what foreign languages do you speak?

[storm]

english is my native language but my family is polish, so I can understand it almost perfectly - except for slang, dialect, curse words, the sort of things I don't encounter often in my own house, ha - and read it, albeit very slowly. speaking it is... a crapshoot, I get flustered and I know what to say but my memory and ability to get all the sounds in the right order fly out the window, especially when interacting with my grandmother, who only speaks polish and is. not an easy person to be around

I know a bit of japanese from some courses, though I can only read and write hiragana, and I also have a deep-rooted knowledge of french from canadian bilingualism + extended french classes, but my extended french school was very much the worst and I deliberately let my skills erode out of resentment for the next decade. whoops!

 

[Hydreigon25]

今日はいい日です

 

[Zori]

今日はいい日です

Today is an ii day?
me just piecing it together with my equally bad mandarin

 

[Hydreigon25]

@Seshas

今日はいい日です is Japanese for Today is a good day.

 

[kyeugh]

Unfortunately I'm not strong in any language other than English, but I'm learning German in the hope of being able to move there for work after I graduate. Wherever possible I try to play video games or watch TV in German, for the immersion. (Unfortunately German translations of things are often... not great.) Before the pandemic I went to a conversation practice group too, but, well. Hope my speaking hasn't atrophied too much.

are you much of a reader? it helped me a lot to read german translations of books i’ve already read in english. harry potter is a good one since they’re basically children’s books to start but become increasingly complex.

 

[Mr. Ultracool]

I'm a native German speaker, but I also speak English fluently. Also, I had French in school for a while, but I'm pretty bad at it

 

[sanderidge]

i only speak english! i don't feel like i'm anywhere near fluent in any other language.

i have a household understanding of korean (enough to understand what christmas presents my parents buying, or the fact that my dad is talking about company politics, but not enough to follow along with said politics or to talk intelligently on the subject myself; i cannot talk to my grandparents it's terrifying). i took french in high school (apparently my accent is good! i don't remember any french!). through a series of weird events i had latin from third to eighth grade so i have things like really basic grammar (case endings and some verb things) drilled pretty well into me and i can get along with basic translations if i have a dictionary. i'm learning welsh on duolingo because i'm gay, at a level where i can say things like mae'r ceffyl yn y ysbyty but not, like, have a Conversation about said horse in the hospital. also i don't remember the grammatical genders of anything so a lot of the mutations are beyond me. i have less japanese than korean but i can still fairly reliably get the basic gist of a song or spoken dialogue (i cannot read in any capacity). finally, i can say i am a watermelon in mandarin! that's it.

 

[Murkrow]

i'm learning welsh on duolingo because i'm gay

At least you can now talk about Owen and his parsnips

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

I’ve been practicing Spanish on Duolingo! I took it in high school so I have some base memory of the general structure/grammar. I’m attempting to play Let’s Go Eevee in Spanish too. With the words/grammar I know so far, I’m fairly confident reading and semi-confident writing, but listening is much harder and speaking is impossible haha. I get so self-conscious! There’s a group at work that does Spanish lessons at lunch, and I’m at the point now where I feel like I know enough basics to participate confidently :D So once that’s an option again...

I learned a bit of Italian for a trip to Italy several years ago, but I don’t remember very much of it and I can’t be certain I’m not accidentally thinking about Spanish since they’re so similar ha.

There’s also like, half a dozen languages that I think would be super cool to learn and speak, but I’m starting with Spanish because 1) one at a time might work better for me and 2) Spanish is the most practical second language for me to learn right now and there’s been multiple opportunities for me to use it! But I couldn’t because I didn‘t know it. Yay for learning!

 

[qenya]

Unfortunately I'm not strong in any language other than English, but I'm learning German in the hope of being able to move there for work after I graduate. Wherever possible I try to play video games or watch TV in German, for the immersion. (Unfortunately German translations of things are often... not great.) Before the pandemic I went to a conversation practice group too, but, well. Hope my speaking hasn't atrophied too much.

are you much of a reader? it helped me a lot to read german translations of books i’ve already read in english. harry potter is a good one since they’re basically children’s books to start but become increasingly complex.

oh, yeah! someone else suggested that to me a couple months ago and I completely forgot about it until now. will definitely look into that, thank you!

 

[haneko]

English is my first language and it's the only one I speak fluently. I can speak my ancestral language at an advanced-intermediate sort of level, though; my vocabulary is small and my accent's off, though my understanding and grammar are fine.

I learnt French in school but I've managed to forget most of it. Same with Spanish.
I know a tiny bit of Japanese from watching too much anime but I wouldn't claim I can speak it to any extent.

If I was going to learn a new language I'd go for Japanese or German, probably.

 

[I liek Squirtles]

I'm from Puerto Rico, so I speak Spanish as well. I know a little bit of French and even less German. If anyone needs help with Spanish homework, I'm always willing to help!

 

[EthioBromide]

I can speak Amharic, which is Ethiopia's main Language, and a small amount Italian since my parent knew that too.