Finnish, German, English, Ukrainian, Estonian, Swedish, Latvian, Dutch, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French. A little Italian and Portuguese as well. I did manage to explain some simple things in Czech some days ago, and I can read south-Slavic languages surprisingly well. And often decipher the main point of a text in Romanian.
Almost no Hungarian or Mandarin, though very simple questions are possible anyway. And then of course I can read Norwegian and Danish reasonably well, because if you know Swedish, English, German and Dutch, you already know Danish. And for a similar reason, Slovak goes.
I can speak less than five words of Albanian, Basque, Greek, Welsh, Breton, any Gaelic language or any Sámi language. Those are something should probably learn a bit, at least.
Diction is speech (like dire in French), and it was a bit of wordplay on the common expression 'citation needed' like the other commenter said :) Basically joking that a claim to speak a language should be backed up by saying something in that language to be believed.
No kurienes tev zināt, ka neesmu vinkarši izmantojis tulkojuma aparātes? :)
Eble vi devus usi telefonon en paroli kun mi. Mi ne scias.
Pero, quien quiere, puede me llamar por exemple con Matrix. У початку просто думав, що й так ніхто мене вірятіме, якщо віряті не хоче. Und wer meenen Wörtern glohben will, tut es ja eh. So is halt det Leben.
Hab in nem jewissn deutschen Bundeshohptstadt ehnige Jährchen jewohnt, janz im Osten dessen.
"Essieben na Hohptnohf, zobite!"
Det kan man wohl nua liebn!
Oßadem: wenn ick dieset Dings "spreche" werde ick öfters jfracht ob ick ohs Öhsterrroisch komme oder der Schweiz, da wa mit finnischm Akzent bahliniat, wird anscheinend zum Ledahosnträjer. Dat ick meene letzen 6 Monate dort damals für ne Firma ohs Linz jearbeitet hab, hat ooch sehnen Effekt jehabt.
Some of the Scandinavians too! Like I knew a guy (wasn't born in Sweden) but moved at a young age and was born in Poland. He speaks Swedish, English, Polish, and probably more
Native English speak (Australian) and I didn't get full marks when I did my Canadian permit residency English test. That's all I speak and apparently not well.
i found a german (federal republik of germany) text once that quoted a german text published in switzerland marking a word that was written with double-s instead of s-z-ligature (ß) with "[sic!]" as if the orthography of their neighbours was a mistake.
Native Portuguese and English, fluent Spanish, absolutely terrible German, and the one semester of French I took just made me determined to never speak it. "Quatre-vingt-douze" isn't a number, it's an algebra problem.
most niche: studied ugaritic for 3 semesters. (not really a conversational skill but with the arabic and hebrew i know it made for a surprisingly nice "reading phoenician inscriptions at the museum"-day. see it is useful, father!)
Native Norwegian, fluent in English, can struggle through childrens' comic books in German and sort of get by in Egyptian Arabic (or at least I could back in the day, but it's been a while).
Could you expand on that? As a foreigner I don’t understand why refusing to speak a language would prevent “the system” from benefiting of it.
And could you also explain what you consider poor treatment? In my country we have this image of Finland as a super advanced, super ideologically liberal, happy country
I'll try, keep in mind that this is my personal view and likely only partially represents society at large.
Background: Finland has a Swedish speaking minority, roughly 8 % of the population. Teaching the whole population both languages has a stated (no source) aim of uniting the country and securing the minority governmental services in their native language. Additionally Swedish is/was seen as opening deeper nordic cooperation. While there are some cultural differences between the Swedish speaking minority and the Finnish speaking majority these, in my view, seem insignificant and the vast majority speaks fluent Finnish.
In practice due to small number of hours and the general unwillingness of the majority to learn Swedish these goals are poorly achieved. Lack of motivation stems from both deep rooted political believes ( in practice false ones) and from the fact that Swedish is not needed as well as a backlash against the mandatory teaching of it. In all encounters I have ever had Finnish has been used as it is spoken well by both parties.
So 15 year old me thought that it was a waste of my precious time and I decided to never speak it.
After my school years technological developments have made it even more a waste of time. I should note that politically I would support removing the mandatory teaching and language requirements of civil servants if it wasn't supported by far tight autocratic forces.
I have heard stories of language based discrimination, though only few. On average (not sure about median) the minority lives longer and is wealthier, though not by a large margin
All of the above must be seen against the backdrop of me being a part of the majority and well off even within it. So in a position were it is quite easy to be liberal but also not to see problems.
Used to be fluent in French, but nobody to talk to to practice so I've lost a lot of it. Basic Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, German. Learning Gaeilge.
A tiny bit of French. My public school French education was a bit of a mess, lots of long-term substitutes and then substitutes for those substitutes, so none of it really stuck. If someone talks slowly I can usually catch the gist of what they're saying, but probably wouldn't be able to string the words together to respond.
And I've gotten myself to be somewhat passable at Esperanto using Duolingo.
I may make another run at learning French at some point.
Wouldn't mind learning Polish, Italian, Gaelic, and/or Albanian, since that's where my ancestors came from. Never been particularly great at language-learning though so that's a huge stretch.
Also always thought it would be cool to learn Unami (the language spoken by the Lenape people who originally lived in the area I do)
And I've spent enough time in tiki bars that I occasionally think about learning Hawaiian or some other Polynesian language
English, German and Spanish at native level, decent level of french, and i can fuss together itañolo and portunhol and read it without mayor difficulties. (these are bastardised versions of Italian and Portuguese respectively, as they are quite similar to Spanish and have a high degree of mutual intelligibility)
but i got comfortable and stopped learning more :/
I've tried Spanish, German, Japanese, Esperanto, and a smattering of others. I just don't have the mental temperament for language learning, I'm a math guy. I'm already very proficient in arguably the most useful one, and I just can't justify the time and effort that I could be using to learn other more broadly useful topics.
I promised my wife I'd learn her native language alongside our future children, but that's a future me problem.
I’ve tried Spanish, German, Japanese, Esperanto, and a smattering of others. I just don’t have the mental temperament for language learning, I’m a math guy.
It's funny you mention the math because i hear english is bizarrely efficient as a language (maybe from various distinct formation languages competiting in order to shape modern english)
I promised my wife I’d learn her native language alongside our future children, but that’s a future me problem.
Given how long it takes you might want to get started tomorrow! You can make it easier bettee for yourself by finding a fun way to do it; e.g start with duolingo for basics then play a game/watch a movie you know well in that language.
It's funny you mention the math because i hear english is bizarrely efficient as a language
Maybe, but I think it's mostly just that it's my native language and I was a voracious reader in my childhood so I got really good at it. I do appreciate the Germanic composite nature, but I didn't, like, actively choose English.
Given how long it takes you might want to get started tomorrow!
Eh, like I said, that's a future me problem. I think the "fun" way is going to be learning along with my kids. Start with the basics, consume simple media, immersion, all that. I'm not too worried about it, if I need to supplement with other methods I'll supplement. But I think the time it takes the kids to become fluent will be long and gradual enough to work for me.
Jeg kommer fra USA!! 🇺🇸 Jeg lærer norsk fordi jeg har norsk arv og jeg hadde lært norsk siden jeg var 9 år gammel men jeg stoppet, jeg vet ikke hvorfor.
Vel, det skal sies at den skriftlige nordsiden har bedre grammatik en mange nordmenn jeg kjenner 👍 fortsett med det du gjør, du gjør det hvertfall riktig!!
Just two, don't wanna say which for privacy reasons.
I do want learn Dutch though. I think it sounds whimsical, and I'd love to meet a Dutch woman that can beat my ass (i heard they're headstrong and dont take any shit).
English and French. I can understand a bit of Spanish, but learning French ruined my pronunciation. I can read Cyrillic, but know almost nothing about Russian.
English, obviously. Native-level (but technically not native-speaker since according to some linguists), started learning since 8 years old with full immersion.
Cantonse and Mandarin. Native languages.
Cantonese used at home.
Understand a bit of Taishanese but not well enought to speak full sentences... (mostly curse words xD). Parents never spoke to me in Taishanese. Parents speak Taishanese with grandparents.
Can read basic Chinese characters (simplified... looking at traditional gives me headaches)... I can type with Pinyin and Jyutping... can't write... (its like you know what a picture looks like but hard to draw that picture by hand... know what I mean?)
I went to school in China till 2nd grade...
I remember teachers had a meter stick and would slap your hand with it as "discipline" and my mom APRROVES OF IT... 💀
They would throw chalk at you if you looked like you weren't paying attention... (sometimes they missed and hit another kid xD)
They played the stupid National Anthem just like the US does.
They make you memorize whole short story and recite it and make you stay late afterschool if and make you recite it... and I remember sometimes they had another kid standing behind the teacher and held the book open so the other kid being quizzed on it can secretly cheat off of it lmfao...
I can probably survive in Mainland China, HK, Taiwan, as a tourist, without needing translation... (I'm gonna sound like a 2nd grader tho lol)
Honestly I rather just forget those languages and become monolingual if it means not have to deal with the cultural baggage...
Hebrew and English. I have tried once or twice to learn a third language but I just don't have the discipline for it.
Hebrew is my native tongue, and English I speak pretty much at a native level simply by lots and lots of being online and watching TV from a young age, and often chatting with my sister in English for no real reason. I've even got a pretty convincing American accent. In hindsight I would have preferred most British accents, but I can't seem to change it now (refer to the aforementioned discipline issue).
I still regularly talk to two of my friends in English, still for no apparent reason. We just switch between Hebrew and English arbitrarily.
English, with heavy “American” accent. Basically native-level fluency
Okay laws are so stupid. If you have native-level English and have been so Americanized that you "have an American Accent", you deserve the choice of getting Citizenship.
Wait I'm still still confused, don't student visas only exist for college? Were you here during teenage years or earlier? Is there even a non-immigrant visa for before college? Like I'm confused af. I thought kids could only come if they are a dependent of a principle immigrant on a greencard visa?
Yeah, being in a country since 18 yrs old does something to you... Fun fact about the accent. Apparently most ppl I've met in the EU assumed I'm from the US, despite me not looking remotely like an average American
US visa system is a bit... Interesting. Student visas also work for PhD programs, which can last a while. And after the study concludes there's an option for ppl to extend it by 3 years (OPT). So one could be into their mid-30s and still be technically on a student visa in the US
You acquired "native-level" English "with an American Accent" when you started learning at age 18?
Bruh, my older brother has been here since 13 and he still sounds so weird...
remotely like an average American
What does an "Average American" look like?
Honestly my "American-ness" is gonna depend a lot on if my parents are around...
Like imagine I go to Europe for vacation... One moment, I talk to parents in Cantonese and we sound like either Guangdong-Mainlanders or Hong Kongers, then next moment I speak in perfect American English and they're gonna be confused if I'm Chinese or American...
Well... I might be a special case. Most folks I know don't acquire languages that easily
What does an “Average American” look like?
I thought it would be whatever the stereotypes one would get from popular American TV shows... which is not very Asian all-things considered. But I guess the language plays a role too. This is something that is hard to grasp while I was in the US, but Americans as a whole do have a rather distinct English accent that is different from folks from say Britain, Australia, other places where English isn't the primary language, etc...
English (pretty well I hope; half my working life and almost all my free time spent on the internet, shows, books,... has been happening in English since, like, 8th grade)
Japanese (learning; enough for talking about food, the weather, hobbies,... in somewhat acceptable grammar 😄)
Swiss German is my native language, and I'm fluent in English. My English pronunciation is garbage though.
Theoretically I can also speak German, but I'm extremely rusty in it and lack confidence, so practically I turn into a stumbling mess that can't say anything without running away to either one of the above two mid-sentence subconsciously.
Native: Spanish
Fluent: Portuguese, English
I can understand almost everything and can sort of speak it very badly: Italian, Catalan
I know very basic things and could probably have survival level communication (although I would have to think hard since I haven't used either in years): Russian, German
Know how to say random phrases, generally "Excuse me, I don't speak , do you speak English?": Finnish, French, Dutch.
I natively speak English. I used to be somewhat competent for my age in French because as a child I was in French classes, I gave those up at some point due to a lack of interest. I've attempted to learn Mandarin, Korean, and German without much commitment. Now I'm learning Spanish which is coming along, but I lack confidence in it.
English, and trying to learn German! Haven't gotten very far yet though. Did a tiny little bit of Japanese (before picking up German) but haven't gotten very far in that either.
Native English, poor Italian, barely functional Spanish. I can read Italian and Spanish with a bit of effort and understand both pretty well when spoken, but my speaking is severely lacking in both.
So i'm fluent in English and a specific proto-sign language that as far as i know only a few hundred people sign. I can order food and ask where the toilet is in about 30-50 languages, depending on the day. My Spanish and German are rusty: i have production issues but my receptive is competent. All my other romance languages (except basque and romanian, i haven't looked at those at all) are decent enough to travel and make an ass of myself. My germanic and nordic languages are worse than my romance ones. Do not ask me anything in Afrikaans I will assume you are drunk.
Since Lemmy apparently has a ton of people who are bilingual — how do I as a 31 year old man that knows enough Spanish to say 'Thank you, where is the bathroom?' and frequently watches anime in subtitles gain another language? I'm open to all suggestions, except bad ones. Specifically I am interested in learning Mandarin because I hate myself.
I'm a native Cantonese and Mandarin speaker and I'll be brutally honest, you need a huge motivation, or else you will struggle to be fluent.
Not just because you like the aesthetics, or like the idea of being bilingual...
What are you gonna even use the language for.
For example, you might wanna learn Japanese for better experience enjoying Anime...
My parents came to the US as adults.
My dad has been in the US for... 16 years... still a non citizen and never really learned English
Meanwhile, mom needs it to do bussiness... investments... and stuff... so she has to learn it... She knows enough to become a citizen...
The biggest thing is IMMERSION. Even then, dad never learner it...
My parents barely understand me lol. Since I only know 2nd grade level of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin share similar vocaublary)... despite being a native speaker.
A westerner is gonna struggle a lot with the tones...
I was "luckly" enough to be just at the perfect time of 8 years old so I know enough basics of Chinese before emigraring... so my brain is in between two worlds.
If I was born in the US, idk if I could manage to learn it.
IMO Mandarin is gonna be tough since Chinese shows are sooo boring... soo cliche... predictable story is gonna kill the will to learn... (unless you love bad tv drama lol)
Ask your self: What are you gonna use Mandarin for? (Also: do you also wanna learn the writing too? Since its logographics, much harder.) Just as a trophy? Or actually gonna regularly have a use for it?
Well, to answer your primary question — many of the people on the team I work with speak... it's either Cantonese or Mandarin, I think they told me Mandarin but I'm not entirely sure. It isn't something that would necessarily help me on a professional level, but it would help me on a personal level with many of them.
That's genuinely my motivation, I don't really care about 'seeming' bilingual — this is mostly to bring me closer to people who have helped me at work.
I guess that's true, I have actually mentioned it to a few of my coworkers – they all had a reaction that more or less spoke 'there simply isn't enough time for that' lol.
Tangentially, there's also this bilibili show called ling long reincarnation that, whether I'm stupid for liking it or not, is awesome. The thing about it is that I've always felt like there's something lost in translation about the show, or there are themes that I'm simply unaware of due to... well an overall lack of knowledge about Chinese language and culture, I suppose.
Idk, full immersion would be best like you said — I just have no idea where I'd find that in California. I'm sure there are places, but then there's the extra layer of somehow finding enough time to actually absorb the language through immersion. Perhaps I'll just take up Spanish lol, I always did well in it in school and it's close enough to English. I think it would probably be much easier to find people who speak Spanish here.
I speak native English (Traditional) and am fairly proficient in Swedish, having learnt it for a few years. I still often make grammatical mistakes though
Yeah, it's honestly a lot easier to read colloquial romance language writing than it is to listen to it. Here in Québec as an anglo québécois I always still struggle with my listening comprehension regardless of if its within my spoken or reading level, accents and speeds are always a pain. I know this is doubly bad for Spanish which can be spoken insanely fast.
German is my first language, and also my third. When I started school I had to learn English; over the years I didn’t speak much German and I have forgotten a lot. Now I have started to re-learn German again.
Also bits of French, Spanish, Esperanto, Latin, that I picked up or started learning over the years.
I'm pretty shy so I don't really do small talk with anyone Spanish even though I live here. I can get by obviously but it's nowhere near conversational.
I know 2 languages I'm 100% confident.
I know another one where I'm 75% confident that I'll understand and can reply in an understandable way.
I know another one 25% I can get by for daily basic things.
And I know one where I only know the swear words.
Finnish, German, English, Ukrainian, Estonian, Swedish, Latvian, Dutch, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French. A little Italian and Portuguese as well. I did manage to explain some simple things in Czech some days ago, and I can read south-Slavic languages surprisingly well. And often decipher the main point of a text in Romanian.
Almost no Hungarian or Mandarin, though very simple questions are possible anyway. And then of course I can read Norwegian and Danish reasonably well, because if you know Swedish, English, German and Dutch, you already know Danish. And for a similar reason, Slovak goes.
I can speak less than five words of Albanian, Basque, Greek, Welsh, Breton, any Gaelic language or any Sámi language. Those are something should probably learn a bit, at least.
Perhaps asking which languages you don't speak woulf work better in your case, holly shit.
Haha, there are 7000 languages on our planet. Would be a looong list :)
We all have different standards of what “speaking a language” means, but good on you.
Diction needed.
One of the languages I am not sufficiently fluent in, yet, is that of Australia and USA. What does "Diction needed" mean in this context?
I could be wrong but I think it's a play on "citation needed" (i.e., they don't believe you)
Diction is speech (like dire in French), and it was a bit of wordplay on the common expression 'citation needed' like the other commenter said :) Basically joking that a claim to speak a language should be backed up by saying something in that language to be believed.
No kurienes tev zināt, ka neesmu vinkarši izmantojis tulkojuma aparātes? :)
Eble vi devus usi telefonon en paroli kun mi. Mi ne scias.
Pero, quien quiere, puede me llamar por exemple con Matrix. У початку просто думав, що й так ніхто мене вірятіме, якщо віряті не хоче. Und wer meenen Wörtern glohben will, tut es ja eh. So is halt det Leben.
Aber jut, nu är nånting skrivits :)
i like how your german reflects eastern german accent lol dit is jut
Hab in nem jewissn deutschen Bundeshohptstadt ehnige Jährchen jewohnt, janz im Osten dessen.
"Essieben na Hohptnohf, zobite!" Det kan man wohl nua liebn!
Oßadem: wenn ick dieset Dings "spreche" werde ick öfters jfracht ob ick ohs Öhsterrroisch komme oder der Schweiz, da wa mit finnischm Akzent bahliniat, wird anscheinend zum Ledahosnträjer. Dat ick meene letzen 6 Monate dort damals für ne Firma ohs Linz jearbeitet hab, hat ooch sehnen Effekt jehabt.
Native Portuguese, “decent “ English
Eu falo português bastante bem, oiii
For anyone looking for more related content, here is a relevant community:
[email protected]
That’s a curated place for people who enjoy language learning. This community offers a broader and more diverse sample
That's my bad, I didn't mean to say the post belongs elsewhere. I'll edit the comment
👌
Native Dutch, fluent English, fluent German and French, I can carry a conversation in Spanish and Italian, and some baby steps in Japanese.
The Dutch are so dope, I feel every Dutch person knows like at least 5 languages
It's easier for them to reach higher education, because they're so tall.
Some of the Scandinavians too! Like I knew a guy (wasn't born in Sweden) but moved at a young age and was born in Poland. He speaks Swedish, English, Polish, and probably more
Native english speaker, B1 spanish.
Pero todavía olvido palabras por algunas cosas y cometo errores. Entiendo más de lo que hablo.
¡Hola! Todavía estoy aprendiendo español pero puedo hablar en español bastante bien también
Jajajaja
Holaaaa, hablante de español!
I can read, write and speak 3 languages.
English.
हिन्दी - Hindi.
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ - Punjabi.
I know a bit of Sanskrit, but cannot actually converse in it.
people converse in Sanskrit? :o
My father's a Hindu priest. I have seen some people conversing in Sanskrit.
cool
Just one, American.
and then I told that teaching lady the only crayons I need are the red, white, and blue
english, hungarian, some dutch. if I'm pressed, i also know a little german.
Bojler eladó!
::: spoiler relevant song NANOWAR OF STEEL - HelloWorld.java :::
Native English speak (Australian) and I didn't get full marks when I did my Canadian permit residency English test. That's all I speak and apparently not well.
OnO
i found a german (federal republik of germany) text once that quoted a german text published in switzerland marking a word that was written with double-s instead of s-z-ligature (ß) with "[sic!]" as if the orthography of their neighbours was a mistake.
(´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
Native Norwegian, fluent English, proficient Danish and Swedish, intermediate German, basic mandarin.
Oh, and I know a lot of Spanish curse words. Probably enough to start a fight.
Heyyyyy, en nordmenn her!!! Hvordan går det?
Eh, spysjuk...
Awww, hvorfor?
jøss, det er tre av oss
god bedring, neidu
Toki a! Mi kama sona e toki pona. (mi sona toki ike)
toki a! mi kama sona e toki pona kin. lon tomo sona mi la, kulupu pi toki pona li lon a!
Native Portuguese and English, fluent Spanish, absolutely terrible German, and the one semester of French I took just made me determined to never speak it. "Quatre-vingt-douze" isn't a number, it's an algebra problem.
Aquí español 👋 an inglish obvis
Igpay Atinlay.
Fluently? Hungarian, English, German, Romanian, and French, in that order.
Hát itt mindenki magyar?
még az is, aki nem
amúgy meg bojler eladó
Spanish native. I got bored with English so I moved on to learning Català 🤣
Sóc un home simple: veig català, dono un upvote.
I only speak two languages, English and bad English
Super green, Korben my man.
English. Only. And lucky to be able to at above a fifth grade level.
Guess the shithole country!
Texas?
Idk somewhere in africa?
仕事の時には英語だけで、暇な時には英語と日本語。
most niche: studied ugaritic for 3 semesters. (not really a conversational skill but with the arabic and hebrew i know it made for a surprisingly nice "reading phoenician inscriptions at the museum"-day. see it is useful, father!)
Native Norwegian, fluent in English, can struggle through childrens' comic books in German and sort of get by in Egyptian Arabic (or at least I could back in the day, but it's been a while).
En annen nordmann!!!!
jada, det er noen av oss her :)
Finnish, English and technically some Swedish. Technically because I refuse to talk it
Why?
Is a mandatory subject in school here. They can make me sit in class but not use it type of situation
But why refuse to use it?
I felt I was treated poorly and don't want the system to have the benefit of me speaking it.
Could you expand on that? As a foreigner I don’t understand why refusing to speak a language would prevent “the system” from benefiting of it.
And could you also explain what you consider poor treatment? In my country we have this image of Finland as a super advanced, super ideologically liberal, happy country
I'll try, keep in mind that this is my personal view and likely only partially represents society at large.
Background: Finland has a Swedish speaking minority, roughly 8 % of the population. Teaching the whole population both languages has a stated (no source) aim of uniting the country and securing the minority governmental services in their native language. Additionally Swedish is/was seen as opening deeper nordic cooperation. While there are some cultural differences between the Swedish speaking minority and the Finnish speaking majority these, in my view, seem insignificant and the vast majority speaks fluent Finnish.
In practice due to small number of hours and the general unwillingness of the majority to learn Swedish these goals are poorly achieved. Lack of motivation stems from both deep rooted political believes ( in practice false ones) and from the fact that Swedish is not needed as well as a backlash against the mandatory teaching of it. In all encounters I have ever had Finnish has been used as it is spoken well by both parties.
So 15 year old me thought that it was a waste of my precious time and I decided to never speak it.
After my school years technological developments have made it even more a waste of time. I should note that politically I would support removing the mandatory teaching and language requirements of civil servants if it wasn't supported by far tight autocratic forces.
I have heard stories of language based discrimination, though only few. On average (not sure about median) the minority lives longer and is wealthier, though not by a large margin
All of the above must be seen against the backdrop of me being a part of the majority and well off even within it. So in a position were it is quite easy to be liberal but also not to see problems.
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
English and swearing.
Used to be fluent in French, but nobody to talk to to practice so I've lost a lot of it. Basic Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, German. Learning Gaeilge.
Native: German
Well: English, French
A little: Spanish, Esperanto, Latin
Able to understand partially: Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian
A couple of phrases: Czech, Ukrainian, Polish, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese
Native English
A tiny bit of French. My public school French education was a bit of a mess, lots of long-term substitutes and then substitutes for those substitutes, so none of it really stuck. If someone talks slowly I can usually catch the gist of what they're saying, but probably wouldn't be able to string the words together to respond.
And I've gotten myself to be somewhat passable at Esperanto using Duolingo.
I may make another run at learning French at some point.
Wouldn't mind learning Polish, Italian, Gaelic, and/or Albanian, since that's where my ancestors came from. Never been particularly great at language-learning though so that's a huge stretch.
Also always thought it would be cool to learn Unami (the language spoken by the Lenape people who originally lived in the area I do)
And I've spent enough time in tiki bars that I occasionally think about learning Hawaiian or some other Polynesian language
English, German and Spanish at native level, decent level of french, and i can fuss together itañolo and portunhol and read it without mayor difficulties. (these are bastardised versions of Italian and Portuguese respectively, as they are quite similar to Spanish and have a high degree of mutual intelligibility)
but i got comfortable and stopped learning more :/
English, and quite well.
I've tried Spanish, German, Japanese, Esperanto, and a smattering of others. I just don't have the mental temperament for language learning, I'm a math guy. I'm already very proficient in arguably the most useful one, and I just can't justify the time and effort that I could be using to learn other more broadly useful topics.
I promised my wife I'd learn her native language alongside our future children, but that's a future me problem.
It's funny you mention the math because i hear english is bizarrely efficient as a language (maybe from various distinct formation languages competiting in order to shape modern english)
Given how long it takes you might want to get started tomorrow! You can make it
easierbettee for yourself by finding a fun way to do it; e.g start with duolingo for basics then play a game/watch a movie you know well in that language.Maybe, but I think it's mostly just that it's my native language and I was a voracious reader in my childhood so I got really good at it. I do appreciate the Germanic composite nature, but I didn't, like, actively choose English.
Eh, like I said, that's a future me problem. I think the "fun" way is going to be learning along with my kids. Start with the basics, consume simple media, immersion, all that. I'm not too worried about it, if I need to supplement with other methods I'll supplement. But I think the time it takes the kids to become fluent will be long and gradual enough to work for me.
Norwegian, so Swedish and also Danish if it's not too Danish and English. Enough German and Spanish to get by.
Heihei!
God ettermiddag
Hvordan går det?
Oppe og ikke gråter. Dro tidlig fra jobb, så det kommer seg. Hva med deg?
Jeg er på skolen nå, det gar ikke så bra fordi jeg er trøtt men alt er bra :3
Italian, Neapolitan, English fluently
A bit of English and some Japanese...
Norwegian, Danish and English.
You could add Swedish, but only because of being Norwegian, i can understand Swedish. I speak Danish because i live in Denmark.
Heihei!!! Det er så kult!!!
Jeg er meget nysgjerrig på hvordan du lærer deg norsk, og hvor du kommer fra 🤓
Et lite tips til en eldre, men god serie om det norske språk: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF0p_Qj0o3R-iEg6adDLXm7A5MydWF8Ow mangler noen episoder, men jeg synes de er veldig gode!
Jeg kommer fra USA!! 🇺🇸 Jeg lærer norsk fordi jeg har norsk arv og jeg hadde lært norsk siden jeg var 9 år gammel men jeg stoppet, jeg vet ikke hvorfor.
Vel, det skal sies at den skriftlige nordsiden har bedre grammatik en mange nordmenn jeg kjenner 👍 fortsett med det du gjør, du gjør det hvertfall riktig!!
Just two, don't wanna say which for privacy reasons.
I do want learn Dutch though. I think it sounds whimsical, and I'd love to meet a Dutch woman that can beat my ass (i heard they're headstrong and dont take any shit).
I only speak english and bad english
Mi parolas Esperanton kaj La Anglan.
Eh, in all reality, only English.
I have a small amount of Spanish vocabulary, but that's not the same as speaking it.
I am almost fluent in medicalese, so I can sometimes kinda fumble my way through limited ranges of Latin.
I used to be able to do a little ASL, but never reached fluency, and I've lost damn near all of it.
Swedish, Norwegian, and English. Can understand Danish and some German.
Whoa, det er fantastisk! Jeg elsker å se mer norsktalende her!
Eg er førvånad kor mange som kan norsk her
Det er jeg også
What?
English and Vietnamese
Learning German but maybe thinking of learning some other language instead, maybe Spanish or something not sure
Norwegian, Swedish, German, English, some French and maybe enough Spanish to survive a week or two.
En annen norsktalende person!!!!! Heihei!!
Hungarian, English and passively German.
Can say basic phrases in Spanish, in Italian and in Japanese.
I can swear fluently in Italian, French and Spanish.
Bojler eladó!
Mi a helyzet a szesz kazánnal?
native English
learned French (4 years in high school)
Native Finnish, some swedish(= basically every Scandinavian language) and learning Latvian
Oh, and this quite niche language spoken in parts of great Britain, northern americas and basically every single country in the world called Americano
Aussie and English
English and French. I can understand a bit of Spanish, but learning French ruined my pronunciation. I can read Cyrillic, but know almost nothing about Russian.
English, obviously. Native-level (but technically not native-speaker since according to some linguists), started learning since 8 years old with full immersion.
Cantonse and Mandarin. Native languages.
Cantonese used at home.
Understand a bit of Taishanese but not well enought to speak full sentences... (mostly curse words xD). Parents never spoke to me in Taishanese. Parents speak Taishanese with grandparents.
Can read basic Chinese characters (simplified... looking at traditional gives me headaches)... I can type with Pinyin and Jyutping... can't write... (its like you know what a picture looks like but hard to draw that picture by hand... know what I mean?)
I went to school in China till 2nd grade...
I remember teachers had a meter stick and would slap your hand with it as "discipline" and my mom APRROVES OF IT... 💀
They would throw chalk at you if you looked like you weren't paying attention... (sometimes they missed and hit another kid xD)
They played the stupid National Anthem just like the US does.
They make you memorize whole short story and recite it and make you stay late afterschool if and make you recite it... and I remember sometimes they had another kid standing behind the teacher and held the book open so the other kid being quizzed on it can secretly cheat off of it lmfao...
I can probably survive in Mainland China, HK, Taiwan, as a tourist, without needing translation... (I'm gonna sound like a 2nd grader tho lol)
Honestly I rather just forget those languages and become monolingual if it means not have to deal with the cultural baggage...
为什么华人父母这么恶？烦的要死。。。😭
屌那星
Hebrew and English. I have tried once or twice to learn a third language but I just don't have the discipline for it.
Hebrew is my native tongue, and English I speak pretty much at a native level simply by lots and lots of being online and watching TV from a young age, and often chatting with my sister in English for no real reason. I've even got a pretty convincing American accent. In hindsight I would have preferred most British accents, but I can't seem to change it now (refer to the aforementioned discipline issue).
I still regularly talk to two of my friends in English, still for no apparent reason. We just switch between Hebrew and English arbitrarily.
Native Spanish, very good Catalan, good English and some (not enough to speak them) Portuguese, Italian and French.
German natively, English fluently, basic French, a few words Japanese.
I'm a native English speaker, 但是我可以說一點中文。
懂多少？
我的中文知识达到二年级水平，在国内读过书。然后就出国了。
只会打拼音，不懂怎么用手写。
(try without google translate for practice)
我也不會寫則。我快三十歲的時候開始學。我愛人中國人。
Bangla mainly and sometimes English but pretty less in daily life (I do understand more languages but I just don't speak them)
Love 😘
I also have some passive knowledge of Dutch and German... But really passive though
Okay laws are so stupid. If you have native-level English and have been so Americanized that you "have an American Accent", you deserve the choice of getting Citizenship.
Wait I'm still still confused, don't student visas only exist for college? Were you here during teenage years or earlier? Is there even a non-immigrant visa for before college? Like I'm confused af. I thought kids could only come if they are a dependent of a principle immigrant on a greencard visa?
Yeah, being in a country since 18 yrs old does something to you... Fun fact about the accent. Apparently most ppl I've met in the EU assumed I'm from the US, despite me not looking remotely like an average American
US visa system is a bit... Interesting. Student visas also work for PhD programs, which can last a while. And after the study concludes there's an option for ppl to extend it by 3 years (OPT). So one could be into their mid-30s and still be technically on a student visa in the US
You acquired "native-level" English "with an American Accent" when you started learning at age 18?
Bruh, my older brother has been here since 13 and he still sounds so weird...
What does an "Average American" look like?
Honestly my "American-ness" is gonna depend a lot on if my parents are around...
Like imagine I go to Europe for vacation... One moment, I talk to parents in Cantonese and we sound like either Guangdong-Mainlanders or Hong Kongers, then next moment I speak in perfect American English and they're gonna be confused if I'm Chinese or American...
Well... I might be a special case. Most folks I know don't acquire languages that easily
I thought it would be whatever the stereotypes one would get from popular American TV shows... which is not very Asian all-things considered. But I guess the language plays a role too. This is something that is hard to grasp while I was in the US, but Americans as a whole do have a rather distinct English accent that is different from folks from say Britain, Australia, other places where English isn't the primary language, etc...
Swiss German is my native language, and I'm fluent in English. My English pronunciation is garbage though.
Theoretically I can also speak German, but I'm extremely rusty in it and lack confidence, so practically I turn into a stumbling mess that can't say anything without running away to either one of the above two mid-sentence subconsciously.
English, and I have some very poor Gaeilge (Irish).
I want to say spanish, german and english, but the honest answer is none
Native: Spanish Fluent: Portuguese, English I can understand almost everything and can sort of speak it very badly: Italian, Catalan I know very basic things and could probably have survival level communication (although I would have to think hard since I haven't used either in years): Russian, German Know how to say random phrases, generally "Excuse me, I don't speak , do you speak English?": Finnish, French, Dutch.
Currently I'm focusing on learning Catalan.
Flemisch.
I natively speak English. I used to be somewhat competent for my age in French because as a child I was in French classes, I gave those up at some point due to a lack of interest. I've attempted to learn Mandarin, Korean, and German without much commitment. Now I'm learning Spanish which is coming along, but I lack confidence in it.
I suppose I also know Newfinese if that counts.
Native 'merican and immigrant Mexican
Native English. Did 5 years of French in highschool. I picked it back up recently and have been focusing more on colloquial French.
Danish, English, bit of German and Spanish
English, and trying to learn German! Haven't gotten very far yet though. Did a tiny little bit of Japanese (before picking up German) but haven't gotten very far in that either.
Yet.
-- Frost
English and some French (Canadian)
Native English, poor Italian, barely functional Spanish. I can read Italian and Spanish with a bit of effort and understand both pretty well when spoken, but my speaking is severely lacking in both.
Native Polish and somewhat communicative English
Fluent in English; A1 in Spanish, although I do better hearing it than speaking; and then B1 in German, which is what I’m currently learning.
Native English, very basic German from school.
I want to learn another language but can't decide which.
Very very limited farci, almost conversational Spanish, and raised American English.
So i'm fluent in English and a specific proto-sign language that as far as i know only a few hundred people sign. I can order food and ask where the toilet is in about 30-50 languages, depending on the day. My Spanish and German are rusty: i have production issues but my receptive is competent. All my other romance languages (except basque and romanian, i haven't looked at those at all) are decent enough to travel and make an ass of myself. My germanic and nordic languages are worse than my romance ones. Do not ask me anything in Afrikaans I will assume you are drunk.
Since Lemmy apparently has a ton of people who are bilingual — how do I as a 31 year old man that knows enough Spanish to say 'Thank you, where is the bathroom?' and frequently watches anime in subtitles gain another language? I'm open to all suggestions, except bad ones. Specifically I am interested in learning Mandarin because I hate myself.
I'm a native Cantonese and Mandarin speaker and I'll be brutally honest, you need a huge motivation, or else you will struggle to be fluent.
Not just because you like the aesthetics, or like the idea of being bilingual...
What are you gonna even use the language for.
For example, you might wanna learn Japanese for better experience enjoying Anime...
My parents came to the US as adults.
My dad has been in the US for... 16 years... still a non citizen and never really learned English
Meanwhile, mom needs it to do bussiness... investments... and stuff... so she has to learn it... She knows enough to become a citizen...
The biggest thing is IMMERSION. Even then, dad never learner it...
My parents barely understand me lol. Since I only know 2nd grade level of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin share similar vocaublary)... despite being a native speaker.
A westerner is gonna struggle a lot with the tones...
I was "luckly" enough to be just at the perfect time of 8 years old so I know enough basics of Chinese before emigraring... so my brain is in between two worlds.
If I was born in the US, idk if I could manage to learn it.
IMO Mandarin is gonna be tough since Chinese shows are sooo boring... soo cliche... predictable story is gonna kill the will to learn... (unless you love bad tv drama lol)
Ask your self: What are you gonna use Mandarin for? (Also: do you also wanna learn the writing too? Since its logographics, much harder.) Just as a trophy? Or actually gonna regularly have a use for it?
Well, to answer your primary question — many of the people on the team I work with speak... it's either Cantonese or Mandarin, I think they told me Mandarin but I'm not entirely sure. It isn't something that would necessarily help me on a professional level, but it would help me on a personal level with many of them.
That's genuinely my motivation, I don't really care about 'seeming' bilingual — this is mostly to bring me closer to people who have helped me at work.
I mean the best way to achieve your goal of personal connection is just asking them to teach you.
I guess that's true, I have actually mentioned it to a few of my coworkers – they all had a reaction that more or less spoke 'there simply isn't enough time for that' lol.
Tangentially, there's also this bilibili show called ling long reincarnation that, whether I'm stupid for liking it or not, is awesome. The thing about it is that I've always felt like there's something lost in translation about the show, or there are themes that I'm simply unaware of due to... well an overall lack of knowledge about Chinese language and culture, I suppose.
Idk, full immersion would be best like you said — I just have no idea where I'd find that in California. I'm sure there are places, but then there's the extra layer of somehow finding enough time to actually absorb the language through immersion. Perhaps I'll just take up Spanish lol, I always did well in it in school and it's close enough to English. I think it would probably be much easier to find people who speak Spanish here.
I speak native English (Traditional) and am fairly proficient in Swedish, having learnt it for a few years. I still often make grammatical mistakes though
Hungarian, French, English at native and C2+
German at B1-B2
And I can somewhat understand written Spanish and Italian
That's the French. My fiancée can do that too as a francophone
Exactly, it’s very nice when seeing Spanish comments online and it seems very impressive to people who don’t speak romance languages
Yeah, it's honestly a lot easier to read colloquial romance language writing than it is to listen to it. Here in Québec as an anglo québécois I always still struggle with my listening comprehension regardless of if its within my spoken or reading level, accents and speeds are always a pain. I know this is doubly bad for Spanish which can be spoken insanely fast.
English, Russian, Serbo-Chroatian, a bit of Ukrainian. Very little of Deutsch.
English and passable Spanish
German is my first language, and also my third. When I started school I had to learn English; over the years I didn’t speak much German and I have forgotten a lot. Now I have started to re-learn German again.
Also bits of French, Spanish, Esperanto, Latin, that I picked up or started learning over the years.
English (Native), French (B1-B2 depending on the day), and just started trying to learn Ukrainian
english and korean. i'd like to learn more but i'm too lazy tbh
English, some Spanish.
I'm pretty shy so I don't really do small talk with anyone Spanish even though I live here. I can get by obviously but it's nowhere near conversational.
English, bad english and worse Finnish.
Kidding, after 20 years in Finland my Finnish is just bad.
American English with a specialty in the dialect of American Regulatory Legalese.
Spanish, Arabic, and Irish I used to be able to read and write, but was always terrible at understanding any of them spoken.
I learned bits of German by proxy from having friends stationed at Heidelberg.
I know 2 languages I'm 100% confident. I know another one where I'm 75% confident that I'll understand and can reply in an understandable way. I know another one 25% I can get by for daily basic things. And I know one where I only know the swear words.
fart and cum mostly
fluent in both, I presume?