Who here is multilingual

[Bubonic]

Who here can fluently speak two or more languages?
Which ones?
Did you learn them at home, school, or abroad?
How many languages do you wish to learn?

Personally I was born to a French mom and an English dad, so I've had the benefit of bilingualism early on.
Grammatically my French is pretty weak.

Right now I'm doing an intensive Spanish beginners course which is going well so far.

I'd like to learn Mandarin, which apparently is easier then it seems, and is a purely "logical" language. Won't take it at University, as to not risk my GPA. I just don't know if I could handle the writing system... Same goes for Arabic which I'd also like to learn.

 

[ComicChick]

The languages I speak fluently are English and Body

i'm so-so at spanish

 

[Watson]

Anglais, mais je parle en peu francais.

(written is stronger then spoken tho...also I feel that sentence may be off...ah meh)

 

[jaguarr]

I've let my Spanish lapse quite a bit. My wife is a native speaker, though, and one of the things we definitely plan to do with the child we have due in July is to give them the gift of learning both English and Spanish. I'm sure I'll get my Spanish back and then some when we start teaching our kid that language.

jag

 

[cookiva]

J'ai parlais francais pour 10 annees.


I've been speaking french for 10 years.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

7 years of French here. I CANNOT wait to take a trip to France for a few months and work on my fluency

 

[Bubonic]

Anglais, mais je parle en peu francais.

(written is stronger then spoken tho...also I feel that sentence may be off...ah meh)

Votre francais est vraiment bon. For me its the opposite, my spoken French is phonetically sound, and so long as I don't forget a word I can pass off as a purebred Frenchman.
What kills me is the conjugation, and trying to remember the differences between phonetically similar words and placing the accents.

I've let my Spanish lapse quite a bit. My wife is a native speaker, though, and one of the things we definitely plan to do with the child we have due in July is to give them the gift of learning both English and Spanish. I'm sure I'll get my Spanish back and then some when we start teaching our kid that language.

jag

That be a great gift to your child, and the earlier on you teach them, the more intuitive it will be for them.
Apart from speaking it with your wife, I suggest you read some Spanish literature if you ever have the time.
I'm not at that level yet, but once my professor puts the basis in my head, she says the best thing is to read.
You'll get a better sense of how Spanish is naturally used.

Thinking of it, I'd do myself a favour if I picked up a French book.

J'ai parlais francais pour 10 annees.


I've been speaking french for 10 years.

J'ai parlé le français pendant dix ans.

Pretty close, and honestly, I used a translation device since I wasn't positive.




The great thing about languages is that each one holds a new way of viewing the world.

 

[Bubonic]

7 years of French here. I CANNOT wait to take a trip to France for a few months and work on my fluency

Basically one of the sure fire ways to become proficient in a language, total immersion .

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Votre francais est vraiment bon. For me its the opposite, my spoken French is phonetically sound, and so long as I don't forget a word I can pass off as a purebred Frenchman.
What kills me is the conjugation, and trying to remember the differences between phonetically similar words and placing the accents.

I once lost 30 points on a test purely b/c of misplaced accent marks

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Basically one of the sure fire ways to become proficient in a language, total immersion .

Totally, too bad I hear the racism has gotten pretty bad in France. Moroccans are moving in and the Frenchmen are not happy.

 

[cookiva]

Totally, too bad I hear the racism has gotten pretty bad in France. Moroccans are moving in and the Frenchmen are not happy.

Its that all over western europe. When I grew up in belguim, it was horrible. Honestly, I havent seen that much racism firsthand.

 

[Abaddon]

I'm happy I managed to read and understand the French in this thread.

 

[Lightning Strykez!]

Do Ebonics count? Please say no.

 

[knowsbleed]

I speak binary...


no i don't...

 

[cookiva]

Votre francais est vraiment bon. For me its the opposite, my spoken French is phonetically sound, and so long as I don't forget a word I can pass off as a purebred Frenchman.
What kills me is the conjugation, and trying to remember the differences between phonetically similar words and placing the accents.



That be a great gift to your child, and the earlier on you teach them, the more intuitive it will be for them.
Apart from speaking it with your wife, I suggest you read some Spanish literature if you ever have the time.
I'm not at that level yet, but once my professor puts the basis in my head, she says the best thing is to read.
You'll get a better sense of how Spanish is naturally used.

Thinking of it, I'd do myself a favour if I picked up a French book.




J'ai parlé le français pendant dix ans.

Pretty close, and honestly, I used a translation device since I wasn't positive.




The great thing about languages is that each one holds a new way of viewing the world.

Eh, ever since I moved away from belgium, I have only spoken a bastardized version of slang french, so my spelling/grammer has gone downhill.

Also, I hated accents on tests. I would take science and history in french, and teachers would take off points on tests even in those classes for accents. Guh...

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Its that all over western europe. When I grew up in belguim, it was horrible. Honestly, I havent seen that much racism firsthand.

I'm pretty light-skinned and dating a white girl. Maybe they'll go easy on me?

 

[AndThePickles]

I took about 4 years of Spanish, but I can barely recall any of it. I'd like to pick that back up. There are a lot of languages I'd like to at least learn the basics of.

 

[ComicChick]

i can translate spanish better when its written than when it is spoken. i had the worst accent in the class but the highest gpa.

i can also r3ad l33t

 

[Watson]

Votre francais est vraiment bon. For me its the opposite, my spoken French is phonetically sound, and so long as I don't forget a word I can pass off as a purebred Frenchman.
What kills me is the conjugation, and trying to remember the differences between phonetically similar words and placing the accents.

Excellent. I'm re-learning it after not having taken it for about 8 years. I don't mind the conjugation so much(just hard to remember), but the pronouns (whether to use aux, des, a la, etc) just kill me.

 

[AndThePickles]

I'm pretty light-skinned and dating a white girl. Maybe they'll go easy on me?

I'll have to learn a heap of French or they'll hate you for dating an American who can't speak French lol. I want to learn though.

 

[cookiva]

I'm pretty light-skinned and dating a white girl. Maybe they'll go easy on me?

Depends on where you go. Anywhere in France you will go, almost no matter what, they will know you are american. In the north, however, its not a big deal, and most of the people there are totally awesome. Southern france, however, is where you will have some trouble.

 

[cookiva]

I'd like to learn Mandarin, which apparently is easier then it seems, and is a purely "logical" language. Won't take it at University, as to not risk my GPA. I just don't know if I could handle the writing system... Same goes for Arabic which I'd also like to learn.

I had the most fun of my life learning Mandarin. Its easy for me to learn languages, however. When I was a kid, I was pretty good in spanish and dutch, but now its gone. I was able to go thru 2 years of Mandarin in one, but that was while living in Shanghai.

If you have a chance, try picking it up. Great fun.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Excellent. I'm re-learning it after not having taken it for about 8 years. I don't mind the conjugation so much(just hard to remember), but the pronouns (whether to use aux, des, a la, etc) just kill me.

Le and la are the worst things EVER

Depends on where you go. Anywhere in France you will go, almost no matter what, they will know you are american. In the north, however, its not a big deal, and most of the people there are totally awesome. Southern france, however, is where you will have some trouble.

Snooty southerners eh? I just need to get my deriere over there.

 

[AndThePickles]

I had the most fun of my life learning Mandarin. Its easy for me to learn languages, however. When I was a kid, I was pretty good in spanish and dutch, but now its gone. I was able to go thru 2 years of Mandarin in one, but that was while living in Shanghai.

If you have a chance, try picking it up. Great fun.

I enjoy Mandarin as well. My teacher wasn't helpful at all though, so I think I'll have better luck studying with a Rosetta Stone program. I've already forgotten how to write a heap of characters

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I had the most fun of my life learning Mandarin. Its easy for me to learn languages, however. When I was a kid, I was pretty good in spanish and dutch, but now its gone. I was able to go thru 2 years of Mandarin in one, but that was while living in Shanghai.

If you have a chance, try picking it up. Great fun.

You in the military, on the run from the Yakuza, or what? Haha, sounds like you've traveled a bit.