Category: Language and Culture
Hey guys! I figured that since MadDog already kicked off the Language and Culture board, with his little introduction, that someone should start a disscusion. So, besides English, what languages do people speak? How long have you spoken them? Did you find that they were easy or difficult to learn?
Je parle Francais. Je l'ai parlé depuis trois ans. Je l'aime beaucoup!
As of now, I can speak Hmong, which is my first language, english, and Spanish. I am currently trying to learn Vietnamese and am doing very well. However, I still don't feel comfortable enough to converse in it.
im taking spanish, but its really easy cause ive been around it for quite some time. people whore fluent tell me that my accents perfect, smile.
yeah same here. Everyone always says how I sound like I'm from Spain or something.
Italian and I'll probably be learning Russian when we'er up to it
I'm taking Spanish and it's kind of hard to remember all the phrases, but I'm going to keep at it. By the way if you know some Spanish and don't mind telling ei quicknote me when I'm on or fill free to PM me.
Ciao Goblin. Io sto imparando la lingua italiana. Credo che è un poco dificile di imparare ma Io voglio parlare in questa lingua. I'd like to practice my Italian a bit more though, but now I don't know anybody who speaks italian. So Goblin, any corrections to my italian are welcomed and really appreciated. Joaquín
I speak English fluently, French pretty good. And Spanish - well, I just started learning it - I can speak a bit Italian a little bit and of course German.
And of course you always here some expressions like "i love you" or certain words which you shouldn't always hear in other lannguages.
i speak Filipino lnguage which is Tagalog and Engish
Hey i'm a Filipino thats why i know Tagalog
if you wana know some Tagalog words just ask me
i also know a little of Japanese,Chinese, French and some Spanish
That sounds interesting, too.
besides English, I speak a little bit of spanish, but that's it for me.
I wonder, can one consider jamaican as a language? as it is an offshoot of english, but sometimes the grammer and expressions can be incomprehensible to english speakers. for example, if I said, "wah gwan with ahl a daht bahnggerahng inna dat deh yahd? The real translation is, what's up with all the noise in that yard. But as there is no real written form of it, is it a language? other than that, I can speak and converse in french spanish of course english and a slight amount of German, but my deutsch is a bit crap.
Milao Ellinika (fluent Greek), Ani medaberet Ivrit (fluent Hebreew), Ik spreek Nederlands (fluent Dutch), I speak English (fluent English), Io parlo un poco Italiano (some Italian), je parle un peu Francais (some French), Ž„‚Í“ú–{Œê‚ð˜b‚· (some Japanese). I also know Dutch Sign Langauge and am learning ASL. Star
I guess the Japanese characters didn't 'translate' properly here .... oops! Star
No your German is not crap at all.
hallo. ik spreek ook Nederlands, want ik kom uit Nederland.
that's dutch as well. i can, of course, speak really good dutch because i'm from the Netherlands myself.
besides english and dutch, i dont speak any other languages.
I'm doing a translation degree, my languages are French and Spanish. Alors, si vous voulez, vous pouvez me parler en français ou espagnol quand je suis au zone. Sin embargo, mi español no es tan bueno como mi francés, por lo tanto, quiero praticarlo, sería contenta de hablar con vosotros. As I was saying, my Spanish isn't as good as my French, but when i'm on the zone i'd be pleased to talk to any of you. Also I was doing German for a while, but unfortunately I haven't got time to learn it anymore, so my German is a bit broken. I'm also trying to learn modern Greek, but it's really difficult and my writing is better than my speaking, and it's very frustrating and my Greek is quite broken. So, feel free to talk to me on the zone, see you.
I, of course, speak English as my first language. I used to have a friend who was teaching me a bit of Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese, but she and I don't speak much anymore. I also know little bits of French and German, never enough to converse. One of my best friends is currently teaching me Spanish, and when I am in 10th grade, and Spanish class is open, I hope to take that. I also know a little sign language like the blind/deaf alphabet, the ILY sign, "music," IDK, some signs my friend Amanda made up so she wouldn't get her friends confused, the F--- you sign, and some other stuff, lol. That's about it!
hmm, well, I am hispanic, so the only languages I speak are english and spanish. Of course I had to learn english and now the dificult thing seems to recognize slangs.... opr saying people say, that doesn't make much sence. Of course, any help will drop a load off of my shoulders, *smile*. Well as for spanish I have been talking it for my entire life, also I know a bit of ASL, but that is not a speaking language so. well, yah. Esta discusión me parece muy interesante. (this discusion is pretty interesting to me)
Also, I have created my own language, which involves some very... twisted twisting of the alphabet. It has two or three variations, I only speak the current one if I want to be silly, LOL! If ya wanna learn, I can give you the code. It's remembering the code that's a pain in the butt!
PSS: I am learning HTML! LOL!
Apart from english, turkish is my other language.
I speak fluent English (native language), fluent Spanish, proficient French, improving Russian, and a little of various other languages.
I speak Greek and English. I also like the sound of Italian and also Turkish sounds interesting.
i speak spanish french and italian
I speak a little Hebrew.
I speak English, I'm taking Spanish in school and I'm pretty good (I'm in Spanish 3 honors) and that's basicaly it. I sometimes sing in Italian so I know some of that.
I speak English my first language! I speak Spanish fluently! I learned Spanish when I was 9 from my neighbor Miss Martha she is from Texas!
I speak English and Chinese fluently, my French is semi-passable, I know some ASL, and am studying (on and off) Russian and Hebrew...
i speak english, chinese and cantonese fluently. a little of japanese and some other chinese dialects. am on way to learn thai. smiles.
Spanish is my native language since I was born In mexico. I came to the United States when I was five and now I speak, read, and write in fluent English.
To the person from Mexico, I have a cousin Arlina she was borned in Mexico too! She came here to the U.S. 7 years ago!
For those who speak more than one language fluently: I've always wondered if you thought in your primary language, or if you mixed the languages up in your thoughts?
If this is like some of the "blind questions" being discussed on another post, then I apologize. But, how do you find out if you don't ask.
I always think in my first language which is Greek. I never remember thinking in English English. Dreaming is a bit different. Sometimes i dream of English people who i know speaking in Greek or Greek people speaking English. It's strange. But most of the time they are in Greek.
Nikos
That's interesting. Especially the dreaming thing.
well...I am French so obviously, I can speak French fluently! ahahaha!! but other than that, I can speak English, some German and some Spanish but don't ask me to hold a conversation in those 2 languages! would sound so crappy lol!!
As a québécoise girly, I do speak french. It's the first language I learned and I'M really proud of it. I am a french lover. I speak english as well... lol Me and my brother are the only persons who speak it in this house... My parents only speak french... I also have a pretty good spanish and I did learn a bit of mandarin chinese. I'd like to continue it soon. I love this language. I also love to listen to music in a lot of different languages. The most recent thing I burned is the cd of Maud, a dutsch singer..
i speak italian (i'm from italy) and english.... i also know some words in spanish and german, but unfortunately i can't speak. i would like to learn russian, but it's really difficult i think... so yeah, at the moment i only wanna improve my spoken english
I speak English as I am from Scotland. I speak a little bit of Spanish. Hablo un poco espanol. I tried doing Italian I found it simular to Spanish. All though the accent is different. I did french at school but have forgotten most of it. I learned a bit of Spanish because my father is out in South America.
I speak both Spanish and English
I speak English and Filipino (Tagalog)
I would like to improve my Spanish. Any help would be appreasated.
German and English. I used to be pretty good at Russian, but I'm losing it due to a lack of practice opportunities.
spanish english and a lil of catalan
Obviously, since I wasn't born in another language-speaking country, I speak English. However, I'm learning Spanish, and as hard as the grammar is sometimes, I think I'm sort of getting it. I still suck, though. Lol that's how I am, I guess, confused about all sorts of things with other languages. If anyone has some information where I can actually learn more Spanish, such as websites, etc, let me know by private quicknote or private message. Muchos gracias en el information!
Well me I speek spanish, and english. Wich is my second langwij.
Some times I go to websites to try and learn more Languages such as german. I do speak a bit of Spanish but I am loosing it due to lack of practise.
It's hard to keep something in your head without practicing it a lot, that's for sure!
I learned French at school up to GCSE level. I also did German for 2 years, but then didn't carry on with it to GCSEs because I was told that I could only do one language and to do the one I started off with when I got to the school, which in my case was French. Earlier on this year, I learned a bit of Spanish, but not much. I id ask if we could do a bit of German, but they said no, because I already knew a few words so would be ahead of everyone else. When I got to college, we started off doing French, but because me and another student had already done that language to death for the last 5 years, they said we had to do something that none of the class knew, which was why they wouldn't teach us German. So, w ended up doing spanish.
english and german here
that's cool
hey all. wanted to bring this one back. as for me, i speak no other language besides english :).
...american English here..
A bit Country-fied
Bit City-fied
Sometimes maybe too eXtremely City-fied.. oops!
Back to reality.. smiles
Bro. can you name any more.. more
Language Speak.
Hmm, bit of spanish kicks in once-in-a-great-while
O'le..
Ye and a haw
Yeah doth that be a sayin' 'bout right for now
Fer sure fer sure.
~*Thunderous MidNight*~
3:06 PM
I speak fluent English.
Tambien ablo Espanol. ( I also speak Spanish)
J'aussi parle francias.(I also speak French)
I can speek english, filipino(tagalog), some Japanese, a little Korean, and now trying to learn Chinese(cantanese)
Oh wow! You can speak Philipino? Wow--you will have to teach me. That's really cool. We had this foreign exchange student come to our school who was from the Philipeenes.
nice. sure, I'll teach ya
Thanks
i regret not learning Korean as a child. I guess I wasn't that interested at age three. lol My brother and I had tiny attention spans back then.
Well, i speak Cantonese (Chinese), Mandarin (Chinese), English, a fair bit of Spanish, and tiny bits of French, Japanese, and can understand some phrases in Italian.
My mother tongue is english. I took French and high school, but haven't used it in six years. I can understand some Italian but can't speak it. I'm teaching myself modern Greek (speaking, reading and writing) and am now in the intermediate level. My goal is to become fluent in it. If anyone wants to help me practise, I'd really appreciate it. Anyway, I guess it must run in the family because my grandmother speaks seven languages.
Wow. That's awesome that your grandmother can speak 7 languages. Cool! I wish that I could do that!
What languages does your grandmother speak?
Most know, but I'll post it here. I'm now learning Egyptian spoken Arabic. I'm using the Michel Thomas method, which is audio only, and takes a different approach based on his psychological research. There are two levels, foundation, and advanced. I've just completed the advanced course. Still learning though, as although it teaches you how to formulate sentences, and by the end of the course some pretty complex structures, it's not great on vocabulary. That's my next acquisision, a vocabulary or dictionary of Egyptian Arabic.
Hmm, I speek: Danish, English, Swetish, Norway, A bit Jurmen, and A bit Japan.
I can obviously speak English (it's my native language), but I can also speak French, Spanish, and a little Italian.
My uncle grew up speaking Italian around the house, so he decided to teach me how to speak it.
He has a really good Italian accent, too. My entire mother's side of the family is from Italy, so some of them can speak fluent Italian, while others can speak little to none.
To Blbobby, who was wondering about thinking in different languages: Wow, I thought I was the only one who had questions like that. I asked this same question of my spanish teacher in highschool, many years ago. She came here from Cuba, and got out of it the day before the revolution. She told me that when she was thinking of her folks back in her homeland, she thought in spanish, but when she thought about things which had happened to her recently, it was in English. She said it was because she thought in terms of conversation. She talked to us in English, so when she thought of us, she thought in english. Hope that makes sense.
Hi all,
Good and varied number of foreign languages spoken by zone members. Who would have thunk?
Portuguese is my first language, and English the second. I picked English up at the age of 15, when I moved to Florida. Then, I did get pretty confortable with Spanish, and learned French in high school.
I would love to get back into French, and deeper into Spanish, and I guess there are ways. I lack the time and ingenuity to pull it off at this time. Things right now are leaning towards learning HTML, and XML first.
Now that we know about each other’s language, I would love to hear how you picked it up. What books did you use, or what method. What web sites exist that can be of any help to learn to speak and write a new language.
Let’s hear it:
Amguima
I did French at schol. I don't know the name of the boks. I did Spnish at college I tried doing some Italian to. Som times I use the bbc website, www.bbc.co.uk/languages
english is my first language. i dont speak any others fluently but know some spanish.
i know british sign language fluently. My last partner was deaf and we used a combination of sign and deaf/blind manual to communicate as i couldnt see certain signs and in certain lighting condtions.
Do you mean fluent? The only one I'm fluent in is English, but the ones I'm learning are German, Spanish, and Hawaiian. They aren't difficult for me to learn because languages come to me really quickly. Sometimes I mix up my German and Spanish when I converse with people, however, but I don't get my Hawaiian mixed in with them, probably because it's so different.
Ray - you gotta teach me Tagalog too... please e-mail me some stuff and then I can ask about pronunciations.
www.audible.com, or www.audible.co.uk for us in the UK, www.amazon.com and .co.uk as well do a great many language books and audio cd's and so on. I also bought the advanced michel thomas cd for Egyptian spoken Arabic from www.play.co.uk. Pretty much anywhere you can buy cd's or audio books you can buy language learning materials.
Cheers,
Simon
My first language is Chinese, Cantonese, which sadly, I am really losing. It’s pretty bad and I can’t write it. I know a few words in manderin, but not much.
My Chinese name sounds like
Mmmmmmm Gawing
Or
Wu Ja ing
So, my official name’s Kawing Ng
I speak English and if I didn’t tell you I was Chinese and came from Hong Kong one of the canton states, people wouldn’t know.
I am learning Spanish, but people say I sound really white. Like zapatos would sound like za-pa-tos. I know lousy.
i know some spanish but i am not good if i am not in the country but still i am kind of badd hehe
As I said earlier, I speak obviously English, but can speak French and very basic German that I've nearly forgotten most of it and hardly any Spanish. It might sound a bit of an obvious question, but how would a chinese person who is blind be able to read, as I've heard their writing is made up of pictures rather than actual letters? Is it possible to learn /chinese braille if there is a such thing?
My boyfriend, who goes to my school, was born in Vietnam. He can speak Vietnamese and English. His mom passed her test to become a US citizen! His name is Hien Nguyen. His whole family speaks English and Vietnamese, but I think his parents and Hien are best at it.
I speak English (obviously), Spanish, French, dabble in Italian, and I know a few words here and there in Russian.
Spanish was pretty easy to learn, French was a bit hard, I learned Italian from my uncle who grew up speaking it around the house, and a fellow Zoner (who's my best friend) is Russian, so she taught me a few words (and one of them is a swear).
I had to learn a song in German for my singing class. I don't even speak German.
Hey, I am annie, and I am from germany, so obviously I am speaking german. I learn English at school, speak italian as my grandpa is from there, daggle in gaelic(Irish and scots) and I am learning french. A few words spanish and I loooooooooooove russsian!!!!! it is lovely! I am learning it!
Oooohhhhhh, russian is such a nice language. any1 who can teach me in russian, please feel free to do!!
I speak Cornish, which is a celtic language. I've been learning this for the longest and recently completed grade one exams.
I got 95% so I must be doing something right.
I learn Welsh, but at the moment I'm not able to dedicate as much time as I'd like to it.
I have just started learning German, and really want to put a lot of effort into it, and would appreciate any help by any german zoners out there. :)
I speak English and some Spanish. Used to want to learn French and Russian.
speak thai only!!!
Hi, I know this topic has been created ages ago, but I find it really interesting, so thought I'd post to it. I can speak German (it's my first language), I would say that I am quite fluent in English (started learning it at a very young age and have been learning it at school since September 2002), I can speak some Italian, a little Spanish, and some words in various other languages.
As for thinking, I usually think and dream in German.
Judith
i speak hebrew and english..
I'm learning german now too, and this includes the difference between swiss and high german.
Yeah Loui, you are right. Swiss German is different from High German. Even for me Swiss German is sometimes very hard to understand.
Hi everyone!
I do speak Thai, Because It was my first language.
And I also speak english and Japanese as well.
Between japanese english and Thai I think japanese it was quite difficult one.
Because the Grammar it's totally different from english and Thai.
Anyway it was fun though.
In term of the culture our culture and japanese culture it's quite simelar.
It's don't have to adjust much I can say.
I think languages it was very interesting to learn.
Next time I've also plan to learn some bahasa malay and bahasa indonisian as well.
If I have time.
Best!
Bee.
I speak French fluently, some rusty Spanish. I may at some point, once my daughter is in grammar school full time, enroll in the medical interpreter certification program at Cambridge College, perhaps learn some Portuguese as well.
I speak fluent russian, fluent english and Io imparo italiano in mia scuola. AKA I I am learning italian in my school. I also speak some french (i'm not very good) but I've just started learning it, and it kinda confuses me.
i speak english, a little Equous and, bull shit, according to some, *smile*
well I can now add catalan to my spanish, french and German...man, too many euro languages..I want to learn arabic lol.
I speak fluent russian since my parents are from russia, also fluent english and Imparo italiano nella mia scuola, ho in secconda media e volio imparo italiano per cante l'opera. That was italian, and I also am learning french, but if I was teleported to france, I'm not sure if I could survive. What confuses me most in french is the verbs and their conjugations. If i desperately needed something in french, I'd mic in some italian, and maybe they'd be able to understand me. Russian might be slightly difficult to learn, but it gets easier if practiced thoroughly. For some reason, everyone really likes my french accent. All I do is copy my french teacher, that's all. I'd also like to learn latin and greek and to be proficient and fluent in french and italian.
Matthew
If anyone could correct me on my italian, t would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to learn german to sing Schuman, but it seems really harsh to the ears. Is it hard to learn, or speak?
I'm attempting to learn Spanish (mainly because it's the first and only language of many of those in my wife's family), but so far I just can't seem to wrap my brain around much of it.
fowl languages motherfucker.
Which ones? and why do you think they're so foul?
I speak Turkish
O I forgot, I speak english too. I kno numbers in German only.
I graduated from college with a degree in French in 2007, but my French is a little rusty because I have had very few opportunities to speak it since then. I also know some German and a little Spanish.
I speak some Japanese, although I've lost a lot of it since I'm not around it anymore. However, it is an interesting language.
English of course and some spanish. I used to talk pretty good spanish wen i was a little girl, but once i got into middle school it was jus english all the time. Now im tryin to speak more spanish so my son can learn it too as he get older (: