My mum is a linguist, but none of that talent filtered through to me, I've always struggled with foreign languages. My sister though has picked up on it, and can speak about 4 or five languages, spending a year in Spain during Uni. - however on the flip side, I can program in 10+ programming languages. Anyway, I've made my irrelevant point.
I grew up in a very bilingual part of Wales, and all of my primary and a lot of my secondary schooling was in Welsh. I used to be totally fluent, but I've not lived in Wales for 20 years, so I'm really rusty. I can understand it fine when I see it on telly and when I go back there, but I struggle to speak it now.
My French is fluent - I spent a year and a half living in France and Switzerland in my early 20s, and I've still stayed pretty fluent. My German was pretty fluent, but I learnt it quite intensively and then haven't used it in about 6 years now, so it's rusty. When I went back there last year I was fine, and could cope with most conversations, but it took a while to come back to me. My Spanish used to be ok, but it was weaker than my German. I haven't used it in ages - I can mostly understand Nadal talking about tennis, but it's not easy, and I would be embarassed to try speaking much.
When I was a kid (about 7 I think) I lived on a kibbutz in Israel for about 6 months. Apparently I picked up Hebrew really quickly and was chattering away to the other kids and understanding school lessons. However, I've totally forgotten all of that, apart from how to count.
I find that my knowledge of Spanish and French means that I can read basic Italian (menus, signs, that sort of thing) and my German knowledge means that I can do the same with Dutch. I wouldn't be able to read a newspaper or anything with many sentences, but I can certainly decipher a lot of words.
French,german,spanish I can read,write and speak.
Italian I can read and speak a little
Dutch I can read
Portugese I can read and write
Catalan I can read.
Two - English and Gaelic. The later I can speak and read fluently but my written is poor as it was something only really spoke at home and with family etc. It was hardly 'taught' in School.
English (native)
German (native)
French, Spanish, and Hindi--speak all three fluently
Studied Arabic at university for a few years but unfortunately it just didn't take. I can write it beautifully but I can't speak it for crap. The grammar's just too hard.
English (obviously)
French - to probably a GCSE level -though understanding spoken French is hard, they speak too fast! Haven't really learnt any more since school.
Japanese - really trying to learn my verb endings (there's like 10 million) then I will focus on vocabulary. I struggle with writing the most as I can't recall kanji symbols too well (though I can write kana without a second thought!)
English (native)
German (native)
French, Spanish, and Hindi--speak all three fluently
Studied Arabic at university for a few years but unfortunately it just didn't take. I can write it beautifully but I can't speak it for crap. The grammar's just too hard.
I can only read traditional arabic. Can not understand it at all. I can't speak or write it as well.
Hindi- means you also speak urdu fluently as well. loool
I normally don't speak urdu/hindi or punjabi unless I need to.
Speak: English. French. Russian. German. Latin.
Read, as in can decipher the letters and glimpse occasional words: Arabic (MSA). Old Church Slavonic.
Learned for a holiday and wish I had time to do more: Spanish.
Used to know some but now reduced to vestigial fragments: Mandarin Chinese. Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
Would not starve in: Italian. Urdu.
ThisSheepMoobs
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Although if I wake up in somewhere that they speak these languages I won't starve as I can just about get by in Spanish, Russian and Mandarin.
Wow.
My french is rusty- know enough to get by. A bit better than "rusty" is Spanish- know enough to speak, understand, write and read it.
Traditional Arabic- read it. Cannot speak, write or understand it.
Urdu/Hindi and Punjabi- speak and understand only.
I always wanted to learn Mandarin though.
In fact, 2. I am fluent English and also almost fluent Scots.
I grew up in a very bilingual part of Wales, and all of my primary and a lot of my secondary schooling was in Welsh. I used to be totally fluent, but I've not lived in Wales for 20 years, so I'm really rusty. I can understand it fine when I see it on telly and when I go back there, but I struggle to speak it now.
My French is fluent - I spent a year and a half living in France and Switzerland in my early 20s, and I've still stayed pretty fluent. My German was pretty fluent, but I learnt it quite intensively and then haven't used it in about 6 years now, so it's rusty. When I went back there last year I was fine, and could cope with most conversations, but it took a while to come back to me. My Spanish used to be ok, but it was weaker than my German. I haven't used it in ages - I can mostly understand Nadal talking about tennis, but it's not easy, and I would be embarassed to try speaking much.
When I was a kid (about 7 I think) I lived on a kibbutz in Israel for about 6 months. Apparently I picked up Hebrew really quickly and was chattering away to the other kids and understanding school lessons. However, I've totally forgotten all of that, apart from how to count.
I find that my knowledge of Spanish and French means that I can read basic Italian (menus, signs, that sort of thing) and my German knowledge means that I can do the same with Dutch. I wouldn't be able to read a newspaper or anything with many sentences, but I can certainly decipher a lot of words.
Italian I can read and speak a little
Dutch I can read
Portugese I can read and write
Catalan I can read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06nbSiv1ZN0
Partial to Italian and want to learn German. Might use Rosetta Stone for that.
Yeah, I forgot that. I'm also fluent in Mayunmar too.
American English
Sarcasm
I also get by with GCSE Spanish, Latin and Welsh
German (native)
French, Spanish, and Hindi--speak all three fluently
Studied Arabic at university for a few years but unfortunately it just didn't take. I can write it beautifully but I can't speak it for crap. The grammar's just too hard.
French - to probably a GCSE level -though understanding spoken French is hard, they speak too fast! Haven't really learnt any more since school.
Japanese - really trying to learn my verb endings (there's like 10 million) then I will focus on vocabulary. I struggle with writing the most as I can't recall kanji symbols too well (though I can write kana without a second thought!)
I can only read traditional arabic. Can not understand it at all. I can't speak or write it as well.
Hindi- means you also speak urdu fluently as well. loool
I normally don't speak urdu/hindi or punjabi unless I need to.
And very poor Italian
How does one speak Latin exactly?
Read, as in can decipher the letters and glimpse occasional words: Arabic (MSA). Old Church Slavonic.
Learned for a holiday and wish I had time to do more: Spanish.
Used to know some but now reduced to vestigial fragments: Mandarin Chinese. Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
Would not starve in: Italian. Urdu.
Like this
Marcus Ginantonicus
Crismus Bonus
Nefarious Purpus
Read Asterix.
Haha quite right. Though I can't read Urdu--the script differs just enough from Persian and Arabic writing to make it illegible to me.
Would love to learn Punjabi properly...most of what I know of it comes from films.