What languages do you speak?

[New England]

i believe that the brain of a human has evolved explicitly to develop the use of language quickly. learning how to talk quickly was obviously important for survival. the rate at which babies learn to speak is astonishing to me. they've a much greater aptitude for learning language than grown people. exponentially greater, i believe.

i kick myself for getting to 25 having made so little progress in learning languages. america ought to be flat out embarrassed for not recognizing the importance of teaching children to speak other languages. american children should come out of high school with a strong understanding of spanish. spanish is everywhere. the schools are pressured into teaching math and the sciences, because those are most likely to make for viable candidates in a modern economy, and that's where our schools often fall short of other countries.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

Brazil or Portugal?

I can read a lot of Spanish and understand due to the similarities, but obviously can't speak it. I also think my accent might be all screwed up if I ever do learn Spanish. Still want to try though.

They are from Portugal, raised in Africa and moved to Venezuela.

[samouraï]

i believe that the brain of a human has evolved explicitly to developed the use of language. learning how to talk quickly was the rate at which babies learn to speak is astonishing to me. they've a much greater aptitude for learning language than grown people. exponentially greater, i believe.

i kick myself for getting to 25 having made so little progress in learning languages. america ought to be flat out embarrassed for not recognizing the importance of teaching children to speak other languages. american children should come out of high school with a strong understanding of spanish. spanish is everywhere. the schools are pressured into teaching math and the sciences, because those are most likely to make for viable candidates in a modern economy, and that's where our schools often fall short of other countries.

Not to argue with you, but rather to offer some encouragement: a study recently suggested that adults are actually better language-learners than children. I'll try to find that link if I can.

The idea is that adults simply go about it the wrong way, usually. Children act like sponges and repeat what they hear and try to speak as soon as they can, regardless of whether they're sure they're right. They also don't really try to make "sense" of the language before they've started speaking it, which is the opposite of what most adults do actually. We tend to want it to make perfect sense and to be relatively sure of the right "answer" before we dare say anything. And we tend to focus on grammar from the start, which IMO is backwards. That's **** to worry about later.

You should try an Assimil book. I'm not sure that the Japanese one is their greatest, but it works fantastically for languages semi-related to your native tongue. Best language-learning resource I've ever come across. I dabbled in French with it for a while before I decided to just focus on Japanese, and to this day I can watch French movies and understand much more than I remember learning.

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

i believe that the brain of a human has evolved explicitly to develop the use of language quickly. learning how to talk quickly was obviously important for survival. the rate at which babies learn to speak is astonishing to me. they've a much greater aptitude for learning language than grown people. exponentially greater, i believe.

i kick myself for getting to 25 having made so little progress in learning languages. america ought to be flat out embarrassed for not recognizing the importance of teaching children to speak other languages. american children should come out of high school with a strong understanding of spanish. spanish is everywhere. the schools are pressured into teaching math and the sciences, because those are most likely to make for viable candidates in a modern economy, and that's where our schools often fall short of other countries.

America is a funny country when you really take the time to sit back and really take a look at her.

America has been the most powerful and advanced country for a very long time, but when it's come to education, it's failed in the last 50 years.

Language is something that is essential in human evolution and advancement. Yet in America we close ourselves to the rest of the world and expect them to learn about us, instead of the other way around.

I have traveled many different places, and every country I have visited knows more than one language, not Americans though. We have shut ourselves off from the rest of the world.

[New England]

Not to argue with you, but rather to offer some encouragement: a study recently suggested that adults are actually better language-learners than children. I'll try to find that link if I can.

The idea is that adults simply go about it the wrong way, usually. Children act like sponges and repeat what they hear and try to speak as soon as they can, regardless of whether they're sure they're right. They also don't really try to make "sense" of the language before they've started speaking it, which is the opposite of what most adults do actually. We tend to want it to make perfect sense and to be relatively sure of the right "answer" before we dare say anything. And we tend to focus on grammar from the start, which IMO is backwards. That's **** to worry about later.

You should try an Assimil book. I'm not sure that the Japanese one is their greatest, but it works fantastically for languages semi-related to your native tongue. Best language-learning resource I've ever come across. I dabbled in French with it for a while before I decided to just focus on Japanese, and to this day I can watch French movies and understand much more than I remember learning.

you're describing a much more organic means of developing language in your second paragraph, and i agree that it's the best way to go about it. f#ck being dignified about learning a language. fail. sound dumb. be wrong. learn / relate to language like a toddler. that's sort of where childhood comes in. i think i tried to touch on it some in my first rant.

if you dropped me in japan it would much more closely resemble the natural learning process than a classroom. i'd be babbling my ass off, using my hands, and acting like a child. i think it's pretty obvious that that is the natural way to learn a language, and it will get you there the quickest. children do it intuitively.


it's going to be difficult to study the bolded without an adult who cannot already speak. i hope there aren't a ton of those around . learning a second language with a fully developed brain, and learning your first language with the brain of a baby/toddler are obviously different things.

[Dinamita 03]

Fluent in both English and Spanish. I studied French for a couple of years. It's been a while since that though so I don't know if I can carry a conversation anymore. Obviously the accent was there but I could pretty much understand most of what was being said.

[RightJab]

I'm fluent in two languages : Good English and Bad English....

[BattlingNelson]

How many here are bi/multilingual? I know there are plenty of Spanish speakers here.

I speak Portuguese and understand some French. I can read some Japanese but don't understand much at all. Lost all that I learned in college.

I'll probably try to pick up Spanish given that I live in So Cal and once you've learned one Romance Language the rest are fairly easy.

I want to learn some romance languages as well. Sounds like instant Pick-up lines a'plenty. But what languages is that?



I speak danish, english, german and french. I can understand and speak norwegian and swedish.

[samouraï]

I want to learn some romance languages as well. Sounds like instant Pick-up lines a'plenty. But what languages is that?



I speak danish, english, german and french. I can understand and speak norwegian and swedish.

Lol, we do call them "Romance languages" here in the US but I've noticed they're referred to differently elsewhere (Romanic languages).

[talip bin osman]

read speak and write Melayu (Singapore's national language), Tagalog and English... I can speak a local Filipino dialect pretty well too though I'm having difficulty writing it...