I wonder...

[Matsuyuu]

I was thinking about writing some Spanish in this forum, and then I got to thinking: "I wonder how many other languages people speak other than their native languages." So I made a poll. Plz contribute by using the poll and by writing something.

 

[jeisan]

well english is my native tounge, ive always been close to mexico living in cali and texas all my life so ive picked up some spainish by default, i took german all throughout highschool, but thats fading fast as i dont speak/hear it regularly.
ive learned a very small amount of japanese and chinese words from watching gross amounts of anime and kung fu movies. i also understand abit of vietnamese, but cant speak beyond some basic phrases.

 

[Dream Time]

Originally posted by jeisan

ive learned a very small amount of japanese and chinese words from watching gross amounts of anime and kung fu movies.

many foreigners,the Chinese words they are familiar with,
or the first Chinese words they learn are :
'book guy' (or 'poke guy')
'diu nei lo mo'
'hum ga chaan'
'diu nei lo mo book guy'

all foul languages

 

[Dream Time]

Chinese is my native tongue,I speak Cantonese,
I can understand fair amount of Mandarin by hearing but I can not speak Mandarin,I learned some Mandarin in school when I was in Hong Kong but as I remember I didn't do well for that course.

English,I can speak fluently but still not very good at grammar,vocab and writing because I am lazy,I came to Vancouver when I was nine,so I can speak English like North American.

I've learned little bit Japanese but had no time to contine the study,I can only understand very small amount and easy Japanese words,
also when I read Japanese I can somehow understand/guess the meaning by reading the Kanji words,because those are Chinese words.

 

[jeisan]

actually i dunno what any of those mean. its just things that get repeated over and over like ni hao (ma), daifu, sifu etc. where i can match up the subtitles to it. then other times i just understand what they're saying even though i dont know the words, this happens mostly with HK movies when they forget to subtitle a scene or two.

 

[kinjo]

i speak german (because im german). then i speak english very well (learned it from 5th class on and concentrated on it later at school). then i speak enough french to do talk about simple topic with french people (i need it for my prehistory course too) and now i study japanology to which of course japanese belongs. and next year i have to take some hardcore course in latin to hammer the language in short time into my head because i need it for my philosophy studies...
once i speak japanese fluently (or if that wont happen, once i speak it well enough to talk with people on japanese) i want to learn russian (first because i like the country and 2nd because i think its somehow embarrassing to have a russian name and not knowing the language at all)...

 

[jspecdan]

Native: Engrish
2nd: Japanese
3rd: Spanish (i study it because i'm not allowed to study Japanese at school.)

 

[wan pak hin]

hmm.. my languages..

my native tounge is cantonese and english, but unlike dreamer i did not live long time in HK, so my mandarin is really hmm.. poor! but my mum and father can speak mandarin so i learn from them and some text books etc.., and i can speak fluent HAKKA CHINESE!! which not many HK people can speak i think! i know my mother can, and i can but i do not know of any other people who speak it!, and i guess hakka is not even used very often, accept maybe in taiwan, singapore and malaysia where hakka desendent chinese people live!, really need to focus on mandarin and japanese and keep korean as a language to learn when i am board!, ahh.. luckily for me being bought up in england i had benift of learning english grammer etc... so i am slightly ahead of dream time but i am sure if he wishs to he could get english grammer and vocab sorted out in a matter of weeks if need be!, and me also like dream time get really confused between the kanji meanings of words and cantonese meaning of words hehe.. it is bad thing especially as i live in tokyo and see kanji nearly everyday!, and haha.. dream time i learnt all my cantonese swear words from my mum and dad when i was little i overheard them saying some of the words you said on phone! and did not know what they ment and randomly said the words to chinese people!! i even called my mother "pok gai" hmm.. i wonder if i can say word hmm.. i will sensor the word "a** h***" and i really got punished for saying that to my mum! even though i did not know the meaning of the word! using those words which i did not know meaning of at the time got me into alot of trouble so i only use it purely for insulting someone who insults me! also i one competiton for being 10th best chinese writer in LONDON!! i got certificate for it etc...

 

[kirei_na_me]

Ah, I pale in comparison to all of you, perhaps. I only put two, because, of course I speak English, and I can also more than get by with my French. I'm pretty good at it, but kind of shy away from using it. I'm lacking in confidence.

Besides those, I know some Japanese, I took Italian for a year and know some very basic phrases, and I also took Spanish for awhile, seeing that there are a lot of Mexicans here and since we had Mexicans working for our family on our farm. I'm far from fluent, though.

 

[Erik]

I once had a customer that claimed he spoke 9 languages. He said he spoke;


English
Catonese
Mandarin
Spanish
French
4 offical languages of india (They have 15 offical languages?)

I couldn't believe it... He said he didn't work much and his mind was a sponge when it came to learning langauges. I wish I had that ability.

 

[Maciamo]

7 : French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Japanese, but I am interested and have learned a few basic words in other languages too (Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, Hindi...)

 

[Twisted]

I'm currently at five:
Dutch is my native language, my English isn't half bad, I can get around with my German (sort of), i try to pick up as much Japanese as i can, but so far it's useless in practice and since my girlfriend is from Thailand i'm trying to learn that too. My Thai is currently better then my Japanese, but i do tend to mix them up from time to time, even though they're entirely different languages.

 

[Dream Time]

Re: hmm.. my languages..

Originally posted by wan pak hin
dream time i learnt all my cantonese swear words from my mum and dad when i was little i overheard them saying some of the words you said on phone! and did not know what they ment and randomly said the words to chinese people!! i even called my mother "pok gai" hmm.. i wonder if i can say word hmm.. i will sensor the word "a** h***" and i really got punished for saying that to my mum! even though i did not know the meaning of the word! using those words which i did not know meaning of at the time got me into alot of trouble so i only use it purely for insulting someone who insults me!

I'll tell you then..I am no expert on this
I only use the word' book guy' or maybe 'diu nei'
because many other words actually refers to a person's mother and family,which I do not like using~
also I say say foul words to really insult some people who deserves to be insulted,or some very close friends because they know I don't mean to offend them,I don't like to speak such words but if I don't speak it,it is hard to communicate with them,I will feel I am 'out of the group',so I speak these words to them.
also there are much more than this,I only know little,
these are the most common ones



Cantonese foul words:

'book guy' (or most people would say 'poke guy')
literrally means 'falling down on street'
it is like 'bastard' in English,but more aggressive


'diu nei'
it means 'f**k you'


'diu nei lo mo'
means 'f**k your mother'
many people would emphasize the word 'diu'
like they will say 'diu~~~~ nei lo mo' (f**k~~~~ your mother)
alternative: 'diu nei lo mo chaau hai'
'chaau hai' means 'smelly virgina'
so the whole thing means 'f**k your mother's smelly virgina'...
I really dislike this word.

'hum ga chaan','hum ga ling'
literrally means 'your whole family something' these two I do not know.

combinations:
'book guy hum ga chaan'

'diu nei lo mo book guy'
('f**k your mother,bastard')


'diu nei lo mo book guy hum ga chaan'
'diu nei lo mo chaau hai book guy hum ga chaan'

 

[Shadow]

ha ha ha... this is turning into a swear-word clinic....

Well, i speak 4 languages: Cantonese, English, Mandarin fluently, and a little bit of French... I'm not going to count Japanese as I only know hiragana and a few conversational words.... Mmmm.....

 

[Dream Time]

Re: hmm.. my languages..

Originally posted by wan pak hin
also i one competiton for being 10th best chinese writer in LONDON!! i got certificate for it etc...

wow..nice

I only remember when I was grade 4 in elementary school in Hong Kong,I was the No.1 in my class for writing Chinese essays,and my teacher praised me in front of the class at the last day of the school year.
but I came to Vancouver just that summer at that year.

but now I can only write some very simply Chinese,
although I speak quite fluently
and I can not hear clearly if a person speaks Chinese so fast

 

[wan pak hin]

wow dream time cool!! you were number 1 in school!! well.. i took a digi cam pic of my certificate today!!, it is really nice to see that i actually found some more certificates telling me how well i did in secondary school (high school) exam went in cantonese i get 85 percent overall i am pretty proud of myself!! well.. here is my certificate considering out of like 200 people i came 10th it is a proud moment in my life hehe..

 

[wan pak hin]

crash course in cantonese swearing and slang hehe..

ahhh.. also indeed i know them swear words a lot!! and HUM GA LING, actullay basically means "A CURSE TO YOUR WHOLE FAMILY" that is what i have been told it is rude word to cures a family down!, also i will freely teach some more cantonese foul words which should only be used with close freinds!! and maybe to insult someone who insulted you well.. here are my little picks i guess of cantonese swear words hehe...

"DZU PA" litrally means PORK CHOP! but is slang for UGLY CHICK!

"GWEI LOU" well.. litrally means GHOST GUY! but it is what cantonese people usally call foreigners

"FEI GEI TSOENG" litrally means "AIRPORT" but slang for FLAT CHESTEAD WOMAN, because of flat surface of runway etc..
becareful when using this as it could get you slapped by a chinese women!

"LA YING" means SISSY in cantonese it is funny word to say!!

and i guess other word i use sometimes would be "SEI BAT PO" which means DAMM *****, maybe you could say it to your pet dog if they annoy you! well.. excuse my language on this site i know some young people may see it! soo.. i apologize for the language being used here , well that is my little crash course in slang and swearing cantonese for all the people intrested! and dream time you know of all this words right?? well their are many more i knoe but are too horrible to put on the forum i think!

 

[Matsuyuu]

I forgot to write about me!!
I'm American, so obviously I speak English.
English: Fluent
Spanish: Could hold a convesation
Italian: Beginner
Latin: Will take a class year on it
Japanese: Know most hiragana, currently studying actual language in free-time
German: From German descent and speak a few phrases (hope to learn more in college)

So there you have my very sad (comparatively) language count. I want to be able to speak 9 or 10 fluently by the time I'm done learning languages.

 

[doudesuka]

I can understand and read a lot of japanese but when posed a question, I tense up. It's frustrating because people get the assumption that I don't know much japanese at all. I love learning languages. I like to listen to chinese and soft south korean. But, those N Koreans are a trip on those newscasts.

 

[Hanada Tattsu]

I speak English and Armenian perfectly, and can read and write both. I can speak a bit of Japanese, but I know only a few Kanji symbols.

I'm learning French, I can write it well, and I can speak it pretty good too. Same with German.

 

[lineartube]

Portuguese native here. I also speak english and French though this last one is very, very rusted. I also know a bit of Spanish.
I should know German too, though I had to give it up after 2 weeks into the course because at the time I was already comitted to two other courses.

 

[Chipi]

Okay, I put 6 languages, all though it really doesnﾂｴt mean Iﾂｴm even close at being fluent in all of them. I just marked all that Iﾂｴve studied at least a bit.
1: Finnish. Itﾂｴs my native tongue.
2:Swedish. I have learnt it for about 10 years.
3:English. Iﾂｴm so much better in english than in swedish...
4:French. Iﾂｴve learnt something, a few years, but since there are very few french people I could talk to in Finland etc, Iﾂｴm forgetting everything...
5: Italian: Iﾂｴve learnt some basic stuff. I used to have some italian friends, but since we havenﾂｴt been e-mailing or anything in a couple of years, I donﾂｴt remember that much anymore. I understand quite a lot when people speak italian, but itﾂｴs hard for me to speak myself.
6. Japanese: Iﾂｴve just been learning the very basics...so actually I donﾂｴt know much nothing, yet

 

[ViciousBrutality]

My native of course is English, then a know some mandarin chinese from the large population of chinese kids in my town. I am also studying it. Then I am takign German and Spanish in school, and I study Japanese at a language school.

-X-

 

[kinjo]

I am very hetakuso when it comes to languages, but since I live in the U.S., I know English, and there are many Hispanic people where I live, so I also put down Spanish, and I learned Japanese in a classroom, as well as online. So that's three for me!

 

[jspecdan]

well if we're including languages we barely know, then put me down for 5. english, japanese, spanish, french and a lil hebrew.