maybe You should be learning a second language!

[Auninteligentname]

1. We mostly speak Norwegian here in Norway.
2. Yes.
3. I can speak english quite well (and I'm bound to jinx myself, now that I am saying that ). I have norwegian as my mother tongue. Can read some german and spanish.

Here in Norway, everyone is forced to learn english from 3rd grade (or 4th, not entierly sure when), so most can at least a bit english. Also from 8th grade, we are forced to learn a 3rd language, which is either german, spanish or french. I have spanish, but because all my teachers so far have sucked, I am rubbish in spanish . And I can understand some written german, as it's very much alike norwegian.

 

[rokkolpo]

1. Yes Dutch, English and German where I live.
2. I speak all three.

 

[Mandalore_15]

snip

Well, to be honest with you, English is Canada's national language. Not being able to speak French is a fair bit more acceptable than not being able to speak English. I'm not saying he was right to badmouth her or anything, just saying...

To answer your questions:

1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?

Yes. In my area, probably the vast majority of people speak Urdu. Not because I'm from the far-East or anything, but because the UK's immigration policies are a joke.

2. Do you know more then one language?

Yes.

3. If yes, what other language do you speak?

The only language I speak fluently (apart from English) is Scots Gaelic. Unfortunately, it's about the most useless language ever (with about 70,000 speakers worldwide), although it has given me a sense of cultural identity I wouldn't have otherwise, so I'm quite happy because of it.

I also know enough German to get by, and a little bit of French, although I generally don't try and use it because most French people will criticise you if your French is anything less than PERFECT and refuse to speak it to you.

The other one I've learned a bit of is Icelandic. I have extended family over there and was genuinely interested, so I've started trying to pick some up. =)

 

[StAUG]

1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?

No, I LIVE in a rural city of about 90,000 in Australia, almost all of the population, me included, are English speaking/Caucasian.

2. Do you know more then one language?

Nope. I can count to 10 in German, and swear fluently in Russian, nothing else.

To earn a crust I work as a 000 (what you Yanks call 911) operator, taking emergency calls from the public from anywhere in the state I live in. A huge chunk of Melbournes' population of 4 million people are immigrants, overseas students, etc. Before this job I didn't give a toss if people learned the national language here or not, now I think being able to speak fluent English should be mandatory before citizenship is awarded. On a daily basis I get callers who need immediate assistance, and it doesn't happen because they yell 'YOU SEND POLICE? YES YES!' at me in Chinglish for up to 10 minutes before it finally gets through that they need to tell me their actual adress before anyone can come to them. A little of topic but hey...

 

[opeth1989]

snip

Well, to be honest with you, English is Canada's national language. Not being able to speak French is a fair bit more acceptable than not being able to speak English. I'm not saying he was right to badmouth her or anything, just saying...

I agree that Canada`s national language is english, and if I were living in a area that was not considered bilingual, I'd be thinking the exact same thing, but I am talking about a specific area of Canada, not the whole country. New-Brunswick is a bilingual province, so it would only make sense to learn the basics of both languages. Of course if you live in a part of Canada wich is almost entirely english, its understandable to only need to learn english. The specific town I live how ever, has a substantial amount of french speakers, this makes it all the more convenient to know both languages, not just french and not just english.

 

[Broady Brio]

Only speaky the Engly.

I attempted German GCSE. Did not go well for me.

Read above.

 

[Nieroshai]

I'm an otherwise intelligent person, and very skilled in my own language, even compared to many professors I've had. That said, I've taken Spanish lessons every year since middle school and still cannot understand the language.

 

[Mausthemighty]

1. Nope, it's all Dutch around here. Well, some of my teachers only speak English, but aside from that, nope.

2. Yes.

3. Aside from Dutch, my English is fluent (or so I'd like to think). My French and German are far from perfect, but I can make myself understood and there are some remnants of Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian and Japanese in the back of my head.

For me it's the same.
On Dutch schools we get a lot of languages to learn: Dutch and English on the "basisschool"(6-12 years old). After that we go to highschool (we call it "Voortgezet onderwijs" (12-16,17 or 18 yo)) where we can choose to learn languages like French, German, Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek.

1. I hear a only Dutch around me in real life, but to understand what's going on on the Internet you have to use English a lot.
2. Yes I'm multi-lingual.
3. I can speak Dutch and English fluently. German I can understand very well and I'm decent at speaking it (maybe that's because I like to listen to Rammstein). I have to say my knowledge of French, Greek and Latin is not as good anymore as it was at highschool.
Finally, I can speak a few words Japanese, but that's largely due to watching copious amounts of anime...

 

[Pandaman1911]

1) No.
2) Sort of.
3) Spanish. I know how to get out of a Spanish-speaking country if I woke up there one day, and that's about it. Not enough to really hold a conversation or anything.

I think that if you live in the country, you should know the language. For sake of example, a French-speaking woman coming to America and not knowing how to speak English is as ignorant as me moving to France and knowing nothing about the language.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

So i guess my question to you guys is
1. No
2. Four
3. English, French, German.

 

[Zay-el]

1: Almost exclusively Hungarian.

2: You bet!

3: I know English pretty well, understand bits and pieces of German and can speak Latin.

 

[TehCookie]

I live in Michigan so it's mostly English, but you still hear quite a bit of Spanish this far north. At least it's a standard that if you are buying something you should know English.

I don't speak another language fluently but I am learning Japanese. Though I can understand a lot more than I can say since I always get tongue tied with the words and grammar.

 

[Macgyvercas]

1) Largely English, though my place of work attracts an annoyingly large percentage of people who speak only Spanish (I have no problems if you want to speak Spanish, but be able to at least TRY to communicate what you want in English rather than not bother to even attempt to learn it).

2) Does pig latin count?

3) See question 2.

 

[El Poncho]

1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used? - No
2. Do you know more then one language? - I did French in secondary school, I have forgotten all of it, I feel the way schools teach languages in this country isn't very effective.

 

[Fayathon]

"Play it by ear" is an expression from jazz music, originated during the '20s. It means to improvise and make it up as you go along, with no plan.

Well, I wasn't sure on the actual meaning, but at least I was right about the variant. You learn something every day.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

1. Yes, although Irish isn't that common in some places so it's mostly English.
2. Yes, I'm French (and as such speak French) and I've learnt English a while back.
3. Will soon be learning Irish and I'm currently learning Japanese.

 

[kebab4you]

1.Yes, Swedish,English
2.I do
3.Swedish,English,Spanish and a bit of Japanese

Btw, Chinese is the most common language spoken, not english :3

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

1. Heavily Spanish speaking neighborhood.
2. Just Spanish, but I want to learn more languages, like Italian, German, and Japanese.
3. My Spanish is a little flimsy; I can understand, read, and write it, but I at times have difficulty conversing in Spanish (what one word/thing is in Spanish).

 

[Thaius]

1. Kind of; there's a lot of Spanish going on in California, but English is still the primary language by a long shot.

No, I don't really know any other language; a bit of Spanish, but not enough to be exceedingly functional.

The problem over here is that we have people coming into an English-speaking country and expecting us to adjust to more easily accomodate them. In this situation, one of the two parties needs to change, and it really should be the people entering a new country instead of the entire country they're entering.

While I do believe this, that guy was a jerk for insulting her about it, especially if you're in a bilingual province. That was just a dick move.

 

[KouThan]

1. Well where I live there are lot's of tourists so I am used to giving instructions in english.
2. Yes english is not my first language.
3. I speak english a bit german and some ancient greek (they force us to learn it in high school) and also Greek which is my primary language.