Your Languages?

[Coffee Mug]

Italian is my first language

Immediately after comes English and French (my father's English and I was born in Geneva, have to use both English and French for work)

Then comes German (not my favourite language but have to use it sometimes for work)

Can understand Spanish but can not talk it properly.

Nice topic

[Jemmabean]

My mother tongue is English, and since getting a degree in a foreign language is a lot like getting a degree in your own language by extension (because you learn more than you ever wanted to know about your own language's structure and grammar when you're trying to understand another one's! ) I'd call myself quite proficient in its employment.

Being Canadian (albeit Anglophone Canadian ) I was required to take French from 4th grade through 9th grade, and I took a little more in 11th grade and some in University. My mother's boyfriend is half-French, half-Swedish as well and I have visited both of those countries in the last few years, as well as having gone to Québec numerous times. I would say that my French is pretty patchy right now - a lot of my vocabulary is gone and some of the more complex grammatical stuff is also gone from lack of use, but I'm sure I could make myself understood if need be.

I just finished my degree in German, so I'd consider myself fairly fluent in it. I tend to make a lot of mistakes when it comes to noun gender and sometimes I'll put a word in front of another that should have gone behind it - and of course, as is the case with anyone's second language, my word-choice tends to be strange and, well, foreign-sounding.

On my travels around Europe (and from plain old interest - languages are sort of my pet subject) I picked up pieces of Swedish (Jag är ledsen, jag kan inte Svenska ), Dutch (Ik kan maar een beetje Nederlands spreken), and Finnish (Hej, mä olen TYS, Kanadasta) - I also can speak and understand a small amount of Japanese, although I can only recognize about a quarter of the Hiragana alphabet and none of the Kanji. One of my favourite Japanese sayings is one I learned years ago from my then-girlfriend: Boku wa boku no koto ga shiritai - I want to know more about myself.

Languages are fun.

[Dawnie]

Just plain old English and that's it. Is Bostonian it's own language I wonder?

[Tiger]

Just English I'm afraid, although I can understand and speak a small amount of French, nowhere near enough to call it a second language though.

[Nicole]

My first language is English...this is probably obvious. i took many years of Spanish and speak enough to get me by in a strictly Spanish-speaking country. I also took several years of Latin, which is actually a REALLY cool language, but a "dead" one. No need for speaking that in most places. I also took a year of German in college but only remember random words like "kugelschreiber".

[Cazzablanca]

Fluent in Swedish and English.

Can make do as a tourist in German, Spanish and Russian.

[count tiszula]

Well, having English as my native tongue, at school I studied French, Latin, Greek, German, Russian and Spanish, and at the university I sort of filled in the gaps, devoting most of the time to a language which has now been abolished. Of course my knowledge of most languages is purely theoretical; I can't actually speak them. It strikes me that Italian is the obvious missing link; I do have a theoretical knowledge of it, but am stuck on the simplest tourist phrases; mezza boteglia di vino bianco, per favore.....

[Kineret]

I speak English fluently, passable Hebrew and I'm taking German in school. I really want to learn Italian. I have the Instant Immersion program but its not nearly as good as Rosetta Stone.

[dumpling]

My first language is Polish. After moving to England 8 years ago I'm fluent in English . I'm learning French and German in school so I can only understand and say simple things. My mum taught me a few phrases in Russian and she knows Russian pretty well because she had to learn it for nine years when she was in school.And...I would love to start learning Spanish. (:

[cheetah]

My first language is English, I can speak, write and read Irish gaeilge. Next year I'm hoping to start German and French.

[Stimuli]

oooh how I am ashamed of bumping, trust me, it gives me goosebumps

but I wanted to add mine haha :

1, Danish

2, Swedish

3 English

4 German

5 SOME French

6 SOME Spanish

and the last one 7, A few phrases of Japanese

[Chanel_no5]

oooh how I am ashamed of bumping, trust me, it gives me goosebumps

Had it been a thread about ghosts, you would've gotten ghostbumps instead.

(God, that one sucked even worse written out than it did in my head. )

[smooshi]

My first language is Swedish - The quickly disappearing language *laugh* I love Swedish, it's beautiful (especially some dialects), and think it's a shame people start using English words as much as they do. I sometimes feel as if forty percent (or so) of many conversations I have with other swedes is in English *snicker*. I try not to do this, but the occasional "right" slips out anyway.

I was told that women in Sweden traditionally used to speak on inhale, and not exhale. How does that sound?

And again, I am sorry for late posting... I am just bored.

Now I guess I am supposted to answer the topic? Allright.

Well, my native language is Croatian, which I speak, write, read and understand. Croatia was united with some other countries in recent past, which means I do understand three or more Slavenian languages.

I have learnt English for ten years now, and I am quite good at it (I write, speak, read and understand it on certain level). Sometimes I feel I have a switch in my brain which puts me on "Croatian Mode" or "English Mode", so I am thinking in English while writing this.

I started to learn German as I started going to school, but I still speak it on "Me Robinson, you Friday" level. But I understand it enough to survive while staying in Austria for entertaining reasons in winter (skiing and stuff).

French somelike fits me better, making me more fluent at it (but my French "skills" are still far, far away from the level I can speak English) then in German and although I am good at grammar, I still speak it on level which is a bit higher then surviving one.

I also learn Latin and ancient Greek at school, but I can not speak those... But I just adore Latin, which makes me more enthusiastic about learning it.

And because no one knows Croatian, I was forced to learn couple of phrases in Italian, just in case I get hungry and lost during the visit to Rome or Venice....

That's it.

[VividBubbles!]

Oh, wow. Well, I feel dull! Oh, and thanks for resurrecting this thread Loca! It deserved it. Yeah, so anyway, languages! Well, I'm fluent in English (also Sarcasm and Pig-Latin, which should count ), I can understand a small amount of French and Spanish (nothing that makes me even remotely close to fluency AT ALL though), I can sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Russian, and I can sort of curse in French, German, Spanish, and Italian. The languages I want to learn to become fluent in include Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese! Ah, dreams that will probably never come true! Ugh, I have the attention span of a squirrel with ADHD. *sigh*

[Coffee Mug]

I was born in Geneva, Switzerland where you speak French. Then we moved to Lugano, Switzerland where you speak Italian. Then we moved to England (my father's english). Then back again in Lugano, then again in England and back again in Lugano. I know, I know...

So basically my native language is Italian, I think, speak and write in Italian every day.

My second language is, because of my father's origin, English. You can hear that my accent isn't the best as I stopped speaking it when my father left us and we were pretty small but I can manage conversations, reading books, watching movies, writing and I sometimes think in English too.

Then there's French which I learned at school and that I know as good as I know English.

I've learned German at school too and went in the German speaking part of Switzerland to learn it but the level isn't as high as English and French.And finally there's Spanish,

I've had a spanish boyfriend and he taught me the language even tho It's the language I know the less but seen as it is quite similar to Italian it's not that difficult to manage.

[AbigailAnarcki]

English. Took french in school and hear spanish a lot around here but all i can really speak is english.

[VoOs]

I was told that women in Sweden traditionally used to speak on inhale, and not exhale. How does that sound?

I'm afraid you have been told wrong.

In the Northern parts of Sweden we sometimes use a sharp, audible inhale through pursed lips as an affirmative, instead of using the word "ja/jo" (yes), but that's the only speaking on inhale that I've heard of.

[March Hare]

My first language is Dutch and my other first language is English. No, not really, but I have been hearing English since I was very young and practicing it since I was sort of very young.

Other languages I can converse in, or at least pretend with conviction, are German and French. I'd love to be fluent in both, but I lack application. Tsk tsk.

[Anonymouse]

Amurican.

[vote_for_pedro]

English.

C/C++

Perl

Java

SQL

Unix shell scripting

PHP

(just because they're not spoken doesn't mean they're not languages!)

[tma]

C/C++

Perl

Java

SQL

Unix shell scripting

PHP

(just because they're not spoken doesn't mean they're not languages!)

True! The only java I get comes in a cup/mug.

I just have the one language- English (both the American *Anony - your post cracked me up* and almost all British *I think*)

un petit peur de francais

very limited words/phrases in Spanish

Very, Very limited Latin, ancient Greek, and Hebrew.

"Kidlet" (if that is a language) lol!!

And absolutely no clue how to talk to computers/ computer-like things.

I wish I had a better aptitude w/ lanuages. When I took a compact French course, even though it was horrid in many ways, I also learned a lot more because I felt like I was constantly reading, hearing, and speaking French. When I don't get to practice- I get rusty *really* quickly!