A second language

Started by Caite-chan October 4th, 2020 12:35 PM
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  • 15 replies

Caite-chan

Seen March 20th, 2023
Posted March 24th, 2022
11,679 posts
19.5 Years
For most of us English is our native language. We can read, write and speak it with ease. But what about another language. Other than what you were taught in high school as most of us (at least in the US) had to take a foreign language...Is there another language you can speak, read or write? For those who's English isn't their first language how hard was it to learn?

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire

Age 32
He/him
Madrid, Europe
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted April 5th, 2023
21,076 posts
16.2 Years
I had english classes four days a week every single year of education until university, but most of it was just grammar. It never really clicked on me until I started reading Harry Potter 6 in English just to save the year until they translated it to Spanish and won an American copy of Pokémon Ruby in a contest, 7 months before it was released in Europe. By then I had had like, 8 years of almost daily lessons? Yeah, it took a while.

I've also learnt a lot of Catalan through osmosis, since my dad lives in one of the states that speak it, and now I'm trying to learn German, which is like English's weird cousin.

Caite-chan

Seen March 20th, 2023
Posted March 24th, 2022
11,679 posts
19.5 Years
I can speak very basic French as my character for my wrestling fics is from Montreal.

My biggest one is Japanese with much of the blame on Pokemon...lol. I can speak basic Japanese rather well because I took a Japanese course in college but I had a hard time remembering all the symbols and would have to write everything out in Rōmaji to speak it. I also work at Round One which is a Japanese company and if I know we are going to have corporate show up I'll put my books out to freshen up.

I've also tried to look up American Sign Langauge and try to learn that because we have quite a few people that come in that are deaf. But my ASL is not all that good.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 6 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
27,325 posts
13.2 Years
I want to become more proficient in Spanish. It would help me out a lot considering where I live, and because there are literally parts of my city where it seems like English is the second language.

Dusk

Age 29
she/her
Kanon Town
Seen November 18th, 2022
Posted September 24th, 2022
2,997 posts
8.4 Years
Due to where I live and my heritage I ought to learn Spanish, but if I could learn any language I'd probably chose Japanese for selfish reasons such as consuming untranslated Japanese media.
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Megan

She/Her, It/Its
Online now
Posted 13 Minutes Ago
17,751 posts
10.3 Years
I went through 8 years of English lessons but didn't pick up too much in them. Most of my knowledge about the written language comes from playing video games. Most knowledge about the spoken language came from watching Let's Plays back when I used to watch them. I also got into the habit to read books out loud and since a lot of literature I read happens to be in English I get a little practice in that aspect as well. Though, so far I didn't need the latter.

Also, if people where actually speaking in Latin I'd probably be somewhat decent at it as well. Didn't really need it after school so I forgot most of it. ^^"
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Sothis

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Firene
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
17,837 posts
9.9 Years
Where I live, French classes were mandatory. They started in grade 4 and went all the way to 9. After that it was optional.

I lost most of it since I live in a predominantly English area.

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Roni

Age 24
he/him
Philippines
Seen 4 Days Ago
Posted 4 Days Ago
19,088 posts
10.1 Years
Thanks to full on white-washing of my country, I can speak English better than my own native language. I try my best to keep up with locals so I don't lose my touch.

On a completely different note, learning Japanese for a class in college was pretty darn fun. I could understand anime without subs for a bit there.
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ZeoStar

Seen 3 Hours Ago
Posted 15 Hours Ago
11,403 posts
5.6 Years
Other than english, basic french. Which I've probably forgotten most of

Sapphire Rose

Only thorns left on this rose.

Age 27
Female
Coruscant
Seen 3 Days Ago
Posted 2 Weeks Ago
3,403 posts
11.7 Years
In the Netherlands you learn 3 other languages aside from your average Dutch. It's usually German, French and English.

I can speak, read and listen to basic German. There was a time that I also knew basic French too but I haven't used the language in 10 years or so. It wasn't really hard to learn English but I sucked at it when I first joined PC. I got a lot better after picking up hobbies that required a understanding of the language and having to speak it most of the day at work. My Dutch has been getting a bit worse but I think English and Dutch are my most fluent languages.

And then we also have sign language. Which I should and want to learn.
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moon

they/them
Seen 13 Hours Ago
Posted 2 Days Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
I don't remember English being difficult. I learned it decently around the age of 10 or so. But I didn't become fluent until I joined PC in my upper teens and started typing in (and even VCing) English regularly. The long RP posts helped too :)
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Dave

Male
From country of 'Men in Blue' (cricket)
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted 2 Weeks Ago
644 posts
2.9 Years
Well for me my first language was English it wasn't hard, Instead I found it super easy.
My second language is Russian, most people have difficulty in pronouncing Russian letters, but from my childhood I have mastered a language in which nearly some letters or combination of letters are just pronounced like Russian, although the letters are neither from Cyrillic nor from Latin, So it is a piece of cake for me to pronounce Russian words and phrases.
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Sheep

She/Her
Australia
Seen 2 Hours Ago
Posted 3 Hours Ago
39,253 posts
16.6 Years
I can speak Russian! Am Russian-born so it was my first language, and I speak it at home with family. Can probably be considered fluent even though there are some complex words that throw me off, which I guess is no surprise when I don't use the language with anyone other than family. Can read slowly too, but my writing ability is near 0 at this point lol. haven't done it in ages

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Memento Mori

Age 25
he/him
The Pacific Northwest
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 1 Week Ago
2,156 posts
13.1 Years
I’m fluent in American Sign Language. I have deaf parents, so yeah. They taught me when I was very young. It’s technically my first language.
Age 23
Male
Seen 3 Weeks Ago
Posted October 4th, 2022
307 posts
3.8 Years
English is my second language. I wouldn't say it was necessarily difficult to learn it as I've been surrounded by it from a young age, but it was a gradual and slow process. The process was greatly accelerated when i started playing multiplayer games and going on the internet regularly. School only slightly helped the learning process with grammar lessons, but for the most part I've learned it on my own.
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