What languages do you speak?

[CDarwin]

I'm putting off writing a scholarship essay, and this one was something that I've long (as in for the last 30 seconds) wondered about. So, poll ho!

[ydoaPs]

I speak American.

[CDarwin]

Ha, that's true. Perhaps I should have added Southern to the list. That would give me two.

 

If you wish to specify your "other" selection, by the way, feel most free to do so. Also, you may use this as a forum to discuss the superiority of one language over another, for example.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I added Spanish, since that would likely be the most popular...

[Pamy]

English Spanish French Arabic

[thedarkshade]

Wow Pamy that's awesome.

 

I speak just my native language and English:-(

[CDarwin]

I added Spanish, since that would likely be the most popular...

 

Oh wow... I forgot to put Spanish?

[antimatter]

Nice one...

[Pre4edgc]

Well, currently, I only speak one, but I'm also learning a second.. On my own, due to a lack of classes at my school. Trying to learn Japanese. Pretty difficult, but I WILL get it. I also need to learn Spanish...

[Rote Learner]

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and can speak some of the dialect from working with Spanish speaking people.

 

 

I speak English, but not very good at writing it.

[NeonBlack]

French, Mandarin, 1 year of German, But I don't think that should count.

[CDarwin]

I'm surprised somewhat by the number of French speakers. Is this from a Canadanian thing or do you just happen to know French?

[iNow]

I'm surprised somewhat by the number of French speakers. Is this from a Canadanian thing or do you just happen to know French?

 

With me, I studied it when living in New York, and the students in our 8th grade class who studied french were to take a trip to Quebec (which is why I chose it... for the trip with the cute girls). Sadly, my class was the first group in over 20 years that didn't go to Quebec. We went to Boston instead, which was fun, but completely defeated the purpose of my selecting French back in 7th grade.

 

I then just kept studying it in high school, and took it in college last time around to satisfy the language requirement, so got 16 hours there.

 

Now, I'm studying Mandarin, or: 我现在在德州大学学习中文。

[John Cuthber]

English and French (badly). A foriegn language qualification was a requirement for the university I wanted to attend- my school happened to do French.

Oh BTW, puting English and American might be amusing from the point of the English but it might upset the Aussies and Kiwis. Even more complicated if anyone happens to speak any of the native American languages.

[CDarwin]

Now, I'm studying Mandarin, or: 我现在在德州大学学习中文。

 

How is that? I've always really liked Russian but I think Chinese would probably be more useful to me.

[PhDP]

I'm surprised somewhat by the number of French speakers. Is this from a Canadanian thing or do you just happen to know French?

 

I think all british students learn French.

 

As for me, I'm a francophone Quebecer, but I've never been to Canada

[iNow]

How is that? I've always really liked Russian but I think Chinese would probably be more useful to me.

 

In all honesty, I've never had to work so hard in a class. When I was in school last time around, I focussed on science classes, and barely had to try. It all just made sense to me.

 

Chinese, on the other hand, is taking a lot of effort. It's not "hard" per se, it's just a lot to keep up with. We have class every day. Every week, we have a test, 2 homeworks, and 4 quizzes. So, every night, and even on the weekends, I'm studying, and all of this while working 60-70 weeks on my project at work.

 

I do like it though. Maybe I'm a masochist or something, but it's a cool language.

 

The challenge is you are not just learning one to one translations. You first have to learn tones, then you learn the pinyin (which is the word written in an english like format so you can pronounce it, then the characters).

 

I, too, see it as useful, and as long as I keep my grades up my company pays all tuition and books (reimburses me once grades are posted). I see studying Chinese now a bit like someone in Europe studying English in the early 1900s. IMO, It's just one of those things that is going to be much more common in the relatively near future.

 

While it's a lot of work, if we didn't have tests and quizzes everyday, I probably wouldn't keep up like I am (I'd wait to the night before to study, for example).

 

谢谢。 朱好。

[John Cuthber]

"I think all british students learn French."

I don't.

[Psycho]

"I think all british students learn French."

I don't.

I think he was implying at school, I did "learn" French for 4 year, I can't speak a word of it, or read anything of it, don't even know how to pronounce the words, All I can do is ask for beer and mulled wine.

[John Cuthber]

There are two ways of looking at it.

A lot of British students sit in French lessons totally failing to learn anything.

 

However, in my school alternate years did French and German (which eased the timetabling problems for the languages department) so the kids in the year above me or the year below didn't learn French at all. Some of them managed to learn German.

[Mr Rayon]

It is probably best if one were to actually learn a foreign language by living in that specific country where the language is most frequently spoken. That way, it requires less effort to actually learn the language. I lived in Indonesia for two years and kind of accidently learnt one its many local languages as a result, though it took me a few years to become fluent of its official language. But, that was when I was little and I hear that children learn languages pretty fast in comparison to most adults. By contrast, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is pretty similar to English. Japanese on the other hand seems very different; there are too many kanji symbols, thousands. This was the language I studied in Primary School, didn't really get into it at the time. Though now I'd love to learn fluent Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, and German. Though, it is probably too late now; not much time for it.

[The_simpsons]

I speak swedish and portuguese natively and speak english fluently. I studied spanish for 3 years and speak it quite well, speaking portuguese really made spanish a lot easier to understand.

Although i understand spanish very well i's very hard to speak it, and i wouldn't say i speak spanish fluently.

I also studied german, but i was terrible at it(mostly bc i found it boring, foul and difficult) and so most of it didn't stick and today i can't speak it, and understand only the most basic stuff. But the pronounciations i still remember almost perfectly though.

[Blade]

Dutch Engelish German

[cidotorg]

Interesting, French slightly more than German at the moment

 

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[Boomerang]

Hello,

 

I speak fluent Portuguese, English and Spanish.

 

I did have 2 years of French at school many years ago so I was able to do basic conversation, not now, but I am on a mission to re-learn basic conversational French.