What Languages Do You Speak?

[GliderPoss]

English, Australian and some German which I did at school and continue to self-teach slowly. Enough to understand the gist of most conversations but probably not to read/write it. I think being able to learn multiple languages is just a born talent that people either have or they don't...

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

You good people are amazing and put people like me, who only speak English to shame

 

[Nikki1415]

French is complicated too....masculine, feminine, verb conjugation, sentence structure is backwards to English etc etc!

Same with Italian, I had to take it when I was younger (middle school), I was barely passing that class hahaha. Spanish was a lot easier but I dropped the class because the only good teacher retired.

 

[JPie]

Fluent in English, can speak Cantonese, and able to swear in Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, French, and Spanish.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

English and English AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) pictographs.

 

[xsouzie]

Fluent in English, Laotian, mostly Thai and some French. In Canada, we were required to learn French in school up until 9th grade. After that, it was optional.

 

[xsouzie]

Fluent in Vietnamese.

I can sing all the words to two Mandarin songs due to repeatedly listening to them over and over again.

I used to do that with Mandarin and Cantonese songs and my husband loved it since he's Chinese. Well...Fukienese, to be exact.

 

[rocks]

This thread reminds me of this amazing Cambodian kid who sells souvenirs to tourists.

That is heartbreaking.....

 

[missy]

I speak English but when I was younger I also spoke fluent Spanish, Hebrew and was able to carry a conversation and do an eye exam in Russian. I worked at a hospital in Brooklyn that was mainly Russian so I learned quickly how to manage a convo in Russian.

I took 2 years of advanced Spanish literature in college and was quite fluent in the language. I haven't used much Spanish since then and while I was able to do eye exams in Spanish pretty much weekly when I was working I am no longer fluent since I don't use it at all anymore and even when I was working I didn't have the opportunity to speak in Spanish often.

Unfortunately I can no longer speak or read Hebrew. I was Valedictorian of my Hebrew school class over 40 years ago but if you don't use it you lose it.

As for the Russian language all I remember are a few phrases and words. So that's no longer a language I am able to speak either.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

I live my life in German and French and I come to PS to keep my English rust free.

My bling vocabulary is mostly English now.. .

I can read, understand a conversation and order food (isn't that the most important??) in Italian and Spanish and had to read legal texts in Dutch for my thesis and work.
But I'm not able to really speak those languages.

 

[chrono]

3 languages fluently (read and write). I am not including dialects.

 

[AGBF]

3 languages fluently (read and write). I am not including dialects.

Do you want to share what they are? I am interested if you would like to.

 

[chrono]

Let's just say, one is obviously English, the second is my national language and the third is my mother tongue.

 

[737liz]

Fluent in English and French. For my gap year I spent 6 months in Costa Rica and 1 year in Nicaragua, where I finally became proficient in Spanish (this after taking Spanish classes all throughout middle and high school, with disappointing results).

I took 1 year of Arabic at university. And what I took away from that year is... I have a great ear for sounds and can replicate them thanks to exposure to many languages at an early age, but have no natural talent for languages.

 

[AV_]

EN, ES, FR, RO

 

[SandyinAnaheim]

French is complicated too....masculine, feminine, verb conjugation, sentence structure is backwards to English etc etc!

LOL, the Romantic languages are all like that! But once you've got one down, the rest are easier.

Spanish and Italian were the languages I was taught at home. My Mom used to say I went off to Pre-K knowing how to use a few English phrases and within two weeks was speaking English like the other kids. In elementary school, our vocabulary lessons started with the Latin roots of words. I LOVED learning that way and I think it really helped tie in English to the languages I already knew. I tried to teach myself Greek for a couple of years when I was a kid (because I loved mythology) but at that time, there were no tapes at the library to help, so I just basically learned the Greek alphabet.... I took French in junior high and still remember a lot of it and can understand about 50% of conversations/movies. I learned Portuguese from friends, which to me is a lot like Spanish and Italian mixed together. And in college I attempted to learn Arabic so I could read the Quran (big theology buff). I enjoyed that very much but retained none of it. I was VERY surprised how many words in Spanish have an Arabic etymology.

 

[voce]

@Weecam @SandyinAnaheim it's actually more than the romance languages that feature word gender and verb conjugation. All Indo-European languages, with the exception being English, are like that. So Farsi and Hindu, from what I was told by linguists, and Slavic and Turkic languages also have gender and conjugation of verbs.

Languages outside the Indo-European language group have "gender" but not verb conjugation. "Gender" doesn't necessarily refer to male and female in languages. For example, in Chinese languages, the "gender" comes into play only when counting. It's the little word that comes in between the word for the number and the word for the object being counted. It's idiosyncratic and illogical, with plenty of exceptions to any rules.

 

[SandyinAnaheim]

@Weecam @SandyinAnaheim it's actually more than the romance languages that feature word gender and been conjugation. All Indo-European languages, with the exception being English, are like that....

I'm sure there are, I was only commenting as to what I know, which is limited. English, as far as I know, is in the Germanic (West Germanic branch) sub-family of Indo-European languages, as are German, Dutch, Afrikaans, and a few others.

Interestingly, I was once married to an Indian man and he spoke Urdu. I had zero point of reference to understand what he and his family were saying when they were together, but somehow with the very few words I did know, I was able to pick up contextually to their conversations. Some things are the same across the human race, regardless of the language.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

I live my life in German and French and I come to PS to keep my English rust free.

My bling vocabulary is mostly English now.. .

I can read, understand a conversation and order food (isn't that the most important??) in Italian and Spanish and had to read legal texts in Dutch for my thesis and work.
But I'm not able to really speak those languages.

Oops, I forgot Latin - not able to speak, evidently... But ok for inscriptions in churches after 9 years of studying in HS and now 20 years of not using it..I used to be pretty good at it... Makes me sad..

And : one year of Irish (Gaelic) resulted in absolutely no proficiency at all, sadly.. But I can read names and signs and the most common words and can say two sentences... That one has gained me access to the most awesome Gaeltacht only music bar/pub in Dublin... I love❤❤ that country so much

 

[Musia]

@missy You used a Yiddish word to name your favorite Bubbalah ring, right?

 

[Musia]

I live my life in German and French and I come to PS to keep my English rust free.

My bling vocabulary is mostly English now.. .

I can read, understand a conversation and order food (isn't that the most important??) in Italian and Spanish and had to read legal texts in Dutch for my thesis and work.
But I'm not able to really speak those languages.

PS is my last hope to improve my English and raise its level to a decent height

 

[missy]

@missy You used a Yiddish word to name your favorite Bubbalah ring, right?

Yes.
It was my grandma’s nickname for me. I don’t speak Yiddish but she did. I picked up a few words and phrases.


ETA and now it’s my nickname for my DH. I call him bubby (pronounced like the double oo sound in wood) for short.

 

[missy]

PS is my last hope to improve my English and raise its level to a decent height

I think your command of the English language is wonderful.

 

[Mekp]

English is my mother tongue. In school we had to take French from grades 3-9. I understand just enough French to get a bit of an idea of what is being said but cannot express myself at all.

My father's first language was Dutch. He came to Canada when he was 6 years old and has since lost almost all of his mother tongue.

 

[Dancing Fire]

PS is my last hope to improve my English and raise its level to a decent height

Wish my english was at your level...I can't write english nor chinese.

 

[chemgirl]

I’m fluent in English and French (I grew up near the Quebec border and my nanny spoke French).

We’re learning Spanish, but that’s definitely not conversational at the moment. I can book a ticket for a train and order food, but anything further than that and I’m totally lost. We were in Spain in February and DH booked a chef’s table experience for valentines day. The chef ended up speaking French to me and I translated it into English for DH. We were both lost when he tried to describe the dishes in Spanish!

 

[Musia]

I think your command of the English language is wonderful.

Thank you! It had improved dramatically after my older granddaughter was born with a health condition that required my presence, so I lived with her and her parents for 4.5 months and then they moved to a next door apartment in early 2019. I am constantly communicating with my DIL in English now and it helps me a lot. She used to live with us and actually had spent 7 years among us, Ukrainian speakers, before she and my son moved out in 2014. She studied Russian in a college for 2 years and was extremely interested in learning Ukrainian so there was a little need for me to speak English to her. Now she is busy with learning Japanese that is her mother tongue as well as her first language and I have got a great opportunity to practice English daily. But being on PS is much more exciting than talking to my DIL. She has zero interest in jewelry and gems.

 

[Musia]

@Dancing Fire hope you are not serious. I am a former math/maths teacher and can't count my money. It is a much worse condition...They just disappear..

 

[Rockdiamond]

Cagdelah?
Horasho?
(Russian)

Quefak?
Mapsut?
(Arabic)

Que Pasa?
Todo bien?
( Spanish)

Ma Shlomcha?
Hacol Besedar?
( Hebrew)

I just asked you how your doing.
I've found that if you can speak even a few words of someone's language, they become far more open to attempting to communicate.
So I've been curious to learn phrases in as many languages as possible...

She She ( thank you in Cantonese???)

ETA- I apologize in advance to all the people who actually speak Arabic, Cantonese, and Russian)

 

[JPie]

She She ( thank you in Cantonese???)

Mandarin.