And what is some media you enjoy in that language?
I am fluent in pig-latin
I can hold a little conversation using American Sign Language (ASL). 🤟🏻
I’m brushing up on my Spanish (I took 4 years of it in high school) and just now started learning Vietnamese.
Like many folks here, English is my first language (which makes all the others foreign to me).
I like to read stuff in Japanese. I started with comic books because all the pictures are helpful, but I also have more than a few novels. I've only ever read one book in Spanish, and it was years ago. At this point my Spanish is mostly gone.
My Latin, meanwhile, was only ever conversational. Not a lot of media in Latin anyway! Beats me why Mom thought it was an important subject.
My German's a little better than my Spanish, but not by much. I enjoy German music.
My Russian and French are worse than my Spanish, and I only ever watched movies in them anyway—probably that study was a waste of time. Though I did enjoy it! So maybe not.
Languages are cool.
2 different dialects of Chinese, Basic Swedish, Norwegian and French Fluent in swearing in at least ten languages Love watching movies in most languages.
I am fluent in English and Spanish, and am currently learning French.
Once I learn a language it is no longer foreign to me so I am not fluent in any foreign language.
@FunCartel: I never thought of it like that before. Funny and thought-provoking. I like that.
Cool thread! 🤗 I'm fairly fluent in German, maybe conversational-ish in Spanish. My French and Dutch are.....meh; they need a good bit of work. My Latin is still fairly decent, but it's been a long time. I can read new testament/konie Greek. Trying to see how much classical Hebrew and Portuguese I can get into my increasingly thick skull now. 🤣
I have an intermediate knowledge of Japanese and am learning it now. It's my major.
I am much better at reading and listening to Japanese than speaking and writing, but I can do some of all 4.
I took French for a couple of years in high school and have enjoyed using it on travels. I took Japanese for two semesters in University but was so focused on my other intense classes I didn't give it the attention it needed, so I'm definitely a beginner still. Taking the summer off and going to language school in a foreign country is one of those things I wish I did.
@DaringSprinter How did you learn Japanese? And how did you learn so many languages? I myself know a fair amount of Japanese.
@AGnihon:
最初は自分で勉強しました. それから日本人の先生から学んでいました, それからもっと独習をしました. １か月で日本に練習しました. 今は本とかからまた独習をしています. 日本語の知識は未だ未だです!
At first I studied on my own. After that, I learned from a Japanese teacher, and then did some more self-study. I practiced in Japan for a month. Now I'm learning on my own again, from books and things. My Japanese knowledge still has a long way to go!
I'm not fluent in most of the languages I listed, by any means. I'm just naturally curious, and picked up some stuff (and also lost some of it again). I was also lucky enough to be part of a homeschool co-op that had some useful connections, and related to a sibling with money to burn who wanted a cheap translator for a cool vacation.
CuddleComfort Ueno-koen under the cherry blossoms meetup or Niseko ski chalet meetup anyone? 😂
I'm fluent in Russian 😁
@DaringSprinter Latin is the most important language in western and global society, other than English, for three unrelated reasons.
Firstly, it was a (or the) lingua franca of the Mediterranean and western Europe for two thousand years. Most of our culture's history is in Latin. Its influence on legal terms - and indeed legal concepts - is huge, perhaps bigger than all other "foreign" languages put together. In other words our entire society is built on Latin.
Secondly, it is the basis of the Romance languages, a significant language sub-group with perhaps as many as 40 distinct languages, depending on how you count them, including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. If you know Latin, learning any of these is either a breeze or pointless, depending on the level of skill required. Furthermore, its loan words infest many other languages. You don't have to spend long with an English etymological dictionary to realise how significant it is.
Thirdly, it has a relatively simple and consistent structure, by linguistic standards. This makes it easy to understand how languages work in general, which can be enormously helpful in improving literacy standards. A decent understanding of Latin for example, is extremely helpful in understanding how English works.
Any of these would be nearly sufficient on their own. Together, they are overwhelming.
I’ve studied French, Spanish, and Italian. I used to be pretty fluent in Spanish but, unfortunately, have forgotten most of it due to not speaking it. Was less fluent in Italian but could get by. Alas, have not spoken Italian in many years and now can barely exchange pleasantries.
Have picked up a few words and phrases of Russian and Croatian and learned the Cyrillic alphabet but, again, have forgotten most of it.
I know some Spanish, but not even close to fluent. I can understand more than I can speak, since I tend to forget words and conjugations unless I hear someone else say them. I took a semester of beginning Japanese years ago... and got a D so I don't remember much. Lol. Been doing some beginning Norwegian (Bokmal) on DuoLingo recently. Does Java count?
@CuddleDuncan: Well, I guess my mom made one right decision. That explains why I tend to pick up certain languages so easily! Latin in early childhood.
Thank you.
@DaringSprinter yes she did!
@DaringSprinter 僕もあなたのようにずっと独習していましたけど今はやっと初めて大学で勉強する事が出来るようになりました。日本語の小説が結構読みにくいですね。よく読んでいると止まって単語を調べなければならないからね。普段、どんな読み物を読みますか。
I can speak a little bit of German. Partly because of school, but also listening to Rammstein 😅
Latin. I learned some of it growing up by going to the Traditional Latin Mass. Then studied it for two years at college. Also took Spanish in high school and college. Also know some ancient Greek and Hebrew from biblical studies.
I took four years of Latin and can figure out many words in other languages I have never studied. Latin is a dead language that is very much alive.
@TNNative very cool 😀 I’ve always been dumbfounded by that skill set 👏🏽
I don't think Latin is dead. It still seems to be Roman around.
@Btown 🤣
Was raised Catholic back in day and the Mass was spoken in Latin. Also the Catholic Schools taught Latin as a regular subject. Then went to Public Schools where Latin was a class available to take. Talk about an easy A by that time lol.
French is my mother tongue, so I guess the foreign language I know is english! 😝 But on a serious note I would love to learn Spanish or German!
My middle finger seems to communicate well in all languages.