Languages in the Playground

[Killersquid]

I think there was a post like this before, but its months old, so I feel like making a new one. What languages do you know at the moment, you are learning at the moment, wish to and will learn, and wish to learn, but know it may not happen? I guess I'll start. Also, it's pretty much assumed everyone here speaks English, since its an English speaking forum.

Languages I am learning: Italian - my family language. My family is from Italy and I want to speak to them. Also, for Italian media, mostly books, and the fact I live in the North East, where Italian immigrants live.

Languages I will probably learn: Japanese - for selfish reasons. Mostly for media, and also, North East, immigrants, etc.

Latin - Fun Language, pursuing the sciences, so this will help marginally

Language I wish to learn, but probably won't: German - mostly because my other half comes from Germany

Arabic - Mostly for fun, but also with many more immigrants coming to America (and me living where they all live), it helps to know the language.

[Dihan]

I can speak Welsh. I'm not a first-language speaker, though. I'm a lot better at reading and understanding the language than I am at speaking it, though.

I should really brush up on my speaking at some point.

[Cristo Meyers]

At one point I could poorly speak and passably read Spanish and very poorly speak Mandarin.

Nowadays I can really only poorly read Spanish. I can just never really get languages to take whenever I try to learn.

[Eldan]

Well, I know swiss german, obviously, german, since it's the written language around here (swiss german doesn't have one), english and french, since we learn that in school. Also, on holidays I discovered that I can somehow read dutch by deducing the meaning of words from german, swiss german and english, even though I don't understand a single word when it's spoken.

[Mando Knight]

I know bits of Latin, German, and Spanish, as well as a few words/phrases in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Japanese, and Mando'a. I'm not capable of speaking any of the latter with proficiency, and it's just a couple of phrases here and there... and it's been maybe 6-8 years since I last studied Latin, and I never learned a whole lot in German or Spanish anyway, though I do know enough of the grammar from each that with a dictionary in hand I could decipher written messages...

[LCR]

German, English (obviously), some French, Latin.

[afroakuma]

English (surprise!) and Canadian French by default. Italian and Spanish by choice. I understand a little German and plan to study it.

In terms of other languages, my learn-list (if I can) includes:

Arabic
Russian
Mandarin
Japanese
Portuguese
German

Of course, since four of those use different alphabets, one of them writes backwards, one is tonal, one has three alphabets and one has letters that look like letters that they are not, there is a notable difficulty factor. Rosetta Stone thinks it's hilarious to teach said languages using their native alphabets, so I get no phonetic help on Arabic or Russian (they were kinder with Japanese).

On the bright side, I've been able to independently decode some Japanese (not grammar, but I'm picking out individual words with a fair bit of consistency) and I imagine Portuguese will come fairly easily to me.

[Morty]

Well, I know Polish and English, obviously. I know Latin fairly well too. I also know a bit of French, but not near enough - I can get myself understood and read French texts, but I have to work on it. As for other languages, I used to learn German and I still remember some words and phrases. Futhermore, I can guess the meaning of stuff written or spoken in some other Slavic languages due to their similiarity to Polish. In fact, I'm planning to become a linguist, so the list is going to get bigger - most likely it'll include Italian or Spanish, as I've heard they're easy to lear for someone who already knows French and Latin. Maybe some Scandinavian or Slavic languages, who knows. I seem to have a knack for linguistics, I'm just a bit too lazy to use it properly.

[Groundhog]

I speak English and Hebrew fluently, as well as knowing snippets of Spanish, French, Danish, Japanese, and German. I can't read any of said snippets, just understand them when they're spoken. I can, however, write in Hebrew, which is a big thing for me, since it's a second language.

[Zaggab]

Swedish fluently, and okay English (at least I think so... shout if I'm sprouting nonsense), and some Spanish, though I have started to forget most of that.

One of these days I will refresh my Spanish skills, and maybe learn something new (like Chinese, Russian, German among others). At least that's what I tell myself.

Since I'm studying medicine, I have amassed quite a large Latin and Science-ese vocabulary, but I can't speak it.

Fun fact: According to a study, a student of molecular biology encounters more new words each week than a language student. Now if I could only remember them all...

[Anonomuss]

I can speak fluent Irish and English, as well as passable German, and a few words of both French and Latin.

It's mostly legal latin too, so its not very applicable, unless I really want to argue that expressio unius et exclusio alterius

[Dallas-Dakota]

Hmmm.

My mother language is dutch.
I speak (fluently?) english.
I can speak the basics of German and French.
I know some phrases in Latin, Spanish, Italian.
The occasional word of Quenya and Sindarin.
And I used to be able to speak Khuzzdul as far as it was made.

Which languages I'd like to learn?(For me, languages either go or don't go. for example, French and German don't go. Dutch and English go.)
Arabic, spanish, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin(the biggest 'chinese' language).
And they all(except spanish) have their own alphabet, how curious.


Also, on holidays I discovered that I can somehow read dutch by deducing the meaning of words from german
:smallmad:
Shame on you. Thats not proper dutch, it'l only be a vague wrong understanding of it. They may come from the same family, and look a like at first sight. But they're not that much alike.

[SurlySeraph]

I speak English perfectly, and French pretty well. I can understand a lot of Spanish, but don't actually speak it (I want to learn it, eventually, when I have more time). I know a lot of Latin, though I'm not quite as good at translating as when I was actually studying it. I know a few words of Arabic, but I'm rapidly forgetting them as a) I've decided not to pursue it, and b) it's a really, really hard language. I'd love to speak Arabic, but the time-to-usefulness ratio doesn't work. I'd also like to know Aramaic, but I doubt I'll ever get around to it.

[Fredthefighter]

Well, my native language is English and I'm learning to speak French. I can speak French quite well, my teacher has told me that my accent is very good and that I pronunciate my words very well.
Other than that, I only know the really obvious stuff. Like Ola, Gutentag, Wakarimasu ka, So ka, etc, etc.

[Ilena]

I speak english .... yay! but i want to learn latin and greek badly, as well as german, and i just met someone who actually turned into a really good friend within a few days (its odd how quickly and well we get along but ya) and hopefully she might teach me it if i ask!

[Helanna]

The only foreign language I know is a bit of Spanish, which I should really focus on improving.

However, I do love languages, and I've started learning Lojban, (http://www.lojban.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Lojban&bl=y) which seems like it'll be quite easy to learn.

After that I plan on learning Japanese. After that, I'll probably choose another language to try and learn, but I'm not sure that I ever will . . . maybe German, for no particular reason, or Finnish, just for a challenge.

Also, a site of interest: Before You Know It (http://www.byki.com/) is a useful site for learning language basics, and has free unlimited trial downloads, which don't teach very much but at least gives you a general idea of the language.

[Dallas-Dakota]

One of my english teachers has said that my english is absolutely perfect, except for the pronounciation of the ''th'' and was asking me why the heck I wasn't doing a higher level of high school.

[Morty]

One of my english teachers has said that my english is absolutely perfect, except for the pronounciation of the ''th'' and was asking me why the heck I wasn't doing a higher level of high school.

Heh. Funny, because while I'm also very good at English I have the exact same problem - I can't pronounce "th" properly. Also my "r" used to be too hard and I sounded like Tim the Enchanter.

[Spiryt]

I cans talk english wery good.

[GolemsVoice]

I speak German, since it is my native language, and pride myself on my English, though I consider myself far from perfect, a goal I actually want to achieve. (Never perfect... never perfect... never perfect...). I also know a few words in French, and had Latin for 4 years, though I don't remember much of it. Of course, I also know a few words Russian, since a friend of mine speaks it as his mother tongue, but I can't do more than accept, decline, and insult someone, which is something, don't you say?

[Lord Herman]

Dutch is my native tongue, and I can speak English quite well. I can read and more or less understand German and French, and I know enough Latin to read simple texts and obnoxiously correct other people's grammar.

I can understand some Spanish and Italian mostly through my knowledge of Latin and French, and I also know some Russian and ancient Greek.

I'm learning medieval Irish and Welsh as part of my Celtic Languages major, and I've also followed courses on modern Irish and old Norse.

[InaVegt]

I'm fluent in:

English
Dutch
German

I can manage in:

French
Danish
Spanish
Nethersaxon

I know bits and pieces of:

Finnish
Hebrew
Japanese
Quenya
Nahuatl

[Mauve Shirt]

German is my main subject in school, so I'm pretty good at it. I want to learn Italian and Arabic.

[Sneak]

Well, my native language is English. I'm taking Spanish in school and am decent at it.

I want to learn Arabic. And perhaps a bit of Latin.

I'm mad...my school is offering Arabic next year, but only to freshmen. Grr. :smallannoyed:

[Assassin89]

I took Latin in high school, but it is more of a matter of translation than speaking. Learning Japanese might be interesting.

[Fostire]

I'm fluent in English and Spanish.

I know lot's of loose words and phrases in Portuguese, Italian, French, and German. Not enough to actually speak any of this languages, but enough to understand part of what they're saying (I can understand most of it, if it's written).

I want to learn French since I'm moving to Canada next year and it might be useful to know it.

Other languages I'm interested are Latin, German, and Japanese. I don't think I'm learning any of these in the near future though.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I speak English, and enough French to get by easily in France or Quebec. I want to learn German (one of my friends speaks, I'll get him to teach me), and a bunch of other languages.

[B-Man]

One of my english teachers has said that my english is absolutely perfect, except for the pronounciation of the ''th'' and was asking me why the heck I wasn't doing a higher level of high school.

Curious on my bit, but do you pronounce the "th" sound like "t"?

I would like to say that I am fluently bilingual in English and French, but that is a delusion my school system instilled on me. English is my mother tongue and I would say that I have an advanced understanding of France French and a passing understanding of Québec French. I studied Italian and Spanish in high school and I'm sad that I didn't pursue Spanish more than just 2 credits for my diploma.

I would like to learn Japanese and German in the future.

[adanedhel9]

English is my native language. At one point I considered myself fluent in Spanish, but I haven't used it in any significant manner in several years, so I've lost a lot.

Between years of Spanish classes and an interest in linguistics, I can get along in Italian and usually decipher writings in any Romance language. I also know a tiny smattering of Greek.

I would like to learn Nahuatl, Arabic, Hindustani, and Mandarin (though I have no interest in learning to read and write the latter) as well as expand my ability with Greek. But at the moment I'm not keen on spending the effort on any of them.

[Thajocoth]

Common, Elven & Giant.

Oh, wait, you meant in real life?

Fluently: English (Slight New York City + Netizen accent) & C++ (Nitro dialect mostly. Also good with the DirectX dialect.)

Secondary: I'm mildly slower at reading Standard Galactic than I am with ordinary English.

So-so: I can find my way around with QBasic, Java or Perl, but I don't use them often enough to be that great with them.

Forgot all knowledge of: French, Spanish & Turbo Pascal. I took them from 3rd through 6th and 7th through 10th and 11th respectively. That's 4 years learning the first two, but I've completely forgotten all three.

Learning: Lua

[Groundhog]

If we're branching out to "fake" languages, I also speak C, QBasic, TI-89 Basic, and AppleSoft Basic fluently. As well as knowing a few phrases in Sindarin, due to my ownership of an Elvish phrasebook.

[Eldan]

Shame on you. Thats not proper dutch, it'l only be a vague wrong understanding of it. They may come from the same family, and look a like at first sight. But they're not that much alike.

What? I said it's enough to "deduce the meaning", since a lot of it seems, to me, to be written like phonetic german... we had a dutch neighbour for a few years and he said, at least, that he had no troubles learning swiss german because he thought it was similar...

I mean, I wouldn't know, if only been there for a week on holidays when I was little, but I could understand a few words. And I can read signs and so on, not more.

[LCR]

:smallmad:
Shame on you. Thats not proper dutch, it'l only be a vague wrong understanding of it. They may come from the same family, and look a like at first sight. But they're not that much alike.

Yes, they are. Really, Dutch is pretty much colloquial German with funny spelling. Or the other way round.
While I can't understand a word when spoken, written Dutch is pretty easy to decipher if your native language is German.

[Collin152]

Well, I'm more than fluent in English. I've been studying Japanese for about three years, and can speak it well enough to survive in Japan for a while (nevermind that just about everyone speaks English there anyways to some extent). With access to the internet, I can write it very well, just not comfortably, and read it with perfect accuracy, if very slowly. Understanding it spoken is harder for me, but easier for me than it is for my fellowstudents.

I find it interesting that so many people want to learn it.
First, may I say? If you learn them the right way, Hiragana and Katakana are practically only one 99 letter alphabet, and you get fluent with it very easily. Kanji is totally not an alphabet, and is more like a system of abbreviations that you never stop learning. Well, written abbreviations, in that it takes up less space but often takes longer to write, and also provides another context to differentiate between homophones; while many words share sounds, the Kanji for the word will tell you exactly which word it is. It's convenient like that. A very nice language, I encourage people to study it. Forever.

[A Rainy Knight]

I'm a native English speaker, so I'm definitely fluent in that. I've almost completed my third year of studying Spanish, and I hope to become bilingual in English and Spanish for fun and for practical reasons given that I live in the United States.

[afroakuma]

I studied Italian and Spanish in high school and I'm sad that I didn't pursue Spanish more than just 2 credits for my diploma.

Hold the phone; where in NS is there a high school teaching Italian and Spanish?

[Crimmy]

Well, I dunno where can you learn that, but I am fluent with english, as it can be seen here.

Español is my native language.

I can do it fine in ittaliano.

There's nothing wrong with Français

I've always liked German, but never really spoken it.

Also, Rainy, if you believe you are ready to go bilingüal, you should try a little trip to
Cuernavaca, Morelos. You'll always be welcome here, not to mention we have a really big pop of foreigners, mainly from America and Canada.

[Hell Puppi]

English (well...American, aka 'weird English') is my first language.

Trying to learn Spanish and know a few phrases in German, and how to cuss at someone in Japanese.

Yeah that's about it. :smallsigh:

[HoodedCrow]

My first language is english

The language of my country is Irish (which i'm pretty good at it, only when talking not writing)

I once learned French but stopped after a few years

I also studdied German for one year

Spanish for half a year

I also make my own.... though the alphabet is different

[HeavySleeper]

My first language is English. I used to be fairly fluent in Spanish, but I haven't really spoken it for several years. But in that time I've learned a fair amount of Russian, and I'm learning more.

[SDF]

I never encountered many English speakers in Japan when I was there. I took Japanese for three years and got pretty good at it before I decided it was largely useless for anything I wanted to do with a foreign language.

I can speak Spanish passably, and almost moved to Chile when I was young. Wouldn't mind taking some more formal classes to be able to speak it properly, though.

I'm currently taking Arabic in uni, and it is easily the hardest language I've taken on so far. Everything is starting to click finally, and I hope to be fluent by this time next year.

I want to learn French after I'm fluent in Arabic.

[Zocelot]

I am fluent in English, and can speak Quebec French well. I plan on learning either Cantonese or Mandarin.

[B-Man]

Hold the phone; where in NS is there a high school teaching Italian and Spanish?

I went to high school and a bit of college in Ontario. :smallamused:

Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. :smalltongue:

[Trizap]

I know awesomese

[Dallas-Dakota]

Yes, they are. Really, Dutch is pretty much colloquial German with funny spelling. Or the other way round.
While I can't understand a word when spoken, written Dutch is pretty easy to decipher if your native language is German.
Ah, but If you're natively german, it gets easier.

Also, no.
Flemish(what the northern belgian peoples speak) is pretty much collogquial German with the occasional funny spelling.

Even Fries(translation to english? Damnit, I don't know the english word for Fries) or Twents(same as with Fries, don't know the english name translation) is closer to Dutch then German.

[Lord Herman]

Even Fries(translation to english? Damnit, I don't know the english word for Fries) or Twents(same as with Fries, don't know the english name translation) is closer to Dutch then German.

The word you're looking for is Frisian. And according to all-knowing wikipedia, the English word for Twents is Tweants.

Linguistically, Dutch isn't a dialect of German or the other way around. They're both on different branches of the West Germanic language family; Dutch is part of the Low Franconian branch, while German is part of the High German branch.

Flemish is a dialect of Dutch, while Twents is a seperate language in the Low Franconian branch of West Germanic, and Frisian is part of the Anglo-Frisian branch, and is as different from Dutch as Dutch is from German.

[/linguobabble]

[InaVegt]

Yes, they are. Really, Dutch is pretty much colloquial German with funny spelling. Or the other way round.
While I can't understand a word when spoken, written Dutch is pretty easy to decipher if your native language is German.

(Emphasis added)

The whole point of defining which languages are different languages is mutual unintelligibility, this is about the spoken form, not the written form.

If your native language is Dutch, written Swedish, Danish, and German are all pretty easy to decipher, doesn't mean they're the same language.

The written medium has a huge advantage, you can take your time to think and pick things apart, that means you can much more easily infer meaning if you speak a language with similar words.

Dutch is closer to English really, it's just that English decided to borrow a shipload of french words which makes it look different.

Saying Dutch is colloqial German is patently untrue. The Dutch spelling system is, in fact, designed to be easy to read for as many people as possible. (Due to the fact it was designed for the first Dutch Bible translation)

[Dallas-Dakota]

Aaaand I just got one-upped much by my fellow dutchies.:smallbiggrin::smallcool:

[Salt_Crow]

I can speak fluent English and Korean. If I ever have a chance, I wouldn't mind learning Arabic. I think their alphabets look pretty XD

[Felixaar]

I speak English. Top tha- ...oh, right.

I speak Australian, too >D and if conlanging counts, Common-Endar.

[Boo]

English is the only language I can speak fluently, although if you give me a paper with Greek oriented letters to pronounce the words, I think I can fake fluency pretty well.

I know enough French to barely pass 9th grade because I didn't pay any attention in class, was away too much, and I'm just not interested in the language. What? It's that wrong? No, it's not!

I know enough Latin to read it... okay-ish. This is mostly due to personal scientific research.

I know enough Gaelic to understand spoken word, but not actually use it myself.

I know very little Japanese, Chinese and Korean. So little, in fact, that it's barely worth mentioning.

[Mc. Lovin']

Hmmm.

My mother language is dutch.
I speak (fluently?) english.
I can speak the basics of German and French.
I know some phrases in Latin, Spanish, Italian.
The occasional word of Quenya and Sindarin.
And I used to be able to speak Khuzzdul as far as it was made.

Which languages I'd like to learn?(For me, languages either go or don't go. for example, French and German don't go. Dutch and English go.)
Arabic, spanish, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin(the biggest 'chinese' language).
And they all(except spanish) have their own alphabet, how curious.


:smallmad:
Shame on you. Thats not proper dutch, it'l only be a vague wrong understanding of it. They may come from the same family, and look a like at first sight. But they're not that much alike.

Wow DD, english aint your first language? That's impressive.

I can also speak German, sort of. I'm doing an A-Level in it, which is more than most people in england.

[charl]

Swedish (which also means I understand Danish and Norwegian, even if I don't speak it) and English. Some German and French phrases as well.

[InaVegt]

Wow DD, english aint your first language? That's impressive.

I can also speak German, sort of. I'm doing an A-Level in it, which is more than most people in england.

Note, there are plenty of people here for whom English ain't the first language. (Near) fluent written English as a foreign language isn't that uncommon on the internet.

Especially not when their native language is one with a very limited online presence. (There's enough Chinese websites around that there are relatively few Chinese who bother with the English internet)

It also helps that, generally, we don't dub things in the Netherlands, and most video games aren't translated to Dutch, as such, all 4 major international media (TV/film; Video games, music, and the internet) have a huge English presence.

It also helps that English is quite similar to Dutch, the biggest difficulty is in learning words, because English has borrowed quite a few from latin(-descended) languages.

[Vizen]

I studied Spanish for a little bit, and can still pick apart the odd sentence when I hear it, and a fair bit of the written form, but pretty much can't write or speak it. But yeah.
I know fluent English, and the odd Maori phrase when it comes up.

[Spiryt]

It also helps that, generally, we don't dub things in the Netherlands, and most video games aren't translated to Dutch, as such, all 4 major international media (TV/film; Video games, music, and the internet) have a huge English presence.


So all films have subtitles?



I know enough Gaelic to understand spoken word, but not actually use it myself.


I've seen opinions like that here few times, and I find them interesting.

I can understand written word and can say something in English, maybe even German, but understanding people speaking in it is still hard to me.

Guess that I just didn't have enough training.

[Boo]

I've seen opinions like that here few times, and I find them interesting.

Yeah... don't expect me to get it all if you go too fast. For me it's basically when you hear a type of word play called a garden-path sentence where you have to listen up to the end, then piece together what they actually meant.

Strangely, I can't understand a lick of written Gaelic. Well, maybe a drop.

[Ashen Lilies]

My ability to speak Thai (or my lack of ability, as I am constantly reminded of by my (Thai) mother), has become sort of a joke among my (Thai) friends. Of course, I can understand them near-perfectly as long as they stick to colloquial language, which leads to odd situations where they rattle off in Thai, and I reply in English.

Other than that, English all the way here.

I know some Mandarin, but my terribleness at it was legendary among the Foreign Language teachers. I've since dropped it.

[Maroon]

So all films have subtitles?
Generally, yes, except for children's movies, which are almost always dubbed (cinemas usually show both the original English with subtitles and the dubbed-into-Dutch version, but more mature films are almost never dubbed -- they're still dubbing the Harry Potter movies, though). As a kid I learned a lot more from subtitled TV and film than I ever did from school.

It's really odd how our wacky neighbours the Germans dub everything (I still love you, though). The worst offender are those commercials that were clearly dubbed into German and then dubbed again into Dutch. Or those Discovery Channel documentaries, where there's Dutch subtitles but you can hear the people speak Dutch under the English voiceover.

Personally, I can speak Dutch (my native language) and English, and can read French, German and Latin. I can divine the meaning of most other western European texts as well. I'm terrible at pronunciation, though.

[Spiryt]

Generally, yes, except for children's movies, which are almost always dubbed (cinemas usually show both the original English with subtitles and the dubbed-into-Dutch version, but more mature films are almost never dubbed -- they're still dubbing the Harry Potter movies, though). As a kid I learned a lot more from subtitled TV and film than I ever did from school.

It's really odd how our wacky neighbours the Germans dub everything (I still love you, though).

Similary in Poland, although there is still way too much of readers who speaks the translation with monotonous voice, deadening the original sound.

Maybe it's better option for our eyes though.

And yes, I heard that Germans are dubbing everything.

[Ashen Lilies]

In Thailand they dub everything. Using the exact same voice actors. Every time. And they're the worst voice actors ever. They make everything sound like a sitcom. Yes, even that.

[charl]

I usually watch stuff without subtitles, but I think they sub everything on TV still. Children's shows are dubbed.

[Ceska]

Similarly in Poland, although there is still way too much of readers who speaks the translation with monotonous voice, deadening the original sound.
On a similar note, I love Slovenian dubs. They're hilariously boring.

I don't speak a lot of languages. I do understand most of it when written in romance or germanic languages since I have learned similar languages enough to analyse the sentence and somehow understand the meaning, but that's not the case in spoken language.
It's also largely annoying if you want to understand the grammar or vocabulary instead of building root forms and translating the sentence - and hindering in more difficult sentences.

[Amiria]

I learned German since I was a baby. And I think I'm quite good at English too, mainly reading and writing ... not enough speaking practice.

I also learned Spanish in school, but forgot a lot. Still, when reading it I can understand enough ... because they say that Spanish is the one modern language that is closest to Latin ... which I also learned a bit ... but forgot even more of that. :smallredface:

[Fostire]

I also learned Spanish in school, but forgot a lot. Still, when reading it I can understand enough ... because they say that Spanish is the one modern language that is closest to Latin ... which I also learned a bit ... but forgot even more of that. :smallredface:

really? I always had the impression that italian was the closest to latin

[afroakuma]

really? I always had the impression that italian was the closest to latin

More likely. Spanish has a lot of Arabic influences.

[Ceska]

More likely. Spanish has a lot of Arabic influences.
Those eight percent of vocabulary are rather minuscule for a non-native speaker. And for that comparison, since grammar and phonology should be taken into account as well.
However, Italian is still closer to Latin, though both are rather easy to understand if you have an understanding of Latin, if only in their written forms.

[T-O-E]

Only English. And my grammar's pretty terrible so...

[Eldariel]

I speak fluent Finnish & English, and have a conversational command of Swedish, German & French. In addition, I know some Japanese, Latin & Spanish (and as a Finnish speaker, I can reasonably understand Estonian; also, the combination of Germanic languages I've studied provides me with some understanding with regards to other Germanic languages, especially those spoken in Western Europe). Going to study Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Korean & Sanskrit once I've reached a level I'm satisfied in in the languages I'm presently working on.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I know some Quenya (although I generally need a dictionary to actually produce sentences - learning the vocabulary of a language that isn't really used anywhere is very hard for an auditory learner such as yours truly).


As far as that dub/sub discussion goes, we've had mostly subtitled programs in Finland (although shows meant for children too young to read are of course dubbed), which is one of the major sources of English, especially the pronunciation, for me. Nowadays I watch almost everything with subtitles, unless it's already in Finnish or English.


If I were to explain why I've studied/am going to study/am interested in studying certain languages, it'd go something like:
-Finnish: I'm a native. Didn't really have a choice here.

-English: To be able to discuss with foreigners and to follow all kinds of media. I couldn't imagine doing well in the modern world without decent English skills.

-Swedish: Second official language in Finland - no two ways about it, most jobs require some Swedish competence here.

-German + French: Simply to get by where I cannot use English, especially in Europe (many people in the former Soviet countries have learned German, it seems, and French is kinda necessary in France - also acts as a gateway to the Romance languages).


-Japanese: Just to watch anime and read manga in their original language, and to fare in Japan (obviously).

-Latin: Out of simple curiosity. Also useful when dealing with e.g. biology.

-Spanish: Just to add to the list of English, German & French of languages to get by with.


-Russian: Meh, no two ways about it, it's a pretty big country and our neighbour. Useful here and useful in Russia.

-Italian: Just out of interest towards the language and the country (knowing a language really helps understand how natives think). Less practical use than the other major European languages simply because it's not spoken much outside Italian.

-Portuguese: To the list of English, German, French & Spanish.

-Greek: Antiquity has always interested me. Also, learning different alphabets is an interesting pursuit.

-Hebrew: Pretty much "see above".

-Arabic: Ditto. Also the key if I ever travel to Middle East.

-Chinese: Well, it's a damn huge country. Also, since I've already studied Japanese and intend on studying Korean, it's just logical. Also, if I ever get into international business, this would be an extremely important language.

-Korean: As stupid as it sounds, Starcraft.

-Sanskrit: See Greek.


Oh, and Quenya, definitely pure curiosity.

[Eldan]

So all films have subtitles?

You should come to switzerland once...

We have all the movies in german, since those people dub everything, and then in the native version with 2 or 3 subtitles simultaneously: german, french, italian.
This country has way too many languages.

[Comet]

It's something-or-other a.m here and I desperately need some language help. So I come to you.

How do you pronounce the word "chainsaw" in the italian language?
I think the word is something along the lines of "motosega" with an accent or two thrown in for good measure.

When I try to pronounce it, it sounds more japanese than italian. I'm too tired to think straight so could somebody advise me on this?
And if you're wondering why I need to know, dont worry. I assure you it is something very, very sinister.

[Lupy]

I speak fluent English of the American flavor, but I tend to spell words the British way because my Mother is British. I'm breaking the habit though.

I know enough Spanish to get by in a state that is 1/10th illegal immigrant, most of it learned from a Dominican friend. The trouble with Spanish and most other languages (like Yankee :smalltongue: ) is that I'm used to the slow speaking Southerners I live with.

According to Mr. Shoulderpoop, I also speak passable budgerigar. :smalltongue:

[Collin152]

Oh, and technically I know a little Chinese by virtue of knowing some Kanji. The pronounciation is differant for Chinese usage, but Japanese often uses those pronounciations anyways, so I still have to know them, and the meaning is usually unchanged. I could probably hammer together the meaning of a written Chinese sentence, if I had any knowledge of Chinese grammar, which I don't.

[KilltheToy]

I speak English, I'm learning German, and I can read Spanish and to a much lesser extent French.
However, "read" doesn't nessecarily mean "understand".

EDIT: I think I'm better off just saying I can't do anything with French at all, which is actually kinda strange considering both my parents speak it, my dad lived in France for a while and was a French teacher, and has a French friend who comes over every few months.

[Don Julio Anejo]

I'm fluent in English, Russian, Ukrainian and French. The latter I make a lot of mistakes with but people understand me and that's the important point.

I can also understand (written and spoken) Polish although can't speak it.

[Mephibosheth]

I've mentioned this before, but English is my native language, I'm conversant in German, Hindi, and Urdu and know a minuscule amount of Telugu (the native language of Andhra Pradesh in south India). I know at least one person mentioned wanting to learn Hindustani which is, as far as I'm aware, one of the many dialects that fit within the broader Hindi/Urdu language family. I'd be happy to answer any questions about South Asian languages I can.

In other, more exciting news, I just signed up for summer classes at my university and I'm going to get to learn TAMIL! Two whole semesters worth in one summer! Woohoo! And, if that weren't exciting enough, I'm most likely going to be starting Persian in the fall! Again, woohoo!

[Kneenibble]

That was meee, about wanting to learn Hind(ustan)i, although only because I fell in love with a guy from Rajastan when I was living in Chennai...
Now, almost two years after the fact, I think I'd study Sanskrit before any serious endeavour into Hindi. - mainly for the value of reading untranslated Vedic scripture, which really resonates with me even in English.

I tried to learn a little Tamil when I was there, but it utterly defied the physical capability of my mouth. I believe the Tamil people have two sets of larynces and a couple of extra tongues. GOOD LUCK, PAL.

[Lerky]

not sure if anyone said this yet, but the one language that beats all is: Klingon!

[RTGoodman]

My native language is American English, but I've studied languages quite a bit. I did Spanish for six years in elementary school and two in high school, but we never learned all that much. I could probably carry on a basic conversation in Spanish if I had to, though.

In college I took 5 semesters of Latin (out of my 6 total semesters before I graduated), so I'm pretty fluent in that. The problem is that our Latin professor's mentality was "Learn the grammar instead of vocabulary, since you can always have a dictionary," which led inevitably to me not knowing much vocab but being about to conjugate or analyze almost anything.

I also did two semesters of German, which combined with all the German music I listen to means I know a bit of it. I could probably get around Germany with what I know, but wouldn't be able to speak on anything specific for too long.

My next goals, for use in my graduate and professional career, are some Celtic languages and probably Icelandic. Specifically, I'd like to look at Modern Irish and maybe Welsh, and then either Middle Irish or Middle Welsh. Icelandic's just in there because, IIRC, it's as close to Old Norse as modern English is to Chaucer's Middle English, which is good enough for me.

EDIT: Also, learning Cornish or Manx would be really cool just so you could say you were one of the couple hundred to couple that thousand in the world that speak each.

[Kneenibble]

In college I took 5 semesters of Latin (out of my 6 total semesters before I graduated), so I'm pretty fluent in that. The problem is that our Latin professor's mentality was "Learn the grammar instead of vocabulary, since you can always have a dictionary," which led inevitably to me not knowing much vocab but being about to conjugate or analyze almost anything.

I come from a similar school of instruction, my friend, and I tell you the truth: the best cure for that is to read, read, read.

[Thanatos 51-50]

I'm a fluent English-Speaker, with some sort of mix between a Bostonian, Califonian, and 'bland' accent, which comes from being around a large number of Americans from all over the place on a regular accent. My Fake Australian accent is rather horrible and the stuff cliches are made of.
It's also my P-1 language.

My S-1 language is Spanish, and I speak a little bit of it. I took a bunch of semsters in High School, and made a point of taking each semester twice, jsut to make sure I knew it.
According to the PSP's "My Spanish Tutor", I skipped the first dozen or so lessons,m and ended up reviewing some stuff I already had a decent grasp of. :smallsigh:

My S-2 language, and signifcantly less developed than my S-1, is Japanese. Can't read more than a few kanji contained in the name of a few cities I visit on a regular basis. And don't even have a node of the spoken stuff.

Occasionally, when speaking in my S-1, some of the S-2 creeps in, though, even though I know the word in my S-1.

Which leads to me having a short conversation in Spanish, and then casually slipping in "hai" and "domo" in lieu of "si" (I don't know the keystrokes to make the I with approrpriate accent mark) and "Gracias"

I keep no confidence in my romanji spelling of nihon-go.

[Krytha]

I would only consider myself fluent in English and French. I can converse in Mandarin, but I am practically illiterate outside of the 300 or so characters I have (nowhere near enough). I took Spanish in highschool and can make conversation, read and whatnot but I've lost a lot since then. I'm currently studying Korean since I live there, but its just situational phrases and listening/understanding the natives can be really difficult if they dont slow down.

Foremost on the study list (in the future) is Mandarin. Being half-chinese but unable to communicate at a good level is, frankly, embarrassing.

[RTGoodman]

I come from a similar school of instruction, my friend, and I tell you the truth: the best cure for that is to read, read, read.

That's probably true, but I haven't done much with my Latin in a while. My last semester (Fall '07, "The Age of Cicero") involved just reading and translating Caesar, Cicero, Lucretius, Catullus, and stuff, and by the end of it I was doing pretty well. Of course, I've barely looked at foreign languages since then (my schedule the next semester was too full with classes needed to graduate). I'm hoping to be heading back to the same school for grad school (since I've been rejected everywhere else :smallannoyed:), so I can probably just pick it back up from there if I want to/have time.

[Lord Herman]

My next goals, for use in my graduate and professional career, are some Celtic languages and probably Icelandic. Specifically, I'd like to look at Modern Irish and maybe Welsh, and then either Middle Irish or Middle Welsh. Icelandic's just in there because, IIRC, it's as close to Old Norse as modern English is to Chaucer's Middle English, which is good enough for me.

EDIT: Also, learning Cornish or Manx would be really cool just so you could say you were one of the couple hundred to couple that thousand in the world that speak each.

You should come and study here with us at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. :smallbiggrin:

[Mephibosheth]

That was meee, about wanting to learn Hind(ustan)i, although only because I fell in love with a guy from Rajastan when I was living in Chennai...
How long did you live in Chennai? I've only visited Chennai briefly while on a whirlwind, long weekend tour of coastal Tamil Nadu, but it seemed like an interesting city.


Now, almost two years after the fact, I think I'd study Sanskrit before any serious endeavour into Hindi. - mainly for the value of reading untranslated Vedic scripture, which really resonates with me even in English.
I find myself drawn to Puranic literature and Bhakti poetry more than to Vedic scripture, but I have enjoyed the bits of the Vedas I've read in translation. Good luck with the Sanskrit, though. I haven't had the opportunity or the need to learn it, but everything I've heard makes it sound quite tricky.


I tried to learn a little Tamil when I was there, but it utterly defied the physical capability of my mouth. I believe the Tamil people have two sets of larynces and a couple of extra tongues. GOOD LUCK, PAL.
Thanks. I'll probably need it. The semester I studied Telugu in Hyderabad really helped me improved my proficiency with retroflex consonants, which seem to be one of the more difficult aspects of Tamil pronunciation. We'll see how it goes!

[cycoris]

Fluent in English and Mandarin, mostly fluent in Spanish.

Can read Portuguese, some Japanese and quite a bit of traditional Chinese. Also can read ancient Chinese, which is about as different to modern Chinese as Middle English is to modern English.

Have studied the smallest bit of Farsi and French.

Want to study Latin.

[Krytha]

Fluent in English and Mandarin, mostly fluent in Spanish.

Can read Portuguese, some Japanese and quite a bit of traditional Chinese. Also can read ancient Chinese, which is about as different to modern Chinese as Middle English is to modern English.

Have studied the smallest bit of Farsi and French.

Want to study Latin.

How long / where did you study Mandarin?

[cycoris]

How long / where did you study Mandarin?

I lived in China for ten years and went to public school there.

[Dihan]

I can read some Cornish by relating it to Welsh as Cornish is similar. Breton is a bit further removed though and it has too many Z's for my liking. Then again some Cornish words and phrases are completely different to the Welsh translation.

For example:

English: Excuse me
Welsh: Esgusodwch fi
Cornish: Gav dhymm

The Welsh lessons in my school were really inadequate.

[Icewalker]

English as a first language. Took several years of Spanish, which is useful, but I have now been wishing that I took Latin instead (and I intend to take first year Latin next year). Spanish may be more useful, but I really like Latin, feels more...academic.

[DraPrime]

I speak both English and Polish fluently. My spelling in Polish is crap, because I rarely actually have to write it out here in America, so I don't really ever get practice. Besides English and Polish, I also know some Spanish and a minute amount of German.

[Llama231]

I speak English.

...Yeah.

[Manave_E_Sulanul]

My native language is English, I have retained my high school Latin fairly well over the years and right now I am trying my best to learn some Arabic at school but I have found that my pronunciation is rather poor, unfortunately. They do not offer anymore courses in the language after 103 (my current level) here either so I do not know how much good it is going to do me in the long run. :smallannoyed:

[Zeb The Troll]

...right now I am trying my best to learn some Arabic at school but I have found that my pronunciation is rather poor, unfortunately. Heh, that's to be expected from a non-native speaker of a language that has three "h" sounds.

I speak Russian a fair bit, but not nearly as well as I once did. I have no one to practice with anymore.

Other than that I've only dabbled in a wide variety of things, none of which panned out to much.

[Ceska]

They do not offer anymore courses in the language after 103 (my current level) here either so I do not know how much good it is going to do me in the long run. :smallannoyed:
There's two considerations I have for this sentence. The first, I have found that learning any language aids you in your own. Latin helped me be more considerate for grammar, Spanish taught me not to expect too much from anyone, even myself, and so on. If you learn a language for much longer, you can adjust to even think in said language. And that sheds a whole different light on your own thought patterns.
The other is, do you know if you will not ever learn more Arabic later? Even if you stop now, you'll keep some intuition in the language, which aids you in later studies, should you ever get to them.

[Stormthorn]

I can speak english!

And...umm...l337...and chtspk...and iglatinpa...and soem regional variatons of English from different parts of the US.

And i am going to learn American Sign Language and i wish to learn Latin.

[Crimmy]

Arabic = Whawhawhaaat!?
I'm sorry, but really, last time I heard a guy speak that, I had a really hard time to differentiate between vocals.

[Rutskarn]

My primary language is Zee Eenglish, the honor of which I would fight a duel over (not its purity, obviously, because that's akin to fistfighting over the cleanliness of a patch of dirt--it's both stupid and missing the point).

I have a functional grasp of Spanish, which I have little opportunity to hone.

[Crimmy]

Intenta leer algo de literatura en español. Al menos, eso funciona conmigo para mejorar mi inglés.

Translation: Try reading some spanish literature. At least, that helps me improve my english.

[Agamid]

I speak and write fluent English.

Can understand German somewhat (best when it's written) and speak a little of it.

Understand PNG Pidgin (speak and write a little - used to speak fluent)

Know and little Japanese, Latin and French (can write and understand written French alright but couldn't speak it to save my life).

I really suck at learning languages.

[Eldariel]

I'm really surprised nobody mentioned their fluent Python or Java yet.

[Exeson]

Afrikaans - My family language, I actually learnt to speak Afrikaans before I knew a word of English. I can speak it fluently, Never learnt to write it though. I can read it but fairly slowly.
Latin - Up to GCSE level, got an A* too, Biatches.
Ancient Greek - Up to GCSE level, Got an A (4 marks off an A* grrr)
French - Hate the language but I was forced to learn it. (another A*)
Oh, and I'm not bad at American either, all you got to do is take English and drag it through a sewer for a few hours.

[charl]

Oh, and I'm not bad at American either, all you got to do is take English and drag it through a sewer for a few hours.

While I'm no fan of American English, the opposite is actually closer to the truth. American English is compared to British English in many ways archaic, though you'd think it was the other way around. So if anything American English is closer to "true" English in that it is older. If that is a good or bad thing is up for debate.

Of course American slang is still a modern thing though.

[Exeson]

While I'm no fan of American English, the opposite is actually closer to the truth. American English is compared to British English in many ways archaic, though you'd think it was the other way around.

I'm interested in how it is more archaic. Could you provide some examples?

I think my main problem with American English is the cutting out of letters. They are there for a reason, you can't just get rid of them. I understand evolution of language but for example look the the thread on the spelling of rogue. That thread actually makes me despair.

My other pet peeve is how Americans say the word route. All the one's I have heard say it 'rout' which would not be a problem as I understand diffrent accents but rout is already a word, with a different spelling.

[rubakhin]

I speak English, Chechen, and Russian. Although Russian not that well, actually - however, I am fluent in mat'.

Also just enough joual to really piss off a border guard.

I guess I have to learn Arabic sometime since I converted to Islam last time I lived in Chechnya, but I'm not looking forward to it. :smallfrown: It's made up entirely of vowels.

[InaVegt]

While I'm no fan of American English, the opposite is actually closer to the truth. American English is compared to British English in many ways archaic, though you'd think it was the other way around. So if anything American English is closer to "true" English in that it is older. If that is a good or bad thing is up for debate.

This is actually true for many colonial versions of European languages.

Quebecian French is closer to the original French than modern European French.
Afrikaans is closer to the original Dutch than modern European Dutch (despite having a more modern spelling.)

Of course, all of them diverged in their own ways, so it's not like American English is just the English of, say, hundred years ago; but they tend to be closer to where it was at the point where they split than the language of the region where it came from is.

I have a theory for why this might be the case, though I have no evidence, the theory being that in colonial areas there tends to be a heavy influx of people who do not have the region's newfound language as their native language, and therefor there is a lot more focus on getting the language right, slowing down the natural evolution of the language, but as I said, this is all unproven conjecture, so please take this with a grain of salt, unless someone can provide us with evidence for my theory.

[toasty]

I speak english fluently and probably get the best English grades out of my family (though I'm not the best in my class for sure).

I'm learning Latin, doing okay in it. Love the language, but darn its hard.

Seeing as I live in Bangladesh I do speak some Bengali, but not a lot really. I understand more than I speak, but even that's not a lot. Sometimes I wish I'd actually bothered to learn more when I was younger but all my friends speak perfect english so its never been to big of a deal.

When I was very young I had a Marathi babysitter, and as a result, while I was young I spoke fluent marathi. Of course, ever since my family left India I lost all knowledge of this language. Quite a shame really, as it would have been nice to have.

[Sereg]

Afrikaans - My family language, I actually learnt to speak Afrikaans before I knew a word of English. I can speak it fluently, Never learnt to write it though. I can read it but fairly slowly.
Latin - Up to GCSE level, got an A* too, Biatches.
Ancient Greek - Up to GCSE level, Got an A (4 marks off an A* grrr)
French - Hate the language but I was forced to learn it. (another A*)
Oh, and I'm not bad at American either, all you got to do is take English and drag it through a sewer for a few hours.

Are you originally from South Africa? Afrikaans is my second language, so I can speak it but when I do people usually say, "It's OK, you can speak English."

I did Zulu as a third langauge in Primary school and for a term in High school and I was pretty good at it but I've forgotten nearly all of it.

I also did French for a term but that was the first subject I failed and have forgotten it as well.

I am generrally pretty bad with languages unfortunately. I find them fascinating however, especially conlangs (hence my username being Sindarin). I would love the Epic Polyglot feat.

So I'd like to learn all of them, but will battle to learn any more.

[Exeson]

Are you originally from South Africa? Afrikaans is my second language, so I can speak it but when I do people usually say, "It's OK, you can speak English."

Yes. I was born Afrikaans. When I was 5 my family moved to England and I learnt to speak English. My Afrikaans is still pretty good considering I have not used it regularly for 11 years. This, I think, is mainly because my parents and relatives still talk to each other in Afrikaans so I still hear it quite often.

[Cynan Machae]

I'm fluent in french and english.

Any my Spanish is okay.

[Xsesiv]

I speak and write English (native language) fluently, am near-fluent, though still not perfect, in French and decent at Spanish, and I know enough German to get by if I am presented with a written document. Can't write or speak German to save my life. Interested in learning the Classical and Gaelic languages and/or Japanese but I can't find any schools or courses that offer them...:smallfrown: maybe later in life.

[The Dark Fiddler]

I speak and am fluent in my native language, English.

I can also speak Pig Latin.

I am learning and can write Spanish. I can also speak it, but that's harder than writing.

[Overlord Nicy]

I know no languages in which to read or speak.
And by that I mean I know English and am about to start learning Japanese.

[MethosH]

Well...
Am I the only playgrounder fluent in Portuguese?

Normal languages:
-Portuguese (Fluent, I live in Brazil)
-English (I'm trying to become fluent at it)

Computer languages:
-Java (fluent)
-C (fluent)
-C++ (fluent)
-VB and VB.NET (fluent)
-Phyton (fluent)
-Turbo Pascal (fluent)
-Delphi (fluent)
-Lua (learning)
-Objective-C (learning)

Between normal and computer:
-1337 (almost fluent)

[Ceska]

SMEE is Brazillian, as are a few others, but not all of them post in here. Or you missed their posts.


Interested in learning the Classical and Gaelic languages and/or Japanese but I can't find any schools or courses that offer them...:smallfrown: maybe later in life.
It's not like you need a course for that, material and the will to do it are enough for any language. Of course, at some point you might want to take a higher course, but then you would be able to find it in any bigger city.

[Anuan]

Only speak English. Used to speak Japanese fluently the age I was at, but that withered..
Know teensy, useless snippets in various languages. Can say 'I love you' In German, Italian, Spanish (if you can say it in one you can say it in the other, the phrase is barely different), Mandarin and New Zealandese. Okay, the last one's a sheep joke, I won't do it.
Am good at recognising languages whether I'm reading or hearing them.

Also, Spanish and Italian are sexy languages AND accents, French is a sexy accent, Louisiana Creole/Cajun is a sexy accent, and German is a sexy accent. Scottish accents are sexy, and so is the ability to speak Gaelic when possessed by a female.

Edit: Somehow managed to forget Portuguese despite it being talked about just before. Epic level awesome language.

[JoseB]

Hmmm... let's see.

Spanish (Native language)

Catalan, English, French (Fluent)

Dutch, Russian, Japanese (Reasonably OK)

German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian (Basic)

Arabic, Mandarin (Studying)

That is so far. There are more that I would like to study later on at some point; namely, Korean and Euskara (the latter you might know under the name "Basque").

[RMS Oceanic]

Ich sprechen ein bisschien Deutsch, und/et je parle une petit Francais.

Cad e an tam en Bearla, le dhe dhail?[/Irish]

public class language
{
private boolean knowsJava;

public language()
{
knowsJava = true;
}
}

I want to expand my French and German, and maybe do some Polish and Latin. I also want to learn C# and C++.

[Itamarcu]

My main language is Hebrew (am I the only one?), but I speak and write fine in English, and only speak in Arabic. Now learning French & ActionScript, I know about 20-30 words in Japanese, and I want to learn Latin and C++.

[Agamid]

my first language is English.

I learnt japanese for 2 and a half years but can remember only one word "Tofu". I learnt German for one year and know a bit... a friend of mine living in germany write to me in german, so i', getting better from that.
I can understand - but not speak very well - tok pisin.
And i know a little bit of french as my mum grew up in paris.

[Tiger Duck]

in school I studied dutch for 12 years, French for 8, English for 6 and German for 2. and I chose none of those.

right now I feel like I speak perfect English, good Dutch, passable French, and barely any German.:smallsmile:

[Winterwind]

Grew up bilingually with Polish and German as my native tongues.
I believe my English is pretty fluent, too. :smallwink:
I also learnt French for six years in school; I've forgotten most of it, but I think I'd remember it quickly were I to be exposed to it again.
Also, Spanish for one year.

[Eldan]

Mostly a typical swiss experience: talking swiss german, writing and reading standard german. A total of 9 painful years of french, which I mostly forgot (Even basic vocabulary is beyond me when trying to help my brother with homework) and then english. Since we had a philipino in class (and in my roleplaying group :smalltongue:) and my best friend spoke good english and was only watching english movies, english kinda popped up on it's own. Those four years of english in school were more of a side-effect.

[Nameless]

I speak English and Modern Hebrew fluently.

...

That is all. :smalltongue:

[Corlindale]

I'm fluent in English and Danish. I study English at the academic level at the moment, and half a lifetime spent on the Internet have certainly helped too.
I'm also a bit of a language-purist and won't even consider reading a translated book if its original language is English. I also firmly believe that dubbing is the work of the devil - fortunately it is very uncommon in Denmark except for children's stuff.

I know quite a bit of German and some French, mostly the stuff that has lingered from primary school and high-school classes. Not enough to read literature comfortably, though, but that is certainly a future goal.

I've also learned a little bit of spoken Japanese, mostly for fun. My current summer project is to teach myself Spanish, though I've kind of lost focus the last couple of weeks.
Incidentally, a useful tip for tricking yourself into language-learning: If you switch the language of Steam it will download versions of most of your games in that language. That's a nice way to get yourself regularly exposed to it - provided you are a game-geek to some extent, of course, and also depending on which games you play.

[UnChosenOne]

I speak Finnish (as I'm a Finn) and moderate English and I've also basic skill's in German and Swedish.

[Nameless]

I speak Finnish (as I'm a Finn) and moderate English and I've also basic skill's in German and Swedish.

Tunti. :smallsmile:

[KuReshtin]

I am fluent in English, Swedish and bull**it.

Born and raised in Sweden with my family living there. I've also lived in Scotland for the past 10 years.

My mom claims that I have two very distinct accents when I speak English, depending on who I speak with. If I speak to one of my friends who are Scottish, she claims she can't understand my English, whereas if I speak English to non-Scottish friends, I have a much more understandable accent.

Of course, I think she's talkinga load of rubbish as I can't hear a difference when I speak.

[Yiuel]

Native French (but weird dialect of).
Half-Native English (learned as a native until 6 years old, never bothered it after.)
Good Japanese (Ordinary Kanto-ben, however, but I don't speak like a robot to Japanese ears) and Esperanto (Tiu bizaregege).
Somewhat usable Spanish, but not good enough.
Basic understanding of Chinese and Quenya.