Languages You Speak/Would Like To Speak/Are Learning
Original post
Posted by Unknown user, 18.08.2007 - 17:35
Personally...
- (As you *might* have noticed) I speak English. Not really well, but I think I can say I know the basis. But it is not my first language: French is. I don't want to sound pretentious or anything, but I speak French really well. Yet, it is the third language I learnt.
- My mother language is Arabic, it was the first one I learnt as I am Moroccan and was born in Morocco. But my parents speak French more than Arabic, and I started going to a French school when I was 5, thus, I started forgetting Arabic. I was still as able to understand it as before, but I couldn't speak it anymore, past my 8th birthday. (Some other important factors were involded, but it is not necessary to mention them.)
- The second language I learnt was Spanish, because of/thanks to Spanish TV channels and my grandmother, who only spoke Spanish and Arabic. But when we left the city where we were living (Tanger, just in front of Spain), I stopped watching Spanish channels, and left my grandmother as well, and then, forgot Spanish too
.- That's when French comes. It became my first language around 8. As the French school system wants it, I started learning English at 11. And I unexpectedly didn't have any difficulty with it. I have always had the best mark in that subject, without making any effort for that. Unfortunately it is still not enough. I realised my level was not as good as I thought it was.
- The next year, (I was 12) I chose Latin, but I had to stop after a few months, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to start Spanish the following year. I started re-learning Spanish at 13.
- But since I took Spanish at 13, I couldn't take German at 15. I had too many subjects and the teachers wouldn't let me add German. Yet it is the language I really want to learn. I like the sonority of it, and I watch German TV channels just to hear it, even if I don't get a word of it
.- As a consequence, the two languages I can speak the best are French, and English.
As you see the topic is vast, there is a lot to say...
| joaquin Posts: 103  |
My first language is spanish :p and i wish to learn italian but i don't really have lots of free times
---- courage to chage the things and wisdom to know the difference real gamers never die, they just respawn
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10085  |
I'm gonna go today to print off some e-books which i have with language grammar and shit like that, my ultimate goal would be for me to be able to travel around basically anywhere in Europe/North/South-America and be able to understand i'm already decent with the romance-languages(though being a native speaker helped a lot), now i need to better my germanic(and later slavic-family) proficiency. for now, i have to improve my German, French and Italian, and start with the Scandinavic languages(apart from Finnish which is way above me for now )
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807  |
Written by Valentin B on 06.10.2010 at 16:11 Finnish... it's one of those languages spoken in Scandinavia that is actually ASIAN... Well yeh... not just Hungarian, Finnish, Sami, Mari, Moksha... Estonian... and other Finno-Ugric languages are part of the Uralic-Altaic family but also Turkish and Mongolian... that's really really exotic compared to teh olde indo-germanic languages which are all so repetitive and similar... We have a pashto-speaking dude from Afghanistan at our town and, as he already has good command of Russian, also wishes to study Estonian... It's beyond imagination... how can I (speaking very basic Persian) explain to him language rules that simply don't exist in his nor in any related indo-european language. We have 14 cases... among them cases which express "being something/being as something", "moving until reaching something", "becoming something" and others... we have special cases for these... and it's already hard to explain that to a person whose mother language does not recognise cases at all... Speaking of that, I heard Turkish is easier... they only have 6 such cases... and they're closer to Romania... That's why it's always easier to teach an easy language to a speaker of a hard language such as Chinese to Estonians... and not Estonian to a Persian/German/Italian/etc speaker...
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10085 |
Written by Ernis on 06.10.2010 at 19:51 yeah, i knew it´s fino-ugric, that´s why they sound so out of place(especially hungarian) geographically. Romanian only has 5 cases(thankfully), German has 4, Spanish has 2  . but in Ro there are tons of irregularities so i´ve heard it´s pretty difficult, not Polish or Estonian level though.
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| FOOCK Nam Posts: 3571  |
I dont quite get your point, if Finnish is like Asian.. then how about Russian... is it "Asian" ? Im speaking about the map border and locations that influence on race langauge. Russia is between Finland and Asia. Under Finland can be Estonia/Latvia/Belarus...then Turkey, the SNG... move until then China.. Dont know Mongolian is similar to Chinese, but it is similar to Russia, I heard they spoke. But I never heard saying that Chinese is similar to Russia.. Chinese is similar to and by Vietnamese...and I see 51% Russian is not similar to Vietnamese... a lot of Vietnamese in Russia... IMO Afghanistan is not Asian, they are just Afghanistan... it is like Indian in Asia. Some too famous with special word... Asian is mostly refered to Chinese/Japanese...the Far East Pacific.
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by Valentin B on 06.10.2010 at 20:16 How? There is only nominative case present in Spanish, French and Italian. English, on the other hand, indeed has two. Nominative (case) and genitive (case's)... Now try to decline a Spanish noun...
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| Misandry Posts: 62  |
I speak a little bit of Japanese, understand French sentence structures, know enough Spanish not to get raped, and am currently learning German. Oh, and obviously I speak English.
---- "Death solves all problems. No man, no problem." - Stalin
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| Guib Thrash Talker Posts: 3127  |
Uh I speak French and English... pretty well and a bit of spanish -_- just enough to order a beer 
---- - Headbanging with mostly clogged arteries to that stuff - Guib's List Of Essential Albums - Also Thrash Paradise Thrash Here
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18290  |
Written by Zombie on 29.10.2010 at 23:36 Dpn't really know how to answer. I was 12 when I moved to Sweden so it took just a year to have a decent swedish. For my mother it took a bit longer but no more than 2 years. I don't know if I can label it as hard because I don't have anything to compare it to. I'm not very good when it comes to know how difficult a language is.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Zombie Thrash'tillDeath Posts: 1627  |
I'm thinking about applying for immigration to a northern country, Sweden and Netherlands being first choice, germany second choice, norway and finland third choice.
----  None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free Johann Wolfgang van Goethe 1749-1832
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| Diabolos Space For Rent! Posts: 1522  |
Written by Zombie on 30.10.2010 at 00:53 And what about Austria?
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| Zombie Thrash'tillDeath Posts: 1627 |
Austria is good, Vienna is ranked number one city to live in.. and i have a friend too living in Vienna so i won't be all alone.. but i've heard its almost impossible to immigrate there anymore.. alot of people want to go there form allover the world that it takes YEARS until your turn comes to process your application.. so i could turn 30 and still my turn didnt come 
---- None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free Johann Wolfgang van Goethe 1749-1832
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10085 |
Written by Zombie on 30.10.2010 at 00:53 från mitt erfarenhet med språken, svenska är svår inte. jag talar lita svenska och det är åwesome. - from my experience with languages, Swedish isn't difficult. i speak a bit of swedish and it's awesome from what i noticed so far i'd say it's a low-to-middle level language when it comes to difficulty, with the heavy-weights being Polish and German, and the easiest one being Spanish. (before you ask, i only used 2 words in google translate for that phrase )
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| Diabolos Space For Rent! Posts: 1522 |
Written by Zombie on 30.10.2010 at 01:25 Hmm, it's not that hard as far as I know . Oh, and you shouldn't go to Vienna, you should go to Innsbruck, best city in the world
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by Valentin B on 30.10.2010 at 06:44 Language difficulties... now that's interesting... Well, yes, I've heard the Scandinavian languages are easy to learn such as Swedish (by learning this you'll also be able to understand Norwegian and Danish)... Along with the Scandinavian languages the Persian language is also hell of an easy to learn... just put the words in row and speak... Chinese might also be kinda easy but it depends on what your mother language is... the pronunciation and writing system prove to be a pain in the arse for many learners... Other than that... I'd say the difficulty level of Chinese is roughly the same as that of English, that is, not the easiest but still relatively feasible... Russian... has the same difficulty level as German and Latin... that is, it's quite an ass to master... I'm glad I know Russian well enough... studying German, I can say it's a potential killer... Latin is logic... but you'll need to learn lots of things by heart... just like with German... Romance languages... these are easy... plus if you master one, you'll be able to understand all of them... Their internal difficulty develops with Spanish being the easiest and becoming nastier with Italian, French and Portuguese... Spanish, btw, is a lot easier than English... that's a known fact... And the real killers are... Finnish... Hungarian... Estonian... continue the list with any other Mongolian/Turkic/Oogrymoogric language... I've noticed how it's somewhat easier for a native speaker of a hard-ass language to learn an easy language (altho might not be since the student tends to apply the grammar rules of his own language to the easy language)... But it's a torture if a native speaker of an easy language tries to master a language such as Estonian... I'm currently helping an Afghan dude study Estonian... Persian language is easy... and altho Russian is harder considerably this dude has managed to master it on a decent level in these few months he's been living in Estonia (given the fact Russian and Persian are both Indo-European languages) but Estonian... dear Lord, how can I explain him our highly irregular and impossibly complicated grammar not to speak of the fact how one word can have two pronunciations which alter the meanings/forms... at least we don't use Chinese characters to write Estonian...
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10085 |
Written by Ernis on 30.10.2010 at 21:34 it's not that simple.. if you know Spanish it's possible to understand some Portuguese, but French for example, no. the southern languages(spanish, catalan, gallego, portuguese, italian) are to some degree easily inter-unterstandable(some more and some less). all the rest are the "outcasts", like the dialects of French and the Romanian variants. on the other hand, there are some fucked-up similarities too, for example romanian is like a more difficult, catalan with slavic influences.. no idea why. anyway, my point is that you can't say that if you know one romance language you can understand all of them. i mastered 2 already and know some french and italian, but i still have difficulties in getting the basics of a text in portuguese or latin for example.
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by Valentin B on 30.10.2010 at 22:27 If not by listening, then at text level yes... I cannot understand Portuguese speech... but if I see text then it's easier... it's often behind pronunciation... By the way... it's sometimes hard for me to tell the difference between Portuguese and Romanian... really... since I haven't exclusively studied neither so if I see one of them then I just recognise it's some Romance language but whether Romanian or Portuguese, I don't know... Same thing with Rhaeto-Romance languages... when I saw written text/heard the recording, it sounded to my ears like Romanian/Portuguese... anyway... some Romance language but not one of the three big ones (Spanish, French, Italian)...
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| Mikyz Posts: 711  |
I'm fluent in Arabic, French and English, I would like to learn a fourth language but I really don't know which one. But with the 3 languages I know I'm pretty sure I can manage to communicate in most countries.
---- Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18290 |
Written by Ernis on 30.10.2010 at 21:34 If you know Swedish, out of the two... Norwegian would be the easiest one since the danish pronunciation fucking KILLS ME. I can easily understand norwegian if they speak in a slower wat but danish, O god... I'm just talking about the speech though, to read isn't difficult
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Zenzero Zenzero Posts: 472  |
I'm italian and I speak italian... I studied english and love it, so I can have a talk, but I'm sure I can't understand all! Specially cuz I've never been in England or USA! I spent few days in Dublin and that's all! I can speak spanish too cuz I lived 4 months in Barcelona! I'd like to speak russian, japanese and finnish!! I'll never learn french.
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| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687  |
I understand all slavic languages except probably polish also speak English,Russian ,Serbian(duh!),Bulgarian,also understand written Italian and spoken Spanish(little )...I would like to learn Norwegian and maybe Japanese (i know just a few words )
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts" 
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by [user id=107773] on 14.01.2011 at 00:06 Old English IS Anglo-Saxon...
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by [user id=107773] on 14.01.2011 at 20:44 Indeed... the evolution was as following: Ango-Saxon - Middle English - Early Modern English - Modern English...
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18290 |
Couldn't find a better topic Joe, this will do. Written by [user id=4365] on 08.03.2011 at 21:26 Well, my english is pretty much... Latino english ahahahhahha. Well, like my teacher used to say... My vocabulary is fine, but my enlgish has a very strong spanish accent unfortunately. But I think I improved with time.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10085 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 08.03.2011 at 21:34 i think the term for that is Spanglish and i can perfectly imagine how you speak, it's the typical "du yu hav eh-nii... quesschionz?" and the legendarily hilarious "welcome to.. uh... Espain! du yu.. uh.. espeak.. espanish?"i had to deal with loads of Spanglish-speaking people in those awesome 5 months in Spain.. i've seen so few locals who actually knew decent English(or any other language) it was almost depressing... but then again knowing excellent English might then be a huge advantage, especially seeing the nightmareish situation on the job market(didn't come to my advantage but i didn't look around that much anyway). some of these guys would just begin to talk to me in Spanish even though they knew i was not a local and don't even look "latino", but only because they didn't know any other language so they took a longshot and start speaking. then they were amazed at how good my command of Spanish was and it actually came down in the last half of my stay there simply because i didn't mingle with many locals that much. but i still didn't have any problems and i know people who had major problems there because of the language-barrier.so in conclusion i'm still awesomer than all of you combined so who the hell cares.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18290 |
Written by Valentin B on 08.03.2011 at 22:35 Hhahahahaha yeah, that's quite spot-on. If I put a lot of effort into it then the accent won't be that strong... But if I speak without really giving a damn about it then it will sound quite bad . Or maybe it's just me because I did get the best grades in all my english classes the last two years and this year it seems like it will be the same thing even though this third course have a lot om emphasis in speaking.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
I don't think I speak queen's English... but then again it's definitely not American one either... I think my vowels are quite pure in contrast to the proper English vowels which are not and I often speak with rolling R which doesn't exist in English...
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