Forums » Smalltalk » How many Languages do You Speak?

I'm just curious since we have a number of non-English speaking members and I'm sure a number of English speakers who have dared to learn a second tongue. If you do speak more than one language, what are they and why did you learn them?

I personally speak English as my native tongue, and I was taught French for four years (Don't speak a lick of it), took German 3, but I only speak a handful of phrases (but as far as the schooling system goes, I'm fluent on paper) and I know a handful of useful phrases in Gaelic. I'm currently taking a Latin class in university and hope to be able to keep it up enough that I can pass Latin II next year.

So, long story short, I only know English at this moment in time.

Tell me about you

I'm latinamerican, my native language is spanish, but in my country, almost every school teaches english since we can somehow manage the spanish (starting with the colors around 5)So that's how I learned the language. I've grown to like it a lot.

French is an entire different story, we're taught that one too, but when we're 10, and it drives me crazy. I can deal with grammar, just not with the speaking because I sound very funny

Mostly just English. I've picked up some Mexican (not Spanish. There is a difference) over the years while working, enough to get by, and I know bits and pieces of French and Russian. Dobry' den!

I speak English (obviously), some German, some Chinese, and my grandmother was from Ireland, so I learned Gaelic when I was a kid. I'm working on Bettering my Chinese and German. My husband is fluent in German and Italian from being stationed overseas as a kid with his dad and as an adult after basic. So not fair. Lol

I only speak english fluently since it's my native tongue, though I can speak broken french rofl. I can say goodbye in a lot of languages, but that's just because I am weird and never say goodbye in english.

My most used goodbye is Russian though. Dasvidaniya

I speak Finnish, French, Swedish, English, Italian and Spanish French i speak because my dad is French, Finnish because my mom is Finnish. Swedish because my ex-boyfriend was Swedish and Italian/Spanish because I love the languages!

Okay let's see. I grew up with 3 languages simultaneously. The local dialect (Limburgs), Dutch and German. Fluent in all three in , speaking, writing and reading. I can use and distinguish between half dozen accents for each. I learned English on my own when I was 12 and have grown as accustomed to it as the other three languages. I'm fluent and a lot of people don't notice it's not my native language in speaking or writing at first.

I have an easy time understanding the gist of most European languages, and tend to learn fast. I've never liked French though, mainly because my teachers in high school sucked and I have no affinity with the country whatsoever.

Edit: forgot to include the why here! I live very close to the border of Germany. Our dialect is quite old and it's my parents' native language. However, Dutch is our official language which is what schools, stores and most regular people use by default, since the dialect is so specific. Because we're so close to the border and you can travel freely between countries, we have a lot of interaction with the Germans and regularly shop over there. This means most people who live here can at least understand and speak basic German. I watched mainly German dubbed cartoons as a kid and have German family, so beige raised with it alongside the other two languages was totally natural!

English, thats about it really. All the spanish I know is simple counting which I learned back from grade school, back in the time where they tried to force you to learn things that you had no interest in.

Sadly due to the fact most people around this area dont even know english (great US immigration laws in work there...not), It seems I'm a bit left out of the loop in my own town -.- (not even near any boarder line states as well)

I speak English fluently as it is my native language, and I am currently learning both Classical Latin (written & spoken) and Italian (primarily spoken).

English is my native language, but I used to go to Summer school to learn Mandarin Chinese. I can hold a conversation and write the appropriate characters, but I wouldn't consider myself wholly fluent.

I'd love to learn German properly since I was born there. I think that most European languages are quite similar, though, and are easy to identify.

My native language is English, but I can also speak (but I understand more than I can speak) Spanish, and I took 3 years of Japanese,

as for phrases I can do French and german but those are extremely limited lol. Though its not too hard to translate french sometimes.

Being Belgian and having Dutch as my native language, we get taught French at an early age. I wouldn't say I speak it fluently, but I can hold my own in France. I also speak very little German, so in total I'd say I speak Dutch, English and French rather well.

You and I should converse some time over the private message system, when I know how to say more than I am an old man and a miser.

Being fluent in four different European languages I can assure you they're not similar at all. It is true that there are three main groups of languages (latin, anglo-saxon and the Eastern European branch) but still that doesn't really help when trying to learn or teach. Luxembourgish (yes that is a language) is my mother tongue though I am bilingual and am just as fluent in German (written and spoken). Since our small country has three official languages I was forced to learn French just as long as German but I am not really at ease while speaking it. English is my fourth language and I think I manage to do a pretty good job. I do know bits and pieces in both Portuguese and Italian because there are many immigrants living here and somehow you hear more of those than you hear the local language but more than a simple and polite introduction is way out of my ligue.

Feel free to PM me sometime. Most of what I know is basic conversational and relating directly to ancient Rome, as I learnt bits of it spinning off from when I was taught how to translate the groups' altar for the public.

Only two, unfortunately. French and English, written and spoken. I used to speak Spanish, but I've lost it with time.

English is my native tongue, but I took four years of spanish. My vocabulary is starting to elude me but I am still very familiar with the grammar structure and pronunciation.

English is native but I can speak French, Italian and some Spanish and currently learning Russian.

I have been studying (European, none of that nasty Brazilian) Portuguese for some time and I can hold conversations in it given the time to think as I'm out of practice now for a few years. Still, I could probably hold my own if I was back in Lisboa again.

Right now I can also hold very short, simple conversations in ASL but I'm only a beginner there. Actually, if anyone seeing this is ever looking to practice with me or is fluent in ASL and would be interested, I'd skype you any day.

... Actually, that goes for the portuguese too. I'll write away~~

Oh! Oh, I've been learning ASL for a long time, but I'm very poor at it. I'm trying to find the money to take a course in it offered at one of the community centers in my town, but it's $150 plus money for the text.