Which languages do you know?

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Papatorres

Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Papatorres »

Papatorres

Well, I speak Portuguese (my native tongue).

I know Spanish (quite similar to portuguese)
English
French
Some Italian
Some Norwegian (worked there for 6 years), some Swedish and Danish.

And a dozen other languages I understand enough not to starve and die of thirst...
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Gnaeus
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Gnaeus »

With a nod to Dakkus: :wink:

In ascending order of flency, least competent first...

Latvian: Es esmu abols (I studied at university in Riga for a year, but did most of my work in Russian -- that was many years ago, of course) :oops:
German: Ich bin ein Apfel (after one year in Austria, still struggling with German...) :oops:
French: Je suis une pomme (moderate level of competency after two years living in French Africa)
Croatian: Ja sam jabuka (lived three years in Zagreb, strong knowledge)
Russian: я яблоко (fluent after many years in the former USSR, studies at University, and living with a Russian wife) :D
English: I am an apple (native language)

plus reading knowledge of Latin, ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Old High Persian (yes, I was an archaeology major in college)
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Dakkus »

(You can see my previous language-listing post in the thread here)

So...
Finnish: I've been able to speak the language since the day I was born (what did you think, then?). I am making an increasing number of mistakes in it, though ;)
English: This language is still the foreign language that I know the best. And it has even gotten better in the past half a year, because I've been spending a lot of time with Scottisch people. Some parts of my "English" have become more Scottish, though. (Luckily?) my accent has remained quite Finnish Also, the more I learn German, the more interference errors I make in my English..
German: I speak the language fluently enough that most native speakers think I am a native speaker from some very far part of the language area. Mostly they guess I am Austrian or Swiss - not precisely a compliment ;)
Dutch: While learning German, also my Dutch grammar has of course bettered itself. However, my ability to speak the language has notably detoriated, which is a shame.
Swedish: I can have a conversation in Swedish without any problems in understanding. Sometimes I have to omvändla German words to Swedish in order to use some vocabulary, but I always get myself understood anyway.
Norwegian: Basically a subset of Swedish. I have been able to hold long conversations with Norwegian-speaking people, although it's slightly more difficult to understand than Swedish.
Danish: The Danes have to speak clearly in order for me to understand them. I am able to fluently read a Danish newspaper, however.
Estonian: I still speak the language quite well, but remaining unused, it has gone a bit rusty. Luckily there's an old Estonian alcoholic always hanging around near an S-Bahn station so that I can keep my Estonian up by conversating with him.
Russian: I seem to be able to conversate just about anything in Russian, although with quite a bit of difficulty. The Russians have to show some effort simplifying their language in order to have a conversation with me.
Italian: Quite surprisingly, I seemed to understand 75% of what the comedians at the street art festival in Ferrara spoke and was able to /somewhat/ take part in a conversation in Italian.
Spanish: An acceptable tourist level. I know how to avoid fighting an hour for explicitly wanting my beer boiling hot ;)
French: I am able to conversate in French, albeit with great difficulty.
Lithuanian: I am trying to learn the language, but all the books I have found are total crap. I know a bit of grammar, but still can't really conversate at all. In Lithuania I still speak Russian.
Polish: Worse than my French, but I am able to transmit some of my thoughts to Polish people.
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pako

Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by pako »

I speak following languages:
Dutch (mothertongue)
Hungarian (my mother was Hungarian)
French
German
English
Spanish
MagoJaume

Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by MagoJaume »

I speak:

Spanish (mother language)

English (I learned an School, and I use it everyday)

Italian (I can speak read and understand, but I can't write)

Portuguese (I can speak and understand, very similar to Spanish)

Català (Regional language in Spain, even I don't live in Catalonia it's easy to speak and understand)

LSE (Spanish Sign Language the hand language for deaf ppl)
an-148 (Liège)

Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by an-148 (Liège) »

In degressive order:
- French (naturally !!!)
- German: fluently; never learned at school, but I worked for more than 20 years at the border to Germany, so my German is, let's say, as good as the language of a native German, but with the mistakes done by a person with low school level.
- English: quite well (and it's highly recommended to work abroad)
- Dutch: I had to learn it at school as a second language: I was very strong at that time, but with the years going, I lost a little bit of it; if I speak with a duch speaking person for more than a few minutes, it comes back relatively easy.
- Afrikaans: only reading, just because it's so close to ancient dutch !!!!!!!
- Serbo-croatian (and a little Macedonian): I can help myself in restaurants, shops.........with a lot of single words that I remember, but can't make sentences.
- Italian, Spanish and Portugese: only what a tourist needs not to starve for hunger or thurst..............
- Latin and ancient Greek: although learned at school, I forgot everything : but it has been helping to ditinguish the radical of some words in a foreign language, also to read road signs in Greece and 70% of cyrillic signs (the other 30% have been easyer to learn after that)!!!!!!!

that's all .........
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Nitrogen »

Image Slovak [birthlanguage]
Image Czech [similar to Slovak]
Image English [learning]
Image Deutsch [learning]
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Asiamaniac »

Dear Nitrogen,
for me personally, you are the first Slovakian Eurobilltracker who I see in the Forum. Welcome to our community, and lots of interesting hits! :D
Meine Angst, dass die Autokorrektur einmal etwas Obszönes ausspuckt, wichst täglich.
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by luc4mz »

Italian: mother-language
Slovakian: is the language of my mother, so I can speak it at 70%
Czech: is similar to slovak so...
English: I lived in England so I can say that my english is at 80%
French: Intermediate
German: Just some words and sentences
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Which languages do you know?

Post by BCNumismatics »

Being from New Zealand,I only know one language - English,which is my native language anyway.

I have heard various dialects of Maori,but being a native of Wanganui,some dialects really get up my nose,considering that we have our own culture,including our own dialect.

Aidan.
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by Ladybug74 »

edit
Last edited by Ladybug74 on Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by threelions4077 »

hello all,
- my motherlanguage is German
-as second language is English
-I speak a little bit Spanish
-a few words in Chinese, but i am still learning
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Which languages do you know?

Post by BCNumismatics »

I had an opportunity nearly 2 months ago to use my very poor command of German in dealing with a German tourist whose English wasn't the best.I recognised the word 'kleine',which means 'small'.

My command of German is so faulty I call it Kitchendeutsche (Kitchen German) or Pidgindeutsche (Pidgin German),because it is a mixture of English & German combined - English with the odd German word thrown in.

Some Germans understand why I make an effort to speak a bit of their language.

A few months ago,I got a woman from Berlin laughing with my Kitchendeutsche,considering that her English was almost flawless.

Aidan.
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by anaBanana »

slovene
croatian
serbian
macedonian
english
german
my spanish is ok i guess :D (i think i wouldn't get lost, be thirsty/hungry and i would find my way back home :D )

i think that's probably it :D
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Re: Which languages do you know?

Post by groentje »

BCNumismatics wrote:I had an opportunity nearly 2 months ago to use my very poor command of German in dealing with a German tourist whose English wasn't the best.I recognised the word 'kleine',which means 'small'.

My command of German is so faulty I call it Kitchendeutsche (Kitchen German) or Pidgindeutsche (Pidgin German),because it is a mixture of English & German combined - English with the odd German word thrown in.

Some Germans understand why I make an effort to speak a bit of their language.

A few months ago,I got a woman from Berlin laughing with my Kitchendeutsche,considering that her English was almost flawless.

Aidan.
Belgians call it 'Jean-Marie Pfaffs', after J-M Pfaff, a former Belgian goalie who played for Bayern München. Another possibility is Deutsch mit Haare auf :mrgreen:
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