Is English your first language?

[Annamariah]

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.

[Niamh]

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.

[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. Yeah, they got a good laugh at me....

[Evermore]

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

[Gracie61]

Italian here

[Virgil]

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

[Niamh]

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. Yeah, they got a good laugh at me....

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!

[Ranoo]

arabic is my native lang.

[chanitacr]

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...

[godhelpme2]

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.

[Sir_Key]

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

[Gracie61]

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

Italian from where?
Any other italian around here?

[seacloud49]

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.

[apple jiang]

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.

[apple jiang]

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!