What languages do you speak?

[Hottentot]

Have we had a thread like this recently? I can't remember. Anyway, I'm just curious. This is a large international community, so there are likely to be speakers of many different languages in here too. So: how many languages do you speak and which? Or what languages would you like to learn?

Let's see...

Finnish: Obvious. Dialects too, I'm a fan of those.

English: Can be disputed, but I at least claim to be able to write it. Speaking and pronouncing on the other hand...:oops:

Swedish: Sure. Blame the Finnish school system. Since it's obligatory, I thought I might as well enjoy it and learned to speak it fairly well. Never need to use it anywhere, though, so it gets rusty quickly.

Russian: Trying to wrap my head around it and making slow progress day by day. I just love that language and how it sounds.

Currently considering learning German and Estonian too, but haven't had a chance yet. I have also studied some Spanish, but never really learned to like it.

What about you?

[BossMark]

English
Spanish-Basic
My girlfriend is now learning me Russian and its bloody hard I can tell you :timeout:

[Feuer Frei!]

German and English

[HunterICX]

Dutch, English, Spanish.

Average in Italian and German.

HunterICX

[Paco]

German native speaker
English - Basic
French - Basic

[Jimbuna]

English native speaker
Dutch - basic
Geordie - fluent
Bad - exceptional

[NeonSamurai]

Fluent in French and English, I also understand Spanish reasonably well and can speak it a little.

[TarJak]

Fluent in gibberish and shorthand slurring.:03::Kaleun_Cheers:

[Penguin]

German: native speaker
English: learning since several years
Swedish: learning, still working on the listening comprehension
French: enough to buy baguette and cidre in France
Spanish: more than rusty: no real practice since 20 years

would love to learn Finnish some day, because it sounds cool and has no real use in most parts of the world :)

[the_tyrant]

fluent in english and chinese
all i can say in french is:
Je ne peux pas parler français

[Rockstar]

Fluent in:
Carolinian (I'm really good at it, especially when I've had a few beers in that I cannot be understood by anyone except another North Carolinian)
Minnesotan

Enough to get me trouble or laughed at:
English
Spanish
Haitian Creole

[Herr-Berbunch]

I'm ashamed to say only English :oops: :nope:

I can understand some French, German, Italian, Spanish, but not enough to get by with.

All I learnt at school was that in France or Germany there is always a railway (or bus) station within three streets in any direction! :doh:

My wife can speak fluent French, and can get by well in Spanish and possibly Italian. She also learnt some Russian at school and when she applied to be a military translator she had to learn some several hundred military words in Russian in a weekend. She did, but then never continued down that career path, nor did she find a use for them in civvy street and so they've disappeared down the years.

Fortunately the kids like to speak French and Italian (stepson's just been to Northern Italy), so will not be anywhere near as ignorant as I am.

When I do visit another country, I do try to pick some key words, but they stay in my brain for about a week and then just vanish - including Arabic, Albanian, Spanish, German. Now I work for a Nordic company I'd like to think I'd pick up some of their words, but which language and dialect? :doh:

Finally, it amazes me how good other nationalities can speak English. I appreciate it. I just wish more of us could return the favour.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Finnish: native speaker
English: average
Swedish: written - poor, spoken - awful
Danish & Norwegian: limited understanding of written text, own production - nonexistent
Finnish sign language: average

What I would like to learn?
French - would make communication with family easier
German - same as above
Italian - same as above

[Oberon]

I speak:
English, Cockney, Suffolk, tiny bit of Polish, small bit of Russian, terrible German (ask Schroeder), passable French, couple of words of Afrikaans, and a bit of Japanese.

I'd like to learn Russian, German and Japanese.

[Oberon]

Finally, it amazes me how good other nationalities can speak English. I appreciate it. I just wish more of us could return the favour.

This! I always say to people when they apologise for their English or for not understanding something I've said that their English is much better than my whatever. :yep:

[Sailor Steve]

Have we had a thread like this recently?
Recently? No. I remember seeing one several years ago, but that doesn't count.

My languages?

English.
I can swear a little in Spanish, and I can give submarine command orders in German with no American accent, or so I've been told. Probably because I'm parroting what I heard in Das Boot.

Fluent in gibberish and shorthand slurring.:03::Kaleun_Cheers:
It's true! I've tried to talk to him!
:rotfl2:

[Herr-Berbunch]

...I can give submarine command orders in German with no American accent, or so I've been told. Probably because I'm parroting what I heard in Das Boot.

The problem was, it was the English dubbed version! :03:

[Sailor Steve]

The problem was, it was the English dubbed version! :03:
D'OH! :damn:

[Lord Justice]

Fleuent in English, Kings English, Bending English, Scottish, Glasgwegian.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Scottish, Glasgwegian.

I've some Scots friends on Facebook, and I can't understand a bloody word they write sometimes! Face to face, talking, I can cope with if I squint and tilt my head to one side. But writing, nah! :nope:

[CCIP]

Russian: my first and still main spoken language. The language I think/feel in by default.

English: about on par with Russian. Where Russian is more my personal language, English is more my working language (and I do mean that - I'm a communication design specialist and writing/public speaking teacher in English). I'm a little more articulate in spoken Russian, and conversely more articulate in written English.

German: Actually I can't speak a word of it anymore, but I can understand it pretty decently. I studied it for 7 years, but haven't practiced in many years.

Japanese: Same as above, really. I studied it for 6 years.

I can also understand most Slavic languages at least to some extent because of Russian, but I can't speak them.

[Bakkels]

Native language: Dutch, Gronings (dialect)
Pretty good at (from best to worst): English, German, French
And I can understand Italian a little bit (if they don't talk too damn fast:O:) Plus a tiny little bit of Japanese.

[Penguin]

Russian: my first and still main spoken language. The language I think/feel in by default.

:hmmm: that's interesting! Do you switch your inner language sometimes?
I've noticed it that when I am in an english-speaking country for a longer time, it helps a lot to word my thoughts in English. It eases the acclimatisation process for me and helps me much with responses.

[CCIP]

Oh no, when I have to speak or write in English, I think in English. There's no other way to fluently speak a language except think in it. Otherwise I'd have a ridiculous accent and wouldn't be able to put more than two words together before stumbling :O:
But I don't always have to speak or write in English, so in those times I easily revert to the default Russian.

[Bakkels]

Beautiful language. I hope I get around to learning Russian sometime :yep:

[antikristuseke]

Fluent in English and Estonian, can speak Finnish, but am a bit rusty. Russian is a language i can mostly understand, but not really speak and then some very limited german.

[Krauter]

English: Native speaker
French: Somewhat Native? I was taught to speak French in school before English :oops:

Trying to pick up: Russian, German

Can understand somewhat/have been sworn at in (:D) Lebanese, German, Italien, Russian, Georgian, Romanian, Hungarien, Spanish (I was a bad kid :oops: )

[Sledgehammer427]

I'm totally fluent in English, being an Illinois native, I'm noted for having little to no accent, there are ways we say things though that make people go
O_o
I'm working on a cockney accent, just for fun, and I have a convincing Russian accent.

anyway, I have learned a smattering of German, (told its terribly butchered but my friends in Germany say its passable, definitely non-native but passable) and I have the Rosetta Stone for Russian, I can probably have a kindergarten-level convo in Russian.

I took french for 1 year in High school and never kept it up, I can understand a little but asking me to speak it is like asking a monkey to drive an 18-wheeler, he can try but somethings bound to break.

Romantic languages are out for me, my tongue can't tie itself in the knots required for that. :doh:

Need to learn finnish though. the girlfriend says I need to practice with a mouthful of potatoes.

have been sworn at in -snip- Russian -snip-
me too!
there was a russian girl I met once, had a nice thing for a week, and I told her it was over, next thing I know I'm getting coffee mugs thrown at me and I'm getting SCREAMED AT in Russian

[antikristuseke]

Learn Estonian isntead, its the non homosexual version of Finnish :D

*Legs it*

[Krauter]

me too!
there was a russian girl I met once, had a nice thing for a week, and I told her it was over, next thing I know I'm getting coffee mugs thrown at me and I'm getting SCREAMED AT in Russian


Haha nice, mine is mostly from my coach switching from swearing at from English to French then to Russian and calling me a host of names... I think one of my teammates is running a bet to see if I can break across four language barriers :smug:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Being a native English speaker, I find it difficult to cope with the differing gender of words - why should a table be female, but a chair male? (These are just given as example items, I don't know what gender they really are!) Maybe if I understood this it would be easier?

Google (translate) is your friend. ;)

[Betonov]

Native: Slovenian

Perfect: English, Pirate English

Almost perfect: Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian (it would be politically incorect to call it serbo-croatian)

Enough to communicate: German

When drunk: Swahilli, Russian, Arabic, Indian, Hebrew, Gordon Ramsay English, Irish, Scotish, Klingon, Australian, Spanish, all 300 Slovenian dialects and Makaki

[Krauter]

Being a native English speaker, I find it difficult to cope with the differing gender of words - why should a table be female, but a chair male? (These are just given as example items, I don't know what gender they really are!) Maybe if I understood this it would be easier?

Google (translate) is your friend. ;)


I remember cursing grammar classes in French as a child... Here's hoping German and russian don't make me relearn whether or not a door is female or male or a car is male or female

[antikristuseke]

Genders in russian make a fair bit of sense, as in you can mostly tell what gender the word is by the letter it ends with, in german the netire thing seems to be entirely random.

[Penguin]

Being a native English speaker, I find it difficult to cope with the differing gender of words - why should a table be female, but a chair male? (These are just given as example items, I don't know what gender they really are!) Maybe if I understood this it would be easier?

Google (translate) is your friend. ;)

Oh that's easy: in most languages the sun is male, the moon is female - only in German it's vice versa....:doh: - but that's only because der train-station is just 3 streets away ;)
And don't forget the third (neutral) gender :88)

[Schroeder]

Native German.
English...well, judge for yourself.
And very little Dutch but increasing slowly (emphasize on slowly).

[Hottentot]

Being a native English speaker, I find it difficult to cope with the differing gender of words - why should a table be female, but a chair male? (These are just given as example items, I don't know what gender they really are!) Maybe if I understood this it would be easier

Funny you should say that: I have always complained how schizofrenic I feel when I don't know the gender of some person I'm talking about and I need to say "him/her" like it's two different persons. Finnish has only one word for the singular third person. That being said, we don't have word genders either, so I feel your pain there.

Edit: Oh, and no articles either. Those drive me nuts too :O:.

[Lionclaw]

Swedish - Native

English - Fluent

Finnish - Okay (needs more practice) (former somewhat native tongue)

Spanish - Some phrases

German - Some phrases

Russian - I can ask if the person understands English. :O:

[kranz]

Polish (native, lol..)
English
etwas Deutsch
a few phrases in Lithuanian

tiny bit of Polish
for example?

[Carotio]

Danish: native language

Swedish + Norwegian: related languages to my own. I understand most of it, and I can speak Danish to Swedes or Norwegians, and they'll understand most of my Danish as well. If words are too different, then maybe we try to remember the corresponding words in the other languages.

English: first foreign language learned. More or less fluently.

German: second foreign language learned. More or less fluently.

French: third foreign language learned. More or less fluently.

Italian and Spanish: I understand them a bit when reading by comparing the words to French. I can say a few words and sentences to get a little by. A LITTLE.

Latin: I learned it a bit in high school, but never used it since. So fairly no knowledge left.

[Sailor Steve]

English: learning since several years
And learning very well, from our phone conversation. :sunny:

[Stealhead]

I happen to speak but more importantly understand Idiot of course I dont
normally speak Idiot because to another person trained like myself but not knowing me they will hear the speaking of Idiot and assume that I am an Idiot.

However by being fluent in Idiot one is able to detect an Idiot the benefits therefore of being fluent in Idiot are obvious.You could say that being fluent in Idiot but not speaking it is called Common Sense so there are many other subsim members that are just now realizing that that they are fluent in at least two languages.:D

I can pass speaking German but Im a bit rusty.
I also understand some Spanish.

Seeing that some of you are pretty good at more than 4 languages makes me feel like an idiot.:cool:

[Bakkels]

:haha::har: It's funny because it's true :rotfl2:

[Sailor Steve]

I happen to speak but more importantly understand Idiot...
I challenge this assertion. I am an idiot, and I didn't understand a word you said! :O:

[Stealhead]

Of course being fluent in Idiot has it woes for example it has has over powered me on a few occasions(some of my past posts make this clear).You see I learned Idiot at a young age and it quite nearly killed me once.

One fine day when I was around 12 years old I had just finished this beautiful 1:48 scale F4U Corsair it looked so good I had to walk outside in the yard with it and spotted a Japanese flat top(an upside down glass aquarium) at this moment I "thought" in Idiot(much like the Clint Eastwood movie "Foxbat" think in Russian to fire the backwards missile) and decided to kick this aquarium(Jap falt top) by some chance it did not break so I jumped on top onto the upturned bottom well that did break the glass and seriously cut my foot(it filled my shoe with blood) by chance it did not cut any artiness in my foot and I had the sense to prop my foot up in the air and did not go into shock I was home alone at the time.After that I learned never to think in Idiot ever again and I have not for the most part.

Thread now un-derailed.

@Salior Steve does your wife(or ex) call you an idiot?Mine does sometimes and that does not count.By the way I learned "Kings Idiot" perhaps you where trained in Middle or Old Idiot I am not so good with those Kings Idiot was highly refined.Or perhaps you learned umquam Fatuus?

[Task Force]

English, stating the obvious there!
Abit of German

[Flaxpants]

English, Thai and Newcastle Brown. Not necessarily in that order.

[Hottentot]

I'm actually surprised to see how (relatively) many foreign Finnish speakers there are or who are interested in the language. If anyone wants to train with a native idiot, feel free to PM me :DL.

[krashkart]

English, Thai and Newcastle Brown. Not necessarily in that order.

Newcastle Brown is one of my favorite languages, along with Boddington's and, of course, Guinness. But not all at the same time. If I try to speak all at the same time my tongue gets tied and I end up fomenting in Nausea. If I am unable to recover from that it is only a matter of time before I begin ranting loudly in Hork, which is terribly messy and very uncomfortable. :nope: So I just stick with one at a time. :yep:



Primary language: Improper Backwoods American English
Second language: <expletive> <expletive> <expletive> :o
Third language: moderately proper American English

I knew a little bit of German in high school, but I've been out of practice for so long that only a few of the words and phrases I used most commonly back then have stuck with me.

The languages I would like to learn? Mainly Czech. :)

[Sledgehammer427]

I'm actually surprised to see how (relatively) many foreign Finnish speakers there are or who are interested in the language. If anyone wants to train with a native idiot, feel free to PM me :DL.

I might take you up on that, good sir.

I'm having trouble with the phonetics so far, it doesn't help that I think and dream in a hybrid of german, english, and russian already.
I think my english may be slipping because I'm just not thinking in it as much. I'm finding I'm having more and more trouble getting points across.

tentacles. :stare:

[Hottentot]

I'm having trouble with the phonetics so far, it doesn't help that I think and dream in a hybrid of german, english, and russian already.

No problem. As I speak English and some Russian myself, it might even be easier to find some common words or sounds that make the learning easier. Pass me some details and let's see what we can do.

[papa_smurf]

English (with a thick derbyshire accent)

[Penguin]

And learning very well, from our phone conversation. :sunny:
Thank you very much - you're doing also pretty well! :03: No seriously, you talk very clear! Too bad I didn't hear your U-boot commands!
But learning is a live long process. As long as I cannot distinguish between a New Jersey and a NYC accent, without looking at the hectical gestures of the person from NY, I have to learn more American! :DL

I'm actually surprised to see how (relatively) many foreign Finnish speakers there are or who are interested in the language. If anyone wants to train with a native idiot, feel free to PM me :DL.

Kiitos! I might come back to this - you don't know what burden you put on yourself! :DL
I did a "swear-on-finnish-day" today on my way to work, and really it prevented me from getting rage - the finnish swearwords are a powerful weapon. I could nearly feel how the other car driver's brains melted through the might of the words! :arrgh!: And you should have seen the petrol pump when I saw the pices and bitched at it: I could swear it backed off a little!

[Hottentot]

Kiitos! I might come back to this - you don't know what burden you put on yourself!

Well, I'll probably start studying German next semester, so we might be able to help each other (*insert evil genius wicked smile*)

the finnish swearwords are a powerful weapon.

Plural? I thought the only one you need is perkele (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypQuREhWe8o)? Didn't I get the memo?

[Penguin]

Well, I'll probably start studying German next semester, so we might be able to help each other (*insert evil genius wicked smile*)


Sure, if you want to learn bad German! :DL As you wrote that you like dialects: I speak a wicked mix of Ruhr- and Rheindeutsch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhr#Language (rhine german has no english wiki article :( ) But the people here learn it quick, as it's a dialect with many influences.


Plural? I thought the only one you need is perkele (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypQuREhWe8o)? Didn't I get the memo?

helv...uhm, I mean: perkele!
I'll write a bad comment to the guy from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwgloZ2MR0

[Geno_Mariner]

English

Learnt Indonesian and French in school. Failed badly at French. Did well in Indonesian, never pursued it further. Forgot most words now.
Tried to learn some Russian, very hard if I don't have someone to demonstrate how to say some words XD Won't mind going somewhere to learn Russian and maybe Japanese. And Dutch too (I'm Dutch, just don't know how to speak Dutch....)

[Hottentot]

helv...uhm, I mean: perkele!
I'll write a bad comment to the guy from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwgloZ2MR0

My poor ears!:timeout: I never knew Finnish could be raped in such horrific manner. Please tell me you didn't learn pronouncing from that video.

[Rockstar]

And learning very well, from our phone conversation. :sunny:

The fellas down at the C4ISR office thought so too. Now Sailor Steve, what exactly is your association with this well known shady character who goes by the code name Penguin?

Oh never mind just stay where you are we'll send someone to get you. :ping:

[krashkart]

The fellas down at the C4ISR office thought so too. Now Sailor Steve, what exactly is your association with this well known shady character who goes by the code name Penguin?

Oh never mind just stay where you are we'll send someone to get you. :ping:


The retrieval team has its hands full at the moment... :nope:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=179&pictureid=3461

[Stealhead]

I wonder if they where to ever research to find the person who is truly fluent in the most languages what the number would be.I would have to guess that 4 or 5 would be the max for the human brain I am thinking of a person being fully and truly fluent.:hmmm:

[Falkirion]

Native speaking English, the sometimes awkward Australian east coast dialect.

I can understand some German, French, Italian, Indonesian and Japanese. Want to actually learn French/Japanese. Wont have to pay for French lessons either as 4 or 5 members of my missus' family speak fluent French. Japanese is somewhat harder as its more because I watch a ton of anime so it'd help not having to read subtitles every couple of seconds.

[Penguin]

My poor ears!:timeout: I never knew Finnish could be raped in such horrific manner. Please tell me you didn't learn pronouncing from that video.

So this guy is no native speaker? Thought it sounded good...:oops: - now I feel more inhibited to even try to talk...
But, I learned my swearing from a German/finnish friend, you know these stange creatures with the Puuko in one and a sausage in the other hand :O:

[Penguin]

The fellas down at the C4ISR office thought so too. Now Sailor Steve, what exactly is your association with this well known shady character who goes by the code name Penguin?

Oh never mind just stay where you are we'll send someone to get you. :ping:

OMG! They're coming to take me away (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ0VMDmGdx0) :o

But I made some preparations, so they won't be able to read my thoughts:

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/6449/1278205178ea666794b9.jpg



@Sailor Steve: The poultry has started! Agent P over and out!

[Hottentot]

So this guy is no native speaker? Thought it sounded good...:oops: - now I feel more inhibited to even try to talk...

Absolutely not. His pronunciation is very typical to foreigners.

Don't worry: as I told Sledgehammer earlier today, Finns don't usually mind accents. If you are a foreigner and have bothered to learn even the basics, we are usually impressed. Well, at least I am. But that guy should really get help if he thinks that's how you swear in Finnish.


But, I learned my swearing from a German/finnish friend, you know these stange creatures with the Puuko in one and a sausage in the other hand :O:

Aye, you lucky buggers still have proper sausage in there. Now that I think about it and look at that puukko on my shelf, I'm really starting to think that maybe I should trade it for some.

[Oberon]

Polish (native, lol..)
English
etwas Deutsch
a few phrases in Lithuanian


for example?

Microfalufka (no idea how you spell it, just wrote it as pronounced), Den Dobyre and yak shay mash (again, no idea how you spell it :haha:). I've worked with a few Polish people so I've picked up little bits here and there.

[Sailor Steve]

@Sailor Steve: The poultry has started! Agent P over and out!
Y'see, doc, I keep hearing these voices in my head. And they keep saying fowl things to me.

[kranz]

Microfalufka , Den Dobyre and yak shay mash
understood :up:

[Seth8530]

I speak Appalachian English as my native language and i am currently learning Russian.
I also took spanish for two years back when i was in HS.

[Krauter]

I think this thread was a great idea... I figure since I'm trying to pick up a little German I could post here and ask if anyone would want to exchange German, just so I can practice a little bit of German speaking and spelling? Just PM me or contact me to let me know if you would like to