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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Zorg Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5639 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 57 of 204 17 November 2008 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Greetings, fellow language geeks. Glad to have found this forum.
I'm an English native speaker aged 31 and have the following foreign language background: French: I lived and worked in France some years ago, did my first degree in French and Russian and then a Masters in Interpreting and Translating. I now work as a full-time interpreter/translator in French and Russian and my other half is French too. We speak French most of the time, though her English is brilliant. Russian: see above. My Russian is nowhere near as good as my French, but I can still speak it fluently and read it well enough to work as a translator. Spanish: I have an A level (pre-University qualification for you non-Brits) in Spanish and have continued with some evening classes so have a good conversational level, though my grammar is dodgy to say the least. Italian: I did one semester of Italian and thanks to my grounding in French and Spanish I can understand it moderately well, though a conversation is a bridge too far. Finnish: I have a stock of conversational phrases having spent two summers there when I was going out with a Finn ten years ago. Such a hard language, but a lovely place and people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6242 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes  Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 58 of 204 18 November 2008 at 7:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Err..? I don't think that counts at all. I can recognise probably about 40 different languages, but it doesn't mean that I actually have any skills in them... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6227 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 59 of 204 18 November 2008 at 7:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Eh - let people count what they will. He mentioned his level honestly, and it's clearly something he considers worth mentioning. Personally, I think it may well be something worth mentioning, for a beginner - why not? It's easy to underestimate how tricky it can be to recognize a few specific languages when you're just starting - and just because it gets easier (and, I agree, if you can recognize 40, it's probably not a good idea to list them) doesn't mean that it's not an accomplishment at first. Edited by Volte on 18 November 2008 at 7:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5712 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 60 of 204 18 November 2008 at 1:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You make a very good good point, perhaps I should've added that I only mentioned French because it's a language I will begin learning very soon. Having said that, I do agree with you and have revised my list of languages by omitting French. Edited by mick33 on 18 November 2008 at 2:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5712 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 61 of 204 18 November 2008 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Now that I think about it, bela_lugosi is correct, I should edit my list and omit French until I've actually learned it. Edited by mick33 on 18 November 2008 at 2:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5897 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 62 of 204 18 November 2008 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You are not alone. On the other hand, sometimes you happen to get into contact with some mycoolnickname85 and they always get surprised: "ZOMG, how did you guess that I am 23 yo!?!". No, I am not implying that you were born in 1933. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5712 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 63 of 204 18 November 2008 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
EDIT When I thought about the above list again, I decided to make the following changes to more accurately reflect my limited abilities; so here is my new list: NOTE: I have chosen to omit French for the time being as I have not studied it yet. Languages I speak or am somewhat acquainted with English: My native language. I speak English with a distinctive Southern US accent that nearly everyone I meet comments on. But I like my accent, so I'm keeping it. Castilian Spanish: I took two years in high school. I have only rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, that is to say I have a very limited vocabulary, virtually no speaking ability, and a very noticeable American English accent when I do speak Spanish. But I fully intend to learn Spanish after learning Afrikaans and Dutch. Afrikaans: I've been teaching myself Afrikaans for about 2 and 1/2 years (though I only got serious about Afrikaans 1 and 1/2 years ago) and am getting anxious to actually speak it with someone so that I can find out how much work I need to do to improve my pronunciation. I can read and write simple sentences in Afrikaans and be understood. More complex sentences are harder to for me to write, although I can often understand them fairly well when reading. Since joining this forum I have increased motivation and gotten some new ideas that have helped me improve my Afrikaans vocabulary and reading comprehension. I'm hoping to achieve some level of fluency by next year. Dutch: Attempted to study Dutch two years ago, but abandoned it as I was more passionate about Afrikaans at that time. I have occasionally studied it since then and due to the many similarities with Afrikaans I can read and understand basic sentences in Dutch with little effort. I struggle a little with the pronunciation because Standaard Nederlands requires making some different sounds than Afrikaans. After I get a better grasp of Afrikaans I will definitely begin seriously studying Dutch next. Edited by mick33 on 20 November 2008 at 11:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5712 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 64 of 204 18 November 2008 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm just not very trusting of the internet so I try to limit the amount of personal information I make available. In social situations I usually talk a lot. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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