How Many Languages Do You Know?

[DivineMeia]

Actually, according to most studies, English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Coming from speaking Japanese, I can definately agree. Japanese was a very difficult language to learn, but to speak English with accuracy it takes years and years of study. Growing up in an English/Gaelic/Japanese speaking family didn't help much, either, but even the conversational part of speaking English is difficult to some. The problem is, English developed from overuse of different languages, combining roots from latin, Russian, Greek, German, even Gaelic and Japanese, and making them into different words. It's difficult to narrow English down to one language, unlike other languages that sprung from only that language itself, such as Russian, or Gaelic, or a higher class form of Japanese, without the Chinese influences. Those are difficult languages indeed, but easy to continue with once you pick up the basics. As for English, the basics change so often that it can no longer be classified as one language. Though it's not admitted, I find that English can be subdivided into smaller languages with their own certain slang and drawls. It's difficult for me to explain in writing, but I can explain it well in voice. Perhaps I'll record a voice memo and upload it sometime... but I'll leave it at that for now.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

The intentional misuse of the English language is one of the top things that irritate me on these forums. I wish that everyone on the forums would completely ignore any request for help from someone who writes like that.

What if we simply start deleting such threads?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Or move them to the Spanish forums

 

[Jesse_hz]

We should have a script that checked if the thread title only consisted of the word "help" and not allow the thread to be posted.

BINARY NUMBER ALERT

RealBlackStuff: Posts: 8,192

 

[tifc8lraz]

I speak Russian (native) , English , Latvian. I don't think that English is harder to learn than Russian.

Другой человек, который говорит на русском языке! Я изучаю это (мой друг - из Сибири). Хорошо, я, использовал переводчика . Я узнал российское настоящее время, большинство прошлого, и будущего. Я только нуждаюсь в словаре и глаголах.

 

[zephead]

Coming from speaking Japanese, I can definately agree.

i can only imagine what it must be like to write in chinese or japanese...so many charachters to choose from!

 

[DivineMeia]

It's not really a matter of choice, to be exact. Each character, though it may be the same word, has a different meaning applied to the word. That's the hard part.

 

[SaltWaterHippo]

Believe it or not but I forgot Chinese so I'm down to 1

When I was a kid I lived in Malaysia where I learned Chinese, then I moved to the UK and forgot it when I went threw primary school.

 

[DivineMeia]

That's actually alot of people's problems. They learn a language when they're young, but they don't actually apply it for most of their life. So, it's forgotten. I had to apply all 3 of my known languages for most of my life, so I retained the information. But talk about schizophrenia... I hear myself think in 3 different languages sometimes. It's scary. Haha.

 

[mailpup]

I speak English but I did study Spanish and German in school. I've forgotten much of it. I also can understand some simple Japanese.

 

[SaltWaterHippo]

That's actually alot of people's problems. They learn a language when they're young, but they don't actually apply it for most of their life. So, it's forgotten. I had to apply all 3 of my known languages for most of my life, so I retained the information. But talk about schizophrenia... I hear myself think in 3 different languages sometimes. It's scary. Haha.

haha that must be pretty weird, when I moved here my mum (Whos Malaysian) tried to speak it to me to keep it in my head but I didnt bother since no one else spoke it and I just forgot. But now my English is much better than hers but I understand its because she thinks in Chinese then translates it into English so her sentence structure e.t.c can be pretty weird at times (Unless you can think in Chinese too )

 

[beef_jerky4104]

I speak English, some Spanish and some Dutch.

I need to learn to speak Dutch better, Holland is my home country.

 

[tifc8lraz]

I am trying to start and think in Spanish, being in my third year of it, I know everything but the pluperfect including the subjunctive mood. It's weird too, because sometimes, I'll start to think in a mix and continue, and then have to switch my brain over back to English.

A few summers ago, I studied the Russian Alphabet, and some words, and on the first day of my second year of Spanish, the teacher asked me, in Spanish, if I was in Spanish 2, and I replied "Da", which is Russian for yes. I was pretty embarassed, thus finding a seat and hoping that people would stop laughing .

 

[marcuskarl73]

Since I was born and raised in Germany I'm fluent in german , apperently I speak english as well ,and after a few shots of Vodka I'm told that I speak gibberish as well