What languages do you speak?

[snowdog]

Just a night tread because I'm bored, what languages do you speak?

I'm 16 and speak:

Good:
Polish ( writing poor and reading medium, speaking good. )
Dutch ( Good all round)
OK:
English: ( Ok-ish all round I think, lol )
Medium:
German ( medium @ speaking & reading, poor @ writing...)
Poor:
French ( Poor @ speaking, Medium @ reading, Poor @ writing)

(With speaking I mean talking and listening, writing & reading speak for themselves.)

 

[Scuzi]

Bloody hell, that's quite a skill you have there.

I speak English fluently (of course ) and even though I hated studying it in school, I seem to have some sort of natural ability to speak French when others speak it around me.

I can speak Irish as well although not as well as I used to be able to since I hardly ever use it

 

[Azagoth]

I can 'get by' in about 10. By 'get by' I mean I won't starve or go homeless if I'm stranded.

Latin
French
Russian
Japanese
Mandarin
Cantonese
Spanish
German
Swedish

but fluently only the one I'm afraid.

 

[Zefan]

Bloody hell, that's quite a skill you have there.

I speak English fluently (of course ) and even though I hated studying it in school, I seem to have some sort of natural ability to speak French when others speak it around me.

I can speak Irish as well although not as well as I used to be able to since I hardly ever use it

You speak English natively Unless of course you learned Irish first, which I suppose is a possibility!

I can only speak English, but at least I do it well.

I've been thinking about getting some language cd's for when I'm on the PC/when I'm driving in the future. I know a few people who have developed their language skills dramatically by utilising these huge blocks of free time.

:edit: Make sure you know the difference between fluently and natively people, it drives me crazy and I'll be forced to correct you

 

[Cupra]

english and some arabic due to working with people who were from iraq for 4 years

 

[Mekrel]

I speak English and thats it.

I've tried to speak Dutch, but even when visiting my friend in Holland, I couldn't even pronounce his name

 

[Scuzi]

You speak English natively Unless of course you learned Irish first, which I suppose is a possibility!

I can only speak English, but at least I do it well.

I've been thinking about getting some language cd's for when I'm on the PC/when I'm driving in the future. I know a few people who have developed their language skills dramatically by utilising these huge blocks of free time.

:edit: Make sure you know the difference between fluently and natively people, it drives me crazy and I'll be forced to correct you

I speak "Norn Irish" natively, English is a second language

 

[G-MAN2004]

English.

Could speak French and German (not fluently) but never used them so pretty much forgot.

 

[snowdog]

Bloody hell, that's quite a skill you have there.

I speak English fluently (of course ) and even though I hated studying it in school, I seem to have some sort of natural ability to speak French when others speak it around me.

I can speak Irish as well although not as well as I used to be able to since I hardly ever use it

My reason is 2 Polish parents, learned speaking Polish at home first, and still do, also untill 2 years ago I went to Poland each year or multiple times a year, at least 4 weeks per year @ family and parents friends.
2nd Language was Dutch, wich I learned in kindergarten & 1st 2 years of school, after that no problems with Dutch.
English was because I used to watch tv for hours and hours every day, most stuff here is english with dutch subs and because of pc, followed by school from when I was 10 till now and still learning.
French I've been learning for 4 years at school but I'm having a hard time figuring out what the French are saying, speaking also is quite bad as I prenounce the words in a dutch kind of way, reading is ok but only the words I've learned, all the others are very hard for me to figure out, writing is pretty much same as reading, just translation problems, grammar is ok,but with writing I spell it wrong often because I'm just not used to the way French prenounce stuff.
German I've had for 1 year at school wich may seem little, but it's very similair to Dutch, I find it very easy to make out what germans are saying or what a word means, but I have the habit of always writing a word wrong, reading is ok but slowly, sometimes it takes awhile for me ( ie. 5-10 seconds per sentance) to figure out what it says.

 

[truebluecfc]

Was born in Osnabrook, Germany. I didnt move to England untill i did almost 2 years at my first school in Germany so i spoke German as good as other German kid at that age.
I was obviuosly taught to speak english aswell because of my parents although my mom could speak fluent German aswell as English my dad just english, as I've hardly needed to speak it for a good 10 years i cant read or write it all although i can still speak and understand it a little.

I've also recently started to learn Portuguese so really i can only speak English fluently lol.

 

[Azagoth]

Girlfriends are my excuse!

We had a competition at Uni to sleep with the most girls of different Nationalities! I came second, but I kept in good stead with the majority of my 'conquests'!

I was beaten by a Croatian girl called Vesna, I just couldn't get the hand of that language!

 

[West]

English... obviously!

German, Moderate in all, Writen, Spoken and reading.. past tense is a little rusty, but not bad for High School stuff..

 

[yozzer2001]

english and then all other langs as ENGLISH SPOKEN SLOWER AND LOUDER

 

[Margaret]

1337.

 

[Anewbe4u]

I was always crap with languages. In fact I struggle with English.

 

[robmiller]

:edit: Make sure you know the difference between fluently and natively people, it drives me crazy and I'll be forced to correct you

flu·ent
–adjective
1. spoken or written with ease: fluent French.
2. able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily: a fluent speaker; fluent in six languages.



Are you trying to claim that people who only speak one language are fluent in zero languages or something? Native speakers of languages are almost invariably fluent in them.

 

[Anewbe4u]

Ahhh, don't start!

 

[Zefan]

Are you trying to claim that people who only speak one language are fluent in zero languages or something? Native speakers of languages are almost invariably fluent in them.

Whenever I've looked up the word in the past I've found it to mean to be speaking/writing a language that is not your first, to a flawless degree.

If you think about it, your first language and a second language (however fluent you are) are handled entirely differently by our brain. You will always think mostly in your first language, therefore it is your native one.

I can see why people would say a native language could also be described as being known fluently, but it just makes better sense to use the word that was made for it.

 

[robmiller]

Whenever I've looked up the word in the past I've found it to mean to be speaking/writing a language that is not your first, to a flawless degree.

Except it's not that stringent, and doesn't exclude native languages

If you think about it, your first language and a second language (however fluent you are) are handled entirely differently by our brain. You will always think mostly in your first language, therefore it is your native one.

Not at all, I know a couple of people in other countries who are very fluent at English, and in a conversation dominated by English they say they think in English just as they would think in their native language in a conversation dominated by that language. The fact that we have a "default" language doesn't mean we're somehow not fluent in that language.

I can see why people would say a native language could also be described as being known fluently, but it just makes better sense to use the word that was made for it.

Native doesn't imply fluent and fluent doesn't imply not-native, though—it's not like "native" is a subset of "fluent" or something.

 

[snowdog]

Whenever I've looked up the word in the past I've found it to mean to be speaking/writing a language that is not your first, to a flawless degree.

If you think about it, your first language and a second language (however fluent you are) are handled entirely differently by our brain. You will always think mostly in your first language, therefore it is your native one.

I can see why people would say a native language could also be described as being known fluently, but it just makes better sense to use the word that was made for it.

There is some truth in it but not really, I've learned Polish just 1 year before Dutch and both are handled in the same way I think, I think in Dutch when I talk Dutch and think in Polish when talk Polish, in both languages people seem to think I'm a native Pole/Dutchy and don't notice anything that can indicate it's not my native language.
But when I do other languages like English, French, etc... I think in Dutch mostly, while that's not my 1st language, yet it's somehow my preffered thinking language.

I think that any language learned in your very early years ( before 6 ) will probably be mastered very good and fluently.