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Language Thread

CynicalSquid

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This is just a general thread about languages. What Languages do you know and which would you like to know?

I only know American English and some words of other languages. I am only fluent in English though. I'd really like to be fluent in Hindi, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Swedish and Latin.

So, how about you guys? :)
 

Pen

The game is on!
I'm fluent in Swedish and English, and I can speak German, although it might be a little slow and rusty. I don't know if there are any other languages I'd like to learn, because I'm quite satisfied as it is. I guess it would be nice to improve my German. ^^
 

Batman

Not all those who wander are lost...
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If you guys like this thread, be sure to check out ZD's own Linguistics group! It's full of things that would interest language lovers.

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I am quite proficient in Spanish, and used to be conversational in Mandarin Chinese. I plan to regain my Chinese skills and pursue greater fluency with it in the future. I'd also love to learn Japanese, Arabic (probably Egyptian), Indonesian, Russian, Norwegian, and German in the future.

Language is one of my life's biggest passions.
 
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Mellow Ezlo

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I speak Canadian English (lol) very well, as it is my first language. I've tried learning American English, but it's just 3confusing5me.

I can read and write in French, but I can't really speak it. I need time to think in construct complete sentences and can't do it on the spot. I plan to improve my french in the future.

I recently took a liking to the Inuktitut language. Being one of Canada's official languages, I figured why the **** not! It's actually quite a fascinating language from what I have studied so far, and I plan on putting a lot of time into learning it.
 

Mamono101

生きることは痛みを知ること。
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English is my native language.

I can read and write Hebrew (but don't understand it aside from a few words). I've studied one semester of French and have about an A1 level. I also did Mandarin and Afrikaans in primary school but would have to start from the beginning if I were ever to take up either of them seriously.

I have a B1 level in Brazilian Portuguese, a C1.2 level in Spanish, and I consider myself to have an intermediate level in Japanese (I've never sat a formal ranking test but have been able to hold conversations with native speakers thanks to their patience!).

In the future, I would love to learn Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Esperanto, Polish, German, Dutch, AusLan... amongst others. I love learning other languages and learning about the cultures that speak them. I also love learning the idioms and colloquialisms of other languages and seeing how they compare to the ones we have in English.
 
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SavageWizzrobe

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English is my first language, but I also know a small amount of French and a decent amount of Spanish. I'm very rusty with my French, but only slightly rusty with Spanish. As for a language I'd like to learn, Russian and Japanese come to mind.
 

Curmudgeon

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native english speaker. fluentish in spanish - my speaking skills have degraded significantly in the past decade. i think about what i could do while i was living in spain and weep internally. i read well enough. keeping up with it is a professional requirement.

i know enough french to get into trouble and the bits of german that help with directions and street signs. i've also taught myself trivial bits of latin, greek, russian, norwegian, and japanese.
 

Vanessa28

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Dutch is my main lanuage although I speak and write more english lately (thanks internet and voice chats). I also speak German very well thanks to my job at Hotels. I know a tiny bit of french. Maybe enough to ask for a direction :P
 

misskitten

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My native language is Norwegian (which means I understand Swedish and Danish without a problem), I'm fluent in English, obviously. I did take French for five years, but I completely, utterly suck at it. Other than that I only know random things, like I can count to ten or more in German, Italian, Japanese and Thamil (and I used to know Finnish, but now I can only remember how to count to six there) and know some other random words in various languages. And I know a little bit of Norwegian Sign-Language, but not enough to get by, unless the person is patient enough for me to spell everything out, lol.

I would love to properly know Japanese, that would be pretty cool. And I would really like to be fluent in Sign-Language, because I think it's pretty disrespectful of those of us who are hearing to always expect those who are deaf/hard of hearing to convert to our ways of communicating.

And to those here who say you want to learn Norwegian, let me know if there's anything you want help with :)
 

Mercedes

つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
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My native language is English. I like to think I speak it very fluently, I know pretty much every letter and a good 200 - 250 words. I can also use those 200 - 250 words in many different orders in order to make different meanings; for example, "You smell", meaning a person smells, or "Smell you", meaning that I smell a person. I can also add 'later' to the end of the latter to make it a humorous goodbye phrase, "Smell you later."

As for other languages, I went to one of the very few remaining Language Colleges in the UK, so we had to take 3 languages across GCSE, dropping 1 at AS Level. Looking back that was a really bad way of doing it; having to learn 3 languages at once, never having touched any before, made it quite tricky.

The first language I dropped was German so I only know the smallest bit of that, but I kept doing French and Spanish. I eventually dropped Spanish too in order to focus on French and I'm quite fluent in that now after, what, about 3 years of doing it I think. I tend not to have any difficulty speaking or understanding it, and it is quite a beautiful language too. I've been on holiday to Paris quite a lot so always have the opportunity to practice. In College I began learning some Russian, there was a one-off 1 year of extra lessons in the evenings for people who wanted it so I took the opportunity and learnt more than I expected to. Not exactly fluent but I know bits and pieces enough to hold a conversation. I found Russian to be a much easier language to learn than French so definitely took less time to get a grasp on it.

And finally I'm doing a Unilang module in University where I'll be learning Japanese, and that'll be going all through next year. So, that'll be added to my repertoire. One thing I really like are seeing different country's cultures, so I love learning a new language with the hope of one day travelling there and seeing for myself, since I wouldn't like to go to foreign places with absolutely no grasp on the local language. After learning Japanese I really want to learn Chinese as well and go on holiday there.
 
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I was born and raised in Hawaii, where Japanese are the equivalent of Mexicans in California. I had little to no difficulty learning to speak in Japanese and in English, and I am probably capable of speaking a much more eloquent Japanese than the native speakers from the country. I happen to speak the Mikawa Dialect alongside Standard Japanese, as my mother is from the Mikawa region in Aichi, Japan.

I have taken Spanish for two years in high school, and I am confident enough that I would be able to survive in Mexico. It is a pity that we do not have as many Spanish-speakers as in the mainland, so I cannot really practice my conversation skill.

I have recently started learning Tagalog, which is the standard language in the Philippines. Although my ancestry does not contain "Filipino", I have a lot of Pinoy friends, and my knowledge of Spanish and Japanese has aided me by a vast degree in learning the language.
 
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Luke's Wife

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My native language is English, and I'm almost fluent in Quebecois French because I've studied it throughout high school. I can handle most conversations in French. I know a little bit of German and Polish because I come from a Polish background, but I'm far from fluent.

I'd really like to become fluent in Polish, Swedish, German, and eventually tackle more complex languages like Mandarin Chinese and Arabic.

(As far as fictional languages go learning Elvish and Dothraki would be pretty sweet.)
 

Justac00lguy

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I'm English (obv), but I've learnt a few languages. Namely French, Spanish and German. Got GCSE's in all three and I was pretty good at them when I was back in school. Now though, it's slightly a blur. I'm sure I could re-learn them pretty quick though If I wanted to.

I'd love to learn Italian one day since I am from there. Plus it sounds sexy.
 

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