What languages do you speak?
 

I know this has been discussed before, but I think it's an interesting topic, and I want to get newer folks involved, too.

What languages do you speak? What languages do you WANT to speak? How did you learn them (family, classes, computer/audio programs)?

I started thinking about it while trying to read some Honduran newspaper articles online today about the military coup (none of the big newspapers I know of - La Prensa, El Heraldo, La Tribuna - offer English translations). I took Spanish in high school, but wow, I can barely read it anymore! I'd really like to work on that.

The only other language I know is American Sign Language, and I'm not all that fluent. I took classes in college (I went to a school with a huge deaf population)... they were taught all in ASL, with writing only when necessary, and NO speaking allowed. It was so much fun! But now that I moved out of Rochester, I never have any opportunities to use it, so it's fading as fast as my Spanish. :)

Hello
I speak portuguese, as I was born in Brazil.
I've been living in USA since 2000 and still learning english. Even though it improved, sometimes I still having trouble with grammar (as you could see in some of my posts) and expressions.
Portuguese is very close to spanish, depending on which country it is from.

I speak French (Not professionaly lol), here in Canada we learn French in school (French is our second language). And english, obviously.

My first language is Greek, as I was born to immigrant parents and it's what we spoke around the house. I'm fairly fluent at it, but I really want to go back to take more classes and expand my vocabulary. My kids want to learn it now.

Since I'm an American, English is my second language. Some might say I'm far too fluent in that.

I studied German in high school, all four years. That was nearly 30 years ago. I can eavesdrop in German.

I grew up in rural Central California, so I know when I'm being insulted in Spanish and Tagalog.

I've lived overseas for the last 11 years, so I can effectively shop in Bahasa Indonesia, I can embarrass myself in Arabic, and I can get into a lot of trouble in Russian. And I know a lot of French and Italian cooking terms.

I'd really love to learn French and Italian, as well as expand on the Greek. Then I want to go sailing around the Mediterranean.

Georgia

English, Choctaw and a little Cajun French (enough to get by on that lol) :)

Je parle anglais et francais, mais prefere anglais!
(I speak English and French but prefer English!)

My French is not that good. I am taking an immersion course in July and then another two full semester French course in college from September-April. After April, we are moving to Quebec and I will be speaking French full-time. Yikes! I learn at school, through movies, television, and my Quebecois DH.

Although it is true that we learn French is school, I grew up on the west coast in Vancouver and most of us switched from French to Japanese or Mandarin Chinese by age 13! Japanese is more useful here.

I speak American English and am fluent also in Dutch. I moved to the Netherlands 16 years ago and did all I could to become fluent, from intensive courses (60 hours in one week) to weekly private lessons (for a year and a half) to just putting myself in personal and professional situations where I had to actually use it.

I understand a lot of German from being exposed to it for several years and taking lessons.

I love languages and have studied Spanish, french, and Japanese as well. I would love to learn Greek, Italian and Czech to name a few! But living in another country means my brain is kind of overloaded as it is with Dutch and English! :lol:

We are starting a beginning Spanish class in the fall. I'm very excited!

Romance Diva -- My great grandmother only spoke Cajun French. My grandfather spoke a rough mixture of Cajun French and English. I know all the bad words. :D

As a young child I lived in Germany, and was fluent. Moved back at 9, and had no cause to use it so I've lost most, though I still have a few words.

Took a year of French - enough to recognize common phrases, etc.

Took several years of Spanish growing up on the border - Was close to fluent by high school, but haven't used it much as an adult, so have lost a lot. However, living in Texas it is returning.

Took 2 years of Latin? Can still translate common terms. Not much use in real life, but can do rough translation on most romance languages between this and the Spanish.

Messed around with Russian for fun, but nothing stuck.

Right now I really want to regain my Spanish, and learn Mandarin Chinese (my employers are Chinese and speak it frequently). Have the Rosetta Stone for both, but the Chinese is HARD!

English! Functional in spoken French! Capable in Italian! Would LOVE to move on to Spanish (I'm always suckered in by the legal ads on tv that advertise "hablamos Espanol" -- cracks me up for some reason, but intrigues me at the same time).
Oh, and Douchelish. VERY fluent in Douchelish...
:)
Kira

English only. I'm making a small attempt at some Hebrew but I'm just starting and I don't know anything yet. I had two years Spanish but I really can't say anything.

English.

I used to be able to speak spanish well enough but lack of practice has broken that. I can still understand and read most of it.

I also used to be fairly good in italian but I really lost that quickly after being out of italian classes.

When I went to greece, I learned a little greece and was able to easily read the alphabet.

I also learned a little mandarin when I went to China but it was really little. The good thing is studying it a bit helped me distiguish word breaks and understand the language from a technical standpoint. Not that it helped me understand the words but I was able to break some words out of a group of words.

I took 3 years of German in high school and feel like I know enough to get the gist of someone talking or in writing, but not enough to speak it. I feel like I've absorbed some spanish just by - existing in this world. Same for Japanese since we watch a lot of Anime and movies from there.
I would love to become fluent in Japanese and Spanish though. And for fun I think Gaelic would be awesome. Oh- and I can cuss you out in Samoan!

English (native language) and German (I studied German in high school and college, but am not fluent, as I've only ever used it in a classroom setting, or occasionally in ebay feedback when I've bought from or sold to someone in Germany).

I would like to learn Gaelic, Hmong, Thai, and ASL

Gaelic, bbecause of my Irish and Scottish heritage.

Hmong, because there's a large Hmong population in Wausau and I'd like to be able to communicate better with the older Hmong Farmers' Market vendors.

Thai because my Hmong friends keep telling my husband and I would love to visit southeast asia, especially Thailand.

And ASL, because my husband tends to sign to me. He's not deaf, but before meeting me, he was engaged for several years to a deaf woman who had three kids (two deaf) and it became second nature to him. Often he will sign to me in crowded or loud environment, and the few signs I do know, really do come in handy for that kind of communication.

I knew a few signs from working with non-verbal children with developmental disabilities. Right now the sign I use most often is the sign for toilet (you make a "t" sign with your fist and shake it). It comes in handy when I want to communicate to my husband, but don't want to announce loudly that I need to find a restroom.

Spanish was my first language, then when I was around 5-6 my parents divorced and my dad remarried a white woman my step-mom forbid Spanish in the house. When my step-mom was out of the house my dad would often speak to me in Spanish, it always made me cry when he did too.

I understand alot can read and write it better, but cannot speak it back, i never understood how I can hear it understand but cannot formulate the response back. I would love to learn french, and Italian

J'étais un étudiant à Nice, en France et français étudié tandis qu'un étudiant.

Sto viaggiando in Italia per circa 20 anni e parlo correttamente italiano.

I studied in Florence for a year and I used to be able to speak Italian well. I go back every once in awhile for around 3 weeks and I can usually understand most everything by the end of my stay. I am not very good at speaking other languages and studying Italian was really hard for me. Some people have a special gift for language and I wish I did too. :)

My first language is French. I am French-Canadian. Married to a man from Germany. Studied German for 6 years. Lived in Germany for 2 years. Also lived in Mexico for 2 years, where I kept busy attending the local University taking Spanish classes on a daily basis for 2 years.

I know a little Norwegian. I learned through books. I would like to continue that. I would also like to learn Finnish.

My first language is German (born in Germany-moved to the U.S. when I was 3). My first word in English was cookie! No wonder I'm here at 3FC!

Anyway, I grew up speaking German at home and English outside home.

I would love to learn Italian, but I may be going to Spain next year, so I need to work on that.

English, obviously, and really basic Spanish... enough to get me by by picking out words and phrases, etc. I'm half Mexican but since my parents got divorced when I was a baby, I was only around Spanish half the time, and that usually ended up being when I was in trouble and they were yelling at me! Lol! Fortunately, my grandfather spoke "Spanglish" mostly and incorporated a lot of Spanish in his English sentences so I learned the basic stuff that way.

I also know probably about 50 to 75 words in Hindi (a good 10 to 15 of them are swear words! lol!) and have an ear for it now... due to my dating a guy from India then and currently (different guys though! lol!) , then having many long time friends from the same country. I'm on my way to visit there in about 5 months as well... can't wait! :)

I'd like to finish learning Spanish, Hindi... and also learn Italian and French. Ah, one day. :)

What languages do you speak?
English, ASL, Spanish

What languages do you WANT to speak?
Japanese, French, Korean

How did you learn them (family, classes, computer/audio programs)?
Family, friends, college (degree/profession ASL/Deaf Studies)

Hei hei! That should start you off! :D

English of course (Im British), high school French which I havent used in over 10 years but Im sure I can recall enough to get by if we ever went on holiday. I also did German but I think thats proberly long gone.

I also speak Finnish, though not so well as I could do. Its a very hard language :dizzy:

I am fluent in spanish, and I took Latin in high school. Now I am pretty proficient in ASL that I had to learn on my own, but finally took a few classes... I use it every day at work though! I also can't speak them very well, but I understand some german and unkranian! My grandparents always wanted us to learn but they are not easy languages! And Obviously english!

I'm half American, Half Filipino (Philippines).

I've studied Spanish, French, Latin, Homeric Greek, and Sinhala (Sri Lanka) but I can barely speak any of them.

What resources do you guys use to learn languages at home? I want to learn Italian and French!

What languages do you speak?
English, Hindi and Kashmiri (all fluent)

What languages do you WANT to speak?
Spanish (colombian) for now but I have no clue where to begin. Hubby is half Colombian half Polish but he cannot speak either Spanish or Polish. Although, he understands few words in Spanish. When we go to some family gatherings I'd like to understand what they're talking rather than constantly ask for translation :D

How did you learn them (family, classes, computer/audio programs)?
Family


starfishkitty, Where are you going in India? I'm going mid October for a wedding.

I speak English fluently and very very little Spanish, French and Greek.

Oh and I have Rosetta Stone for French and Spanish but I am so lazy and have never even tried them yet :|

Spanish is my first language.

English.


I would like to learn more Arabic, I can say some words but I can't read or write it. Also Portuguese.

Jeg snakker litt Norsk. I've been there 4 times and mostly learned by immersion. I also worked as a nanny in Denmark for a year after college, so learned Danish also. They are quite similar actually and if you understand one you can understand the other. Danish is more unnatural to speak because it is so guttural and lacks the "melody" that Norwegian has. Finnish is completely different from Norwegian, Swedish or Danish - I don't understand one word of it!!

I don't have a burning desire to lean another language...but Spanish would be the most useful in my work environment.

English (mother tongue) and Hebrew. I learned Hebrew while living in Israel (for 10 years). I studied French for 3 years, but unfortunately remember very little of it.

I'd love to relearn French in addition to Japanese and Yiddish.

I speak English (native language), functional in French & some Lithuanian. I would like to improve my Lithuanian & maybe learn Spanish.

Studied to be a translator in college, still working on that though.

I speak German and sort of speak French, though I don't use French often enough. I studied Spanish and Latin in grade school. I can read a bit of Russian and Polish, not much. I've been working on Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish on my own for the past few years. I used books and CDs and watched movies and listened to music in languages to learn them, mostly, before or instead of taking classes. I lived in Germany for a while also.

I try to use German every day though, and French when I think of it, but I am mostly focusing on Danish and Norwegian now.

Anything on amazon.com that has books and CDs both, and as many as possible.

I DON'T recommend Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone so much however, just because these are way overpriced and you are better off getting various books and CDs which use the same sorts of methods. I like the Colloquial and Teach Yourself series, and these can be had for cheap if you get them used. Also a good dictionary is important, not one of the little cheapie ones. And above all, exposing yourself to the language as much as possible doing FUN stuff. Watching movies, listening to music, and later, reading good novels/magazines/websites rather than making it a chose doing exercises out of books. I think the results are just faster if you bombard yourself with as many things as possible, listening to music in the language and buying a bunch of different books/audio CDs rather than just one program.