are you bilingual...what other language do you speak fluently?

[Dancing Fire]

 

[Elmorton]

I *think* I''ve had the equivalent of five or six years of Spanish...and I can''t speak a lick of it. I''m about American as they come, sadly.


Which leads me to my favorite joke -

What do you call a person who speaks 2 languages? (Bilingual)
What do you call a person who speaks 3 languages? (Trilingual)
What do you call a person who speaks 1 language? (American!)

My mom once tried to tell this joke to a guy whose second language was English. When she got to the second line, he thought for a minute, and then said "Polyglot."

It was a word she''d learned just weeks before. Sigh.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Italian is my native language. I then learned English, then French, then Spanish. I eakspay igpay-atinlay too. Does that count?

 

[Kaleigh]

Hehe, I was going to say BS and PL. But guessing they don''t count, LOL.

 

[strmrdr]

stormish

 

[MrsG]

English and Russian for me. Russian is my first language, but I''m more fluent in English now...

 

[kittybean]

Ukrainian (native language) and Spanish. I spoke Italian pretty fluently for a while, but I''m out of practice and have forgotten a lot.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I speak English, Korean and Spanish. The Spanish took a LOT longer than Korean

 

[brooklyngirl]

Russian is my first language, but I am much more comfortable with English after living in the US for 20 years.

 

[Circe]

Russian and English - I can read French, but not so much speak it. Apparently my default setting for accents is Russian (I guess some part of my brain feels that if it''s not English, it must be Russian), so whenever I try, I get some kind person going "Ah, Rus?" and then they do their best to put me at ease. Someday, the immersion will work!

 

[arjunajane]

None, I wish I were.

I did a year or so of Indonesian in Uni, but can''t speak it properly.
I really admire people who can speak multiple languages, and will definately be encouraging my children (when I have them), to learn other languages.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Date: 1/17/2009 1:59:54 AM
Author: arjunajane
None, I wish I were.

I did a year or so of Indonesian in Uni, but can''t speak it properly.

I really admire people who can speak multiple languages, and will definately be encouraging my children (when I have them), to learn other languages.

Hehe me too Arjuna!

BF speaks Chinese (he''s not Chinese however), and we''ve agreed: any children we have must 1) speak English (duh); 2) speak Korean (else they won''t be able to bond and communicate with their grandparents (my parents)); 3) speak Chinese (BF insists, because it''s going to be one of the most useful languages to know in the future); and 4) speak Spanish (same reason as BF''s, except this one is one that I''m pushing, lol).

poor kids!

 

[WishfulThinking]

I speak no languages besides English, my native language. Oh how I wish I could. I took almost 10 years of French at the Middle School, High School, and College levels and cannot speak or read more than a handful of words and phrases in it, even though my comprehension isn''t terrible. For an otherwise intelligent individual I find this both appalling and sad. My grandparents speak Portuguese and live in Portugal, so Portuguese was my mom''s first language, but I can''t communicate very well with my grandparents because even with lessons I just cannot learn the language.

I think I have a brain block when it comes to language-learning. I am a huge advocate for teaching children multiple languages at a young age when it''s easier for them to understand because I think that being multi-lingual is an extremely useful skill in today''s world. Just, please... be kind to your children if they''re as terrible at it as I am even after putting in years of dedication and effort. Please.

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 1/17/2009 2:11:03 AM
Author: Brown.Eyed.Girl

Date: 1/17/2009 1:59:54 AM
Author: arjunajane
None, I wish I were.

I did a year or so of Indonesian in Uni, but can''t speak it properly.

I really admire people who can speak multiple languages, and will definately be encouraging my children (when I have them), to learn other languages.

Hehe me too Arjuna!

BF speaks Chinese (he''s not Chinese however), and we''ve agreed: any children we have must 1) speak English (duh); 2) speak Korean (else they won''t be able to bond and communicate with their grandparents (my parents)); 3) speak Chinese (BF insists, because it''s going to be one of the most useful languages to know in the future); and 4) speak Spanish (same reason as BF''s, except this one is one that I''m pushing, lol).

poor kids!

Sounds like a plan! Those kiddies are going to be busy! I think your BF is likely on the ball with Chinese.

I find it quite disappointing that languages are not encouraged further in western schooling, yanno?
I mean, take children in Asia for example - first they must learn English (apparently one of the harder languages to learn), then they usually speak at least one if not more asian languages, and then often dialects aswell.

Similiar in Europe - it seems most have their native language, then english, then at least one other european language, often more..

I know this is generalizing, but its what I have noticed in my time.

 

[Fleur_de_Lis]

French, which is my, as well as my dad''s, native language. Then Italian and Farsi (my mother''s native languages), a fair amount of Latin (which is beyond useless because I cannot use it any where) and some German. However I used to speak and read German a lot better while I was in school in Switzerland.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Date: 1/17/2009 2:24:30 AM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 1/17/2009 2:11:03 AM

Author: Brown.Eyed.Girl

Date: 1/17/2009 1:59:54 AM

Author: arjunajane

None, I wish I were.

I did a year or so of Indonesian in Uni, but can''t speak it properly.


I really admire people who can speak multiple languages, and will definately be encouraging my children (when I have them), to learn other languages.

Hehe me too Arjuna!


BF speaks Chinese (he''s not Chinese however), and we''ve agreed: any children we have must 1) speak English (duh); 2) speak Korean (else they won''t be able to bond and communicate with their grandparents (my parents)); 3) speak Chinese (BF insists, because it''s going to be one of the most useful languages to know in the future); and 4) speak Spanish (same reason as BF''s, except this one is one that I''m pushing, lol).


poor kids!

Sounds like a plan! Those kiddies are going to be busy! I think your BF is likely on the ball with Chinese.


I find it quite disappointing that languages are not encouraged further in western schooling, yanno?

I mean, take children in Asia for example - first they must learn English (apparently one of the harder languages to learn), then they usually speak at least one if not more asian languages, and then often dialects aswell.


Similiar in Europe - it seems most have their native language, then english, then at least one other european language, often more..


I know this is generalizing, but its what I have noticed in my time.

I definitely agree! It seems in Europe, at least, children are really encouraged to learn several languages from a young age. I really wish my parents had made me learn more

. I think we encourage things like study abroad at the college level, but not nearly enough to countries off the beaten path language-wise (nothing against English-speaking countries, but it would be good to encourage students to go to a country where they don''t know the language very well, or just think would be interesting).

My goal is to someday learn Romanian, just because I think it''d be fun

(although what I SHOULD learn is Chinese, so that if I do have kids, they and daddy won''t be able to talk about mommy in a language she doesn''t know!

)

 

[MrsG]

Arjunajane, I am taking Bahasa Indonesia classes right now. I''m having really hard time with it. I am hoping that being exposed to the language at all times will eventually help. It was so much easier as a child. I guess my memory is not what it used to be

My daughter is currently learning Russian. She fights me on it and refuses to speak it at home. I can speak to her in Russian all I want, but she still responds to me in English. She also just started Mandarin and Indonesian at school.

Kittybean - I speak Ukrainian too. My mom is Ukrainian,so whenever I talk to relatives on her side of the family, I switch.

 

[arjunajane]

Ha ha BEG, that made me laugh. No, we don''t want daddy and the kiddies conspiring in Mandarin against you, lol!

I will probably let my kids choose a language that interests them, but I do think starting at an early age is a good idea.


MrsG, don''t worry I am sure you will get there! I know when I was learning, when I did go over there things started to fall into place that didn''t make sense in the classroom.
I definately think children have a greater propensity for picking up language easier than us adults though. Did you speak it when you were little?

 

[chiquitapet]

Czech was my first, French second and English third language. Had to study German too for about 9 years but have forgotten all of it... Haven''t really used French now for a while either, so my remaining useful languages are just Czech and English.

 

[Steel]

Yup,

English & Legalese.

 

[pennquaker09]

I''m probably extremely rusty, but I was near fluent in German. And even though it''s dead, I took many years of Latin.

 

[Phoenix]

I am bilingual. I speak English and Vietnamese fluently though my English is much better, since I don't get to speak much Vietnamese these days and my biz Vietnamese is pretty lousy. I grew up in the UK, am married to an English speaker (who incidentally learned Chinese and now speaks it fluently) and use English on a day to day basis. I find when I go to Vietnam (these days only for biz and holiday purposes), I struggle a bit initially but soon get into the swing of things pretty quickly.

I used to speak intermediate French, but again because of the lack of practice, it's become rather rusty!

.

Soon, I am going to have the opportunity to learn Chinese (Mandarin) and become really fluent. But that is the subject of another thread, I don't wish to thread-jack DF's thread!

 

[MrsG]

Date: 1/17/2009 2:49:45 AM
Author: arjunajane


MrsG, don''t worry I am sure you will get there! I know when I was learning, when I did go over there things started to fall into place that didn''t make sense in the classroom.

I definately think children have a greater propensity for picking up language easier than us adults though. Did you speak it when you were little?

No, my first language is Russian. I started English when I was 11. By the time I moved to the States for college at 17 I was fluent. My mom (English teacher) made it her goal that I spoke English fluently and went above and beyond your typical school curriculum. Ladies, please go easy on your future children when it comes to foreign language leaning

She was convinced that leaning was based on memorization, so she made me memorize dialogues, long ones. I had to do 5 a week
(checked every Friday) and if I didn''t know them by heart, I got one of my privileges taken away

Not fun...I hated it! But that along with summer long ESL programs abroad worked for me and sister. She still lives in Russia and is also fluent in English.

We recently moved to Indonesia, so I''m attempting to learn Indonesian now. So far I know 2 words

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

English and bad English, lol!

 

[neatfreak]

English is obviously my first, but I also speak Italian.

 

[blackpolkadot]

English, obviously, and American Sign Language

 

[Haven]

This is a great thread.

Sadly, I''m only fluent in English (and even that is up for debate).

I took Hebrew classes from 3rd grade through 10th grade, and spent my 10th grade summer in an all-Hebrew speaking sleepover camp, and then the next in Israel. However, I am nowhere near fluent now, as I haven''t used Hebrew outside of my synagogue for years.

I took Spanish classes from 7th grade through my junior or senior year in college, I can''t remember which. Again, not fluent. I use Spanish much more today because most of my students speak Spanish at home, but I''m not even close to being fluent.

I can understand a news broadcast in both programs, and conversations, but I just can''t speak either very well. I can read both languages extremely well, too.

If I ever want to earn my PhD I''ll have to start brushing up on my Spanish and pick up another language, probably German, so I better start working now.

 

[princesss]

I spoke Spanish fluently. I'm a little rusty, but can carry on a conversation, and it would only take about a month of day to day speaking to be back at 100%.

ETA: I forgot to mention that I took a year of Mandarin, and I can still bargain fairly well in Thai. And I plan on taking French lessons sometime soon. I love languages, and I'm really impatient to understand more of them. I hope to live overseas again, so hopefully if I have kids, they'll be exposed to a lot of languages and study them. My sister understood Spanish when she was little, and started studying Mandarin in third grade. By the time she hit middle school, she could read a lot of the captions at the movies.

 

[Lexie]

Spanish was apparently my first language, but I learned English concurrently. So, that would be two languages that I am fluent in

I also took French from Kindergarten through 11th grade, and was pretty fluent in it. Unfortunately, I'm a bit out of practice now

Hopefully I'll be able to pick it back up at some point

And then I also know some Italian. Would love to learn more!

I'm simply amazed by all of you Russian speakers. That is not an easy language to learn/speak. Back when I was in Middle School, I was in a children's chorus, and we went to Russia for one of our summer tours. We had a hell of a time learning some native songs and key phrases (luckily, our assistant choir director was Russian and was a huge help), but it was definitely worth it. We all had a blast over there!

 

[mrscushion]

German is my native language. I also speak French and Spanish fairly fluently, though I forget some of it when I don''t speak it for a long time.