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What languages do you know?

brillzart

By brillzart
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katakatica Grand Master

katakatica

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Oooh, love the question.

I speak Hungarian and English (native level), French and Italian (my writing is bleh but spoken skills are pretty good since I've lived in the countries), enough Mandarin to get by in China comfortably for the most part (and have conversations with locals!) and currently trying to study Korean and Swedish. (I can also understand Spanish for the most part but wouldn't be able to speak ha)

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nomuffinsforyou Community Regular

nomuffinsforyou

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3 minutes ago, katakatica said:

I speak Hungarian and English (native level), French and Italian (my writing is bleh but spoken skills are pretty good since I've lived in the countries), enough Mandarin to get by in China comfortably for the most part (and have conversations with locals!) and currently trying to study Korean and Swedish. (I can also understand Spanish for the most part but wouldn't be able to speak ha)

You know so many languages! That's super impressive wow!! 😮 

I speak English, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), and I'm learning Mandarin! Mandarin is super hard you have to memorize so many characters and words and each of their pronunciations ;w;

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vickieito Grand Master

vickieito

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Fun topic!

English is my native language, but I mostly grew up in bush Alaska, so I can speak a little Central Yupik Eskimo. They did opening exercises in Yupik. I also took Yupik because that was the only foreign language you could take in school. Eskimo language is very airy and guttural, so my Eskimo teachers would often laugh at me because my voice is so high. They warned me that if I continued to speak from the nose (instead of the throat) my lungs would freeze. Luckily I never spoke long enough for that to happen!

I also know just enough Spanish, Hawaiian, and Japanese to get myself in trouble. 😂

I'm terrible at languages, but I do like to learn little phrases from different languages for fun!

I have Fiverr customers from 18 different countries so far, so I'd love to learn just a few simple words and phrases so I can show them that I care.

Edited by vickieito
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brillzart Collaborator

brillzart

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So many great responses, I hope to have responded to them all here! 😆😮‍💨

On 6/2/2022 at 11:06 PM, visualstudios said:

English, Portuguese, I can understand and get by with Spanish, very very rusty french.

Ay, very cool Romance languages (besides English, it’s Germanic.). 💖

On 6/2/2022 at 11:34 PM, shooshart said:

French, English and Arabic

Trilingual gang. Knowing Arabic is impressive to me, it’s such a difficult language. 😎

On 6/3/2022 at 12:57 AM, arafat_28 said:

I know English, Bengali and Hindi

On 6/3/2022 at 1:18 AM, animie_video said:

English, Urdu and Hindi 😀

Both of you know English and Hindi, how awesome, lol! And then Bengali and Urdu sound awesome as well. 😀

On 6/3/2022 at 4:11 AM, katakatica said:

I speak Hungarian and English (native level), French and Italian (my writing is bleh but spoken skills are pretty good since I've lived in the countries), enough Mandarin to get by in China comfortably for the most part (and have conversations with locals!) and currently trying to study Korean and Swedish. (I can also understand Spanish for the most part but wouldn't be able to speak ha)

So many languages! 😍

Even not knowing languages at a native level like French, Italian, and Mandarin, but knowing them comfortably is already pretty good (and impressive)! Good luck with Korean and Swedish, you got this! 👍

On 6/3/2022 at 4:18 AM, nomuffinsforyou said:

I speak English, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), and I'm learning Mandarin! Mandarin is super hard you have to memorize so many characters and words and each of their pronunciations ;w;

Ay, English and Indonesian are great! And haha yeah, I think Mandarin is in the top 3 for hardest languages in the world, but it’s not impossible to learn it! You got this! 😄

On 6/3/2022 at 4:47 AM, vickieito said:

English is my native language, but I mostly grew up in bush Alaska, so I can speak a little Central Yupik Eskimo.

On 6/3/2022 at 4:47 AM, vickieito said:

I also know just enough Spanish, Hawaiian, and Japanese to get myself in trouble. 😂

Eskimo, ooo! 😮

I’ve never heard of it before, but it’s cool to hear about it, as well as your experience with it.

Make sure not to get yourself in trouble with the three languages you mentioned, haha. 🤣

On 6/3/2022 at 4:47 AM, vickieito said:

I have Fiverr customers from 18 different countries so far, so I'd love to learn just a few simple words and phrases so I can show them that I care.

Also, that’s really nice of you! 😊

On 6/3/2022 at 7:24 AM, spaintranslator said:

Catalan, Spanish, and English.

Very cool languages, especially Catalan. I don’t hear about it often, so I like when people say that they know it. 😎

On 6/3/2022 at 8:47 AM, kishordas107 said:

I know English, Bengali and Hindi.

Awesome languages to know! 😀

On 6/3/2022 at 10:14 AM, smashradio said:

I speak Norwegian (native), English (fluent), Spanish (conversational) and I can fully understand Swedish and Danish. 

Wow, quite a few you got there! It’s great to be able to at least understand Swedish and Danish, that’s already a good skill to have, and for Spanish being conversational is also a good skill.

On 6/3/2022 at 10:29 AM, gddsakib said:

Bangli, English, Hindi, Urdu, French, and Arabic

Six languages, holy cow! I see some especially hard ones (especially for English speakers) like Bangli and Arabic as well, very impressive that you know them! 😃

On 6/3/2022 at 10:08 PM, gayanchamira said:

English and Sinhala, but i worked with french and spanish clients, thanks for fiverr translating

I’ve never heard of Sinhala, but after some brief research, I definitely think it looks very cool, I like how the letters look. Working with French and Spanish clients is awesome, get to witness some French and Spanish too, I bet.

 

It’s cool hearing your responses, thank you very much!! 💝
 

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ubun97 Enthusiast

ubun97

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I am a Malaysian.

The languages which I know how to speak, read and write.

  • Malay is my national language.
  • Chinese is my mother tongue. (Actually I don't remember which language is my mother tongue but Chinese is the most frequent language I use in my daily life.)
  • English (maybe it's because I know too much languages, my English accent is very unique)
  • Japanese (learnt 2 years and 4 months in school and classes, studied aboard in Japan for 4 years)

The languages which I can speak a little.

  • Cantonese (A Chinese dialect)
  • Hokkien (A Chinese dialect)

The languages which I am still learning to speak.

  • Teo Chew (A Chinese dialect)
  • Korean ( Just begin.)
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brillzart Collaborator

brillzart

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On 6/8/2022 at 3:09 AM, mohasinalom said:

 English.

Nice! 👍

On 6/8/2022 at 8:10 AM, sarahcmcooper said:

I know English fluently - first language. And I also speak a little Scots Gaelic, Scots language, Shetland dialect.

 

I can speak conversational French, and while I'm definitely far from fluent in German, I can understand enough to get by!

All sound like cool languages, especially the Scottish languages you mentioned. 😀

On 6/8/2022 at 11:46 AM, ubun97 said:

The languages which I know how to speak, read and write.

  • Malay is my national language.
  • Chinese is my mother tongue. (Actually I don't remember which language is my mother tongue but Chinese is the most frequent language I use in my daily life.)
  • English (maybe it's because I know too much languages, my English accent is very unique)
  • Japanese (learnt 2 years and 4 months in school and classes, studied aboard in Japan for 4 years)

The languages which I can speak a little.

  • Cantonese (A Chinese dialect)
  • Hokkien (A Chinese dialect)

The languages which I am still learning to speak.

  • Teo Chew (A Chinese dialect)
  • Korean ( Just begin.)

Whoaaa, there are so many!! Knowing Chinese and Japanese are so cool to me. 😄

I wish you success for learning Teo Chew and Korean, as well as Cantonese and Hokkien if you’re trying to learn them too, you got this!

On 6/9/2022 at 4:36 AM, lalitsdmittal said:

I am having Best Command in Hindi and English.

On 6/9/2022 at 4:37 AM, azimulhossan said:

Bengali, English and Hindi

Awesome, both of you know English and Hindi!

Bengali is cool too. 😎

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emmaki Enthusiast

emmaki

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Fluent in English with rubbish French, rubbish Greek, and rubbish German. 

This thread would be a lot more entertaining if we shared the best insults or sayings from our languages in the spirit of education and building  a strong international community based on hearty mutual ribbing. After all, everyone knows that the first words anyone wants to learn in a new language are the bad words. Nobody's interested in learning how to ask for a kilo of apples at the market or how to tell everyone that you are a nonsensical big blue pencil (I'm looking at you, Duolingo).

No. We want to know how to be incredibly rude because that's fun. 

I'll start with Greek. Do not translate the rich and evocative phrase quoted below if you are easily offended. If you are easily offended and you translate it, then I can only shake my head at you for provoking yourself into offence - you should go and sit down in a quiet place and think about your bad life choices now. The phrase itself means "I don't care." But why be so boring and insipid when you can say...

Quote

Στον πούτσο μου λουλούδια και γύρω-γύρω μέλισσες (ston poutso mou louloudia kai gyro-gyro melisses)

I use it all the time because I think it's hilarious, although it's not really all that common when we've got the good old multipurpose and internationally famous m-word (μαλάκας - malakas). I use that all the time, too. Then there's the diverse variety of insults involving the Virgin Mary, houses, and donkeys, though not necessarily together in one giga-insult. You can also put a whole bunch of bad words together to make a German-style compound mega-insult. Best attempted by native speakers speaking at bullet speed; I get my tongue twisted a quarter of the way through and my insult flops, invariably making me a dumb μαλάκα 😞

Your turn. Perhaps we can also talk about why so many Indian insults seem to revolve around s****l relations with family members? That's always been a curiosity for me. We could argue that perhaps it's because family is sacrosanct in India and therefore an amazing target for insults. However, that's also the case in Greece, yet there aren't really all that many Indian-style bad words. 

Edited by emmaki
No edit made. But really, censoring the s-word used in a perfectly normal context on a website that is ostensibly used by adults and teenagers who are aware of the whole concept? Have I just stepped off the Mayflower into Puritan America?
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zeus777 Veteran

zeus777

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Japanese and English.
I should have taken basic Spanish classes in college, but my excuse was "I've suffered enough with English, I know two languages already so that should be enough."

Being able to speak a different language is great though, here's a little something that happened to me several years ago ( and pardon me if I have mentioned this story before):

During December I was at Starbucks, and I was wearing my candy cane earrings, Christmas tie, and “ugly” Christmas vest ( I bought it at Claire’s 3 years ago and it lights up). In case you’re wondering, not many people would dress up like that in Japan but since I like to entertain my students at work, I choose to dress in a certain way. I’m pretty sure I stood out, standing in line waiting for my coffee.
 
Then I heard these two guys talking in English, and basically one guy was commenting on how ridiculous I looked, and the other guy looked a bit upset and was telling him to stop saying rude stuff. Judging from their accents, they sounded like Americans. Well excuse me for looking like a walking Christmas tree.
Dude, this is Tokyo, there are PLENTY of people who can speak and understand English.
 
I got my coffee and as I was walking away when I heard the guy saying something like hey, the Christmas girl is leaving.
So I went up to them and thanked the @$$ hole for all the lovely compliments, and also added that he looked "disgustingly handsome in his knit cap with a f*cking hole" in it. In English of course.
 
The dude sat there with his mouth opened while the other guy burst out laughing. I waved at the nicer guy and he wished me a Merry Christmas. Well thank you, sir. The other guy can go screw himself.
That was fun.
 
Not trying to high-jack this thread or anything, but if you guys have a “They didn’t know I understood what they were saying” story, I'd like to hear them.

 

 

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