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What other languages do you speak?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:49 pm
by btownmeggy
What other languages do you speak and how well? Feel free to tell details about how you learned the language, or how you like it compared to English, or if English is not your native tongue, etc etc etc et al.

Do tell.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:51 pm
by Hitman079
English is technically my first language, since I speak it very fluently and well. However, my first word was in Thai. I learned it through my parents. I can't start a conversation or speak in complex sentences so well, but at least I'm good at responding to questions. I guess it would be called basic knowledge of the language. I can't write Thai though.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:52 pm
by Gold Knight
I know Japanese, enough to have a fairly decent conversation if i were to go there. Five years and i still dont have much clue what im saying though :wink:

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:53 pm
by static_ice
my mom never really taught me spanish, but I took Sp 1 freshman year and now, 3 years later I'm taking Sp 2 because I found out most colleges need at least 2 years of a foreign language :lol:

as you can guess I suck at speaking it, I guess I'm pretty good at reading it though :lol:

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:54 pm
by dustn64
ullbay hitshay?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:56 pm
by btownmeggy
Hitman079 wrote:English is technically my first language, since I speak it very fluently and well. However, my first word was in Thai. I learned it through my parents. I can't start a conversation or speak in complex sentences so well, but at least I'm good at responding to questions. I guess it would be called basic knowledge of the language. I can't write Thai though.


Do you think you understand it better than you speak it?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:01 pm
by super Mario 009
well, english is actually my third language, even though i was born in an english speaking country, well english and french speaking, well my family is latin-american so spanish was my first language, i was born in the french side of Canada and went to a french school. i moved to vancouver and there is where a learnt english, also from my brother, we speak it all the time.
lol, i kinda just told you my life's story. :D

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:03 pm
by The1exile
I have a high school understanding of French, but otherwise i don't speak any others. A pity given that my first language was actually Danish, and i used to be able to speak Finnish...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:04 pm
by rebelman
I have fairly good Irish (unlike most Irish people). It's a beautiful language but it's been in decline for a long time now.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:06 pm
by btownmeggy
rebelman wrote:I have fairly good Irish (unlike most Irish people). It's a beautiful language but it's been in decline for a long time now.


Did you learn it in school or from your family? How do you keep it up?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:07 pm
by misterman10
English- 1st language
Spanish- Semifluent

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:10 pm
by muy_thaiguy
Tried French my 7th grade year. Let's just say, it was my first and last attempt at another language. Though lately Latin has started to interest me.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:10 pm
by john1099
English- First- Parents and such
French- Second- School (3-current (grade 11))
Flame- Third- Bk taught me obvs ;)

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:11 pm
by Bad Speler
I speak english very well.
French and khmer (Cambodian language), I speak medium well. I am a french immersion program in highschool so I know french, and my mother is khmer so i know some khmer. It was actually my first language.
I know a few words in German, my dads side of the family has some german descent.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:12 pm
by john1099
Bad Speler wrote:I speak english very well.
French and khmer (Cambodian language), I speak medium well. I am a french immersion program in highschool so I know french, and my mother is khmer so i know some khmer. It was actually my first language.
I know a few words in German, my dads side of the family has some german descent.


Where in Canada do you live?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:14 pm
by Bad Speler
Ottawa, pretty much a bilingual city.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:15 pm
by john1099
Bad Speler wrote:Ottawa, pretty much a bilingual city.


ah, ok
I was in the french program at my school in St. Catharines (Way down south)
Was just wondering if we went to the same school, lol

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:16 pm
by Russianfire8371
I grew up learning German and Bulgarian. Then i moved to America, learned English, and forgot the German. Im not perfectly fluent in Bulgarian seeing how i only speak with my parents (i speak in English to my brother). As for the German, Im relearning it by taking German in high school

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:19 pm
by btownmeggy
I speak Spanish and Portuguese very well, and some other languages very poorly.

English is the only language that I know more or less completely perfectly though.

I grew up speaking Spanish, in a household that used mostly English but a fair amount of Spanish, as well. I tested out of Spanish in high school, but studied Spanish literature in college, which certainly helped out my fluency. These days I speak Spanish much better than either of my parents. You'd have to talk to me for a long time to figure that I'm not a NATIVE speaker (most people think I'm from Venezuela, kinda oddly enough). I consider myself totally fluent in Spanish, but I do have some reservations: things like plant species and power tools I know better in English than in Spanish.

Portuguese I learned only several years ago, for "work" reasons, but it's so similar to Spanish that it was pretty easy to learn. I'm certainly less comfortable in Portuguese than in Spanish, but I can use it plenty sufficiently for business and leisure.

Other languages that I speak very poorly, in order of fluency: French, German, Chinese.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:20 pm
by Bad Speler
john1099 wrote:
Bad Speler wrote:Ottawa, pretty much a bilingual city.


ah, ok
I was in the french program at my school in St. Catharines (Way down south)
Was just wondering if we went to the same school, lol

lol, i've been to St. Catherines, it's a nice city. Didn't stay there long though, was just passing by on my way to Niagra Falls.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:22 pm
by btownmeggy
Russianfire8371 wrote:I grew up learning German and Bulgarian. Then i moved to America, learned English, and forgot the German. Im not perfectly fluent in Bulgarian seeing how i only speak with my parents (i speak in English to my brother). As for the German, Im relearning it by taking German in high school


So did you grow up in Germany or Bulgaria?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:02 pm
by KiwiTaker
Lol I speak english oviously, 3 years of German in high school and I can speak a little bit of Dundonian. It isn't completely a language more of a dialect.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:06 pm
by freezie
Le français, mes amis.

I speak French as a first language, English as second. I used to take spanish in class..The only word I can remember is ''Hola''.

I actually prefer English to my first language..And I can't tell why. I am not the best..But if you can be where I live, you'll know I am basicly ultra-bilingual, they all suck in English here :lol: .

Sad I have problems speaking it..Their fault they can't learn it..Backfires on me as I am lacking practice.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:09 pm
by Huckleberryhound
Wo hui shou yidian Zhongwen, keshi wode 'putonghua' hen bu hao.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:10 pm
by Honibaz
Keep trying Huckleberryhound, you'll get there. I speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin fairly fluent.