it depends on definition of "know" ;) fluent/mother-tongue in two, good +1, average (good understanding) few more... poor (few words, to find way out, ask for some help, other basic talk, idontunderstanyoubecausemyknowledgeofyoulanguageislimitedbyfewwords, etc) even few more ;)
only two: Engish and Chinese, trying to learn Finnish right now. And to answer your qn from the other thread, I learnt Chinese first in Taiwan, moved to Singapore when I was seven, and most of my education from then on was in English.
To answer my own question, I was raised speaking English and German (I bounced back and forth in alternate years between Germany and the US). I studied French and Latin in high school, but I remember only a bit of my Latin and even less French. Studied one semester of Greek in college, and learned a very little of Japanese and Esperanto.
Then I moved to Southern California, so I started studying Spanish. And then Portuguese when I began taking trips to Brazil (and when I found out how many Brazilians there are here in San Diego!)
English, German, French, Portuguese, Italian & Japanese for me. I learned some Russsian and Greek when I was in school but forgot almost all of it. Started to learn Mandarin last year, but haven't kept it up; would like to start again though :)
ahem, ok, I have to put more detail ;) I was born in that part of Ukraine, which has changed so many hands, that it is language mess in many senses :) I'm in mother tongue of Russian/Ukrainian, English comes third as good for comms, tho not perfect as I wish, and bunch of Eastern Slavonic languages which I understand on-the-fly because they are darn close to western-dialect-of-Ukrainian (Polish, Slovak, Czech, Bulgarian, etc)... actually I understand quick Polish speech for 60-80% (depends on how tired i am, not on speed of speech)... Finnish comes in strangely middle-to-nothing understanding - on one hand, I didn't do any methodical studies apart from few months at Adulta.fi being forced there and zero motivated, on the other hand, I'm quit good ape/monkey when it comes to making faces/grimaces and picking up vocabulary with no intention, just from daily life... and I also have some basic knowledge into German group - i can get some understanding of subject in speech, and few basic survival words ;)
I can relate to "does not go with my mouth" (but not personally) - a friend of mine tries hard to learn Spanish, especially when we go to Mexico for the weekend... but he just can't seem to pronounce it right, no matter how many times we try to speak the word slowly for him...
On the other hand, I think that learning pronunciation of new languages is much easier for people who were multilingual at a young age. The brain has more phonemes to work with, for one. :)
@Bishop, @cybette: the funny thing is that I've always been good at languages (bilingual since I was a kid) but I just don't get French... I love learning dialects! I mastered my dad's tribe's Sámi dialect this summer (I speak like mom's tribe). Next I want to learn to speak like an American. Any suggestions which American dialect (which are) is nice??!?!
@bishop it is not that much of phonemes rather... well, classical masterpiece in Russian literature put it as "Why one should learn geography if there are taxi drivers paid" (not precise translation but close to meaning)
@silpol: I'm speaking largely of things like pronunciation... I think multilingual people have more phonemes in the linguistic parts of their brains and have to adapt to switching between sets of them for different languages. This gives them an advantage when learning a new language because the "switching center" between phoneme sets is already there.
People who know only one language have a more fixed phoneme set so they try to force a new language into their existing set of phonemes from their mother tongue.
Of course this is all just my silly theory, but I have studied this in college after all. :)
pirita: I think the "Middle American" dialect is most important at first. :)
After that, there's southern (very slow and drawn out), New England (more formal, I think it's a bit closer to British), and California (very relaxed).
Then we have tiny ones like Minnesota accent, Chicago accent, New York (ok, not so tiny!)
many English-only speakers have problem with the y in Finnish and ü in French. surprisingly, that sound exists in chinese so I have no problems with it. I do think that being multilingual from young has advantages. however, i still can't roll my R's... sigh.
I do admit I am having trouble with the nasal vowels in Portuguese, although not as much as trying to figure out the difference between "open" and "closed" vowels!
@bishop well, my practical observation is a bit shifted from yours (and your college's) POV - in big monolithic self-dependent cultures (think e.g. of Russia or USA) people mostly are not accustomed to see variety in world and tend to think of rest of world as their backyard, they merely don't find in necessary to learn OTHER things (world doesn't exist there or should adapt for their needs). Short illustration - big Finnish department store, food department, fish-from-counter section, Russian lady in break-your-neck-expensive fur coat is merely pinning down girl behind counter, repeating word "Ус-три-цы!!!" (Oy-ste-rs!!!) like the salesgirl is clinically stupid. In fact, sales girl had 7 language flags on her bar and she WAS trying to understand, calling for help from other deps, etc. I was teared apart inside I didn't want to move even finger for this old bitch, but I did sympathized salesgirl, and in one moment latter won - i merely went to counter, translated few words, but for attempt of lady to use me as free guide, i denied "Нет, сударыня, географию надо было учить еще в школе, извозчики не всюду довезут" and her eyes were exploding. I have no mercy for lazy souls - if one had opportunity to learn but didn't, he has ZERO right for excuse. Period.
English is my native tongue, studied Spanish and got good, but have forgotten a lot. studying German now, but yet to be able to hold a longer conversation that asking directions or ordering food. Once it's up to speed, I'm going to try to re-learn Spanish, then on to either Arabic, Japanese, or Russian.
@silpol: I think we're talking about two different things - you seem to be observing peoples' willingness to learn other languages, which I agree is severely lacking in dominant, insular cultures.
I'm merely talking about relative ease of learning (and especially pronouncing) additional languages if someone is raised speaking more than one. I believe that people who are raised only speaking one language have an inherent mental difficulty when pronouncing languages with sounds that are not in their native language, while learning multiple languages at a young age (below age 5) causes the brain to process language slightly differently, making it easier to adapt to unfamiliar language sounds.
An illustration of this in the US is that our schools almost never start foreign language classes until the high school level, which is about age 14-15. I can remember in my French class at that age, that I and other students like me who had spoken multiple languages our whole lives (the other students were raised with both English and Spanish) all had much better French pronunciation than the students who had only spoken English, even though none of us were raised speaking French.
@bishop we don't have yet elaborated a criteria for selection, what is cause of what or soul-laziness-to-learn and different-paths-in-speech-apparatus-development are actually separate causes or what else? as for French, I had observed quit a few ppl who were so much French/Spanish bilingual that granted French & Spanish do belong closer to Roman group while English is more in AngloSax subtree of German group that it makes no wonder why English-Spanish boys are more effective with French than plain vanilla Americans ;) yes, vanilla was slightly intended pun ;)
@silpol: Right, but both I (German/English speaker) and the others (Spanish/English speakers) were much more easily able to learn the sounds of French that we did not have in our own language, than the people who only spoke English.
To use an analogy: Imagine the "language center" of the brain as a wooden box full of alphabet blocks, used to make words. When someone uses just one language, they simply use alphabet blocks out of the wooden box, and when they try to use a language with alphabet blocks they don't have, they have to struggle to make the box bigger to make the blocks fit.
When someone works with two languages at an early age, their "method" is different and they might have a bag of blocks for each language, so they can quickly swap out sets of alphabet blocks, and can more easily make new sounds usable by simply using a new bag for the new language. They aren't in the "closed" system of having just one set of blocks, but their language method is more flexible.
@bishop I knew in advance your logic, and I don't deny it actually - I am bilingual myself.
What I am trying to understand: what is cause from selection of both yours and mine args, or are they both, or what... Your argument is sort of "gate open or closed in earlier age" while mine is "is there engine in car or not"... not clear what is correct.
@silpol: Time for one of us to formulate a hypothesis and do a research study! Now where could we get some funding for this?
@chibbi: And Spanglish was a cute movie, too! :) Those "hybrid" languages can be entertaining... it was funny in Brazil communicating with people in "Portuñol" since my español is better than my portugés. (Portuñol is especially common in border areas of Brazil, naturally.)
I was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, to first-generation Finnish-speaking immigrants so naturally my mother tongue became Finnish but I learned Swedish as a good second language quite early on. I didn't have Swedish-speaking friends per se because I was a reclusive child and my kindergarten and elementary school years were spent in a Finnish speaking class. At the age of ten (1984) my family moved back to Finland where I began fourth grade and chose English as my first foreign language to study. This was evidently a mistake because while my environment has since been saturated with English, my Swedish didn't get the practice it needed until seventh grade when I began studying it as my second foreign language (a compulsory subject in the Finnish comprehensive school). At the same time I chose German as my elective/alternative subject. In upper secondary school (lukio) I continued these subjects with excellent grades. Naturally my matriculation exam/abitur/A-levels went accordingly well. But truth be told, my command of German is not great at all. Partly it is the level of education which is to blaim -- the standard for German was set lower than the two national languages. The other reason is that I haven't had any use for the teutonic tongue. My brain tends to just drop things I don't practice. It's the same with Swedish. I find myself tongue-tied when confronted with a situation that requires expressing myself in said language. I understand it perfectly well -- even to the extent that I regularly follow Swedish-speaking TV programming. It's just that actively producing the language is such a pain. So it's ironical that after Finnish English is my true forte at the moment.
Pretty good: Finnish, English. Good enough to get in trouble/laughed at: Swedish. Forgotten: Latin, Russian. @cybette: I can't roll my R's properly either, and I'm supposed to be a Finn :-\
Dutch & English. Understand German pretty good, but the talking part...not so good. I'm learning Finnish at the moment, I'm getting to the part where I can understand basic things, but again, the talking part... ;)
@cybette: do you live in Finland? Cause I've lived there and am moving back soon (hopefully) so in the mean time I'm looking for someone to practice my Finnish with :)
@silviam I am moving to Finland next month! Tampere to be exact... what about you? When and where? we can practice our Finnish here... I'm sure there are lots of Finns around to help us :)
I'm not sure when yet. I've lived in Vantaa, Helsinki and Espoo during my year as an exchange student a few years ago. When i was in Helsinki this summer I've decided that I wanted to live there (or Vantaa) again...asap. Why are you moving to Finland?
@silviam don't worry that much - as soon you are here and live inside Keha III, you can almost always switch to English if you are not serving customers of old or small age ;) and you will have much better practice on-site than here - live language exercise can not be overrated, especially with crafty Finnish habit of having official and folk variants of language ;)
Hahah, thanks! Also, i bought this book: Oikeeta suomee (suomen puhekielen sanakirja) =P And a few Finnish spoken movies, and I'm listening to Finnish radio...just to keep up with things ;)
But some grammar practice here on jaiku could never hurt...
@silviam no worries i still see your comments, since i've added you as a contact :) well, i'm moving to Finland for work (Nokia), and you're much further long in Finnish than I am! so you can help me too :)
Tagalog/Filipino mother tongue, English as the country's official [together with Tagalog] & medium of instruction, taught the language as well. We use American English in the Philippines, but I taught British English. Spanish at home in the old days as we were under Spain for 3 centuries and with a Spanish mix blood, my grandparents speak the language.Tagalog my mother tongue is a mix of Malay and Spanish words, learned French, speak Mandarin, understand Hookien and Cantonese, write a few Chinese characters, speak and write Malay.
German, English, some French. Can understand pieces of Dutch and funny German dialects as well as Middle English and Old Middle German. Would like to learn Mandarin.
Finnish as spoken at home, English as first foreign language at school, Swedish as "forced" at school. After five years in "real life" I understood I might need something else than Finnish... Now English is "official" in company and I think I manage with it...
Finnish: natively, English: pretty well, French: conversational, Swedish and German: read both passably but speak only when drunk. Used to know a little Japanese but it's gone now. I find that through French I can read Spanish and Italian surprisingly well.
Reviving this thread, thought I'd add to it :o) I only know English fluently, but I know school-boy (enough to get around as a tourist) level German and French (although not practiced French for a while). I've picked up a couple of words of Finnish from my trips (and I stress only a couple) and after spending a month in Latin America I've gone from nothing to 'can get around' in Spanish.
60 comments so far
it depends on definition of "know" ;) fluent/mother-tongue in two, good +1, average (good understanding) few more... poor (few words, to find way out, ask for some help, other basic talk, idontunderstanyoubecausemyknowledgeofyoulanguageislimitedbyfewwords, etc) even few more ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
only two: Engish and Chinese, trying to learn Finnish right now. And to answer your qn from the other thread, I learnt Chinese first in Taiwan, moved to Singapore when I was seven, and most of my education from then on was in English.
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
I envy europeans who usually know at least 3-4 languages reasonably well
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
finnish, swedish, english for me.. and sometimes bullshit. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by R200
@cybette usually those unable to develop any knowledge of programming languages ;) they might envy you for knowledge of C/C++/and-many-others ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
To answer my own question, I was raised speaking English and German (I bounced back and forth in alternate years between Germany and the US). I studied French and Latin in high school, but I remember only a bit of my Latin and even less French. Studied one semester of Greek in college, and learned a very little of Japanese and Esperanto.
Then I moved to Southern California, so I started studying Spanish. And then Portuguese when I began taking trips to Brazil (and when I found out how many Brazilians there are here in San Diego!)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
So bottom line:
Fluent: English, German
Basic Conversation: Spanish
Still Learning: Portuguese
... plus I want to go back and refresh my Latin, largely because I think it'll help with my Spanish and Portuguese. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
English, German, French, Portuguese, Italian & Japanese for me. I learned some Russsian and Greek when I was in school but forgot almost all of it. Started to learn Mandarin last year, but haven't kept it up; would like to start again though :)
2 years, 3 months ago by andydigitale
English, very very little French and Russian, Bulgarian and thanks to former Yougoslavia also Serbian and Croatian .
2 years, 3 months ago by Nokian
C, C++, java, prolog, lisp, pascal, basic, perl, assembly, fortran... several more used at one time or other :P
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
ahem, ok, I have to put more detail ;) I was born in that part of Ukraine, which has changed so many hands, that it is language mess in many senses :) I'm in mother tongue of Russian/Ukrainian, English comes third as good for comms, tho not perfect as I wish, and bunch of Eastern Slavonic languages which I understand on-the-fly because they are darn close to western-dialect-of-Ukrainian (Polish, Slovak, Czech, Bulgarian, etc)... actually I understand quick Polish speech for 60-80% (depends on how tired i am, not on speed of speech)... Finnish comes in strangely middle-to-nothing understanding - on one hand, I didn't do any methodical studies apart from few months at Adulta.fi being forced there and zero motivated, on the other hand, I'm quit good ape/monkey when it comes to making faces/grimaces and picking up vocabulary with no intention, just from daily life... and I also have some basic knowledge into German group - i can get some understanding of subject in speech, and few basic survival words ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
well, i'm not envy for those who were studying Russian - one of nasties on uncertainty and word play :)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
C, pascal, perl, ksh, assembly, fortran, lisp, prolog, cobol (boy, that goes back)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
Mother tongue: Sámi/Lappish Fluent: Finnish, English Basic Conversation: German, Swedish Learning: Filipino/Tagalog Does not go with my mouth: French
2 years, 3 months ago by pirita
lol @pirita "does not go with my mouth"
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
I remember meeting some Lapps YEARS ago back in my high school days...
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@Bishop: really? Where? BTW; the PC name for us is Sámi, but Lappish is ok when we're speaking English ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by pirita
I can relate to "does not go with my mouth" (but not personally) - a friend of mine tries hard to learn Spanish, especially when we go to Mexico for the weekend... but he just can't seem to pronounce it right, no matter how many times we try to speak the word slowly for him...
On the other hand, I think that learning pronunciation of new languages is much easier for people who were multilingual at a young age. The brain has more phonemes to work with, for one. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@Bishop, @cybette: the funny thing is that I've always been good at languages (bilingual since I was a kid) but I just don't get French... I love learning dialects! I mastered my dad's tribe's Sámi dialect this summer (I speak like mom's tribe). Next I want to learn to speak like an American. Any suggestions which American dialect (which are) is nice??!?!
2 years, 3 months ago by pirita
*area
2 years, 3 months ago by pirita
@bishop it is not that much of phonemes rather... well, classical masterpiece in Russian literature put it as "Why one should learn geography if there are taxi drivers paid" (not precise translation but close to meaning)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
It was in Germany, during one of my high school years there... don't ask me more than that; it was over twenty years ago. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@silpol: I'm speaking largely of things like pronunciation... I think multilingual people have more phonemes in the linguistic parts of their brains and have to adapt to switching between sets of them for different languages. This gives them an advantage when learning a new language because the "switching center" between phoneme sets is already there.
People who know only one language have a more fixed phoneme set so they try to force a new language into their existing set of phonemes from their mother tongue.
Of course this is all just my silly theory, but I have studied this in college after all. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
pirita: I think the "Middle American" dialect is most important at first. :)
After that, there's southern (very slow and drawn out), New England (more formal, I think it's a bit closer to British), and California (very relaxed).
Then we have tiny ones like Minnesota accent, Chicago accent, New York (ok, not so tiny!)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
many English-only speakers have problem with the y in Finnish and ü in French. surprisingly, that sound exists in chinese so I have no problems with it. I do think that being multilingual from young has advantages. however, i still can't roll my R's... sigh.
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
@Bishop: thanks...need to start listening to different dialects so I understand the differences...
2 years, 3 months ago by pirita
Is the French ü the same as the German ü? :)
I do admit I am having trouble with the nasal vowels in Portuguese, although not as much as trying to figure out the difference between "open" and "closed" vowels!
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@bishop i believe so... need someone who knows both german and french to confirm that.
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
@bishop well, my practical observation is a bit shifted from yours (and your college's) POV - in big monolithic self-dependent cultures (think e.g. of Russia or USA) people mostly are not accustomed to see variety in world and tend to think of rest of world as their backyard, they merely don't find in necessary to learn OTHER things (world doesn't exist there or should adapt for their needs). Short illustration - big Finnish department store, food department, fish-from-counter section, Russian lady in break-your-neck-expensive fur coat is merely pinning down girl behind counter, repeating word "Ус-три-цы!!!" (Oy-ste-rs!!!) like the salesgirl is clinically stupid. In fact, sales girl had 7 language flags on her bar and she WAS trying to understand, calling for help from other deps, etc. I was teared apart inside I didn't want to move even finger for this old bitch, but I did sympathized salesgirl, and in one moment latter won - i merely went to counter, translated few words, but for attempt of lady to use me as free guide, i denied "Нет, сударыня, географию надо было учить еще в школе, извозчики не всюду довезут" and her eyes were exploding. I have no mercy for lazy souls - if one had opportunity to learn but didn't, he has ZERO right for excuse. Period.
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
english, german, bit of french, learned latin, attempting estonian.
2 years, 3 months ago by cervus
fluently: German (Native Language) + English .. ...and that's pretty much it lol
2 years, 3 months ago by BeerBong
English is my native tongue, studied Spanish and got good, but have forgotten a lot. studying German now, but yet to be able to hold a longer conversation that asking directions or ordering food. Once it's up to speed, I'm going to try to re-learn Spanish, then on to either Arabic, Japanese, or Russian.
2 years, 3 months ago by pkahle
@silpol: I think we're talking about two different things - you seem to be observing peoples' willingness to learn other languages, which I agree is severely lacking in dominant, insular cultures.
I'm merely talking about relative ease of learning (and especially pronouncing) additional languages if someone is raised speaking more than one. I believe that people who are raised only speaking one language have an inherent mental difficulty when pronouncing languages with sounds that are not in their native language, while learning multiple languages at a young age (below age 5) causes the brain to process language slightly differently, making it easier to adapt to unfamiliar language sounds.
An illustration of this in the US is that our schools almost never start foreign language classes until the high school level, which is about age 14-15. I can remember in my French class at that age, that I and other students like me who had spoken multiple languages our whole lives (the other students were raised with both English and Spanish) all had much better French pronunciation than the students who had only spoken English, even though none of us were raised speaking French.
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@bishop we don't have yet elaborated a criteria for selection, what is cause of what or soul-laziness-to-learn and different-paths-in-speech-apparatus-development are actually separate causes or what else? as for French, I had observed quit a few ppl who were so much French/Spanish bilingual that granted French & Spanish do belong closer to Roman group while English is more in AngloSax subtree of German group that it makes no wonder why English-Spanish boys are more effective with French than plain vanilla Americans ;) yes, vanilla was slightly intended pun ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
@silpol: Right, but both I (German/English speaker) and the others (Spanish/English speakers) were much more easily able to learn the sounds of French that we did not have in our own language, than the people who only spoke English.
To use an analogy: Imagine the "language center" of the brain as a wooden box full of alphabet blocks, used to make words. When someone uses just one language, they simply use alphabet blocks out of the wooden box, and when they try to use a language with alphabet blocks they don't have, they have to struggle to make the box bigger to make the blocks fit.
When someone works with two languages at an early age, their "method" is different and they might have a bag of blocks for each language, so they can quickly swap out sets of alphabet blocks, and can more easily make new sounds usable by simply using a new bag for the new language. They aren't in the "closed" system of having just one set of blocks, but their language method is more flexible.
That's my theory, anyway. :)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@bishop I knew in advance your logic, and I don't deny it actually - I am bilingual myself.
What I am trying to understand: what is cause from selection of both yours and mine args, or are they both, or what... Your argument is sort of "gate open or closed in earlier age" while mine is "is there engine in car or not"... not clear what is correct.
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
pathetically---only spanish and english..but i am also fluent in spanglish! :-)
2 years, 3 months ago by chibbigirl
@silpol: Time for one of us to formulate a hypothesis and do a research study! Now where could we get some funding for this?
@chibbi: And Spanglish was a cute movie, too! :) Those "hybrid" languages can be entertaining... it was funny in Brazil communicating with people in "Portuñol" since my español is better than my portugés. (Portuñol is especially common in border areas of Brazil, naturally.)
2 years, 3 months ago by Bishop
@bishop if I were a successful CFO...
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
I was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, to first-generation Finnish-speaking immigrants so naturally my mother tongue became Finnish but I learned Swedish as a good second language quite early on. I didn't have Swedish-speaking friends per se because I was a reclusive child and my kindergarten and elementary school years were spent in a Finnish speaking class. At the age of ten (1984) my family moved back to Finland where I began fourth grade and chose English as my first foreign language to study. This was evidently a mistake because while my environment has since been saturated with English, my Swedish didn't get the practice it needed until seventh grade when I began studying it as my second foreign language (a compulsory subject in the Finnish comprehensive school). At the same time I chose German as my elective/alternative subject. In upper secondary school (lukio) I continued these subjects with excellent grades. Naturally my matriculation exam/abitur/A-levels went accordingly well. But truth be told, my command of German is not great at all. Partly it is the level of education which is to blaim -- the standard for German was set lower than the two national languages. The other reason is that I haven't had any use for the teutonic tongue. My brain tends to just drop things I don't practice. It's the same with Swedish. I find myself tongue-tied when confronted with a situation that requires expressing myself in said language. I understand it perfectly well -- even to the extent that I regularly follow Swedish-speaking TV programming. It's just that actively producing the language is such a pain. So it's ironical that after Finnish English is my true forte at the moment.
2 years, 3 months ago by jkniiv
Jarkko, I'm impressed with your command of English. I consider English my first language but I don't think my command of it is as good as yours!
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
speaking of spanglish, there is also singlish: http://cybette.jaiku.com/presence/8156786
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
Pretty good: Finnish, English. Good enough to get in trouble/laughed at: Swedish. Forgotten: Latin, Russian. @cybette: I can't roll my R's properly either, and I'm supposed to be a Finn :-\
2 years, 3 months ago by topyli
@topyli haha thanks for making me feel better :)
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
Dutch & English. Understand German pretty good, but the talking part...not so good. I'm learning Finnish at the moment, I'm getting to the part where I can understand basic things, but again, the talking part... ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silviam
@cybette: do you live in Finland? Cause I've lived there and am moving back soon (hopefully) so in the mean time I'm looking for someone to practice my Finnish with :)
2 years, 3 months ago by silviam
@silviam I am moving to Finland next month! Tampere to be exact... what about you? When and where? we can practice our Finnish here... I'm sure there are lots of Finns around to help us :)
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
I'm not sure when yet. I've lived in Vantaa, Helsinki and Espoo during my year as an exchange student a few years ago. When i was in Helsinki this summer I've decided that I wanted to live there (or Vantaa) again...asap. Why are you moving to Finland?
2 years, 3 months ago by silviam
@silviam don't worry that much - as soon you are here and live inside Keha III, you can almost always switch to English if you are not serving customers of old or small age ;) and you will have much better practice on-site than here - live language exercise can not be overrated, especially with crafty Finnish habit of having official and folk variants of language ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
@silviam oh, you seem to be familiar with tricky things already, then good luck ;)
2 years, 3 months ago by silpol
Hahah, thanks! Also, i bought this book: Oikeeta suomee (suomen puhekielen sanakirja) =P And a few Finnish spoken movies, and I'm listening to Finnish radio...just to keep up with things ;)
But some grammar practice here on jaiku could never hurt...
2 years, 3 months ago by silviam
@cybette I forget the @ in my message to you above, does this mean that you don't get a notice?!
2 years, 3 months ago by silviam
@silviam no worries i still see your comments, since i've added you as a contact :) well, i'm moving to Finland for work (Nokia), and you're much further long in Finnish than I am! so you can help me too :)
2 years, 3 months ago by cybette
Finnish, Swedish, English, German, French (conversational) and Italian (conversational).
2 years, 3 months ago by maxpagels
Tagalog/Filipino mother tongue, English as the country's official [together with Tagalog] & medium of instruction, taught the language as well. We use American English in the Philippines, but I taught British English. Spanish at home in the old days as we were under Spain for 3 centuries and with a Spanish mix blood, my grandparents speak the language.Tagalog my mother tongue is a mix of Malay and Spanish words, learned French, speak Mandarin, understand Hookien and Cantonese, write a few Chinese characters, speak and write Malay.
2 years, 3 months ago by ipanema
German, English, some French. Can understand pieces of Dutch and funny German dialects as well as Middle English and Old Middle German. Would like to learn Mandarin.
2 years, 2 months ago by fabsh
Finnish as spoken at home, English as first foreign language at school, Swedish as "forced" at school. After five years in "real life" I understood I might need something else than Finnish... Now English is "official" in company and I think I manage with it...
2 years, 2 months ago by map
Finnish: natively, English: pretty well, French: conversational, Swedish and German: read both passably but speak only when drunk. Used to know a little Japanese but it's gone now. I find that through French I can read Spanish and Italian surprisingly well.
2 years, 2 months ago by bertil
I am from Malaysia, I speak mandarin, cantonese, english, malay and indonesia malay. I can only write in english and malay....cheers!
2 years, 2 months ago by makemoneyonline
Reviving this thread, thought I'd add to it :o) I only know English fluently, but I know school-boy (enough to get around as a tourist) level German and French (although not practiced French for a while). I've picked up a couple of words of Finnish from my trips (and I stress only a couple) and after spending a month in Latin America I've gone from nothing to 'can get around' in Spanish.
1 year ago by dsample