Can you speak a foreign language?

[sdifox]

Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, Spanish. Returned 3 years of mandatory French the moment I was done with it.

 

[dust]

Foreign : English...ish, Italian...ish, French..................iiiish!

After 13 yrs of Middle East I can proudly admit that I don't know shit about Arabic, Urdu, Hindi.

Native language: Romanian-ish

 

[Scotteq]

Studied German in Jr High, and still remember a few words.

Lived in Japan for 7 years. Never close to native fluent, but was conversant enough that I could/would think in Japanese in public. Passed the first two of the four tests the Japanese embassy give for reading and writing.

 

[AViking]

Grew up speaking 3 languages. Learned an additional 2 over the years but don't use them anymore. Today I speak Swedish and English fluently and am going to work on adding Spanish back to the mix.

 

[_Rick_]

French and English are my fluently spoken foreign languages.
I've also got a basic understanding of Spanish.

 

[NetWareHead]

Grew up in an Italian household so I'm very conversational/semi fluent in Italian. Took Spanish for 6 years in high school and college plus lots of exposure to it outside the class room. Conversational/semi fluent in Spanish. I'm trying to learn German. My girlfriend is from a Romanian family and I pick up more and more every time we hang out with her family.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I year of high school spanish, I know maybe 300 or 400 words and can conjugate most verbs OK. Simple/small conversations are fine, though I'm clearly not fluent.

I also know a handfull of words in Mandarin, Hindi, and Urdu since my friends at work have taught me some things.

 

[Arcadio]

Spanish and English.

 

[bigrash]

Yup. I speak a few different languages.

 

[Puppies04]

I can get by in French and could ask simle questions and understand the answers in German.

 

[Krazy4Real]

English and Spanish

 

[funlol]

I speak French and Chinese fluently. Both took me around 3-4 years to learn to fluency.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I speak English, the way things are going in this country that's already a foreign language or about to become one.

 

[HumblePie]

English and Bad English

 

[xeemzor]

i am fluent in Hebrew and English. learned french in high school but haven't touched it since. pretty much forgot it.

Same. Wish my parents had actually taught me a useful language like spanish.

 

[PenguinPower]

I wouldn't say I'm fluent because I can't read many kanji, but I'm fairly proficient in Japanese.

 

[mitchelt]

I speak English, Spanish and Women.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Yes

What's weird is that I came to this country at 13 and somewhere around 18 I automatically started thinking in English.

Didn't realize it for a few either.......weird

Now it's my primary language

 

[Broheim]

Fluent in Dutch and English, German is a bit rusty. I know enough French to know what people are talking about.

I understand written Dutch fairly well, simply because I speak Danish, English and German (Dutch is just a huge clusterfuck of Germanic languages).

 

[DrPizza]

Sometimes I wonder - those of you who grew up in areas of the world (Europe) where being bilingual, or trilingual is fairly common, does it amaze you (or even bother you) that in the US, some people go to college simply to major in a second language? That is, they graduate, and their college degree basically means that they're now bilingual - and they use this as a marketable skill.

 

[NetWareHead]

Sometimes I wonder - those of you who grew up in areas of the world (Europe) where being bilingual, or trilingual is fairly common, does it amaze you (or even bother you) that in the US, some people go to college simply to major in a second language? That is, they graduate, and their college degree basically means that they're now bilingual - and they use this as a marketable skill.

I agree with you. My girlfriend's brother lives in Luxembourg with his wife and kids. They are of Romanian origin and have a 7 year old daughter. The daughter speaks Romanian with her family but already knows German, French, Luxembourgish, English and Dutch. 7 YEARS OLD! This example is not out of ordinary for European children.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Sometimes I wonder - those of you who grew up in areas of the world (Europe) where being bilingual, or trilingual is fairly common, does it amaze you (or even bother you) that in the US, some people go to college simply to major in a second language? That is, they graduate, and their college degree basically means that they're now bilingual - and they use this as a marketable skill.

Kids go to college for A LOT OF things.....and they end up knowing very little.

Not just language

hehe

 

[Koing]

I speak Khmer badly but I understand a lot. I can't read or write though.

I did about 8yrs of French and suck badly at it. 3yrs of German and it's non existent as well. I spent about 5 terms at a Saturday Chinese school and suck at that as well. I spent 3months in central america and my spanish is non existent as well. You can tell I suck at languages.

My mum speaks Khmer, Mandarin, Cantonese, another Chinese dialect, English, and Vietnamese.

Koing

 

[Fritzo]

I must be very fluent in a foreign language. Every time I tell my kids to do something, they look at me like I'm speaking one.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Fluent in English, Russian, Belarussian. Could understand Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian(if listening, very dissimilar though), Slovenian(if listening, very similar to slovakian and czech), and barely understand Ukrainian.

I was trying to learn some Korean last year, but real life had told me otherwise.