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:D

I took French all throughout school - 13 years of French immersion programs and actual French school. I went to all-French school for a couple of years and it was really fun, except for the punishment for speaking English - after school detention for 2 hours. You couldn't speak English anywhere on school property, even your parents when they would be at the school.

I haven't really spoken French since I graduated high school, because there really isn't any use for it out in Ontario except for educational purposes, really. I'm going to try and get into the Advanced French class at my university in September to brush up on all aspects of French, especially the spoken part.

I also did 3 years of German and 1 year of Spanish in high school. I had an easier grasp of German which is why I continued with it. German and English are part of the same language group and have a similar history, so that's probably why. I understand it fairly well when reading it or hearing someone speak it, but I suck at speaking it because I haven't done so since I left high school. I'm hoping to pick it up again. Spanish just wasn't my thing, even with all the similarities to French. I know the basics, of course, but I don't see myself re-learning it anytime in the future.

One language I'd love to learn is Italian, and I have a good grasp of it already seeing as 90% of musical terms and directions are in Italian. I also hate to say that I come from a Jewish family and I don't know a single word of Hebrew. We're not religious at all and so there was never really a reason to learn it.

I heard that Mandarin Chinese is the hardest language to learn if English is your first language. I'm assuming it's because it's a tone-based language and a word can mean 5 different things depending on the tone used.

Like Scissorman once said: I speak all the ex-Yugoslavian languages except for Slovenian and Macedonian :D (for those of you who don't know they're basically the same language with different names). Even the last two are very similar. I can read and understand a lot especially written, Macedonian more so than Slovenian.

As for the real foreign languages, I speak, write and read in English. That's the only language outside my own that I'm really comfortable with, even to the point that after a considerable time spent in reading English or writing, I would begin to think in English, if that makes sense. Sometimes, when I try to verbally express something, an English word would come to my mind before Serbian. Crazy.

Beside English, I learned French in school for 8 years. But, I've never felt natural with French. That was more like learning only for school, without being exposed to French on many different levels like I was to English. I really regret that now, 'cause I was doing okay. I've never had problems with grammar, reading and translating, nor with feeling the melody of the language and pronunciation. But I was never so comfortable with speaking French without thinking first. And since I always compared it to my knowledge of English, I was never satisfied. (I could never write all this in French :/) That said, I have to brush up on it and continue where I left off.

Other than that, I've always wanted to learn Italian and Russian. Eh, maybe some day.

I wouldn't say I'm fluent in Estonian, but I can speak it fairly well.

I took French in grade 9 in high school. I can say or write only very basic things, but I find I'm not too bad at reading it, as in I can make out the gist of almost anything.

I really have no interest in learning other languages though. I guess I might take a stab at Mandarin one day if it really becomes the "universal" language, but the only reason I picked up Estonian is because of my grandparents, and I would never have made any attempt at French if it wasn't required for school.

smattering! Good word. It is okay if your smattering lies in PutongHua (it sounds ugly)

I speak Mandarin and Cantonese. I have been living in China for three years.

I love Cantonese. I think, depending on who is speaking, Cantonese sounds so exotic and elegant.

tsnot crazy, it's being bilingual. ;)
Gah, that's my problem. I always felt I knew English very well without really having to try (I never paid attention to grammar in class, it always came by ear). And now that I'm actually having to work on learning a new language it seems like a freakin' bitch. Especially because I don't want to just learn the basics, I want to be as good at it as I am with English and I'm not sure if that's possible given that no other language is so dominant and ubiquitous these days. Spanish is the only one that comes close, at least in these parts.

In order to become really proficient in a new language I think it's essential to immerse yourself in the culture of that language. But unless you actually move to that country, it's very very difficult.

If it really becomes the universal language? What universe is that?

Mandarin is actually somewhat inefficient. It could never be the global language.

It is the official language of China, but there are many people who cannot speak it. Besides, it sounds awful.

Now, who wants to learn norwegian, the language the first black metal bands used?
I'll charge 200 kroner an hour.

Kontakt meg gjerne på epost

spis.dritt@jævla_hagenisse.no

Besides English, I am nearly fluent in Spanish. With that, I could probably decipher some Portuguese and some Latin if I had to.

That's why I put it in quotation marks. Taking into account population projections it looks like a massive part of the world's population will be speaking Mandarin (as in even much more than today). Who knows what the benefits to being able to speak Mandarin then will be? IF it becomes like what english is today to the rest of the world, I'll probably try to learn it.