What languages do you speak ? > need some advices

[mo-djoe]

So, one thing I'm really good at is spoken language ,

I don't express myself as good writing than talking in a foreign language...

I currently speak fluently french , german and english ... English is the language I've been studying in high school for five years now, and I've always spoken german and french... And now I'm about to graduate high school and prepare either for the TOEFL or the IELTS tests...

I'm really curious , I want to learn another language , failed miserably at spanish ( I forgot everything after last years summer) and I was very bad at it...

I feel more confident with italian , but since I learned english so easily, everyone is advising me to take up difficult foreign languages like russian, arabic or mandarin ....

I was curious what languages you all spoke and which you had learned, easily or not....

Thank you for your responses !

[Coe]

I speak fluently French since it's the first language that I learned in my life, English was also a language that I learned early on in my life since my dad is half-irish. In school,I learned both Spanish that was not so bad for me to learn and German, that I had the hardest time learning and now I'm learning Korean,so that I can communicate with my boyfriend family,and it's okay for the speaking but for the writting and reading it's another story because it's so different from any language I've ever learn.

[juneping]

i am chinese...so chinese is my mother tongue.
i grew up in HK where was a british colony then...so i learned english at the age of 6.
the two languages are just so different. chinese actually don't have present/past/future tense and no singlar/pural form...so it was a strange concept for me when i learned english.

[dooneydiva]

My native language is American English. I also speak Spanish fluently and would consider myself low/basic proficient in Arabic.

I thought learning Arabic was wonderfully fun! Of course, while you learn the spoken language, you will have to learn how to write as well. I thought it was interesting!!!! I say you should try Arabic.

P.S. JUNEPING, that is a very interesting thing about CHINESE! How does one convey the message that something happened, for instance, in the past if there are no past tenses in the language??

[GhstDreamer]

English, French (less speaking and more reading and writing it - there's no one around me to converse in French) and Chinese (specifically Cantonese as I have absolutely no knowledge of Mandarin).

I've been having a difficult time trying to understand Mandarin - I've been watching Mandarin language shows more but I can't pick up any of the words if it's a show from Taiwan or China. However if it's a Singaporean show broadcasted in Mandarin, it's so much easier to understand - then I can understand about 75% of the words). Still can't speak it - though I want to take Mandarin lessons.

[PANda_USC]

OP, you want a challenge eh? ^_^

Hmm..I speak English, Mandarin(had a Chinese tutor intermittently until I was 12..took up to level IV Chinese at USC and one summer at a Taiwan University and speak with the family) and French(took French K-12). I think it's easier to pick up a language when you're younger...has something to do with developing sounds with your mouth..some people when they're older, cannot master accents when they learn a dif. language..

I would suggest Mandarin! Chinese is becoming an extremely useful language to know, especially with the country's growth in business and trade internationally. It is a really challenging language because the characters aren't based on the latin alphabet. It's pretty cool though..the character for "dragon" looks like an abstract dragon!

As for learning a language, it can be done if you make it fun and exciting! You gotta keep practicing to reinforce the language or it'll escape you...as you probably have experienced, : P. One way to really make a language stick is to stay in an area which only uses that language. Then you're forced to use it, experiment, fail, learn etc..Using what you learn in the classroom in everyday life makes the language acquisition so much easier!

[nataliam1976]

I speak a few foreign languages: English, French, German, Russian ( was obligatory in schools when I was a student), Italian, learning Danish now( only because I live in DK now).

If you feel more confident with Italian, go for it! Its a beautiful language and if you speak French it wil be so much easier for you to learn. I also failed at learning Spanish ( maybe because I was more concentrated on the teacher than on the lesson, after he went back to Spain I didnt follow up on it) but I loved learning Italian and I use any occasion to speak it, its so flowy and pretty and like music, definitely my favourite.

With languages I always considered 2 things : if I want to learn/like the particular language and if its possible I might need it in the future. I just feel that spending so much time on something that I neither like nor will I ever use for the sake of the challenge is not a good idea, unless you have plenty of spare time on your hands.

[siworae]

I can speak conversational Korean and Mandarin Chinese... I also learned French in middle and high school, but I honestly cannot carry on a conversation. I still recognize many words and phrases, though... but I've forgotten much of what I've learned all those years. I really only consider myself fluent in English, to be honest.

Right now, I am trying to learn Japanese in my spare time... fortunately, the grammatical structure is similar to Korean, which helps a lot... but it's still a lot of work!

[Nieners]

I speak French, German, Dutch, English, Kroatian and a little bit of Arabic.

[lilyjamie]

Italian is my native language.I speak english,even if not too well (I've learned it by myself..it was teached at my school,but that was 10 years ago..a couple of years ago I realized I forgot everything,so I tried to learn it again by myself..but I'm not very good at this ),and i used to speak a bit of French,but I totally forgot it,because i never had any occasion to speak it.

[CeCChanel]

I speak Norwegian,Swedish,Danish and English.
I understand some German as its a bit similar to the languages above.
Had French at school, but its not fluent or that good.
And I know a little basic Russian and Turkish, by listening and being around some of my friends.

If I could choose a language to learn it would be Turkish or Arabic

[flashy.stems]

i speak english, french and german.

[Junkenpo]

Okay... I'm so jealous!

The USA just doesn't place enough emphasis on learning other languages. English is all the politicians care about.

Any secondary language acquisition doesn't get offered until high school, unless your family places you in other after school programs or speaks another language at home.

[PANda_USC]

^really? I am not sure if you attended private or public school in the U.S., but at my private school, we were required to learn French starting 1st grade and in junior high(still at the same school), we could choose between French or Spanish

[PrinceAbdullah]

I speak English and Arabic.

I spoke Arabic growing up but wasn't taught how to write until HS. It was sooo fun learning how to write in Arabic. Its like an art.