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General discussion (archive)How many languages do you know?(78 posts)(78 posts)
(78 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 30, 2012
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Ubivis: Leroux asinus est :)
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Leroux: Bist selba a Esl, und a Piefke! ;)
And proud of it ;)
Posted January 30, 2012
French, German, English, Luxemburgish and some italian.
Posted January 30, 2012
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hedwards: Is it normal? I thought one of the problems they were having in Japan was that students were studying English but not getting fluent, even when they could write pass the relevant tests. I definitely could be wrong, but as an ESL teacher I'm always curious about that.
Is what normal? Perhaps I should point out that English is my "first" language? Anyhow, the problem with English here is that schools teach it primarily as a subject requirement for university Entrance exams, not as a language to be used in daily conversation.

Thus, a lot of Japanese are the polar opposite of myself a decade or so ago. I.e., they can read and understand English, understanding the grammatical rules better than a lot of native speakers, but can't actually apply the language in a real life situation (which is how I was with Japanese).
Posted January 30, 2012
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Leroux: Oh yeah, Latin, I learned that too, but immediately forgot everything about it afterwards, so I would not claim to know it. ;)
Sic transit gloria mundi :-P
Posted January 30, 2012
Does the language of love count? If not, then one. I did take 5 years of French in school but I fear I am an "average USA citizen" in my linguistic skills. However, I do know our language rather well if that counts toward anything.
Posted January 30, 2012
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Spanish and English.
Posted January 30, 2012
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hedwards: Is it normal? I thought one of the problems they were having in Japan was that students were studying English but not getting fluent, even when they could write pass the relevant tests. I definitely could be wrong, but as an ESL teacher I'm always curious about that.
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bansama: Is what normal? Perhaps I should point out that English is my "first" language? Anyhow, the problem with English here is that schools teach it primarily as a subject requirement for university Entrance exams, not as a language to be used in daily conversation.

Thus, a lot of Japanese are the polar opposite of myself a decade or so ago. I.e., they can read and understand English, understanding the grammatical rules better than a lot of native speakers, but can't actually apply the language in a real life situation (which is how I was with Japanese).
I probably should have been more clear, but you got the right idea.

I'm glad to see the situation is improving. My understanding of it was that schools were only emphasizing the portions of the language for those tests and ignoring the skills that are actually required in order to converse.

It sounds like it's not as prevalent as I had thought, which is definitely good. Learning a language just to read and write is a shame. Even "dead" languages like Latin and ancient Greek really ought to be spoken.
Posted January 30, 2012
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English & Geordie as that is native tongue round my neck of the woods!
Posted January 30, 2012
Fluent in both Spanish and English. Should try to learn another language eventually, it would probably be useful, haha.
Posted January 30, 2012
Depends. I live in Finland and use Finnish on a daily basis, and I also study English in university as hence use it every day as well (British English in case you care). I also understand Russian well, but can hardly read it, and I certainly lack the confidence to speak or write it myself.

EDIT: A language so pointless I complete forgot about it! You have to know some Swedish to graduate from university, and though I haven't done the exams yet, I'm confident that I'll pass.
Post edited January 30, 2012 by AlKim
Posted January 30, 2012
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hedwards: Even "dead" languages like Latin and ancient Greek really ought to be spoken.
Indeed. The main trouble I see though, is that there are no native speakers that can teach how they should be spoken - granted, it might not be that much of a problem since the language would've evolved so much it'd hardly be very close to what we read in historic texts anyway if they'd still be "alive".
Post edited January 30, 2012 by Miaghstir
Posted January 30, 2012
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Miaghstir: How similar (or different) is Afrikaans to Dutch?
That's a difficult question because I am not familiar with Dutch at all. I have heard it spoken once and it sounded completely different to Afrikaans - but maybe I'd understand if I heard enough to get used to the pronunciation. I've heard that Dutch speakers find learning Afrikaans very easy though so they're probably fairly close.
Posted January 30, 2012
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Barefoot_Monkey: That's a difficult question because I am not familiar with Dutch at all. I have heard it spoken once and it sounded completely different to Afrikaans - but maybe I'd understand if I heard enough to get used to the pronunciation. I've heard that Dutch speakers find learning Afrikaans very easy though so they're probably fairly close.
Right, I'm mainly interested as - from my understanding - Afrikaans evolved from Dutch, and as such they ought to have a bit in common. And, yeah, I am a bit interested in how languages evolve and interconnect.
Posted January 30, 2012
I only speak two languages, English and bad English.
Posted January 30, 2012
Mother tongue is French, learned Latin and English around the same time (5th grade), learned enough German thru my ex-gf (german exchange student), can read/understand Italian and Spanish (romance languages) and understand most Russian conversations but could never understand their alphabet.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)How many languages do you know?(78 posts)(78 posts)
(78 posts)