Multilinguals on BZP

[BioGio]

I recall there being an old thread about the other languages BZP members speak.  It could be interesting to compare the languages we all speak/write/read/understand here, and perhaps also discuss methods for learning other languages.  Foreign languages and linguistics are two of my biggest passions, and it'd be great to see who shares them.

 

So:

1. What languages do you speak?

2. How did you learn them?

3. What are your current goals or challenges with other languages?

 

I'll start:

I speak English natively and Spanish quite well (as a result of taking several years of Spanish in school).  I'm currently learning German (started around the beginning of summer) and increasing my skills in reading French.

Has anyone else tried learning to read a foreign language without learning to speak it?  I always feel like my French is sub-par because I can write a bit as a result of reading so much, but I regularly mangle the finer aspects of the grammar (e.g., using y and en).  I know several people who can speak other languages but not write in them--such as my friends who grew up speaking with immigrant parents but never having to write except in English.

 

- BioGio

 

[-Windrider-]

I recently graduated with a degree in French and am starting a doctoral program in French literature in about a month. I don't know; I've been studying the language since elementary school, despite knowing only nouns and such at that level. I owe my proficiency and the decision to major in it to my high school French teacher, though. I suppose I kind of aspire to be like him!

 

I also started Japanese last fall and plan to continue it. (My program requires a third language other than English and French.) I really wanted to try a language with its own different challenges, such as the writing systems, a different grammatical logic, and I really did become hooked. Starting at the elementary level for this new language has reminded how much French has become instinctive, however. I almost feel like I need to hit French grammar textbooks to relearn the logic instead of relying on habit.

 

Other languages on my to-learn list include Polish and Korean, but who knows when I will have time for them.

Edited July 29, 2014 by -Windrider-

[Makuta of Time]

I speak English, Spanish and am learning French. My parents helped me learn spanish which I am very good at (including when it comes to singing). I'm taking French classes at my high school andam going to take my third year of it. 

 

Languages on my to learn list are japanese, russian and chinese. Reason why japanese is because I can't understand what some anime say even when they are subbed.

[Pomegranate]

I speak Russian, English, and a good amount of Spanish, with English as my best language although I was raised on Russian. Russian came from being born and raised in the former USSR, and English I had to learn when we moved to the US. I started Spanish in middle school and continued it throughout high school with advanced classes, and so I was nearly fluent in it at that point but I've been out of practice in the last couple years so I have to take it a bit slower and stumble a bit, but it's mostly all still there, in speaking, listening, writing, and reading it. Russian, on the other hand, is very difficult for me to write in, and I can read it but at a slow pace and I don't get the complex words that don't pop up in daily conversation with family or in the media I consume, but I can converse in it fluently save for those complex words I just never heard. I once tried to learn Japanese, mostly to woo a cute boy, but it was waaayyy to difficult for me; I just keep a little notebook of useful everyday phrases and conversation crutches nowadays. After a great teacher taught us all everything we needed to go order the best dishes at his favorite Korean restaurants and of course basic phrases, and informing us that the Korean writing system is super easy to learn and the rest is just vocabulary, I've been working on teaching myself that with library books and online stuff. I just want to know at least one common East Asian language to expand my horizons, converse with the hundreds of fresh-off-the-plane foreign students in my college, and be able to get major points on my resumes by including such a valuable skill for international markets. I've also heard good things about Korean media and I'd like to check it out for myself without stuff getting lost in translation. Also, that food turned out to be incredible, so I'm hooked  I'm also gonna try to learn Romanian/Moldavian (the only difference is that they use different alphabets, and a slight difference in dialect; they're basically the same language and most people don't consider Moldavian to even be a thing) 'cause it's a really pretty language and I just wanna know it, and make it easier for myself to get around the country when I visit (and also understand what it is I'm even singing along to when I listen to my favorite band). Since it's pretty close to Russian I'm leaving it for later, 'cause it'll be easy to learn after I get the harder more unfamiliar languages out of the way. I've considered other languages too, and I think after I get all those out of the way I'd like to pick up Hebrew, maybe Arabic, and another Western European language, probably just pick up Italian or Portuguese. I might take another stab at Japanese, who knows. Definitely want to get a fictional language like Klingon under my belt I know, I'll learn Tolkien's Matoran language! Perfect I really love different languages and I have immense respect for folks who can speak a bunch, and I'd like to learn as many as I can and be able to go anywhere in the world and speak to anyone about anything, and be able to understand and experience things that normal would just be missing in my lifetime. Also, a lot of them just sound really pretty and I'd love to be able to hear myself speak 'em c:

Besides the obvious challenges that come with languages like not having time to sit down and practice or study, I end up facing challenges because of the languages I already know. I never in my life imagined that I would ever have a job where I ended up needing to frequently translate between exclusively Russian speaking cowrkers and exclusively Spanish speaking coworkers and then mediating with a third party at the same time who only speaks English (and none of them speak the dialects that I'm accustomed to!) Lemme tell ya, folks, it's an adventure

Edited July 29, 2014 by Pomegranate

[Click]

Well, I'm a native English speaker, but I also have taken four years of German in school in something like an immersion program, so I consider myself fairly proficient in the language. I visited Germany over the summer and had some chances to speak and I've had a foreign exchange student to help clean up a few flaws. My vocabulary is a bit limited and spoken language is still hard to pick up, but I can read it and pronounce fairly well.

[Ballom Nom Nom]

I'm a native English speaker, but I also have taken a number of years of both Spanish and French (five and four years of each, respectively) in middle and high school, including passing the three AP exams covering the two languages (French Language, Spanish Language and Literature). Sadly, both of those languages have become very rusty since I haven't had time to practice using them since graduating. I'm still hoping to pick up a good book sometime to read and practice, particularly Cien Años de Soledad because of my greater knowledge of Spanish, but I've never found the time yet.

 

~B~

[NorikSigma]

1. I speak English and Chinese.

 

2. English as default language at home and in school, Chinese as Mother Tongue subject in school. And because I'm Chinese.

 

3. I wish for my last Mother Tongue exam to be over so I can get over with the torturous learning I've endured since forever.

 

Of course, I know the importance of Chinese IRL in the future with China's rising economic power and all that, but I'm sply dreadful at it.

[Jonathan Crane]

I speak English, and Dovahzuul.

 

I learned the Skyrim- exclusive language thanks to a website called Thuum.org

 

I can also speak a small amount of Kryptonian

[LordofBionicles]

I speak spanish as my mother tongue and english thanks to many years of dedicated study in school, I've been wanting to learn japanese because of anime and I've managed to learn a few rules and words.

I think I'm good at learning languages as I can learn fast and develop a good prononciation.

[ToaKapura1234]

I speak English, obviously, a little German, and Jaffa.If you get the joke, you get an imaginary cookie. Kree!

Edited July 29, 2014 by Toa K

[GSR]

Another native English speaker here.  About four years ago I probably could've written and spoken to you in Spanish as well; these days I'm limited to reading due to a lack of practice. 

 

My main second language now is Japanese; I went through a fairly comprehensive four-year program at my uni (though not as a major), and I try to keep myself moderately sharp with Japanese-language books, games, and the like.  (Not much anime, though, oddly enough.)  I'm hoping to take the JLPT (a standardized test for professional certification in the language) in the winter, but I haven't decided yet if I'll be going for Level 1 or 2 (1 being the most difficult.)  There's still a lot I need to learn!

 

Languages are a lot of fun, and if I ever go back to grad school and I feel like adding onto an already enormous workload, I'd love to try another language - maybe Chinese.

Edited July 29, 2014 by GSR

[Sumiki]

Native English, but I know more than a little Italian and French (enough to get by in conversation but by no means fluent in either.) I've never actually had the opportunity to use any Italian and so my knowledge has atrophied some, but I was able to speak in French a considerable amount after getting stuck in an Acadian village in Nova Scotia called Chéticamp - not to mention Québec!
 
It was interesting to note how different the dialects were - things that my parents and I knew in French turned out to be specific to France and not really applicable to North American speakers. Even between Chéticamp and Québec City the dialects differed considerably, as did culture.

[Reznas]

I speak English and Russian, seeing as I'm an American and live in Russia. I don't really have any plans to learn any other languages as of now. Russian already exhausts enough of my language studies.

 

-Rez