First language: French.
Studying English in College but I guess I'll only be fluent when I live in an English speaking country.
Trying hard though... :P
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First language: French.
Studying English in College but I guess I'll only be fluent when I live in an English speaking country.
Trying hard though... :P
Hullo all,Quote:
Originally Posted by Logos
Nope, english is but my second language. My native tounge is swedish, and I can manage a bit of french and german as well.
/Claes
Something just occured to me: In spite of the fact that I am a native Swede, I would wager that at least 50% of my reading is in English... What about the rest of you?
/Claes
[off-topic]hey Claes i think your from my town's twin city :) I'm from Erlangen, Germany :) the bus i take to go to univ terminates at Eskilstuna Street.[/off-topic]
my first language is German. been studying English for God knows how many years (I'm not a mathematician :)). 100% percent of my reading (Lit, not newspapers or reference) is in English.... i'm writing my novel in English because it just feels more 'natural' ... i'm not saying my English is all that great, it's just I can't express myself in German...
anyone else feel this way?
hey, I'm surprised there's 60% non-native speakers in here. I thought i would be much less. so that probably means everybody's English is pretty good
It's offtopic but still ...Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
I think writing in English is far easier than doing the same in German. In German there are much more expression, more nuances to use and I believe that makes it difficult for a lot of people to express themselves in that language. In comparison English is fairly easy. I use it lots of times myself when writing a story.
Ad Claes' question: I'd say 60, 70 % would be about right for me. I use the internet frequently and there, almost everything is in English.
Erlangen? Well, hello there :nod: . I haven't ever actually been there, but at least back in my flying days (late 70's to early 80's, the Erlangen visitors used to come to our local glider club and fly with us. Perhaps they still do? Anyway, I've taken many Erlangen youths for a spin over Eskilstuna. They were always great company... Really nice kids. :thumbs_up [QUOTE=SleepyWitch]Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
Not really, but I get your point. You're used to English, so English it is. Hardly surprising, given the circumstances. I have to say though, that you should take care not to leave your native tounge on the backburner. You will always need it, you know.Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
Yes, events seem to indicate that it is. Compared to other forums I have to say that I see few king size mistakes here.Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
That is certainly a factor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themis
All things considered, English is all around us every day, so I guess we'd better learn...
/Claes
oooh, exactly 40% yes, 60% no.
Not a total surprise to me, especially after being on the site for so long, I just wish that some people wouldn't make assumptions or judgements about a person's use of english in a text dominated medium :)
Although.. blatent use of text or chat speak is really irksome :lol: I've been exposed to many different languages in my life and travelled to many countries, I think it's really helped in my perception and understanding of others.
Nope, my native language is finnish, secondary english, and somewhat decend swedish. Not really proud of the last one, for swedish is that mandatory crap everyone is forced to swallow in finnish schools.
I hear you. Learning in general, and languages in particular, works a lot better if it is done on a volountary basis. We have a lot of people with finnish ancestry here in Eskilstuna btw.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wirhe
/Claes
Just a bump for all the newbies :)
Anglophone reporting.
To learn : French (I have some, but I would like to be fluent), Icelandic (I want to live there) and Russian (so I can read Russian literature in the original).
German it is (surprise, suprise), bit of French (used to be good but has deteriorated hellishly), Russian (which I intend to brush up a bit) and Latin (only for reading and writing purposes of course).
When I speak I speak British English which I prefer anyway because I have always loved the sound. My favourite accents are Glaswegian and American as spoken in the southern states (it's almost like Saxon here, it sings). And I can't watch an undubbed Kevin Costner film 'cos I cannot bear his voice and way of speaking at all.
Hindi, is my mother tounge.
I speak and think in Hindi most of the time, and I am able to put across my point in Englisn too, so, I know enough of this language to have a simple conversation. What happens in my case is, since I dont speak English much, unless required in client communication or a professional talk with someone, my thoughts are mostly in Hindi, that have to undergo a translation process and then come out as English. Or shall I say, other people can make sense of my babbling :D
As for writing, I think I am better in writing English than Hindi, as most of our studies and text books are in English (British), unless one studies in a Hindi medium school/college.
And yes, I do understand my native language, I could speak it too, but mostly with my grandparents.
I have also studied Sanskrit, but am not fluent in writing or speaking.
ENGLISH Here,and Zulu. though I can't wait for January when I start French lessons.
I think its such a passionate language :ladysman:
au revior
I'm from Japan. That makes me a native speaker of Engrish.
No, it's Croatian. I want to learn Russian, but it always slips away from me:bawling: . Because of that, this year I'm planing to improve my German; my English is OK, I guess.
I am speaking German though many people in my country wouldn´t agree with that statement. I am living near to the french boarder so my ablities with the french language are pretty good, too.
Hausa here. Do you know this language? It's almost the most propagated language in Western Africa nowadays. I'm pround of my being Hausa native speaker because of this reason and many more e.g BBC, VOA, Dutchwele, CRI, IRAN, EGYPT, etc all these international medias brodcast programs in this language. So, I can here say, in spite of Siwahili, my MT is the giant in our land-AFRICA.
My mother tounge is Swedish, and although I've been reading English in school for about 8 years and watching english tv almost every day, I still don't speak it as good as I would expect me to...!
It's very nice to see so many from different countries and places... When I joined I thought almost everyone would be english/american!
For how long have all of my fellow foreign-language-speakings been studying English?
Arabic is my mother tongue. In Tunisia we use to stufy Frensh at early level in primary school and we speak both frensh and english in our everyday life. English is used to be taught at secondary school. For my case I did choose specialize in English and more specifically in literature. I love both British and American spoken English but deep inside i prefer British one
Thai...and I'm not so good at English too. I've been studying English since I could remember, but I don't think I improve much since I'm speaking Thai all the time. It's funny I want to speak English fluently, but everytime I see a foriegner I'll pretend that I don't know English at all.
I'm from Belgium, so my mother tongue is Dutch, and I learned French, German, English and a little bit of Spanish at school. Right now I'm studying English at university level. I would still like to know Greek, Russian and something Scandinavian, but I don't think I'll ever manage on my own (without a school environment I mean).
Btw, I thought this was an all-american board, It's weird so many 'foreign' people visit it :).
Mother tongue: Malay. My father worked at Malaysian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and I was sent to international school and went to english summer classes. I wasn't that good in speaking English back then (I was 9-10 years old at the time), but I could write well. And now, I'm 17... I'm getting better at it. I love to participate in something that requires the skill of speaking in English; especially speech and public speaking. But then again, I have my times when I'd be lost for words. :smash:
Another Finnish native here. I speak moderate English, too. But my Swedish is really crap because I only went to those mandatory courses :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Wirhe
To answer Eufrosyne's question, I've studied English for ten years now. And of course I have heard a lot of it in movies/TV shows and used English websites, like most people these days.
No.My mother tongue is Greek.
But I have been studying English for approximately 10!!! years!;p Still..my accent is horrible!:blush: :(
I also speak German which is my favourite language though I hate its grammar ;p and a bit of French.I think I am going to start studying Spanish,because it seems a very easy language and is very useful.Besos!;)
hallo, my mother language is Greek.
Evi
:D so your 1st toungue is greek?
Miss Tenderness,
Yeap, my first language is Greek,i also speak English and Romanian. And i can understand French, as i had French lessons for many years but o havent practised the language for years. Last May it happened to be in Paris , so it was the first time after ages that i had to remember it again.What about you? Which is your first language?
Evi
No, my mother tongue is Portuguese. :)
my first langauge is Arabic:) nice meeting you,Evi.Quote:
Originally Posted by Evi
you too,Eventide:)
Many people say that they hate Swedish because it's mandatory, but so is English, which no one really seems to hate. I don't think most of Finnish students hate Swedish because it's mandatory, it just isn't in "fashion" unlike English is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wirhe
My mother tongue is Spanish, but for my job I speak English and French most of the time.
Macedonian is my mother tongue but I also speak (not perfecly, but I can have a normal chat...) English and French. And also, Bulgarian (coz it is simular to Macedonian) and I can read on Serbian, but cant talk:)
LOL I know that feeling. :nod: I m dutch but I hate talking dutch online I type dubble as fast in english and got to edit all the time if I got to type in dutch as english words sneak in and only get cought when I overread my text. My online world is surely english and there my first laguage including all typo's and spelling faulths will always be english. How ever you asked after real life and in there it is still dutch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Koa
I wonder if any of you guys knows Esperanto? :D
just reread this thread and thought well how true...Quote:
Originally Posted by baddad
No,my first language is Chinese.:)
you know,eventide ,I have tried to learn Portuguese last year,but failed to stick on,because I think it too difficult for Chinese ,especially for me:blush: to pronunce some of your language's sound.It's a pity.Quote:
Originally Posted by eventide
My first language is english, but by the time I get out of school I hope to be speaking five languages: english, french, german, and I'm studying spanish (three years) and chinese (just started).
Aw, I completely understand apple jiang. :\Quote:
Originally Posted by apple jiang
For a Portuguese speaker it's very difficult to learn Chinese as well -- the differences are too great. But I do know some brazilians and portuguese who can speak it, although I'm not in the position to say if they do it correctly.
Anyway, I hope you don't give up. Maybe if you practiced it by interacting with Portuguese speakers more (you can count on me, by the way), then it would get less difficult--assuming you didn't before. I'm of the opinion that almost nothing is impossible. ;D
Good luck!