Huayna Capac357
Deity
Cyrillic is not a language.
What is your Native Language?
- Thread starter jUmpSt0p
- Start date
Godwynn
March to the Sea
- Joined
- May 17, 2003
- Messages
- 20,524
You want to learn the Cyrillic Alphabet?
scherbchen
well that can´t be good
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2006
- Messages
- 3,530
and I'd like to be William the Conqueror. or Henry VIII. depends a bit on the mood I am in.
seriously, though, please do concentrate one or two languages at the most at a time. nobody likes a pretentious bastard who pulls out a book and says "well this is what I am learning right now, chavs!"
at a first glance I know that French is a language, for example, and cyrrilic is an alphabet but not a language. pretty sure you do not want to learn an alphabet, though I might be wrong.
1a. Upon moving to Australia
1b. Semi-fluent. I'm alright with reading, writing and listening but I still can't speak anywhere near as good as native Australian speakers.
1c. 5 years, thereabouts
1d. Necessity
2a. Mandarin, German
2b. Mandarin - low to very low, German - low to lower intermediate. In both cases, less than conversational
2c. In both cases, 6 years. In both cases, most of the time it was rather half-hearted.
2d. For Mandarin, because my father's side is Chinese and I think it's wise to learn the language of our future overlords. For German, to boost my uni ENTER score.
1b. Semi-fluent. I'm alright with reading, writing and listening but I still can't speak anywhere near as good as native Australian speakers.
1c. 5 years, thereabouts
1d. Necessity
2a. Mandarin, German
2b. Mandarin - low to very low, German - low to lower intermediate. In both cases, less than conversational
2c. In both cases, 6 years. In both cases, most of the time it was rather half-hearted.
2d. For Mandarin, because my father's side is Chinese and I think it's wise to learn the language of our future overlords. For German, to boost my uni ENTER score.
Huayna Capac357
Deity
Where are you originally from and what's your native language, tailless, if you don't mind?
Huayna Capac357
Deity
Are you ethnically Thai?
Perfection
The Great Head.
Farsi-Klingon Creole.
kulade
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2003
- Messages
- 4,545
I speak the beautiful American language natively.
I have studied the latin language extensively and am very literate in it (i don't think I can't say I'm fluent in it because I've never needed to speak it.) I've been studying it for five years or so. I know a good bit spanish as well, which I have been studying for four years or so, (I am required to learn a European language for my major.) but I generally hate to speak it, and probably won't unless I have a shotgun shoved down my throat (of course then i'd just sound like french.) I also casually study Indian etymology and historical phonology, inspired by my venture into latin, but I speak no Indian language despite knowing a large bit of sanskit vocab.
I have studied the latin language extensively and am very literate in it (i don't think I can't say I'm fluent in it because I've never needed to speak it.) I've been studying it for five years or so. I know a good bit spanish as well, which I have been studying for four years or so, (I am required to learn a European language for my major.) but I generally hate to speak it, and probably won't unless I have a shotgun shoved down my throat (of course then i'd just sound like french.) I also casually study Indian etymology and historical phonology, inspired by my venture into latin, but I speak no Indian language despite knowing a large bit of sanskit vocab.
Shekwan
Kim Chi Quaffing Celt
I'm not a native English speaker, but I can't speak my native tongue so its a good stop gap language.
1. If you are a not a native English speaker:
a. how/where did you learn English?
I'm not sure when the English came for me. Probably a year or so after birth.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Fluent.
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at?
21 years.
d. why did you learn English?
Everyone else was.
1. If you are a not a native English speaker:
a. how/where did you learn English?
I'm not sure when the English came for me. Probably a year or so after birth.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Fluent.
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at?
21 years.
d. why did you learn English?
Everyone else was.
Reno
The Studio Ghibli Fanatic
Finnish is my native language.
At school, from books (fiction mostly), point & click adventures. Not movies or TV so much, rather I forced myself to speak English to people around me, naturally to the confusion of many.
Practically fluent, although I do get occasional brain farts during both speech and writing.
Ten years, or thereabouts.
Because it was a comparatively fun sounding language, nowadays because I'm interested in the language more from a cultural perspective. (Not to mention the language, and most variations thereof, still sounds comparatively fun.)
At school, from books (fiction mostly), point & click adventures. Not movies or TV so much, rather I forced myself to speak English to people around me, naturally to the confusion of many.
Practically fluent, although I do get occasional brain farts during both speech and writing.
Ten years, or thereabouts.
Because it was a comparatively fun sounding language, nowadays because I'm interested in the language more from a cultural perspective. (Not to mention the language, and most variations thereof, still sounds comparatively fun.)
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 9,408
The term native language is a bit weird for me. My parents came from Yugoslavia to Germany before I was born and only spoke Serbocroatian to me. I didn't learn German before I went to Kindergarten so you could say my native language would be Serbocroatian.
However most of my friends are German and I now use Serbocroatian only when speaking with my parents or their friends and other relatives from Bosnia.
Since I also have a German accent and use shoddy grammar when speaking Serbocroatian and more importantly German is the language in which I think and most times dream I would rate German as my primary language, English as my secondary language (which I learned in school and through books, movies and video games etc. like most people) and Serbocroatian currently as my tertiary language which will likely be displaced by Mandarin (been learning for one and a half years now) some time next year.
I was also learning French for four years in school but I have barely spoken a word since then and forgotten most of it (I still know the basic grammar but my vocabulary is probably less than 100 words by now).
However most of my friends are German and I now use Serbocroatian only when speaking with my parents or their friends and other relatives from Bosnia.
Since I also have a German accent and use shoddy grammar when speaking Serbocroatian and more importantly German is the language in which I think and most times dream I would rate German as my primary language, English as my secondary language (which I learned in school and through books, movies and video games etc. like most people) and Serbocroatian currently as my tertiary language which will likely be displaced by Mandarin (been learning for one and a half years now) some time next year.
I was also learning French for four years in school but I have barely spoken a word since then and forgotten most of it (I still know the basic grammar but my vocabulary is probably less than 100 words by now).
Harvin87
The Youth
a mix between Spanish and German but I think... I'm more fluent in Spanish , and my first contact with English was like millions of years ago... at school.
holy king
Deity
i'm a native german speaker.
my english is better than that of most rednecks and i can get by as tourist in french and italian.
my english is better than that of most rednecks and i can get by as tourist in french and italian.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Native language - Romanian.
1. If you are a not a native English speaker:
a. I started in kindergarten with some very basic stuff, couldn't speak at all but knew some (very very few) words. Then I started learning it a bit more seriously in the second grade (in Romania, that would mean 8 years of age), but I was mostly limited to asking for directions, talking about the weather and various greetings/basic words. Then, the process of learning really kicked off when I turned 10-11, when I started travelling.
I mostly learned it alone, by ear - although I've had private teachers for about half a year, I haven't learned much from them at all. That's the reason why I have for example no problem with English tenses (I think I almost never make mistakes in that regard), but I have no idea how they are called, I just always go with the one that feels right. At 14 I started travelling a lot, and English was my only means of communication. 14-15 was the point when I created a very strong "bond" with English.
Later, the Internet also helped me, especially with ortography and extending my vocabulary. So my timeline would be:
5-8 years old - a few words
8-10 years old - basic sentences and some more words
10-14 years old - started traveling, acquired fluency in both talking and writing
14-16 years old - travelled a lot, acquired almost native-like fluency
16-18 years old (aka 16 - present) - correcting tiny little mistakes that I was somehow unable to see before.
All in all, I would be almost impotent in English if it wasn't for travels. I think I spent about 1/4 of a year abroad, in the period when I was 14-18, and the only language I've spoken was English during that time.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Native-like. Apart from names of flowers and animals, I believe I have a larger English vocabulary than many English speakers, I don't think I make any grammatical mistakes on a regular basis (everyone makes mistakes once in a while, but simple errors are not the same thing as mistakes due to a lack of knowledge of the language), and I've been told countless times that I have a very well-developed accent. In fact, every native speaker of English I've encountered told me my English sound like a mix of north-American accents. Also, I almost always think partially in English. In fact, I think that I'm probably thinking more often in English than in Romanian now that I'm not in Romania any more.
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at? See above.
d. why did you learn English?
At first, because I had to (all kids have to start English in school from grade two - meaning when they are 8 years old), afterwards, because it was the only possibility I had to interact with people when I was abroad. Again, I've mostly learned it alone.
And for the other set of questions:
2. If you are a native English speaker:
a. what other language(s) do you speak?
Romanian (native), German, Italian, and a tiny bit of French.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Being a native speaker of a Romance language, I can easily understand Italian and Spanish, and I've studied French in school. Forgot almost everything I've learned in French, but I'm still able to entertain a very basic conversation and, when written, I understand it without problems. I became fluent in Italian in about a month, after staying there one summer. Now I lost my fluency, but I can still understand almost everything (it's amazingly easy, after all those years - thank you, Roman Empire!!). I've never had any knowledge of Italian grammar, but it's basically a dumbed down version of the grammar of my native language, which makes it rather easy to guess the right answer most of the times.
At German, it's hard to say. A few months ago, I passed a B2 exam without problems (I was 2 points away from the 100 point maximum, argh!). Meanwhile, I've improved a lot, but I'm not exactly sure where I am right now. I can definitely speak somewhat fluently (hell, I'm working as a teacher, so I must be at least able to "drive" a conversation for hours in a row), however I have serious problems in understanding native speakers talking to each other. If they speak to me, they will usually speak Hochdeutsch (standard German), which is a million times easier than... whatever dialect they normally use.
For example, if my flatmates talk to each other, I'll understand the first 3 minutes and then I'll just kinda phase away, as I'll be missing more and more of the information exchanged in that time. If they talk to me, I have no problem in understanding them. I believe that my grammar is, for my level, basically flawless, but I have serious problems with the vocabulary. I've never had to learn the vocabulary of a language from scratch - there are so many Latin words in English that a good chunk of it was already there, in my mind, since before I started learning it. With German however, this doesn't work as well. Sure, they have many Latin words, but not nearly as many as English does. Hope that by the time I obtain my bachelors (3.5 years from now, spent about 5 months here until now) I'll be fluent in most circumstances, have no problems with slang and expressing my feelings. Right now, I have the feeling that if I speak in German, I can easily convey a piece of information, but I can't really express my feelings - my "flavour words" are missing entirely!
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at?
3 months for Italian, 6 years for French (but I really haven't studied it at all, it was just my weekly 50 minutes at school), 9 months for German. Also, since all my colleagues here that study with the same teacher as me are all Spanish and South-American, in the past 5 months I've gone from "understanding some spoken Spanish" to "understanding most of it", unless it's spoken insanely fast, which they tend to do sometimes.
d. why did you learn another language?
French - I had to, in school - any Romanian who finishes high school is supposed to have decent knowledge of one foreign language and at least a basic knowledge of another. For me, French was "the other one".
Italian - I spent 3 months in Italy, I learned what I know without even trying.
German - I'm studying here, and I'm going to remain here at least 3.5 more years (quite possibly more)
1. If you are a not a native English speaker:
a. I started in kindergarten with some very basic stuff, couldn't speak at all but knew some (very very few) words. Then I started learning it a bit more seriously in the second grade (in Romania, that would mean 8 years of age), but I was mostly limited to asking for directions, talking about the weather and various greetings/basic words. Then, the process of learning really kicked off when I turned 10-11, when I started travelling.
I mostly learned it alone, by ear - although I've had private teachers for about half a year, I haven't learned much from them at all. That's the reason why I have for example no problem with English tenses (I think I almost never make mistakes in that regard), but I have no idea how they are called, I just always go with the one that feels right. At 14 I started travelling a lot, and English was my only means of communication. 14-15 was the point when I created a very strong "bond" with English.
Later, the Internet also helped me, especially with ortography and extending my vocabulary. So my timeline would be:
5-8 years old - a few words
8-10 years old - basic sentences and some more words
10-14 years old - started traveling, acquired fluency in both talking and writing
14-16 years old - travelled a lot, acquired almost native-like fluency
16-18 years old (aka 16 - present) - correcting tiny little mistakes that I was somehow unable to see before.
All in all, I would be almost impotent in English if it wasn't for travels. I think I spent about 1/4 of a year abroad, in the period when I was 14-18, and the only language I've spoken was English during that time.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Native-like. Apart from names of flowers and animals, I believe I have a larger English vocabulary than many English speakers, I don't think I make any grammatical mistakes on a regular basis (everyone makes mistakes once in a while, but simple errors are not the same thing as mistakes due to a lack of knowledge of the language), and I've been told countless times that I have a very well-developed accent. In fact, every native speaker of English I've encountered told me my English sound like a mix of north-American accents. Also, I almost always think partially in English. In fact, I think that I'm probably thinking more often in English than in Romanian now that I'm not in Romania any more.
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at? See above.
d. why did you learn English?
At first, because I had to (all kids have to start English in school from grade two - meaning when they are 8 years old), afterwards, because it was the only possibility I had to interact with people when I was abroad. Again, I've mostly learned it alone.
And for the other set of questions:
2. If you are a native English speaker:
a. what other language(s) do you speak?
Romanian (native), German, Italian, and a tiny bit of French.
b. what level do you consider yourself?
Being a native speaker of a Romance language, I can easily understand Italian and Spanish, and I've studied French in school. Forgot almost everything I've learned in French, but I'm still able to entertain a very basic conversation and, when written, I understand it without problems. I became fluent in Italian in about a month, after staying there one summer. Now I lost my fluency, but I can still understand almost everything (it's amazingly easy, after all those years - thank you, Roman Empire!!). I've never had any knowledge of Italian grammar, but it's basically a dumbed down version of the grammar of my native language, which makes it rather easy to guess the right answer most of the times.
At German, it's hard to say. A few months ago, I passed a B2 exam without problems (I was 2 points away from the 100 point maximum, argh!). Meanwhile, I've improved a lot, but I'm not exactly sure where I am right now. I can definitely speak somewhat fluently (hell, I'm working as a teacher, so I must be at least able to "drive" a conversation for hours in a row), however I have serious problems in understanding native speakers talking to each other. If they speak to me, they will usually speak Hochdeutsch (standard German), which is a million times easier than... whatever dialect they normally use.
For example, if my flatmates talk to each other, I'll understand the first 3 minutes and then I'll just kinda phase away, as I'll be missing more and more of the information exchanged in that time. If they talk to me, I have no problem in understanding them. I believe that my grammar is, for my level, basically flawless, but I have serious problems with the vocabulary. I've never had to learn the vocabulary of a language from scratch - there are so many Latin words in English that a good chunk of it was already there, in my mind, since before I started learning it. With German however, this doesn't work as well. Sure, they have many Latin words, but not nearly as many as English does. Hope that by the time I obtain my bachelors (3.5 years from now, spent about 5 months here until now) I'll be fluent in most circumstances, have no problems with slang and expressing my feelings. Right now, I have the feeling that if I speak in German, I can easily convey a piece of information, but I can't really express my feelings - my "flavour words" are missing entirely!
c. how long did it take you to reach the level you are at?
3 months for Italian, 6 years for French (but I really haven't studied it at all, it was just my weekly 50 minutes at school), 9 months for German. Also, since all my colleagues here that study with the same teacher as me are all Spanish and South-American, in the past 5 months I've gone from "understanding some spoken Spanish" to "understanding most of it", unless it's spoken insanely fast, which they tend to do sometimes.
d. why did you learn another language?
French - I had to, in school - any Romanian who finishes high school is supposed to have decent knowledge of one foreign language and at least a basic knowledge of another. For me, French was "the other one".
Italian - I spent 3 months in Italy, I learned what I know without even trying.
German - I'm studying here, and I'm going to remain here at least 3.5 more years (quite possibly more)
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Computer games, movies, TV, internet forums, school. In that order.
Lame, if it is a level. I am still making tons of mistakes, I tend to mix up tenses and use wrong prepositions in idioms and phrasal verbs. Pathetic, but unless I spend some time living in an English-speaking country, it's hardly ever going to get better.
My whole life.
I didn't pick it, it picked me
Out of necessity I guess.A mix of fascination and frustration, but that's probably very common.
erm I believe you misread what I wrote, I said I want to learn it, not that I am learning it, I will learn Hindi when I go to India for a couple years, Sanskrit from my Grandfather (maybe Urdu too), French after college and Russian before I'm 40
also why do you have to be so mean to me >.<
aelf
Ashen One
Yeah, I have a similar situation. I think for those who care what your native language is it would be Serbocroatian. The whole native language thing tends to seem rather silly in the way it's been made to matter.
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