The polyglot/language thread!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I'm surprised this doesn't exist.

With Simtropolis being such an international community, I am interested to know what languages you all speak.

To start off with, English is my native language. I started learning German properly in high school and since then have begun to speak it more frequently at home. I would say I am about a level B2 to C1 on the CEFR (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages).

I want to learn a few more languages. I am seriously considering taking up French next year as my university offers it. I can sight transliterate Russian letters into Latin letters, but I would say my knowledge of that language is limited to less than 20 words.

[Alejandro24 575]

I'm surprised this doesn't exist.

...

 

I'm not. This is an english spoken site. And it is not to be bad with the native english speakers, but most of them fall in the sin of "everbody should speak and understand our language but we don't have the need to learn or understand another languges". This is a common argumen used by english speakers t in most all the internet sites that I know.

Is good to se that a native english speaker, like you ROFLyoshi, interesed in another languages, I'm sure that there are a lot out there too, starting by here.

 

Spanish is my mother tongue, I know english in a more or less acceptable level. I'm learning german (I just need more practice on it), and I'll start seriously with russian soon. Another languages that I'm interesed are french, italian, portuguese and latin, and another hard language like japanese.

[TekindusT 3,809]

There is a thread of this kind, actually:

It is one of the first threads I replied on ST. In all this time, i can add German A2 to my curriculum.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I'm surprised this doesn't exist.

...

I'm not. This is an english spoken site. And it is not to be bad with the native english speakers, but most of them fall in the sin of "everbody should speak and understand our language but we don't have the need to learn or understand another languges". This is a common argumen used by english speakers t in most all the internet sites that I know.

Is good to se that a native english speaker, like you ROFLyoshi, interesed in another languages, I'm sure that there are a lot out there too, starting by here.

Whenever I hear this from people I tell them the story from when I was in Denmark. I didn't speak a word of Danish, and their English was poor/non existent. We both spoke German, so the more languages one knows the easier it is to converse with anyone, even if it is a lingua franca.

Besides it didn't always used to be this way. French was the language of diplomacy, and knowledge was passed on through Latin.

There is a thread of this kind, actually:

It is one of the first threads I replied on ST. In all this time, i can add German A2 to my curriculum.

Ah. I think that thread's last reply was before I was even active on ST. But eh, new thread?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There is a thread of this kind, actually:

It is one of the first threads I replied on ST. In all this time, i can add German A2 to my curriculum.

Died in 2009.

 

Well, I am an inveterate English speaker and I understand several English dialects.  I can also stumble along in French and Italian if I really have to, but very slowly because I don't practice.  Most Romance languages are pretty open to me after four years of Latin, but I must say that the shifts in Spanish and some of the formal forms defeat me utterly.

 

When I was in Bordeaux, someone remarked that my French speaking was more like a Spanish Basque.  "On parle comme un Basque Espaniol".  It is probably much worse now, since I was last in France in 1977.  However, my reading seems to be still OK, at least as much as is needed in an Anglophone area of an officially bilingual country.

 

Conversational speaking in a language is a matter of practice.  If you don't do it, you lose it because you lose touch with the vernacular.

[Kuewr665 40]

I am practically illiterate in my first language, Kyongsang dialect Korean. Almost all my knowledge of the language is from my childhood, so my vocabulary is not very mature.

I can speak and write English as fluently as a native speaker, even though it is my second language. I am also learning Spanish in school.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Yeah, no problem for me, new thread.

 

As said some years ago, both Catalan and Spanish are my mother tongues 50-50. At home I speak with my mom and grandma in Catalan and with my dad in Spanish; and everybody who I tell this fact, finds it so weird. 

 

I began learning English when I was like 8 years old, so it is almost a bit less than a mother tongue now for me. I haven't stop exercising it by watching movies, speaking with people and posting on ST. I would say I'm on a B2 level, but haven't taken an exam for that. Given that I didn't need it to get my current and previous jobs, I didn't made the effort. My First Certificate in English (B1 level) stands since December 2007 with a honorous C level.  The writing exam made my average drop.

 

Also studied 2 years of French at middle school, at some point I had something like A1 level (this means, "not dying if some bad guys kidnap me and leave me alone in the middle of Bourgogne"). During the last year, however, all my French has been swept off my head. Everything is German language now. Fortunately, as a Catalan and Spanish speaker, reading a text in French is not a challenge.

 

Since February this year, when I wasn't even capable of ordering a döner kebab in German without getting "salat alles" and the wrong sauce; a lot has gone. Now I'm capable of having a kind of normal conversation, as demonstrated with my more-than-patient workmates and previous roommates. I have not big problems at understanding German language, provided they don't speak in that kind of "my mouth is full of kartoffeln dialect" which is Berlinerisch or really fast. I would say I'm on A2 level, both on speaking and writing. The fact that I have only taken 2 lessons in all these months, makes my grammar my weakest point and I tend to have a lot of problems with past and future tenses, declinations, etc. I'm learning like kids do, I guess.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

My mother tongue is Dutch (Nederlands). About 20 to 25 million people can actually speak this language, so that makes it a small language group. It may sound similar to German, but grammar wise it's a bit more simplified (only three articles instead of like a dozen, etc.) but still it's a language with some quirks. And some False Friends may lead to confusion if you think you can understand Dutch when you understand German...

 

Another confusion: Dutch = Nederlands and German = Deutsch. Also, Dutch is in German "Niederländisch" and German is in Dutch "Duits". They used to be one language a long time ago called "Diets".

 

I was never really good at foreign languages, except English, which has become my second nature. I'm well versed in English and if I stutter or don't get out of my words, this would be at the same points as with Dutch. I just talk faster then I make sentences in my head  I can also speak moderately German and I want to learn Swedish some day. What CFER levels I have for all these languages... I have no idea...

 

Best/Groeten/Grüßen,

Maarten

[timmie 988]

My mother tongue is Dutch (that is: the Belgian variant), so I'm probably a C2 there. People already complimented me on my language and the use of 'complex' words when I was 10 and I think this is still the same, I have a rather large vocabulary. I am also very good at writing in an academic style, apparently. I once won the 'best speaker' prize at a debating contest too

 

English is probably somewhere between B2 and C1, but I noticed during my courses in English at uni that my vocabulary is also richer than that of most of my peers. (Thanks to these courses I have now a very rich vocabulary on the subject of International Relations and Ethics in International Relations ) In Flanders, children start learning English in the first or second grade of secondary school (12-14 years, catholic schools start later than public schools, I went to a public school). I noticed Simtropolis really improves my English.

 

In French, I'm probably a B1. Children are taught French from the 5th year in primary education (10 years). Since Belgium is a bilingual country (also German in fact, but it's negligible), knowing French is rather important (although in Francophone education, there is less focus on Dutch, they look at it differently since French is a large language and Dutch is not - this always frustrated the Dutch-speakers and slowly things are changing). This will soon change since more and more people and politicians are in favour of 'immersion education' (subjects in another language from an early age on, like geography in French). Studying in Brussels (where French is the lingua franca) really helped my French.

 

I also know some German (my parents spoke German with each other since my father is Greek and my mother Belgian) and a tiny bit of Swedish. I don't speak Greek, which is a pity, especially since my father is Greek. For some reason, we stopped talking Greek to each other at home.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

@TekindusT: Are you now domiciled in Berlin?  At school?  I think that crack about the mashed potatoes describes local dialogues pretty well. 

 

You ought to try getting along in Quebec City at any kind of conversational pace.  Down there the dialect is Joual, and my grandfather absolutely hated it.  He was very much Langue d'Oui.  I guess the closest I really come in French is Langue d'Oc (comme un Basque Espaniol).

 

@Maarten:  I've heard the language of the Netherlands described by some German speakers in Canada as "Platt Deutsche".  True??

 

@timmie: I always thought Belgium was officially bilingual.  Dutch and ?.

[timmie 988]

@Maarten:  I've heard the language of the Netherlands described by some German speakers in Canada as "Platt Deutsche".  True??

 

@timmie: I always thought Belgium was officially bilingual.  Dutch and ?.

 

No, German and Dutch are too different to use that description, I think. There is however something like 'Plattdüütsch', Low German. The dialects in the east of the Netherlands are influenced by it.

 

The Belgian State is officially trilingual: Dutch (6,5 million), French (4,5 million) and German (ca. 100.000) are official languages, though in fact the country is made up of different language areas ('communities'), one French (=Wallonia minus the German part), one Dutch (=Flanders), one Dutch/French (=Brussels) and one German (=the German part of Wallonia). The national government uses all three languages, the regional governments use their own. It's probably the same principle in Canada.

[TekindusT 3,809]

@TekindusT: Are you now domiciled in Berlin?  At school?  I think that crack about the mashed potatoes describes local dialogues pretty well. 

 

You ought to try getting along in Quebec City at any kind of conversational pace.  Down there the dialect is Joual, and my grandfather absolutely hated it.  He was very much Langue d'Oui.  I guess the closest I really come in French is Langue d'Oc (comme un Basque Espaniol).

Yep, I've been living on Berlin's suburbs from February to July and later I moved to the city proper on Summer until nowadays. During the first period I did my Bachelor thesis in a university nearby and now I work on the same laboratory I did my thesis. At work we speak in German all the time except when I have to describe something with accuracy or when writing scientific stuff, when we shift to English.

 

Very local languages can be a pain, that's true. Always. But after all, it's part of each other's culture.

 

You can have a very nice level of Spanish, but you don't want to step in Barcelona's industrial suburbs and hear young people speaking a kind of Andalusian (inherited from these guys parents) with some random Catalan words here and there. "

Pavo, vamos p'al buga que no se m'enchega..."

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

<snip>

The Belgian State is officially trilingual: Dutch (6,5 million), French (4,5 million) and German (ca. 100.000) are official languages, though in fact the country is made up of different language areas ('communities'), one French (=Wallonia minus the German part), one Dutch (=Flanders), one Dutch/French (=Brussels) and one German (=the German part of Wallonia). The national government uses all three languages, the regional governments use their own. It's probably the same in Canada.

 

We have two official languages: English and French.  Officially, the standard is U.K. English and Langue d'Oui (Parisian), but there are tons of dialects and one Territory, Nunavut, adds its own language - Inuktatut - and speaks it and keeps records in its legislature in all three "official" unofficial languages.  Most Anglophones speak dialects of General Canadian, of which there are regional variants with slight differences. 

 

Most Francophones are prone to using Joual which is derived from the French spoken that the time of the Sieur De Champlain (Canada's first Governor General), when Canada was called New France in the early 1700s.  Of course it has grown up with the people, but a lot of the old grammar, phraseology, and mannerisms survive.  For example, while Langue d'Oui says "Il n'y a pas de quois", Joual says "Ca ne fa rien" or just grunts.  Public schools in Ontario teach Langue d'Oui, which makes it great fun for Ontarians going to Quebec City.

[Alejandro24 575]

Yeah, no problem for me, new thread.

 

As said some years ago, both Catalan and Spanish are my mother tongues 50-50. At home I speak with my mom and grandma in Catalan and with my dad in Spanish; and everybody who I tell this fact, finds it so weird. 

 

...

Catalan is so beautiful, also esukadi too. It doesn't sound weird... well, actually it sounds something strange.

 

There is no excuse to learn a new language.

[Kieren Barnett 76]

Coming from Australia, my main language is English. I speak Japanese as well, having been there twice and having studied it for 5 years.

 

I speak some French, most of it from my primary school days. I also know some German, Filipino, Korean, and Indonesian, but not enough to say that I can speak it.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Coming from Australia, my main language is English. I speak Japanese as well, having been there twice and having studied it for 5 years.

 

I speak some French, most of it from my primary school days. I also know some German, Filipino, Korean, and Indonesian, but not enough to say that I can speak it.

Like the US, we seem to be a very monolingual country.

[Mithrik 562]

I am a fluent Spanish/English speaker, thanks to the fact that I live in the Mexican border and that I started to learn when I was 6 years old, in fact, my writing skills in English are more developed than my in Spanish.

[Alejandro24 575]

I am a fluent Spanish/English speaker, thanks to the fact that I live in the Mexican border and that I started to learn when I was 6 years old, in fact, my writing skills in English are more developed than my in Spanish.

Writing in english is too easy compared with spanish writing. In english there are not so many rules about accentuation, while in spanish there are a lot of them.

 

Pero vamos, siendo honesto, no es por ser elitista ni nada parecido, pero el español es una lengua muy compleja y superior comparado con otros idiomas en occidente.

[TekindusT 3,809]

 

Yeah, no problem for me, new thread.

 

As said some years ago, both Catalan and Spanish are my mother tongues 50-50. At home I speak with my mom and grandma in Catalan and with my dad in Spanish; and everybody who I tell this fact, finds it so weird. 

 

...

Catalan is so beautiful, also esukadi too. It doesn't sound weird... well, actually it sounds something strange.

 

There is no excuse to learn a new language.

 

What people finds weird is that I speak two languages at home simultaneously. Everybody with I have spoken about this in Europe with thinks it's not really practical; but for us is the most normal thing in the world.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

@TekindusT

I don't find that strange at all. My wife is Japanese and both English and Japanese is spoken in our home. I imagine that it feels as natural here as it does for you.

As for myself, I am American so I am a native English speaker. I studied French for about seven years in high school and college (I minored in it) and was once okay at it but by no means good. I speak and read Japanese now at a conversational level. I passed the JLPT level 2 a few years ago and if I took level one there's a chance that I could pass it. Or at least get close. I surprise people with my reading kanji, but writing them is still quite challenging and I usually need to check to make sure Ive written them correctly. I also have terrible handwriting in Japanese, but most people don't seem to mind. I am now at an awkward place whefe I've been here long enough to be knowledgeable about the language and culture, but not long enough to have mastered it. So sometimes I get weird looks when I misuse words or commit a social faux pas. The world leaves you no shortage of learning opportunities, I guess.

[TekindusT 3,809]

 I am now at an awkward place whefe I've been here long enough to be knowledgeable about the language and culture, but not long enough to have mastered it. So sometimes I get weird looks when I misuse words or commit a social faux pas. 

 

May I ask how long have you lived in Japan? You seem to be in the same situation I am now in Germany, and it's taken me almost one year of strange looks at the supermarket when I asked for a "thing carry stuff" or my workmates smiling when I said "I am so happy" instead of "I am too early".

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

The number of lingual faux pas I have committed is embarrassingly high indeed.  I've been here for six years now, and I still don't get everything going on around me.  When you're with good people you can all laugh about it, though, then it becomes fun.  Some of the stuff I've said has really surprised my co-workers because it's not normal Japanese, it's Japanese thought up through American English, and it occasionally cracks people up.

 

One of the things I've noticed (but it's less and less these days as I get better at it) is that I have good Japanese days where I understand everything and can answer on reflex without thinking, but then I also have days where it's so difficult to do or say anything that I might as well be trying to speak Russian.  Any others dealing with their second language on a daily basis run into the same thing?  Or is there something wrong with me?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

No, you are completely normal.  In French situations, where I can write fluently, I often get tongue tied.  My Italian speaking has now gone completely out the window from disuse.  At the time I was studying Italian, I lived on the Danforth in Toronto in the middle of an Italian community so it was easier.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

The worst lingual faux I've ever witnessed is one lecturer who kept on talking about "treat management" instead of "threat management". Pronunciation is quite important on this one

I've also had one guest lecturer who kept on using "replacing" instead of "moving"

[astronelson 339]

So far only English (C2 on that scale by my own estimation), although it is a goal of mine to get some basic qualifications in Auslan in 2014.

 

Sign languages and spoken languages aren't generally very closely related, and different sign languages for the same spoken language can be mutually unintelligible - ASL (American) and BSL (British) share fewer than half their signs with the other, despite both being primarily English-speaking countries. Auslan, BSL, and NZSL (New Zealand) are closely related though, and are members of the BANZSL family. ASL is most closely related to FSL (French).

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I wish I knew more languages. I only know English and Spanish. I am out of practice with Spanish and I speak some disfluencies even in English.

--Ocram

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Disfluencies?  You get stuck for words?  Just take your time, could slowly to 10 in your head and things will come.  If you have anything to say, people will wait for it.

[Duke87 1,070]

Language is, sadly, not something I'm that good with. I stutter, mispronounce things, get tongue twisted, and can't figure out what word I'm looking for with some frequency when I speak English, and it's my first language. I'm only completely coherent when I write because I take time to think about things and then go back and modify previous sentences after I've already typed them. So, me being anything close to articulate in another language? Yeah, not happening. It's beyond my capabilities.

 

I can study languages from a scholarly perspective just fine. I know lots of random things about lots of languages and I have a basic understanding of Italian. This by extension means I have some deciphering skills for other romance languages as well (and hey, I see ads in Spanish all the time in New York). Show me text in one of these languages and I will be able to read bits of it. But when I listen to people speaking any of those languages, I cannot understand a damned thing anyone is saying. I'm a very visual person and seeing words on paper or a screen is much easier for my brain to process than hearing them spoken. Likewise, I will have an easier time attempting to write something in another language than I will have speaking it. Hell, I'm more competent at writing than I am at speaking in English, too. Apparently all this is common among people on the autism spectrum.

[Alejandro24 575]

I wish I knew more languages. I only know English and Spanish. I am out of practice with Spanish and I speak some disfluencies even in English.

--Ocram

Si se quiere, se puede.

 

Disfluence... isn't disfluency?

 

 

What about accents? I mean, how should one speak another language, with the native accent or trying to imitate the accent of that language?

Personally I have a very bad accent, even with spanish, so when I try to speak english I try to do it slowly, to keep some clarity in the conversation.

 

Would you like to share your accent?

[astronelson 339]

Would you like to share your accent?

Mine's the General Australian accent, the most popular of the three main Australian accents.

 

Apparently it's easier for Australians to pick up other accents since we have the most relaxed soft palate and least active tongue in the world, so it's simply a matter of learning to do something rather than unlearning something then learning a different thing.