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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| leandro Diglot Newbie Brazil leandro0.stumbleup&# Joined 6148 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 49 of 204 01 November 2008 at 9:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Age 16
Brazilian Portuguese - Native language English - Finished the advanced class last year, two years ahead of my original class. Studied it for over 8 years. Advanced French - Learning on my own for a little over a month. Absolute beginner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5881 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 50 of 204 01 November 2008 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm almost 19 years old.
Polish - my mother tongue, as I live in Poland English - I started "learning" it at the age of 9 in my primary school, but I began to study it seriously (reading, listening to the news in English) at the age of 14. All the different tests suggest that my level of English might be something between B2 and C1 and I wish to be C1 in June 2009 (that's when I have my Practical English Exam) German - I began learning it when I was 16. At the beginning I was curious about this language and curious to learn it well, but my German teacher did all that she could to discourage me. Now I try to study it alone and hope that I can do it well. My level of writing, reading, and listening could be near B1, but as for speaking, it would be A1/A2. Unfortunately I just can't speak German. I hope to achieve level B2 since May 2009 - I will have another exam then. And I would really like to improve my speaking abilities, but it would be the most difficult part... Spanish and Latin - I try to learn these two languages for a month now. And I suppose it take me some time to learn them well. Still much to do for an aspiring polyglot... I guess I started too late, but hope it still can be done. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 51 of 204 01 November 2008 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm 22.
Polish - my mother tongue and by far my best language, as I have both linguistic background in it and good professional skills as an editor and a journalist. German - advanced fluency, I've been mistaken for a native speaker regularly for about a year. I feel comfortable speaking German, have very good listening and reading skills and know grammar well. I'm still working on my language skills, especially vocabulary and writing. My first contact with the language was in the age of 12 or so in the school, after a pause I had it in high school but srongly disliked and didn't learn anything. Learned finally, from the very beginning, during the studies, mostly through communication with natives and self-learning. It took me then about three years to get to the fluency. English - somewhere between C1 and C2, I guess. Very good reading skills, my vocabulary is probably better than in German, especially the scientific one. I speak and write decent English, my accent isn't bad either but I don't "feel" the language", it still seems "foreign" to me, probably due to the fact that I used to speak it with non-native speakers mostly. I think that a longer stay in an English-speaking country could be extremely helpful here, and I definitely want to do it one day. I started learning English in the age of 4 (obviously, it wasn't very serious), got the B2 certificate till the end of high school. As English was always somehow present in my life, it doesn't really have that much of intriguing value as other languages do... but I do want to improve it, especially my accent, advanced grammar and hearing skills in other varieties than the American one. I'd like to get the C2 certificate and I'll probably use it as an extra motivation factor ;). Spanish - started at the university when I was 17, basic fluency (B2+) after three years (courses at the university, self-learning, one month of an intensive course in Spain). Now it's worse after two years without almost any contact with it whatsoever but I'll defnitely brush it up as soon as I learn French (right now I'm too afraid of mixing both up). French - somewhere between A2 and B1, so high beginner / low-intermediate. I hope to reach basic fluency until Juni. I started it in the age of 18 and get strongly discouraged till I turned 19 ;), my course was that bad. After a pause for recovery ;) almost only self-learning, now supported by an organized course (isn't that good either) and the part-immersion situation. -------------- Under this line there's some space for languages I tried to learn or just flirted with. Russian - three years in primary school (9-11 y.o.), a little bit of self-learning 10 years later (a few first units of Princeton Russian). I have some reading skills - with the (extensive) help of dictionary, I can read virtually anything I need. I also understand some spoken Russian and know basic phrases which I try out when I meet Russian people ;). Russian is definitely on my hit list. Italian - started with a great motivation (I used an Internet course) in last months of high school, continued at the university for one year, then temporarily abandoned because of increasing interests on Spanish (and the course itself was extremely descouraging). I have some passive skills (mostly due to the knowledge of Spanish). Czech - again one year of a course at the university (which, once more, was kind of discouraging), some self-learning (not that much). I haven't taken it seriously so far (just had pretty much fun with it). I understand some Czech and even speak it a bit. Latin - one year of an obligatory course at the university. It was interesting but Latin has never really been my goal so I don't learn it anymore. Dutch - just self-learning, two months or so this year, which has already improved my reading skills (I had some due to the knowledge of German and English). I'll certainly go on with it, I had to make a pause because of my staying in Switzerland now, which changed my language priorities. Swiss German - linguistics can argue if it's a separate language or a dialect of German, it doesn't really matter here. Pretty difficult to learn as there aren't many learning materials and I'm still at the stage of looking for a method to crack it... My goal is just listening comprehension, some speaking would be a nice side effect, though. I always loved learning languages. Now I see how discouraging most of the organized courses were :(. I'm very glad I discovered this forum three years ago. It's very motivating to know that there are people that share your passion, and that some of them have already achieved so much! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jez Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 6307 days ago 37 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 52 of 204 15 November 2008 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm 18.
Dutch - Native language, not much to say. English - Advanced fluency, I guess. I'm not all that good with formal speech and fancy words. I am proud of my accent though. Funny thing is, I can't even really recall when I started learning this language. Or started picking it up, rather. I'm guessing around the age of 9 I really started to get more exposure to it by watching television all the time and listening to English language music. I never really studied it, though I did have mandatory classes during my high school years, which improved my understanding somewhat, but nothing dramatically. I just picked it up in the long run. Would it be right to consider English as somewhat of a second native language because of this? German - Advanced beginner probably. From 12 to 15. German was also a mandatory language during my high school years and because of that I picked up some grammar. However I completely forgot everything about the case system. Luckily it's a bit similar to my native Dutch, so that makes it easy to read. But I never use this language anyway and I don't really like it that much. I think it sounds too harsh and it doesn't have a nice flow to it. French - Rubbish. From 12 to 17. Yet another mandatory language during my high school years. Didn't like it back then. But that's probably because of the way it was taught. I do like the language nowadays and maybe I will start learning it again some day. Esperanto - Advanced beginner, lower intermediate. Studied it sporadically since I was 16. Given up on it now. Decided I didn't really like the language because of how artificial it looks and sounds and also because of the unnecessary characters among other unnecessary things. I do think an international language would be a good thing. Just not Esperanto. And actually, I also think learning real languages is more rewarding and more fun. Spanish - Just started learning again. Approaching beginner level now. I'm quite confident this time though. The motivation is there. That is, travelling through South America one day. I also understand written Afrikaans, but that's because it just really close to Dutch. Understanding the spoken language is something else, but not a real problem either. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5859 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 53 of 204 16 November 2008 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
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21
Native speaker of English. Learned German for five years starting at age 16, but only started learning seriously at age 20. Started learning Spanish six months ago. I wish I had started as early as some of you. Edited by Liface on 16 November 2008 at 2:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6015 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 54 of 204 16 November 2008 at 4:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm almost 22 years old.
Polish - I'm a native speaker. English - I started learning it at the age of 8, I insisted on my parents to send me on a course. Since then I've been into classes, had private tutors and after that I got into a bilingual high-school. After graduation I had the level of CPE easily. At the moment, I haven't used my English much in last 3-4 years so my grammar and vocab are rusty. Japanese - my forth year majoring in Japanese Studies. I feel my level is between 1kyu and 2 kyu, but I'm not the strongest person in the group. I don't always have the confidence with using keigo and still need to learn much more kanji. Mandarin Chinese - my second year of classes in my uni. I'm really into the language and I plan on applying for a language scholarship to go to China for a year. German - I began learning it in junior-high for 3 years but in high-school (another 3 years) had to start over again from scratch so that took me a step back. Last time I used any German was during my uni entrance exams, now I can't speak it and I understand less and less. Spanish - some self-teaching while I was in high-school. I can't speak it but I understand a lot. One of my greatest dream is a language course in Spain ;) Russian - only one year of compulsory classes when I was a freshman in uni. It was quite good, I got the idea what's the system all about and should I ever need it in the future I could easily pick up where I left and go on on my own. I wanna learn Arabic and Korean :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ryann Diglot Newbie Slovakia Joined 5853 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Slovak, Hungarian* | Message 55 of 204 16 November 2008 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Greetings, I'm 17 and here is the list of languages I speak:
Hungarian: native Slovak: second language, I speak it on a native level. I live in Slovakia and go to a slovak school, there I speak slovak with friends and teachers, at home I use hungarian. I can read and write excelently in both slovak and hungarian, accentlessly. English: My favourite of all :) Started to learn it aprox 9 years ago, I'd say advanced fluency is what expresses my level of English. I am also able to reproduce any accent I hear, so my regular speech is also without a slovak or a hungarian accent. German: tough one. I'd say I am more of a beginner but less than advanced. Been learning since I was small via TV, didn't understand a word at first, but I wanted to watch Digimon ( :D ) so much, that I began to understand it. It helped me when I started learning it at school 3 years ago. French: learned it for a year, stopped then because my teacher moved to France and since I live in a small town, I had to give up on it because of the lack of french teachers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 56 of 204 17 November 2008 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
I beg to differ with you regarding Scotland, as a native English speaker of Celtic descent I am very envious of anyone who can speak English with a Scottish accent. In answer to the actual topic questions I will not give my exact age, I'm a rather private person. Languages I speak or am somewhat acquainted with English: my native language. Castilian Spanish: Took two years in high school. I have only rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, that is to say I have a very limited vocabulary and virtually no speaking ability, but I fully intend to learn Spanish in the near future. Afrikaans: I've been teaching myself Afrikaans for about 2 1/2 years and am getting anxious to actually speak it with someone. I can write simple sentences in Afrikaans and be understood. Dutch: Attempted to study Dutch two years ago, but abandoned it as I was more passionate about Afrikaans, but due to the many similarities with Afrikaans I can read and understand basic sentences in Dutch with little effort. After I get a better grasp of Afrikaans I will definitely begin studying Dutch. French: I can't speak or read French at all but I recognize it immediately when I hear it being spoken. Edited by mick33 on 18 November 2008 at 2:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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