Poll: Do you know more than one language?
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I'm Belgian.
Belgium has three national languages, and I know all three, plus English.
I was raised in Dutch, started learning French late in primary school, English at the beginning of high school, and German at the end of high school. English grammar is very similar to Dutch grammar, so naturally English is the language I'm best at. My French is good enough for most everyday conversations, but my German is quite disastrous. German has terrible grammar, and although I can understand it very well, speaking it either goes very slowly, or just downright wrong.
Speaking lots of languages really comes in handy when you live in such a tiny country.
Belgium has three national languages, and I know all three, plus English.
I was raised in Dutch, started learning French late in primary school, English at the beginning of high school, and German at the end of high school. English grammar is very similar to Dutch grammar, so naturally English is the language I'm best at. My French is good enough for most everyday conversations, but my German is quite disastrous. German has terrible grammar, and although I can understand it very well, speaking it either goes very slowly, or just downright wrong.
Speaking lots of languages really comes in handy when you live in such a tiny country.
You should have quoted the guy who said he speaks Flemish.Kargathia said:It's a rather funny question to ask on an international forum. Per definition anyone who doesn't come from one of the English-speaking countries is bilingual.
And to be nice and answer your question:
Fluently: Dutch, English. Dutch being my first.
I can sort of understand: Latin, Old Greek, French, German.
Talk to some linguists and they'll tell you the same =) Would've been helpful though for the Dutch if High German didn't become standard in Germany itself.Talk to some Germans and they'll say Dutch is just a version of German.
Why ? Coz if Dutch is a version of German. Flemish isn't a language at all.
Flemish is just butchered dutch
English, French, some German (alþough I read it much better), and I'm currently trying to learn Korean, albeit wiþout a teacher, which makes it harder.
I can also read Classical and Koine Greek, Imperial Aramaic (AKA Biblical Aramaic, not to be confused wiþ modern forms of Aramaic, such as Syriac, of which I know practically noþing), and Latin (in þat order) none of which are spoken languages anymore. I can also sorta kinda read some Coptic. A bit.
Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian I know þe alphabets (or, raþer, two abjads and an alphabet) and a few words, but not enough even to read a whole sentence in many cases.
My abilities in þese languages are also easily ranked, pretty much in þe order I listed þem in each section.
I actually know Japanese better þan Hebrew, Arabic, or Russian (but probably not as well as I know Coptic, let alone Aramaic), but I still generally can't understand whole sentences unless þey're really short and basic, and I can't read it at all because my hiragana sucks, I never learned katakana at all, and god help me if kanji ever comes up.
EDIT: Oh, and if anyone cares (I'm seeing it come up in some oþer posts), I'm from þe United States and about a monþ away from my 26þ birþday.
I can also read Classical and Koine Greek, Imperial Aramaic (AKA Biblical Aramaic, not to be confused wiþ modern forms of Aramaic, such as Syriac, of which I know practically noþing), and Latin (in þat order) none of which are spoken languages anymore. I can also sorta kinda read some Coptic. A bit.
Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian I know þe alphabets (or, raþer, two abjads and an alphabet) and a few words, but not enough even to read a whole sentence in many cases.
My abilities in þese languages are also easily ranked, pretty much in þe order I listed þem in each section.
I actually know Japanese better þan Hebrew, Arabic, or Russian (but probably not as well as I know Coptic, let alone Aramaic), but I still generally can't understand whole sentences unless þey're really short and basic, and I can't read it at all because my hiragana sucks, I never learned katakana at all, and god help me if kanji ever comes up.
EDIT: Oh, and if anyone cares (I'm seeing it come up in some oþer posts), I'm from þe United States and about a monþ away from my 26þ birþday.
English, and snippets of Spanish. If someone who spoke Spanish spoke slowly, I could probably have a conversation with them, but that's hardly ever the case. Most of them speak without spaces, so to speak.
I also know a little bit of German, French, and Italian, but nothing that could carry a conversation. Either a few phrases, or just a greeting/goodbye
I also know a little bit of German, French, and Italian, but nothing that could carry a conversation. Either a few phrases, or just a greeting/goodbye
Oh yeah, I forgot... I also speak fluent bullshit (don't think it counts, though, since everyone speaks it, just in different accents).BabyRaptor said:
English is my natural language, and after many years of classes, I'm now proficient in Spanish, although I usually just use it as a secret code to annoy my friends who take Latin
Fluent in English, Finnish and Swedish. I can also speak and understand Japanese (and read, not very good at that yet) and I used to study German which I still understand and speak a bit.
And yeah, I'm from Finland. Wouldn't be able to speak this crazy language otherwise...
And yeah, I'm from Finland. Wouldn't be able to speak this crazy language otherwise...
Speaking as a linguist, no, Dutch is not a version of German; þey're just boþ members of þe Germanic language family, which makes þem cousins. Related is not þe same as derived. Flemish... is a little more iffy; I'm tempted to call it a dialect of Dutch, but as Max Weinreich once said, "אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט" ("A language is a dialect wiþ an army and a navy.") In oþer words, þere's not really a concrete definition of a difference between language and dialect. For example, Cantonese is generally considered a dialect of Chinese, even þough by most definitions it would be considered a sister language to Mandarin; whereas, Thai and Lao are considered separate languages even þough þey're mutually intelligible.-Torchedini- said:You should have quoted the guy who said he speaks Flemish.Kargathia said:It's a rather funny question to ask on an international forum. Per definition anyone who doesn't come from one of the English-speaking countries is bilingual.
And to be nice and answer your question:
Fluently: Dutch, English. Dutch being my first.
I can sort of understand: Latin, Old Greek, French, German.
Talk to some linguists and they'll tell you the same =) Would've been helpful though for the Dutch if High German didn't become standard in Germany itself.Talk to some Germans and they'll say Dutch is just a version of German
Why ? Coz if Dutch is a version of German. Flemish isn't a language at all.
Flemish is just butchered dutch
Since Dutch isn't my field, þough, I'm going to go wiþ þe general consensus of linguists who do deal wiþ þe subject and say þat Flemish is a set of related dialects spread geographically from Flanders. In English it can also refer to þe dialect of Dutch spoken in Belgium, regardless of region.
english obviously, but I can speak more than enough german to get myself somewhere across town and back if needed, order a meal just fine, and ask for directions. So based on that I'd like to think I speak the language "just enough" to be considered somewhat lingual in it.
also living in america i hear so much god damn spanish around me all the time i have a good 30-40 phrases stuck in my head...obviously they aren't ever good ones but i know what they mean and if needed i can use them.
also living in america i hear so much god damn spanish around me all the time i have a good 30-40 phrases stuck in my head...obviously they aren't ever good ones but i know what they mean and if needed i can use them.