What languages do you know?

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Let the bragging begin! I am fluent in Spanish, good enough in English, can speak some Cantonese thanks to pop and mum, and learning Japanese right now. [strikes cool pose]

Oh yeah, took two years of French back in HS. I know zilch of it, though.

[Cthulhu]

Native language is English. Really good at Japanese. (I passed the level 1 JLPT test, for those who know what that is.)

I also took 4 years of French in middle & high school but remember only a little... I'd love to get it back somehow, but I don't know if that'll happen.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Native language is English. Really good at Japanese. (I passed the level 1 JLPT test, for those who know what that is.)

Japanese Language Proficiency Test? That's cool. How long did it take you to get there, and did you have to go all the way to Japan to learn that much? I didn't really know much English at all when I came to the US, but now, I'm amazed I know as much as I do. I passed the Cuny Proficiency Exam (writing test taken at 45 and before 60 credits) but barely, so that's why I say I'm good enough.

[Cthulhu]

Japanese Language Proficiency Test? That's cool. How long did it take you to get there, and did you have to go all the way to Japan to learn that much? I didn't really know much English at all when I came to the US, but now, I'm amazed I know as much as I do. I passed the Cuny Proficiency Exam (writing test taken at 45 and before 60 credits) but barely, so that's why I say I'm good enough.

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I took a total of three years of Japanese in America and did one year of study abroad during college here... and I came back to Japan after I graduated for one year. When you're studying for the level 1, you're way beyond conversational stuff, so actually being in Japan isn't necessary - but tons and tons of reading and self-study is.

Congrats on your English progress - English is a tough language to learn. I learned that by trying to teach it in Japan for a year.

[Vexorg]

I'm not really fluent in any language but English, but I can read a number of European languages (German and French, but from there you can apply a good portion of that to other ones like Dutch and Italian.) I took five years worth of German in high school, and did reasonably well at it, but forgot a significant amount. If I could pick some of the vocabulary back up I'd probably be able to manage fluency eventually. The fact that I do testing on localized software for a living helps with the languages too...

[mannerbot]

Fluent in English obviously, can understand Taiwanese, Catonese, and Mandarin (though Mandarin is the only one that I can claim to speak), and took four years of Japanese in high school.

[alpha5099]

I'm only fluent in English. I took 3 years of Spanish in school, followed by 3 years of Latin. I know some Japanese, and will study it when I get to college this fall. I hope to be fluent one day. I might continue Latin, I haven't quite decided.

[Specineff]

Only english and spanish fluently, but can read and understand some french. Need to improve my pronunciation, though. I dislike it when I speak in english and say the vowels the way Speedy Gonzales/Taco Bell Dog would.

[Icecap Veiwin]

Native language is English, I'm currently learning Japanese (specifically, katakana and hiragana).

[ArrogantBastard]

I speak and write mainly English, but I'm fluent in ASL (American Sign Language) since I'm, to be technical, deaf.

[IlMrm]

Beside English, I could read/speak/listen Cantonese and kinda write Chinese. Three years of high school French and all I can remember is yes/no and some numbers.

[DarkWolf7]

I'm fluent in English and am currently studying Japanese, in which I'm approximately at the JLPT3 level (~200 kanji, basic grammar and vocabulary). I've forgotten nearly all the Spanish I learned in high school.

[Diabollokus]

English is the main Language in ireland but yeah we still speak Irish a bit learn it in school.

I'm fluent in english, irish and french know a wee bit of german and spanish couldn't hold a conversation in either of them though but I can buy and count stuff ask for directions i.e. basic german and spanish.

[Herr Schatten]

German is my mother tongue. Other than that I'm quite fluent in English (I even used to study it for a while). I can read most signposts when I am in France and understand a lot of what people say to me, but I can't speak French myself and fail at reading longer texts. I understand some bits and pieces (read: single words) of Russian, Spanish, Italian, Finnish and Japanese, but it's really not enough to get along or even communicate.

I don't know if it counts, since it's not a language that's spoken a lot nowadays, but I learned Latin at school and can still translate most Latin texts I come across.

[SheSaidDutch]

English for shame I cant speak Welsh though

I was much better at French than Welsh

If I was to enroll I would love to learn to speak Hebrew

[marcus12024]

English is my native language. I can also speak french (passably well) as well as read and write in it. I also know a tiny bit of Thai, a smidge of german, and am looking at learning Japanese.

[Diabollokus]

yeah its a shame they stopped teaching latin over here to, I'd have liked to have learned a bit as latin seems to the language of science other than mathematics lol.

[GaijinPunch]

Like most everyone else, I'm a native English speaker. I took a year of Spanish in high school, and am from Texas, so if I was stuck in Mexico I could probably get home and maybe even score some booze or weed. It's a laughable level though. I studied Japanese in college then lived there for quite a while, so that's really the only 2nd langauge I have. I passed the JLPT level 2 after a year in Japan, and failed the level 1 miserably the next year (without studying). That test looked at me while I was naked and laughed. I never took it again, but might one day.

[russ]

Pretty much just English here guys. Took German in High School, but I only remember swear words, derogitory terms, and phrases that didn't make any sense but sounded cool. I want to study Japanese in college, but my campus doesn't offer a course in it I've also played CS long enough to know every new fad involving "leet" or long ridiculous acronyms. God I'm a loser.

On a related note, has anyone had success in studying the Japanese language independently, i.e. on their own?

[SFKhoa]

Vietnamese is my native language, but ever since I immigrated to Canada, I started knowing more English than Vietnamese... I already know hiragana and katakana, but I want to learn more past those levels.

[sven666]

fluent: swedish, english, dutch

crappy: german, spanish, french

bareley at all: japanese, italian...

[captain ahar]

only language i'm fluent with is english. however, i had a few years (around 5) of spanish in high school. plus a semester each of French and German in college.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Vietnamese is my native language, but ever since I immigrated to Canada, I started knowing more English than Vietnamese... I already know hiragana and katakana, but I want to learn more past those levels.

I have a similar story to tell. Nowadays, I feel I know wayyyyy more English than Spanish when it comes to grammar and vocabulary. Though, I still speak Spanish better. I'm simply not a sociable guy, so I don't get to practice speaking/listening as much as I'd want to. I guess the same will happen to me if I get far into Japanese. I won't have many people to practice with and will try to make up for that with tons of book-learning. Currently, I know my Hiragana pretty well, know ten or so katakana, and about ten of the simplest and useful kanji I could find (numbers, month, day, yen).

Edit: Gee, I wish I had learned my Chinese characters well back when my mom forced me to learn. It was so much easier as a kid.

[GaijinPunch]

On a related note, has anyone had success in studying the Japanese language independently, i.e. on their own?

Some people have, but it is quite hard. Look around... I'm sure Richland or some other CC in the Dallas area offers some courses. For the record though, to really learn it, you will have to study well above and beyond the course cirriculum. For gamers though, there's tons of stuff out there to practice with.

[the2bears]

Hah... bragging threads

Cool selection though. Me? Native English, of the Canadian variety which leads to French (though they claim they taught us Paris French) and my two years living in Taipei have left me with conversational Mandarin.

Bill

[steveovig]

Just English and maybe a little Ebonics! I was studying Japanese for a period last year, but I gave it up and can only remember what denwa means.

[TVG]

very good at french (living place), good croatian, or more like serbo-croat from bosnia (native) good at english.

[LoneSage]

English, Latin scholar, Spanish, and Yiddish.

[The Eidolon]

Native English speaker

Used to be pretty good at Japanese (BA in Japanese Language),
but haven't used it much in 10 years.

Rusty Spanish (can read, not great at talking) from 4 years in High School

Conversational Chinese, but only about matters involving small children.
(Wife is Chinese, started teaching the kids that as a first language,
but they figured out pretty quickly that they prefer English.)

--The Eidolon

[Fighter17]

Only speak English. I did spanish in high school for two years, and I forgot what they teach me.

They don't got Japanese in my high school, and I really want to learn the language. I hope college has Japanese as a class.