So... what's YOUR mother tongue?

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"

What language(s) do you speak?

English
20
45%
French
5
11%
Spanish
3
7%
Italian
0
No votes
German
4
9%
Japanese
3
7%
Arabic
0
No votes
Classical Languages (I understand some Latin or Greek)
4
9%
Other (Please specify when you post)
5
11%
 
Total votes: 44

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zanntos
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Re: So... what's YOUR mother tongue?

Post by zanntos »

LIES, i totally mentioned computer languages, though i didn't specify. Java, C/C++ being my personal preferences, thought use PERL or *cry* Fortran if i REALLY have to, i'm also recently playing with a little bit of Python.
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Pillaroforder
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Re: So... what's YOUR mother tongue?

Post by Pillaroforder »

Native: Slovenian

I should have checked English and German as well, since I'm pretty fluent in English, but my German is rustier than an old Yugo's chasis (4 years of study in high school, though, but I'm way better at understanding than speaking it).

I'm also fairly fluent in Serbian/Croatian (don't ask about differences between them, it's a political mess now, beyond just being a linguistic matter), as lots of imigrants live around me. I even know a little Cirilic alphabet (or how do you call it in English?), as I learned this language (now languages) in 7th grade elementary school, way back in ex-YU.
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Imp-Chan
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Re: So... what's YOUR mother tongue?

Post by Imp-Chan »

English is my first language... it is possible that I have a wider understanding of it than most, as my dad had a PhD in it and was very determined about making sure we understood the concepts in detail and making us look up any words we didn't understand (the OED was my early version of Wikipedia... I could get happily lost in that thing, once I got over being resentful of being forced to look stuff up). However, I suspect that was later neatly balanced out by too much time on the internet, leaving me grammatically impure but with an extended vocabulary. Like Jim, I also have fair comprehension of British English, though I suspect mine is more intuitive and contextual than practiced (I only discovered Doctor Who last August!).

My dad was/is fluent in French, so there was a lot of that spoken around the house when he didn't want us to understand. He also worked as a translator/organizational consultant for a couple of years, so we got even more of it during that time. I took five years of it in school, but the program was not particularly sophisticated, and I was not a particularly dedicated student. The result is that I can read french with a fair degree of comprehension, but I speak it like a confused two-year-old (and my accent is no doubt horrendous). I am marginally better at picking out what's going on if I'm watching a movie instead of having a conversation, though.

My mother spoke Spanish, as a result of her studying it in school, and I also got a little Spanish in elementary school. I don't remember almost any of it.

I took one year of Japanese in college, but due to various setbacks (a job and the discovery that I had ADHD) I never quite completed it (TWICE!). However, Japanese is the single most ORGANIZED language I've ever studied, so I imagine if I kept working at it, I'd eventually be competent. I know just enough to occasionally startle Akina, my friend's sister-in-law, at our cookie-baking parties. This might be because years of watching movies and anime and dorama have left me moderately more culturally aware, so I'm better able to retain what I learn. Who knows?

Other than that... my sister and I once had our own "language," and I was in the process of recording it when we both stopped speaking it. Also, I've sung in latin, but didn't understand most of it (except, interestingly, the stuff that sounded, or rather looked, like French).

^-^'

Edit: Correction... I remember exactly one spanish phrase, but it uses the wrong verb. My friend taught me how to say, "Screw a tree."
Because scary little devil girls have to stick together.
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davester65
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Re: So... what's YOUR mother tongue?

Post by davester65 »

English, with a New Hampshire Yankee accent. I've also studied Swedish and Spanish in college and flunked Latin in high school. I've forgotten most of it and having gone to college in Chicago lessened my Yankee accent a bit. I've always been poor at memorization so learning languages has always been tough for me.
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