Your languages (and proficiency in them)

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-01-02 04:04am

What languages can you speak, and/or read/write in and how well?

I can read/write/speak English (British/UK) as my "mother" tongue [as in, finish the finals 2 years before the rest of my class, at the highest level available and with straight 100's in it), with a very extensive vocabulary, although my writing skills are a little weak, but reading wise I'm comfortable with Shakespeare without needing translation [much].

I also speak/read/write Hebrew well (If not as well as English), I can write in it well enough (If not as "articulately" as in English).

I could also once speak a little French and now I can understand maybe 15 or so words in French (I was in frnace for a year as a baby) (Although I never learned how to write down those few words I know).

I can also translate from English to Hebrew (and vice versa with a little more difficulty) various scripts and written texts (including the level of Electronic design schemes and guides).

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-01-02 04:15am

English. Real english, not that Americanised crap (you see how Americanised had a s in it - the way its meant to!). Excellent at spoken and written.

Japanese and French I had at a very high pre-tertiary level in both spoken and written, though they had degraded through lack of practice over the past 5 or 6 years.

Snippets of many other languages.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-02 04:32am

I can speak english at an understandable level, speak hebrew allright though with some grammer issues and I can understand frech fluently.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2006-01-02 04:40am

English: I have a good vocabulary but tend to write in a manner that's a little too "top heavy" (big words where smaller ones will do and other odd methods)
It is my primary language and I speak it fluently. I scored in the 99th percentile on reading comprehension on the PSAT and in the 71th percintle on writing skills or whatever it was called to give a rough idea.
French: At the end of last (school) year I probably knew enough that if you dropped me in france for a couple of years I would've done fine. However my fucktared school refused to all a French Four class to be taught due to "lack of students" despite the fact that we had about as many as are in the Spanish four class now (this says alot because there's only one class of French students per level and like 3 of Spanish, and the French teacher actually follows standards of teaching/isn't a push over. I think that the reason there weren't many Spanish students that went to Spanish IV despite the easienss of the class/their numbers is because the teacher was off her rocker. Anyway though, rant over. But this all leads to something actually, I'v now spent months without practice so I offically suck at French (didn't help that I'd been slacking for most of last year and probably forgot about as much as I learned anyway (and boy did my grades show it

)). I also know a little bit of Polish from my grandma (not enough to converse in, but I could probably commit suicide by angered polish people with the insults I know in it if I didn't get picked up by a cop first) and I also know a few Russian phrases from my mother. I've also started picking up bastard Spanish from one of my friends who takes the class. Mostly it's just creating the most fucked up phrases possible during my chem class though (and no, i'm not missing anything doing this, the teacher has to teach so damn slowly it hurts my brain and all to let the fucktards who won't get it anyway keep up) and since he's constantly going into doze off territory from endless repititon it's safe to just keep his lecture at the edge of consiousness and only pay attention when he shifts gears or covers something worth mentioning. I know someone who actually slept through the like 60% of the class last year and still got about an 80. He embellished a little in the telling, but those figures are adjusted to take out the boast and hit as close to the truth as is possible with my knowldge.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-01-02 05:17am

Finnish is my native language. I'm almost as fluent in English, and I know Swedish and German well enough that just a few months in eitehr country would get me passable fluency. I'm just rusty on them.

Edi

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-01-02 06:15am

Read, write, speak and understand when spoken :

Dutch (Brabantian)
Some English (with crap pronounciation, grammar is not what it should be)
Some French (high school level)

Read and understand when spoken :

German

Read, with difficulty :

Latin
Spanish
Italian

Like to learn :

Klingon

Tiriol · Post by **Tiriol** » 2006-01-02 06:24am

Finnish is my mother language and I like to think myself as very good at it.

English - I write it (usually) fluently and read from a text fluently, but so far my speaking skills are not properly tested/not satisfactory (reading aloud doesn't count and when someone has talked to me in English, my answers have usually been not so good).

German and Swedish - I can speak, write and read both of them, just not very well. I'd like to, but somehow I just can't get myself to study them hard enough to learn them properly (although the fact that I never use them in my daily life does hinder their study).

Raw Shark · Post by **Raw Shark** » 2006-01-02 07:33am

English (AmericaniZed And Deep-Fried Baby!): Fluently spoken and written.

English (English): Read without difficulty.

Spanish: Read and spoken at rusty high school level.

Italian: Recognize a few phrases and insults.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2006-01-02 07:46am

In Croatian, as my mother language, I'm fluent both in writing and reading with a large vocabulary. Mostly because of similarities, but also exposure, I can understand Slovene and Serbian almost perfectly. A couple of years ago I would have said to understand Serbian perfectly since the diffrences betwen Croatian and Serbian in the spoken language were minor (on the level of American/British English), however, the two languages have expirienced rapid separation in the last decade and a half so now, while still mutualy intelligible, more and more words are unique causing prompting for meaning of certain words being necessary in a conversation . This is especialy noticable in younger generations who had never expirienced the combined language.

Also understand English perfectly, however since I don't get to use it a lot my pronounciation and grammar are suffering, however both are at a usable level (

)

I have studied both French and German for quite a lot of time, unfortunatly both didn't hold my intrest much and, especialy because of no exposure since I've stopped learning them, they are at a basic understanding level. Latin teoreticly as well (had two years of it in high school, mostly forgotten by now).

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2006-01-02 08:13am

English (real American english, not that silly Queen's English with it's illogical overuse of the letter "U") is my first language.

Spanish. I can read and speak it, though rateger slowly. Writing is a bit iffy and my grammar is horrible.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2006-01-02 09:52am

Native tongue: English (American dialect). Speak/read/write with above-average fluency.

Also famillar/can read/comprehend other English dialects such as "BBC British", Irish English, and Old Scots though I usually don't try to speak them.

French - used to have decent proficiency, had no trouble making myself understood while in various parts of France although my French was certainly not perfect. Able to read literature by the likes of Maupassant and Saint-Exupery (his adult literature, not just Le Petit Prince) in the original French although Voltaire and Villon are bit beyond my skills. Was and still am more proficient at reading/comprehending than speaking/writing, although during my French studies I was required to write essays. With little use of the language over the past 20 years, however, my skills have deteriorated :::sniff:::

Gaelic - studied the Irish version for perhaps a year, can speak and understand a few words and phrases. Mostly used for deciphering song titles in Celtic music, very handy when I was still playing bagpipes as the Scots variety is very close to the Irish

Spanish - can't speak or understand the spoken word, except for a very few phrases, but I can often figure out simple written Spanish. Probably because it's related to French, and also thanks to the proliferation of bilingual signs in major US cities over the past few decades.

Japanese - I know a few spoken phrases, although my pronounciation is dismal. Can't read or write it at all.

Chinese - I can read some of the characters, particularly those dealing with food in Chinese restaurants, but don't ask me to pronounce anything.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2006-01-02 10:19am

I've spoken (British) English since the womb, and would say I'm really rather alright with it. Aussi, je parle francais- je l'ai etudie depuis 12 ans, et je dirais que je le parle assez bien pour comprendre.

I speak about 12 words of Portuguese, enough to say hello, good bye, thank you, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and "the food is good" to my girlfriend's very Portuguese family.

J · Post by J » 2006-01-02 10:20am

English is my native language, above average proficiency though nothing super special. I rather doubt people will read my reports and prostrate themselve in awe.

French: Passable fluency in speaking, but it's slowly improving since it's sometimes required of me in government work. I can get around in the non-tourist areas in Quebec where they insist on speaking French. I can read well enough to understand most material short of technical journals or legalese. Writing, well, not so good. My grammar's horrible and I'll leave it at that.

Italian & Mandarin Chinese: I can understand a few phrases from each but I can neither read nor write them. Actually I can read Italian when it's accompanied by an appropriate universal warning label.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-01-02 10:31am

English: I can read and write perfect English (I've done both the SAT and GRE General tests, and have tested above the 98th percentile in both cases for Verbal). Speech is fluent as well, although I occasionally stutter with the bigger words ('verisimilititude', anyone?), but my accent sometimes poses problems with people unfamiliar with it.

Mandarin Chinese: I can speak and read it reasonably fluently considering 4 years of disuse, but writing is a problem as Chinese is not a phonetic language and depends on memorising characters, and remembering the more complicated ones can be a bitch.

Malay: Again, 4-5 years without using much, but I still can read and speak it reasonably fluently. I take great pride in being able to speak it with a good accent.

Cantonese: Learnt from colloquial/street setting and Hong Kong films, I can understand and speak it in a casual setting (ordering food in a restaurant, asking directions), but pretty bad at more complicated stuff. And apparently, I am very foul-mouthed when speaking in Cantonese. The first time I hung out with Hong-Kong-ese, they were totally shocked!

Hokkien (Chinese dialect): My ancestral tongue. My parents still speak to each other in this language, and I talk to my grandmother in it, but I don't often speak it, so I'm barely fluent in it.

Spanish: Just started picking up a year or so ago... can read simple stuff, but the Spanish (as in from Spain) accent is so thick and their speed is so fast that verbal comprehension is a bitch. Can swear perfectly well though! Mierda! Hijo de gran putisima madre!

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-01-02 10:43am

I can speak Swedish and English, plus I can immitate Norwegian and Danish (but I don't know enough words to actually speak them).
I know some Finnish words and phrases and I can sort of read Icelandic (just don't expect me to understand a word of what they're saying over there. It sounds like Danish with a Finnish accent. Very incomprehensible to me (but it sounds interesting none the less, I should try to learn it sometime)). I can read Danish, Norwegian and English without any problems.

I also know some German. Maybe enough to survive for six days in a German-speaking country. I can also pronounce most written German words even if I don't know what they mean. I also know a bunch of French words and I have absolutely no idea where I learned them (and they're not exactly words like fromage and baguette, either), but I can't form anything but the most basic sentences in French. I'm fairly good at sounding like I'm speaking French, though...

I also know a few Japanese words. And again, I can immitate the language but it would just be Japanese-sounding gibberish. I also know a few of the symbols in the katakana syllabary. But if I ever went to Japan, I would die the minute I stepped out of the plane; that's how much Japanese I really know. At least I can say "Thank you very much. Idiot" to whomever kills me

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2006-01-02 10:45am

English: It's my mother tongue. Read, Write and Speak.

Japanese: Three years of study, I can read and write passibly, although my vocabulary has fallen away with disuse. My pronounciation is still decent.

Arabic. I am just starting this one, so I'm limited to some reading/writing. For speaking, my pronounciation is good, but I only know a few phrases.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2006-01-02 11:10am

Fluent in proper Queen's Englishm something many British people can't even do now. Innit?

I can speak limited Gaelic, French and some German.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-01-02 11:16am

I am very fluent in both spoken and written American English, and I maintain above-average literacy.

I have taken a year and a half of Chinese; I know probably 200 characters on sight, and can speak and understand reasonably well for a second-year (according to a couple of native speakers who help me with pronunciation and grammar). I can carry on very short conversations, but am several years from actual fluency.

I remember a little bit of latin; I'm very rusty, and probably currently equivalent to a first-year student.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2006-01-02 11:54am

I speak English fluently, it being my home language.

I also can speak the basics of Italian, and can read/write in it much better than speaking. If I go to Italy and live there a year, I'll probably be fluent.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2006-01-02 12:14pm

Fluent in Canuckian English.

Passable knowledge of Portugese.

Not too well with French.

felineki · Post by **felineki** » 2006-01-02 12:15pm

Native language is US English... other than that, I don't really know anything other than Spanish (just general.. I don't know much about the differences between different countries' dialects), which I took 4 years of in high school. Was good with it considering that I had no prior experience with the language, but I'm probably a little rusty by now.

¡Me mató con su zapato!

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-01-02 12:22pm

German is my mother tongue.
Fluent in English (British style

) written and spoken. In fact, those reading my fanfics never suspected that I was actually German...
I can understand a few Italian phrases.
Currently learning Gàidhlig (Scotish Gaelic), and want to obtain fluency there, just for the heck of it...
That's about it in spoken languages. I had to suffer through four endless years of latin, but I suppressed most of the memories of it.

darth korte · Post by **darth korte** » 2006-01-02 01:22pm

My mother is tongue finnish ,and I speak and write fluently (hopefully) english (brittish with american elements).

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2006-01-02 01:32pm

Speak, write, and read fluently:
English, proper like.
Bad English.

Can translate into mother tounge:
Americanglish.

A little:
French
German

3ish words:
Japanese.

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 2006-01-02 01:45pm

English, some High school Spanish.

"Uno mas cerveza, por favor, senorita."

along those lines.