Second Languages

[llamaman]

Anyone here speak more than one language? I'm sure a lot do. I myself only speak English, and a little bit of French.

[gilad]

English, and a little bit of hebrew and afrikaans

[gorbee natcase]

I think I have bird flu, I have been talking crap and can't park the car

[4tissimo]

Having lived in Japan 34 years, Japanese is my 2d language.  Now living in Southern California, I'm trying to improve my Spanish.

[zheer]

I speak Kurdish, since am Kurdish and i speak Arabic, but english is the language i use the most.

[paris]

croatian, english, german, french more-less (well disastrous), and latin which is dead language but learned it in school

[infectedmushroom]

Dutch is my main language and English is my second language. I didn't learn that much English at school, but since I played a lot of online games, my English has gotten better.

I also speak some German, French and even a bit Swedisch.

[g_s_223]

Almost Usable: German, French
Barely Usable: Italian

Er, plus: Python, Perl, Lisp, Java, C++, XML, Zzzzz....

[mycrabface]

Chinese, malay.. Im trying desperately to learn french from a dictionary. But i don't think i speak english.

[soleil_nuage]

English
French (almost fluent)
Spanish (proficient)
Russian (barely)

[klavierkonzerte]

arabic

english

and some french.

[stephane]

Dutch/Flemish
French
English
German (speaking: basic conversations, reading and listening: quite good)
Hungarian (a very little bit, enough to get around in Hungary)

Best regards,

Stephane

[trunks]

1. Chinese (Cantonese and Hakka dialects): native
2. English (British accent): almost native
3. Japanese: barely more than intermediate

[prometheus]

1. Dutch + Dutch dialect, native language but the dialect is a lot more than just an accent; almost all words sound a little different and many unique words
2. English, I really am able to contruct ideas in English about as natural as I do in Dutch
3. German, I can automatically understand basic german, but that's about it. Can't speak it at all
4. Japanese, I am learning this language right now. I know very little but I am progressing fast.

Ooh, I am a real beta. I hated French and struggled so badly with German.

Ooh, I also know C++, haha...

Almost Usable: German, French
Barely Usable: Italian

You are saying your Italian is just a little bit better than your German and French. Is that really what you meant to say?

[burstroman]

I learned Hungarian growing up, then came Spanish, now I am fluent in English.  Along the way I picked up French and Italian.

[ilikepie]

According to Fluency in Decreasing Order:
English, Filipino(the Cebuano Dialect, second most widely spoken in the Philippines methinks)
Hokkein/Fujian(Chinese dialect), Tagalog(Official Philippine Language)
Japanese
Mandarin

[nanabush]

English, French, Can hold a small convo in german and spanish tho :p also took like 4 free russian lessons, I know basic words nothing more haha

[Waldszenen]

I speak English and jibberish occasionally on Friday nights.

[arbisley]

I speak German and English as my first languages, and French like a first language.

[jspash]

just english. and not very well.

cuz i wuz edumacated in the u.s. and a. 


but i'm apprendre-ing french now

[nortti]

Finnish, Swedish, English
And just to get the list longer I'll add Germany, Latin, and Russian even though I don't know them enough to order a pizza (not that I'd like to do that anyway..)
Then of course the languages my best friend understands: C/C++, x86 asm, Python, Lisp, and a bit of some others
Markup languages count, too, don't they: html, lilypond, TeX
Hmm..

[momopi]

Then of course the languages my best friend understands: C/C++, x86 asm, Python, Lisp, and a bit of some others
Markup languages count, too, don't they: html, lilypond, TeX
Hmm..

hahahaha! 

[healdie]

English is my first language and a little bit of German hoping next year in my year out to do a German course at university to make me fluent

[pianochick93]

I'm fluent in English and know enough Japanese to get around alright there.

I also know enough French to call your mother a table and enough German to say 'I am a...(insert something here)'

I know a very very little bit of Italian as well.

[retrouvailles]

I'm obviously fluent in English, near fluent in Spanish, and getting there in Italian. I am also starting to learn German and plan on doing Japanese after that. I hope to be a fluent polyglot of 6 languages by the time I am 30, but I can only hope. I also hope to be able to understand the various dialects of the languages I already know.

[cmg]

No one can be truly fluent in a foreign language unless two conditions are met:  you learned that language from the earliest age possible, or you were totally immersed in that language as a second language at an early age and were forced to learn it.

Only very few, exceptionally talented people have the ability to master (i.e., become fluent in) foreign languages in situations where they don't hear these languages spoken around them almost exculsively day after day after day.

This is why most Americans, isolated as they are on their huge, English-speaking continent, are so ignorant of languages other than English.  Even with the rise in Spanish-speaking people in the US, you find it difficult in the US to learn Spanish since the Spanish-speaking want to perfect their English and resent your feeble attempts at speaking Spanish!

Europeans, with their relatively small landmass and close proximity to other countries speaking different languages, have always had the best situation in which to be multi-lingual.  Just cross the border.  In the US, that's like going from one county to the other in a huge state. 

[tds]

No one can be truly fluent in a foreign language unless two conditions are met:  you learned that language from the earliest age possible, or you were totally immersed in that language as a second language at an early age and were forced to learn it.

Only very few, exceptionally talented people have the ability to master (i.e., become fluent in) foreign languages in situations where they don't hear these languages spoken around them almost exculsively day after day after day.

This is why most Americans, isolated as they are on their huge, English-speaking continent, are so ignorant of languages other than English.  Even with the rise in Spanish-speaking people in the US, you find it difficult in the US to learn Spanish since the Spanish-speaking want to perfect their English and resent your feeble attempts at speaking Spanish!

Europeans, with their relatively small landmass and close proximity to other countries speaking different languages, have always had the best situation in which to be multi-lingual.  Just cross the border.  In the US, that's like going from one county to the other in a huge state. 

i was born and raised in indonesia but i am not fluent in bahasa indonesia. am i retarded?

[tanman]

i was born and raised in indonesia but i am not fluent in bahasa indonesia. am i retarded?

lol. I grew up in a Filipino community and the people sometimes talk to me in Tagalog. I can't speak it but I understand some though...

BOKU WA NIHONGO O HANASHIMASEN. 

[cai hong]

I speak Indonesian in daily live because I'm born and raised in Indonesian.I can speak some domestic dialects such as Betawi,Jawa Noko,and a bit Melayu lol

I use English as my second language.I never really took some English lesson to improve me English,just watching foreign channels,reading foreign books,and joining some boards that's all.

I used to learn Mandarin when I'm grade 3 until grade 6,since I can't speak Mandarin although I'm chinese.Even I took Mandarin classes once,my Mandarin is very bad (help...) and my parents did not tought me Mandarin when I'm still little.

and in these times I learn Sindarin on my own,just finding some phrases and try to memoryze them,mellonya lol

I want to improve my Mandarin since I lack on this.I alsoi wish to learn German and Latin,although people said that Dutch is also useful too.

[db05]

lol. I grew up in a Filipino community and the people sometimes talk to me in Tagalog. I can't speak it but I understand some though...

BOKU WA NIHONGO O HANASHIMASEN. 

Wakarimasen deshita. Tanman-san, anata wa firpin-jin desu ka. nihon-jin desu ka.
Basic phrases in Japanese, from watching too much anime.

I can't tell if my first language is english or filipino as we were all taught english from preschool. I am fluent in written English, terrible in Filipino. Spoken, it's the other way around.

Music is another language, and I'm not very good. Hard to grasp, but definitely enjoyable. Who else thinks that some music is suitable for some languages, e.g. opera in italian, rock in english, hip-hop in chinese?

[bjenkins24]

No one can be truly fluent in a foreign language unless two conditions are met:  you learned that language from the earliest age possible, or you were totally immersed in that language as a second language at an early age and were forced to learn it.

I lived in Thailand from age 19-21.  I am fluent, I promise  On the phone Thai people have no idea I'm white.  Sometimes I think I speak it better than English.

I was immersed in it, but I wasn't as young as I think you are trying to imply.   

[franz_]

To Prometheus, and to Stephane:

Where do you guys live? I'm from Belgium, and according to your languages you don't have to live very far from me I think.
And, where do you guys study? :p

[pianochick93]

lol. I grew up in a Filipino community and the people sometimes talk to me in Tagalog. I can't speak it but I understand some though...

BOKU WA NIHONGO O HANASHIMASEN. 

Hmm...tanman-san wa nihongo wo sukoshi hanasemasu.

[tanman]

Hmm...tanman-san wa nihongo wo sukoshi hanasemasu.

hai, sou desu.
anata mo nihongo o hanashimasu. 

[tds]

watashiwa tds des. watashiwa indonesia jen

hehe is that correct? shoot me!

[tanman]

watashiwa tds des. watashiwa indonesia jen

hehe is that correct? shoot me!

close...

[tds]

close...

close enough to be right? or close enough to get my head?

[tanman]

close enough to be right? or close enough to get my head?

close enough to be right... of course it could be close enough to get your head if it were my sensei who is a perfectionist...

[db05]

close enough to be right? or close enough to get my head?

I don't know what Indonesia is called in Japanese, but I remember the suffix is -jin, not -jen.

It's desu, but pronounced des.  

[tds]

arigato gonzales

[thalbergmad]

I speak fluent Chinese.....

ahhh sooo, yikki yokk sushi kwa bollok ching chong yingo yang.

Velly good

Thal

[concerto_love]

pretty goood at Japanese!!!  konpawaaa!!!  watashi suki desu.... err...

[tds]

.... err...

its ARRGGGHHH in japanese

[morningstar]

English mainly and bits of French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian and Japanese. And Chakobska but that doesn't count, It's not an official language

[pianochick93]

hai, sou desu.
anata mo nihongo o hanashimasu. 

hai, sukoshi.

[tanman]

how do you get the japanese characters on computer?

[pianochick93]

IME packs, I'm not entirely sure how I got it on mine, but they're there now.

こんにちは、タンマンさん。ひらがなとかんじを書いています。

Sorry everyone else for sort of corrupting a thread.

[tanman]

boku wa kanji o wakarimasen. hirigana to katakana o wakarimashita.

[pianochick93]

the Kanji was 'to write' so romaji for the sentence:

konnichiha, tanman-san. hiragana to kanji wo kaiteimasu.

[concerto_love]

I will try to use Boso Jowo.... Pa kaber..?