Is English your first language?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neovia

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.

---

If my memory serves me right, English is not mandatory language in Finland, though almost everyone studies it at school and it's difficult to find anyone who doesn't.

So. English is not my first language, Finnish is. :)

english is my first language, even though Irish is my native language. i've been learning Irish since i was four but because i speak english everyday, i've more or less forgotting my irish. i've started to use some irishs words in my everyday speach and i'm starting to remember some of it. i also Learnt french in Secondary school but have only ever had to use it once or twice before now.
Heres a small bit of Irish. Egnore the spelling please!
Cunnas ata tu? How are you?
IS mise Niamh. Niamh is anim dom. i am Niamh/ Niamh is my name.
Cead mile Failte. A Hundred Thousand welcomes
Failte do bhaile atha cliath. welcome to Dublin
La Gra. Love
Slan go foill. goodbye for now.

:D

English is my native language and sadly the only one I am fluent in. I was always interested in learning Irish and my ex husband is from Co. Donegal. All his family are still there and we visited one year for a family wedding. My then sisters in law were discussing a party they had gone to and mentioned they had "good craic". I was like "oh my! I don't use drugs!" I thought they meant crack, like crack cocaine. :blush: Yeah, they got a good laugh at me....:lol:

I was brought up in a spanish country but at the same time english was my first language until I was 7 when I began to be taught both spanish and english:)

Italian here :wave:

Nice to meet you Gracie. Welcome to lit net. I'm American of Italian descent. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kathycf

English is my native language and sadly the only one I am fluent in. I was always interested in learning Irish and my ex husband is from Co. Donegal. All his family are still there and we visited one year for a family wedding. My then sisters in law were discussing a party they had gone to and mentioned they had "good craic". I was like "oh my! I don't use drugs!" I thought they meant crack, like crack cocaine. :blush: Yeah, they got a good laugh at me....:lol:

---

Hehehe! Yup they got you alright! Theres another one that got me. When i went to college i only went about an hour away from Dublin in a place called Dundalk. One night i stayed up to go to the freshers ball and meet up a a few people from my course in the Imperial hotel bar. One of the girls kept on going on about being stoned. Obviously being from dublin i thought she meant she was high and couldn't believe she was saying it freely in a bar full of people. it wasn't till later that i discovered that in Dundalk when someone says they're stoned it means they're drunk! Woops!
:lol:

arabic is my native lang.:yawnb:

Spanish here

I know english from school and High school, but i don`t practice it at all..., and right now i`m learning French...:blush:

I come from China, so Chinese is my first language.
Now I've been studying English for almost 10 years and i'm continuing the study of English Literature in my college.
I hope my English is not that poor. If so, i won't come into this forum.
Believe me, i can do literrally as well as other native speakers do.

English first
but am doing Spanish GCSE and know some french after studying it for three years

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Virgil

Nice to meet you Gracie. Welcome to lit net. I'm American of Italian descent. :)

---

Italian from where?
Any other italian around here?

My native language is German, but I've been learning English since I was 10 years old (I'm now 25) and I'm studying English Literature at university, too. :) I speak a bit of French, a very tiny bit of Spanish, and I can read Dutch, but don't speak it, except for some very basic phrases for when I go to a Dutch market in a town close to my parents' home, they live near the Dutch border.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eventide

Aw, I completely understand 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!

---

Thank you for your encouraging me! I also believe that everything is possible, so ,OK, I decide to pick it up again next year, Because I really like that language.:)
and I wish you can help me then when I come across a difficulties,that would be very nice of you. :blush:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by johnnyboy

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).

---

you are really good at learning languages ! Hope you will get on well with Chinese!:)

My First language is Spanish, but I have learned to speak English. :D

First language is Finnish, but my education has always been in English until lately.

No, my first language is Arabic- precisely Lebanese.

The English language has become a common language all along the world.

Russian is my first language.

Newbie here,
Bengali (Bangla) is my first language, but i can speak English n Hindi as well.

So you are Indian :D I can understand Bangla. :)

hah! my first language is bangla as well, as it should be, since i m from Bangladesh! :)

Welcome Symphony :wave:

I just understand Bangla in bits and pieces :)

Hi symphany, litr girl and all! Welcome to the forum.

We are having so many people from South Asia! :D

My first language is italian

My first language is Bulgarian.

It would be great to speak in different languages!
My native language is russian, then i was studyin english, then german, now i'm studying spanish and trying not to forget previous languages :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by adilyoussef

Good thread! Thanks Logos. Behind any language there is a culture. Although we all use English here in these forums, the sentances we write are affected by our culture. For example, when somebody are delighted with somthing he/she might say "This warms my heart." In other cultures where the weather is hot another person might express it differently, like in my country, we say "This frozen my heart." In addition there are some "feaux amis" in a languge. For example, "sonsible" in French means sensitive, and many mix it with "sensible" which has an other meaning. That's a real problem because while discussing some issue people misundrestand each other due to simple mistakes.

In Arabic there is no capital letters. That's why some Arabic native speakers might forget using the capital letter in proper names or in the beginning of a sentance. That is a mistake I did when discussing a religious issue: I wrote "jesus" instead of "Jesus", and one of the forums member was angry with that. I'm sorry again.

English is neither my 1rst nor my 2nd language. I speek Moroccan Arabic as a native language, my second is Classical Arabic, for they are different in terms of structure, one is VSO structure and the other is sometimes VSO and SVO structure, the third langauge I speek sinse I was 6 years old is French. English is the 4th one and I've started studying it since 2001. I don't speek it a lot for that it is not used here in my country as French or Spanish are. I use it only in class, when reading a novel, or sometimes in the internet.

---

Thank Allah I'm not the only Arabian here:D

Well Logos, English isn't my first language but I'm using it here and there on account of studying it privately. I'm studying English Literature and living in Jordan if you know it. I dare to admit I'm not that very good at it but at least I understand nearly 80-85% while reading or hearing this language. My 1st language is Arabic but as Adel says it's used as a 2nd one due to speak Jordanian Arabic. However, we all speak Arabic differently but we understand it as if we were having the same tongue!

Since two years I started to learn English, I became one of the best students at my faculty. Moreover, I do some researches to continue my studies until being a "Professor" one day if God lets me do so.

Online-literature Networks is one of the best sites I've ever met since beginning my studies and it's my home page even if I don't post here a lot. It's also my #1 English site and I like to browse member's topics and thoughts.

Thank you. :thumbs_up

my first language is Arabic, Egyptian. I've been learning English since I was 5 years old & learnt French too, but as I didn't use my French a lot, which I really regret now, not using a language makes u almost forget it!

Yes, English is my prime language. Learnt French, German, Italian, and Portuguese in my spare learning time

English is my second language but in the unenlightened State that is this country I never received a day's education in my mother tongue.

My first language is Italian and I have been studying English, German and Spanish( which is the one I am quite bad at, unfortunately...) up to now.
I love languages..they really open your mind!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ennison

English is my second language but in the unenlightened State that is this country I never received a day's education in my mother tongue.

---

That is horrible. Every country should teach it's children its language. It is your heritage. It is one of the most important things that make up you. What country are you from ennison?

Scotland. Tentative steps have been made in recent years to alter the state of affairs to which I referred - too late for me though.

Ha, my condolences ennison :p

English is my first language, but I'm okay at several others. I think it's amazing and wonderful that so many people here speak several languages!

Ha Logos your wit is lovely. I'd ask you out but an ocean separates us.

My first language is Chinese.But I`ve learned English for a long time.

My first language is Arabic

Well my first lanuage is Navajo.