POLL: Other Languages

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Posted by horserider99
October 9, 2012 4:55 pm
#1

I was wondering what languages people speak, besides their native tongue.


What secondary language(s) are you fluent in?














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"Geniuses are often obsessive, and their clarity of intellectual insight can be depressing and isolating: by nature geniuses march to a different drum." - Ron Bracey
 
 
Posted by Dramagod
October 9, 2012 5:05 pm
#2

I'm barely fluent in my own language. English is my secondary language. German I studied in high-school, can't remember anything of it. Swedish we studied in school for 6 years and I suck at it.


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Posted by besleybean
October 9, 2012 5:05 pm
#3

Not fluent in any language other than English, tho I'm fairly fluent in Scots!
I have ' O' levels in French and German.
I reached intermediate level in Welsh, but that was some years ago and so I have forgotten much of it.
I took a beginners' course in Scottish Gaelic, but I only remember a few phrases.
I took one semester in Polish and only remember a few words!


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Posted by tobeornot221b
October 9, 2012 5:18 pm
#4

horserider99 wrote:

I was wondering what languages people speak, besides their native tongue.

Can "Other" considered to be English? It's not everyone's first language here...


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John: "Have you spoken to Mycroft, Molly, uh, anyone?"
Mrs Hudson: "They don’t matter. You do."


I BELIEVE IN SERIES 5!




                                                                                                                  
 
Posted by SusiGo
October 9, 2012 5:23 pm
#5

Maybe you could change the poll somehow to show the first language as well. Mine is German, I speak English fluently and French not as good as I once did. 


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"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 
Posted by veecee
October 9, 2012 5:54 pm
#6

Nothing is ever simple, is it?

English is my native language. My Spanish is pretty good. I can carry on a conversation in Portuguese. I can read French, Italian, and Catalan, and converse a little in each of those.

I continue to be impressed by the level of English proficiency of non-native speakers on this forum.

 
Posted by Dramagod
October 9, 2012 6:03 pm
#7

I never come across with people who'd learn Finnish just for fun. I know no-one really needs it if they're not living in Finland but at least it'd be a real challenge. I mean Sheldon Cooper tried and it didn't sound bad. When he says "sisään" I must say it sounds perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opw6e7ItInc

I know a few words in spanish I've learned from movies of course. Hermanos, puto, cabron, gringo, vatos locos etc.

Last edited by Dramagod (October 9, 2012 6:04 pm)


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Posted by Davina
October 9, 2012 6:39 pm
#8

Oh! Tricky! I speak German very well but I would not consider myself to be completely fluent. I need to stay there for a decent amount of time for that to happen. I also speak some Spanish and Italian. I got O level in French and speak it reasonably well. I have a smattering of other languages I have gathered over the years.

English is my mother tongue.


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Don't make people into heroes John. Heroes don't exist and if they did I wouldn't be one of them.
 
Posted by tiharoa
October 9, 2012 6:53 pm
#9

Dramagod wrote:

I never come across with people who'd learn Finnish just for fun. I know no-one really needs it if they're not living in Finland but at least it'd be a real challenge. I mean Sheldon Cooper tried and it didn't sound bad. When he says "sisään" I must say it sounds perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opw6e7ItInc

I know a few words in spanish I've learned from movies of course. Hermanos, puto, cabron, gringo, vatos locos etc.

And here I am..... I still have my Finnish Grammar ( in English! Which isn't my first language either). My accent wasn't that bad (my friends always remark on how lovely I say
Yjvaskyla and how well I "roll"  the "r" in Turku).  But the grammar...... I just couldn't cope with "verbintaivutus".  I always though I was quite good at picking up languages quickly and that was quite a humbling experience, still not as bad as my failure with Navajo....


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Posted by Caroll
October 9, 2012 8:51 pm
#10

I see I'm useless here. Portuguese is my language and I've been learning English for two years. By the way, can we really say  talking about language? News!


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“The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” HP and the Deathly Hallows

"Why's it always the hat photograph?"The Reichenbach Fall
 
Posted by veecee
October 9, 2012 8:53 pm
#11

Dramagod wrote:

I never come across with people who'd learn Finnish just for fun. I know no-one really needs it if they're not living in Finland but at least it'd be a real challenge. I mean Sheldon Cooper tried and it didn't sound bad. When he says "sisään" I must say it sounds perfect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opw6e7ItInc

I know a few words in spanish I've learned from movies of course. Hermanos, puto, cabron, gringo, vatos locos etc.

Interesting examples you've learned.
Reminded me that I know a few swear words in Polish.

 
Posted by Davina
October 9, 2012 8:58 pm
#12

I know a few swear words in quite a  few languages. Funnily enough it is the swear words people are always keen to teach you...even though they may not tell you they are swear words.

Last edited by Davina (October 9, 2012 8:58 pm)


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Don't make people into heroes John. Heroes don't exist and if they did I wouldn't be one of them.
 
Posted by Dramagod
October 9, 2012 8:59 pm
#13

tiharoa wrote:

I just couldn't cope with "verbintaivutus".

I can imagine how hard that stuff is for someone who's language doesn't have those. We like to humble people with our demonic language.

@veecee - Well, the movies I've seen where people speak spanish haven't exactly been in the My Little Pony department. Currently I'm "learning" spanish from BREAKING BAD and DEXTER.

Last edited by Dramagod (October 9, 2012 9:00 pm)


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Posted by Caroll
October 9, 2012 9:01 pm
#14

veecee wrote:

Nothing is ever simple, is it?

English is my native language. My Spanish is pretty good. I can carry on a conversation in Portuguese. I can read French, Italian, and Catalan, and converse a little in each of those.

I continue to be impressed by the level of English proficiency of non-native speakers on this forum.

Não há brasileiros aqui, mas há alguém que fala português! Você já esteve no Brasil, certo? Algum dia eu vou conhecer a neve dos Estados Unidos.


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“The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” HP and the Deathly Hallows

"Why's it always the hat photograph?"The Reichenbach Fall
 
Posted by Sam
October 9, 2012 10:11 pm
#15

Taught myself Japanese for about half a year. I remember a lot of common phrases and vocabulary words. I used to be able to read katakana but I haven't kept up so I lost most of it. Took French for two years in high school. Again, I just remember a few phrases and vocab words.

I'm wanting to learn German now

This doesn't really count but I'm just throwing it out there, haha.

For everyone who has English as a second language - how did you start learning and what made you want to continue learning it? I would love to know


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Posted by Irene Adler
October 9, 2012 10:50 pm
#16

Dramagod wrote:

I know a few words in spanish I've learned from movies of course. Hermanos, puto, cabron, gringo, vatos locos etc.

I am impressed
Though you kow we have children over here, don't you...?

I can only consider myself fluent in Spanish, which is my native language. I defend myself in English and I can read and understand spoken French (unable to speak it though). And, thanks to a lot of opera listening, I understand quite well Italian. I have some notions of German, but I have had no chance to study it properly.


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Waiting for a crazy man in a blue box to fall from the sky...

But the thing is, we've taken away all the things that can possibly have happened, so I suppose the only thing that's left, even though it seems really weird, must be the thing that did happen, in fact. (Miss Marple)

 
Posted by Dramagod
October 9, 2012 10:56 pm
#17

Children, perhaps. Spanish children, didn't think about that. Maybe my spanish isn't as good as I thought it to be cause I thought only one of those is a bad word and that's the (literally) four letter word of the bunch.


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Posted by horserider99
October 9, 2012 11:58 pm
#18

I couldn't figure out how to change the poll, otherwise I would add English.  Once I finish my fouth year of Spanish I want to become more of a polygot.


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"Geniuses are often obsessive, and their clarity of intellectual insight can be depressing and isolating: by nature geniuses march to a different drum." - Ron Bracey
 
 
Posted by Sherli Bakerst
October 10, 2012 1:34 am
#19

Fascinating topic!  I teach English to speakers of other languages and am always interested in hearing about people's language learning experiences.  I, too, am very impressed with the level of proficiency of the non-native Egnoish speakers on this forum.

I didn't respond to the poll itself because I wonder how "fluent" is defined.  That's the professional language teacher in me.     I will say that I can communicate in Mandarin Chinese, French, Swedish, and Krio to the effect of having a social conversation in those languages.  I can barely read and write Chinese and it's the hardest language I've ever studied but it's the one I currently want to become more proficient in; I spent three and a half years in China teaching and am hoping to eventually go back to study the language.  French was my first foreign language and I took that in school for several years, then studied it in Quebec for a summer.  Swedish I was fluent in as a result of spending a year in high school there, but that was oh...xxx number of years ago.  Krio I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa; as a creole language, I found it very easy to learn. 

While in Sweden, I could understand a fair amount of Danish and Norwegian, and even a little German.  I studied Italian for a year in high school in the US and was always getting it confused with French.  I studied Russian in college for the equivalent of two years but now only remember a few words and phrases.  I had to go to Hebrew school as a kid and what little I learned, I've pretty much forgotten.  I tried to teach myself Old Icelandic my first year in college but gave up for lack of time.  I learned enough Bahasa Indonesia from working in Borneo for a year to communicate socially but I've forgotten it now.  I've learned some Spanish because most of my students are native Spanish speakers and it helps when I need to communicate with their parents (I teach children nowadays). 

I would love to learn Ladino as well as Hungarian.  My grandmother emigrated to the US from Austria-Hungary and taught me to count to ten in Hungarian and to say "yes" and "no."  I can count to three in Finnish and to ten in Japanese!  I know a few other words in Japanese because my family hosted an exchange student from that country for a year.

I love languages!   

(And if you made it this far, I'm guessing you do, too!)


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Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.  -- Helen Keller
 
Posted by tobeornot221b
October 10, 2012 3:46 am
#20

Sherli Bakerst wrote:

I love languages!   

Wow Sherli - I am dizzy!


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John: "Have you spoken to Mycroft, Molly, uh, anyone?"
Mrs Hudson: "They don’t matter. You do."


I BELIEVE IN SERIES 5!




                                                                                                                  
 


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