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Mattan

Active member
Joined
March 17, 2013
Posts
620
Speaking

:se: - Native
:fi: - Native
:uk: - I guess it's something close to fluent, I've been learning it since the age of four.
:fr: - Five years of studies. Can get by in most situations and understand most of normal literature (but actually speaking it at a lower level).
:es: - Three years of studies. Can get by in common situations, not at all as flexible as in French.

Understanding, can form coherent sentences if given time (or when spoken, using Swedish as a base)

:dk: - Can understand pretty much fully when written, nearly fully when spoken. I have brushed up on Danish pronunciation but it's probably more like Swedish pronounced like Danish if I get dragged into a conversation - even though just remembering the most common Danish words that majorly differ from Swedish goes a long way. :p
:no: - A bit more difficult than Danish to understand when written, but easier to understand when spoken. Still not difficult by any means. Would have to resort to Swedish in a Norwegian discussion.

Some degree of (mainly) written understanding (probably in no logical order)

:ee: - A close relative of Finnish, written Estonian shows the relationship well. When spoken, I usually get annoyed, because it sounds so close to Finnish, yet I don't quite understand what's being said.
:de: - This one annoys me to no end, because I can read a German newspaper and listen to German being spoken understanding most things, but I can't put together a coherent sentence myself, so cannot participate in a discussion. Probably next on my list.
:za: (Afrikaans) - Given that I speak Swedish, Afrikaans is quite easy (even though the relationship is fairly distant). Add on the fact its grammar, for the most part, isn't very complicated, and getting the message from a newspaper is possible. The pronunciation feels counter-intuitive to me, so it's more difficult.
:nl: - Basic messages from a text understandable, impossible for me when spoken.
:is: - Mainly the basics. Written Icelandic is possible to understand, but can only pick up bits and pieces of it when spoken. Was really interested in Icelandic when younger and actually learnt a bit, but that feels like long ago.
:pt: - Given that I've studied French and Spanish and am interested in Portuguese, therefore voluntarily exposing myself to it, I can grasp the basic idea and a few details of newspaper (how many times have I used that word?) articles and the like. Understanding it spoken is more difficult, because the pronunciation doesn't quite come intuitively to me. Listening to music in Portuguese has helped, though.
(I could also throw Catalan and Italian in here, but ultimately, all I can do is get a basic idea of a text.)

Now you're just somebody that I used to know a little bit of

:gr: - At the age of twelve-thirteen, I was excited about going to Greece with my family (we visited three times), and therefore studied the basics of Greek. This means the kind of stuff you'd use in practice (which I got to do!) in situations that normally arise when going on a family holiday. I don't remember all of it anymore.

What's next?

Of course, I want to become better at French and Spanish. Achieving a very good level in French, especially spoken, would be nice, but there are several years to go unless I start studying it full-time.

As for new languages, I'd like to learn German. Also, Portuguese would certainly be fun. Then, there are major languages such as Mandarin, Arabic and Russian that would be useful, but they take a longer time to study, so I'm not starting with them quite yet, as they require serious commitment. I'm also interested in South Africa, so Afrikaans seems intriguing, but I most likely won't have any use of that, so I guess that one goes into the "interesting languages, but there are more widely spoken interesting ones available" locker along with languages like Icelandic.
 

Yoni

Well-known member
Joined
February 10, 2012
Posts
6,251
Location
ישראל || Lach, Cherniya
:il: Native

:en: I'd say I'm fluent, been learning it for a decade now and have been practicing it daily for several years.

:ru: Quite basic, my parents and a lot of people I know speak in Russian a lot and until I was 2 it was my main language, but it hasn't developed much :lol: it's easier for me to understand than to speak.

:eg: meh, wouldn't include it here much but I do know the alphabet but my knowledge of the language is extremely basic as I forgot most of what I learned at school. :S

Began to study :de: a few months ago and it's getting there, soon, hopefully.
 

kaarendu

Member
Joined
March 31, 2014
Posts
41
Location
Akureyri, Iceland
:is: - Native.

:en: - Speak it fluently, been studying it since I was 11 and am studying to become an English teacher.

:dk: - Been studying it since I was 10 and I'm also studying to become a Danish teacher.

:es: - Been studying it for about 8 years, lived in Barcelona for some time when I was studying there.

:no: - My sister lives there and I go and visit her sometimes. Got a job last summer at a music festival there and had to learn the language quickly.

:se: - My brother lives there and I've travelled there quite often because of that. It's pretty easy to learn nordic languages if you're already fluent in one.
 

escandesc

Active member
Joined
March 6, 2010
Posts
2,104
Location
Istanbul, Turkiye
:tr: Native (A German friend told me that the way I speak Turkish sounded different to him and almost everyone says so and I hate it. :( )
:uk: studying English at university but have never been satisfied with my English proficiency. English is lingua franca and even if it weren't, I'd still be learning it. I do love English. :) I adore British accent btw.
:de: taking German classes and all I can say is that it is HARD! I am a beginner but I will improve it soon hopefully.
:az: can understand but can't speak. :)
:fr: How happy I would be if someone here could teach me some French! I can listen to someone speaking French all day. xheya I just know some basic words btw. :)
 

Avalon

Active member
Joined
January 21, 2013
Posts
2,485
Location
La Belgique
:nl: :be: - This is my native language. It is Dutch, but I speak the Flemish variant. The writing form is exactly the same, but the pronunciation is fairly different from the Dutch they speak in The Netherlands. We also use sometimes different words, mostly from French. The Flemish variant that I speak is actually not a dialect. It's a bit between a dialect and Dutch. (It's called 'tussentaal' or 'verkavelingsvlaams'). There's actually almost no one in Belgium that speaks perfect Dutch from themselves, but we can if we read it from a text. We can understand each other and the writing is exactly the same, but we speak in another way.

:fr: - Learned it since I was 10 years old. Pronunciation is almost perfect. I'm at high level with the grammar, writing and speaking. Listening is difficult if they speak fast.

:en: - Learned it since I was 13 years old. I can easily understand texts, but I'm not very good at pronouncing it. I feel always a little bit embarrassed when I need to speak English because of my accent.

:de: - Since I speak Dutch, the words and order are very similar. Grammar is a bit more difficult, but surely doable. And I know some basic Austrian words! The fact that I'm Belgian also helps to know if a word is masculine, faminine or neutral.
The book - Het boek - Das Buch
The tree - De boom (spoken Flemish, indefinite article: nen boom) - Der Baum
The bottle - De fles (spoken Flemish, indefinite article: een fles) - Die Flasche


:za:- I actually understand many of this! Both written and spoken. Sounds very funny to me.

:dk: :se: :no: - I can't speak, read or write these languages, but there are many recognisable words in texts.
 

Rayman

Member
Joined
June 3, 2014
Posts
212
Location
Limoges
:fr: Native language

:uk: I began to learn English when I was a young pupil. I practically read and listen to English almost every day and I could get a training period last year in GB.

:de: I learnt this language before my years of high school (my "années de collège"). I can use this language as a tourist but unfortunately, I have a pretty low level of knowledge. In the future, I will try to improve it.

:it: Not excellent but not as bad as my German. Well, Italian is pretty similar to French so it's easy to use it, to understand it and to read it after three years of high school.

:pt: I am learning this language because I will have my Erasmus in Guimaraes in September. I can read the essential of a text and I can hold a (very) basic) conversation in Camoes' idiom.

BTW, I had a look at :es: and :nl:. I can read simple articles from newspapers in theses languages but I don't think I am able to hold a conversation with natives.

Otherwise, in some other languages, I am able to say the basic words and sentences like Hello, Thanks and My name is...
 

Leaf

Well-known member
Joined
July 13, 2010
Posts
3,292
Location
Ontario
:en: :ca: Native

:fr: ::queb I've been learning for 9-10 years, so I'd say I'm fluent or very close. I can hold a conversation in French. I don't have an extensive vocabulary though, and it's sometimes hard to understand people speaking quickly, so I need to work on those. I am taking extended French classes (classes like history, geography, anthropology in French) since I might want to become a French teacher. Bilingualism around here is almost a necessity if you want to make more money.
 

Sultana

Well-known member
Joined
June 29, 2012
Posts
8,491
Location
Матушка Россия
:ru: - native language
:en: - I've been already studied English for 10 years, due to my studying in secondary school specialized in English. I can't say that I am a good student, though my marks are quite good. I can write, read on English and understand English speech very well. My own speech isn't as good as should be, because of my origin. So sometimes I pronounce words with typical "russian" accent instead of british one.
:fr: - Learned it for one year in 2012. It was like extra courses at school, but I wasn't a good student at all. So now in 2014 I don't remember anything :lol: In my opinion french is rather hard language, but it is absolutely beautiful.
:es: - Two years ago I tried to learn Spanish on my own. I dreamed about life in Spain.. But I failed ( as always) :lol:. Though I still have desire to learn it.
:ua: - Despite of beign in the same language group with Russian, Ukranian is such a big mystery for me. To be honest, I can't understand speaking Ukranian at all. Maybe some words, but I can understand written Ukranian on 20%-40%. The hardest thing in Ukranian for me is months of the year :lol: In future I would like to improve my knowlege in this language and maybe not learn, but to understand it quite well.
:gr: - This year I learned the alphabet! xbow I can read it very fluent.
:bg: - I can understand written bulgarian, because it is very close language to Russian or old Russian.
:rs: :hr: - Can understand written Serbian and Croatian a little bit. Just because this languages are Slavic lanugages as my mother tougne. Unfortunately, other Slavic languages are a little bit harder for me
 

Dante

Active member
Joined
June 19, 2014
Posts
1,141
Location
Bucharest, Romania
:ro: My native language

:en: I've grown up with it. I remember watching cartoons in English when I was 6, struggling to understand it xD

:ru: I started learning it a year ago, but I kind of dropped it. I feel like if I had someone to practice with, maybe I wouldn't have cut it. I don't know much, but I can understand basic conversation, I know the alphabet, some words and at that time I was getting into grammar.

:fr: I did it in school, but I'm not very good at it.

:de: I don't know much German, but I'm planning on learning it. I did 2 years in highschool, but it didn't help (the teacher didn't care, half of the time we were singing, the other half, well...talking nonsense and waiting for her).

:es: :it: I can only understand them a bit because they are close to my language.
 

Haverdge

Active member
Joined
September 1, 2011
Posts
794
:us: :am: Native: I learned both of these languages around the same exact time, and can speak, read and write in both with tremendous ease.

:es: Proficient: Studied Spanish for four years, but most of the learning went on outside of the classroom. I got the basics down there, but through music, television, and conversation, it improved significantly after that. I can carry basic conversation, explain concepts, talk about myself, others, thoughts, what I like and what I don't like, give commands, etc. I do well with Spanish grammar, but a lot of that goes out the window when I start speaking. :lol: I am sure I'd reach fluency if I were to live in Spain or in another Spanish-speaking country for a short period of time.

:ru: Basic: All peoples of the ex-USSR know at least the basics of this language. This is how we communicate with each other where English won't do. Unfortunately I don't speak it as well as I'd like, but maybe I should start working on it since Russia is often in the news these days.

:pt: :it: : I took a course in Italian for a semester, but I've forgotten almost everything. I can understand a lot of written Italian and Portuguese, but might have an easier time understanding spoken Portuguese than spoken Italian.

Just a few things:
:dk: :se: :no: : I made sure to learn a few things before visiting these countries. A native speaker said my accent was great, given that he too was a native speaker. He said that I had gotten the main differences between the three languages down in terms of the way they sound and the way certain words are pronounced. I'd love to learn one of these languages someday just because they're so fun to speak.

Would like to learn:
:gr: : This is the closest [living] language to Armenian, which isn't saying much because there are a lot of dead ones in between, but I'd like to learn Greek anyway. I already know the alphabet and some words/phrases. It's a lovely language that sounds melodic in music and in everyday conversation.

:tr: : I can already tell when bad things are being said, so I'd like to know the whole language to be able to decipher good from bad, and exactly what is being said. Don't have much of an affinity for this language, but I'm sure my ancestors spoke it with fluency, so it'd be nice to know.
 
Joined
March 15, 2011
Posts
444
Location
Manchester, UK
:en: Native language and the only language I can speak fluently :oops:

:wale: Learnt it at school, never been very good at it but I can sing the national anthem by heart

:fr: Learnt it at secondary school and was OK at it, but that was 10 years ago and I can barely speak it now :lol:

:no: I've started learning and I like to think that I'm beginning to be able to write basic sentences without the aid of Google Translate. I guess by extension that means that I can understand a bit of :se: and :dk: as well

:nl: Been trying to learn it on and off over the last few years, can understand little bits of it
 

SRBIJA

Banned
Joined
March 3, 2013
Posts
4,459
:rs: Native
:hr: :ba: :me:






:mk: I understand most of it, never tried to speak it.

:sl: Got many similarities with Serbian and I have learned a lot through their music and online.

:uk: Have been studying it since I was 6, I'd say Im quite fluent.

:fr: Was studying it for 4 years in primary school, but today I forgot a lot of things sadly. Still, I could lead a conversation in French on some basic level (if they dont speak too fast :lol: )

:ru: Studying it at school, not quite good at it, and next year will be my last year studying it. So I guess this one doesn't really count. Although I can now understand a lot of thing mostly because of the similarities with Serbian, but I'm quite useless when it comes to speaking.
 

Gogerko

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2012
Posts
777
:hr: native

:ba::rs::me: so similar...also a little bit of :sl::mk:, but they are different.

:it: I'm little bit rusty but I can talk

:fr: LOVE IT! Best language ever! J'adore!

:en: Well, everyone knows it.

I would really like to learn :nl: & :de: as well.
 

pressman

Member
Joined
May 17, 2014
Posts
142
:es: :ad: Native.
:uk: Studied it for almost 8 years and now I read and listen to it daily, so I can say I'm quite fluent.
:fr: Officially, B1 level, but I got the certificate two years ago and I've improved quite a bit since then. I can perfectly read in French, need very few Google Translator for writing and I speak it quite fluently, though I should refresh the grammar and the rules.
:ru: Being studying it since last year but I've hardly read and spoken it since June, so the new course is going to be funny, I guess.
:it: :ro: I've studied them a bit (a semester each), so I can read them quite well and speak a bit, basically because Spanish, Catalan and French are related to them.
:de: Very very basic knowledge, just a few phrases and some basic grammar rules.
:pt: Have never studied it, but I can understand it quite easily, since it's really similar to Spanish.

Would love to study :ma:, ::na, :tr:, :se:, :pt: and improve :de:, :it:, :ro:
 

lilka

Well-known member
Joined
February 20, 2011
Posts
3,845
Location
Athens, Greece
Currently I'm trying to learn some :am:, but it's difficult as HELL! First I have to learn to read and write the alphabet, but there are some letters that look almost the same to me...
 

dogmeat

Well-known member
Joined
January 28, 2010
Posts
6,391
Just to provide some contrast to the general "OMGZ I OF SPEAKINGS 1273 LANGAUGES" wanking in this thread:

:pl: Native
:en: The only other language I've learned on a communicative level. I hope one day I can honestly say I'm fluent at it.
I don't plan to ever pick up another one, cause learning languages is an unbearable pain to me.
 

lilka

Well-known member
Joined
February 20, 2011
Posts
3,845
Location
Athens, Greece
Just to provide some contrast to the general "OMGZ I OF SPEAKINGS 1273 LANGAUGES" wanking in this thread:

:pl: Native
:en: The only other language I've learned on a communicative level. I hope one day I can honestly say I'm fluent at it.
I don't plan to ever pick up another one, cause learning languages is an unbearable pain to me.
Why? It can be fun if you have the right attitude. ;)
 

dogmeat

Well-known member
Joined
January 28, 2010
Posts
6,391
No, it's all about the inability to express yourself at the beginning. Past the point where you can speak communicatively it gets easy to improve, but before you get there... Trying to say something and finding no way to do so is so damn frustrating...
 

lilka

Well-known member
Joined
February 20, 2011
Posts
3,845
Location
Athens, Greece
That's exactly what I was talking about - the right attitude. If you don't let frustration overwhelm you, you make progress.

BTW, does anybody speak :pl: as a foreign language here? :)
 
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