Languages are a passion of mine. How about you? Which ones do you know? Which ones would you like to know?
I am fluent in:
-English
-Spanish
I can read and communicate in basic:
-Italian
-Portuguese
-Japanese
I am currently studying:
-Japanese
I want to study:
-French
-German
-Chinese
-Russian
-Latin
-Greek (ancient and modern)
-A nordic language to be determined
Fluent in Croatian and English, can understand some German and Latin. Not much of a linguist, really.
Fluent Danish, English, catching up on German and the other northern languages as well.
I can decipher Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Latin and appearantly also Afrikaans ^^' Just give me a dictionary.
I have a good 'ear' for languages, so I can 'speak' a lot of them without actually knowing what I'm saying...like when I sing in Japanese or French, I've no clue at all.
I wanna study Japanese. It's a lovely language, and the pronounciations are very much like Danish.
~Moi
englsh: native
italian: i speak fluent italian. dad's italian (first generation) & mother's italian/portuguese (second generation)
spanish: had three semesters in college, yet i'm not a fluent spanish speaker. i understand it extensively though.
english only, pretty good at body language also.
English fluently.
A few words in Spanish, a few more in Russian and a basic understanding of Japanese.
Two, English & German.
I love learning languages as well. My maternal language is Spanish, so needless to say, I speak it fluently. I'm also fluent in English (I think ;)) and in the past I studied French for almost four years. I can speak it, write it, and read it. However, I have trouble understanding it when someone talks to me in French.
I do not know if it is the same with the Germanic languages, but since I am a native Spanish speaker, I can understand most of the Romance languages (except perhaps for Romanian) in written form. I would love to learn German one day, but it is just a matter of finding the time and a good instructor/school.
tink :icon_chick:
English (native)
music (native) ;D
Spanish (lived in Spain for three years, became very fluent)
I'd like to learn Yiddish (beyond the handful of words and phrases that I know from childhood)
I had a couple of years of Latin in High school
I was in France for a month and got to where I could understand basic conversations, and could ask for things in shops, but that was years ago, now my French is pretty pathetic
Z
I would just like to ask first of all-- Why is this question always about how many languages one speaks? Why not ask about how many I can read and write? Because I can read and write a wider variety of languages a lot better than I can speak. I've always been shy about speaking, but I feel comfortable with books and have a great command of the written word.
Native speaker of American English (but can follow the British and other varieties of English too).
I know Arabic, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Latin, Lithuanian, Malay, Persian, Spanish, Swahili, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Turkish, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, and Yiddish -- to varying levels of proficiency. I've used nearly all of them in my career, with an emphasis on written language. I can speak many of these conversationally to some extent, but I can read and write all of them. Since you asked about speaking, the ones I can speak the most fluently are Arabic, French, and Italian.
My latest linguistic project was to translate the phrase "I am a woman" into as many languages as possible. I got up to 166. In Thai: dichan pen phuying kha คิฉันเป็มผู้หญิงค่ะ ;D
I speak jive, does that count?
English, French and Arabic
English is my native language, and I can speak/read/write in Latin (rather poorly).
I'm trying to teach myself German online... that's coming along slowly but surely.
Quote from: tekla on April 30, 2008, 09:30:39 PM
I speak jive, does that count?
Hey home, I can dig it. Hang loose, blood!
---------------------------------------------
Native speaker of English, went to high school in France and fluent in French. I studied Italian, German, and Russian while I was there (at my high school you had to take 3 foreign languages), and I took 2 years of Mandarin Chinese in college. Except for the French, only the Chinese has really stuck.
Lia
Yo.
I can read several (spanish, french, german, hebrew, latin --- classical education, can you guess) speak some, but when others talk it (other than latin) I'm lost.
Quote from: tekla on April 30, 2008, 09:30:39 PM
I speak jive, does that count?
lmao :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: yo wassup? it gotta, u dig? :laugh:
English. some Spanish (I'm half cuban & half puerto rican)
Quote from: Hypatia on April 30, 2008, 09:29:45 PM
I would just like to ask first of all-- Why is this question always about how many languages one speaks? Why not ask about how many I can read and write?
Hypatia,
Good point actually. I just changed the question slightly to add your suggestion.
Thanks!
I am fluent in English (including Middle English and modest Anglo-Saxon), adequate in German, Greek, and Hebrew, less than adequate in Spanish, and have a smattering of Ameslan, French, Danish, and Japanese.
Quote from: Buffy on April 30, 2008, 10:17:41 PM
English, French and Arabic
Haut-cinqخمسة عالية
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handoffatima.com%2Fhand.bmp&hash=6e244a0043e3567df4c0e49582b6841b47a173e4)
I'm still working on English.
Quote from: Hypatia on May 01, 2008, 11:26:15 AM
Quote from: Buffy on April 30, 2008, 10:17:41 PM
English, French and Arabic
Haut-cinq
خمسة عالية
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.handoffatima.com%2Fhand.bmp&hash=6e244a0043e3567df4c0e49582b6841b47a173e4)
lol
Fluent in Afrikaans and English.
i want to learn Elvish, Gaelic, Amharic, Latin, Spanish, Japanese and Signing.
busy with japanese.
(-^.^-)
Really just English. I studied French for a few years but recall precious little. And it's pretty damn embarassing that I can't speak Russian or Ukrainian cause my dad does.
As far as Spanish, I only know the important phrases:
Hola
Tu eres bello
Te amo
Como te llamas?
Those combined with these magic hands always got me what I needed.
Eres guapo, amigo.
In Italian-- Sei bello.
My family & I came to France from Uruguay when I was very small. French is my native tongue. I also speak English, German, Spanish, Swedish & I'm trying to learn Turkish.
Quote from: Pia on May 04, 2008, 04:10:36 AMother countries where they brag about their power & money but where education in general is lacking. ;)
Good point-- there's one country I could name that matches that description, I know it quite well. A country with a historically-rooted mindset that since two big oceans insulate it from the rest of the world, its people can ignore the learning of foreign languages. Too bad that attitude is obsolete in today's global village. But it persists.
In fairness, nobody has to learn any language here, as there is no legal or national language at all. The California DMV gives tests in at least 8 different languages (at least), everything is routinely printed in both English and Spanish, and its possible to live your entire life in some areas never using a word of English.
I'm Swiss and can speak, read, write, German, French, Italian and English fluently.
Quote from: Blanche on May 04, 2008, 10:18:56 PM
I'm Swiss and can speak, read, write, German, French, Italian and English fluently.
What, no Romansh? You Swiss people have an unfair advantage, what with your four official languages! ;)
Other than English, I can get by in French. I've had to use it on a few occasions, and it works well enough. I can read French newspapers and decipher what's going on. I've got a smattering of German as well, almost passable when combined with massive amounts of gesticulation. My diction is a lot better than my vocabulary, alas. It's a disadvantage, because it makes people think my language skills are better than they are. When you say <<Je parle tres mal francais.>> with a perfect French accent, people tend not to believe you. You might call it the aural Stroop Effect.
I speak French, mais bien oui, madam. English, well of course mam. Ojibwa, Honeen neshnabequoi. Well I know Martian to, wanna hear it?
Cindy
Quote from: cindybc on May 05, 2008, 01:41:53 AM
Well I know Martian to, wanna hear it?
Cindy
Cindy, I bet you know more than a few intergalactic languages from your other worldly travels ;D
Z
I'd like to learn some other languages. I'm fairly fluent in American english. I can read/write/speak a little Japanese and know some basic phrases in Spanish, Hungarian and Tagalog.
Karen Lyn
Only one... after all, I am an American!
um, one. and i'm not very polite in that one.
but i can speak it in two dialects, bitchy and bratty.
-Ell
*walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock at a piece of roadkill. this site always makes me feel like such a dope*
Oh come on Ell honey you are doin quite well. Psssssst tets go kick some soda cans down the street, they make more noise and anoy more people. ;D
Cindy
Quote from: ell on May 10, 2008, 12:45:48 AM
um, one. and i'm not very polite in that one.
but i can speak it in two dialects, bitchy and bratty.
Ell,
I've never thought of you as being impolite at all.
Quote*walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock at a piece of roadkill. this site always makes me feel like such a dope*
Z sends hugs!
Z
Native speaker of German. Fluent in English, French & Dutch.
Being a native Danish gal, I'm fluent in my own language. English & German are my back up!
Dutch or Deutsch? Depends on where you put your Jews, in the attic or the oven. Sadly, and rather awesomely too, a true story.
A world renowned translator of a very famous German poet once said "So many lies were told in German in the 20th Century, that it will be many centuries hence before anyone believes anything in that language again." Again, sad, but true.
Quote from: cindybc on May 10, 2008, 01:24:01 AM
Oh come on Ell honey you are doin quite well. Psssssst tets go kick some soda cans down the street, they make more noise and anoy more people. ;D
Cindy
Ok...
Quote from: ell on May 10, 2008, 12:45:48 AM
um, one. and i'm not very polite in that one.
but i can speak it in two dialects, bitchy and bratty.
-Ell
*walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock at a piece of roadkill. this site always makes me feel like such a dope*
Never a dope, dearest. *puts arm around you* You're smart enough to have figured me out.
Quote from: Fer on May 11, 2008, 09:45:22 PM
Being a native Danish gal, I'm fluent in my own language. English & German are my back up!
I wish I could be fluent in it. The only teacher I had was my mother, and she had lost much of it.
There are several language programs for the computer, which has proven to be a pretty effective way to learn language, short of moving to the place.
Quote from: ell on May 10, 2008, 12:45:48 AM
um, one. and i'm not very polite in that one.
but i can speak it in two dialects, bitchy and bratty.
-Ell
*walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock at a piece of roadkill. this site always makes me feel like such a dope*
Aw, you're such a sweetheart, Ell! :icon_hug:
I always look forward to hearing what you have to say. Please don't let supercillious preeners (like me :embarrassed:) get you down.
Quote from: tekla on May 12, 2008, 11:31:30 AM
There are several language programs for the computer...
Yearghh!! I totally misparsed that the first time. I was trying to figure out how learning Python can help you with your Dutch!
2
English
Bad english ;D
when i went to Germany I Learnt to say "Do you speak English" in German ( speaka zee english)
Quote from: Kikly on May 12, 2008, 12:26:53 PM
when i went to Germany I Learnt to say "Do you speak English" in German ( speaka zee english)
Flinch.... :icon_help:
Quote from: Zythyra on May 10, 2008, 03:41:51 PM
Quote from: ell on May 10, 2008, 12:45:48 AM
um, one. and i'm not very polite in that one.
but i can speak it in two dialects, bitchy and bratty.
Ell,
I've never thought of you as being impolite at all.
Quote*walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock at a piece of roadkill. this site always makes me feel like such a dope*
Z sends hugs!
Z
Thank you, Z. *smiles*
Posted on: May 12, 2008, 03:27:34 PM
Quote from: Alyssa M. on May 12, 2008, 12:07:32 PM
Aw, you're such a sweetheart, Ell! :icon_hug:
I always look forward to hearing what you have to say. Please don't let supercillious preeners (like me :embarrassed:) get you down.
aw, thank you!
I always like your posts, ellie. Well, most of them. Just love it when you go bi-lingual on us and speak bitchy and bratty alternately!!! >:D
English and some Italian. :)
gina
Bitchy and ornery I can speak that language to sometimes, but I keep to myself most times. Wing Walker has seen me get bitchy and bratty now and again for all of the duration of couple of swears words length.
Bon soir, Mlle Ell.
Cindy
None, really, but I am reading "How to Learn Any Language" by Barry Farber. It is from MJF books.
I am fluent in: English
I can read and communicate in basic: German
I am currently studying: German, Japanese, Swedish, Russian
I want to study: French
Unfortunately, I can never get any other languages to stick in my mind other than English and German so, I probably won't be able to stick with the other languages I am currently trying to learn. ^^;
Oh, and if anyone wants to try to learn a new language, may I suggest http://www.livemocha.com (http://www.livemocha.com) ? ;D
Fluent:
French
English
Can read:
Spanish (took a year of it in high school)
Forgotten with no intention of relearning:
Hebrew (I can still remember bits and pieces, I can read/write a little, recognize a few words, but I'm mostly clueless. I used to be able to speak it.)
Want to learn:
Luxembourgish (I know that might seem quite odd since it's only spoken by around 500000 people)
German (If Luxembourgish isn't an option)
Maybe more if my brain permits... Sans explosion.
Apart from my native English, I know very basic French and Spanish.
I speak some German and write/speak some Japanese. I would kill to be fluent in either!
I'd also like to learn French, Russian, and Gaelic.
Looks like someone pulled the ress-scroll. 8)
I am fluent in Dutch and English.
Near fluent in German.
I get by in French and Russian (my French is better though I can read cyrillic).
I'd like to improve my French and Russian as well as my writing in German, and Spanish would be a nice addition.
Fluent in English, a small amount of German and French (read better than speak) very rusty in Latin and Mandarin, and struggling to work out American!
Native language English, conversational French, and intermediate Japanese.
I want to become fluent in French and Japanese, and learn German, Korean, Arabic, Russian... pretty much everything. :D
I am Fluent in French & English
I can scrape by in some simple spanish
I know a few words of German & Cornish.
Funnily enough when I was younger I noticed that after some years on estrogen my aptitude for picking up languages, which was alway fairly average, actually seemed to go up a bit.
I speak English and bad English, but I was in French immersion until grade 7, I've lost most of it now though. Would like to pick it up again someday. My mother's side is Ojibwa and my grandmother speaks it, wish I could learn that too.
Fluent in:
Swedish (+the two neighbour languages, Norwegian and Danish)
English
Comfortable tourist in:
Japanese
German
Forgotten:
6 months of Spanish
6 months of Finnish
Trying to choose next between:
Mandarin or Cantonese
Fluent in English (obviously)
I can get by as a tourist in German and Japanese.
I could also get by as a tourist in Toki Pona but, there isn't a place that speaks it...
I've studied a fair bit of Latin, and I can understand a fair bit that is written, but I wouldn't be able to form my own sentences or speak in it. I don't know about listening as I really haven't heard it spoken very much.
currently I am working on my Japanese, I can read Katakana, and Hiragana alright, but I only know a few Kanji (the numbers, Watashi, etc).
completely fluent: Only English
= = =
Decent spoken and written: German (even Fraktur script, as I've done a bit of translation work on older documents for genealogy)
= = =
Some varied proficiency: Japanese, Spanish, & French in that order.
= = =
It has been years since I've used most of them (other than German & English), so unfortunately I've grown a bit rusty. Still, I do enjoy languages quite a bit.
Australian ;D :D ;) (english)
Languages! I love lanbguages~ Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to study them as I would like.
I'm only fluent in English, but I took 4 years of German in high school and am at least decently communicable in that (though I'm definitely rather out-of-practice due to a lack of German-speaking people around for me to jabber at). I know some basic Spanish and plan to learn more in the pprocess of getting my undergrad degree. Plus, I'm going to take a lot of linguistics courses, as I plan to be an ENL (English as a New Language) teacher.
My goal is to eventually become fluent in Spanish and be able to communicate in as many other languages as possible. I'm hoping I can expand on my Spanish and hopefully learn at least one Asian language (probably Japanese or Korean-- I picked up some very fundamental Japanese in jr. high between lots of anime and a family friend who teaches Asian culture courses, and I'd like to learn more) in grad school. I would also LOVE to learn Swahili if I ever get the chance, but not a lot of schools offer classes on that I don't think. And then I'll inevitably pick up some other things from my students as an ENL teacher.
Quote from: Lesley-Ann on April 20, 2010, 10:16:42 PM
Australian ;D :D ;) (english)
Its got nothing to do with english :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Hugs Hun
Cindy
I love languages! I have been interested in so many different ones since I was a kid. I never could become fluent in one or two because I would be too excited to learn more of another lol
My best languages are:
German
English
I speak and understand bits of:
Tagalog
French
Russian
Danish
I'm interested in the Northern European languages as of late, such as Icelandic and Swedish.
Native language - Icelandic
Fluent speaker - Icelandic, English & Swedish (though a little rusty in Swedish)
Fluent writer - Same as ^
Able to understand spoken; Icelandic, English, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and a little French, Spanish & German if spoken clearly & slowly enough for me to hear where one word ends and the other takes off.
Able to understand written; Icelandic, English, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and "some" Spanish, French & German.
I love languages, always wanted to be an interpreter.. (or actress ;))
I can speak D'ni and English fluently :).
Would love to learn Japanese, French & Arabic!
(also sign language!)
Fluent: English
Was fluent at one time, still functional: French, Spanish
Can read: Latin, Italian
Minimal word/phrase recognition and speech (varying degrees): German, Finnish, Farsi
All inclusive and in no particular order : English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, German, C++, Afrikaans, Greek, Italian- :)
Mother tongue: Dutch
Fluent in English and french
Ok Spanish
Understand some German
Slovenian, Croatian, English, German ...
Would love to learn Japanese ...
:icon_hug: Michelle :icon_hug:
I speak Indonesian language
I'm native to English, But I can also speak/write German
I'm learning Russian and Japanese
And I am semi-fluent in American Sign Language
Mostly I'd love to get fluent in Japanese. It's my top language :)
kop koon kah, I love learning any language. would love to study with others. Quiza escriba en otros idiomas. anyway English, Spanish, Portuguese and working on Chinese, Japanese and Thai.
I am fluent in:
-English
I can read (basic):
-German
-Spanish
I want to learn:
-German
-Russian
-Japanese (I have to study that soon, I'll be going to Japan where my sister is and she knows almost nothing)
-Italian
-Romanian
Only English for me. I've had enough exposure to Spanish and German to recognize when someone is speaking them, but I can only pick out the odd word here and there.
Can speak and read English and Spanish, but I have yet to learn the higher-level words in Spanish so can't read any good books in Spanish.
At some point, I'd like to learn Latin and German but that is irrelevant.
Only fluent in English, but I have a decent understanding of French and Spanish when spoken to me. Took three years of Spanish and two of French in High School.
Quote from: childofwinter on January 27, 2010, 09:54:20 AM
Apart from my native English, I know very basic French and Spanish.
I can also speak basic Swedish (by which I mean, more than Spanish but less than French), and I understand a lot of Esperanto.
I'm fluent in English
I can also sing and speak in the following languages
Maori (the language of the indigenous New Zealanders)
Hebrew
Italian
French
Elizabethan English
some Asian/Pacific Islander dialects
African
Arabic
Latin
Spanish
Damn! whered you learn all those languages! Its hard enough for me to learn a second one!
English is my main language...
Was schooled in Germany for awhile.... so I can get by with Deutsch...
Ditto have scraps of French too...
And when I travel I make a point of starting to get a gist for the lingo... Nagyon köszönöm!
Can get you outta sticky-wickets sometimes...
Think languages just happen at a certain point:
My mother tongue is Dutch (Flemish)
My father tongue is French
Got family in the US where I spent some holidays as a child, so: English
Thought Spanish sounded cool and studied that in College
Fell in love with an Italian so I ended up studying that too
Got some German friends so I picked that up (can read and understand but barely speak)
and when it comes to languages, I tend to be like a sponge picking up words and expressions as I meet people from wherever, but I'm not counting those :)
I am a native dutch so i do speak it fluently
at school I had English lessons and of course holiday in the UK,US and Canada
I had a relationship with a german girl for about three years, so I learned german in bed.
with french it's always a struggle, i can tell wat I want and they can tell me what they have to offer, I'm still always pleasantly suprised when we seem to understand eachother.
I had friends in spain so we talked on the phone and write eachother.
But, in transition time none of these languages had enough words to tell how I felt.
sometimes language is not enough to explain your feelings.
hugs to all
annette
Very true Annette "never enough words".
I am focusing on Japanese hoping to be fluint in the next 2 years. :o
www.lingq.com (http://www.lingq.com) ;) is a great place to learn about 10 differnt languages.
I may have said this already. lol. :D
English and Spanish.
Also basic SQL. I'm joking.
I want to learn Mandarin, mostly because writing it is challenging and beautiful, but also because I feel like I'm going to need to in my lifetime.
I can speak/write English and German. I can read French, Dutch, Spanish, and some Norwegian. I'm currently working on my Dutch; it's the next language I'd like to be fluent in.
Hi August
You can always write me in dutch for practicing and I'll write you back in dutch, but there was a british comedian on the dutch television.
His name is John Cleese and we enjoy him very much.
He said, the dutch don't have their own language, they are just making the gargling sounds to confuse the english speaking people.
They don't really understand eachother, they just making sounds, when they want to understand eachother, they speak english.
well it isn't quite true, we do understand eachother but, for foreigners it's a hell of a language.
so, I think you're very brave and I wish you a lot of strenght while learning dutch (lol)
a big hug
dutch annette
all off you learning a new language check out lingq.
LingQ.com Introduction in English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU6sH4CagsY#ws)
Look me up ID is jamesnorville
I speak English, French, and Slovenian fluently.
I can read and converse passingly in German.
I can speak and understand colloquial Mandarin. I can read literary Mandarin.
I have studied and can manage to navigate through the respective native countries of Finnish, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Serbian.
I am attending college to major in Mandarin Chinese and Russian business translation, and I hope to spend the rest of my life learning languages.
Oooh, I love languages, there are so many I want to learn. I'm really jealous of all the kids who have foreign parents and have grown up bilingual... Head start, no fair!
English is my first language, so I certainly would like to think I'm fluent in that. ;) I've been studying French for 5 years now, so I'd say I can probably communicate fairly competently at least. Other than that, I know fragments of Scottish Gaelic, scraps of Old Norse, and a bit of Sindarin Elvish. (Yeah, nerd alert.)
There are SO many more I'd love to learn! I'd really like to learn more Gaelic, I'd also like to learn a Scandinavian language, maybe Norwegian, Russian would be awesome to know, Hebrew just because it sounds so nice, Arabic... The list goes on!
Well, I speak English not very clearly :)
I am toying around with learning Spanish.
On my "It would be cool if..." list, I'd also like to learn German and Sign Language.
Anyone have any suggestions for software/tapes/websites they really progressed with?
I like the Pimsleur tapes, but I'm not using them right now.
Happy learning!
Quote from: bearded on December 09, 2010, 05:57:29 PM
Well, I speak English not very clearly :)
I am toying around with learning Spanish.
On my "It would be cool if..." list, I'd also like to learn German and Sign Language.
Anyone have any suggestions for software/tapes/websites they really progressed with?
I like the Pimsleur tapes, but I'm not using them right now.
Happy learning!
Oh I highly suggest sign language, it's great fun! My ASL teacher (I'm only in the first semester of ASL) gave me a few good websites where you can basically learn all the signs you need to know.
www.aslpro.com (http://www.aslpro.com) is my favorite
www.lifeprint.com (http://www.lifeprint.com) is anothe good one
Quote from: lightvi on December 13, 2010, 02:29:30 AM
Oh I highly suggest sign language, it's great fun! My ASL teacher (I'm only in the first semester of ASL) gave me a few good websites where you can basically learn all the signs you need to know.
www.aslpro.com (http://www.aslpro.com) is my favorite
www.lifeprint.com (http://www.lifeprint.com) is anothe good one
Hey, thanks, lightvi! I'll check those out pretty soon. I wonder if making a regular flash card deck would still be effective with signs.
(and I looked at the lingq site, laineyjain...it looks interesting but it seems to be a pay site? or is the free stuff worth checking out too...)
Hmm maybe for some of the easier signs like numbers from 1-9 but for most signs I've noticed there's a lot of action involved that's hard to understand just from reading it on a page. You really have to see the motion, especially for some of the more complicated ones like the word "tiger". For things that only have a single motion you could do it though, just draw an arrow to the direction you move your hands. Gl! I'm trying to get into the next semester atm so I can get my foreign language hehe :)
fluent:
English.
:D German
I can read in English and German
write in English and German
and I want to learn
French
How did I miss this thread? :D
I have studied ancient Greek, Japanese, Thai, East Cree, and have been taught a little French and Spanish. I know a tiny bit of Gaelic thanks to my musical preferences. And I know how to ask "do you speak English" in Cantonese. One day I would like to be fluent in one of these languages, probably one of the Asian ones.
Does cussing count as a language ?
Spanish and now fluent in english reading, writing and sarcasm >:-)
I speak enough Japanese to get around Tokyo and find a place to drink beer. :-) I used to know how to read and right katakana and hirigana.
only (somewhat ::)) fluent in german and english.
i took classes/tried french, swedish, irish and mandarin... but it just didn't work.
i guess my head is too full of other crap lately to learn anything *sigh*
Ask me again in a year or so. Hopefully I will have gone back to study. German and/or French or Swedish.
Karen.
German, Russian, and English.
i can read some hebrew and some french.
Good English and Japanese. Basic German. Very little Viet, the pronunciation drives me up the walls but it's a fun language.
Obviously, I don't speak English.
I can understand about 40% of German, but can hardly speak it. I can understand and read about 70% of Spanish, but can only speak a few sentences. I'm fluent in French (reading, writing, speaking), and can translate the hell out of Ancient Greek and Latin.
I can understand English pretty well but I need a lot of practice in writing and speaking. Of course I speak my native language, Hungarian, but that doesn't count I believe :D I would like to learn some more languages in the future, I like the sound of Italian, maybe I'll start with that, but for other reasons I would need German as well.
fluent:
norwegian (includes swedish and danish)
lule sami
english
advanced:
japanese
german
can read:
latin
french
portuguese
spanish
italian
dutch
afrikaans
esperanto
should be able to read (but haven't really tried yet):
islandic
romaninan
middle english
old norse
etc
occasionally understand (spoken):
finnish, icelandic
once had basic skills in:
russian
farsi
swahili
used to understand a little of:
hindi/urdu
bangla
kurdi
know a few words/phrases in:
many languages. most exotic would be "i love you" in itelmen: кэмма кэзза фтала тес
want to learn:
korean, chinese (calligraphy), an ergative language, a turkic language (just not turkish), more russian, pirahã, a language with ejectives, and one with clicks, greenlandic or another inuit language, cuneiform script (sumerian)... i'm obsessed with script and phonetic/grammatical features
fluent: french, english, spanish
a bit: japanese, hebrew, italian, quechua
want to learn: mandarin, vietnamese, dutch, and frisian
English and Italian here.
English is my main language and currently studying Thai then who knows what...definitely another language.
English, French, Filipino
One
English is my first language, but I know a bit of German and I can understand Armenian perfectly, yet can't speak of a word of it myself (my grandparents are Armenian). I took a year of Spanish class but all I really remembered was "donde estan mi pantalones?" or "Where are my pants?"
all with the google translator xD
Ach Du liebes Lottchen, so viele sprechen Deutsch, daß hätte ich mir jetzt auch wieder nicht gedacht. :-)
So,
1) English read, write, speak,
2) German, same as was first language, AND ta, ta,
3) Afrikaans, speak so-so, read so-so, but hopeless in writing,
4) French just a little, plus
5) Italian hardly worth the mentioning.
Axelle
PS: Seems everyone about is definitely 3 sigma above Caucasian average of IQ 105 hee-hee.
from top to bottom the languarge I know most;
Danish; fluent
Norwegian; understand and read (I cant pronouce it and my writting suchs)
Swedish; understand and read more or less..
English; speak, understand,read,writte, more or less, with mistakes
Swedish; understand and read more or less..
German; writte, speak, read, understand, more or less on standard basic.
Japanese; writte, understand, read, speak (still studing)
English is my first language.
I did French at school and remember some of it.
I am trying to learn Japanese!
Fluent: Read, Write, Speak, Understand when heard
English
Spanish (Spain)
Mexican (Mexico)
Partial: Read, Write, Speak
Cuban, it's different than spanish or mexican, it's spoken faster and it's hard to pick up all the words sometimes. I had the chance to live in southern Florida for a few years and Cuban and Puerto Rican are very beautiful languages but as I said they are spoken very fast so are hard to learn.
I cuss in German, it's funny, I don't know why I do it.
I can read and write in Russian, speak it some and can understand it most times.
Japanese: I can read Katakana, The only Kanji I know are basics like Love (I'm a Naruto fanatic), and without realising it I can understand a lot of it when I hear it, but can only speak the basics.
Does ASL count? I can understand most when I see it and can sign most basics and a lot more when I'm around people that can sign.
I would one day love to be fluent in Japanese, Russian, and American Sign Language, to me, these are beautiful languages
I'm crap at French, I couldn't learn it if I tried.
Only English fluently. I took 2 years of spanish but forgot most of it due to underuse. I would love to become fluent in German and Russian.
Native: US English
1 year college courses: Spanish, German
other courses: German, Lithuanian
self-taught: Latin
future: Greek, Russian
Three and I am learning to speak, read and write another and just write two more.
Quote from: justmeinoz on April 20, 2011, 05:25:04 AM
Ask me again in a year or so. Hopefully I will have gone back to study. German and/or French or Swedish.
Karen.
?
One year, one month later.
English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew. Read some German, learning Mandarin
I'm fluent in English, Spanish, and Catalan. Usually I can stumble my way through Italian and French, but it can get ugly. I used to be able to read/write/speak Hebrew, but that is something that I lost a while ago.
If we are talking about enough to carry on a conversation and read a newspaper, French. But then I have just completed 1st Semester 1st year Uni. Exam in 2 weeks. :-\
Karen.
I speak:
English
American
Gamertalk
Sailor Moon
Cheesecake
Southern
I consider all of these to be official languages.
Quote from: Malachite on June 09, 2012, 04:44:44 AM
I speak:
English
American
Gamertalk
Sailor Moon
Cheesecake
Southern
I consider all of these to be official languages.
Southern for sure.
=====
I'm fluent in English and Spanish
I can speak German and Swedish and I can communicate in Italian, Portuguese, and a little bit of French.
I'm fluent in only english,,,
I've picked up some basic German considering it's spoken in the house
I'm currently learning Danish and French
Only fluent in english.
But I know some Japanese, some German, and a little bit of Spanish.
I'd like to learn French, too.
I'm very fluent in
American,
English
Australian
'Strine'
New Zealand
South Africian
Irish
Scottish
Canadian - english
AND
Tasmanian
Huggs
Catherine
My mother tongue is German.
I loved English when I was in school. My best grades I always had in foreign languages.
I also learnt French at that time but most of the vocabulary got lost in the years after school.
At university I attended lessons in Polish and Turkish. Too bad my memory is like a sieve. :D
English and SerboCroatian(native).
Also know some Spanish because I like Spanish music and grew up watching telenovelas.
Quote from: Catherine Sarah on June 23, 2012, 05:29:38 AM
I'm very fluent in
American,
English
Australian
'Strine'
New Zealand
South Africian
Irish
Scottish
Canadian - english
AND
Tasmanian
Huggs
Catherine
So you know how to hit someone with a brick?
Quote from: Cindy James on August 08, 2012, 02:12:19 AM
So you know how to hit someone with a brick?
YESMany people do hit me with bricks. ............ But I'm building a nice home out of them :laugh:
And I suspect one is coming from YOU.
Probably by air mail.
Huggs
Catherine :icon_help:
:icon_bat:
Finnish as my native tongue and very fluent English (studied it ever since '97). I also speak a little of very bad Swedish, even worse German and few measily words and phrases of Japanese.
Thaaat's about it.
currently fluent in
English
Japanese
Tagalog
semi fluent in (limited vocabulary)
korean (spoken only)
french (spoken only)
Fluent in Spanish, English and American Sign Language. Up next is probably Russian. It sounds so sexy!
fluent in spanish and english
can passively comprehend french and a tiny bit of japanese.
polish sounds sexy ;)
Quote from: Ave on September 18, 2012, 07:06:10 PM
polish sounds sexy ;)
Say that to my Russian friend Andrey, and he'll probably snap. :laugh:
i speak english and german, i can understand czech because a lot of the families that come into my daycare speak it. i also know asl but thats not within reading writing or speaking :P
I speak 3.5 languages.
To clarify, there's my mother tongue, English (my second language, bilingual really, having done most of my schooling in it) and Norwegian, all which I speak, read and write like it's nobodies business.
Then there's French, which I used to speak well enough, but when I learnt Norwegian, it all sort of disappeared into the catacombs of my mind. My plan is to one day move to a francophone area of the world and regain this lost ability. I still understand both spoken and written French though, so it's not all lost.
My primary language is US English because I was born here, however, because of my cultural surroundings and family, I also speak German:standard, and some Bayerisch.
I also am learning Swedish.
I can read in both English or German. :)
Quote from: Catherine Sarah on June 23, 2012, 05:29:38 AM
I'm very fluent in
American,
English
Australian
'Strine'
New Zealand
South Africian
Irish
Scottish
Canadian - english
AND
Tasmanian
Huggs
Catherine
Since posting this most amazing display of intellectual talents (being modest is another hallmark of mine) I have further added fluency in:
South Australian. Yes they do speak a completely different language there (Beware of thrown branding irons)
Bostonian. Very close to total gibberish. In fact gibberish is easier to understand than Bostonian. And I know I can say that in safety here as certain members don't visit this thread
Latin
New Guinea (pigeon english) and due to Births Deaths & Marriages spelling my new name incorrectly
Welsh
Huggs
Catherine
I am fluent in English and Swedish, studying German at the moment 8)
I'm fluent in English and French, can listen to, read and write Japanese and can listen to Spanish and German. I want to be fluent in all someday.
Quote from: BeyondBirthday on January 25, 2013, 08:20:02 PM
I'm fluent in English and French, can listen to, read and write Japanese and can listen to Spanish and German. I want to be fluent in all someday.
Anyone can listen to a language. However, can you understand them? :P
Besides, with over 100 languages on this planet, no one can learn them all. Not enough space in the human brain. :(
Quote from: DianaP on January 25, 2013, 08:23:06 PM
Anyone can listen to a language. However, can you understand them? :P
Besides, with over 100 languages on this planet, no one can learn them all. Not enough space in the human brain. :(
Haha, yes, I meant that I can orally understand them. And by "all", I meant all the ones I mentioned :P
Quote from: DianaP on January 25, 2013, 08:23:06 PM
Anyone can listen to a language. However, can you understand them? :P
Besides, with over 100 languages on this planet, no one can learn them all. Not enough space in the human brain. :(
100? There are over 6,900 ;-)
I can speak Swedish and English fluently. I can speak Norwegian.
On top of that I can understand Danish and Norwegian, and some German and French.
I got a Irish accent when I speak English, and speak British English, not American English.
And the sexiest accent ever is Icelandic English.
Quote from: Sarah Blomsterhatt on January 27, 2013, 07:02:52 AM
I got a Irish accent when I speak English, and speak British English, not American English.
How did you manage that?
Quote from: niamh on January 27, 2013, 06:56:29 AM
100? There are over 6,900 ;-)
Over 6,900 is still over 100. Either way, they're accurate statements. :P :)
Quote from: niamh on January 28, 2013, 04:47:40 AM
How did you manage that?
A good question, and I have no idea. A theory; I've grown up in Europe and have thus learned British English for the most part, and by British English I mean I'll write "colour" not "color" etc. Not so strange, as to how I got my accent I'm not quite sure, might be because I'm from Sweden, and I believe that the northern British accents is the way they are because of the Nordic influences that came along with the viking raids. So maybe it's just my British English with Nordic influences that created my Irish accent.
But really though, me and my accents is a very intresting fenomena. I've been known to speak 10-15 different accents of Swedish, they change without me noticing. Once when I was on a bus and I began speaking to a girl there I spoke fluent Norwiegan and I have no idea where it came from, I did not even know my Norwiegan was that good.
I really wish that I could control my accents, if I could only do that I would have an amazing skill. :D
I'm boring. I only speak English. I'm taking Spanish, but that's only because it's a requirement for any degree in my area of study (arts and sciences). I'm only in the first month of taking the class, so you can't expect me to be fluent at it.
I would have loved to have taken Latin. It's a little more relevant to music, since so much of the ancient/medieval/Renaissance choral music is written in Latin. Plus it's such an awesome language, but I didn't know if it would count for a foreign language credit so I didn't bother.
I speak English natively, French passably fluent, and I'm learning Korean as well. I know a few words/phrases of Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, and Mandarin.
I speak English. And that's about it. I know some very basic school French, which I've forgotten most of, even less school Spanish and a word or two of Icelandic and Latin. I just don't see the point in learning them when I know I'll never use them. A useful language to me would be Icelandic as that's the only place I ever go on holiday to, but I don't know where to start and feel silly talking to myself.
I'm fluently bilingual in English and French and took some Italian in school.
I speak English, as well as some German. I also know a little Japanese, though not enough to say I speak it.
Another completely bilingual English-French with a good knowledge of German which has been improving of late as I live just beside the German border.
Other than that:
- is féidir liom beagan gaeilge labhairt ach anios ta an cuid is mor dearmadtha agam!
- nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu
e
- falo tanbem um pouco português :)
Quote from: Donna Elvira on August 31, 2013, 01:32:59 PM
Another completely bilingual English-French with a good knowledge of German which has been improving of late as I live just beside the German border.
Other than that:
- is féidir liom beagan gaeilge labhairt ach anios ta an cuid is mor dearmadtha agam!
- nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu
e
- falo tanbem um pouco português :)
Maith thú!
Uhm I'm bilingual french-dutch (should be I mean, Belgium) and I also speak German, though writing and grammatics aren't fantastic. My english is all-right I thing. I speak holidayspanish, and a couple of words esperanto.
Spanish and english! ^-^
English: However my English teacher told me I'm killing the English language(born in Chicago + English-Irish descent)
Took 2 semesters of high school Latin was good in it
Took 1 semester of Russian in college got a Dee as a grade in it. I couldn't pronounce one letter shch in Russian
It looks like a W with a slash at the bottom right corner . It is pronounced like the shch in ra(sh ch)oice
No matter how hard I tried I could never pronounce it.
Languages were a passion of mine as well:
English (native)
Norwegian (college major)
Spanish (very basic)
French (very basic)
Arabic (starting in the fall)
I speak English. I know just very few words in various other languages. But litterally few. Unless I wanted to say "hello sister chair" in portugese, I can't do much with it XD
But I speak a little bit of DOS/CMD if that counts;)
"If you speak 3 languages, you are trilingual.
If you speak 2 languages, you are bilingual.
If you speak 1 language, you are American"
-funny quote I can't remember where it comes from.
I'm fluent in Italian (native), English and Dutch (second-language but I lived and went to school in the Netherlands for 2 years and in US for the same time and speak both perfectly fine) plus Afrikaans from my mom and some arab (I used to write but I'm mostly forgetting) and French and Spanish (as a second language, I can read, write and speak both but I'm best at French)
English native, both language and country;
German - fluent written and spoken;
French - good written and spoken;
ALso studied Latin and Russian many many years ago. Same goes for Japanese, of which I remember very little!
Fluent in English.
I can also speak a moderate amount of Greek and learning to write the language wasn't very difficult after I could speak (although I only learned writing 2 years ago).
English,American,Australian,Canadian impressive isn't it?
$languages = array('C++', 'C#', 'Java', 'Node.js', 'php', 'html', 'Pascal', 'VB', 'VBS', "others that I can't remember");
echo "Mostly just english, though I do have a smattering of spanish/german left over from school\n";
echo "I am a bit of a nerd though...\n";
foreach($languages as $lang){
echo = "At one point or another I have used or learnt ".$lang."\n";
}
Fluent in English with a basic aptitude for French and German.
English and French.
Studied Japanese for a few years for a university course and also for historical interest but I wouldn't call myself 100% fluent as I haven't been using it for some time.
I speak 'murican. ;D
Primary Language: English
ASL- American Sign Language
Just English, though I'm trying to learn Japanese. :)
I'm learning Latin, because I'm a masochist.
I'm fluent in Swedish (native) and in English. Then I know some German (my latest ex bf is German, so learned because of him) and a little bit of Russian. I can understand spoken/written Norwegian pretty well cause it's similar to Swedish, but I can't speak or write it myself. Same with Danish but I struggle some more to understand that, might depend on the accent though.
I'm not so interested in learning more languages now unless I'd have reason to, but I would like to improve both my English and my Swedish, mostly for the sake of my writing. It's mostly some of the more complicated grammar stuff that I'm still struggling with, and needing a bigger vocabulary, which are issues when writing larger works of literature that I might wanna get published someday.
Although I might wanna learn Dutch cause I'm half-considering maybe moving to the Netherlands someday.
I only speak English, but I did learn Morse Code though my Code is rusty. Once I graduate and get out of school I'd like to rebuild my CW (Morse Code) skills.
English and Sailor.
Out Of practice for most (read unused languages fade away until you start using them again) but (excluding programming languages):
English (native)
Spanish (s/r/w)
Latin (r/w)
French (r)
Italian (r)
If you include programming the list is rather long.
I can read any language except from Asia. It is understanding the message that I fail at. >:-)
My grandparents speak German, English and French. My dad speaks those 3 as well. My mom speaks English and Danish. And my brother is pretty fluent in German. So you would think I knew at least one other language besides English but no. I'm a total dunce with languages other than English. My grandparents did try to teach me German but I just never picked it up. One reason is because I don't like German. I'm sorry but German is an ugly language. You could say " I love you" in German and it sounds like " I WILL KILL YOU"! Even though it's technically English I totally think I should get credit for knowing Australian. It's kind of a second language. When I first started dating Tristan I didn't know what he was saying half the time. Once when we were watching TV he asked me if I had any biscuits. I told him no, but if he really wanted biscuits I could make some. I had no clue what he wanted was cookies. And once his mom was talking about someone sending pictures of her "bub" and how cute it was. Who could know Aussies call babies "bubs" . Potato chips are "crisps". "Beauty" means excellent or good. Testicles are "oysters". And he calls other guys "mate". I guess mate is the aussie equivalent of "dude" . And do you know he had the nerve to tell me he didn't know what I was talking about sometimes when we first started dating! Me! He's the one who talks funny. I speak normal English thank you.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
One reason is because I don't like German. I'm sorry but German is an ugly language. You could say " I love you" in German and it sounds like " I WILL KILL YOU"!
Hahaha... try "Fussbodenschleifmaschinenverleih" or "Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung" (36 characters) or "Telekommunikationsüberwachungsverordnung". A lot of these words happen when the government tries to find a term for a new law... like "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz".
For us more relevant is the "Transexuellengesetz" which regulates things like name and gender maker change.
Anyways, compared to these words "Ich Liebe Dich" sounds almost pretty ;D;D;D
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
... You could say " I love you" in German and it sounds like " I WILL KILL YOU"! ...
A little unfair, perhaps? You must admit that "danke schön" sounds rather nice, especially in the song.
I think that German has had a bum rap for a long time now. I remember listening to a colleague who had seen some war movie or documentary and was talking about German soldiers goose-stepping while marching and how aggressive it was. I think that he was influenced by George Orwell, who wrote "It is simply an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face." I remembered a scene in The World at War in which German soldiers marched to the tune Erika, so I pointed out that the goose-step was just a slow march and that the soldiers my colleague had been watching were probably singing about pretty flowers, not about crushing faces.
Not that I am immune from the prejudice. Many years ago in what is now northern Namibia, I was on a camping trip in which the guide, his wife and my fellow travellers were all German speaking. When they realised that I sometimes knew what they were talking about, they decided I should improve my German further. When I was struggling, a woman suggested the words I was looking for. I nodded and thanked her. Then she loudly said "SAY IT!" and I nervously did. I thought "My God, they really do have ways and means of making you talk." I then had a suspicion, though, so I asked "Bist du ein professor?" (Are you a teacher? [In my bad German]) She smiled benignly and admitted that she was.
Then again, as the bachelor says in Faust, "When one is polite in German, one lies."
I'm ashamed at how few languages I speak even to a useful extent, considering that I have lived on three continents. Schoolteachers tried to teach me Arabic and French and I have been on courses to study German and Latin. I spent time studying Zulu, Tsonga and Herero. Before camping trips in East Africa I studied Swahili and Amharic. In spite of all that, the only languages that I spoke quite well were English, Afrikaans and Fanagalo, as at one period I used them in my daily life.
My excuse is that I am English speaking, so the choice of a second language is not as obvious as it is for other nationalities. English is the most popular second language in the world. The French speak French and English, the Germans speak German and English and the English speak English and English.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
My grandparents speak German, English and French. My dad speaks those 3 as well. My mom speaks English and Danish. And my brother is pretty fluent in German. So you would think I knew at least one other language besides English but no. I'm a total dunce with languages other than English. My grandparents did try to teach me German but I just never picked it up. One reason is because I don't like German. I'm sorry but German is an ugly language. You could say " I love you" in German and it sounds like " I WILL KILL YOU"! Even though it's technically English I totally think I should get credit for knowing Australian. It's kind of a second language. When I first started dating Tristan I didn't know what he was saying half the time. Once when we were watching TV he asked me if I had any biscuits. I told him no, but if he really wanted biscuits I could make some. I had no clue what he wanted was cookies. And once his mom was talking about someone sending pictures of her "bub" and how cute it was. Who could know Aussies call babies "bubs" . Potato chips are "crisps". "Beauty" means excellent or good. Testicles are "oysters". And he calls other guys "mate". I guess mate is the aussie equivalent of "dude" . And do you know he had the nerve to tell me he didn't know what I was talking about sometimes when we first started dating! Me! He's the one who talks funny. I speak normal English thank you.
I think dialects are fine. Well played.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
... And he calls other guys "mate". I guess mate is the aussie equivalent of "dude" . ...
I think that Americans must have used "mate" to mean "friend" or "dude" at one time. After all, there is the song that goes
"It's simply great mate waiting on the levee
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee".
I gather that like Cockneys, Australians use quite a lot of rhyming slang. For example, does Tristan ever call people "China" instead of "mate"?
I know:
German
English
Latin
I study:
Norwegian
I understand and can read:
Dutch
Yiddish
I never learned either though. It's just due to their similarity and linguistic relation to my native language that I can understand those.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
My grandparents did try to teach me German but I just never picked it up. One reason is because I don't like German. I'm sorry but German is an ugly language. You could say " I love you" in German and it sounds like " I WILL KILL YOU"!
To be frank that is solely your opinion not an objective fact as you formulated it as and opinions are like arseholes, everyone got them.
Additonally judging from the fact that you admitted to not know anything about the German language, don't understand it, don't speak it, and hence have no clue whatsoever about the subject you are talking about I would call this an uninformed and ignorant opinion on top of that.
From my perception the German language to those who not only know it but occupy themselves deeper in it reveals that it is a truly rich and beautiful language. As a writer out of passion who writes in German and English I can say that the German language is perfect to express oneself, to paint detailed pictures and built worlds with words as the language itself is really specific and detail oriented and offers plenty of different ways to say one thing. It's also really sophisticated if one knows how to use it properly. It's the perfect language for writers and although I am not a fan of poetry in general for poets as well as it has something that is unique to it and that one doesn't just find in any other random language and many people who too like to write see it the same way I do no matter which second or third language or native tongue they had.
I would give you the benefit of the doubt about the 'I love you sounds like I kill you in German' thing as that's normally a joke about the language sounding hard and harsh to foreigners from some nations and not used as an argument to 'prove' the language is supposedly ugly.
I really like that my native language sounds strong and powerful though, that some words have a certain sharpness to them and that it doesn't sound soft, weak and breakable, who would want that anyway? I am not a fan of softness; it's not attractive to me personally at all. Why would I want to sound like I had drunken some fabric softener? So the supposed harshness of the language is actually something I deem positive about it as well as about the accent I have when I speak English which is a language I too appreciate. The English language is great although I have heard some people butchering it in a really unappealing way (and by that I don't mean simple mistakes in grammar and orthography).
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 02, 2018, 08:15:14 AM
Even though it's technically English I totally think I should get credit for knowing Australian. It's kind of a second language. When I first started dating Tristan I didn't know what he was saying half the time. Once when we were watching TV he asked me if I had any biscuits. I told him no, but if he really wanted biscuits I could make some. I had no clue what he wanted was cookies. And once his mom was talking about someone sending pictures of her "bub" and how cute it was. Who could know Aussies call babies "bubs" . Potato chips are "crisps". "Beauty" means excellent or good. Testicles are "oysters". And he calls other guys "mate". I guess mate is the aussie equivalent of "dude" . And do you know he had the nerve to tell me he didn't know what I was talking about sometimes when we first started dating! Me! He's the one who talks funny. I speak normal English thank you.
Had I known cheating with dialects was a thing I could have made myself seem like a frigging language genius. As our small country that is only about the size of Texas has estimated maybe about 20 different dialects or something and I can understand them all. As well as I can understand Austrian German and Swiss German. And I also am able to understand more than one dialect in English too.
I know that in Latin there is a slight difference between church Latin and the original but I only know the original anyway.
I use the term "mate" in the same way sometimes by the way and I never saw anything strange about it but I am not American and neither a native English speaker so....
Quote from: MaryT on August 02, 2018, 04:01:51 PM
I think that Americans must have used "mate" to mean "friend" or "dude" at one time. After all, there is the song that goes
"It's simply great mate waiting on the levee
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee".
I gather that like Cockneys, Australians use quite a lot of rhyming slang. For example, does Tristan ever call people "China" instead of "mate"?
I've never heard him call anyone China. But he uses plenty of other Aussie slang. He calls his penis his "donger". Getting an erection is " cracking a fat". He calls boogers "bush oysters". He calls vomit "chunder". I could write a book of the Aussie slang and expressions he uses.
I absolutely love the German language in its written form, but I understand people who say it sounds guttural and aggressive and "unbeautiful". It certainly doesn't flow to the extent French and Spanish do and is filled with a lot of staccato sounds.
English too, since they're related.
I wish I knew more German, as I enjoy hanging around in Switzerland and Austria.
At one time I could speak New Yorkese, but if you don't use it, you lose it. I can do a little sign language, but not much. I don't do New York sign language as it tended to cause problems when I was driving. :P
Any relation to Italian hand gestures by any chance? lol