Can you read or write Chinese? I can speak enough Mandarin to get slapped and create a serious international incident. I'll never be able to read it b
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How many languages do you speak?
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Can you read or write Chinese? I can speak enough Mandarin to get slapped and create a serious international incident. I'll never be able to read it b
Latin is great though! Makes learning Italian (especially), French and Spanish so much easier. Felt like a waste at school but I'm really glad in retrospect.
I speak Dutch, English, German, Spanish and some French. I want to better my French. In the future (if I have the time) I would love to learn Swedish and Chinese as well.
Would it be too silly to ask where the Mandars live?Thanks for the serious response.
I use French in a professional capacity now, but began as fun.
I can neither read nor write Chinese, and my learning predated pinyin. I lived in Taiwan in the early 70's, and it was easier (for me) to learn the language than act superior and expect everyone else to speak English.
Agreed. That pretty much expresses my thoughts on Latin, too.
At school, while I loved Roman history, I found the Latin language a bit tedious. However, in retrospect, like, @twietee, I realised that it is extraordinarily useful and helpful not just when subsequently studying Romance languages, but also as a key - one of the keys - to a more nuanced appreciation of English, as well.
Actually, now, I regret that I didn't study it more.
I would love to learn Mandarin but the reality that I would never learn to read and write it dissuades me from even thinking about exploring it.
Hebrew of course has its own alphabet that works very different than the Latin alphabet. I grew up with it but cannot imagine learning it later in life. I hate to say it, but of all the languages in the world to speak, Hebrew IMHO is one of the least useful.
I wish I was younger and had the time to brush up on my Spanish... Maybe live in Spain for 6-12 months and become proficient. Ironically I had a Spanish speaking nanny as a child, but never got taught a word of Spanish until middle school.
I'll be honest, I'm such a nerd that I'm interested in Latin purely for the sake of it being ancient (I'm also interested in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit). I'm not studying Latin because I think it'll be useful (though it has definitely helped with English vocabulary). Even if I knew it would be totally useless, I'd still study it
I think those of us who grew up in a mono-lingual environment have missed out, not just on other languages, but also different ways of thinking. Perhaps that's why the Dutch are so accepting and liberal?
In Hampshire where I grew up (south of England), I was regularly exposed to 3 different kinds of English, all written the same, but pronounced very differently, and with some different words. I heard RP (1950s BBC speak) which the horsey landowners spoke, West Country drawl, which the farm workers spoke, and saaf London, which was only an hour away. Since then I've lived and worked in various parts of Britain, and now consider myself fluent in those three, and also the various dialects spoken in the north west and north east of England, pet, and 4 different kinds of English-based Scottish (but not Gaelic).
I learnt French at school, but didn't practise it. I got talking to a French guy in PlayStation Home a few years ago, and was surprised how much grammar, and how little vocabulary remained. If I was immersed for a month, I think I'd be close to fluent.
I can understand a little German, mostly those parts that are almost the same as English.
I've picked up some Spanish from American TV.
In Hampshire where I grew up (south of England), I was regularly exposed to 3 different kinds of English, all written the same, but pronounced very differently, and with some different words. I heard RP (1950s BBC speak) which the horsey landowners spoke, West Country drawl, which the farm workers spoke, and saaf London, which was only an hour away. Since then I've lived and worked in various parts of Britain, and now consider myself fluent in those three, and also the various dialects spoken in the north west and north east of England, pet, and 4 different kinds of English-based Scottish (but not Gaelic).
I learnt French at school, but didn't practise it. I got talking to a French guy in PlayStation Home a few years ago, and was surprised how much grammar, and how little vocabulary remained. If I was immersed for a month, I think I'd be close to fluent.
I can understand a little German, mostly those parts that are almost the same as English.
I've picked up some Spanish from American TV.
I've only been in mainland China. Did you learn Mandarin in Taiwan or Cantonese?
Sadly I'm recently divorced. My wife grew up in Tianjin and came to the United States to attend college. She naturalized after we married. Anyway, so I can speak survival English because it's my mother tongue, poor Mandarin, a few words in Cantonese, and since my ex's name was Jing I can speak a hybrid language I call Jinglish.
The lure of languages for me is to develop some closer relationships and of course to more fully experience daily culture.
I wish I could read Chinese and speak it proficiently because I'd like to be able to read books in history and poetry. Jing's parents were young adults during the cultural revolution. Her mother was an editor for her university paper and her father an officer in the Army. They suffered under Mao over an unauthorized critical editorial she had printed. I could talk to them for hours but needed a translator and much is lost in conversation that way. Translation is so impersonal.
I'm not too proficient in Spanish but if dropped in a safe place in the middle of nowhere I could probably survive a few days and find my way back to English areas. It's not easy to polish up and work..."stop!", "give me your license", "put your hands on your head", "get on your knees", "what's your name, write it down with your DOB" into every day conversation.
I only speak English, I'm from Britain so I'm lazy in not learning another language + I can just about do my own
hehe.... i think everyone can do the last two... so u'r not alone there..
I'm simple... can only speak English
, yet sometimes i like to talk like a sottish or British person for some unknown reason i'll never understand.
If the language is your mother tongue, you are native. If it is a learned language it falls under the scale below.
- Basic Speaker
- A1 Breakthrough or beginner
- A2 Waystage or elementary
- Independent Speaker
- B1 Threshold or intermediate
- B2 Vantage or upper intermediate
- Proficient Speaker
- C1 Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced
- C2 Mastery or proficiency
I learned Mandarin in Taiwan. I don't recall ever hearing any Cantonese, but it's been a long time now.
I speak English. I failed my way through a couple years of Spanish in High School before I realized I just didn't have a talent for it.
Living in central United States, it is amazing how many languages I come into contact with day to day if I just watch out for them. Of course, dealing with international shipping helps with that! I am also very aware of different accents and dialects of English just within the US. Not near as varied as the UK, I imagine, but interesting to me, nonetheless.
Living in central United States, it is amazing how many languages I come into contact with day to day if I just watch out for them. Of course, dealing with international shipping helps with that! I am also very aware of different accents and dialects of English just within the US. Not near as varied as the UK, I imagine, but interesting to me, nonetheless.
English (native), fluent in Melanesian tok pisin (PNG dialect, but I can do Solomons) and rusty in a language that has only about 10,000 speakers -- Sibbe, spoken by the Nagovisi people of Bougainville.
Native is always the best. You can't speak better than a native speaker, and you can't become a native speaker.
So... nothing beats native English? I agree. I'm native English.
Can a non-native WRITE better than a native?
[doublepost=1453917940][/doublepost]What's better?
English: native. Spanish/Catalan: C2
Spanish/Catalan: native. English: C2
Which is "better"?
Two or three at native is untouchable.
What does this mean? "Your x language will never quite convince a native"?
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Yes. A non-native can write better. Some non-natives can speak better, but they miss out on a lot of the historical/social context expressions.
In your first example the person's native language is English. In the second, the native language is Spanish. The first person speaks English better while the 2nd speaks Spanish better. But their second language ratings are the same.