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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| gorkem_turkish Triglot Newbie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5814 days ago 25 posts - 26 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 97 of 204 22 December 2008 at 10:10am | IP Logged |
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I am 22.
I've been learning English for more than 10 years. those years, you are only a child and you dont have the right to choose what to learn. 1 and half a year ago, 2 days after we broke up with my girlfriend, I started chinese,mandarin. just a coincidence, whenever I remember her, I did study chinese instead of losing myself in alcohol. That was a good help of her :) I have only 2-3 months on Spanish. It looks so easy, am learning it really fast. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7075 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 98 of 204 23 December 2008 at 1:32am | IP Logged |
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Currently 28.
English: as mother tongue. French: from 11 through extra classes at school. Resumed sporadic French study at around 20. Use it for reading news, watching movies, etc. German: from 13 or 14 through extra classes at school. Used it as a teen with friends and family when in Germany and Poland. Now just read the odd article or watch the odd movie. Japanese: from 12-15 at school. I lost interest in the class though mostly because it wasn't 'cool'. From spending time in Japan this year I've gotten a strong interest again. So, resumption of some flirting with the language at 28. Thai: age 19, for a trip to Thailand and for Muay Thai. I learnt a little and threw it away, although I still use the odd bit when training. Arabic: as a 21 year old I took a short course because I was considering majoring in the language at university but it meant moving interstate. So I got a taste and loved it, but couldn't move. I continued studying a little though. So it's something for later in life now, although I've used it when playing football with Northern African's in my neighbourhood. Mandarin: I took a semester at university, age 22. I didn't enjoy this though. Have since used it with friends in Korea minimally. No plans to develop it. Polish: started learning this on-the-side for my family from 22 and want to reach a good level of fluency. Never truly focused on the language, so it's not as developed as it could be by now. I plan to dedicate myself more this coming year. Korean: I started learning this at 22 and have fallen for it. It was my major at university, I've studied and lived in Korea, and I now have a Korean wife. I use it daily but still wouldn't consider myself fluent because it's such an intricate language. Even so, it's the language I feel most comfortable in besides English at the moment. Nepali: I learnt enough for simple conversation through trekking at 23. I planned on using this knowledge and delving into Hindi, but I've basically killed any plans of this now. Tok Pisin: learnt this for research purposes from 23-24. I don't use it these days much at all, although I may rely on it again in the future because of research interests. Indonesian/Malay: started learning at 25 and absolutely love it. So useful... and easy :) ..I use it when travelling and with friends. Emailing, news, etc. Spanish: My newest experiment started at 27. I studied actively for a couple of months and got a strong grounding, then decided to focus on other things for a while. I'm attempting to study more actively at the moment. I use English, Korean, and Indonesian almost daily. German and French at sometime during the week. And study some Spanish, Polish, and Japanese throughout the week. Of the above, I basically never touch Thai, Nepali, Arabic, Mandarin, or Tok Pisin these days, with the only one of those having future plans being Arabic. Edited by andee on 23 December 2008 at 1:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nutts Triglot Newbie Japan Joined 6045 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Japanese Studies: Spanish | Message 99 of 204 23 December 2008 at 5:05am | IP Logged |
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I'm 31, and a native English speaker from England. I'm really happy to have found this forum and to read about
other peoples' language experiences. Many are very humbling indeed. Anyway, as for me... Although I learnt French at school from age 11 to 16, it was so boring it didn't give me an interest in languages at all unfortunately. That our French teacher was an older English lady, and not a native French lady, probably didn't help either. At university I started dating a half-Italian girl, and that spawned an interest in languages; so I began to study Italian by myself, with a few random evening classes thrown in there. Then in my first job after university I was able to transfer to the Italian office and spent 6 months living there, which improved my Italian to I guess a high- intermediate level. I could read basic novels by that point and understand the TV. Unfortunately after moving back to the UK my Italian didn't get used and slowly eroded. Fast forward a few years to 2005 and I felt like learning another language to give myself a hobby, and as I wanted a challenge I chose Japanese. I did lessons twice a week for 9 months, and then went travelling - including several visits to Japan. Met a Japanese girl, and last year I moved out to Japan to live with her and attend a Japanese language school full-time. I graduate in March and for a while already I've been getting itchy looking for other languages to start afterwards. Having been around Chinese students at my school for the last year and a half, and now having an understanding of a thousand or so Japanese kanji, I've decided one of my choices will be Chinese. My other choice will be Spanish, which I thought could also hopefully help me to remember some of my stale Italian. It also helps that I have a Mexican friend here that I can converse with. I'd also like to get back into French one day, but the Chinese and Spanish (as well as continuing Japanese) will be enough I think for the time being. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| grwn Groupie Netherlands Joined 5847 days ago 79 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Dutch* | Message 100 of 204 28 December 2008 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
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I'm a 17 year old from the Netherlands.
Dutch - Native English - Basic fluency. I can understand and translate almost everything (quantum physics etc. are still too far fetched, even in Dutch :P ), but my productive/active skills are far below my reading comprehension. I'd like to go to an English speaking country for an extended period of time, but have not done so yet. German - Beginner+. German was a compulsory class, which I took for 2 years. I can still understand quite a bit, since it's so similar to Dutch, but my productive skills are abysmal. I intend to pick it up again, once my Latin and Ancient Greek are at a respectable level. French - Beginner+. Just as with German, this class was compulsory. I had French for 3 years, but I have forgotten most of it. Just as with German I will also pick this back up. I already have a copy of Michel Thomas lying around, but I'm focusing on other languages right now. Japanese - Beginner. I just started learning this 2 months ago, but I only seriously started it this week. I can read Hiragana and most of the Katakana. Latin - Beginner. The same as with Japanese. Ancient Greek - Beginner. The same as with Latin and Japanese. I can read the alphabet. Gerwin Edited by grwn on 28 December 2008 at 2:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JimmyJameskun Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5946 days ago 35 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian | Message 101 of 204 28 December 2008 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
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Age: 19
______ Languages English - mother tongue, i know some hefty vocabulary but if you tell me to be able to tell you everything about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, -- whoa man, too much for me! Italian - formal study since approximately 1 year, I'm almost getting a grip on reading elementary Italian literature. Japanese - 1 year of high school study, audit on-&-off 1 quarter of college study, able to recognize up to some kanji and read very basic sentences Chinese - K-5 Cantonese, 6th grade we switched to Mandarin but only for about a year, I abhorred studying Chinese in this private school so it didn't really stick much and same with high school studies (3 years). I somehow got away with less than mediocre work. However, I understand survival phrases from my parents. In my house it's spoken 40% of the time I would say however, it isn't mandatory for me to reply back in Cantonese so my conversational skills are below par. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6242 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 102 of 204 01 January 2009 at 7:00pm | IP Logged |
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I am 18.
Croatian - mother tongue German - secondary mother tongue, since I lived in Germany for about 8 years or so; since i moved back to croatia i haven't been using it obviously, so ocassional lack of vocabulary and weird grammatical structures are common, but i guess a couple of weeks immersed would do the job English - native fluency; been studying it since i was 8, watched cartoon network :D, read books and comics in it, and finally, ended up in an international baccalaureate school, so i've been using it for the last 4 years actively French - two years in high school of which i cannot recall anything, then on and off courses where i finally decided that courses aren't for me, i still plan on learning it tho, right now i have some basic understanding and can order a pizza or something other than that, i dabbled a little in japanese and korean. for now, i really want to learn chinese tho. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sengams Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5842 days ago 24 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English | Message 103 of 204 02 January 2009 at 4:47pm | IP Logged |
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I'm 14 years old.
Dutch- mother tongue English- being exposed to the language from a very early age ( around 4)I can understand and read it fluently. But writing and speaking is very difficult for me. I'm improving this now. French- My grandmother is from Paris. When my parents were working she used to take care of me. I could speak it fluently till the age of 7. Now I'm re-learning it in school and I must say that if I learn something, it feels that I already learnt it . German- I'm learning it in school, I find it a very beautiful language and I wish to continue with it. Mandarin- Just started with it, like a month ago. No major improvements yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5333 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 104 of 204 17 May 2010 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
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I'm 19 years old.
Dutch: native language. English: I've been picking it up from the media for as long as I remember. I started learning it in primary school at the age of 10 and have been studying it ever since, in secondary school and now at university. My passive skills are pretty good but I think my active skills are still lacking. French: Been studying it since I was 12 which is why I refuse to consider myself a beginner. I think I'm more of an advanced-beginner-approaching-intermediate but unfortunately, that level doesn't exist on this site. Latin: Started at 13 and took it in school till the age of 18. I started out pretty good but fell behind in my third year and never caught up with the rest of my class again. I'm probably still a beginner which is why I haven't bothered putting it on my profile. German: Studied it between the ages of 14 and 17 and I've been studying it on and off for the last month or so. It's a bit hard to classify since it's so close to my native language. In terms of passive understanding I think I'm somewhere between intermediate and basic fluency but I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to speaking and writing so I've classified my level as intermediate. Ancient Greek: 14-16. Kind of the same story as with Latin. I only took it for two years and I've forgotten most of it by now so it's not on my profile either. Papiamentu: Started dabbling in it when I was around 17. I kind of gave up after I graduated school and no longer daily saw the one native speaker I know. I'm thinking about taking it up again. Italian: I learned some of it when I went on holiday there when I was 17. I managed to string a few sentences together during my two weeks there but I never had much use of it because the trouble with speaking Italian to people is that they tend to talk back in (very elaborate) Italian. Edited by ReneeMona on 17 May 2010 at 7:45am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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