[McPickle]

At home I speak French and currently, I am on a trip to perfect my spoken English. And I have a lot of fun too!

I learned the basics of Spanish in high school and i try to keep it up by practicing monthly.

Above all, I put a lot of energy in learning Japanese. Kanji characters are the biggest puzzle I have ever come across in my life. I like that!

UPtimist, Mira, pinkgothic, Wormsie... Wow... I'll have to continue working hard if I want to look as brilliant as you are. I have to say I'm impressed.

For anyone intrested: French is a fine, beautiful language... but it is a monster. Pick up your sharpest weapons and fight if you want to master Molière's language because it may be a hardest challenge than you thought. If anyone wants help to learn or to keep up French just e-mail me and it will be my pleasure to help you the best I can. Bonne chance!

[saucyminx]

I see learning a lot of languages as a key to be a chatterbox all over the world. Yakkity yakitty yak yak

[Talas]

Spanish natively and English... well, actually, my English is just what the Internet and the TV taught me

Being the Spanish a romance language, I know the basics for French, Italian and Portuguese, but only enough to don't get lost while reading it.

I would like to learn all these languages correctly, maybe German too... if only I had the time

Oh, and I speak fluent Spanglish too

[BenjaminBunny]

french and english....just spent three weeks in france, cool times. *looks for the sunglasses smiley, sees it isn't there*.

[Mattsius]

Originally Posted by Bastich

I speak fluent bullshit.

We know you do, hon.


Anyway, I know Swedish (native), Finnish, English and some German (will probably start studying that again at Uni).

[James]

English, German, Irish, Latin.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Talas

Spanish natively and English... well, actually, my English is just what the Internet and the TV taught me

What? Your English is outstanding, better than that of many people who speak it natively. That you learned English from TV and the internet speaks volumes about your considerable intelligence. Since adjectives and nouns are backwards in English (e.g.- You would say "the red house" in English, in which your mind sees a field of red and then wraps that around a house, while in Spanish you'd say "la casa rojo", in which you'd picture a house then color it red in your mind.), this can't have been easy to master.

Being the Spanish a romance language, I know the basics for French, Italian and Portuguese, but only enough to don't get lost while reading it.

You're doing much better than I am, then. I can get the gist of a Spanish-language newscast and can follow the plot of a Spanish-language soap opera, and for this reason I made the mistake of saying "Ola" to one of my neighbors once. I was greeted by a barrage of Spanish machine-gunned at me with lightning speed, of which I didn't understand a single word! Since the guy I spoke to smiled while responding, I assume he wasn't calling me a "Yankee Pig-Dog Poo-Poo Head" or something along those lines. I stopped him with hand gestures and confessed "Yo hablo muy, muy poquito Espanol", so now he just nods when he sees me.

Oh, and I speak fluent Spanglish too

I can't even manage that.

ScottMate

[Talas]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

What? Your English is outstanding, better than that of many people who speak it natively. That you learned English from TV and the internet speaks volumes about your considerable intelligence. Since adjectives and nouns are backwards in English (e.g.- You would say "the red house" in English, in which your mind sees a field of red and then wraps that around a house, while in Spanish you'd say "la casa rojo", in which you'd picture a house then color it red in your mind.), this can't have been easy to master.

It’s easy once you learn to “switch” your mind to the other language, well, at least that worked for me. I just tried to think in the other mindset, even if I just think gibberish most of the time. Also, working with technical English (while I was in the equivalent of high school around here) also helped a lot.

Oh, and it's "la casa roja", "rojo" is for male nouns and "roja" for female nouns. Hurray for the gender of nouns

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

You're doing much better than I am, then. I can get the gist of a Spanish-language newscast and can follow the plot of a Spanish-language soap opera, and for this reason I made the mistake of saying "Ola" to one of my neighbors once. I was greeted by a barrage of Spanish machine-gunned at me with lightning speed, of which I didn't understand a single word! Since the guy I spoke to smiled while responding, I assume he wasn't calling me a "Yankee Pig-Dog Poo-Poo Head" or something along those lines. I stopped him with hand gestures and confessed "Yo hablo muy, muy poquito Espanol", so now he just nods when he sees me.

I know what you mean, it's still hard for me to understand thick accents and fast-talking, I guess everyone has that problem at some point, in the meantime, I try to understand the lyrics in rap music

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Talas

It’s easy once you learn to “switch” your mind to the other language, well, at least that worked for me. I just tried to think in the other mindset, even if I just think gibberish most of the time. Also, working with technical English (while I was in the equivalent of high school around here) also helped a lot.

I've tried, but we don't have a Spanish-language channel on basic cable in my area. There are several on satellite, but satellite dishes can't be fitted to my apartment building.

Oh, and it's "la casa roja", "rojo" is for male nouns and "roja" for female nouns. Hurray for the gender of nouns

And that, my friend, is what trips me up every single time.

I know what you mean, it's still hard for me to understand thick accents and fast-talking, I guess everyone has that problem at some point, in the meantime, I try to understand the lyrics in rap music

I'm not sure rap music is the best possible example of English for you to learn from; There's a lot of it that doesn't make sense to me, either.
If you want a real challenge, try some Gilbert & Sullivan some time. "Pirates Of Penzance" is completely over the top!

ScottMate

[SakSquash]

I was in Spanish in highschool for 4 years...because I kept failing it. It's the only class I ever failed in highschool. I just had 0 interest in learning it and it's the only language my school offers, since each grade holds about 40 kids. It wasn't until college that I finally got to learn German, which i've wanted to do since I was a little kid, and my great grandmother could only speak German and some broken English.

[smashing]

My native language is chiness and I had an english education all the way through my umpteen years in school. So I am effectively a bi-lingual. Know a bit of Japanese too, through playing japanese games, watching japanese movies and listening to a lot of japanese songs.

[jaf]

I'm bilingual in Catalan and Spanish (both official languages here), my English is fairly fluent and I can read French, Portuguese and Italian.

I'd like to learn japanese and german... one day...

[Trunkyo]

Originally Posted by Shodan

I've had Chinese friends try to teach me simple phrases like "I want to eat kuay teow" and "I'm going to beat you up until you turn inside out like an overcooker weiner, then I'm going to shove your carcass down a drain". It didn't work.

Bwahaha!!!

Well, being a CBC (Canadian-born Chinese, not Canadian Broadcasting Corp. ), I grew up speaking Cantonese (including my Dad's coarse-sounding Toishan dialect) and English. Even though my sister and I can speak more Chinese than all of our CBC friends combined, we still have to resort to Chinglish to communicate effectively! Thus, we continue to be a neverending source of shame to our parents who are dismayed by our lack of fluency in Chinese ("But really, mom, how often do we need to say 'mutual fund pool' or 'pancreatic cancer' in everyday conversation???")

I've also had 8 years of French and 5 years of German in school (including university), but I'm not even close to being fluent in those languages... (Hey, I actually understood most of the German spoken in GK2 without consulting a dictionary! ) I also taught myself Japanese hiragana and katakana and know several hundred kanji (It's a bit easier if you know Chinese! ), which helps a great deal when watching anime!

~Trunksie, who speaks several tongues... but they're all tied

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by McPickle

For anyone intrested: French is a fine, beautiful language... but it is a monster. Pick up your sharpest weapons and fight if you want to master Molière's language because it may be a hardest challenge than you thought. If anyone wants help to learn or to keep up French just e-mail me and it will be my pleasure to help you the best I can. Bonne chance!

Trying to steal my "resident frenchy" status, are you?

[bush_monkey]

Well, I don't know about stealing anyone's Frenchiness or anything but I was born in France and have been living in England with my close family since I was 11... I am now 26

[Tramboi]

The one I speak the best is called by me and my friends "Le Poche".
Chances are you ever heard this dialect if you stay too late in the pubs (it is quite international)

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by Ninth

Trying to steal my "resident frenchy" status, are you?

Nay... you're the resident evil at most

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Nay... you're the resident evil at most

Isn't that exactly the same thing?