Language Diversity

[Tony89 1,499]

Finnish is my native language. I understand English well, but speaking and writing is more difficult because I always think about what I'm going to say in Finnish first. I also know the very basics of German, Spanish and Swedish languages.

[Pissiepie 4]

My native language is Swedish, but I speak English fluently. I know the basics of Italian and understand and can talk with people from Norway and Denmark. And just some basic words in Finnish. Trying to learn more Finnish but, I’m just too lazy to learn. Then I can some words in Lithuanian, Arabic and so on. And of course, swearwords in polish 😂

[glad1 2,832]

24 minutes ago, Pissiepie said:

My native language is Swedish, but I speak English fluently. I know the basics of Italian and understand and can talk with people from Norway and Denmark. And just some basic words in Finnish. Trying to learn more Finnish but, I’m just too lazy to learn. Then I can some words in Lithuanian, Arabic and so on. And of course, swearwords in polish 😂

I wish I knew more Swedish than just a few words, like skol and kiss. 😁 My far mor and far far came from there when they were young, but were taught to speak only English once they came to America. If only I'd had the sense to ask them to teach me what they remembered. 🙁

[Pissiepie 4]

16 hours ago, glad1 said:

I wish I knew more Swedish than just a few words, like skol and kiss. 😁 My far mor and far far came from there when they were young, but were taught to speak only English once they came to America. If only I'd had the sense to ask them to teach me what they remembered. 🙁

I have some ancestry that moved from Finland to America during the early 1900. Because you have Swedish roots I recommend you look at Wilhem Mobergs utvandrarna, invandrarna and nybyggarna. Good movies about Swedish people that immigrated to America ☺️

[Efromark 104]

I am fluent in German, English and Dutch and apart from that know a few things in some "Eastern" European languages like Polish, Hungarian, Romanian and Bosnian/Montenegrin/Serbian/Croatian 🙂

[ABBYPEEGODDESS 1,746]

I am fully fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. I Can speak Mandarin, Chinese and a little bit of Japanese. 

 

[steve25805 126,015]

English is my first language as it is for the majority of us here. But many years ago - decades ago in fact, back in the early 80s when I was still in my late teens - I had a German girlfriend for a time. And I set out to prove my love by learning her language. Those were the days before the internet so I invested in language cassettes with exercise books, and learned and practiced reading, speaking, and writing in German, and understanding written and spoken German.

I never learnt it well enough to call myself fluent but I could speak it well enough to get by. But 40 years on I have forgotten much and would struggle with it today.  

[JDG 870]

I am from the Netherlands so my native language is Dutch. I obviously also speak English. Due to my father's work I lived abroad for a while at a young age (I think I was somewhere between 7-10). I went to a British school there and as I never learned any English before (I mean, in my days there was no such thing as gaming or binging Netflix to pick up English 🤪) I had to learn it then and there from scratch. It still benefits me to this day, if you learn something that young it never leaves you. So I am fluent in English in every way possible and I dare to say I speak it without an accent too. 

During high school (roughly between 12-18 here) I got taught 6 years English (which didn't really benefit me for obvious reasons), 6 years Latin, 3 years ancient Greek, 4 years French and 4 years German. Latin and ancient Greek was a bit different as we only learned to translate old texts from Homerus and the likes and it wasn't a goal to be able to speak it. I didn't really like French and nowadays I know almost nothing anymore. 

During college I continued with German on the side and eventually got an official certificate on B2 level for it, so I can my German is pretty decent too. I also started learning Spanish in college, but it's hard. I can read it fairly well, but understanding people is hard as Spanish people somehow always talk really fast. Although I was on holiday in Mexico this summer and I could understand most people there as opposed to when I'm in Spain. Speaking Spanish is pretty basic, but I do know more than just the very basics as "si", "no", "Buenos dias" and those kinds of things. 

So in short, Dutch is native, English is fluent, German is decent, Spanish is basic and French is pretty much unexistent (but more than nothing!). 

[steve25805 126,015]

I have a T-shirt that proclaims my fluency in three languages,

English.
Sarcasm.
Profanity.

[Overlord 451]

My native language is Swiss German. I can speak, understand, read and write more or less good in German (Austrian German included), French and English.

Also I understand a lot of Italian but speaking it is difficult. I am able to understand basic stuff in Spanish and Portuguese but not speaking it. And I can read and understand a few words in Russian.

If I see you in person, I sometimes even can read your face. 😂 But I can't read your mind. So tell me what you think. 😊

[jorel2012 230]

Fluent:   
German
Austrian
Bavarian
Swabian    
English    
   
Good but rusty:
French    
   
I understand but can’t speak:   
Swiss German
Italian     
Spanish     
   
Cursing:   
Romanian     
   
What I plan to learn:    
Hungarian

[steve25805 126,015]

Over four decades ago when I had a German girlfriend I sought to teach myself her language.

But since I have already said that in an earlier post, I will say no more other than whilst I have forgotten much of it now, my German used to be much better, albeit not fluent. I used to be able to read, write and speak it at a reasonable level.

What I want to add is one of the uses I put it to. Back in those days - we are talking early 80s here - there was no internet. I used to enjoy writing erotic stories but these had to be done on good old fashioned pen and paper. And when you are still living with your parents and siblings you cannot afford to leave such things laying around in case they find and read it. Which is where my German came in. I started writing erotic pissing stories in German, knowing that no one else in my household spoke any. Proved to be a useful tool in protecting the privacy of my writings. lol

[arigalo 553]

English is my first language, but I grew up in a major city in a multiracial family (though I myself am not multiracial), so I was exposed to a lot of Spanish from my community and my family. I also grew up hearing a lot of Italian since I’m a 3rd gen Italian-American—or is it 2nd gen? My grandfather is the one who immigrated here, and I never remember when we start counting 1st gen, 2nd gen, so on. Anyway, I learned Spanish in high school and college and am decently conversational in Spanish. I’m much better at reading and writing Spanish than conversing in person, though. And then I’m better at understanding than speaking. I’ve been trying to learn more Italian since I want to get dual citizenship, too. 

And now for my more unique language—I have a working understanding of Old English (Eald Englisc). I took quite a few classes in college and I retained enough to do decently reliable translations of texts in Old English. 

[glad1 2,832]

1 hour ago, arigalo said:

English is my first language, but I grew up in a major city in a multiracial family (though I myself am not multiracial), so I was exposed to a lot of Spanish from my community and my family. I also grew up hearing a lot of Italian since I’m a 3rd gen Italian-American—or is it 2nd gen? My grandfather is the one who immigrated here, and I never remember when we start counting 1st gen, 2nd gen, so on. Anyway, I learned Spanish in high school and college and am decently conversational in Spanish. I’m much better at reading and writing Spanish than conversing in person, though. And then I’m better at understanding than speaking. I’ve been trying to learn more Italian since I want to get dual citizenship, too. 

And now for my more unique language—I have a working understanding of Old English (Eald Englisc). I took quite a few classes in college and I retained enough to do decently reliable translations of texts in Old English. 

Well done!

I grew up in a somewhat academic family. My mother's parents were educators, and she earned an English degree from a prestigious university. So, while I'm fluent in my native tongue (though trained as a scientist, my career had been as an editor and writer), I never was very good with foreign languages. I give those who are skilled at it plenty of credit.

 

Edited February 9 by glad1
typo edit

[Bacardi 10,131]

I've just recently added Spanish to my duolingo adventures. I'm pretty sure besides Russian the next most common language spoken in my area is Spanish, and since I'd like to get a local job when I graduate I think it'll make me stand out. That and I just enjoy talking with people 😁 my youngest child has a classmate that speaks nothing but Spanish as well and he has been asking me to teach him so they can talk. 

Having learned italian first, I can say it's coming along great so far! 

[swekiss 1,066]

My native tongue is Swedish, but I'm fluent in English too. Years ago I spent hours chatting, but now I use it less and find my self sometimes having to think about the spelling of a word and second guessing it so I google it. And most of the time I was right from the start, but oh well. Noone ever got hurt from a double check. I think at least.

I learnt german in school for a few years, so I think I can still get the basic gist of something written, but can't reply or speak it I think. Haven't tried since. Well. School. 😅

[randomiser 152]

I only speak English fluently ... but through the efforts of various school programs, I can find the loo, order (some) food & drink, get directions and do basic counting in French, German & Spanish. I used to be able to do the same in Chinese but it's been too long and I've forgotten everything except hello. 

[Sunshine108 174]

I'm French. I speak English a little but it's not perfect.