How many languages... (125)

1 Name: Ani : 2007-06-30 19:41 ID:9O0n4tua

So..
How many languages do you speak?
and what languages are they?

extra questions:
why did you learn them?
and where?
for how long?

2 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-01 01:42 ID:DOmjAXcS

In order of proficiency:

1) English (Mother tongue)
2) Turkish (Intermediate level)
3) Arabic (Beginner level)
4) Russian (Beginner level)

I am a Middle Eastern Studies major who has traveled to the Middle East a bit, and I have some interest in Russia on the side, soooo... that's why I am learning those languages.

3 Name: C-3PO : 2007-07-01 04:57 ID:AMtsQshh

I am fluent in over six million forms of communication, including Bocce and binary load lifter programming.

4 Name: Ani : 2007-07-01 13:59 ID:9O0n4tua

These are the languages I speak:

1.Icelandic (very well)
2.Lithuanian (very well)
3.English (very well, I hope..)
4.Samogitian (very well)
5.Faroese (very well)
6.Spanish (well)
7.Russian (understand: very well, talk: not so good)
8.Swedish (understand: well, talk: not so good)
9.Danish (not so good)
10.Latvian (not so good)

Learned nr.1,2,3,6,9 in school
nr.4 is my mother tongue
nr.5 is so much like Icelandic, that I understand it.
nr.8 and 10 are very alike to the other languages I know, so I kinda understand them.
nr.7 learned it from my parents and tv

5 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-01 23:32 ID:elDyCe4B

English-fluent
Spanish-fluent
I'm an American so both of these are a must.
日本語-learning, very basic skills.
I also plan on learning Swedish.
Why Japanse and Swedish? These are both countries I plan on visiting and spending extensive time in, so even though they speak english in both of these places, I want to learn to speak the native tongue andyway.

6 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-02 04:49 ID:sofw3aqc

just two:
Spanish - Mother tongue
English - Adquired through Internet, Magic cards, books and the like (english teaching in my country sucks), Although I'm pretty fluent, my pronuciaton sucks (y'know, the way I learned, it's difficult to learn that)
Also, I went through two years of useless french, don't remember a lot.
And of course, I know the random frequent-in-anime japanese words, although I don't calim to know japanese like those guys that claim that know japanese 'cause they know what kawaii means.

7 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-02 07:02 ID:9Uflcerz

English (fluent, second language)
French (fluent, first language, but lack of practice shows in writing)
German (my German is only mildly better than my Japanese)
Japanese (I don't really speak Japanese)
Italian (I can understand pretty well, if you speak slowly)
Spanish (also a bit, but not as much)

8 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-02 07:03 ID:9Uflcerz

>>4

Wow, I don't even know what "Samogitian" is, or where it's spoken. A pretty impressive line-up though, you must have done quite a bit of travel.

9 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-02 16:09 ID:0Cn/0YeG

English (Mother Tongue)
French (6 years in school.. I hated it, but I guess I know it pretty well
Japanese (been learning for a year, hopefully gonna do it in uni)

10 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-02 16:19 ID:UkcrD2Hc

Organized by language family:

English -- native.

Thai -- fluent. 4 yrs in college, lived in Thailand for 3 years post-college, and studied the literature as a graduate student.
Lao -- working ability, written and spoken. Lived in Lao-speaking parts of Thailand, traveled a lot in Laos. Plus it's hard not to be functional in Lao if you're fluent in Thai, if you have any head at all for language, as the two are very close.

Spanish -- working ability bordering on fluency. 5 years of much more serious than average study in middle and high school, followed by significant travel and work in Spanish-language environments, including more than a year in a Spanish-speaking environment in California where I needed Spanish daily.
Portuguese -- limited working ability. Worked in an office with a Brazilian branch and lots of Brazilians around; took a half-dozen intensive lessons. Can now read fluently and get by conversationally. Much like Spanish, grammatically, if you can get your head around the very distinct phonology.
Italian and French--can read, understand at least 50% of what is said around me, and have rudimentary conversations. My French pronunciation is terrible, but my Italian one is pretty good.
Romanian--limited reading and conversational ability. One year study in college. Helps to know Russian, as it's a Romance language chock-full of Slavic influences.

Russian -- working ability. 3 years in H.S., 3 years in college, some travel in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
Polish and other Slavic languages--basic functionality. Can get the gist of many conversations/written texts, speak basic phrases, and parse grammatically.

Khmer-- basic conversation & reading. 1 year study, travel.

Japanese--basic conversation, kana, 35 or so kanji. One year half-assed study, 15 years of anime fandom, some travel.

Pali (dead Indian language, cousin to Sanskrit, holy language of Southeast Asian/Sri Lankan Buddhism)--limited reading ability with dictionary in lap. 2 years of study in grad school.

Hindi/Urdu--basic conversation. Self-study, travel. Thanks to Pali, I recognize a surprising number of roots and bits of words when reading the subtitles in Hindi fims.

11 Name: Ani : 2007-07-03 01:08 ID:9O0n4tua

>>8 hehe...I have..but not for a long time..just driving through the countries and a few summer vocations.
my next goal is Indian or Korean...

12 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-04 13:23 ID:viR/3901

Speak:
English
decent Spanish
can cuss in Bosnian

wanna learn:
Mandarin Chinese
Irish or Welsh

Won't touch:
Japanese
Klingon
Lobjan
Hebrew
Arabic
or Esperanto.

13 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-05 15:21 ID:lRjd31Ms

English (fluent)

Mandarin (took a semester, want to learn more but it's not being offered until spring and I hope I don't forget what I learned from a year ago)

14 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-05 20:04 ID:690K8ng/

English - native speaker.
Russian - I can make basic conversation, learned in high school.
Japanese - just started this one because, well, why not?

15 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-06 09:55 ID:TeXesOXO

Native: English
Learning: Arabic, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit
Why? Because they are amazing.

16 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-07 03:28 ID:l+5KEAA4

I don't speak any languages at all, my helper monkey, Jub-jub, is typing this for me.

17 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-07 16:18 ID:DS9h5TO3

Alphabetically, Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean.
Some better than the others.

18 Name: usman : 2007-07-14 18:38 ID:ga6yyTEh

i want to learn tha english in sweden thx i want to do my englsih is very wall i hope u provide tha colage scholl'any learning center thx

19 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-14 21:51 ID:PNII1fLk

Lithuanian - native
English - second language-came as second nature too.
Russian - Barely,but i cuss mostly in russian.
Started learniung Japanese when i odn't have anything better to do.

20 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-14 23:48 ID:InLzWO7b

sacdsaadssda

21 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-20 02:10 ID:Heaven

>>20
so you speak sadsac too, eh?

ssdac ccad daassc.
csasd da?

22 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-07-21 06:49 ID:1Z3NOgTH

English - Native speaker.

American Sign Language - I learned this in 11th grade for fun. Little did I know how useful and easy it would be! I'm so glad I learned it. I'm always learning new signs, but I'm basically fluent, unless someone is signing really fast or being very 'artistic' with their signs. It's very easy to learn if you learn it from someone in person; learning from books and videos may work for some people, but books and videos were pretty unhelpful for me. If you ever get a chance to take a sign language class, I recommend it.

Spanish - I started picking up Spanish when I was in 3rd grade, because I moved to Southern California, and there, my school was 92% Hispanic, with a majority of the students being Spanish-speaking. I started to really focus on learning it when I was a freshman in highschool (60-something% Hispanic there), and then took a Spanish 1 class when I was in 11th grade (two languages that year, whee!). I am fluent enough to understand the conversations of my friends' Mexican-born parents and grandparents, although I'm too shy to actually say anything.

Esperanto - I began to learn this when I was a freshman in highschool. I was just tickled by the idea of it...Some random Polish guy making up a language that a bunch of people now speak. The language is advertized as being easy to learn, and I think that it is...I've just been too lazy to put forth much effort. However, I am pretty good at it; I can read an Esperanto Wikipedia article and understand most of it, or watch an Eo video on YouTube and get what they're talking about. I'm bad at coming up with my own sentences, though.

Tagalog - I just started learning this recently. I wanted to learn an Asian-ish language, and I know several Philipino people, so I picked Tagalog so I'd have people to practce with. I also like it because it has many Spanish and English influences, which makes it easier for me and interesting too. I don't know enough to have a conversation yet. I have teh colors memorized though :)

Russian - I'm still learning the alphabet. I'm not sure why i wanted to learn Russian...I guess it's just badass.

23 Name: Sanna-Chan : 2007-07-24 22:46 ID:HaXr9rTL

Finnish - Native speaker
Swedish - Because we have to!!
French - Like million years ago in 4th grade or something.. It was too hard for me.. Don´t really remember anything..
Russian - I know some basics,My grandmothers mom was Russian :D
Japanese - Have been learning it maybe year now.. :P because of my old work i´m behind of my class... SUCKS!!!
Chinese - Began to learn it last week :D If I someday meet my boyfriends parents it would be nice to talk to them ^^
Korean - Like Chinese this I´m learning by myself ... :P
Italian - Too some class at highschool coz i had nothing better to do..Sadly I don´t remember much of it :(
English - almost forgot it.. I started at the 3rd grade.. Dunno if there´s anything else that grammar or slang words to learn after 14 years .. (Wow is it really that long)
I would like to learn these too : Vietnamese,German,better Swedish ,Magyar,Spannish... Too many huh??

24 Name: Sanna-Chan : 2007-07-24 22:49 ID:HaXr9rTL

Oh and sorry i´m dyslexic so sometimes I forgot words/letter..
Like after Italian... "took" not "Too" hahha

25 Name: Ani : 2007-08-07 16:50 ID:9O0n4tua

wow..you're awesome!!

26 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-07 21:44 ID:nEISpsX9

English - Native speaker.
Spanish - Fluent. I started learning it in elementary school, but we didn't really start learning important things like grammar or useful vocabulary until High School. So, I've only recently become fluent. It really irritated me that I'd been learning it since 1st grade but hadn't really learned anything 'cause we'd been dicking around that whole time.
Japanese - Basic knowledge. I've been learning it on my own for quite some time now, but I'm lazy, so I've been studying off and on. :/
Italian - I can't speak it, but I can read it and understand the gist of whatever it is I'm reading because I know Spanish.
Korean - Very basic knowledge. I have a few Korean foreign exchange students at my school, and as I became friends with them, I became more interested in their language, so I decided to learn it with their help.
French - I took it for a year in school, so I have very basic speaking skills, though I can read French moderately well.
Russian - After I read A Clockwork Orange earlier this year, I decided to start learning it. I'm not very skilled though.
Latin - I took it for two years in Middle School, so I don't really remember much, but I can read it...somewhat.

27 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-09 21:49 ID:Hoh6Oijp

English - Fluent. It's my native language and I speak it better than just about everyone else my age (I'm 14 1/2, in England)

American - Ha ha, just joking, though it does look and sound quite grating compared to UK English.

French - I can get around. I'm taking it for GCSE.

German - I can speak very good german actually. I'm also taking it for GCSE and my teacher says I should do a degree in it.

Japanese - Not so good. Been learning it for kicks with books I've bought. Have'nt got far though.

28 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-12 12:01 ID:RM5ydeqH

If you don't know how to speak the language FLUENTLY, you don't actually "speak it".

Everyone picks up a couple of phrases in a foreign language nowadays. That's far from getting dropped off in the country where said language is spoken and communicating effectively.

29 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-13 18:58 ID:OXfuDVK7

English: Mother tongue
Dutch: Passable

Hint to all 3 of you wanting to learn dutch: DON'T. It's a hideously backwards language with no call for it either outside OR inside the Netherlands. Most of the new words are loanwords taken directly from english and made to match dutch pronounciation standards, or taken from shallow pop-culture books and magazines. It's not even interesting to study, and nobody will ever hire you based on your ability to speak dutch. It's pretty much worthless.

30 Name: Pseudonymous Tonguetwist : 2007-08-14 01:45 ID:3FKEtGQo

  1. Swedish - native speaker
  2. English - (damn near) fluent
  3. German - works in a pinch. I can understand German speakers if they want to communicate with me, and make myself understood.

>>28
Oh shut up. There are plenty of space between "know a few phrases" and "fluent". Believe me, you don't have to be perfect in order to communicate.

And like 60% of this board, I am learning Japanese. Mainly out of an interest in language, and not so much for the usual anime/OMG JAPAN! reasons that most people seem to have. (at least the ones I've met in class) Only taken a beginner's course so far, but starting full-time university level courses in a week or two.

Took Spanish, Latin and Greek classes in high school too. Hardly remember a thing, although Latin class was great for basic linguistics.

31 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-14 15:58 ID:Dy6pUHNb

How many languages do you speak? 3(4?)
and what languages are they?

  • Danish (mother tongue)
  • English (fluent)
  • German (intermediate)
  • French (know a few sentences, just began)

extra questions:
why did you learn them? English and German mandatory in school. French because I really like it, and I would then cover communicating with most people in north europe :)
and where? school
for how long? EN since 4th grade, GER since 7th grade, FR since last summer

32 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-22 21:58 ID:Heaven

Native English speaker. I can read and listen to Latin with a good degree of understanding. I am learning Sanskrit.
So just one spoken language. monolingual ;_;
Latin over high school and college, Sanskrit right now with books and shit.

I have no interest in Japanese. Ainu seems really interesting though!

33 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-24 23:02 ID:jkIr8pYP

English (first language),
Welsh (had to learn it in school),
German (took it for GCSE)
Japanese (currently learning it on my own)

Not very good at the last three, however.

34 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-25 15:28 ID:vRR8/eGi

Chinese
English
German
French

....want to learn Japanese :)

OTAKU FTW ^^XD^^

35 Name: choco choco- slap slap : 2007-08-25 20:33 ID:QqMxQwVC

English-Fluent

Japanese-can completely understand it, but not fluent in speaking it yet

Spanish-I know the basics

36 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-08-27 05:27 ID:lQu5AAJn

English- Native. For some reason, though, I think English sounds really ugly compared to other languages... although I wonder if that has something to do with it being my native language (a friend of mine is a native speaker of Chamorro, and she considers that to be the ugliest language in the world)

Esperanto- Fluent. Don't know why I started learning it other than randomly running into lernu.net, but it got me a free room last December through Pasporta Servo, so I'll not argue.

Japanese- Intermediate, although considering I'm spending a year there beginning in a few weeks, I better be damn near fluent before too long.

Russian- Beginner, although coming rather well along thanks to listening to too much Akvarium and Lyubeh music.

Spanish- Beginner-intermediate, I can understand much better than I speak.

37 Name: LinguaOtaku : 2007-09-03 23:22 ID:sJ185foZ

English - Native. I love English and I honestly believe that no other language has the same expressive capability, both in terms of lexicon and prosody.

German - Fluent. Learned it at school and spent the summer working in Berlin when I was 16. I don't enjoy speaking it. I'd rather speak...

Frisian - Fluent. Strictly a dialect of Dutch, but it's the Germanic language that's most closely related to modern English with all the phonetic complications that implies.

French - Intermediate. I can carry a conversation in French but often have to pause to re-order my thoughts or ask how to say a word.

Japanese - Intermediate. When I graduate I'm hoping to go on the JET programme so I need to be reasonably fluent by then!

The following languages I know bits of from my studies in linguistics:

Xhosa
Ndbele
Sotho
Several varieties of Sino-Tibetan family (I co-wrote a paper on variation of a particular variable between 3 first-stem languages in my first year - it was ridiculed at the peer review stage, lol)
Djerbil (Aboringinal language)
Tai-Kadai

and various others.

38 Name: Anonyma : 2007-09-14 16:44 ID:M8nt7hoD

German -native
Italian -home language
English - fluent. 12years school
French -fluent. 5years school
Spanish -2years school
Japanese -studied 1 year but is useless in my place so i stopped

39 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-18 15:49 ID:yrADsmTN

i know 4 languages and 2 chinese dialects:
english (main on the net and school for science/math subjects)
mandarin (school, friends and reading, i don't write much)
malay (i've no choice but to learn this, if i fail this, i'll almost lose my citizen, stupid language though)
japanese (mangas! animes! jrock songs! j-dramas and much more!)
hokkien dialect(for my living regions, my mother's mother toungue)
cantonese dialect(hongkong dramas!! anyway this is my father's mother tongue)

40 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-25 01:00 ID:y0a+oWH7

  • German - native
  • English - fluent
  • Italian - near fluent
  • Latin - used to be quite good at it in school, but didn't use it for a long time...
  • French - a little bit
  • Japanese - intermediate
  • Russian - a few basic phrases

Took a look at Esperanto, but it's made out of fail.

41 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-25 06:48 ID:IH4at2Ui

English - native tongue

French - I remember some basics from elementary and middle school (I live in Canada, it's mandatory till 9th grade), but I gave it up and now I want to learn it again

Mandarin Chinese - basic understanding

Japanese - basic understanding

Russian - I wish.

42 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-25 18:39 ID:Heaven

english - native
french - fluent
spanish - fluent
chinese - fluent
german - i'm........ ok
russian - learning

43 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-27 03:56 ID:oIPric0T

Spanish - Native/ Very fluent
English - Very fluent
Italian - I can understand a bit if i hear it/read it
Portugese - Same as Italian
French - Same as Italian
Japanese - Intermediate

44 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-29 09:48 ID:paptiTaF

VIPから来ますたや^^

45 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-10-30 18:30 ID:Llf8CwFa

Japanese: JLPT 2
English: CPE
German: Native
French: Native
Czech: Native

46 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-01 21:14 ID:Xuchohd5

German: Native
Spanish: Native
English: Fluent
Latin: I had it 5 years in school and because it's a dead language I'm not fluent in the spoken language of course.I understand most texts though.
French: Near fluent,3 years in school
Portuguese: Understand a lot due to my Spanish and Latin
Italian: same as Portuguese
Japanese: Understand a bit through Anime.Currently trying to learn it.

47 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-02 02:48 ID:iF8EOsEF

>>45,46
where do you people live or what kind of crazy parents do you people have so as to get such an odd combination of native langauges?

48 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-03 00:55 ID:Heaven

>>47

>>46 here:
Well I was born and raised in good old Germany and still live there.My father is German and my mother is Mexican,so when I was born,each parent taught me their respective language and I learned them both this way.But my German still is way better than my Spanish(got an accent).

49 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-03 20:51 ID:sN9ysFGW

Greek - everything but writing
Swedish - born and and living in Sweden
English - Very fluent, studied it since I was eight in school
Spanish - I understand a lot after studying it since I was 12 but not so fluent speaker....
A bit Italian - Understand more than I can say, partly because of my spanish
A bit Latin - just like italian, understand more than I can say
A bit of a greek dialect - I understand it more than I can speak it
Yeah sorry to bore you with all my "understand more than I can speak".....

50 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-04 03:15 ID:OJryHJzO

English - Fluent
Russian - Fluent
Norwegian/Swedish - Fluent
Danish - Can understand and am understood
Russian - Fluent
German - Good, still learning

Japanese and Arabic - Learning
French, Spanish and Mandarin - Plan on learning

51 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-04 14:42 ID:J3MeHlPw

Finnish - Native
English - Good
Swedish - A little bit
German - Only some basic things most of which I have forgotten

52 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-04 22:51 ID:OJryHJzO

>>50

Oops.

Somehow Russian appeared twice.

Oh well, it deserves that since it's so awesome :3

53 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-17 12:41 ID:v6+/2ygD

Portuguese My mother language
English From school, TV, movies, games, etc.
Spanish Almost everyone in Portugal knows a considerable amount of Spanish, since they are our neighbors and the language is sort of easy.
French From school, movies.

Then i know a little of Japanese (from watching so much anime i unconsciously started to assimilate many many words and its grammar), German (my stepfather is German), Italian (My grandfather is Sicilian).

I would like to fully learn Japanese, Mandarin, Greek and Russian. But I hope to learn, at least Mandarin and Russian, by living in both countries for a few years.

54 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-17 22:27 ID:6RQRAErk

wow everyone can speak so many. i feel ashamed of myself.

English: native
chinese: understand alot but can't articulate myself well

learning
japanese: I want to watch anime without subs
russian: alot of people speak russian so I want to learn
finnish: I just started because its so esoteric but beautiful
korean: want to watch movies without subs

55 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-18 12:35 ID:wOlTLAJZ

Dutch living
German mother
English fluent
can understand most French (but I HATE it.. because it was a must on High School)

Planning to learn/learning:
Chinese/Japanese/Arabic/maybe more?

56 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-18 17:05 ID:Heaven

>>55

>Planning to learn/learning:
>Chinese/Japanese/Arabic

Same :>

57 Name: fine languages researcher : 2007-11-24 05:40 ID:zhJbSktF

Italian: my mother language
English: absolutely the first one of my languages
Spanish: i can understand well and make myself understood...me gusteria mucho de hablar en espanol con todo el mundo

French: learned 9 years at school...not quite worthly...oui, je suis un connard, je sais....

Portugese: my favourite one...força portugal, em todo o mundo

German: two or three things...and understand some easy stuff.. ich bin fertig nicht!!!

then, there are also a lot of other languages i'm interested in but i didn't started to learn yet: Dutch (funny and easy), Romanian (barely easy to understand for an italian mother-tongue), Hungarian (ferociously exciting and soundful...but quite tough to learn) and then swedish,norwegian and Danish (very easy grammar but "unvisible" pronunciation....try to spell Kobenhavn like a Danish, if you dare...)

58 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-25 00:52 ID:Q0V15AxU

>>1
English is my mother tongue.
I'm getting close to fluency in Spanish. I live in Chicago, see a large number of hispanophones each day, and hope to travel to Spain and Latin America some day.
My grandparents spoke Polish as children, but I can only ask for beer and the bathroom.
As for what to learn next, I'm stuck between German and Japanese.

59 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-25 20:23 ID:C3ij+hoT

turkish:native speaker
english:fluent
japanese:beginner (basic stuff,full kana,145 kanji)
german:some very basic stuff
french:i took a few courses and remember only a few words and no grammatical structure

60 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-26 02:51 ID:PpZXIAYd

English - Native
Japanese - 2Native
German - so-so es geht etwas....
French - School

61 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-26 17:29 ID:/3yCVDnJ

>>56
Woohoo!

62 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-11-29 18:56 ID:SdYPiWvJ

English: Mother tongue (technically Scottish English), but ah can unnerstaun the lallans Scots.

German: fairly good with everyday situations, but I need to spend more time in DE/CH/AT speaking it, as I can understand the written language to a fairly high degree.

I might learn Spanish at some point, as I'm naturally good at rolling my R's, on account of my homeland.

I started learning Scottish Gaelic, but I gave up, as it is essentially useless: only 70,000 people (mainly in very remote areas) speak it.

63 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-12-01 02:55 ID:8w0TwsHG

lol you're all pathetic.

Have any of you heard of Juergen Graf?? He's a famous exiled holocaust revisionist and he can speak EIGHTEEN languages fluently including Chinese, Russian and Thai.

I speak english.

64 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-12-01 10:39 ID:D5nOziBg

>>63

It's not a competition.

65 Name: !noVi/eksaY : 2007-12-01 15:44 ID:h0U82xYA

English (native), and learning German.

66 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-12-02 20:00 ID:6Yqkpjic

english native
french 2native
german 3native
latin school
japanese school
chinese friend
russian friend
polish 4native
spanish school
portugese school
^im fluent in
*i want to learn arabic and more middle eastern countries

**i took many languages in college

67 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-12-02 20:31 ID:SdYPiWvJ

>>66

"i want to learn arabic and more middle eastern countries"?

68 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2007-12-03 06:26 ID:RhRELo1U

English(fluent)
Hmong(mother tongue and fluent) ;)
Mandarin Chinese (learning in school)

69 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-08 03:23 ID:Xytyzfok

English: Fluent
Spanish: 4 years and I'm planning to minor in it
Japanese: Enough to read a little bit and converse a little bit
German: Very little

And I've dabbled in
Gaelic Irish
Finnish

70 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-09 05:36 ID:LBbHqCD3

Native: American English speaker.
Third year of honors French, I consider myself to be competent in the language. Hope to travel there soon.
Currently in my first year of Mandarin as well, enjoying it thoroughly and can't wait to learn more each day.

71 Name: Kill : 2008-01-16 10:22 ID:1ZXSi/AD

Japanese: Mother Toungue, EXTREMELY fluent, also could read up to Japanese Middle-School Levels (hey, it's not easy, considering the fact I've been raised in the U.S.)

English: Also highly fluent, third language

Mandrin: Not too good compared to the other two, second language by the way

72 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-17 01:05 ID:LMf9plKi

English: First language

Japanese: Basic conversational skills, and I understand the meaning of a lot of kanji, but not the readings. Heisig's fault.

French: Speak enough to get by, I studied it for six years but I've forgotten most of it now.

Korean: Tried learning Korean before, but have forgotten most of it now.

Ghaidlig: I know a few words from having family and stuff in the highlands.

73 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-17 17:38 ID:MC+GBoxR

English - First language, fluent. I'm currently trying to expand the vocabulary I commonly use.

Japanese - Currently in second year, second quarter. I can understand almost all of what my teacher says in class; even though I can't always recognize a word, I'll be able to guess at it through the context. I can recognize probably 90 - 100 (perhaps more) kanji, so my reading is getting a lot better.

French - Two years in high school. I thought I'd forgotten most of it, but when I picked up a book I'd read back then, I still could understand most of it. I don't think I could formulate a sentence though; I'd probably end up with French grammar but Japanese vocab. I was one of the best students in the class, because I would have these incredibly silly conversations with my teacher. (I loved to use the word "lecher" - "to lick" at every possible opportunity. Oh, and I just tried to to make a sentence in French about licking a cat - came up with "neko ga leche desu ka?" Haha.)

I expect I'll take up French again at some point, as I'm hoping to go into a field of work that involves language.

74 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-18 08:50 ID:ycyqm7Fn

>>73

>neko ga leche desu ka

This is not French, this is the French variant of the Wapanese language.

75 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-19 02:17 ID:e9p5mRC6

English and Russian. Used to speak Spanish, but the force of Russian being so awesome killed it off. It is now working on making me write у, и, д, and т in the middle of English sentences, and will probably destroy my ability to write latin script in about a year.

76 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-20 02:27 ID:2BlxnOJ6

>"neko ga leche desu ka?"

I think confusing everything is normal... my Spanish sucks ass.

You might want to look up chatte before associating any licking with it though haha.

77 Name: soccerfuu9 : 2008-01-20 13:23 ID:EMrh7Pvo

English (fluent)
Japanese (fluent in reading everything but some kanji)
Spanish (like a five year old :( )
French (just started learning)

I've been really interested in language since I was in high school...but more particularly because I want to travel. I want to learn more Japanese so i can read all the RAW manga and watch original movies without subtitles, and French to speak to my current penpals. I HAVE to speak Spanish, however, because my girlfriend is Mexican and most of her family speaks Spanish. What's sad about my life...I don't speak my mother tongue: Tagalog.

78 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-24 07:05 ID:9JljrWTw

>>74

I'm a French Weeaboo now? AWESOME.

79 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-26 07:11 ID:vbRPiMts

Fujianese - fisrt language, native fluency
Mandarin - second language, near-native fluency
Filipino - third language, near-native fluency
English - fourth language, native fluency
Ilokano - fifth language, moderate fluency
Esperanto - sixth language, moderate fluency
Japanese - seventh language, advanced fluency
Korean - eighth language, beginner level

80 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-01-27 17:13 ID:Bo8fuErl

>>"neko ga leche desu ka?"

that is not an english word why did you say it

81 Post deleted.

82 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-23 14:51 ID:tgLClnXc

English: Fluent
Lao: Fluent*
Thai: Fluent*
Japanese: Learning

  • Indicates that I'm only fluent in speech and cannot read.

83 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-23 19:27 ID:uB7RNTjE

>>81
Advertizing should be banned here

>>76
Confusing two languages that are similar (like French and Italian or MSA and Egyptian Arabic) is sort of normal.

Confusing two languages that have nothing to do with each other (French and Japanese) is not.

84 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-24 03:50 ID:Heaven

>>83
No, not at all! One's L2 deeply affects L3 in language acquisition. It isn't uncommon at all to mix up vocabulary and even syntax.

85 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-24 03:54 ID:Heaven

here's a brief paper on a study on the subject: http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~clo/Tremblay.pdf

86 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-25 15:46 ID:iEnJbjLt

English (native),
Spanish (not bad),
Japanese (learning).

87 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-26 01:15 ID:6HfFAAhy

English, native
Spanish, beginner
Japanese, intermediate

I learned Japanese because I love Japanese women and I learned spanish because my family is mexican

88 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-02-27 02:12 ID:KdUVyIKz

English - Native
Cantonese - Intermediate
Japanese - Beginner

89 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-01 08:00 ID:R60ZAAg0

wow, a lot of people are learning japanese

cantonese- first
english- second language
french- third

90 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-03 12:51 ID:B8a/Xiwz

>>89 This board is the capital of Weeabooland after all.

91 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-03 19:04 ID:SZ/WTq37

>>10
Thought I would check in again and mention that I've started learning Cantonese. A lot of fun, albeit challenging. So far my chief skill is to make shopkeepers in Chinatown laugh.

92 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-07 16:54 ID:Heaven

English - Native
Finnish - Learning
Japanese - Learning
Latin - Learning

93 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-12 09:27 ID:WZ5OoyV9

English - Native
French - Native
Japanese - Learning
Spanish - Nearly Fluent

Want to learn italian and german someday.

94 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-12 17:10 ID:cgVIrHG7

Swedish,Danish,Norwegian,English and Old Norse

95 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-12 20:20 ID:GByyjLQ+

English - Native language.
French - Used to be vaguely fluent, studied it in school for 6 years but didn't speak to natives enough.
German - Speak a bit of it, school again.
Latin - Studied it at school for a year, but dropped it and can't remember any of it.
Hungarian - Beginner. Favourite foreign language.

I'm now interested in learning languages that are slightly different from what I'm used to (so, not indo-european).

96 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-20 12:12 ID:eYXyLcOw

>>95

>Hungarian
>I'm now interested in learning languages that are slightly different from what I'm used to (so, not indo-european).

But... Hungarian isn't an Indo-European language!

97 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-22 04:30 ID:qmD/hCbU

English- Native
French- Professionally proficient (i was approaching fluency, but a few years of not using it gave me a few steps back)
Korean- On my 7th week, baby!
Latvian- Ultra beginner

98 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-23 04:39 ID:Heaven

>>96

>But... Hungarian isn't an Indo-European language!

That's one of the reasons it interests me - I wouldn't consider myself used to it yet. (Yeah, it was badly worded)

99 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-23 10:02 ID:WWKcESxW

English - nearly fluently
French - can speak decently if practiced for some time with mother-languages (i studied it at school for 9 years)
Portuguese - my favourite iberic/lusophone language (learning)
Spanish - my second favourite iberic/lusophone language (learning)
German - basic level
want to learn hungarian, whose grammar i find very interesting, and dutch...that's somewhat similar to German, but quite easier and more english-like than german

100 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-23 10:12 ID:uB7RNTjE

100GET

101 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-23 10:20 ID:WWKcESxW

and obviously.....:
Italian: my mother language
a bit of Romanian...easily understendable reading....way more difficult in listening and/or pronounciating

(i'm scared of finnish, i tried to understand some rule but....shivers)

102 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-03-28 00:37 ID:aABV35hc

Schwyzerteutsch, nativ oesteralps dialekt
Hochdeutsch, fluent.
English, proficient.
Francais, decent.
Danski, decent.
Italiano, basic.
Russ, cursing... :D

That's it.

103 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-04-03 17:38 ID:QauDMS7C

You guys are incredible.

Proficient: English and Singlish (heh)
Okay: Chinese (Mandarin)
Beginner: Chinese (Hokkien)
Drama-watcher/fan standard: Japanese and Korean (thrilled to occasionally understand a few words. Can rote-memorise song lyrics and phrases without understanding of grammar etc.)
Pidgin standard: Few words here and there of Bahasa Melayu

Yeah. I suck. I only added the last two in to make my list seem longer. Did you guys have to work hard at learning the new languages or are you'all naturals? Just memorising a few words is very difficult for me; am struggling with picking up new languages.

104 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-04-03 18:55 ID:Heaven

>>99
What's your mother tongue?

105 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-04-06 05:19 ID:OBhE5rpb

English: Mother language
German: Second langauge, 90% fluent
Spanish: 2 years in school, I can say basic phrases
Japanese: I can recognise some kanji and speak a few words

Aiming for speaking at least 10+ languages which include:

Romanian, (better) Japanese, Manarin Chinese, Italian, Norweign, Icelandic, Greek, Sign Language, French, Russian and a few others.

106 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-04-08 01:21 ID:8dLfoQ7c

Mandarin Chinese: First language

English: Second language, fluent

Spanish: Learning it in school, I can read more than I can write, and I can understand more than I can say.

To-Learn List
French and Japanese

107 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-06-10 12:54 ID:efOP25/E

extra questions:
why did you learn them?
and where?
for how long?

Finnish: Mother language
English: Second language

I also know little bit of Swedish and German.
School system made sure that I get a hint of these three foreign languages, though I would've learned English anyway.
Had 3 years of Swedish, ~1 year of German and the best result I had in a Swedish pizzeria was:
Haben sie milch?

108 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-06-28 18:44 ID:W1CwEahQ

English:Mother Tounge
Italian:Learning

I just graduated middle school heh... But do all you guys want to learn languages for career? I just want to to communicate with natives and for fun... Oh yeah, and I want to learn Icelandic and Romanian, and maybe Finnish, but definitly Russian!

109 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-06-29 18:34 ID:Bp8kdd3D

Lithuanian - Native.
French - 1st foreign language in school, fluent, 10 years of learning.
German - 2nd foreign language in school, fluent or at least very close to it, 8 years of learning.
Swedish - 3rd foreign language in school, somewhere in between intermediate to advanced level.
Russian - Fluent, I come from the Soviet Union, M'kay?
English - Self-studied, fluent.
Japanese - Self-study, pre-Intermediate level.
Chinese - Self-study, intermediate level.
Latin - Self-study, pre-intermediate level.
Greek - Self-study, Basic level.

Yeah, I have a lot of free time.

110 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-06-30 04:42 ID:6eHhza3T

Just English, sadly.

111 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-07-01 01:21 ID:einGhX4Z

Let's see...

English - Mother tongue
Japanese - Second language: advanced (I'm not confident enough to say fluent, heh >_<)
Mandarin - Beginner/intermediate
Samoan - Beginner
Maori - can understand basic sentences & words
Cantonese - I know a few words and basic sentences
Korean - very basic sentences & a few words
French - again, basic sentences & words
Italian - same as French
Spanish - same as above

May seem like quite a few languages, but I'm pretty much a beginner or even lower than that in most of them :S

What can I say, I like languages lol.

112 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-07-04 04:57 ID:WZ5OoyV9

English - Native
French - Native
Spanish - fluent through schooling
Japanese - self-study, JLPT 4 level

I think I'm done for languages.

113 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2008-07-25 22:32 ID:ked7OkXO

Danish/Dansk - (Mother tongue)Can't write Danish very well, but understand it perfect.

Norwegian/Norsk - (Fluent) I can write perfect Norwegian.

Swedish/Svenska - (Advanced) Swedish is a lot like Norwegian, They can understand eachother with almost no problems.

English (Advanced) I can write perfect English.

Serbian/Srpski (Little more than basic) Can write as much as I can say, because you write it exactly how you pronounce it.

French/Francais (Basic) Had it for about a year. Understand more than I can write.

I can cuss in:

Norwegian 1
Danish 2
Swedish 3
English 4
Spanish 5
French 6
Portuguese 7
Sami 8
Faroese 9
Serbian 10
Albanian 11
Kurdish 12
Arabic 13
Russian 14
Polish 15
Japanese 16
Persian 17
Finnish 18
Somalian 19
German 20

114 Name: Terje : 2008-07-25 22:34 ID:ked7OkXO

Danish/Dansk - (Mother tongue)Can't write Danish very well, but understand it perfect.

Norwegian/Norsk - (Fluent) I can write perfect Norwegian.

Swedish/Svenska - (Advanced) Swedish is a lot like Norwegian, They can understand eachother with almost no problems.

English (Advanced) I can write perfect English.

Serbian/Srpski (Little more than basic) Can write as much as I can say, because you write it exactly how you pronounce it.

French/Francais (Basic) Had it for about a year. Understand more than I can write.

I can cuss in:

Norwegian 1
Danish 2
Swedish 3
English 4
Spanish 5
French 6
Portuguese 7
Sami 8
Faroese 9
Serbian 10
Albanian 11
Kurdish 12
Arabic 13
Russian 14
Polish 15
Japanese 16
Persian 17
Finnish 18
Somalian 19
German 20

115 Name: Ana : 2010-02-18 03:36 ID:cd0IMPm+

russian - native
english - fluent
spanish - fluent
french - begginer
japanese - for now self study, soon ill start attendin jap courses:)
to learn list >> korean and german:)
im 17

116 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-03-02 04:20 ID:90v+PzTR

>How many languages do you speak?
>and what languages are they?

A few.
English - Fluent
Japanese - Fluent
Dansk - A bit
Suomi - A little bit :p

>why did you learn them?

I was raised in a Japanese/American family :/ One of my newly acquired friends is Danish and I REALLY want to learn Danish <3

>and where?

At home...

>for how long?

Approx. 16 years...

117 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-03-05 05:50 ID:dvRnAb2c

0 = not at all
10 = like a native

English - 10
Japanese - 8
German - 6

118 Name: Sa : 2010-03-06 04:34 ID:nFur5y7d

English, my most fluent language
Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin, so-so since that's my background.
Japanese, self taught and still learning.
French, Beginner level.
Italian, can hold a day-to-day conversation I guess.

119 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-03-11 02:11 ID:rJdscbcm

Turkish: Native (Turkish parents),
Dutch: Fluent (Born and raised in Holland),
English: Fluent,
Japanese: Just started learning.

120 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-03-24 14:45 ID:oFojWuKi

Spanish - Native
English - Pretty much flawless. I've been studying English since the age of 3 and, while my formal studies ended at the age of 16, I still read/write in English on a daily basis (Thank you, Internet!)
Italian - Studied two years and had to quit due to awful time restraints, forgot pretty much everything but re-reading my notebooks in half an hour would likely make all the stuff come back to me.
Japanese - Self-learning dummy. Can make out basic sentences and whatnot, but that's about it.

To-do:

-Latin: Formal studies will begin somewhere this year.
-Japanese: Go somewhere where I can actually begin formal studies before I end up mastering the language out of Rosetta Stone.
-Reinforce my bare knowledge of modern latin languages.
-Hungarian: Why not?
-Russian: Why not?

The beauty of having a language such as Spanish as your mother tongue is that you can "understand" languages such as Portuguese, French, and Italian because they are all latin derivants (Of course, you can't reply back because you don't know a word, but at least you can know how to get into the hotel restrooms without having to crap your pants in the lobby)

121 Name: The Failure I am!YgQRHAJqRA : 2010-04-01 13:07 ID:ISjyPah5

No, seriously, I only know two for good...

1 - English - Mother Language
2 - Cantonese (Dialect of Chinese, spoken in Hong Kong) - Second language I know

I used to know Spanish, but nah, ever since I finished that class... nah, discontinue it >.>

122 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-04-03 02:23 ID:4mR+0fup

English -- native
Japanese -- four years of high school study, though I probably need to start over again at an entry level course
Turkish -- a year 9so far) in college. Thought it might be a fun language to learn - needless to say, it's been interesting

And I really want to learn Finnish. Such a beautiful language to listen to.

123 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-07-14 16:27 ID:fC7fk9xI

My mother language is English (British). I don't know any other languages, but I can recognise and correctly identify several foreign languages, and I'm learning Swedish (I know some words and some basic grammar).

124 Name: Scatterbrain : 2010-08-23 04:17 ID:JO+A084f

My mother tongue is Spanish, but I speak English (I'm studying to become a translator). I am just starting learning Japanese.

125 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-12-20 23:32 ID:gyZbEQOm

I found a web site which your multi linguistic ability works greatly. http://shiroube.com/

Do you know any other reccomendation?

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