What languages do you speak?

[DeadPoolX 9]

Since each couple here at VJ is comprised of one U.S. citizen and one foreign national (I'm sorry if anyone takes offense at not being labeled by their country, but there are too many to list) and with the exception of the UK, Australia and most of Canada, I'm pretty sure the rest of the world doesn't use English as their primary (or official) language.

I was wondering how many languages each partner in the relationship knew. You don't have to be fluent to "know" them, so if you'd like to play along, just list what languages you can read, write and speak (or any combination thereof). It'd be interesting to know how "multilingual" we all really are.

Anyway... since I started this thread, I'll go first!

Read, Write, & Speak

• American English - I some people might say this doesn't really count since it's my native language, but why not? I bet some could also argue that American English is a "foreign language" in of itself! It's certainly different from British and Canadian English in many ways.
• German - I took quite a few years of this back in high school. I've never actually been to Germany (I'd like to visit one day), but I used to play some online games (Starsiege, Counter-Strike, Quake III, etc) with an Austrian group, so I actually learned more German with them than I ever did in my classes! I certainly got to practice it more often, at least.
• French - I also took French. Why, I don't know. I suppose I was a masochist (my sincere apologies to those who either love to speak French or whose native language is French) since I just have a tough time with this language. My brother picked it up a lot easier than me and he could actually converse so well in French, that one time, while playing alongside a group of French-Canadians in Counter-Strike, they didn't even realize he was an American until my brother told them. They then complimented him on his linguistic skills.

Know A Little, But Not Enough To Hold A Conversation

• Spanish - I know... you'd think, living in Texas, this would be the one language I would know, right? Nope! I was actually forced to learn Spanish from first to third grade and I don't remember a thing. So much for the theory that "young children learn languages better" or whatever.
• Portuguese - I don't know if I could even call this "knowing a little" since what I do know would get me arrested and/or killed (I wrote some of what I know in another thread), but if what I wrote is correct, then I suppose it counts.
• Hebrew - I really should know this better. I used to know it better, but I never use it. Besides... writing from right-to-left is a pain. I'm sure I could relearn it, with some time and effort.
• Yiddish - The problem with Yiddish is it's a mix of a bunch of languages. Plus, I don't think anyone really knows how to spell any of it (I've seen all sorts of various spellings) or even what the words really mean. I think most of the time people just sort of have a vague idea and that's it!

Oh and please don't think anyone here needs to write anything down the way I did. Do it any way you want. I just did it that way because I get a bit "obsessive-compulsive" about things and I like listing information, especially if I can make it "neat and tidy."

Okay, so I'm weird. Sue me.

[Ladylethal 12]

Portuguese, English and Spanish. Also took French and Japanese, but forgot most of it.

[Nessa 23]

I can speak portuguese, english and I took 2 semest. of spanish in college so I understand a little bit, but I can't speak.

[milimelo 4,862]

Serbo-Croatian (or if you wish: Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)

English

Spanish (conversational level but not business level)

Japanese (understand, still struggle with kanjis, hiragana and katakana)

French, German - basic - have certificates but don't use these languages much

Italian - very very basic

[Jenn! 918]

I speak English as my native language, then Italian is a second language. I took Italian classes throughout college and then lived over there for a few years, so I consider myself pretty fluent. Italian is also the language in which my husband and I have communicated for most of our relationship. I am able to understand a good deal of Spanish and speak a little, mostly because of the similarities with Italian, I think, but possibly I remember some from middle school. I took Latin through high school.

My husband speaks Arabic as his native language. The second language in Morocco is French, so he learned that as a kid, but has forgotten most of it by this point. He also lived in Italy, so he speaks Italian. And he lived in Spain as well, so he speaks some Spanish. He didn't know much English at all before coming here, but has become conversational since living here. He does still need work on reading and writing though.

[chri'stina 190]

There have been a lot of threads like this but I'll post again anyway.

I can read, write, & speak:

Only English

I know a little of....Hindi and Spanish, much more Spanish than Hindi though, and some devanagari script of Hindi

Hubby can read, write, & speak:

English, Hindi, Bhojpuri (another Indian language), and Marathi(another Indian language). This includes growing up able to write in the different scripts used in India like devanagari.

He knows a little of...I am not sure of them all but he knows words and phrases from a few other Indian languages but not enough to be fluent in them like old sanskrit, bengali, ? .

[Jenn! 918]

There have been a lot of threads like this but I'll post again anyway.

I can read, write, & speak:

Only English

I know a little of....Hindi and Spanish, much more Spanish than Hindi though, and some devanagari script of Hindi

Hubby can read, write, & speak:

English, Hindi, Bhojpuri (another Indian language), and Marathi(another Indian language). This includes growing up able to write in the different scripts used in India like devanagari.

He knows a little of...I am not sure of them all but he knows words and phrases from a few other Indian languages but not enough to be fluent in them like old sanskrit, bengali, ? .

Are the Indian languages similar at all? I was just wondering whether they are kind of a cross between a totally different language and a dialect.

[chri'stina 190]

There have been a lot of threads like this but I'll post again anyway.

I can read, write, & speak:

Only English

I know a little of....Hindi and Spanish, much more Spanish than Hindi though, and some devanagari script of Hindi

Hubby can read, write, & speak:

English, Hindi, Bhojpuri (another Indian language), and Marathi(another Indian language). This includes growing up able to write in the different scripts used in India like devanagari.

He knows a little of...I am not sure of them all but he knows words and phrases from a few other Indian languages but not enough to be fluent in them like old sanskrit, bengali, ? .

Are the Indian languages similar at all? I was just wondering whether they are kind of a cross between a totally different language and a dialect.

Some are similar and some are very different. I know that Sujeet knows almost nothing of certain southern Indian languages because they are from a different family of languages. I find it all a little confusing because they have at least 23 main languages there. Sujeet learned Marathi from living in Mumbai for a couple years, and Hindi and Bhojpuri were learned from his parents.

Some info:

http://india.mapsofindia.com/the-country/i...-languages.html

[Kang Lang 7]

i speak cantonese, spanish and english. grew up speaking all 3 at home and am pretty fluent in all three. i can't really read or write in cantonese anymore shamefully.

my husband is fluent in thai (all aspects) and has passable conversational english.

[HAL 9000 96]

I just like to travel and soak it all in:

Spanish (native), English (near-native), Italian (elementary level);

Rudimentary understanding of:

German (darn middle school class never left me!)

French (same as with German)

Portuguese (had to learn for all those Brazilian steakhouses, yum!)

Japanese (traveling)

Basque (thanks to my ex-wife)

Catalan (traveling)

[almaty 19]

english..some spanish..some russian..some chechen..some zuni

[Zee Bee 61]

Read, speak and write: English

Read, write and maginallly speak: Arabic

Speak: Mamprulli - local language in Ghana (there is no written form)

[KarenCee 3]

I speak English and some Spanish, my husband speaks English and French. He is teaching me French and we're teaching our daughter French and she'll get Spanish in school. German and Russian are languages we'd both love to learn though.

[Toshtishtash 1]

English (British) is my native language. I'm not fluent in any other... But I can hold a simple conversation in French... If you needed to order a kilo of potatoes then i'm your girl!

I can also curse in Spanish. That's about it though!

I would LOVE to learn Japanese though... I have a fascination with all things Japanese..

[almaty 19]

sister...english is the language of business

french the language of love

spanish the best language to cuss in....