Question Of The Day - Saturday, August 14th.

[tigerontheprowl]

Good morning folks

Well I guess technically it's late evening on the 13th but I can't stay up for another half hour.

Anyways. Since I recently started learning to speak Japanese, I was wondering:

What languages do you speak and which ones do you want to learn?

I'm currently fluent in English and German and I can speak a bit of French, Spanish, Mandarin, and Russian. I've always wanted to learn Japanese, Italian, and Portuguese.

 

[strange_wings]

Just English. Though, living in a southern state I can read a fair bit of Spanish and if it's spoken slowly can understand some of what's spoken - though this is a weak area for me even in English. I need to learn/relearn and get proficient in Spanish due to it becoming more necessary in my area.

I can still read some Japanese and understand enough of it so that if I'm watching something subtitled I can tell if they deviate too much from what was actually said (though a lot of slang and some dialects are lost on me). I never had any confidence in speaking it.

I lost interest in learning more because I didn't really have that much use for it.
I know handfuls of words in various languages because my brain files everything (useless) away.

I wouldn't mind learning Swedish or Finnish, even though Finnish grammar looks like it might be painful.

 

[jazzythecat]

I speak English, a tincy bit of Dutch, an amount of Italian, a little Indonesia, not much at all Bahasa Malay and I speak Japanese quite well.

Jackz, Jazzy & Ginga.

 

[starryeyedtiger]

I speak English & Spanish.

I would like to learn Italian, Russian, and Hebrew

 

[missymotus]

I only speak English fluently, know some French from living in Montreal for 5 years, and a few phrases & can count in German after having to learn it through primary school.

 

[tara g]

Only one I'm fluent in is English.

I can speak some words, count, and phrases in Polish, can count and say some phrases in Spanish (took 2 years of Spanish in Middle School, wish I kept taking it throughout HS), can count and say some phrases in French (took 2 years of it in HS) and know a couple words in German.

Hubby wants me to take Spanish as an elective language in college, so I can help try and decipher and translate things some of his Spanish speaking customers say and communicate easier with them.

I would LOVE to learn Italian. I would enjoy walking into my favorite pizza/Italian place a put my order in in Italian and also know what they're saying to each other

I know ciao, bella, grazi, and some other things (because they've said them to me! And i knew them living in NJ) but nowhere near enough to really communicate well.

 

[kailie]

Just English here as well although I can speak a VERY small amount of French. I used to be better with it and would love to take a course to brush up.

 

[butzie]

Originally Posted by StarryEyedTiGeR

I speak English & Spanish.

I would like to learn Italian, Russian, and Hebrew

Just curious. Why Hebrew?

So, I speak Spanish really well, Italian fairly well with a Spanish twist, a little German, a little Hebrew, a little Yiddish - Oy vey! You shouldn't know from it!

 

[ut0pia]

English, Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish a little japanese (took a year of it in high school) I really want to learn Japanese and speak it fluently..

 

[calico2222]

I took Spanish in high school and college and was able to have very simple conversations with spanish speaking people outside of school, but I've forgotten most of it to speak it. I can still get the basic gist of reading it though.

When I lived in Guam I worked in a retail store that had a lot of Japanese customers. Luckily, one of my co-workers was married to a Japanese women and was fluent it the language and taught me the basics. I was able to understand simple questions and I was able to at least give them prices. If it got too complicated I would call him over and he would take over.

Honestly, I would love to learn latin, Russian and Italian.

 

[lauracatlover]

I'm fluent in English

But I can speak a bit of German, Spanish and French

 

[elayman]

Japanese for me too.

My self-study and training has been a little unbalanced but at least I can understand fairly well at a formal level (radio & tv news, newspapers, daily conversation w/my boyfriend). From years of downloading a newscast and playing it on repeat.

Even though you may not be spending much conscious effort in listening, your brain still integrates this information. And that is important since if you can’t listen to a language, you can’t converse and your skills are very limited.


And attaining a big leap and being able to "get" conversation in real time makes the nearly insurmountable effort it took finally worthwhile. Although I'm still lazy about the amount of time I spend exposing myself to a Japanese environment so my mind still floats in and out too much when I try to speak extemporaneously.

 

[goldenkitty45]

I'm impressed. I speak good English, and took Spanish in high school. I know a bit, not enough to get by and can read some Spanish.

 

[pookie-poo]

My native language is English. When I was a young child, I listened to my grandmother and great grandmother speak Hungarian. I would probably still recognize some of it if I heard it spoken now. I took German in junior high, and high school. I recognize some words and phrases, and can read a smattering of it. My pronunciation would probably be atrocious though. I'd love to learn Hungarian or Russian.

 

[coolcat]

Spanish as native & I consider a 80% english as second language...

...

 

[lotso'cats]

Just English.

 

[nutrolori]

I speak English and some Spanish. Mostly what Dora and Diego have taught me.

I know a few words in Chinese thanks to Ni Hao Kai Lan. I guess you can tell I have kids. I would like to learn Italian and more Spanish.

 

[pollyanna]

I love languages!

I speak Icelandic, English, German and Danish. I can speak quite some Norwegian and some Swedish and a little French. I understand the Faroy Island language quite well, especially the written language (it's the closest to Icelandic) and a bit in Spanish and Italian. I used to know a few words and phrases in Chinese (Mandarin), but I guess some of that is gone.

I would love to know French, Italian and Spanish well. I also would love to know Chinese, both spoken and written.