how many languages do you speak?

[iwka]

How many (and which) languages do you speak other than your native, and on which level:

 

 

• Novice - the ability to communicate minimally in highly predictable common daily situations with previously learned words and phrases.
  
• Intermediate - the ability to combine learned elements of language creatively, though primarily in a reactive mode. The Intermediate level speaker can initiate, minimally sustain, and close basic communicative tasks.
  
• Advanced - the ability to converse fluently and in a clearly participatory fashion. The speaker can accomplish a wide variety of communicative tasks and can describe and narrate events in the present, past, and future, organizing thoughts, when appropriate, into paragraph-like discourse.
  
• Superior - The Superior level is characterized by the ability to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, professional, and abstract topics. Using extended discourse, the speaker can explain in detail, hypothesize on concrete and abstract topics, and support or defend opinions on controversial matters.
  

 

Are you teaching the same languages to your children?

Which language do you wish you could learn?

[Heather in the Kootenays]

Novice French and Japanese, Intermediate Spanish, and Advanced Chinese. I am in the process of learning Spanish. Ds and Dd are learning Spanish. Dd has done some Japanese and ds just started French. To my great shame, no one is working on Chinese but ds might add it in the fall.

[dangermom]

At one time I was quite fluent in Danish; I would have to go back and immerse for a while to get back to that level. I was certainly advanced, but it's been a while--I can still write clearly though.

 

I studied German and Russian in college, and got to a conversational level. That's all gone now. :(

 

With my kids, we are doing Latin and Greek and I study them too. I'm not sure Danish is all that useful. They'll be able to choose modern languages later on. My husband is superior in Spanish, so that might be handy.

 

I'd love to learn Hindi or possibly Arabic. I like different alphabets...

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was at "superior" in Japanese once upon a time. In fact, on the telephone people could not tell that I was not a native speaker. At the Japanese hospital where I did an internship, they thought that I could not speak English but only spoke Japanese. But I'm rusty. In about 5 minutes of speaking continuously to someone most of it comes flooding back but I would have to immerse myself in it again to get back up to Superior level.

 

Latin - novice.

 

American Sign Language - novice.

 

I teach the dc Japanese. I teach ds11 Latin. I've taught dd7 some ASL.

[iwka]

Novice French and Japanese, Intermediate Spanish, and Advanced Chinese.

How did you learn Chinese?

[iwka]

At one time I was quite fluent in Danish;

 

How did you learn Danish?

[iwka]

I was at "superior" in Japanese once upon a time.

 

How did you do that?

[Ibbygirl]

I am a novice in German. I studied it for 2 years in University. I am not quite at a novice level in Polish. I love this language, but it is very difficult to learn and I am teaching myself so it is going painfully slow. I am an advanced speaker in Spanish and a superior speaker of Cuban. ;) :D hehe

[iwka]

I am a novice in German. I studied it for 2 years in University. I am not quite at a novice level in Polish. I love this language, but it is very difficult to learn and I am teaching myself so it is going painfully slow. I am an advanced speaker in Spanish and a superior speaker of Cuban. ;) :D hehe

 

Wow, I am Polish...thank you for learning my language!!!

how did you learn Cuban?

[Amira]

I am intermediate in Russian and Arabic (although this used to be advanced), and novice in Persian.

 

My boys are studying Latin and Persian right now, but we will add Arabic, Russian, or Uzbek as needed (when we live in a country that uses those languages).

 

I would like to be at an upper advanced level in Persian/Tajik and Uzbek/Uyghur, and lower advanced in Arabic and Russian. Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Sakha, Karakalpak, and Wakhi all sound neat too.

[iwka]

 

My boys are studying Latin and Persian right now, but we will add Arabic, Russian, or Uzbek as needed (when we live in a country that uses those languages).

 

I would like to be at an upper advanced level in Persian/Tajik and Uzbek/Uyghur, and lower advanced in Arabic and Russian. Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Sakha, Karakalpak, and Wakhi all sound neat too.

 

What do you use for Persian?

I have a friend who is a part of a team translating New and Old Testament into Uyghur.

 

I never even heard of Sakha, Karakalpak, and Wakhi. Are these Central Asian languages?

[Ibbygirl]

Wow, I am Polish...thank you for learning my language!!!

how did you learn Cuban?

 

 

Fainie! :) I love the sound of Polish. I just think it sounds so cool and I'm fascinated by it, but the grammar is BRUTAL!! hehe

 

That is actually a joke about being superior in Cuban. hehe Of course Cubans speak Spanish also, but with so much slang and pronunciation variations it is easy joke and say it is a different language. ;) :D

 

My family is Spanish and Cuban and I grew up with it. I have some members of my family that don't speak any English at all so we all have to speak Spanish although to be honest we speak more Spanglish than anything. I did get a Spanish grammar book a few years back to improve my formal knowledge of the language, but for the most part I learned it from my family. :)

[Jean in Newcastle]

How did you do that?

 

I was born and raised in Japan. I lived in a city that did not have very many foreigners and so other than in my home and when I was actually in school, I spoke Japanese. And then I had Japanese class (reading and writing) as part of school as well.

 

I am truly bilingual in that I learned both Japanese and English from birth. I was about 6 months behind my Japanese peers because I had to learn it in the neighborhood. When I am speaking Japanese for extended periods of time I actually think in Japanese. I am not translating from English to Japanese.

[iwka]

Fainie! :) I love the sound of Polish. I just think it sounds so cool and I'm fascinated by it, but the grammar is BRUTAL!! hehe

 

That is actually a joke about being superior in Cuban. hehe Of course Cubans speak Spanish also, but with so much slang and pronunciation variations it is easy joke and say it is a different language. ;) :D

 

 

Yes, grammar is horrible....even for us it takes some time...:tongue_smilie:

I thought that there might be some "Cuban" secret/dead language/dialect that you know....ha ha ha!

[Amira]

What do you use for Persian?

I have a friend who is a part of a team translating New and Old Testament into Uyghur.

 

I never even heard of Sakha, Karakalpak, and Wakhi. Are these Central Asian languages?

 

We are unhappily using Rosetta Stone right now, because there really isn't much else available that's suitable for children too. We will soon be using these books instead, as much as possible.

 

Sakha is a Turkic language spoken in Siberia, Karakalpak is closely related to Kazkah and Kyrgyz and spoken in western Uzbekistan, and Wakhi is an Iranian language spoken in the mountains of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan.

[iwka]

I was born and raised in Japan. I lived in a city that did not have very many foreigners and so other than in my home and when I was actually in school, I spoke Japanese. And then I had Japanese class (reading and writing) as part of school as well.

 

I am truly bilingual in that I learned both Japanese and English from birth. I was about 6 months behind my Japanese peers because I had to learn it in the neighborhood. When I am speaking Japanese for extended periods of time I actually think in Japanese. I am not translating from English to Japanese.

 

how neat...

I've read today that for English speaker Japanese is considered the hardest language to learn...

 

When I speak/read/write English or Russian, I am actually thinking in these languages also...

[newlifemom]

So I am guessing pig latin is not an option right. :blush: Other than 2 years in college(German) I have had no foreign language experience. I am learning Latin with my dd. :)

[Ibbygirl]

Yes, grammar is horrible....even for us it takes some time...:tongue_smilie:!

Ay, I'm glad it's not just me!! hehehe

 

I thought that there might be some "Cuban" secret/dead language/dialect that you know....ha ha ha!

 

hehe no. I just put that as a joke mostly for other spanish speakers to get a chuckle. Cubans speak NOTORIOUSLY bad Spanish. They chop the words all up, invent a few of their own that nobody else uses and refuse to pronounce the "ado" at the end of a word. ;) :D hehehehe

[ElizabethB]

I used to be Advanced in Spanish, now I can understand at that level but speaking is difficult, I have not used it for a while. (Well, not quite advanced for understanding Cuban!) It's getting a bit better now that I'm teaching my daughter Spanish, and hopefully will get much better when we move to LA, I should be able to find someone to talk to! (Although there was a grandma at our park recently!)

 

Actually, our park has been quite metropolitan lately for the Little Rock area. We had a German grandma that I spoke with much more successfully. My German is Novice/Intermediate but I find speaking easier since we lived in Germany for 4 years from 1998 to 2002, so I spoke it much more recently than Spanish.

 

I took 1/2 semester of Russian and could understand it fairly well right after I completed the class, but don't remember much now. I can still read Russian and remember several hundred words, but not enough to talk to anyone.

 

Interestingly, after 2 years of German and 1/2 semester of Russian, I could understand more spoken Russian than spoken German. You just don't find out what's going on in German until the end of the sentence, until you build up your vocabulary, it's hard to pick up on spoken German. I could do much better with written German than written Russian at the time.

 

I have visited many countries, I used to be in the Air Force. I try to learn common phrases and common words of every country I visit. Hebrew was the toughest. Japanese and Italian were the most appreciated, then Bulgarian. My French was the least appreciated, especially on the German/French border. They were very upset about my pronunciation. I gave up and switched to German or English on my next visits.

Edited May 15, 2009 by ElizabethB

[Laura Corin]

Mandarin: advanced; French: intermediate but used to be superior. I can also read (but not speak) Spanish. I have some knowledge of Latin, but I wouldn't put a level on it. I'm a complete beginner at ancient Greek.

 

The boys are learning Mandarin, French, Latin and Greek (the last Hobbes chose for himself - Calvin has no interest and is not learning it).

 

Laura

[Rosie_0801]

Hovering somewhere between Advanced and Superior in Auslan. My vocab has slipped a bit since I'm not using it regularly. How often does hockey come up in conversation in a non-sporty family? My story telling skills have slipped too, since I've little reason to use them. I know the strategies in theory, but not being a theatrical type, they've never come naturally.

 

I've got about 20 words of Polish and hope one day to have the brain power to devote to learning enough to translate my beautiful book on Polish heraldry.

 

The kidlets are learning Auslan, but not getting nearly enough input. It's kind of hard to make a toddler listen to you, let alone stop and look. I also intend for them to do Arabic when they get to grade one, if I can wrangle it.

 

Rosie

[Kate in Arabia]

Advanced: Arabic

Intermediate: German (used to be advanced)

Novice: Farsi, Urdu

below-Novice (lol): Latin (had four years in highschool), plus a smattering of familiarities with others through Linguistics studies

 

I'm currently actively teaching Arabic to the kids; Urdu they're picking up just through exposure. My oldest wants to do Latin, but I can't see where to fit it in our schedule; maybe next year (of course I have already bought several curricula that have just been sitting on the shelf :glare: )

 

I love studying languages in general, but my current goals are to move up the languages I already know in fluency level.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

I chose it as my second language in university because I had just been travelling there. I lived in Taiwan to study and then on northern China. It's a tough language. I often wondering how good my Spanish would be if I'd put that kind of effort into it.

 

And to be really precise, I WAS at that level. I've forgotten so much.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Just one here....I took Latin in high school. I've tried Spanish but my brain just doesn't work much anymore.

 

My daughter took Spanish. My son will start Spanish this coming year, but I'm not positive he can do it (learning differences).

 

The little one is playing with Spanish and will have Latin this fall, I think.

[fivetails]

Intermediate French - although the French that I speak is, I suspect, a lot like the "Cuban" mentioned earlier in the thread. ;) French spoken on Prince Edward Island (where we're originally from) tends to be quite a bit different than the French spoken in Quebec, and the French spoken in France.

 

I'd LOVE to learn Russian. :D

 

Oh, I can sign a bit as well - novice there, I guess. If I don't know the word/phrase/etc that I want, I can always 'spell' it out.

 

(I can read and write in braille as well, but I read it with my eyes, not my fingers. Not so much a language as it is a different way to communicate IN a specific language.)

[pooh bear]

Does counting to ten, asking for a cup of tea, and hello nan/granddad in Welsh count as mastery of a language? :tongue_smilie:

 

 

I took 4 years of German in school, but our teacher was German, who could not speak much English. The only things I remember from that is to say my car is broken and where is the hospital.

 

Ds can speak British and American English, does that count?

 

Ds and I are starting to learn Latin, and I'm not sure which modern foreign language to add. We would like to add Greek, but there is no Ancient Greek for lower levels., have to wait until he is older for that.

[Hillary in KS]

Superior - English

 

Advanced- Spanish

 

Novice - Greek and Latin

[Guest]

Some of you are very impressive!

 

I used to be intermediate/advanced in Spanish back when I was doing a lot of missionary work in Mexico and visiting every few weeks. I would consider myself a novice now, having not used it in quite some time. I am hoping it comes back to me if I were to ever pick it up again.

 

I am very early on in my study of Latin. A long-term goal of mine is to learn Greek and be able to read the New Testament in it's original language. I'd love to learn Italian, too.

 

I plan on my kids doing Latin, some Greek and a modern language of their choice in high school.

[Matryoshka]

Superior: German - because I don't speak it daily, I sometimes do have to hunt for a word when doing something like defending a controversial opinion (say, why I homeschool - boy I've had that conversation), but that happened to me in English (my native tongue) when I lived in Germany. I speak well enough that I'm routinely mistaken for a native speaker.

 

The above gauge is all about conversational ability - I have to say my written ability has fallen off more - I get uptight about those pesky adjective endings (things that get slurred in speech but stick out glaringly in prose...). I learned largely by immersion, so that's not my strong suit.

 

Advanced: Spanish - I used to be better at this, but I lived less time in Spanish speaking countries and it gets rusty much more easily. What I need is a nice long vacation in a sunny Spanish-speaking locale. :D Ironically because I learned this in the more "traditional" way, I can probably give better grammar explanations in Spanish than German.

 

I can read French fairly well, but output is limited to a few phrases - I'm not sure where that would even fall on the above scale. :tongue_smilie: Dilettante?

 

I would really like to learn Mandarin Chinese. It fascinates me. I know about 20-25 words (that includes counting to 10 ;)) and can recognize maybe 5-10 characters.

 

My kids are learning the languages I speak. They go to German Sat. School and are already somewhere between Intermediate and Advanced, depending on the kid. I am teaching them Spanish, but I'd say they're at Novice. I'm having them dabble in Chinese as well - I think that may be for me as much as them. :D

[Ibbygirl]

What I need is a nice long vacation in a sunny Spanish-speaking locale. :D

 

Come on down here and you can learn some Cuban! ;) :D hehe

[Hillary in KS]

Does counting to ten, asking for a cup of tea, and hello nan/granddad in Welsh count as mastery of a language? :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Bore da, Pooh Bear!

 

I'm learning Welsh on a BBC website. I've finished level 1, and can greet people and introduce myself. But that's it.

 

How do you ask for a cup of tea in Welsh?

[Kay in Cal]

Novice: Latin, Biblical Greek (reading -- not conversing), Biblical Hebrew (ditto), Chinese, French, Spanish

(used to be Intermediate in French, haven't studied it since H.S.)

 

Intermediate: Russian (used to be Superior, when I was living in Kazakhstan), Norwegian (used to be fluent, but after not using it for 20 years I can still understand almost everything and conversed stiltedly when we had Norwegian houseguests in January)

 

The best is that I KNOW as a teen I could think in Norwegian, and frequently dreamed in Norwegian. I've never gotten to that level of comfort with another language.

[iwka]

Mandarin: advanced;

 

How did you learn Mandarin?

[iwka]

Hovering somewhere between Advanced and Superior in Auslan.

 

I've got about 20 words of Polish and hope one day to have the brain power to devote to learning enough to translate my beautiful book on Polish heraldry.

 

 

I had to google up Auslan :001_smile:

 

Hey, yey, learn Polish!!!:hurray:

[iwka]

Advanced: Arabic

 

 

Hod did you learn Arabic and Urdu? Do you live "somewhere there"?

[Osmosis Mom]

Hmm, I have lost a lot of languages.

 

Used to be intermediate in French, German and pretty much so in Latin. Am now at novice level in French and German as well as in Japanese (was intermediate back when I lived in Japan).

 

Pretty fluent in Arabic, can certainly hold any kind of conversation in Syrian dialect so no problem there (grammar less than perfect, though). Of course fluent in Danish (mother-tongue) and English (adopted mother-tongue).

 

I guess I'd like to work on my Japanese and wouldn't mind picking up Spanish and practising my german and French, but mostly interested in Japanese.

[iwka]

(I can read and write in braille as well, but I read it with my eyes, not my fingers.

 

This is cool!

[iwka]

Ds can speak British and American English, does that count?

 

 

Actually in Poland you can take one semester or one year courses of Oxford British or American English...and it's not only pronunciation...

[iwka]

A long-term goal of mine is to learn Greek and be able to read the New Testament in it's original language.

 

Oh, this is a great goal...

[TeacherZee]

Superior: English and Swedish

Novice: Norwegian, Danish, French and German. Or, well...I can understand Norwegian and Danish and they can understand me if we talk slowly. I can read them pretty well. French and German I am probably below novice now but I understand more than I think when I hear them. I have 3 years of high school German and two of French.

 

I would like to pick up Latin, Spanish and French (again).

[Osmosis Mom]

Actually in Poland you can take one semester or one year courses of Oxford British or American English...and it's not only pronunciation...

 

 

Same thing in DK at Copenhagen University. Generally speaking then American accent is looked down upon (or was when I was there). I chose British, but eventually changed studies and ended up here in the US!!!

[Kate in Arabia]

Hod did you learn Arabic and Urdu?

Arabic was my subject in grad school, and included study overseas. My dh is originally from India (which is how I've picked up much of the Urdu I can muster, lol).. and for the past five years we've been living in the United Arab Emirates, so I really don't have much excuse to not improve my spoken Arabic at least.

 

Urdu is high on my list for improvement, I just haven't gotten enough gumption yet, I guess, to follow through. A friend sent me a set of Urdu schoolbooks from Pakistan, grades 2-8, but I need help going through them and unfortunately dh isn't much help in that area. I need to hire a tutor for myself!

[iwka]

Superior: German - because I don't speak it daily, I sometimes do have to hunt for a word when doing something like defending a controversial opinion (say, why I homeschool - boy I've had that conversation), but that happened to me in English (my native tongue) when I lived in Germany. I speak well enough that I'm routinely mistaken for a native speaker.

 

The above gauge is all about conversational ability - I have to say my written ability has fallen off more - I get uptight about those pesky adjective endings (things that get slurred in speech but stick out glaringly in prose...). I learned largely by immersion, so that's not my strong suit.

 

Advanced: Spanish - I used to be better at this, but I lived less time in Spanish speaking countries and it gets rusty much more easily. What I need is a nice long vacation in a sunny Spanish-speaking locale. :D Ironically because I learned this in the more "traditional" way, I can probably give better grammar explanations in Spanish than German.

 

 

I personally think immersion is a better way to learn. It is almost like a Suzuki method of teaching an instrument. First you play quite a bit, then you learn notes. That way your brain is not overwhelmed with the amount of input at once and you can see the results much faster.

 

My husband thought English Berlitz method for some time and I think it is great for the beginners to do. That is how I've learned English. The problem now is that I am learning the proper grammar (still not good at it), writing etc. as I teach the oldest dd, and the light bulb goes on in my brain frequently.

 

I can explain German grammar probably too, but because I've studied it in high school, I can barely speak it now...:glare:

[Ibbygirl]

Actually in Poland you can take one semester or one year courses of Oxford British or American English...and it's not only pronunciation...

 

 

Iwka, is there any site that you know of that teaches Polish online?? The offerings for learning Polish at home are so limited. Dziekuje. :)

[iwka]

I have learned a lot of German because my husband speaks only German to our children. I studied for 2 years at Uni. I don't claim to even be at a novice level though. I can probably understand far more than I can speak. I can often follow a conversation (just not contribute in German). I am trying to change that though and plan to buckle down and learn more (I'm waiting on a book I ordered!).

 

I studied Polish for 3 years. And once upon a time I could function in the language. I had a Polish boyfriend who barely spoke English (for 4 years) and I worked in a factory while in college where most of my fellow workers only spoke Polish. So I picked up a lot. But I haven't been around the language for about 10 years now so I wouldn't claim any knowledge in that anymore.

 

And then there is my native language English. Which I guess is at least better than novice level. :lol:

 

Which book are you gonna use for German? It is cool that your dh is speaking German to your kids. Way to go!!!

 

Wow!!! Polish...my heart melts...polski jest taki piękny...

[iwka]

Intermediate: Russian (used to be Superior, when I was living in Kazakhstan), Norwegian (used to be fluent, but after not using it for 20 years I can still understand almost everything and conversed stiltedly when we had Norwegian houseguests in January)

 

The best is that I KNOW as a teen I could think in Norwegian, and frequently dreamed in Norwegian. I've never gotten to that level of comfort with another language.

 

Did you live in Norway?

[iwka]

Superior: English and Swedish

Novice: Norwegian, Danish, French and German. Or, well...I can understand Norwegian and Danish and they can understand me if we talk slowly. I can read them pretty well. French and German I am probably below novice now but I understand more than I think when I hear them. I have 3 years of high school German and two of French.

 

I would like to pick up Latin, Spanish and French (again).

 

Swedish because...?

Looks like you are fond of Scandinavia...

 

Are the Scandinavian languages close to each other that people understand each other?

 

I have this situation with Ukrainian - I understand it and I speak back Russian...with Chech, I understand a lot and I speak back Polish...it works on a...tourist level .... :001_smile:

[TeacherZee]

Swedish because...?

 

Because that is where I live:001_smile:

 

Looks like you are fond of Scandinavia...

 

Are the Scandinavian languages close to each other that people understand each other?

 

They are fairly similar. In Sweden technically it is also part of the national curriculum to learn some Norwegian and some Danish. Norwegian is easier for me to understand than Danish.

[iwka]

The offerings for learning Polish at home are so limited. Dziekuje. :)

 

http://www.polandbymail.com/get_item_bk2554_say-it-the-polish-way-book-cd.htm goes with http://www.oneness.vu.lt/ I just found it few days ago

 

http://www.polishgrammar.com/

 

http://www.polonia.com/HURRA-PO-POLSKU-1-STUDENTS-WORKBOOK-P11859.aspx I have a friend in Poland who teaches Polish to foreigners and she told me about this series being developed http://www.hurra.edu.pl/

 

http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/polish/soap/

 

http://www.polish-translators.com/grammar.html

 

http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/kurs/

 

http://cierniak.eu/learnpolish/PolishFlashCards.pdf

 

http://www.byki.com/fls/free-polish-software-download.html?l=polish

[Audrey]

 

That is actually a joke about being superior in Cuban. hehe Of course Cubans speak Spanish also, but with so much slang and pronunciation variations it is easy joke and say it is a different language. ;) :D

 

 

 

I was going to post that I used to be advanced in Cuban. :D I grew up in S. FL. and learned to speak it that way, but I cannot read or write much. *I* thought I was speaking Spanish all along until I went to Chile and was informed that what I was speaking was NOT Spanish! :lol:

 

In regard to the OP:

Intermediate in Latin (although I would say I used to be advanced when I studied it formally).

 

Intermediate Spanish/Cuban, but when I'm angry I get darn close to advanced!

 

Superior in French (formal instruction at university; married to a Fr.Cdn; live in a teeny tiny francophone community)

 

Novice in Low German & novice in High German (live near a very large group of Mennonite communities)