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What Languages Do You Know?

Posted: 2002-09-13 03:37am
by Edi
Just out of curiosity, how many and what languages do you people speak? I know most people here are Americans or Canadians, and obviously everyone here knows English to communicate, but what's the spectrum on other languages?

Finnish is my native language, but in addition to that and English I speak a Swedish and German (both of them very badly due to lack of practice).

So, what about the rest of you?

Edi

Posted: 2002-09-13 03:47am
by weemadando
English is my first language.
I can speak/write French and Japanese fairly well, but am a bit rusty because of lack of practice.
I have basic comprehension of Italian and Spanish, but thats it with them.
I'm hoping to learn Spanish and Cantonese over the next uni break I have.

Posted: 2002-09-13 04:12am
by Faram
I'm a Swede so Swedish is my native language.
I like to think that i can make my self understood in English, Finnish, German.
I don't have the time right now but I am planning to learn French also :)

Posted: 2002-09-13 04:39am
by Robert Treder
I speak English and French.

Posted: 2002-09-13 08:07am
by salm
english and german. even though my english used to be better when i was back in school, due to more practice.

Posted: 2002-09-13 08:24am
by Hendrake
My first language is Italian. I can speak English and French (though I'm a lot rusty in French).

I can babble my way in spanish, but nothing more.

Posted: 2002-09-13 08:27am
by XaLEv
I am fluent in English only, but speak a little Japanese and less Portuguese and Spanish. I can only read/write a little Japanese, and can usually read Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French based on their similarities to each other and English.

Posted: 2002-09-13 08:39am
by Mr Bean
Hmm Language is a fun topic for me, I started learning English rather later in life before then I knew quite a bit of Italian which I have since forgot(I was learning it till age 5 then never ever used it) and I also know one of those small local Middle-eastern lanugages where less than 300 people know it,

I am terrible when it comes to learning knew lanugages however I DO know how to curse you out in twenty-six lanugages, Eight of which in written form

Posted: 2002-09-13 08:43am
by Sebastin
I speak engilsh and german more or less fluent. I also learned french for 5 years in school with the result that i can reliably recognise the language when I see it. Just donĀ“t ask me to understand it.

Posted: 2002-09-13 09:03am
by Ted
English, French and German

Posted: 2002-09-13 09:06am
by Azeron
C, C++, Java, VB, C#, Latin, English, some spanish, some ancient greek.

Posted: 2002-09-13 09:23am
by Cpt_Frank
Native lanugage german, fluent in English, next up is Latin
and as bonus I speak a very very bad French.

Monkies! Everywhere! They're eating my feet! NOOOOO

Posted: 2002-09-13 09:28am
by Sienthal
I was raised in America, so my primary language would be English.
Additionally, I speak French, at about an Intermediate-Advanced level.

Posted: 2002-09-13 09:43am
by Alyrium Denryle
Native english speaker. Learning German

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:20am
by Colonel Olrik
Portuguese[what did ya expect?, look at location], English [proficiency degree], spanish and french.

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:24am
by weemadando
Colonel Olrik wrote:Portuguese[what did ya expect?, look at location], English [proficiency degree], spanish and french.
I went out with a Brazilian girl for a while and I just couldn't get my head around Portugese. I was expecting it to be much closer to Spanish.

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:33am
by Colonel Olrik
The writing is more similar than the spelling. I don't know quite how to describe it, but portuguese has more tones. The spanish is a more closed language. That also implies that a portuguese understands spanish much better than the opposite. And we have much better accent in english too

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:36am
by Colonel Olrik
And we're also better in bed :twisted:

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:36am
by Stravo
Spanish, native speaker since both my parents are Cuban. It's a VERY handy language to know in NYC.

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:42am
by PeZook
Polish and English (obviously, since I'm a Pole and writing to this forum at the same time :) ) I've got no special degrees, but i'm thinking of taking a CAE exam, and maybe proficiency some time in the future. In addition, I can say a few sentences in German after much thought, and gonna start learning Spanish at university.

Posted: 2002-09-13 10:50am
by weemadando
Colonel Olrik wrote:And we're also better in bed :twisted:
You haven't seen Elisa.

*edit* http://www.geocities.com/weemadnosh/pics.html

Now you have. Those pics are from, wow, four and a half years ago. Shit. Its been a while since I looked that goddamn young.

And if your amazing powers of DarkStar like deduction can't determine who's who given those pics... Well...

*/edit*

Posted: 2002-09-13 11:19am
by TrailerParkJawa
English is my first language. ( Northern California Dialect -- like you know! ) :P

I understand a few hundred words in Cantonese and used to be able to read a hundred or so as well. But I really could not say much.

A lot of my friends are Chinese and thats where I picked it up. But now days most of my friends parents speak English proficiently or try to, so I dont hear cantonese like I used too. Not to mention that we are of an age where we have moved out to pursue career and family.

I took 2 years of German in high school which serves only to waste your time. I remember very little. I know how to say Guinea Pig, Submarine, and Tree.
Okay, I remember more than that, but not much more.

Posted: 2002-09-13 11:52am
by Tsyroc
I'm American so I speak Bad English, write Poor English, but I can read many other kinds of Modern and not so Modern English. :D

I can sort of follow short conversations in Spanish. I do a lot better reading it.
I can usually get the gist of things reading Latin or languages close to Latin & Spanish, although I usually blow it on one or two words to make what I did get almost useless a lot of the time.

Whatever French I learned in junior high has mostly been repressed into the deepest reaches of my so-called memory. :D

Anyway, after reading this thread I can see why I so often feel like a dumbass when I'm here. :)

Posted: 2002-09-13 12:24pm
by Darth Yoshi
I speak English, two dialects of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), I used to know Spanish.

Posted: 2002-09-13 12:31pm
by Cpt_Frank
Hey Yoshi, good you returned to that avatar. The other one sucked.