What languages do you speak?
 

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?

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

German and English

Dutch, English, Spanish.

Average in Italian and German.

HunterICX

German native speaker
English - Basic
French - Basic

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

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

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

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 :)

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

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

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.

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

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.

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: