What language(s) do you speak? Why and how did you chose it?

Question

Just asking...

Answer 1

I speak English, no choice, my parents speak it.
I speak French reasonably well, again no choice, I grew up in Montreal and had to (at the very least) learn it in school. I speak it with my in-laws, I suppose that's technically a choice but not if I want MIL's awesome cooking and periodic babysitting.
I do speak some German, again not really a choice as I live in Switzerland (although I did choose to move here and I had taken a class in German years before).

The only language I ever actually chose to learn was Italian; I studied it for three years in university (studying "a" language was required for my program, but I could have picked a different one or a different program). And do I speak it? Pretty much not. Interesting question!

Answer 2

English and Spanish because I was born in America but my parents are from El Salvador but both of them speak English so I grew up speaking both. Also french some Italian and Portuguese. I am teaching myself German. I will begin studying both Latin and Greek. I love languages and always have. I would like to speak as many as I can, especially Hebrew, or Arabic I think it would be cool to learn those. I definately will study Russian and Dutch in the near future. I would also really love to learn a native language.

Answer 3

English; its my native language. Spanish; we had a choice to learn Spanish or French in middle school, I choose Spanish since more than 410 million speak the language fluently, while only 120 million people speak French fluently.

If you happen to want to start learning a language, you should first learn Spanish if you live in the United States.as the US is home to 40 million people of Hispanic descent. Then you should learn Chinese as many people consider it to be "The The World's Next Superpower". It can be argued that it already is a major player in the world marketplace; many products are "made in China".

Answer 4

English is my first language. I speak enough Spanish to order from a menu, get a beer and find a bathroom. I am learning German because I was looking for a challenge. I really like it. After a year of German, I'll go back to Spanish. After Spanish, French (which I already studied for a year). Maybe a little Italian or Portuguese after that. I want to learn at least 5 before I die, and time's running out.

Answer 5

English is my native language. I also speak French and Spanish, and a little Italian. I learned a few Japanese and German phrases for trips to countries where those languages were spoken, but I don't really speak them.

I heartily second the recommendation for the Rosetta Stone system. They also have online subscriptions.

Answer 6

I speak English and Spanish.Some Greek and Italian.All because of family. I know a few phrases in Japanese,( only counting,hello and i love you) Germany i can say how are you. My teacher spoke German and Japanese and she told the class a few things before.that's how i learned. I can carry on a hello how are you I'm good and age and name conversation in french but that's all the french i know because a few friends speak french and taught me.In my 8th grade choir class we sang songs in Hebrew so i know a few songs. If you mean other then phrases i can only speak the English Spanish Greek and Italian why i have family from Italy Greece and relatives the speak both English and Spanish. Why just because i like learning new things.

Answer 7

I had no choice of my first language (English). My parents only speak English and I was born in Texas.

In middle school, we had to sign up for elective courses, and they gave us a choice of 4, and we had to order our preferences from 1 to 4. I put Spanish as my number 4 pick because I didn't really want to take Spanish at that time. Because of luck of the draw, I suppose, I was "stuck" with my 4th choice, and had to take Spanish classes. I quickly realized I was pretty good at learning languages, and that it was a lot of fun. I liked it a lot, took it through Spanish 3 in high school, then moved to a school that didn't offer Spanish 4, so I kind of dropped it for a while.

As an undergrad in college a year ago, I had to quickly get my language credits out of the way between January 2005 and August 2005 when I was to graduate, so I took Spanish again, because I could test out of the first semester. At the same time, Spring 2005, I took a linguistics course as an elective. That combined with learning Spanish again at a MUCH quicker pace than was taught in middle and high school made me love the language again. And those things combined with developing an obsession with Spain, having a lot of Spanish-speaking friends, and dating a Spaniard who spoke very little English, have gotten me well on my way towards fluency.

My goal is to get all of the Romance languages down (or at least most of them--Romanian is pretty hard for me). I can read Portuguese and Catalan and mostly understand what's going on. I can read French and Italian and get the general idea, but they're a bit harder. And I really can't get Romanian hardly at all, no matter how hard my Romanian friend sends me articles to read!

And I think that at the peak of my Spain obsession, I'd like to learn Basque; that would be awesome!

Oh, and in high school I took a year of German, as well. I know the very basic stuff, but I haven't retained much of it. One day, I'd like to pick it up again, too.

Good question, thanks. :)

Answer 8

I speak Indonesia and Chinese in my everyday life. I speak Indonesian in nearly every time. I just speak a mixed Indonesian-Chinese language at home.
I also use written English (my oral English is terrible) when I surf the net. I have some understanding in reading and writing Arabic script as well.

Answer 9

English; Born in the USA

French: Studied in France. Did undergraduate and graduate work in it.

Russian: Became interested in it when I was 10. I studied it as an undergraduate and graduate student. I have taught Russian in continuing education classes.

German: Started to read my parents' German grammar books when I was 8. However, I never learned it as well as my other languages.

Finnish: I taught myself and later studied at Turku University in Finland. I taught Finnish at the university level.

Estonian: It was easy after learning Finnish. I later taught it for one year at a university.

Spanish: Mostly self-taught, although I did take it in the sixth grade.

Hungarian: This is my best foreign language. My Hungarian mother-in-law taught me, and I lived in Budapest for two years. I watch Hungarian TV daily and read online Hungarian newspapers.

Answer 10

English, French, and Mandarin Chinese. When I travel anywhere in the world, I find these to be very helpful, and I consider them to be very beautiful. If I have the opportunity, I would like to improve my Hawaiian and begin to learn Farsi. I usually buy language books, use Rosetta Stone CD-ROM, and then immerse myself in the language. Bonne-chance!