Education & Work What languages do you speak?

Vietnamese/Cantonese at birth in Vietnam, then English in Australia from the age of 7. Still fluent in Cantonese.

 

I'm fluent in jibberish

 

Some people have a knack with languages.

I think you are the perfect example Terry!

 

English and fluent Pigeon English.
l am the gifted one .

ps, l use to know lots of swearing though in 3 or 4 languages mates at school taught me.
l might try a few in the forum see if the mods zap it or not . l am genius

 

English and fluent druitt on the job site

 

Very comfortable in Japanese and Korean, and a little Arabic, although only conversational (and mostly forgotten, probably)

Oh, and a tiny bit of French - trying to learn more this year .

 

I learnt German and Spanish in my 40s, now I am B1/B2 German, B2 Spanish, A1 Catalan.

Problems for me were I learnt German while living in Zurich for 9 years where they speak Swiss German, very different, and I learnt Spanish in Barcelona where most people I deal with speak Catalan, totally different language. I found German easier than Spanish, less conjugations and much closer to English. I did some Catalan classes but too weird so just concentrate on Spanish, so now my kids have a secret language from me (their first language is Catalan).

For learning I use Ankidroid, much better than Duolingo for me which I found quite slow and time consuming. Ankidroid is fast, spaced repetition with the ability to create your own decks. I go through hundreds of cards every day and have done this for 3-4 years.
But nothing beats speaking so informal language groups are very good (I found via meetup.com). Also italki.com is good, language exchanges on Skype, I met some people that way, even a teacher.

 

When I first tried to learn Japanese it was so hard that I gave up after about 4 weeks. The words seemed too long. But after a while I started reading the books again and then it began to sink in, it could see grammatical patterns and then it was just a matter of memorising a few patterns and then substituting words.

 

Intermediate level 中文

 

Dari Mana di Indonesia?

sama sama!

I studied Indonesian by correspondence so I initially read a lot better than I spoke. It always took me a while to translate in my head first. But I always got excellent marks for pronunciation (we sent tapes in).
I can have basic conversations but haven't progressed further as I never practice. Problem with having good pronunciation is you start talking and locals start talking fast and don't believe you when you say you only speak a little. Indonesian is one of the easier languages. I'm sure you'll pick it up, especially with your sister helping.

When I go to a new country I learn basics- thank you, please etc.

 

Just got this video on my facebook, i find it fascinating and hilarious at the same time.

 

Saya tinggal di Jakarta.

 

Sama dong!

 

I really need to learn this language

 

learn this and you'll be cool for a few days.
"Om telolet Om "

 

English and music here

 

Fluent in subliminal brag.

Did 4 years of French in high school.

Now starting to learn Balinese...selamat pagi!

 

Enrolled into beginner Spanish course. This is the first time I'm trying to learn something not towards not making money. Let's see how this goes

 

Begged both parents to teach me some of their Nine languages..
They wanted me to not be a wog...
I only speak 3