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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
What languages do you speak?
