How Many Languages Do You Speak?

by **NoAngels** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:59 pm

Title says it all, how many languages besides your mother tonuge do you speak?

I speak Arabic[Libyan Dialect] as a mother tongue, English and German[still learning it, but I'm quite good at it].

What about you?!

by **crazycool** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:01 pm

My mother tongue is English.

I'm in my first year of a University degree in French + German.

And I'm pretty much fluent in Essex. :oops:

by **Jasmine** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:09 pm

Lithuanian as a mother tongue, English and Russian, also Swedish a little bit, but afraid I'm forgetting it

by **ryan_9048** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:14 pm

English & Filipino + a local dialect called Waray

by **Ahahuha** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:15 pm

English Greek and German

by **Frederic** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:16 pm

Dutch
French
English
German
Spanish

by **dereon** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:17 pm

Dutch
English
Morrocan [berber & arabic]

by **irishguy28** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:22 pm

English
Dutch
German
Irish
French

And a smattering of Spanish and Esperanto...

by **sambo9** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:28 pm

I feel so left out! My mother tongue is English, and I can't speak any other languages fluently.

I can speak basic French and German and I will have a qualification in the former next year, but I am still far off from being fluent.

by **cidermaster** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:45 pm

678 languages when i last counted

Cheers Cidermaster

Website · by **gaz_uk** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:12 pm

I'm a bit strange in that Cantonese is my mother tongue, but I'm more much more fluent in English. I grew up speaking Cantonese to my parents, but have always spoke in English to my sisters and obviously to my friends in school as well.

These days, although still fluent in conversation, my Cantonese is actually pretty poor - which means I have a hard time speaking to my parents without throwing some English in there. One interesting thing to note is my Cantonese is strictly conversational only - I find it quite hard to understand formal news reports and I basically do not understand any Chinese song lyrics at all (which are usually written in the form of poems, using a lot of metaphors). To understand exactly what I mean, I guess it's the same as people being fluent in English but can't understand Shakespeare at all.

I also understand quite a bit of Mandarin, mainly thanks to the large number of Chinese friends I've made during my time at University (I never had any Chinese friends growing up), although I can't speak it. I also can't read or write ANY Chinese.

by **sambo9** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:27 pm

That's really interesting. So, were you never taught to write in Cantonese? Or did you only begin to write in English, and never thought it was necessary to learn Chinese?

by **chaottic** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:28 pm

Greek
Dutch
English
French

Website · by **gaz_uk** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:33 pm

sambo9 wrote:That's really interesting. So, were you never taught to write in Cantonese? Or did you only begin to write in English, and never thought it was necessary to learn Chinese?

I guess my parents just didn't think it was necessary to learn how to read and write Chinese - coupled with the fact that there was virtually nowhere in Cornwall for me to learn it, and my parents were too busy/lazy to teach me themselves! :lol:

Some of my cousins who also grew up in the UK were sent to Chinese classes at a young age during weekends - but that was only available to those living in big cities with a large Chinese population.

by **Colin** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:40 pm

Drei, trí, three!

German
Gaeilge
English

by **sambo9** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:42 pm

Yeah, that's similar to a lot of my friends. They speak Urdu or Arabic in their homes, but have never been taught how to read or write, although there are classes available in my area.

There is actually a girl at my school who speaks fluent Urdu but cannot read or write it, yet can write in Arabic, but would have no idea how to have a conversation with someone in Arabic. She can also read some Punjabi, but can't write or speak it. :lol:

Website · by **gaz_uk** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:46 pm

sambo9 wrote:There is actually a girl at my school who speaks fluent Urdu but cannot read or write it, yet can write in Arabic, but would have no idea how to have a conversation with someone in Arabic. She can also read some Punjabi, but can't write or speak it.

Yay! Someone as messed up as I am (linguistically)! :lol:

by **Terence** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:24 pm

Maltese
English
Italian
French

...and I can vaguely manage with Spanish & German - or at least I do so with tourists at work!

by **UKMusicLova** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:40 pm

I can speak English! My mom & dad always spoke to me in English! So I consider it my mother tongue, despite it not being my mom or dad's mother tongue's!

I am fluent conversationally in Farsi (Iranian), but I can't write! I am learning to read though, which I think will come in handy, or make me more clever!!! lol

Since my cousin moved here from Barbados, to go to Birmingham Uni, I have been really brushing up of my Bajan English! I have a killer accent now! I swear when my cousin first came, I could hardly understand what she was saying!

I got a B in GCSE for French! I got an A* in the Speaking category!

Also I'm starting to learn Spanish, because a girl from Brazil is at my school and I'm helping her settle in! I've learnt some very cool phrases from her! :lol:

by **nekoo3372** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:47 pm

Czech
English

I undestand : Slovak, Polish, little bit german

And I really want to learn french

by **jason2379** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:57 pm

I can speak Irish, Doesnt mean I'm very good at it though :lol:

And obviously English

by **NoAngels** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:22 pm

Wow, I'm surprised about how multi-lingual most of you are.

by **Dizzy** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:33 pm

English
French
German
Spanish (Some)

by **Vanacoring** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:17 pm

French of course, a little Spanish and English.

by **blinkinglight** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:38 pm

Italian

English

Russian

A bit of French