is english your native language?

[Streetwise]

As an native English speaker, I always feel awkward that I've never had to learn another language for survival purposes, that when traveling, that it's quite likely the people I encounter speak far better English than I do in their language, which for some might be some gibberish.

Guten tag, nein sprachen Deustche. Sprachen sie Englisch?

(My German vocabulary probably has 50 words at most, which I'm probably not even pronouncing correctly. Sorry.)

Dont feel too bad!, non lawyers, non very wealthy people, in the uk, were forced to speak trade(english was altered for trade purposes in the 1700s)English.

Thats why there are areas ,that still have a dialect or speak Gaelic \breton french and really! disliked being forced to speak english.

Most naturally want to speak old dialect languages of Great Britain (i use that in this case !, to demonstrate that the countries that compose it were changed by the king of Brittany ,where our old name is derived from the french name Bretagne was added to in the 9th-10th century with Grand thus the english translation Great Britain)

 

[Streetwise]

English is not my native language, but i like to think i am fluent.
I know a bit of German and Japanese too but not enough to speak.

You are a very fluent english speaker compared to my didnt even pass C.S.E (a grading used before the mid to late 1980s in the uk) English
Modern(trade)english is apparently a very hard language to learn as its not a latinate language with genders

 

[Streetwise]

I thought that you maybe had to learn additional languages in school, like we in germany do.

I´m not sure and maybe it depends on the sort school, but in the gymnasium there were several options:

1. english -> latin -> nature science and technique (NWT in german) (the way I took)
2. english -> latin -> french
3. english -> latin -> spanish
4. english -> french -> NWT
5. english -> french -> latin
6. english -> french -> spanish

I hope that´s correct. NWT is for the one who don´t wanted to speak that much languages (I was like "why to speak different languages, when it´s the same words? that´s ineffective, everyone should speak the same language). : P now I see it different, but still too lazy to learn new languages.

so you could have learned 3 languages in school, more or less. to my time we learned english in the 5. class and until the end of school. means 8 or 9 years english I think. today you learn it in the 3. or 4. class (primary school). I read this in the internet.

I think in international schools you can learn more languages, but not in normal schools here.

I think we had latin in the 6. class until the 10. class. 5 years I think.

when you take spanish, you begin learning it in the 8. class. I don´t know how long you have that subject.

we do learn extra languages based on the religion\non religion of the individual school ,so i have very little french\ german from a state school ,some french from a private day school ,public(this refers to private generally non religious boarding schools)usually offer latin as well as other latinate languages

 

[VictorR]

I thought that you maybe had to learn additional languages in school, like we in germany do.

Yes, a second language is required in school, but unless one has friends or family that speak that language that you can practice using it with, it is easy to lose one's other language abilities.

Where I am, one has the choice of enrollment in English or French language schools.

If one chooses English (default), then, in my experience (and this might have changed)
Grades 4 - 8: Mandatory "second language" course in French
Grades 9 - 10: Mandatory "second language" course in French or Spanish
Grades 11-12: Language courses are optional. Depending on the school and teacher availability, virtually any language might be available.

Most post-secondary schools require 1 year of a second language course as part of a bachelor degree program.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

In my case, learning Spanish was a good thing as I have an uncle and two cousins that live in Spain and the classes was worth it when I went to visit them as I was able to recognize and understand certain words on signs and menus and I had a translator on my iPad to help me form proper sentences when I needed it. The area I struggled with in Spanish class was verb conjugation as there are so many specific tenses and changing of the base word that I would get confused which was the correct form to use.

 

[Judge]

Tidewater English is my native dialect. Though I'm pretty proficient with a Western American English dialect when required.

I also speak some German and some Spanish. And a few nasty things in Italian and Arabic best never said.

 

[Streetwise]

We might have been over there a long time ago.

yes but the intervening years changed the gaelic(pronounced gallick specifically for scotland),as they are originally from Eire (republic of Ireland)

 

[Streetwise]

My native language is Spanish, but the way I use spanish natively was seen as academic or too direct or strange. So I learned to mask, but I am still targeted as "different" easily as soon as I start talking.

I have learned English as my second language, but the way I use it, with long sentences that have sub-structures is seen as weird, strange or innnecesarily complex.

So I wonder if the "native" word can apply to me properly.

Remember you may be speaking spanish ?spanish as opposed to south american ,mexican\ us spanish the way it was originally spoken not lazy speech like using whatever in modern english

 

[Homulilly]

I had two years of French in high school plus exposure to Amsilan [American Sign Language] since then, but I am fluent in neither.

I also had exposure to ASL in college. The one I went to had a huge Deaf community. Sadly I’m not fluent either.

I’m actually wondering if there are other active members from Asia. I don’t think I’ve seen any…

 

[Isadoorian]

Yes, though culturally speaking it'd be Sm'algyax, one of four languages of the Tsimshian First Nations (which I don't speak, though I'd like to try learning as it'd help me feel a bit closer to my Ancestry)

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I speak American English. As a child, at home, I had to speak in proper British English (enunciating the letter "t", and not using contractions), but society kind of wiped that from me. Now I'm a slang slinger.

I know poquito Espanol, a wee few words and phrases from Scots Gaelic, and a few Swedish phrases. Oh yeah, and though I can't speak Hebrew, I can usually translate the songs and prayers to English, and I know a few phrases.

It's really hard for me to understand spoken phrases from other languages that I'm familiar with, but if they are written down, I can often understand and respond.

 

[Fino]

All I've got is English. I failed Japanese and passed Spanish by cheating!

 

[Progster]

My native tongue is English, but I also speak Greek, German and Romanian.
I learned Spanish to GCSE level at school, French to Advanced level and later on some Italian, but I'm really rusty on those so they don't really count.

 

[Judge]

My native language is Spanish, but the way I use spanish natively was seen as academic or too direct or strange. So I learned to mask, but I am still targeted as "different" easily as soon as I start talking.

I have learned English as my second language, but the way I use it, with long sentences that have sub-structures is seen as weird, strange or innnecesarily complex.

So I wonder if the "native" word can apply to me properly.

Castilian or Andalusian Spanish? My father tried to help me once with my Spanish homework but I couldn't get past his Castilian pronunciation he learned in the US Naval Academy!

 

[Bolletje]

My native language is Dutch. I’m also fluent in English. I have a reasonable vocabulary in German, French and Italian, but I have a lot of trouble having conversations in those languages because I need some time to construct my answers. Written conversation is okay though.

I learned Latin and Ancient Greek in high school (gymnasium, like some of our German friends on these forums ) I don’t necessarily speak these languages, but I have a fondness for them and love dissecting words and translating old texts.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

Castilian or Andalusian Spanish? My father tried to help me once with my Spanish homework but I couldn't get past his Castilian pronunciation he learned in the US Naval Academy!

Since I have lived so long in Mexico I would say that my accent is somewhat mixed. The gramatic is the same for all dialects of spanish (Castillisn, Andalusian, Mexican...).

I think Andalusian may be the hardest accent to understand of all spanish dialects. Mexican accents also vary a lot from North to South, but I think they dont recognice them as dialects.

I appreciate very much when people from other countries learn some Spanish, even if it is just a little.