Poll: A Second Language

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I learned French and German in school (in addition to my native English), but that was now a lloooonnnggg time ago so to say I'm rusty would be an understatement. I can still remember enough to get the general gist of something if it's written down, but as for specific details or being able to translate at the speed of the spoken word, forget it.

Tips? Spend time around people who speak the language you're trying to learn. Learning by rote from textbooks gives you no practical applied knowledge.

 

[purplecactus]

Kinda, in the loosest possible way of defining 'speak'. I've got the basic conversation kind of German down, and I'm trying to build on that, but self-directed language acquisition was never my strong point. I know bits and pieces of Gaelic too (that's the Scottish one pronounced gah-lick as opposed to the Irish gay-lick. I want to make an amusing observation about that, but it would be too easy), though that's rustier than my German.

So, first step is get the German polished. Then see if I can't build on what little I know of French, then Spanish (or vice versa). I plan on travelling extensively in the near future, so I want the basics of the most commonly spoken languages down before then.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Nope. I took several years of spanish in school, because it was easy, but I retained almost none of it.

I do wish I'd opted for another language (french or japanese or russian) and stayed with it.

 

[MasterMasamune]

Besides some Japanese I picked up from anime and one or two words in Danish, French, Finnish, and German, I only know the language I'm typing in right now.

Interested in learning the above five languages, Italian, and Russian, which will probably never happen because, whenever I say I'll do something, I never do it.

 

[Naeras]

Apart from my native tongue, I speak English and German. I've forgotten pretty much everything about the latter language, which is a shame as I've been offered a job in Frankfurt now =_=;

 

[Avengedsins]

English, Spanish, Italian, French, German some Welsh and some Dutch.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Snip

I love your avatar... well, more like I am in love with the person in your avatar, but nevermind... It definitely catches my eye!

OT: I am hopefully going to start learning North Korean or Persian Arabic... as that may have future job prospects as an interpreter...

 

[GundamSentinel]

Dutch (native), English and a bit of German, French and Italian. Those last two are very rusty, as I haven't had much chance to practice them lately.

 

[game-lover]

Yeah, I speak Spanish. I also know French and a bit of Japanese.

I chose the "yes" option as opposed to the "speak more than 2" in regards to my confidence level. Hell, for a while, I was barely confident enough with my Spanish insisting that I needed to take College Spanish before I could be considered fluent.

Was the first language I learned and I did it in Elementary school then into high school. French got learned in middle school then high school. Japanese was in college and I know I'm not ready there.

For the last question, I plan to learn as many languages as humanly possible. Ever since I was a little girl, I had this dream of being multilingual. I'm still working on it. So yeah, bit plans to learn all the languages in the world if I can help it. Or at least most of them.

 

[Bruenin]

I know English since I'm from the US... I take spanish classes... but our foreign language classes suck :/ I've had it for 5 years now >.< I haven't learned much and I pass with B's... I'd practically have to teach myself if I wanted to learn

 

[dudycat1]

i speak fluent English (i live in England go figure.)and i also speak Russian fluently thanks to my mums family being Russian.

 

[AnarchistFish]

I'm half English half French so I speak both languages

 

[AnarchistFish]

Being European: Dutch, English, German, French. In order of mastery.

This is normal in Europe. I am not special. :'(

Haha in England the language education system is crap. I think no one bothers cos everyone here expects everyone else to be able to speak English. The only people who really bother are the people who want to make a career out of it, but they're not very common.

 

[CentralScrtnzr]

It's funny you say "speak." Unless one has a lot of everyday exposure to some language being spoken, it is difficult to maintain one's colloquial abilities in that language. People frequently come down hard on Americans for being monolingual without really realizing that Europeans, by contrast, have far more frequent exposure to each others' languages. It would only really be reasonable to expect colloquial language competence in the US in Spanish and even then, only in certain parts of the country.

That said, it is perfectly feasible to maintain reading competence in another language, but who wants to learn French merely to read Mort a Credit? With the wide availability of translations of everything from the Iliad to Nabokov's The Defense, such language competence isn't really necessary. Of course, the trouble comes in when you realize you're really reading Fagles' or Lattimore's Iliad, rather than Homer's. So there remains a good reason to develop reading competence in another language, but only for scholars and lovers of literature.

 

[-|-]

I speak Thai. I can read it slowly, but I can't write it much beyond a transliterated version of my name.

 

[CentralScrtnzr]

It's funny you say "speak." Unless one has a lot of everyday exposure to some language being spoken, it is difficult to maintain one's colloquial abilities in that language. People frequently come down hard on Americans for being monolingual without really realizing that Europeans, by contrast, have far more frequent exposure to each others' languages. It would only really be reasonable to expect colloquial language competence in the US in Spanish and even then, only in certain parts of the country.

That said, it is perfectly feasible to maintain reading competence in another language, but who wants to learn French merely to read Mort a Credit? With the wide availability of translations of everything from the Iliad to Nabokov's The Defense, such language competence isn't really necessary. Of course, the trouble comes in when you realize you're really reading Fagles' or Lattimore's Iliad, rather than Homer's. So there remains a good reason to develop reading competence in another language, but only for scholars and lovers of literature.

And to go a step further, I am familiar with Greek, Latin, German, French, and Sanskrit at a reading level. However, I can only speak colloquial French, and even then it's quite rusty.

 

[SidheKnight]

I know I can speak at least 2 languages fluently: Spanish (my native language) and English (as you can see).

I can read a little of Portuguese and Italian because those are also romance languages and therefore very similar to spanish, but I couldn't speak in those so they don't count.

I also understand some words in German, learned mostly from listening to Rammstein with translated lyrics.

 

[Cheesepower5]

I speak English and French, have learned the basics of German and would like to continue with it, and I an learning Scottish Gaelic.

Using this I can make sense of Spanish, Italian, Old English and Dutch.

 

[Final First]

I learned Latin in high school. I'm not the best at it but I'm certainly not bad. My only problem is remembering the vocabulary.

I'm also being taught German by a friend of mine. He used to teach it it in university.

 

[Wintermoot]

Dutch is my native language but I prefer English I,m also going to study Japanese this year