What Language(s) Can You Speak? (for fun)

[Summer_]

English
Spanish
Some Portuguese and German

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I took 2 years of German in college, but it's been a few years since then and I don't feel like I could speak it very well anymore. I started to learn ASL at one point, too, but it's been a while since I've looked at that and I'm very far from communicating beyond letters and maybe a few simple words. I also dabbled a bit in Latin, but never really went anywhere with that.

Only language I can say I'm fluent in is English, and some days I question how fluent I am.

 

[cherrynberry]

You getting latin in school? My 2 youngest did that from 2-8 grades. Nice foundation for many romance languages.

Great foundation for medical terminology and scientific nomenclature too

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

English “we a bit o Yorkshre chucked in fer good measure”

 

[Shadrach]

Living in the country the chosen language is spoken makes an enormous difference when trying to learn that language.
English
Catalan
Reasonable 20 years ago German.

 

[Sussex19]

English and learning Australian English (I am Aussse bred and born, but with a very English background, and homeschooled, so am lacking in that area)
I know a couple of words of German, and would love to learn more when I have the time.

 

[Ruthster55]

- English. Native speaker. Graduate level.

-Spanish - use it daily. Absolutely necessary where I live, which is abroad. Purely utilitarian.

-Russian - occasional. I sometimes use a little bit of Russian with annoying people to avoid giving away a free English lesson. (When they hear Russian, they never get it - just think it's an odd version of English). When someone is being obnoxious with an overestimated skill in English, I start playing around in Russian. English is a valuable skill here, and too many people want lessons for free. Lessons from an educated English speaker like myself aren't free !! They're fairly expensive, but people don't want to pay me for what my skills are worth. My skills in Russian are low enough that I can play around with it and have fun.1

-German - I can't really chat or mess around in German. Can read a little bit. German is what my Dad wanted me to learn, but it didn't work out that way ...

 

[ManueB]

French native.
English : I was nearly bilingual in my teens but didn't practice for almost 30 years...and now I'm nearly fluent.
German : I can hold a basic conversation (though more easily in Berlin than in Munich) and read from a newspaper or a book with the help of a dictionary.
Russian : I was forced to take it for two years in high school. Anything I did manage to learn then, I did during the two months I spent in St-petersburg and Tula. I can understand words and a full sentence every now and then, and painfully decipher Cyrillic. I really wish I had been more studious, now I love the language.
Spanish : I'm just starting to study it now, I was already able to understand and speak basic sentences after the many times I went to Spain on holidays. My goal is to be able to read Cortazar and Garcia Marquez in the original language.

I love to read and to be able to read a book in the language it was written makes a world of difference. Like eating pizza in Italy, or Kebap in Turkey...it just doesn't taste the same.

I'm curious about all you people who only speak one language. Did you never study another language at school, or did you just forget everything about it ?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I'm curious about all you people who only speak one language. Did you never study another language at school, or did you just forget everything about it ?

Yes I did German for 5 years as it was compulsory. It did not interest me in the slightest doing language and was my worst result in exams. I really did not try with it at all. I could maybe count to 10 in German but the rest went in one ear and straight out of the other.

 

[Blue Raptor]

I’m fluent in English. Funny how we don’t call our language ‘American’ when real English people have an accent.

I always thought if I ever had to learn a language it would be Spanish, cause so many more people speak Spanish in America than any other language I think.

Ever since I learned that we were moving to Germany, I’ve been learning German on Duolingo, and searching specific words when I want to know the meaning. I also pick up stuff here and there like ‘Ausgang’ and ‘Ausfahrt’ and ‘Einfahrt’ and ‘bei’ and ‘alles’. I’ve only been learning for about a year and I’m certainly not fluent, but I know more than my mom and dad, so..