Languages

[Pepperton]

Fluent in English, and I've taken three years of Spanish, so I can understand a lot but definitely wouldn't count as bilingual, haha. I really want to know how to speak French, and of course iron out my español.

 

[Imperator161]

Which languages do you speak?: The only language I speak fluently is English.

Which are you learning, or have you learnt (in school, for example)? I studied Latin and Spanish for several years, and would say that I'm moderately comfortable with them. I've tried to learn a bit of Italian and Russian on my own, too.

Which would you want to learn? Any other language I don't know yet. I'm sad that I'm monolingual, but my language skills have been getting worse, not better, and I'm not sure when I'm likely to have time to gain fluency in another language. From a practical perspective, it would be really useful to improve my Spanish from intermediate to fluency.

Does anyone else in your family speak another language? Nope. They studied other languages in school (French, Latin, and German), but don't really remember anything.

If monolingual, do you find that only speaking one language limits your employment opportunities? To a degree, yes, though I don't think it will be a major barrier. I have encountered some positions that want people who are bilingual (often in English and Mandarin, which I'm unlikely to pick up with any degree of fluency at this point). In general, it's not a huge deal, as I'm not in a career field that requires multilingualism, but there are definitely times where knowing another language would be useful. I should improve my Spanish.

If monolingual, what difficulties have you faced in life and online knowing only one language? Online: None, really. I can use online translators to guess at things if I need to, and most of the websites I visit are English sites. I can also read a number of Romance languages, so I can read some of those pages as well. In real life: I've had some situations where I can't communicate well with people. I've also felt left out when people I know have started speaking another language (generally an Asian language) and I can't follow along.

If monolingual, what are your reasons for being so? I've never had the opportunity to gain sufficient exposure to a foreign language to become fluent. Living in an English-speaking area, there has never been a reason to use a language other than English in most of my conversations. I haven't had the opportunity to live abroad, so I haven't been able to pick up a language that way.

If monolingual, which language do you believe would be the hardest to learn, and why? Maybe Mandarin? I've always heard that Mandarin and English are two of the hardest languages to master. As an English speaker, the importance of intonation in Mandarin seems difficult, and I've also never learned a language that doesn't use an alphabet before.

If monolingual, have you ever encountered a language barrier, and how did it make you feel? When I went to Italy, I didn't speak much Italian (I had tried to teach myself a bit before traveling, but had never taken a course or spoken to anyone who knew the language before). While most people in Rome spoke English, those elsewhere did not necessarily understand my native language, and I had trouble communicating. Fortunately, someone else I knew spoke Italian, so it wasn't a huge issue. I've also spent time elsewhere around people who didn't speak English, and communication was difficult.

 

[Starry Windy]

I'm fluent in Indonesian language, and still in the middle of learning English, Chinese, Hokkian (some sort of Chinese dialect) and Japanese.

 

[Magic Christmas Lights]

I can speak English and conversational Korean. I've also taken three years of Japanese and French and a year of Mandarin.

 

[Brendino]

The only language that I speak fluently is English, though I did take French classes for almost 8 years in school. I'm good enough with French that I can read most things in it and understand what's going on, but not having used it since I graduated 4 years ago has left me pretty sloppy when it comes to writing/speaking in it. I'm sure if you dropped me off in the middle of Quebec I'd pick it back up pretty easy, but definitely not to the point that I'd consider myself bilingual.

If I could learn a language, I would have definitely picked German or Russian over French if it were available in my high school. I've never had any particular reason why, I just thought it would be neat to know them. Norwegian and Swedish would be up on the list too, since I've got dozens of distant relatives living over there. No one in my immediate family speaks another language though, so aside from learning a language for my own leisure, I've never seen any reason to try and learn one (as cool as it'd be).

 

[Blade_of_darkness]

Which languages do you speak?

I'm an English-only speaker.

Which are you learning, or have you learnt (in school, for example)?

I've tried to learn Spanish & German at my middle school, namely since they were mandatory back then. Needless to say, it didn't go well for me.

Which would you want to learn?

None! I've zero incentive to learn another language at my current state of affairs.

Does anyone else in your family speak another language?

Honestly, I doubt it...

If monolingual, do you find that only speaking one language limits your employment opportunities?

I've never really noticed this at all, seeing that I've never left my first job.

If monolingual, what difficulties have you faced in life and online knowing only one language?

Not very many. English is wide-spread in my area.

If monolingual, what are your reasons for being so?

Again, I've zero-incentive to learn another language, & it's namely because that I'm a homebody, & thus I hardly travel anywhere around my country, let alone the world.

If monolingual, which language do you believe would be the hardest to learn, and why?

Anything that's not English, really. Since the mishaps of middle school with the forced attempts of learning another language, I've begun to think that I may very well have a hard time learning another language even if I've actually wanted to for some reason.

If monolingual, have you ever encountered a language barrier, and how did it make you feel?

To tell you the truth, I have. There was this one customer that I would assume was asking for some help, but the guy was doing so in another language. It made me confused as hell, & the only thing that kept jabbing my mind is, "Isn't there anyone that can interpret this guy for me?!"

Thankfully, such occurrences happen once in a blue moon for me, so I didn't really think much about it afterward.

 

[Majestic Electric]

The only language I speak fluently is English, if you do not count American Sign Language (ASL). My school offers it as a language course, so I've been taking it for the past 2 years (and I am taking it this coming school year). I love ASL because it is so unique compared to other languages (it involves using your hands, not mouth), so it is a lot more fun to me.

 

[Raine]

Speak English fluently and my Cantonese is basically conversational \: I've learned French, Japanese, Korean and Latin. I would have loved to continue learning Japanese and/or Korean, but I figured out that I'm very proficient with languages that use characters as their alphabet system.

 

[zakisrage]

Which languages do you speak? Arabic, English, and a little French.
Which are you learning, or have you learnt (in school, for example)? I learned French in school. It was a bit different from the French that my family speaks.
Which would you want to learn? I would love to learn Greek. I've always been fascinated with Greek culture.
Does anyone else in your family speak another language? My brother can speak some Italian since he learned it in school.

I can understand most Eastern dialects of Arabic (Levantine, Mesopotamian, Saudi, Gulf), but have trouble with some of the Western dialects (especially Moroccan and Algerian, which have more French, Spanish, and Berber influence). Since I'm Muslim, I tend to use Arabic a lot more than many Christian Lebanese.

I mainly speak English with my friends. With my parents I use both English and Arabic.

I learned French from my dad and paternal grandparents, who grew up speaking both Arabic and French. My maternal grandma doesn't speak French - she speaks mostly Arabic (though she can speak some English).

 

[lozzop]

English is my first language, and I'm learning French and Spanish in school. I don't speak them very well yet, but once i start my GCSEs I'm going to take Spanish and Mandarin classes outside of school, I also learn French from my mum and this month I'm going to a school in France to study it more :) I'd love to learn Welsh since most of my family lives there and 'cause I visit so often it'd be useful to be able to read signs and stuff, and other than that I'd like to learn some Italian and Portuguese :3

 

[Sheep]

I'm fluent at writing, speaking, and reading English while also being a fluent Russian speaker as I was born in Russia. Hardly do I have the need to read or write in Russian though so that skill has really faded over time, now I can hardly read it as well as I used to much less write. xD;

 

[Mana1]

English only D:

I am self-teaching myself Japanese and starting a course next month, though :3. So soon enough that'll be conversation-worthy, hopefully.

 

[Synerjee]

I'm fluent in English and mostly fluent in Malay (years of no practice made it rusty). I can also read, write and speak basic Mandarin and Japanese, but unfortunately not enough to make me a multilingual. As for other languages, I know a few words of Spanish, French, Italian and German, although they're just random bits and pieces picked up from friends, books and places. What I'd like to learn/improve? Learn: more Spanish (just for leisure). Improve: Japanese, and perhaps Mandarin.

 

[Limey-chan]

I chose monolingual, because I studied French at school for five years and have forgotten a good 95% of it. I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation in French.

 

[KitKat987]

Which languages do you speak? Thai and English fluently, some Japanese
Which are you learning, or have you learnt (in school, for example)? Japanese :pink_smile:
Which would you want to learn? German (not counting Japanese)
Does anyone else in your family speak another language? My siblings are bilingual like me :3

If multilingual, which language was the hardest to learn from experience? Spanish cus I didn't like the teacher -^-
If multilingual, were there any sociological factors that aided in learning another language? I picked up English by living in the UK, it's really helpful because it's the only way you can proficiently use slangs and schtuff.
If multilingual, what difficulties did you face learning another language? Largely different grammar
How do you think multilingualism will affect employment opportunities for you in your area? Certainly very positive, fluent English is a great asset in my country :pink_wink:

 

[Racket]

> Which languages do you speak?

Just English usually.

> Which are you learning, or have you learnt (in school, for example)?

Learned a bit of French in school (mandatory here in Canada). Took a course on Latin in university (it's actually farily usefull to know for understanding more of English). Learned a bit of Esperanto, but I don't have too much time.

> Which would you want to learn?

If I had more time, I wouldn't mind learning Esperanto fully. I wouldn't also mind learning more French (I guess it's a little more Canadian).

> Does anyone else in your family speak another language?

My mom used to speak French pretty well. Some people in my house speak Cantonese.

> If monolingual, do you find that only speaking one language limits your employment opportunities?

Not usually. It certianly restricts where you might be able to work, but here it doesn't have much of an effect. Even when working with people in Montreal it's usually not an issue.

> If monolingual, what difficulties have you faced in life and online knowing only one language?

Not too much. Sometimes it's more complicated talking to people who only speak French, but I don't usually run into them.

> If monolingual, what are your reasons for being so?

Time mostly.

> If monolingual, which language do you believe would be the hardest to learn, and why?

Probably most of the languages that were not derived from latin, especially languages that arn't part of the Indo-European language family. The reason is dis-simularity.

> If monolingual, have you ever encountered a language barrier, and how did it make you feel?

Sometimes. It's not something I usually stress over.