Languages

[GingerRose]

[Zagadka]

English, but not for lack of trying. I've spoken broken Spanish and Russian in my time, but not enough to call myself confident in my abilities.

[everywhere and nowhere]

Polish - native

English, German - very good

Ukrainian - intermediate

some Russian, Norwegian, Latin, a bit of French, plus - also given my education in the area of linguistics - ability to understand a language related to one I know (for example German, English, Norwegian ---> Dutch; Polish, Russian, Ukrainian ---> Belarusian) probably better than an average person. A lot of people are able to understand many words and phrases in a related language (for example, Polish, Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible to a considerable extent), I also have a level of knowledge about linguistic mechanisms, and also both my education and my love for Diversity have enabled me to get rid of the feeling of finding a related language funny (a very common reaction of Polish people to Czech, also - according to what I've read in a book - a common reaction of Polish people who speak German to Yiddish; interestingly - according to that source - native German speakers rather don't exhibit the same reaction, Poland seems more prone to linguistic xenophobia).

[ace bookdragon]

English is my native language, and I'm learning French and Latin. I also know a bit of Spanish.

[SithLord]

I know a bit of Japanese (listening = decent, speaking = HORRIBLE) and German (dying slowly from disuse), but I only know English fluently. 

[Karst]

I speak English and French fluently, although my French spelling is a crime against the language.  I took several years of Latin classes, but I can't actually have a full conversation in it.  I also know some Esperanto, since I got so bored one summer that I took a free online course in it.

[Larkaloke]

English is my native language, and German is the only other language that I'm fluent enough in to carry out a conversation in (or read books and write things in). I'm a bit slow in responding, but I'd say I'm at least decently fluent in German.

 

Despite trying for a while now, I know only enough French to read fairly simple things and get by reading signage and what in a French-speaking area, but I can't write it much at all or speak/understand more than a phrase or two. I know less even than that of Spanish and Welsh, so I certainly wouldn't count those, although I hope to improve some day in all three.

[Jinkx]

I speak English and have learned Japanese to a degree, but I understand more than I can speak it and I am quite out of practice with it (which I am hoping to rectify this year). I'm taking a Korean course online over the summer, so we'll see how that goes. I've dabbled in Russian, German, ASL, and European Portuguese before as well. I've also been meaning to start learning the basics of Thai.

[Salmiakki]

I speak English and Finnish fluently. Finnish is my native language.

[AceAnimeFan]

English is my native language and I am somewhat proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). I have also spent some time studying Hawaiian 

[ôÿē èîęēú ïė ēôēįîûôø]

English is my native tongue. I can speak Spanish and French quite well; if I spoke both consistently, I'll bet I could reach fluency. It's the same with Portuguese and Italian, but I'd have to speak those a little more to reach fluency.

[GingerRose]

1 hour ago, Ace Bookdragon said:

a bit of Spanish.

Muy bien!

[iff]

English with a little bit of irish and german

[Skycaptain]

English, as that's my native language, reasonable French, just enough German, Spanish and Italian to order a coffee or beer, but not to converse with 

[fooledbysecrecy]

english and finnish (native) although i feel like my skills in both are declining since they're pretty much one big mess in my head.

 

i used to be quite good in german and swedish too before the teenage hit and i decided it was cool to not learn stuff.🙃

[Grumpy Alien]

Native English speaker. I grew up surrounded by Spanish and took 8 years of Spanish for kids. I studied through honors French V in high school and was conversational at the time but have since lost all of my grammar and syntax. I tried learning ASL when I lived in the US (I’m Hard of Hearing) but had no one to use it with so never got anywhere. Now I’m learning BSL with my husband.

[Ortac]

I am curious to see an option of Patois which appears to have been randomly placed in the middle of the list of languages. What is this intended to mean? It's not clear because it is lacking context. The word patois does not refer to a specific language, but rather is the term given to a local dialect which differs from the main language of a country or region, similar to creole languages. There are a number of different regional languages in France which are referred to locally as patois, and I'm sure there are also other places in the world which have a local language referred to locally as patois.

[SpaceDustbin]

Dutch native speaker, fluent in English, near-fluent in Danish, intermediate in Norwegian, German and French. 

My Swedish got obliterated by learning Danish, so finding the right 'melody' and intonations again will be tricky 😂

[Lucija]

Slovenian is my native language and I also speak English (obviously). I’m also learning Spanish and Latin (beginner level)

[Janus the Fox]

An ever slight bit of Welsh, never could fluently understand it, despite being welsh and learned it every year in school and college, barely understand English, fluent in Fox though

[WaywardHeroine]

Native English speaker, took 4 years of Spanish in high school (but it's probably all but faded).  Currently an English teacher in Japan, so I know a fair amount of Japanese.

[A Human Being]

I speak English in an intermediate level and Spanish and Catalan (my native languages) fluently.

I've also been studying German for about four years now, but my comunication skills are far from fluent. 

[J. van Deijck]

English, other and other.

 

My native language is Polish, so by logic I'm fluent in it. I've been studying English since 10 years old up to  the university, so I'm fluent in it, too. I also speak (very) basic Dutch, the Flemish one. I take classes for it and I hope to be as fluent in it as I am in English so I can easily have a conversation.

[SpaceDustbin]

1 hour ago, Jelle van der Lee said:

Dutch, the Flemish one

That's a very important distinction . I have some Flemish friends and we have so many 'wtf' moments with seemingly normal words that somehow have a (slightly) different meaning, despite Dutch and Flemish technically being the same language.

For example if I'd say 'lopen' (to walk) in Dutch, my Flemish friend would think I talk about running (rennen). She says stappen instead, which in Dutch would specifically refer to going out.

 

And we still haven't settled the ham and couch debates

[Zebrafinch]

2 hours ago, SpaceDustbin said:

 

And we still haven't settled the ham and couch debates

Could you explain this bit? 

[N8ty L3asT]

Mother language English but I’m fluent enough in Spanish to get through conversations.

[Karst]

I've made a few efforts to learn some ASL, but I had a lot of trouble with it.  Even finger-spelling was inordinately difficult for me to memorize.

I'm not sure why I had such a hard time with it.  Maybe it was because I couldn't really write words down?

[J. van Deijck]

22 hours ago, SpaceDustbin said:

That's a very important distinction . I have some Flemish friends and we have so many 'wtf' moments with seemingly normal words that somehow have a (slightly) different meaning, despite Dutch and Flemish technically being the same language.

For example if I'd say 'lopen' (to walk) in Dutch, my Flemish friend would think I talk about running (rennen). She says stappen instead, which in Dutch would specifically refer to going out.

 

And we still haven't settled the ham and couch debates

And this is the exact reason why I felt like mentioning which one I learn my native Belgian friend says he sometimes has trouble understanding people from the Netherlands when they speak.

But in the school we also learnt the word lopen.  and yes, it was running, while walking is wandelen 😂

[Firefly8]

English & American sign language 

[cato]

English only, alas.

 

I studied Modern Greek and Spanish in college, but they're mostly gone now.  Use it or lose it!