What languages do you speak/are you learning?

[Tahuti]

If being slapped in the face is something worth going for to you, perhaps we can barely manage to change it into "meet your daddy"

I have never been slapped in the face, I usually manage to get conversations started.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Don't be ashamed - nether was I*. Hollywood just raises too high expectations in that regard.

*except by my mother, didn't care for it, but it was my mother

 

[sophie]

I do enjoy learning German (not least because I am interested in the 20th century history...), but it's bloody time-consuming! It's a good thing I travel ~40 minutes to/from work, so I can do exercises in the tram. Still I have no idea how to move from "passive" knowledge ("I can read stuff if I have dictionary handy to decode unknown words") toward "active" knowledge ("I can go to Austria and have a basic conversation with someone on the street... in German").

Why not find a German speaker who's willing to help you with that? I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to find somebody on the internet with whom you could correspond by e-mail, letter or something like Skype.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13224619&postcount=983

 

[gangleri2001]

Catalan: The Fatherland!
Spanish: Native against my will.
English: Fluent.
German: Fluent even though I think it needs a pit stop because some areas are getting rusty but not much.
Chinese: Intermediate about to break the wall and become a fully advanced/fluent/whatever-you-want-to-call-it speaker. It only would take about 3 months of practise and I'd be finally there and I'm planning to do that within the next year.
Japanese: Somewhere in the border between beginner and intermediate. I keep working on it regularly though.
Irish: Beginner.
Basque, French, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Portuguese: Some vague notions.
Arabic, Russian, Korean: Master the writing system but have no idea about the language itself.

 

[Winner]

No one here knows Catalan. If anyone is jealous (which is highly doubtful), suck it!

That's like a dialect of Spanish, right?

Spoiler :

The quality of foreign language education in the United States varies by state. Michigan, for example, requires two years of a foreign language in order to graduate. Unfortunately, that was just put into effect this year.

Only two years...?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13224619&postcount=983

Ich habe es gesehen, aber ich glaube nicht, dass mein Deutsch gut genug ist.

(Took me five minutes to find out how to say "good enough" )

 

[gangleri2001]

Only two years...?

Two years is time enough to reach an intermediate level. In fact, I've heard and read of people that achieved advanced level in three months. It's all about spending your time learning it efficently. For example, I began learning Japanese last September and I've already acquired the level most people need 2 years and a half to reach (I'm already using the third year's book).

 

[bonefang]

I am from India.
I speak, write and speak : English, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada

My hometown is a former Portuguese colony, so had to learn that as well. I remember only the swear words.

 

[H4run]

English-> quite crappy
Turkish-> Not good
Arabic-> Brutally not good

My next semester will be a full language lesson (Arabic) if they don't cut my scholarship, I hope they never do that. I always try to figure out how to be able to learn language in a fun way, like the way I learn English (through games, film, comic) try it for my Turkish language playing mount and blade in Turkish mode, but it was not long.

 

[Winner]

Two years is time enough to reach an intermediate level. In fact, I've heard and read of people that achieved advanced level in three months. It's all about spending your time learning it efficently. For example, I began learning Japanese last September and I've already acquired the level most people need 2 years and a half to reach (I'm already using the third year's book).

But you wanted to, presumably. We're speaking about kids in high school. A few hours a week for two years is totally insufficient.

In this country, kids have foreign languages for 10 and 6 years respectively, and they still suck.

 

[Flying Pig]

Bear in mind that people who enjoy learning languages also tend to be people who are naturally good at them.

 

[Winner]

Bear in mind that people who enjoy learning languages also tend to be people who are naturally good at them.

If there is such a thing like "being naturally good at languages". Many linguists are sceptical.

 

[Kyriakos]

^One could say that using many languages is a bit 'algebraic', or a variation of that (using similar progressions, but replacing the known factors for a stable parameter; x,y etc in algebra, term meaning in languages).

A bit as if that 'algebra' was not about parameter definition, but developing alternative notations for the same/similar polyonymic equation.

 

[sophie]

Ich habe es gesehen, aber ich glaube nicht, dass mein Deutsch gut genug ist.

(Took me five minutes to find out how to say "good enough" )

Deswegen musst du mit uns (oder mir) üben. Ich kann gut lesen aber sprechen ist mir schrecklich.

Spoiler :

That's why you have to practice with us (or me). I can read well but my speaking leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[gangleri2001]

But you wanted to, presumably. We're speaking about kids in high school. A few hours a week for two years is totally insufficient.

In this country, kids have foreign languages for 10 and 6 years respectively, and they still suck.

That's because before going on learning x language you should ask yourself whether you're making up excuses or not.

Bear in mind that people who enjoy learning languages also tend to be people who are naturally good at them.

I'd say that it's the other way around: People is good at learning languages because they enjoy it.

 

[amadeus]

English and Japanese. I started learning Japanese only after I entered college—before that I had never taken a second language in school.

 

[gangleri2001]

@amadeus: 君の日本語は良いの？僕は日本語も勉強してる。しかし、日本人をまだ知らないから、日本語で話せない。

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: Remember to provide translations for all non-English content.

 

[Phrossack]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13224619&postcount=983

I'm still up for that, by the way.

 

[GamezRule]

One of the issues with foreign language education in the United States is that English is used all around the world. It's seen as an unnecessary expense. However, Spanish is growing in necessity.

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus: 君の日本語は良いの？僕は日本語も勉強してる。しかし、日本人をまだ知らないから、日本語で話せない。

@amadeus: Is your Japanese good? I am studying Japanese. However, because I don't know any Japanese people, I can't speak in Japanese.

アメリカに住んでた頃もそういう経験があったよ。
I had the same experience in America.

My level is mixed; I can sit down and watch the news on TV and understand everything, even if there are gaps filled in from context, but sometimes I will read something and miss the point of a sentence because of subtle or (to me) awkward grammar rules.

Unfortunately, I haven't been motivated to study, so my level only increases slightly just from the effect of living here.