[my2geldings]

Hello everyone!
So here is my question. How many people do we have here who know more than 1 language? if you learned another language, at what age did you learn it?

I was born in southern France, so I write, speak and read french fluently as well as english. I'm in the process of learning a third language.

So let's hear what everyone speaks

 

[MIEventer]

I speak Good English and Bad English quite well lol.

I spent 5 years getting my Professional Interpreting Degree in Vancouver to work with the Deaf.

I wish I paid attention to French in school, since it is our 2nd Language - now, that I am 33 I wish I knew it.

 

[my2geldings]

I wish I paid attention to French in school, since it is our 2nd Language - now, that I am 33 I wish I knew it.

...and French sucks. It's a horribly difficult language to learn.

 

[NorthernMama]

I can get by in German and French, orally and written, but not fluent. My German is a bit outdated and has a strong dialect, so sometimes I use "slang" without realizing it.

 

[paintsrule]

Im in year two of spanish right now so in the process of learning that.

 

[ridingismylife2]

English (mother-tongue)
Finnish, I can understand it and read it but I hate speaking it. I get blackouts all the time xD I used to only speak Finnish when I was younger.
It's a very very difficult language.
German, used to speak it fluently because I lived in Germany for 6 years but now I can only read and understand it. I still study german at school though. The grammar is sooo hard!

 

[TaMMa89]

I speak Finnish as my 1st language so I'm writing another language at the moment too. :wink:

We started to learn English around the 2nd-3th grade (aka when we were 8-9 years old) in comprehensive school but I neglected that pretty effectively and could say I learned it properly after I started to discuss here. But that's just written, I guess my spoken English is still pretty horrible (pronouncing etc). Even of course I got my basics from the school.

Since we are bilingual country (Finnish - Swedish) , we have this law which I think is a bit stupid. It means that also the 2nd national language is a compulsory part of curriculum in every school. Swedish started in the 7th grade (around 12-13 years old) and I included it as a part of my upper secondary matriculation examination like I included English too. I haven't still written or spoken Swedish after my matriculation examination (2008 ) at all and now when I started it in open college again I noticed I've forgotten lot.

I also know some very basics of Spanish. I think it'd be an interesting language to learn also more. It's a bit pity that I managed to take only one course of it during the upper secondary school (I was 18 then).

 

[wordstoasong]

English. Haha.
I took french in school, but never use it. I get the basics, that's it.

My dad is german, and was teaching us kids it before we went on our trips to Germany. I'm really wanting to learn more and get an understanding on it. I love Germany and can't wait to return again!

My mom is metis-cree, and has a friend who could speak Cree so I might learn cree as well. =]

 

[irydehorses4lyfe]

In school I was taught Spanish from grades 1-7, Japanese in 4th, Latin in 6th, German in 10th, and French in 12th, and taught myself a little Norwegian.

Over-all I am semi-fluent in Spanish, don't remember much Japanese, use Latin on a day-to-day basis for word rooting, and know an ok amount of German and French. =)

 

[whitetrashwarmblood]

I took two years of French in school, and a year of Japanese. Didn't pay attention in either class, but I can say a few sentences and count to 10 in French. lol I really want to learn Arabic since I'm part Lebanese.

 

[Carleen]

I took German in high school, I'm definitely not fluent in it but I could get by if I needed to.

 

[JadedEyes]

I speak English and that's it. I am planning on getting a certificate and be an interepeuter in ASL. American Sign Language. But that will mainly be for work, make me even more qualified. So that can be considered a second language.

I do hear that English is the hardest language to learn. Is that true, though?

 

[TaMMa89]

I do hear that English is the hardest language to learn. Is that true, though?

Personally I've found it's pretty logical and easy language to learn, but I can't sure know what's the official view about that.

 

[Sissimut-icehestar]

I'm a native Icelander so I use Icelandic is my native language
In 4th grade, I think, I started to learn English at school but I could already say some things, I just picked it up on the computer and TV.. the first verb I learnt was probably loading :lol:
I started to learn Danish in 7th grade and learnt it for 4 1/2 years.
Then I started learning German 2 years ago and I'd say I could have a simple conversation in it, if I could control the subject :lol:
I've been dabbling a bit with Japanese for almost a year now and can say some basic things.

I do hear that English is the hardest language to learn. Is that true, though?

The spelling more inconsistant than in any language I've come in contact with, but the rest is very easy really. The grammar especially since it has no noun gender or noun declension.

 

[my2geldings]

Honestly I would think French would be pretty hard to learn if it weren't your native tongue. There are male and female verbs and the "conjugasion" of verbs doesn't follow the same pattern.

Learning a new language as an adult is definitely difficult.

 

[Anvil]

my native tongue is Dutch. I can read most German takes me a little while but i can't write German very good. English is my main language now since i was about 6 years old.

 

[TaMMa89]

I think Finnish is pretty hard too. For example we don't have prepositions but we've replaced them with grammatical cases and sometimes also the root of the word can change a bit when using those grammatical cases (like: a gull - to gull => lokki - lokille, the another k drops out) and sometimes it don't change (a cat - to cat => kissa - kissalle). Also verbs are conjugated a bit like in Spanish, every grammatical person has its own form of the verb (I run => (minä) juoksen, you run => (sinä) juokset).

On the other hand I feel it's so simple when we don't have articles or feminine/masculine words :lol:. It's just kissa always and ever instead of a cat, the cat or un gato or una gata. And one of our typical thing is that we've just one word for she or he (hän), so it doesn't reveal the sex.

On the other hand pronunciation is easy, because words are pronounced and written same way (all the letters are usually pronounced same way om every words). So when I hear some Finnish word I don't usually have problems to write it or when I read something I can usually pronounce it without problems.

 

[Tyler]

My main language is english, and I'm learning german.

 

[Sissimut-icehestar]

Hmm, yeah, I'd think Icelandic is pretty hard too. It's a really old language, I am for instance reading a book written in the 12th century and understand it without any training. Our language is very flexible, adjectives have 48 forms, one of three genders, either singular or plural, and with or without a definite article and 4 cases. Every noun has 16 forms like for example hestur (horse) is declined like this

Hestur Hestar
Hest Hesta
Hesti Hestum
Hests Hesta

Hesturinn Hestarnir
Hestinn Hestana
Hestinum Hestunum
Hestsins Hestanna

Our verbs are also conjugated by person, Ég hleyp (I run) þú hleypur (you run) Hann/hún/það hleypur (he/she/it runs) Við hlaupum (we run) þið hlaupið (you run) þeir/þær/þau hlaupa (they run).

Spelling can be a bit confusing e.g. y-i, ý-í, ey-ei, all of these pairs sound the same and whether to use one or two n's.

And I could go on, but won't bore you :')

 

[TaMMa89]

...are usually pronounced same way om every words)...

*in every word. Now these nasty typos and other mistakes happen when I try to write a message while being busy with other things.

Wow Sis that's difficult! I bet I'd never find the right word to use for example from these 'horses' :lol:.