# How many languages do you speak/study?



## Posie

It looks like I should have listed 3 as an option, and then 4 or more.

That's my American-ness coming out. 

For me, English (native), Spanish (intermediate-high), and German (novice-high).


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## aleazk

Three: Spanish, English and French.

Although I only write and speak fluently the first two.


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## OldFashionedGirl

Spanish (my maternal language) and english.


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## Celloissimo

English is my native tongue and I'm a fluent German speaker.


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## Morimur

OldFashionedGirl said:


> Spanish (my maternal language) and english.


Que ondas, tia?


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## Marcel

Spanish is my idiom and English more or less.


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## musicrom

English, Russian, and French. Although my French is only from school, so I can speak/write/read pretty well, but I have a lot of trouble understanding what people are saying in natural conversation.

I also have very limited knowledge of Spanish and Italian - I'm nowhere near fluent, but I get my point across to a native speaker, although I would probably have to complicate phrases way too much with my small vocabulary.


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## SixFootScowl

I only speak English, but my wife and two kids are at varying levels in Spanish and are good enough to communicate fairly well with Spanish speaking people. Why do they all know so much Spanish and I don't? Because they were home schooled doing it and I was at work. None of us has any Spanish blood though. Wife just thought it a good language for the kids to learn and had taken several years in high school.


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## Morimur

I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


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## Piwikiwi

Dutch (my native tongue), English and I'm currently studying German.

I still want to learn French, Latin and one of the nordic languages


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## Tristan

English is the only language I can speak fluently. I can form basic sentences in Japanese (and will be studying it more in college).

I study Latin and Ancient Greek, though I don't speak them. But I've done a lot of English-to-Latin writing.


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## Lukecash12

Well there's Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic, Latin, Koine Greek, Attic Greek, ancient Hebrew... that's about it, only those few. Gotta read more books (books are my crack cocaine, I mean it's bad sometimes I forget to even eat all day when I have the day off), you know, and imo these are where I've found the best literature, especially Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. But with that said Arabic has been growing on me more lately as I read Averroes, Shiraz, and Mulla Sadra (Islamic neoplatonists).


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## science

I do ok in English, and I've also studied French, Spanish, ancient Greek, Romanian, Thai, and Korean, but the truth is I wouldn't try to do much in any of those languages. French and Spanish come back to me fairly quickly when I'm in a country where they are the main languages, usually within a few days, but as soon as I leave I seem to forget everything. I can have a respectable conversation in Korean, as long as we stick to topics like the weather or food - not politics, philosophy, religion, anything like that.


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## science

Lope de Aguirre said:


> I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


In American, you don't use the apostrophe in that sort of "its." You need to study up, boy. Your gonna get yourself in trouble with them city 'postrophes.


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## Lukecash12

Lope de Aguirre said:


> I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


Amurrrica! Amen brother, now I'll have to grab a tall can and feeshin pole to do some justice to that awesomesauce.


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## SiegendesLicht

Russian, English, learning German and planning on learning some more in the future.

And there is also that language that is supposed to be my native one, Belarussian, but I don't remember when was the last time I spoke it.


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## Art Rock

My native Dutch and English, and close to fluent in German. I can follow the gist of discussions and publications in French, and do some conversation in it. I know a few lines in mandarin and shanghainese, enough to amuse my wife and her family, not enough to do anything with it.


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## Crudblud

I speak English. I have learned bits of French, German, Italian, Japanese and Gaeilge. My French teacher at secondary school said I had a natural affinity for language, but unfortunately I've never been able to keep up my studies; I can't concentrate in group studies (I feel uncomfortable being in a room with lots of people) and I find it difficult to maintain long term focus when attempting to study at home. I like to include multilingual compounds in my writing because they amuse me, and one of my manuscripts draws heavily on pidgins of Gaeilge, French, German, and romanised Arabic and Sanskrit, but I don't have a formal grasp of any of the languages I use.


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## ptr

Native Swedish and Russian, decent English, German, Danish and Norwegian, can "Tourist" myself around in Italian, Spanish and basic Arabic.

/ptr


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## mirepoix

I lived and worked in Russia for five years and so I eventually became fluent enough. I even picked up a few words of Udmurt. But it was a struggle because I'm _not academically gifted._ When I left I promised myself I'd keep immersed in it by listening to Russian radio via the Internet. Ah, I never did. I think my heart wasn't in it and so now my Russian is all gone. Funnily enough, sometimes I see a report from Russia on the news and find myself translating without realising it.
After that I was with a French woman. I picked up some French from her. But she spoke English better than I do.
My girlfriend is half Danish. Sometimes she'll say "Tak" instead of "Thanks", but for the most part she only speaks English and I get the impression Danish isn't the easiest language to learn.


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## hpowders

I speak Brooklyn English. When I order coughee in Florida or California, nobody knows what I'm talking about.


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## Jos

Dutch and English, and I won't starve in Germany.
I want to learn Italian.

Cheers,
Jos


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I can speak some English and some French. I aspire to learn Spanish one day too.


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## Il_Penseroso

Persian is my native language, very proud of it! I can speak German and English, just a little bit of Italian and even less of French. I wish to learn also Russian, Norwegian, Latin and Avestan someday.


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## violadude

English, and casually studying Thai.


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## Levanda

My native is Lithuanian, fluent Russian. Oh my English is terrible.


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## mirepoix

^^^^ perhaps your English isn't what you want it to be (yet) but it's certainly not 'Terrible'.


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## Varick

Lope de Aguirre said:


> I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


Yeah, I talk good too.



Lukecash12 said:


> *Well there's Sanskrit, Arabic, Aramaic, Latin, Koine Greek, Attic Greek, ancient Hebrew... that's about it, only those few*. Gotta read more books (books are my crack cocaine, I mean it's bad sometimes I forget to even eat all day when I have the day off), you know, and imo these are where I've found the best literature, especially Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. But with that said Arabic has been growing on me more lately as I read Averroes, Shiraz, and Mulla Sadra (Islamic neoplatonists).


That's it????? Slacker!!!!

I'm only fluent in English and of course Pig Latin. Having traveled all over the world I know a few words in a boatload of languages. I admire anyone who can speak, read, and/or write in two or more languages.


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## Ingélou

Just English, I'm afraid, with a smattering of French and Latin left over from school. Being a Francophile, I really want to learn French again, though.

At one point Taggart & I made an attempt to learn Irish Gaelic (Donegal dialect) as his forebears hail from there. We had the audiotapes set up ready in the dining room, and got on quite well, asking each other earnestly every morning how we were and whether either of us wanted to go to Ardara, and affirming how much we loved chicken and seafood.

But then we moved house and didn't have a room to devote to language study - the highlight of the whole course was that once, when we were in the butchers' shop in Annagary, a village in The Rosses, Donegal, the butcher told us in Gaelic that the bill was five pounds (cuig phunt) and followed it up by asking in English if we understood. Proudly, we answered (in Erse) that 'we are learning Gaelic, but it is hard' and he seemed suitably impressed!

Oh yes, and mustn't forget (though I *have* ) the koine Greek I learned for my AS Religious Studies exam. The highlight of this experience was that a few months later, as I was sitting outside The Red Lion in Southwold, I was reading a packet of Walker's crisps aimed at the Greek market, and found that I could decipher the list of ingredients - after all, potatoes might be newer, but salt and oil are very New Testament things!


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## TurnaboutVox

I am a native Scots-English speaker, but I'm fluent in Doric, a dialect of Old Scots, i.e. of old English, originally, still (just about) spoken in Aberdeen and North East Scotland. 

I have enough French to get by, and rusty tourist Spanish, Italian and (less convincingly) German. I made no headway at all with Swedish or Dutch* before and during holidays in Sweden and Holland (they spoke English, with very few exceptions, anyway) and I didn't really attempt Czech ('pivo czerny' is 'dark beer', though!).

I don't speak or understand 'AMERICAN', sorry Lope 



*Though, interestingly, there are common words in old Scots / Doric and Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages, so I could kind of understand a bit of what was written (not necessarily said) in those languages. They all used to trade together by sea, and no doubt adopted each other's words.


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## Posie

Jos said:


> Dutch and English, and I won't starve in Germany.
> I want to learn Italian.


I probably _will_ starve when I go to Germany. I'll have to keep repeating "Haben Sie etwas ohne Fleisch?"


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## science

Ingélou said:


> At one point Taggart & I made an attempt to learn Irish Gaelic (Donegal dialect) as his forebears hail from there. We had the audiotapes set up ready in the dining room, and got on quite well, asking each other earnestly every morning how we were and whether either of us wanted to go to Ardara, and affirming how much we loved chicken and seafood.


That's funny - it's funny how the elementary examples for learners have things like that.

If you'd done classical Greek, it would've been:

"Did Homer sacrifice a goat in the marketplace?"

"The priests sacrificed a goat in the marketplace."

"O Socrates, did you sacrifice many goats in word and deed?"

I actually got good enough at ancient Greek to sort of read _Medea_! And now, a mere fifteen years later, I can't even ask Homer to sacrifice a goat in word and deed.


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## Antiquarian

I speak English and American, I am pretty fluent in French ( I can read it better than I can speak it ) and have taken university Latin. Of Latin, the only thing I remember is walking around with my mates and pointing out girls: "Puella Est Pulchra".


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## mirepoix

^^^^^ 'Puella Est Pulchra' - *scribbles it down furiously*


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## science

mirepoix said:


> ^^^^^ 'Puella Est Pulchra' - *scribbles it down furiously*


My Spanish really took off one day in church when I was able to look at my cousin and say, "la chica es bonita" and we effectively had our own private language. (It was West Virginia, so....) After that, we studied.

We really had our own private language when we good good at switching initial consonant sounds - (Thike lis, once you stet garted you gan co feally rast (chell speck is hot melping me night row!) - in Spanish. There were three of us that could do it, but it really wasn't very useful since once you start that everyone assumes you're saying something terrible about them. Or maybe that's partially because we were teenage boys....


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## Lukecash12

science said:


> My Spanish really took off one day in church when I was able to look at my cousin and say, "la chica es bonita" and we effectively had our own private language. (It was West Virginia, so....) After that, we studied.
> 
> We really had our own private language when we good good at switching initial consonant sounds - (Thike lis, once you stet garted you gan co feally rast (chell speck is hot melping me night row!) - in Spanish. There were three of us that could do it, but it really wasn't very useful since once you start that everyone assumes you're saying something terrible about them. Or maybe that's partially because we were teenage boys....


Aaaaaah!!! Do you know how much that hurts your brain when you are dyslexic? It took me over a minute to read that one sentence.

Btw, do you guys know what happens when you're an agnostic dyslexic insomniac? You stay up all night wondering if there really is a dog.


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## Antiquarian

Lope de Aguirre said:


> I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


I've just read this and I have regretably come to the conclusion that I speak neither English nor American, but a strange hybrid full of transatlancticisms, akin perhaps to Spanglish. But what do I call it? Englishican?


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## Mahlerian

I speak and read native (American) English and speak and read (relatively) fluent Japanese. I can speak and read halting basic German. It drops from there, of course, but I'm sure I could pick up more if I went for it.


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## Posie

Antiquarian said:


> I've just read this and I have regretably come to the conclusion that I speak neither English nor American, but a strange hybrid full of transatlancticisms, akin perhaps to Spanglish. But what do I call it? Englishican?


Good point! I should probably add Espanglés and Denglisch to my language list. ...or put them in place of Spanish and German.


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## SiegendesLicht

marinasabina said:


> Good point! I should probably add Espanglés and Denglisch to my language list. ...or put them in place of Spanish and German.


Just wanted to say: I hate Denglisch. German rules of reading and letter - sound correspondence are very regular and uncomplicated, they really should not be confused by introducing words with a quite different letter - sound correspondence.


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## TxllxT

Fluent - Dutch, English, Czech (I studied at the Charles' university of Prague), German
A bit less than fluent - French
Runner up & studying - Russian
For reading & interpreting - Latin, Greek, Hebrew


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## omega

It looks like quite a lot of TC members know some classical Greek! It is the richest and most interesting language I've ever been confronted to.
As foreign languages, I can speak English (what a surprise...) and German - and I'm still learning. And I have a few memories of my Latin lessons.


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## Andreas

I speak German, English and The Worst French in History. My goal is to become good enough at it so that one day I can read Flaubert and Houellebecq in the original. Other languages I'd like to speak: Polish and Italian. Maybe if I live long enough.


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## JACE

I'm ashamed to admit that I only speak my native (American) English well.

I studied Russian in college, hoping to read Tolstoy, Chekhov and other Russian masters по русски. But I didn't stick with it after I'd finished the basic courses required for my degree. That was a long time ago, and now my Russian has flown away completely! 

I've also studied a little Spanish and a little German, but, for the most part, they're gone too. As they say, "Use it or lose it."


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## science

Anyone that wants a fun language to learn should check out Korean. Pretty much any assumption that we're gonna bring to languages after learning things like English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Greek, Latin... out the window. Rather than articles and countable nouns and subject-verb agreement you've got degrees of respect (you can't end a sentence without knowing how old you are relative to your listener) and attitude markers (do you anticipate that your listener agrees with your statement, or that it is a surprise to her, or that you're surprised, or what?). The prepositions go after the nouns. (Nouns after prepositions go.) To top it all off, clauses turn into adjectives: "the woman who wants to marry ate the apple I put on the table" becomes "the marry-wanting woman I table-on-put apple ate (as I was surprised to learn, younger person)." 

It's beautiful because it totally makes sense once you get it, but it's absolutely as mind-blowing as anything could be. 

It's also beautiful because ordinary native speakers of Korean need bajillions of hours of practice to figure out a language like English, so until China takes over my wife and I have a bit of job security!


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## Posie

I really want to learn Mandarin, Korean, Tai, and Japanese, but I find them all very intimidating! Same goes with Russian and Arabic. Pretty much ANY language that doesn't use the Latin alphabet.  I guess we all have to start somewhere.


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## TresPicos

I only speak Swedish. I don't know any English whatsoever. This is all done by Google Translate. You come correct so long with the.


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## Mahlerian

science said:


> Anyone that wants a fun language to learn should check out Korean. Pretty much any assumption that we're gonna bring to languages after learning things like English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Greek, Latin... out the window. Rather than articles and countable nouns and subject-verb agreement you've got degrees of respect (you can't end a sentence without knowing how old you are relative to your listener) and attitude markers (do you anticipate that your listener agrees with your statement, or that it is a surprise to her, or that you're surprised, or what?). The prepositions go after the nouns. (Nouns after prepositions go.) To top it all off, clauses turn into adjectives: "the woman who wants to marry ate the apple I put on the table" becomes "the marry-wanting woman I table-on-put apple ate (as I was surprised to learn, younger person)."
> 
> It's beautiful because it totally makes sense once you get it, but it's absolutely as mind-blowing as anything could be.
> 
> It's also beautiful because ordinary native speakers of Korean need bajillions of hours of practice to figure out a language like English, so until China takes over my wife and I have a bit of job security!


I know this is a sore subject with a lot of Koreans (and for _very_ good reason!), but the language is grammatically and conceptually quite similar to Japanese, correct? The orthography is certainly different, though...

The Koreans I've known who studied Japanese had a far easier time with it than any Japanese people have with English.

By the way, does Korean have the same tendency as Japanese to leave subjects implied by context rather than stated outright? For people who aren't aware, in certain contexts a conversation such as:

"Where did he go?"
"To the store, for some eggs"

(already compacted as much as proper English allows) can become

"Where went?"
"For buy eggs, to store."


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## aleazk

TresPicos said:


> I only speak Swedish. I don't know any English whatsoever. This is all done by Google Translate. You come correct so long with the.


Yeah, Ich too. Google Translate the better is. Mon English no es very good, thank Gods for Google Translate, a stool useful for person like me. Have a rice day!


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## mmsbls

I speak only English. I took the important language, Latin, in high school, but later I couldn't find enough native Latin speakers to hone my skills. Actually we hardly even spoke the language in class. I also took 4 years of Spanish, but I can hardly speak any Spanish and certainly can't understand spoken Spanish. So my answer in 1.


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## aleazk

mmsbls said:


> I speak only English. I took the important language, Latin, in high school, but later I couldn't find enough native Latin speakers to hone my skills. Actually we hardly even spoke the language in class. I also took 4 years of Spanish, but I can hardly speak any Spanish and certainly can't understand spoken Spanish. So my answer in 1.


You can try Newton's Principia.


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## hpowders

For you Latin lovers, don't give up! The glory of ancient Rome may someday rise again!


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## Huilunsoittaja

Cool to see Russian speakers on this forum! That's a language I wish I could learn 

I speak English (my first language) and pretty well Spanish (learned in school). I'm starting to forget details about grammar and much vocabulary, but some refreshing of the memory will bring much of it back. I could speak to a Spanish-speaking person slowly, although it's hard to understand fast speaking. Reading and writing Spanish I am best at.


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## science

Mahlerian said:


> I know this is a sore subject with a lot of Koreans (and for _very_ good reason!), but the language is grammatically and conceptually quite similar to Japanese, correct? The orthography is certainly different, though...
> 
> The Koreans I've known who studied Japanese had a far easier time with it than any Japanese people have with English.
> 
> By the way, does Korean have the same tendency as Japanese to leave subjects implied by context rather than stated outright? For people who aren't aware, in certain contexts a conversation such as:
> 
> "Where did he go?"
> "To the store, for some eggs"
> 
> (already compacted as much as proper English allows) can become
> 
> "Where went?"
> "For buy eggs, to store."


I've heard, from people who ought to know, that Japanese and Korean have very similar syntax, but I don't know anything about it myself.

In Korean, you can leave subjects and/or objects implied as long as the meaning is clear. So instead of saying "I love you" you can basically just say the verb "love." Or, "love?" would probably mean, "Do you love me?" but perhaps in some situation, "Do you love her?" And so on.


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## schigolch

Usually, I can make myself understood in Spanish, English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.


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## science

Since I'm dishing on Korean, let me share what is my favorite thing about Korean. 

There is a grunt-ish sound, "unh," which can mean "yes" or "ok." With a different intonation it can express surprise, like "really?" or "Oh, I see!" Or with a different intonation, it can express something like, "Of course." And with a yet another intonation, a question, "what?" It's actually very similar to English speakers using "yeah" and "uh-huh" and "un-un" and "huh?" (If you think about it, we have at least three kinds of "huh?" One is, "what did you say?" Another is, "Really? That surprises me." A third means something like, "That really surprises me. I'm interested to know more.") 

Finally, when they answer a phone call from someone they know, they can use it for hello; and no matter who they're talking to, they might not say something like "goodbye" when the call is over. 

So every day you can actually hear phone conversations like this: 

"Unh? Unh. Unh. Unh? Unh. Unh? Unh. Unh. Unh." 

And then they hang up.


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## Itullian

One, I think.


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## TurnaboutVox

Andreas said:


> I speak German, English and The Worst French in History. My goal is to become good enough at it so that one day I can read Flaubert and* Houellebecq *in the original. Other languages I'd like to speak: Polish and Italian. Maybe if I live long enough.


One Michel Houellebecq novel translated into English was quite enough for me!


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## Mahlerian

science said:


> In Korean, you can leave subjects and/or objects implied as long as the meaning is clear. So instead of saying "I love you" you can basically just say the verb "love." Or, "love?" would probably mean, "Do you love me?" but perhaps in some situation, "Do you love her?" And so on.


Ah, so it is similar, then. Thanks.

Adding to my original post, I learned a few words of Mandarin from flashcards, but unfortunately the only one I remember well enough is "dammit", which seems like a bit of an odd choice for beginning language learning...


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## Ingélou

My Cantonese room mate taught me some phrases. I could say 'How are you' with pretty good tone production, to the extent that it would draw an enthusiastic reply from any Hong Kong person I met, and I'd then have to admit my ignorance!


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## thetrout

Currently learning Japanese. Know Latin but more in a literary sense.


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## Levanda

Many posters interesting in Tolstoy, you can listening his short speech in English recorded in 1908. Not perfect quality, give a good credit is long time ago.
http://reportage.su/audio/25


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## science

Ingélou said:


> My Cantonese room mate taught me some phrases. I could say 'How are you' with pretty good tone production, to the extent that it would draw an enthusiastic reply from any Hong Kong person I met, and I'd then have to admit my ignorance!


That's funny! I can say "chicken fried rice" in Mandarin!


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## meredull

As a linguistics M.A. student, I am native in Turkish, advanced in English, intermediate in French, Modern Greek, and Russian, beginner in German, Italian and Persian and completely forgot Japanese


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## Couac Addict

French, English, German and Italian. I've picked up little _Kung Fu Cantonese_ from watching movies but the only difference between it and English is that you move your mouth a lot more.


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## mtmailey

I am learning to speak japanese now but reading the kanji may take a while for me.Here is the book i started reading today.


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## Xaltotun

Finnish, English, Swedish, German, French, some little Latin.


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## Crudblud

Couac Addict said:


> French, English, German and Italian. I've picked up little _Kung Fu Cantonese_ from watching movies but the only difference between it and English is that you move your mouth a lot more.


Do you favour saying aloud what you are going to do right before you do it? I've had some debates with other Kung Fu Cantonese scholars on the matter, always inconclusive, of course. To me, while it might sound cool to shout "seven star dragon attack!" before sending a foe to his doom, in domestic usage I've found such declarations as "nutritionally balanced breakfast!" and "impending bowel movement!" to be pushing it a little.


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## Klavierspieler

Native English, pretty good German, pretty bad French, and really bad Dutch and Spanish.

"I talk good 'Murican."
"Ich spreche ziemlich gut Deutsch."
"Je parle mauvais français."
"Ik ben een Amerikaan."
"Yo soy una manzana."


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## Lukecash12

science said:


> Since I'm dishing on Korean, let me share what is my favorite thing about Korean.
> 
> There is a grunt-ish sound, "unh," which can mean "yes" or "ok." With a different intonation it can express surprise, like "really?" or "Oh, I see!" Or with a different intonation, it can express something like, "Of course." And with a yet another intonation, a question, "what?" It's actually very similar to English speakers using "yeah" and "uh-huh" and "un-un" and "huh?" (If you think about it, we have at least three kinds of "huh?" One is, "what did you say?" Another is, "Really? That surprises me." A third means something like, "That really surprises me. I'm interested to know more.")
> 
> Finally, when they answer a phone call from someone they know, they can use it for hello; and no matter who they're talking to, they might not say something like "goodbye" when the call is over.
> 
> So every day you can actually hear phone conversations like this:
> 
> "Unh? Unh. Unh. Unh? Unh. Unh? Unh. Unh. Unh."
> 
> And then they hang up.


And that is man talk brought to perfection. Between me and my brother we can carry on with grunts half the time, it frustrates the hell out of women but makes perfect sense to us.


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## Badinerie

I only speak English I find however when Im on the continent, if i speak very loudly and put the letter 'O' on the end of everything I get what I ask for...I am however surprised that 20% of posters polled admitted to speaking Elizabethan English. All I can say to that is Huzzah! and well met. Fare thee well, God save thee I shall see thee on the morrow.


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## Headphone Hermit

Lope de Aguirre said:


> I speak the bestest language ever invented; it's called AMERICAN! And you don't know jack unless you speak the language of the greatest country on this here green earth!


When I was working with some Dutch teachers, they told me the following joke:

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? - _bilingual_. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? - _trilingual_. What do you call someone who only speaks one language? - _English_. Clearly the answer is only partially accurate!


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## Headphone Hermit

Hmmm! 

As well as English, I can also speak Polish (the only one who has admitted it so far, I think) and some French from school. I want to start language lessons next month, but the choice of evening classes is depressingly small in this small town.


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## Posie

Headphone Hermit said:


> When I was working with some Dutch teachers, they told me the following joke:
> 
> What do you call someone who speaks two languages? - _bilingual_. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? - _trilingual_. What do you call someone who only speaks one language? - _English_. Clearly the answer is only partially accurate!


Americans are also the butt of that joke, but that is slowly beginning to change (thank goodness, it's high time!).

I love hearing Polish. I had a Spanish professor who was from Poland. Hearing Spanish spoken with a Slavic language accent is beautiful.


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## Überstürzter Neumann

My mother tongue is Norwegian. I master English, German, Romanian and French fairly well. Needless to say I also speak and understand Swedish and Danish. I would like to learn Polish.


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## Andreas

I would also like to learn sign language so that I can eavesdrop from afar.


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## cwarchc

reasonably fluent in northern English, a small bit in Afrikaans (I can swear and cuss) it's what I picked up living in SA for 5 years, and an even smaller bit of Polish (off my dad)


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## Bet

English and Spanish. I would like to learn Italian or Portuguese.


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## Giordano

I speak a couple and know a couple more.
Currently I am studying Mandarin by watching Chinese martial arts dramas.


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## MoonlightSonata

My native language is English, but English English as opposed to American English.
I study Spanish, French, Italian, German, Latin and Dutch. I might be a bit too obsessed with languages...


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## brianvds

cwarchc said:


> reasonably fluent in northern English, a small bit in Afrikaans (I can swear and cuss) it's what I picked up living in SA for 5 years, and an even smaller bit of Polish (off my dad)


Ag nee, Jissis. Vlieg in jou moer in.


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## cwarchc

brianvds said:


> Ag nee, Jissis. Vlieg in jou moer in.


ek kan nie pratt Afrikaans

slegs n klein bietjie

And my written is even worse


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## Richannes Wrahms

I've only seriously studied my mother tongue and my second language. I can fluently speak those two, and more or less communicate in a third one but I can read some other Germanic and most Romance languages, which is something I discovered 'by accident'. At the moment I'm intrigued by the possibility of learning to speak a tonal language like Cantonese.


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## composira

First language is Korean but it's not the best. I've only been using regular everyday vocabulary with my family and I learned practically everything in English so I don't know fancy terms. 
Second (?) language is English but it's better than my first.
And then I'm studying French.


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## ClassicalMusicYouTube

German (native), English, Latin, Ancient Greek and a little bit of Dutch.


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## SiegendesLicht

I don't know where else to put it, so I'll just leave it here.

The other day I had a debate with a friend of mine who is going to enroll her 4 or 5-year-old kid in an English course for kindergartners. Her side of the argument was that at this age the kids' brains are much more easily adaptable to a new language, they soak it up like a sponge, and pretty much the only way someone can learn a foreign language to fluency is when he is exposed to it from an early age. 

My side of the argument went like this: the only way a kid can learn a foreign language at an early age is when his surroundings are completely bilingual, when he hears one language from parents and another one on the playground, or one language from mum and another one from dad etc. Three or four hours a week of that English course are nowhere near enough and will hardly be helpful at all. If you cannot provide a truly bilingual environment, it is better to put off language classes until the kid is much older, and serious study preferably until his teens. Then the kid's abstract thinking will be developed enough to allow him to understand grammar rules and apply them to various situations, and most important of all, he will have discipline and inner motivation, knowing exactly why he needs to learn the subject in question, and what exactly he needs to do in order to succeed.

What do y'all think?


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## Taggart

Bit like playing an instrument - start 'em young when they don't \ can't understand the theory but know what sounds good and let 'em rip. I go with the early sponge idea. Yes, being in a bilingual situation helps, but early exposure works wonders.


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## Lord Lance

I speak and write in four:
1. English
2. Gujarati
3. Hindi
4. French

I understand ^^^^ + Kutchi

Future:
6. German [Absolutely necessary for hardcore listeners like I]


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## Ingélou

I agree with the 'sponge' principle. Children are very quick at learning languages, or enough to get by; this will then make the experience of learning grammar later on click into place.


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## Dim7

_SiegendesLicht's friend_: "pretty much the only way someone can learn *a foreign language to fluency* when he is exposed to it from an early age."

"pretty much the only way someone can learn a *perfectly native-like accent* is when he is exposed to it from an early age."

Fixed.


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## Dim7

SiegendesLicht said:


> I don't know where else to put it, so I'll just leave it here.
> 
> The other day I had a debate with a friend of mine who is going to enroll her 4 or 5-year-old kid in an English course for kindergartners. Her side of the argument was that at this age the kids' brains are much more easily adaptable to a new language, they soak it up like a sponge, and pretty much the only way someone can learn a foreign language to fluency is when he is exposed to it from an early age.
> 
> My side of the argument went like this: the only way a kid can learn a foreign language at an early age is when his surroundings are completely bilingual, when he hears one language from parents and another one on the playground, or one language from mum and another one from dad etc. Three or four hours a week of that English course are nowhere near enough and will hardly be helpful at all. If you cannot provide a truly bilingual environment, it is better to put off language classes until the kid is much older, and serious study preferably until his teens. Then the kid's abstract thinking will be developed enough to allow him to understand grammar rules and apply them to various situations, and most important of all, he will have discipline and inner motivation, knowing exactly why he needs to learn the subject in question, and what exactly he needs to do in order to succeed.
> 
> What do y'all think?


Now that I think about it I was on a similar English course around that age. Can't say it was terribly helpful, though the word "bum" stuck to my mind very well after that! But that might have been because the course wasn't good enough, or even more likely because it didn't last long enough. On the other hand I learned tremendous amount of English by playing video games throughout elementary school and to a lesser extend from the actual lessons in school.


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## scratchgolf

I can speak English, order a beer in German, navigate Paris with my French, get cursed out in Spanish, curse someone out in Italian, and know a few words in Pashto and Arabic. I actually understand Spanish quite well but can't speak much. Enough to get what I need though. My wife is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese.


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## Giordano

SiegendesLicht said:


> The other day I had a debate with a friend of mine who is going to enroll her 4 or 5-year-old kid in an English course for kindergartners.
> 
> What do y'all think?


Good instruction and good instructor and continuous instruction for many years will be very good. For linguistically gifted kids, it may be enough for later near-fluency.


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## Piwikiwi

Giordano said:


> Good instruction and good instructor and continuous instruction for many years will be very good. For linguistically gifted kids, it may be enough for later near-fluency.


Or let them play video games, read books and watch movies in English. Worked for me.


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## SarahNorthman

I personally only know English. Though I am dabbling in Swedish for now with a goal of learning it entirely. As well as Spanish(for obvious reasons) and Japanese.


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## GhenghisKhan

I speak english and french fluently. I can speak a smidgerin of spanish (I think if I were immersed for say 3 or 4 months, I would be become fluent relatively fast). I can read it OK (with occasional help from the dictionary).

Currently studying cambodian


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## SiegendesLicht

Piwikiwi said:


> Or let them play video games, read books and watch movies in English. Worked for me.


For me it was books mostly (the first one I have ever read in English was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" before it was ever translated into Russian), and they helped a lot too, especially with the tricky English spelling.


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## hpowders

I learned how to say "Get the ___ out of here!!" in Swedish when I broke up with my Swedish girlfriend.
Some people have absolutely no sense of humor.


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## ptr

hpowders said:


> I learned how to say "Get the ___ out of here!!" in Swedish when I broke up with my Swedish girlfriend.
> Some people have absolutely no sense of humor.


Yea, lets hear it then! Learning Swedish is one of the most important things one can do in life... 

/ptr


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## Piwikiwi

SiegendesLicht said:


> For me it was books mostly (the first one I have ever read in English was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" before it was ever translated into Russian), and they helped a lot too, *especially with the tricky English spelling*.


English spelling got easier for me once I accepted that it doesn't make sense.


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## hpowders

ptr said:


> Yea, lets hear it then! Learning Swedish is one of the most important things one can do in life...
> 
> /ptr


It was a long time ago, but perhaps "Få fan av här!!" This is only for illustrative purposes.
One of the weaknesses of an internet forum: you will have to imagine the venom that was supplied with it.:tiphat:


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## SiegendesLicht

ptr said:


> Learning Swedish is one of the most important things one can do in life... /ptr


I used to feel this way about German.... in fact I still do.


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## Vaneyes

English, French, Golf.


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## Yoshi

I speak portuguese and english. 
I can speak italian with my italian bf and I've been taking classes for a few years but I wouldn't say I'm fluent yet because I'm still learning. I had 4 years of french but I forgot almost all of it. I'm trying to learn russian at the moment. 
Oh and like many portuguese people I can understand spanish just fine... I would only be able to reply in portuguese tho.


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## SarahNorthman

Since this question is related to this topic, I will ask, what is a good way to get started on a new language. (And yes I do know that everyone learns differently.)


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## Valkhafar

English (native), German, Swedish, French. And I am learning Icelandic.


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## Posie

SarahNorthman said:


> Since this question is related to this topic, I will ask, what is a good way to get started on a new language. (And yes I do know that everyone learns differently.)


Tip #1: The best thing you can do to learn a language is watch movies in that language. It may not make you fluent, but it does make the process much easier. It's the best way to get used to the new sounds. My first attempt at learning Hindi was an "epic fail", but now that I've watched a few films in Hindi, the phonic system seems more natural to my ears. If it is a European language, the subtitles will especially help to deduce how it is similar to and different from English.

Tip #2: If you can find a free website that has vocabulary quizzes, that is very helpful.

Tip #3: Learn the language on your OWN time! My bachelor's degree is in Spanish, but I still haven't reached an advanced level of fluency. Looking back, I know the reason was the enormous pressure to learn everything within a short period of time. Just relax and know that you are learning.


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## Clayton

English (native), I can speak Japanese fluently (I can read and write only to perhaps seven year old level) and can understand French to O level standard

BUT

down the pub I can understand and communicate to anyone from anywhere in the universe if they are drinking the same as I am


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## Dim7

marinasabina said:


> Tip #1: The best thing you can do to learn a language is watch movies in that language. It may not make you fluent, but it does make the process much easier. It's the best way to get used to the new sounds. My first attempt at learning Hindi was an "epic fail", but now that I've watched a few films in Hindi, the phonic system seems more natural to my ears. If it is a European language, the subtitles will especially help to deduce how it is similar to and different from English.
> 
> Tip #2: If you can find a free website that had vocabulary quizzes, that is very helpful.
> 
> Tip #3: Learn the language on your OWN time! My bachelor's degree is in Spanish, but I still haven't reached an advanced level of fluency. Looking back, I know the reason was the enormous pressure to learn everything within a short period of time. Just relax and know that you are learning.


Movies are pretty tough for a beginner and often even for an intermediate learner. Getting used to the pronunciation is an important part of learning a language but still not nearly as imporant as vocabulary, and I find that reading is the easiest way for vocabulary aquisition since no matter how tough the content you can easily proceed at your own pace and check words from a dictionary. 
If I started to learn a new language I'd probably read some books meant for beginner learners, vocabulary quizzes but I wouldn't do that too long and fairly early on move to "authentic" reading material meant for natives. I wouldn't worry much about learning separately grammar except maybe later at advanced level to polish my writing and speaking.


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## Vaneyes

Don't anybody feel bad.

*''I feel pretty stupid that I don't know any foreign languages'*' - Bill Gates


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## Skilmarilion

Fluently? 2. :tiphat:


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## shadowdancer

I would say that I can express myself in three differente languages:

1. Brazilian Portuguese: native.
2. American English from Beatles and Star Wars: otherwise I would die of starvation in the modern world (my profession).
3. German: I lived 5 years in Stuttgart.


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## Dim7

I feel my English is becoming more and more broken with age...


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## clavichorder

I am in the very early process of learning Spanish. Other than that, American English, though I don't have much trouble comprehending the likes of Sir Walter Scott, and William Makepeace Thackeray, so at any rate, I have a good grasp of that.


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## Vronsky

Macedonian native, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian and English (with terrible accent). I understand something in Slovenian, Russian and Ukrainian because they are Slavic languages.

I want to learn Breton language and French, to read Céline and Rimbaud in original.


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## Rhombic

English, Spanish and Catalan at the moment, rather fluently. I'm looking forward to learning French and/or Russian.


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## Sloe

Dim7 said:


> Movies are pretty tough for a beginner and often even for an intermediate learner..


Movies are important anyway just to get exposure to the language even if one sees them with subtitles.


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## Dim7

Sloe said:


> Movies are important anyway just to get exposure to the language even if one sees them with subtitles.


Well, certainly watching them does no harm and probably will make you more used to the sounds of the language. Just don't expect your vocabulary to expand exponentially watching movies as a beginning language learner.


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## clavichorder

Rhombic said:


> English, Spanish and Catalan at the moment, rather fluently. I'm looking forward to learning French and/or Russian.


Catalan culture is so cool, you lucky duck.


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## Sloe

Dim7 said:


> Well, certainly watching them does no harm and probably will make you more used to the sounds of the language. Just don't expect your vocabulary to expand exponentially watching movies as a beginning language learner.


You have to remember your vocabulary and watching films and tv serials might be the only way to constantly be reminded of it.


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## Posie

It is also very helpful to use children's material, like cartoons and primary books. The books can be difficult to find, but the are worth the search.


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## Dim7

It's baffling that despite learning English from a young age, I still keep omitting (should there be a "the" here?) articles because my mother language doesn't have them. Stupid articles, they add no information!


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## Chrythes

English, Lithuanian and Hebrew. I still want to learn the Wooki language and maybe some Elvish


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## Ingélou

Dim7 said:


> It's baffling that despite learning English from a young age, I still keep omitting (should there be a "the" here?) articles because my mother language doesn't have them. Stupid articles, *they add no information!*


They can do. 
'I saw George Harrison outside the Albert Hall.' - 'What, *the* George Harrison.' - 'No, just *a* George Harrison!' 
(Though actually I *did* see *the* George Harrison!)


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## Posie

Dim7 said:


> It's baffling that despite learning English from a young age, I still keep omitting (should there be a "the" here?) articles because my mother language doesn't have them. Stupid articles, they add no information!


Assuming that German is not your first language, be glad that you learned English and not German.

English articles: the, a, an

German articles: der, das, die, den, dem, ein, eine, einer, einen (I think that covers it.)


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## Piwikiwi

marinasabina said:


> Assuming that German is not your first language, be glad that you learned English and not German.
> 
> English articles: the, a, an
> 
> German articles: der, das, die, den, dem, ein, eine, einer, einen (I think that covers it.)


You forgot des, eines and einem.


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## Posie

Piwikiwi said:


> You forgot des, eines and einem.


Your right! I didn't even think of the genitive case, though I should have remembered "einem".


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## Piwikiwi

marinasabina said:


> Your right! I didn't even think of the genitive case, though I should have remembered "einem".


Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod.


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## Piwikiwi

A relevant comic


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## spokanedaniel

I'm impressed. In a country where the vast majority speak only one language, more than half of TCers speak three or more. I feel grossly under-educated.

English is my native language, and I speak Spanish pretty fluently. A decade ago I was quite fluent, and worked as a translator in a legal aid office, but since then I've not kept it up other than reading the occasional book in Spanish. On a recent visit to Mexico I was still able to hold a conversation, but it did not flow as easily as it used to.

I studied French in high school, but I've forgotten what little I learned.

I once knew a homeless guy (I was working in a homeless shelter) who claimed to speak four languages. It turned out he could order beer and ask where the rest room was in Spanish, French, and Italian, and considered that sufficient. Maybe German also, I don't remember.


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## dusieqq

polish as native, english C1, communicative german and very weak but slowly getting better with spoken Japanese


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## starthrower

This TCer speaks American, and a little Spanish. Buenos Noche!

And a very little Vietnamese. So that makes ba!


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## Rhombic

I speak (fluently) Spanish, Catalan and English.
I am level B1 in German and somewhere around that level (maybe a bit less, actually) in Esperanto.


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## elgar's ghost

I'm just your typical 'Anglo-Saxon monoglot' - perhaps we should be banned from travelling abroad until we get over our arrogant and disrespectful complacency and learn how to get by in at least ten different languages (and making sure we get those important masculine/feminine/neutral noun designations correct)... :devil:

But seriously...I have respect for those who have learnt or are learning other languages and I assume it's only because English is so widely spoken throughout the world either as a first or alternative language which stops us a nation (and perhaps other English-speaking countries) from taking the idea of learning other languages more seriously.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

People in my family used to speak Spanish all the time but everyone's pretty much switched to English now, I would probably fail a Spanish class at this point.

I honestly feel as though I'm destined to visit Japan/ East Asia for an extended period of time but I'm not sure if it's worth it to even try to learn any of those languages, they are probably beyond my meager abilities.


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## Proms Fanatic

I speak English fluently and a smattering of Polish. I'm pretty much like Elgar's Ghost really.


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## Huilunsoittaja

I soon want to learn 3rd language, Russian. ^_^

Learning new alphabet will be hard but exciting.


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## ArtMusic

Only one language, the obvious one.


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## Levanda

Chrythes said:


> English, Lithuanian and Hebrew. I still want to learn the Wooki language and maybe some Elvish


Nice to see somebody known Lithuanian, "Laba diena malonu geros nuotaikos jums".


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## clavichorder

I'm too abashed to post much in this thread, but I am working hard on my Spanish right now, since I am going to Barcelona in August for three weeks. I intend to have a lifelong relationship with this language, and with consistency of practice, that is more than enough time to develop fluency. Maybe when I have a sufficient level of proficiency with Spanish, I can take something else on, but in the mean time, the only extra language I might be taking on is a smattering of Catalan for my trip.


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## Pantheon

I'm fluent in English, French and Hungarian. However, the Hungarian isn't so good because I have never lived in Hungary or been in a Hungarian school, which means that I rarely get to practice or write. 
I also have a pretty good level in German from high school. I really should practice more though....


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## Levanda

Just for interest why some choose to learn unpopular languages, I always wanted to learn Persian languages but I found this is too complicated for me. I do like Persian culture and food of course maybe that why I wished to study.


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## Guest

Inglish, Franch, Spenich, Germane with smatterings of Italkian, Choonise and Welsh.


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## Musicophile

English, German, French, Italian. Learned some Latin in high school (rather useless) and later tried Russian but never got beyond a couple of lessons.


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