How many of you speak a second language?

Started by Maya April 6th, 2017 3:15 AM
  • 2984 views
  • 63 replies

Cariad

world.search(you);

Age 23
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted May 12th, 2020
1,347 posts
12 Years
english is my second language haha! : ' ) my first is welsh, and apart from that i speak conversational german. the best thing about it is that it looks good on a uni application, apart from that speaking fluent welsh is a bit useless. i'm losing my german skill steadily since it's been 1 year since i finished studying it : - (

Christos

Male
Seen April 16th, 2020
Posted December 16th, 2019
6,355 posts
17.2 Years
english is my second language haha! : ' ) my first is welsh, and apart from that i speak conversational german. the best thing about it is that it looks good on a uni application, apart from that speaking fluent welsh is a bit useless. i'm losing my german skill steadily since it's been 1 year since i finished studying it : - (
Welsh is a real language??

English is also my second language, Greek is my first. I also did German and French classes at school but I don't remember enough to actually hold a conversation. But I can understand enough and I know my swear words

Speaking foreign languages is a good thing when you're travelling but nowadays if you know English you can converse with pretty much anyone

blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
i started learning french and spanish in secondary school, but i soon dropped them after losing interest and having preferences in other subjects. at one of the universities i've applied for, we'll be given the option to study a language and i'd like to give mandarin a try.

Cariad

world.search(you);

Age 23
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted May 12th, 2020
1,347 posts
12 Years
Welsh is a real language??
somehow.

Sothis

Will this hand destroy you?

She/her
Firene
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
17,837 posts
9.9 Years
I used to be good at conversing in French but that went down the drain :c

you cannot hope to win
so bound in flesh


Sylphiel

Between your fantasy and my reality
Seen March 28th, 2023
Posted January 9th, 2023
13,114 posts
18.5 Years
I wish I were properly bilingual. I mean, I probably could be if I could actually focus for more than a week or two on learning a new language. My problem is that I want to take a look at all the languages, so I can never sit down on learning just one in-depth.

pastelspectre

Memento Mori

Age 25
he/him
The Pacific Northwest
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
2,156 posts
13.1 Years
English actually isnt my first language, technically. since i learned american sign language first before i learned the English language, that would technically be my first language. i learned ASL back when i was a wee baby, very very young. i still use it daily bc i live with my mom and she's deaf, and so is my dad, and i dont live with him, but i talk with him through the vp pretty often so.. yeah. i also know English, of course. and i took french in middle school and half of high school, but i barely remember anything besides le gateau and a few sentences, if any.

Nihilego

[color=#95b4d4]ユービーゼロイチ パラサイト[/color]

Male
scotland
Seen September 28th, 2018
Posted March 16th, 2018
8,874 posts
12.1 Years
i speak enough italian to live on. not fluent by any means, but i used to live out there and could easily get by with what i knew - so, although it's not perfect, i'd say i "speak" that language. now that i'm not out there any more it's not particularly useful, but it comes in handy whenever i have to understand anything in spanish - the two languages are remarkably similar and i can speak italian to someone who speaks spanish and we can understand each other quite well. in that sense, it'll be a great starting point for when (or if) i come to learn spanish, which is much less intimidating a task than it once was.

then a funny one is irish (attn christos: this is a language, too!!!). back when i was really young and lived in ireland, i sort-of learned english and irish in parallel. a fair proportion of people in the town where i was born, at the time anyway, spoke irish fluently in addition to english and lots of writing, signs, etc. were in both languages. unfortunately when we moved away to england, irish obviously wasn't particularly used or useful and my knowledge of it kinda died. i couldn't really speak much of it now but it's funny how, whenever i go back out there or see anything written in irish, i can recognise old phrases well enough and quite easily pick up new ones too.

English actually isnt my first language, technically. since i learned american sign language first before i learned the English language, that would technically be my first language. i learned ASL back when i was a wee baby, very very young. i still use it daily bc i live with my mom and she's deaf, and so is my dad, and i dont live with him, but i talk with him through the vp pretty often so.. yeah.
this is so cool. i always felt like sign language would be amazingly useful to know. is it well-standardised over the world, or would you need to re-learn it if you wanted to communicate with a deaf person in another country?
s͎̭̚ ̪ͭͩy͔͚̰̻̗̩̺ͣ́ͨ̌͡ ̩̳̙̖̖̺͡m̷̱̘͎̝̘̣͒͌͒̚ ͇͖̔̐̔b̝̪͚̞̦ͬ ̢͔̱̟̞̝͙̮͌̅̈̓̿̿i͐̈̃͊ͯ̎҉̟̠͓ ͕̥̣̪̠̃͑͞ỏ̵͕̠̱̬̬̞͛̋ ̨͈̻̱̟̱͓̪n͒̒͂͊̀ ̻̰̰̜̅̃͒̂͞tͭ̍̈́ ͙͇̘͕͍̜̖ͫ̌̊̿ͫ̂̀:̵̾͒̔͂ ̟͉̜̽͒͌͜p͎͇͎̦̺̙͒͆͋́ͅ ̨̠̠̘͚͖̺ͫ͛̎̉a̲͍̫͖͗̄ ͓͖͍̯̤̼͙̿̆̂̂̄r̬̟̮͖̥̼̆̓͑̃̾ͬ̉͟ͅ ̬̼̗͊͛a̛̯̮ ̮̬͍̙̮̤́ͪŝ͊ͬ̒̎̃ ̧̝̮͎͙͆̓ì͈̹̻̱̾͝ ̘͉͕̭̊ͤ̉̓tͩͯ̉̐ͨͬ̚͏̻̺̖̮ ̞̘͂̋̋ͯ͑ͦ͗e̞͔̎̇ͫ͊͗

pastelspectre

Memento Mori

Age 25
he/him
The Pacific Northwest
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
2,156 posts
13.1 Years
this is so cool. i always felt like sign language would be amazingly useful to know. is it well-standardised over the world, or would you need to re-learn it if you wanted to communicate with a deaf person in another country?
well, sign language is different all over. it's the same all over in america pretty much, except for some slight differences in how states sign them. there are a lot of different versions of sign language. there's German sign language, chinese sign language, taiwanese..a lot. there's too many to name. but it's different all over. so if i were to go to china or germany or whatever and meet a deaf person, i'd have to learn their version of the sign language they have there. i'm sure it'd be very difficult for me as i'm only accustomed to the american version. thanks for asking though, i'm glad to see people taking an interest in it c:

Riolu

Emanation Pokémon

Male
Floccesy Ranch
Seen May 10th, 2020
Posted May 15th, 2017
118 posts
6.3 Years
English is my second language, and Italian is my first one.
I can speak some French and I'm currently learning German, too. I'll also start learning Spanish in a couple of years.

In today's world being polylingual can be quite helpful. However, speaking to foreigners is very easy, seeing how much the English language has spread.
http://i.imgur.com/dciEMaV.gif

Mawa

The typo Queen

Age 30
Female
Canada
Seen August 13th, 2020
Posted March 1st, 2020
I speak french IRL. I write in english, readin english and listen to stuff in english all day every day.I even think in english sometimes. I can't really talk in english tho, it just sounds weird with my accent and words I can't pronounce.
I miiiiight be back?
And why am I not a supporter anymore >.<

Limey-chan

Batzu

He/Him
Mt Moon
Seen May 27th, 2021
Posted October 31st, 2020
2,523 posts
14.2 Years
I can speak French due to studying five long, tedious, arduous years of it at school, but not fluently. I can understand it better than I can speak it, I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation in French.

Paired with Pigu

Gabri

m8

Age 29
Male
Portugal
Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted July 2nd, 2022
3,937 posts
16.6 Years
My mother language is Portuguese. But sometimes I can express myself better in English, sometimes I struggle to explain something in Portuguese and end up walking in circles when only one simple English word comes to my head that explains it perfectly.

Portuguese is kinda useful as there's a few countries that use it as a primary language, buuut I never got out of this hellhole so.

Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
Seen 12 Hours Ago
Posted April 6th, 2023
8,567 posts
13.4 Years
Give me any book in French, and I'd be able to tell you the main points of the story. I don't understand it fluently, but enough to get by.

That said, I'm not that great at reading or writing it. And I picked up a bad habit from my high school French teacher where he'd get us to speak in more casual French, and that leaked over into my writing (ch'uis pas fatigué instead of je ne suis pas fatigué, for example). But, at least I know enough to not get stranded in any French speaking regions, haha.

moon

they/them
Seen 13 Hours Ago
Posted 2 Days Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
I'm fully bilingual, as Swedish is my first language but I've come to speak English every day at work, with online friends, and with my boyfriend. Yay!
paired with Ivysaur

Radiating

Male
United States
Seen March 7th, 2021
Posted December 21st, 2018
5,787 posts
6.3 Years
Spanish is my first language, as it's what my parents speak.

I picked up English fairly quickly and I know it even more than Spanish now.

I also recently started taking French in high school. (It's been a bit hard for me to learn it so far.)

Radiating

Male
United States
Seen March 7th, 2021
Posted December 21st, 2018
5,787 posts
6.3 Years
I speak french IRL. I write in english, readin english and listen to stuff in english all day every day.I even think in english sometimes. I can't really talk in english tho, it just sounds weird with my accent and words I can't pronounce.
So that's why your user title is the "The Typo Queen"...

I have the same issue, I can type/read French better than speak it. I butcher most of the French pronunciations. {XD}

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.

Male
Liberty Garden
Seen April 28th, 2020
Posted April 28th, 2020
9,307 posts
10.4 Years
I think I can speak Indonesian, Hokkian language and some English too. I'm still learning if it comes to Mandarin language, though.

Sheep

She/Her
Australia
Seen 2 Hours Ago
Posted 4 Hours Ago
39,253 posts
16.6 Years
yeah!! I speak Russian. It's my first language, but I've been in the US for so long and speak English to everyone besides family, so I'm better at it. I can read in Russian too, but that'd probably take me.. a while. I manage our work e-mail and some 13 year old girl sent us a message in all Russian on Friday. Was pretty funny.

English actually isnt my first language, technically. since i learned american sign language first before i learned the English language, that would technically be my first language. i learned ASL back when i was a wee baby, very very young. i still use it daily bc i live with my mom and she's deaf, and so is my dad, and i dont live with him, but i talk with him through the vp pretty often so.. yeah.
That is really awesome--I came in here expecting people to talk about spoken languages only, but then this pops up. Reading Alex's post is my first time actually realizing that sign language wouldn't be universal across the world, as obvious as that should be haha. Super neat.

pastelspectre

Memento Mori

Age 25
he/him
The Pacific Northwest
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
2,156 posts
13.1 Years
That is really awesome--I came in here expecting people to talk about spoken languages only, but then this pops up. Reading Alex's post is my first time actually realizing that sign language wouldn't be universal across the world, as obvious as that should be haha. Super neat.
well i'm glad i surprised ya! dont worry though, it took me a while to realize sign language isnt universal across the world either, and i grew up with it lol.

Reyzadren

Arid trainer

Male
Laverre
Seen December 3rd, 2020
Posted December 3rd, 2020
360 posts
8.9 Years
I speak a foreign language fluently, but I shall not reveal what it is.

However, I can also speak some Spanish, and I am still casually learning it.
Soundcloud Profile: Ascension Drive