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Do you speak another language?

| |<|\|0\/\/ |-|0\/\/ +0 5|*34|< 1337!1!!!!!!!

Translation: I know how to speak leet. :p

I took Spanish in high school, but haven't really used it enough to retain it.
 
Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen. (I'm able to speak a little German.)

Between high school and college I have four semesters under my belt, but nonetheless I am pretty lousy conversationally. I'll have to improve if I want to impress my German relatives (who, I have a feeling, will always speak English better than I speak German.) :p
 
I'm a native English speaker. Took French from middle school through my first two years of university, but never had a reason to use it in real life so I'm now reduced to only being able to read with the aid of a dictionary, and follow VERY simple conversations.

Am fluent in Norwegian after having lived here for 21 years. Most of my life now is in Norwegian. Snakker og skriver norsk uten problem, ettersom jeg har bodd her i 21 år. Det meste av mitt liv nå foregår på norsk.

Am in the middle of a masters degree in East Asian linguistics with Chinese as my language of specialisation. I can read well and write acceptably well (still make plenty of mistakes as far as expressing myself idiomatically though). Not having had a chance yet to live in China for any length of time, my oral comprehension is not great, but I still take conversation lessons to improve, in addition to talking to my teacher for about 10 mins each evening on Skype. My thesis is on problems in the translation of Tang Dynasty poetry into English, so I spend quite a bit of time reading Classical Chinese as well. 我在奥斯陆大学学习中文。因为我没有很多机会联系说话，我的听力所以有点不好。但是，我每天晚上跟我的老师用Skype聊天一下。因为我觉得翻译唐代诗非常有意思，我所以还看文言。 (Not an exact translation of what I wrote in English :p.)
 
annk said:
I'm a native English speaker. Took French from middle school through my first two years of university, but never had a reason to use it in real life so I'm now reduced to only being able to read with the aid of a dictionary, and follow VERY simple conversations.

Am fluent in Norwegian after having lived here for 21 years. Most of my life now is in Norwegian. Snakker og skriver norsk uten problem, ettersom jeg har bodd her i 21 år. Det meste av mitt liv nå foregår på norsk.

Am in the middle of a masters degree in East Asian linguistics with Chinese as my language of specialisation. I can read well and write acceptably well (still make plenty of mistakes as far as expressing myself idiomatically though). Not having had a chance yet to live in China for any length of time, my oral comprehension is not great, but I still take conversation lessons to improve, in addition to talking to my teacher for about 10 mins each evening on Skype. My thesis is on problems in the translation of Tang Dynasty poetry into English, so I spend quite a bit of time reading Classical Chinese as well. 我在奥斯陆大学学习中文。因为我没有很多机会联系说话，我的听力所以有点不好。但是，我每天晚上跟我的老师用Skype聊天一下。因为我觉得翻译唐代诗非常有意思，我所以还看文言。 (Not an exact translation of what I wrote in English :p.)
Click to expand...

The 所以 should go before 我的听力 in the second sentence and before 我 in the last sentence. Usually, it'd be 因为_______, 所以________. The 所以 goes in front of the clause. It's equivalent of "because ______, so______". You usually wouldn't say "because______, ____so______".
 
teflon said:
The 所以 should go before 我的听力 in the second sentence and before 我 in the last sentence. Usually, it'd be 因为_______, 所以________. The 所以 goes in front of the clause. It's equivalent of "because ______, so______". You usually wouldn't say "because______, ____so______".
Click to expand...

You're so right, that was just a stupid mistake on my part. :eek: I'm aware of the meaning of the construction ("Because...therefore...").

But as far as where the "suoyi" CAN appear, isn't it the case that you often hear native speakers say something like "yin wei wo hen e, wo suoyi xiang chi fan"? I learned that the "suoyi" should start the second clause, but it seems like you often hear it where you'd expect to find an adverb. Of course, just because I think I've heard something doesn't mean it's right...:p
 
01001000011010010010110000100000011010010110111001100011011000010111001101100101
00100000011110010110111101110101001000000110001101100001011011100010011101110100
00100000011101000110010101101100011011000010110000100000010010010010000001110011
01110000011001010110000101101011001000000110001001101001011011100110000101110010
01111001001011000010000001110111011010010111010001101000001000000110000101101110
00100000010000010111010101110011011101000111001001100001011011000110100101100001
01101110001000000110000101100011011000110110010101101110011101000010111000100000
01001000011011110111011100100111011100110010000001101001011101000010000001100111
01101111011010010110111000101100001000000110110101100001011101000110010100111111
 
Dutch, English, and German. I can also understand Afrikaans, because it's more or less the same as Dutch.

Ik denk dat iemand die Afrikaans praat, dit Nederlands ook kan lezen. :D

--Erwin
 
TheReef said:
01001000011010010010110000100000011010010110111001100011011000010111001101100101
00100000011110010110111101110101001000000110001101100001011011100010011101110100
00100000011101000110010101101100011011000010110000100000010010010010000001110011
01110000011001010110000101101011001000000110001001101001011011100110000101110010
01111001001011000010000001110111011010010111010001101000001000000110000101101110
00100000010000010111010101110011011101000111001001100001011011000110100101100001
01101110001000000110000101100011011000110110010101101110011101000010111000100000
01001000011011110111011100100111011100110010000001101001011101000010000001100111
01101111011010010110111000101100001000000110110101100001011101000110010100111111
Click to expand...

Heheh, best answer so far. :D
 
I can speak English and German fluently (im half austrian half english and live in lodnon and went to a german school in london for 10 years ^^)
i speak french moderatly well (not so good at writing)
and i speak a little italian
I want to learn japanese:D
 
annk said:
You're so right, that was just a stupid mistake on my part. :eek: I'm aware of the meaning of the construction ("Because...therefore...").

But as far as where the "suoyi" CAN appear, isn't it the case that you often hear native speakers say something like "yin wei wo hen e, wo suoyi xiang chi fan"? I learned that the "suoyi" should start the second clause, but it seems like you often hear it where you'd expect to find an adverb. Of course, just because I think I've heard something doesn't mean it's right...:p
Click to expand...

Suoyi technically can appear after the I, as the meaning of the sentence won't change, it just sounds awkward. Most native speakers usually stick to the yin wei______, suoyi_________.
 
enkweni okonwehneha enkatati. Ne'k tsi ostonha sonke'nikonha.

I can speak Mohawk.. but I forgot a bit. Its been years since i practiced it. I used to go to a Mohawk Immersion school but I graduated. So I actually never learn to read in write until I was in grade 6. Its kind of sad too because the language is dying.

I took a bunch of classes in Spanish in Highschool and college but I've forgotten quite a bit since then.
 
I was born in Israel, and lived there until I was 6, and go back there ever summer, so I consider my Hebrew to be fluent. It's also the only language I speak at home. I am currently in my 4th year of Chinese, but we are learning from an Australian textbook that has the most absurd lessons. We are now learning how to say "perform dragon dance" and "sing chinese folk songs," yet we still haven't learned any of the colors in Chinese.
 
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c616e6775616765732e2e20656e676c697368206265696e672
07468652066697273742c207468656e2068616b6b6120616e6
42049276d20736f6d65776861742073656d692d666c75656e7
420776974682063616e746f6e65736520616e64206e6f77206
c6561726e696e67206a6170616e6573652e000000000000000


:p
 
English is my tongue, but I'm learning many right now. In order of proficiency:

-----Advanced knowledge
Spanish (Castillian) - thanks to podcasts, been learning for 18 months
Dutch (Flemish) - thanks to internet radio, been learning for 18 months - closest language to English
German - thanks to architecture resources and that I was taught it when I was 7

----Intermediate knowledge
French - learned in school since 6 but stopped learning at 15

----Basic knowledge
Greek - because the uni I'm in and the campus is like 'little Cyprus'
Italian - for a trip to Venice

I can also read Cyrillic and Arabic scripts.

----

Learning the textbook method is really ineffective. Hearing a language first then reading it is easier. If you're learning a new language, obviously you might start with a phrasebook, then an Audio Pack.

The next stage is to try and integrate into your daily life as much as you can. Instead of listening to your local radio, listen to internet radio in that language, with 95% chance they're playing the same music. Subscribe to Podcasts, they're FREE! iPods now become educational tools. Travelling is no longer a waste of time either.

If you're writing notes down, try and write them in that language. Buy a newspaper on world news in that language or a magazine which you might most likely look at the pictures anyway. Or news websites in another language.
 
adameels said:
English is my tongue, but I'm learning many right now. In order of proficiency:

-----Advanced knowledge
Dutch (Flemish) - closest language to English
German
Click to expand...
I am pretty certain German is closest language to English (as it is Germanic), at least how I see it as I picked up on German straight away while Dutch I did not but now I can get by in Dutch speaking countries as German helps for some words/sentences.

Oh I agree with you on using Podcasts, Radio/TV for learning but reading a Newspaper in that language not so much:confused: (differs between people I guess).
 
northy124 said:
I am pretty certain German is closest language to English (as it is Germanic), at least how I see it as I picked up on German straight away while Dutch I did not but now I can get by in Dutch speaking countries as German helps for some words/sentences.

Oh I agree with you on using Podcasts, Radio/TV for learning but reading a Newspaper in that language not so much:confused: (differs between people I guess).
Click to expand...

You might have had more exposure to German.

Foriegn newspapers are quite expensive so I only buy them when there's a major event, which means I know what they're talking about already :D . All the more advanced words in English tend to be based on Latin so a Spanish newspaper for me is a hell lot easier to read than a German one.
 
adameels said:
You might have had more exposure to German.
Click to expand...
If I did I have no idea where from as I only learnt that where were other languages than Italian & English when I started secondary school.

adameels said:
Foriegn newspapers are quite expensive so I only buy them when there's a major event, which means I know what they're talking about already :D . All the more advanced words in English tend to be based on Latin so a Spanish newspaper for me is a hell lot easier to read than a German one.
Click to expand...
It depends where you are in the world that make them expensive (I guess your from US?), and OK I understand about reading Newspapers now ;)
 
northy124 said:
It depends where you are in the world that make them expensive (I guess your from US?), and OK I understand about reading Newspapers now ;)
Click to expand...

Ich komme aus London ;)

It's more expensive because they have to be imported as quickly as possible from far away. I'm sure it's even more expensive for European papers sold in the US.
 
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