# Foreign Languages?



## penguin (Feb 6, 2005)

What foreign languages do you: speak and write or have spoken and written?

List 'em!

:doh forgot to add mine, hence the edit.

Used to be fluent in French, but doubtless have forgotten most of it; although would like to pick it up again. Exposed to German (heh.) Started to learn Dutch.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

Bilingual

I speak french and english.


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## orwen2000 (Feb 24, 2004)

Bilingual. English is not my native tongue. My spoken English actually sucks because I have no chances to practice it, so I can't utter a whole sentence without stuttering and mixing words and tenses. 
Although I think I'm kind of good with written English. Comes with a lot of reading. Wierd, uh.


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

English of course and a lil spanish.. enough to get the gist of what customers are asking. I'm working on learning cebuano right now but I'm bad when it comes to learning languages


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## Amande (Feb 5, 2005)

ooh, I'm a hobby linguist!

Most of the hard studying I put towards learning languages over the years has dwindled away to just a basic understanding of Spanish, Italian, German and Turkish. Arabic (Masri) which is what I'm best at currently. 

French & Dutch are two languages I'd love to master!

I really need to immerse myself in a culture for the language to really stick and not fade after 6 months like the others have. 

*Goes back to daydreaming of travel


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## raalka (Nov 14, 2004)

I'm not good with languages. I know some Finnish, but I'm nowhere near being a fluent speaker! I took 4 years of French in school and I suck at it.

On the other hand, my smarty pants husband can speak fluent English, Finnish, Swedish, and German. He can also read and understand Norwegian and Danish, but he doesn't fluently speak them. Oh yeah, he also knows quite a bit of Estonian! What a freak, eh?! Hehehe I like smart men.


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## Andre (Feb 27, 2004)

I only know one. After taking French, Japanese, and Spanish throughout high school and some college, I realized I should have taken German all along. Now I don't care about learning any more languages. All I need is English.


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## Fly (Apr 9, 2004)

penguin said:


> What foreign languages do you: speak and write or have spoken and written?
> 
> List 'em!


Dutch (native language)
Limburgian (local dialect, but it is actually accepted as a language)
English
German (read and passable speaking, writing requires effort)
French (reading only, speaking only a little bit)
And I have (or had, it's been a while) enough knowledge of Latin and Old Greek to translate simple texts. (Latin is really useful for learning Romance languages, I can actually understand a lot of Spanish and Italian words just because of my knowledge of Latin



> Used to be fluent in French, but doubtless have forgotten most of it; although would like to pick it up again. Exposed to German (heh.) Started to learn Dutch.


Veel succes. Dat zul je wel nodig hebben. Nederlands is volgens mij niet de meest gemakkelijke taal om te leren. (Although, aside from Frisian, it's the language that's most akin to English.)


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## ghostgurl (Sep 20, 2004)

I took 2 years of spanish in highschool, but I think I forgot most of it now. I found spanish to be incredibly easy to learn.


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## Tinkerbella (Feb 14, 2005)

I've always been in (and still am) French Immersion at school.


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## man w/ no name (Dec 28, 2004)

I'm also bilingual, I can speak and write in spanish and english.


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## z.e. (Feb 26, 2005)

What is "other"?


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## penguin (Feb 6, 2005)

Fly,

I've heard the same thing from friends who have studied Latin. 

z.e.

"other" might also include: sign language, for example? Something not ordinarily thought of as "foreign" in the context used here, but it is still a language. Also, we tend to think of languages quite stereotypically, and these have popped up in the vote so far. But, someone might have studied a dead language, or an African click dialect. You never know... 

I chose "other" because I could not claim I was fluent in the languages that have crossed my path.


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## VoxPop (Nov 9, 2003)

My mother tongue is French and it's the language of my formal schooling but I'm fluent in English as well.


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

My native language is English. 

I'm fluent in Spanish, although I don't have native proficiency in it.

I took a year of Latin and am able to read some Latin texts (mostly by carryover from Spanish), but not write it nor can I speak it.


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## Your Lover Scrub Ducky (Jul 26, 2004)

Native language is english. I took french and spainish in highschool, and spainish in college, so I know a bit from those two languages. I also know some arabic.


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## SebFontain (Jan 27, 2004)

I speak english. I know a few Spanish words along with a few Russian words as well, but can communicate with the two.


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## umbrellasola (Mar 30, 2005)

i love languages more than almost anything. at least i used to. i haven't really spoken any in a few years but i know russian and spanish. also a little french and german though i am probably out of practice with these. i find languages so beautiful and interesting in their structures and differences. if i had the social confidence to speak them around others i would certainly have a career in the language field.


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## PuzzledMike (Nov 30, 2004)

Aside from English, I am fluent in two other languages - Welsh and Hebrew (strange mix, I know). When I say fluent, I mean I can say pretty much anything I want, can follow TV and radio programmes, and read books and newspapers. The Hebrew comes from me spending about 7 years living in Israel back in the 1980s (where I also went to university for my diploma in librarianship).
At home I generally listen to the Welsh-language radio station, and normally watch some Welsh-language TV programmes most evenings (via a digital satellite dish).
I can also read French quite well, but have never managed to actually speak it, or understand it when people are speaking to me. 
I can speak a little Spanish, and can manage my way around Spain without too many problems.
I enjoy languages, but I find that learning a language is much harder when you have SA - you need to practice with actual speakers of the language, and it can be anxiety-provoking at first.


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## Mork (Apr 11, 2005)

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, but it was never easy for me. I still want to learn, so I might sign up for a class at the local community college. It should be a good excuse to get out and talk to people. I think I'll try the introductory class.

I tried taking a Chinese class and boy was I in over my head. After one class, I was already so far behind that I just dropped it.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Four years of Spanish in high school; two conversational courses in college; could have had a minor if I kept going.

Also trying to learn Hungarian, my father's native tongue.


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## Desi (Nov 18, 2003)

Bilingual. English and spanish.


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## hurricane-nut (Oct 22, 2004)

I can cuss in German, Spanish, and Indonesian.


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## kindofcoolkid (Apr 16, 2005)

Mainly bi-lingual.


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## OneIsALonelyNumber (Mar 28, 2005)

I took two years of American Sign Language in college. It was for my foreign language requirement. And yes, it was an easy A.


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## pearlsea (Apr 21, 2005)

my main language is english
i can understand most basic ukranian but its hard to speak it.
i can speak extreame basic french i got a 75% last semester


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## RX2000 (Jan 25, 2004)

I'm bilingual.

English and Spanish.

Obviously I am better in English, but I can speak with native speakers in Spanish and watch the news and other television programs, etc.

I am still working out some of the kinks with grammar, but they are small errors and dont impede people from understanding what I am trying to express.

With all these people on here who are bilingual and multilingual, we should start a foreign language forum on here.


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## archaic (Jan 16, 2006)

I speak English and can read/carry on a conversation in German. Eventually, I'd like to learn Serbo-Croatian (used to know basic sentences and a bunch of vocabulary, but that's all long forgotten) and maybe a clicking language for a challenge. 
I know some Latin, but it's been several years since I studied it and I can't get much more in-depth than wolves stealthily walking through forests. It definitely helped when I took Spanish, though.


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## umbrellagirl1980 (Dec 28, 2005)

wow, i responded to this poll almost a year ago under another username. weird.


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## RX2000 (Jan 25, 2004)

Yea I dug it up out of its obscurity. I was thinking of starting a poll or thread about languages but I figured I would search first to see if there already was one, and I found this.

Maybe I should have left it dead and just made another one. :lol


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## Madmonkeypoo (May 3, 2004)

Only one *sigh* I haven't spoken French since highschool.


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## eyeguess (Nov 30, 2003)

I know a little Japanese and French (only taken one course)
and you would think that I would be pretty fluent in Spanish after taken classes for the last 10 years
but embarrassingly enough I couldn't tell any number over 29


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## Melusine (Jun 19, 2004)

I only use my native tongue (english) but i have learned alot of french in school.


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## RX2000 (Jan 25, 2004)

eyeguess said:


> and you would think that I would be pretty fluent in Spanish after taken classes for the last 10 years
> but embarrassingly enough I couldn't tell any number over 29


I dont know how it is with most people, but I think I could spend 50 yrs in a classroom learning a language and still not know jack about it. Maybe just be able to read it a little bit.

I just dont learn languages very well in a classroom. I have to go out and practice a language several hours every day to learn it. I think immersion is the only way I can learn.

So maybe since you havent learned much in 10 yrs your brain is kind of like mine. 

I took beginning Spanish in college and got a big fat F. :lol


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## missnat84 (Dec 31, 2004)

English and some French.


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## Icon of Sin (Jan 21, 2006)

I speak English, Spanish, and French fluently.

(Going to a mostly Spanish speaking school REALLY helped)


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## vaness (Sep 22, 2005)

english and spanish


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## sansd (Mar 22, 2006)

i'm almost completely incapable of conversing in any language but english (which is hard enough to do), though i've taken classes in french, spanish, japanese, croatian, russian, swahili, and mandarin, as well as ancient greek.

i just took more french for the first time in five years, and i'm going to try a low-level french conversation class next quarter. i'm hoping i might be able to gain a little confidence from it.


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## RaveOn (Feb 5, 2006)

Only a few basic words and phrases of Tagalog, which is my wifes and her familys native tongue.

I never attempted to learn a foreign langauge in school or a formal setting. High school only offered French and Spanish, not much interested in those although Spanish would be good to know these days.

I would have taken German if it was offered at my school.


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## ShyGuy (Jul 20, 2005)

I speak English (native) and Spanish, but because of my social anxiety I have difficulty speaking Spanish in public...or English for that matter! Iwould LOVE to go to a Spanish immersion school or even take some college classes, but just the thought scares the mierda out of me.

:blush


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## leppardess (Nov 8, 2003)

I voted native tongue because, although I know a small amount of spanish, Polish and German, it's far from being able to hold a conversation with,


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## green and lonely (May 29, 2006)

I also went with native tongue because I don't really feel comfortable carrying on a conversation in anything other than English...unless it's _really_ basic German...and I didn't even begin studying German until I was at the university. I had four years of Latin in school...and we really didn't use that for conversation much. Give me a good dictionary and I might still be able to translate some Cicero, but I'll probably hate you for it. :b


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## shyguydan (Dec 30, 2004)

I love lingustics, I can speak my native tongue "English", but not that well right now, but I kow a little bit of Chinese(Cantonese) from my mom's side(ancestry), I took French in school, but would love to learn Spanish


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## weatherman (Apr 19, 2006)

English, bad spanish.


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## Fighter86 (Jun 3, 2005)

I'm chinese but English is my first language. So I'm fluent in English and mandrain. I can speak Hokkian, its a kind of chinese dialect. But I used to be much better at it than I am now. I can still speak it now, but I need to think for a bit sometimes because I've forgotten some words when in the past, I can speak it fluently without much effort.


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