Author Topic: Are you bilingual? (Read 16935 times)

Soryon · « **on:** January 24, 2011, 05:07:27 AM »

Just s the topic says, I am wondering how many of you guys know more then one language? (and if so, which?)
Personally, I was born and raised with English and so obviously it is what I speak. I am however not fluent, but passable in both French and Spanish. I could carry a light conversation in either but prolly not very accurate. I know that I would be understood but I would likely not get a passing grade in a native language test, I just done understand alot of the nuances. My grandmother speaks German often but for some reason I never picked up on it. I know alot of the words and meanings but would not be able to form sentences. I also know bits and pieces of a bunch of other languages, but nothing near what would be needed to actually converse with a native speaker.
I am only fluent in one but could survive in 2 others.

Roven · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2011, 05:15:46 AM »

I'm fluent in both English and Arabic. I can speak some Indonesian and I had some Japanese conversations that went very well considering I only learn from Anime and stuff

xfreidax · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2011, 05:44:02 AM »

I'm fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.

English and Mandarin are both taught as first languages in my country.

Cantonese is my mother tongue and what I use with my family, plus I lived in Hong Kong for 5 years.

Hokkien I picked up off the streets, it's a common dialect where I live.

I also studied French as a third language for 5 years, although my French is almost completely forgotten. Don't use a language and you'll lose it.

I know a smattering of various other Chinese dialects as well, like Teochew, Hainanese (I'm half Hainanese), Hakka.

BrownMasterV · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2011, 05:51:13 AM »

I speak English fluently
I'm alright in Spanish, Kannada, Hindi, and I guess I can have a conversation in Japanese :3

vuzedome · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2011, 05:58:52 AM »

English, Chinese(Canton, Hakka, Hokkien), Malay, little bit of German, so and so on Japanese.

Kyrdua · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2011, 06:34:40 AM »

English and my native language. and enough knowledge in spanish and japanese to barely understand it but not speak it.
other than those i've no more, but i plan to learn japanese and german or norwegian (well, i sure would like to understand lyrics from metal bands hailing from those countries, yeah that IS my reason)

scotsman · « **Reply #6 on:** January 24, 2011, 06:52:05 AM »

Wait, so I'm the only one so far that only speaks 1 language?

Meandola · « **Reply #7 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:28:59 AM »

Dutch (native language), English fluently and I can hold my own ish in german. And I guess I can understand tid bits of Japanese

Neko13 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:35:38 AM »

Dutch, English, and I deem my skills at German sufficient to say I'm proficient in the language

Mirgond · « **Reply #9 on:** January 24, 2011, 08:40:32 AM »

German as native language and english as second one. You can't visit school here without learning at least english (or french in some cases) and on most schools you have to learn a third language too. Either french, latin (i know *cough*) or spanish. On some schools or if you choose to there would be a fourth language (on my first Gymnasium that would have been japanese or spanish, on my second and third only spanish).

Don't know where you live, but here it's more or less mandatory to speak at least two languages - not saying that everyone really speaks it good, but they at least know the language and a few sentences - and you can't forget the local languages and dialects in germany too ^^

harpy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 24, 2011, 10:07:06 AM »

Latvian, Russian and English would be the ones I know.
Then a bit of Spanish and German and some little stuff of Japanese (not the writing of any of these)

iindigo · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2011, 10:59:34 AM »

Native English speaker here (American). Can't speak Japanese yet, but I understand pretty well. When listening to Japanese people converse, I can typically understand at least 50%-65% of what's being spoken - usually enough to get he jist of what's being said - provided they're talking about normal stuff. If they start spouting off medical/technical/other non-standard terms I get lost fast.

Speaking should come pretty quickly once I find someone to regularly speak it to (yes, I've been in Tokyo for a year now and haven't managed that simple task, I fail). Most of the Japanese I know speak English pretty well and prefer to use it.

newy · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2011, 11:14:05 AM »

Well, speak with them in Japanese and let them answer in English

< English and German (native), learnt but forgotten already: Spanish, French, Mandarin, understand: Vietnamese

RedSuisei · « **Reply #13 on:** January 24, 2011, 12:04:34 PM »

Quote from: Roven on January 24, 2011, 05:15:46 AM

I'm fluent in both English and Arabic. I can speak some Indonesian and I had some Japanese conversations that went very well considering I only learn from Anime and stuff

Where did you learn Indonesian from? That's my native language

I'm rather fluent in English, though, as it's not my native language and I learned it mainly from playing video games, I sometimes still make mistakes. Can't really say I'm fluent in Japanese, but at least good enough that it sometimes become annoying to read subtitles (since sometimes the subs and the Japanese dubs are saying things differently).

Sosseres · « **Reply #14 on:** January 24, 2011, 12:07:30 PM »

Swedish (native), English.

Semi fluent in Japanese (learning) and Spanish (forgetting).

JoonasTo · « **Reply #15 on:** January 24, 2011, 12:09:01 PM »

Finnish(native)
English(first foreign, fluent)
German(second foreign, not so fluent)
Swedish(second homeland, not so fluent)
Russian(third foreign, only speak certain phrases but understand a lot, ironicly, forgotten the letters)

starfish123 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 24, 2011, 12:20:22 PM »

German (Native)
English (fluent, unless am drunk lol)
French (mostly fluent, understand everything but have minor grammatical problems while speaking)
Japanese (understand about 75% if they speak clearly, speaking is not so fluent yet making moderate gr4ammatical mistakes)
Romanian (moderate understanding, can only speak basics like hello, thank you, how are you, my hovercraft is full of eels .. chitchat stuff)

currently learning: Japanese (advanced)
planning to learn: Klingon (with buddies of mine lol .. thought would be a fun idea) and eventually Russian

Sylian · « **Reply #17 on:** January 24, 2011, 12:45:32 PM »

Slovene (native language, I must say that this shit is hard, the language I first started talking)
German (I call it second native, 'cuz I was born and raised in Germany, but moved to Slovenia afterwards)
English (you see me talkin'. Can't say that I'm fluent (say hy to grammatical mistakes).. I'm like "WTF DOES THIS MEAN" sometimes when I read threads here on forum, the last time I was like "WTF I DON'T UNDERSTAND GIVE ME GOOGLE" was when I was reading the thread 'bout glasses & contacts)

Nothing else.

Duki3003 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 24, 2011, 01:00:00 PM »

Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Russian and English.
One day, maybe Japanese as well...

JoonasTo · « **Reply #19 on:** January 24, 2011, 01:10:51 PM »

We have a lot of bilingual people here.
16/6 currently.

Maybe being bilingual makes you not fit in and turns you into a nerd...

Too bad I can't hide behind that excuse.