Languages in the Playground

[Egiam]

Hey playground! I am continually surprised by how diverse we are. Post which languages you speak/how well you know them!


Me:
-English (First Language)
-Old English (Verily... mayhap it doth not count, but in sooth, I do be most fluent)
-Spanish (I can have a conversation on a simple topic. I can understand much more than I speak)

[Mando Knight]

Thou spoke early Modern English, friend. Old English appears as thus:
Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in geār-dagum,
þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Verily, I would be most impressed if thou couldst prove thy fluency in such language.

I also know a small amount of conversational Spanish and German, a couple of French and Japanese phrases, am rather rusty on my Latin, and know some basic Mando'a.

[Thufir]

Has it been that long since the last languages thread?

Incidentally, Egiam, that there is not Old English. Edit: Ninja'd by someone who actually knows some.

I speak English. I can still remember decent amounts of French and German from GCSEs (A*s in both). I know odd phrases in a few other languages.

If we expand it to singing, however...
I have sung in:
English
French
German
Spanish
Italian
Latin
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Zulu
Swahili
Inca
Russian

[Mando Knight]

Incidentally, Egiam, that there is not Old English. Edit: Ninja'd by someone who actually knows some.
I don't know it, I googled up the first sentence of Beowulf in its original language.

[Egiam]

Hmm...

What (More Phonetic, My grandmother says 'Hwut')

We spear-something in something-days of commoners-something Rule-something...

Verily, thou hast proven me wrong.

(I swear that I have read that sometime before... I give up. Tell me where you found that)

EDIT: Sort-of ninjaed.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

American english and sign language is about it for me.

A few phrases in several dozen others if that counts.

[Winterwind]

Polish and German as native languages (growing up bi-lingually is awesome! :smallbiggrin:).
I'm pretty much perfectly fluent in English.
I've learnt French for a pretty long time at school, and was pretty good in it towards the end; I've forgotten most of it by now, but figure that should I have contact with it once more I'd catch up rather quickly.
Oh yeah, and for one year, I've also learnt Spanish.

[Trog]

English. A little French. At one time I was semi-fluent in it but honestly it has all but faded from lack of use.

[Tequila Sunrise]

English and a hint of spanish.

Btw, does anyone speak Korean? I have something I'd like to settle for my taekwondo instructor; he knows no Korean and I only know the alfabet.

[bluewind95]

Spanish (first language)
English (second language, learned young enough that it's almost a first language too)
French (learned it in high school, I can read it, understand some of it, write a bit of it, and speak a bit less than that)

[Starfols]

My first language is English.
I learned a little Spanish from my father and brother, but have forgotten pretty much all of it.
I also opted out of French to learn Japanese. This is the only other language that I consider myself 'being able to speak'.
A friend of mine has recently started teaching me Dutch.

[Egiam]

Polish and German as native languages (growing up bi-lingually is awesome! :smallbiggrin:).
I'm pretty much perfectly fluent in English.
I've learnt French for a pretty long time at school, and was pretty good in it towards the end; I've forgotten most of it by now, but figure that should I have contact with it once more I'd catch up rather quickly.
Oh yeah, and for one year, I've also learnt Spanish.

:smallbiggrin: You're awesome.






So... how close was my Beowulf translation?

@Mando: (I'm guessing) Is Mando'a the Star Wars Expanded Universe language of the Mandalorians?

[Anuan]

Not very, to what I remember. Not that I know Old English, but I read a side-by-side translation for either advanced or extended English two years ago.

So far 'Hwaet' is untranslatable.

I speak English, used to be decent at Japanese but can now barely remember 'my name is Anuan,' am now starting to learn a little German (Thanks, Mauve Shirt! :smallbiggrin:)

A little Valentine's phrase in Deutsch for the occasion; Mein herzallerleibst freundin, Für dich soll's rote Rosen regnen.

Or, for the more direct people, "Heb dein Hemd ab" :smallamused:

[Kneenibble]

Hwaet is translated as "Yo!" Pretty simple.

You people are really weird. Modern, spoken languages? Really?

[Ashen Lilies]

Thou spoke early Modern English, friend. Old English appears as thus:
Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in geār-dagum,
þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.


อันนี้คืออะไรผมไม่ต้อง-

Rough translation: Old English was pretty weird.
Actual translation: Ha. Cookie for the one who can tell me.

[LemonSkye]

American English is my native language (though I know a smattering of other terms and slang from Canadian English, British English, and Australian English);
I know Spanish as a second language (it's a native language for some of my family members, and I studied it for 5 years in High School. I'm way better at reading it than speaking it, but a little rusty with both);
I know some Japanese (studied it my first semester in college, but the school I transferred to after that didn't offer the class; I can read hiragana, katakana, and some kanji, but am limited to basic conversation);
...and I know a smattering of phrases in Italian, Sicilian (not the same as Italian; it's linguistically separate), French, Portuguese, Irish Gaelic, Mandarin Chinese, and German. However, the above three languages are the only ones I can even come close to forming a coherent sentence in.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I know HTML and am learning PHP, if computer languages count. :smallwink:

[ForzaFiori]

English is the only language I am really fluent in (comes from it being my native tongue)

I've taken 3 years of Spanish, so I can hold down a VERY simple conversation with someone who speaks Spanish with no slang (which is pretty much no one. It'd be like speaking English with no contractions or euphemisms.) I can read it better than I can speak it, and I speak it better than I understand it.

I've had a year of French, so I can understand a word here and there when I read it.

I can count (up to around...20ish) in German and Japanese (used to be a lot more, but I'm out of practice)

Ah, American schooling. Everyone else gets to learn like 4 languages. we get 1 and a half. (including English.)

[Force]

อันนี้คืออะไรผมไม่ต้อง-

Rough translation: Old English was pretty weird.
Actual translation: Ha. Cookie for the one who can tell me.

Thailand ITP, I see.

[THAC0]

Iay eakspay igpay atinlay!

[Kneenibble]

Nonne sunt ecqui latine loqui possunt? Quacumque estis (si quidem ubicumque sitis), fortasse filum nobis nostrum instituendum ut taliter conferamus?

[Blas_de_Lezo]

European Spanish: mother tongue.

European English: fluent level.

Latin (Classic and Medieval): only read, with dictionary.

[Strawberries]

Let's see...

Italian (mother tongue)

My English is passable (at least when I talk or post, no one goes :smallconfused: "huh?")

I once knew ancient latin and greek fairly well, but I forgot most of it (it has been at least 10 yeas since I translated something). For instance, Kneenibble, I understood what you wrote, but the skill to reply in the same language is alas lost to me :smalltongue:

I'd love to learn German. For those who speak it as a second language, is it difficult to learn?

[Egiam]

I've taken 3 years of Spanish, so I can hold down a VERY simple conversation with someone who speaks Spanish with no slang (which is pretty much no one. It'd be like speaking English with no contractions or euphemisms.) I can read it better than I can speak it, and I speak it better than I understand it.



Spaniards have some great expressions/slang.



I'd love to learn German. For those who speak it as a second language, is it difficult to learn?

Same here. My questions is:
Is it practical? Will I have opportunities to use it? In America, I constantly use my Spanish, as we have plenty of immigrants. Will I find use for it in, say, Germany?

[Lioness]

Very fluent in English (native language), and I know enough Japanese to get by quite well. I can also ask you if I can take your boyfriend home, but I think that wont help me.

[Dr.Epic]

My first language is English and I took two years of Spanish.

[Zephykinns]

English, French, Japanese, and Italian. Learning Mandarin soon and I am going for Pure Latin after.

[Castaras]

English, French. Odd words in other languages. Most I can only say and can't spell.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Pretty fluent in normal modern english.
Reasonable at Australian:smalltongue:(Ask Anuan:smalltongue:)
semi-fluent in dutch(native language), but I actually think I'm better at modern (british/)normal english.
I know some french(two fail-years in high school and a dozen summers spent in France).
A little, little bit of german(Can understand some though)(one fail-year in high school, a wintersport vacation there and dutch linguistically being reasonably close to german)
A couple of words/a sentence perhaps in: Italian and Spanish.


But yeah, my first thought was: Another one again? Damn these FB-thread-cycles go fast....

[Seth1221]

Polish as my native language, then English, Latin and now I'm learning French.
Next stop - Japanese - but in the future:smallwink:

[Morty]

Polish as a native language, fluent English which I'm still studying, learning some German, know some French and reasonable Latin.

[AtomicKitKat]

English: I've been told it's better than many native speakers.
Chinese: I'm a native speaker, so I rely on the phonetics to help me type up messages in Chinese on my Nokia, as I can't really write it very well, and I sometimes mangle the grammar/use the wrong words.
Japanese: I can only read the Katakana, and sometimes I know the Kanji pronunciation of Chinese words.
Korean: Recognise a few phrases.
Malay: I can count to 10, and know a handful of basic phrases(some of them overlapping with Arabic)
Greek/Latin: Not really, but having studied the source names of various animals, plants, and such, have some grasp of both.
French: Some.
German: A little.
Russian: A bit.
Spanish: Bits and pieces
Danish/Swedish/Norwegian: Very small amounts.

At the very least, for most languages that I can speak, I know how to say "Do you speak English?".:smalltongue:

[Frozen_Feet]

Finnish is my native language and I'm almost as fluent in English. I can read Swedish and hold simple conversations with hit, but my vocabulray is so narrow it isn't of much use to me. I also know bits and pieces of French, but not much beyond asking for directions or introducing myself.

[B-Man]

I'm well versed in the ways of English as it's my mother-tongue. I understand French well enough to survive in Montréal for a few weeks or provide limited help for Acadians where I work. My Spanish and Italian are a little more limited now-a-days thanks to having not studied either of them since high school.

[Atelm]

Finnish natively, I'm reasonably fluent in English, and conversational in German.

My Swedish is extremely rusty, and getting rustier by the minute, though I can speak enough to get by in a restaurant and an anime store in Swedish as a tested fact, so good enough for me. :smallbiggrin:

I can also read hiragana and katakana and know some kanji and a few of their combinations, along with a small assortment of words and basic phrases of Japanese.

[KuReshtin]

Swedish and English, fluently.
Very slight smattering of German, but nowhere near enough to keep up a conversation.
Random phrases in a bunch of other languages.

And I work in tech support, so I need to be pretty fluent in bulls**t as well.

[Em Blackleaf]

English is my first language (and I do English reallll good).

I'm well into a beginning French class (and my grade tells me I understand French very well), so I can have a simple conversation. I know how to say my name, ask for your name, his/her name, their name and all of your names, where you (they, he/she, all of you and I) come from, how to ask certain specific questions (in four different formal and non-formal ways) and a few other things. So, I'd get by if I went to a French-speaking country, I think.

I understand that the French I know is a little elementary, so I might sound either a little dumb or like a tourist who took a French class. :smalltongue:

EDIT: Like every other kid I know, I can carry on a simple conversation and count to ten in Spanish.

[Kneenibble]

Literra ignota (praeter Fraga, brevius, cui gratiam parvam), suspicere eis coepi, qui se sic etiam censent, haud nullos quidem latinitatem habere. Nisi rescribar tam tenere sinam.

[Thiel]

Is speak Danish and English fluently and I understand German and can speak it well enough to get by.

Given enough time patience and room to wave my arms about, I can "speak" Spanish, French, Italian, Maltese and Polish.