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QOTD Thread: The End


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Confused, defiant, broccoli, swim

I was expecting "xylophone" somewhere in there too.

Anyways, I am asking this set of questions together because I felt it only makes sense in this case. How many languages do you know? How proficient are you in each language and when did you learn it? (You can claim proficiency in "non-standard" languages such as languages from a fantasy setting or universal languages if you happen to know them.) And before you ask, no - I have no clue how I haven't asked this question either considering I asked about people's ethnicity.

I initially learned Korean when I was very young but rapidly forgot it in favor of English since that's kind of what was taught at the schools. For a time I was reasonably proficient (or at least as proficient as a young boy could be) in both English and Korea. However, when I moved across the country in my preteens, I wasn't able to go to a Korean school and instead learned some Spanish, which I was already sort of learning alongside some random summer Japanese language classes I dabbled in as a kid. I learned just enough Spanish to get a few years of it in during high school but forgot soon after because I sucked at retaining any language that wasn't called "English" I guess.

Nowadays I know a few languages to varying degrees in terms of usage and comprehension, as listed below:

English: Can speak, read, write, and comprehend (understand through hearing) as if it's my first language.

Korean: Can speak simple phrases, read (but not comprehend), write (limited), and comprehend (I can understand a good chunk of conversational Korean)

Spanish: Can speak simple phrases, read (with limited comprehension at best), write (extremely limited), and comprehend (I can understand some conversational Spanish)

Japanese: Cannot speak, cannot read (if the Japanese isn't Romanized), cannot write, but can comprehend (some phrases and individual words - I guess watching Japanese dubbed movies or anime can help a bit)

I suck at languages.

Edited by Interest
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English: Fluent enough that "Americans" are considered. Man sometimes I cringe at the "practical" street English I hear. Second Language, but used the most. Forbidden from speaking it in the house by parents. Exception is when talking to the dog... except he's bilingual too... so rarely in house.

Tagalog: Fluent in speaking. Slow on reading because I haven't used it in years since I lived in the Philippines since I was 9. First Language.

Japanese: Call me "fluent" and I'll just laugh at you. I know enough to have a... well... basic conversation. Like I've had some with my friends. But talk too fast and I have to like... decipher it slowly. I can read a lot easier than speaking, simply because Kanji gives you meanings even if you don't know the actual compound. Third Language, and undoubtedly my weakest one. Learned through taking classes for years and speaking to friends. Anime and Manga are weak reasons to learn it... I found that out the first year, and yet I don't know... I just kept learning it for the hell of it. I don't know the reason I was still motivated to go through the difficulty.

Edited by shadowofchaos
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In order. . .

English - Born and raised with it.

Japanese - I'm pretty good at reading, not so much with listening. Writing's kind of messy, and it takes a while before I remember how to speak. I think I'm at second-grade overall proficiency (I blame my mouth).

Hawaiian/Spanish/Chinese - A sparse smattering of words (the further down it is, the less I know).

Edited by eclipse
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Order from what I know best to worst...

Spanish: My native tongue, so I'm quite fluent in it.

English: Also very fluent with it, since living so close to the US, I was exposed to it a lot, whether due to being taught in class, having books and video games in that language, and knowing people who also know the language (my dad and godmother, for example).

Japanese: Not good on this front. I can read the Hiragana and Katakana just fine, but understanding what I read... not really. I know some kanji and words and stuff, but it's pretty much just basic. I spent a few years going to Japense classes while a kid, but could only really learn well the reading the hiragana and katakana part back then. Nowadays though my knowledge has indeed increased from back then, though mainly due to exposure of the language from what I've come across, and some basic reasoning.

French: Know even less than Japanese on comparison. I actually spent more time with French classes, but I just never was good at it. So I just know some stuff.

German: I also had German classes at some point... but, this one went even less than French. I only know several words here and that's it.

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one language really... I feel like an ignorant American :(

English, my native language

a little bit of Spanish, I was able to hold a conversation with my aunt who is only able to speak Spanish. I'd say I understood 80-85% of what she said.

Edited by sifer
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English: British and American, because I moved between countries that you can guess what they are. Not that they're that different, but there are some consonants and vowels many people can't detect as different in the other accent. If you try to fake an accent one way or the other, even if you adjust your vocabulary and intonation properly, I will detect you.

Japanese: Standard and Kansai, I suppose. Only ever lived in Kansai, so that accent is more natural and fluid to me in casual speech. My speaking is pretty rubbish though... but reading and writing aren't a problem (including pre-war Japanese). That's 95% of what I do with Japanese anyway. Been meaning to work on my speaking sometime.

I can't speak anything else. I love studying languages but I suffer from an excessive wanderlust. I can read qnd write stupid simple Korean, Persian, French, Italian, Icelandic, and Norwegian, but it would be an outright lie to claim a measurable degree of proficiency in any of those.

We need Nightmare to own this thread and make us all feel bad.

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Native language is English. Sadly, I can't hold a conversation in anything else. Once upon a time I could speak German pretty decently but I sorta forgot it after I left Germany. Learning Japanese, but not confident in it.

lol get over yourselves

I really don't understand...?

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indonesian: it's my native language, so yeah...

english: i guess it's clear everyone knows this language well..

chinese: i can read some sentences well, but i can't really get into conversations because i'm not in that kind of level..

japanese: can read katakana, small knowledge on hiragana, no kanji at all, can speak sentences fine, and understand basic conversations,

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English and Japanese.

For English. Self cannon.

For Japanese. 21/2 years experience thus far.

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