and understand very basic Japanese. I'm nowhere near mastering the kanji.

[Korean] Can read and understand very little romanized Korean.

[Lynne]

I'm fluent in English and French. I understand and speak a VERY little bit of Italian (I understand more than I speak), Spanish and am trying to teach myself German using cds... it's very slow going because I'm extremely forgetful LOL (I've forgotten the beginning of the disc by the time I get to the end).

[Raining Strawberry]

am trying to teach myself German using cds... it's very slow going because I'm extremely forgetful LOL (I've forgotten the beginning of the disc by the time I get to the end).

German is one of the languages on top of my wish-list... although the instructor at my school has a spotty record, and sometimes it sounds complicated and scares me away a bit. Lynne, what are your overall impressions of German as a language, since you have background in a handful of related languages? How's it compare to English and Spanish, specifically?

And by chance are you using the Rosetta Stone program? I always see advertisements for it and have wanted to try it out.

[LeapYearKisses]

Ooh! Other people who want to learn German. Das ist so geil!

[English] - First language. Fluent. XD

[italian] - Been taking it in school for three years. I can read and comprehend fairly well, but I want to learn to speak it better.

[German] - Currently in the process (sort of... XD) of teaching myself.

Also want to learn Russian and Finnish, perhaps Polish, and Japanese (far-off dream, lol). If I could, I'd want to learn every language in the world. They fascinate me to no end!

[Kiwifruit]

...I feel boring now...I speak English and English only At one stage I could hold basic conversations in Dutch - very basic - but I've mostly forgotten all that I knew now. I've sort of attempted to learn French, Spanish and Japanese at various times but meh, language has never really been my thing, I get bored too easily xD

[Lynne]

am trying to teach myself German using cds... it's very slow going because I'm extremely forgetful LOL (I've forgotten the beginning of the disc by the time I get to the end).

German is one of the languages on top of my wish-list... although the instructor at my school has a spotty record, and sometimes it sounds complicated and scares me away a bit. Lynne, what are your overall impressions of German as a language, since you have background in a handful of related languages? How's it compare to English and Spanish, specifically?

And by chance are you using the Rosetta Stone program? I always see advertisements for it and have wanted to try it out.

English is very germanic in nature, so it's somewhat similar, word-wise. Grammar-wise, UGH. nothing alike!

Spanish? is nothing at all like German, and I'm not even sure how that comparison came up... Spanish is a romance language, like Italian and French. Completely different, no similarities whatsoever. No I'm not using Rosetta Stone. I'm using a set of 8 beginner-level Cds I got at Chapters for like $20.

I do have the Berlitz "Hebrew" cd, but I haven't had a chance to poke at it yet.

[The Mute Poet]

My mother tongue is English (despite what everyone assumes because I grew up in predominantly French-speaking Quebec! ), so I'm fluent there.

I also have been taking French classes since kindergarten, and actually was in an immersion classes where everything but English, gym and Home Ec were in French when I was in high school, so after having done that I consider myself pretty much fluent.

That's basically the extent of my learned languages, but from my French I can sometimes piece together bits of Spanish or Italian sentances since the languages are sometimes similar enough.

I'm also a huge sucker for languages, I'm just lacking for time and someone with enough patience to teach me at the moment...

I have dabbled a bit in learning Swedish (my first "to-be-learned" language), but so far I only know how to say goodbye and "Jag ar hungrig" (I'm hungry). Always start with the essentials...

[Vetinari]

English is my first language and I am now reasonably fluent in Norwegian as well (I can speak, read and write though I still have difficulty understanding the news I hear on TV or read in newspapers ). Learned French at school to "O" grade level and a very small amount of German privately but when I try to think of either of those the only words that come are norsk.... I guess if I had to begin them again most of it would come back.

[The Dude]

English, and Dutch through my dad's side of the family. Yay Germanophones!

Incidentally, are people who speak the Saxon language called Saxophones?

[High on Lullabies]

English is my first language and still the only one I'm in any way fluent in.

Second would be French, from what I learnt at school and can still remember. The grammar and tenses I'm okay with, but a lot of the vocabulary I had has gone. I also know small bits of Italian and am half-trying to teach myself Dutch, so I know small bits of that one too.

[Hajo]

Its great, that there are some people are interested in German language. Please contact me, I will answer in German :-), its my mother tongue. I miss other Germans here...

Beside this Im able to speak and write English more or less fluent.

I learned Russian in school and university and was surprised how much there still exits in the background of my brain, when I heard it a few month agon again.

Its the same with French - I learned it a bit at school, almost not able to speak but I understand a bit.

I like spanish language - I started a few years ago to learn it a bit for a while, but.. At the other side, if I be i Spain U(every year for a few weeks) I understand a bit, I like to see TV-news and have a look at the newspapers.

For me its different to say, how far German is comparable with other languages. The Grammar is definately difficult...

I can onyl say, if you know English ist helps sometimes to understand French, if you kow French, irt helps for Spain a bit etc..

The most international word inn teh world seems to be "KINDERGARTEN", it exists in Russian and in Englisch too.

[doggo]

Mother tongue is Finnish.

I think I'm reasonably fluent in English. I'm very self-conscious of my accent though.

Swedish I know enough to read a newspaper, but I use it so little I keep forgetting it fast.

Japanese... well I think it's a difficult language. But I know some Japanese. Trying to learn classical Japanese as well, tricky but fun.

I really intend to wipe the dust off my Russian soon; have forgotten most of what I knew but I know I could regain it with a little work.

[Mirf]

My first language is German i would consider myself fluent in it.

I can speak and write English, Certainly less fluent than German but enough to hold a conversation with someone i think. My pronunciation is pretty bad though.

I did learn French in school but i'm seriously no good in it anymore. I can somewhat randomly understand a very few little bits 'n pieces but i couldn't ever talk to someone.

I miss other Germans here...

Actually by now we've more Germans than i would've ever thought we would get when i signed up .

[VoOs]

My mother tongue is Swedish, I'm more or less fluent in English (though I'm still very self-conscious about writing it) and I've studied Spanish for 6 years. I also understand and can use a little spoken Japanese, but not much more than basic phrases.

[zneeze]

Fluent in English, semi-fluent in Spanish because we're made to study a language in school xD I can sort of speak it, but I don't know all the tenses and such yet. And I can understand it better than I can read or write it lol.

[Selene]

Well, I obviously speak German, it's my mother tongue and therefore.. well.. I can handle it

I think I could say that I am fluent in English, reading, writing and communicating. In school, I also had French for three years, but that's now almost five years ago and I forgot a lot of my active vocabulary, althoug I can still read it quite well (with the help of a dictionary, of course ^^ ) and understand the gist of things. Communicating.. well.. it works more or less, but it is really embarrassing and involves a lot of gestures

I also had Latin in school, although I think that doesn't really count as it is not a spoken language ^^ But it helps me to understand basic Italian. I am even able to introduce myself in Italian, but that's about it xD

On my list of languages to learn are definitely Spanish and maybe a more exotic language like Japanese, although it's quite unlikely that I am going to succeed learning one of them.

[Giant Steps]

I consider myself fluent in both English and Glaswegian!

[Vetinari]

Glaswegian!

I can understand a lot of Glaswegian but can't speak it!

Now Aberdonian ....... well that's a different matter altogether.

[Trillium]

English is my mother tongue. I have studied German for years and years, but I am horrible at foreign languages so not all that much sank in. (It does come back somewhat when I visit Germany and Switzerland.) A tiny bit of Swiss German. And law Latin (res ipsa loquitur -- that's a joke!).

[sneezedreamer]

...I feel boring now...I speak English and English only At one stage I could hold basic conversations in Dutch - very basic - but I've mostly forgotten all that I knew now. I've sort of attempted to learn French, Spanish and Japanese at various times but meh, language has never really been my thing, I get bored too easily xD

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way. I learned a bit of Italian back in high school, and I was great at the accent, but I've pretty much lost everything now, couldn't be bothered to practice. If I were to learn another language, I'd definetly go back and conquer Italian before anything else...I think it's an extremely pretty language.

[Guest]

Broken German. If it counts I can read all Western music scripts except drum tabs lol.

[Kiwifruit]

I forgot one: does sign language count? One of my favourites is the sign for "bacon and eggs"...not quite sure why xD