What country are you from and what languages do you speak?

submitted by daggermoon@lemmy.world

I'm from the US and English is the only language I speak fluently.

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From the US. Fluent English, conversational+ japanese, and used to know basic German and french though I've mostly forgotten those. Also used to have survival level and very basic conversational Spanish. I've studied Albanian and Norwegian a bit, but don't remember enough to say anything anymore properly

日本人です、日本語しか話せないのであえてここも日本語で書きます

※普段は機械翻訳をつかってます

ちなみに、一般的な日本人の殆どは日本語以外を話すことはできません、日本の英語教育はあまり意味をなしていません

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US. I speak ok Mandarin, poor Spanish and bad Portuguese. And I guess English. Also I can't read Chinese reliably, so I am also illiterate.

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The second part is easy to answer:\

  1. German\
  2. Polish\
  3. Swedish\
  4. English\
  5. Korean (just started learning.\

The first part is a bit more complicated, depending on what you are actually asking, where and who you are.\

  • If you're asking where I live then it's Korea.\
  • If you're asking where I came from to Korea then it's Sweden where I lived for 15 years\
  • If you're asking what nationality I feel I belong to with my heart then it's Germany where all my ancestors are from\
  • If you're asking where I was born then it's Poland\

I hope you his answers your question.

Not completely, there are 2 Korea's. But since internet access in one is extremily limited, I can make an educated guess in which one you live right now.

Nice track record by the way.

Ah yeah :D so South Korea, just for the record ^^

I'm from The Netherlands and I speak Dutch, English, a bit of German and no French at all even though I had French in school for 13 years.

But The Netherlands has 2 official national languages, Dutch and Friesian, although English officially isn't a foreign language anymore due to the quality and quantity of English speakers and there are discussions to make English the third national language.

I wish I knew more languages, but sadly I'm really bad at learning any. Some people learn languages so fast, I'm better at math and such. I wish I knew Russian, Chinese and Spanish because I'd love to travel to old USSR republics, China and other Asian countries and South America. Knowing the most spoken languages in the world would be amazing I imagine. And I wish I knew Norwegian because I love the language and the country so much. Plus, you can communicate in Denmark and Sweden too. But luckily now we have Google translate so I could communicate even though I don't have shared languages with where I want to go.

although English officially isn't a foreign language anymore due to the quality and quantity of English speakers and there are discussions to make English the third national language.

Do you have a source for this? I'm Dutch native too, and have never heard of this.

The majority of Dutch people speak English at a decent level, but there are no non-immigrant native English speakers.

US. Fluent in English but I can speak enough spanish to do most everyday things. I am learning Japanese, and while I can read and understand about half of it, I can't pronounce shit and haven't bothered practicing since I just want to read it.

From the Netherlands. I speak English and Dutch pretty much on the same level. I can work my way around German if I've been in a German speaking country for a couple of days. I can speak French if I really need to and I'm currently learning Portuguese. Understanding Portuguese has made me also understand Italian and Spanish a bit better.

Dutch too. Fluent in English, my French is quite good and I can manage German (though my grammar is horrible).

I did learn Latin so I understand Italian and Spanish if it's written and not too complex.

Norwegian.

I’d say fluent in Norwegian, English and German. German because I lived there for a year and the missus is German. I can make myself understood in Spanish.
Swedish and Danish come for free as they are so close to Norwegian. I don’t need to speak them as we understand eachother mostly.

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UK, trying not to be a typical one-language Anglo by learning German. I'm thankful there seems to be a large German community on Lemmy!

From Germany and i speak German, English and Spanish. I can survive daily life in French and Catalan, but its pretty rough. Currently, i am learning Persian :)

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Mexican here:

Spanish & English - Fluent

Japanese - Intermediate-advanced

French - Still learning but it's so similar to Spanish it feels like cheating 😅

French was more confusing than Spanish was to me. I'm trying to learn Spanish actually. It's a beautiful language.

Hungarian, so beyond that that i speak english (duh) swedish, though i mostly read books on it, not a lot of swedes around, and i am trying to pick up some chinese now

There's a Hungarian hardcore band I like called Aws. It's a really neat language. I don't understand a word of it sadly. Maybe someday.

Ah, nice. Have not heard of them, funnily enough. But i am all for hardcore so there is that :D how did you learn about them?

They were on Eurovision representing Hungary. I listen to alot of non-English music. This is the song if you're interested. I think their singer passed away unfortunately.

Thanks, I’ll check it out. I don’t really follow music recently all that much so i guess it explains it

American, English only but I need to learn Burmese as that's where my daughter-in-law is from. Can't have hypothetical grand kids speaking a language I don't know.

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Hi! I'm French, living in Germany, fluent in French, German, and English, conversational Japanese

US. English is the only language I know and I'm pretty fuckin bad at it lol.

From the UK originally, which is complicated enough. To foreigners I tend to say "England", which (a) is true and (b) everyone understands. But I consider myself British, not English, and certain not a "UK person" (ugh).

I speak French near-natively from having lived there for a big chunk of my life. Spanish: intermediate, because it's like French. German: got an A at GCSE decades ago, so not very good. Tried learning Russian a few years ago and, wow, that was hard. I cannot speak Russian. But being able to decipher the Cyrillic script is definitely a cool party trick.

I usually refer to England as Great Brittan? Is that generally preferred? Are there many Spanish speakers in Great Brittan?

I usually refer to England as Great Brittan? Is that generally preferred?

No, because it's wrong! - Great Britain = England + Scotland + Wales - UK = Great Britain + Northern Ireland - British = citizen of (careful!) UK

You're welcome.

Are there many Spanish speakers in Great Brittan?

Far fewer than there are English speakers.

Swedish: Native English: Fluent to the point where it might as well be native Spanish: Alright, probably upper B2

Önskar att vi hade ett lite mer aktiv community på lemmy, men ałła som kan svenska kan tydligen också engelska och behöver tydligen ingen svenskspråkig community eller så ^^

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Jag gör mitt bästa för att hålla lite liv i [email protected]. Jag är inte jättebra på att posta annat än nyheter jag bryr mig om dock, vilket leder till lite enformighet.

Oj av någon anledning har jag inte joinat den än. Fortsätt så, jag själv bor nu i Korea därför är det ännu svårare att bara se något man kan post om just Sverige, men ville hålla mig uppdaterat.

Och oss som lära sig svenska kan också följa med och kanske öva med riktig svensk folk. Det låter kul

Jeg er i færd med at lære dansk (og norsk), men jeg kan forstå næsten alt I har skrevet.

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Just saying you'll probably have a better time asking this in a casual conversation community. To answer the question though I'm Egyptian and I speak Arabic, English, Japanese and a bit of Chinese.

Also US

English of course

I took a few years of French in middle and high school, not much of it stuck. A couple basic words and phrases, and if they speak slowly and clearly I can *usually* get the gist of what someone is saying and fake my way through some reading.

The story of my French education is a mess, full of long term substitutes, substitute-substitutes, a sad lonely man whose spirit was absolutely broken by the kids who had him first semester before I had him and got fired a couple weeks before the end of the school year, and a lady who was absolutely baffled by the fact that her French 3 class barely spoke any French because the first 2 years of our French education was a total waste.

A handful of Spanish words and phrases from middle school "exploratory" Spanish class for a couple months and working in a warehouse for a few years where I was one of only a handful of native English speakers, but nowhere close to conversational.

And I've been teaching myself Esperanto, which has been going rather well. It's hard to say how conversational I am because there's not a whole lot of esperantists running around to chat with, but I'm reading at probably about a 2nd grade level, which is something I suppose.

Ireland. First language English, second Irish (but only in the education system), learning Russian

Italy: Italian, English and a local language

You can't just tease us like that, what's the local language? The less common a language is the more interesting.

That's true! I love less common languages. Well I can speak Neapolitan, a language spoken in Southern Italy.

Thank you, I had never heard of your language before. How similar is it to Italian? Is your language taught in schools and is it common?

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Italy is a fairly a new country (it was born in 1861) and before that each part used to speak a different language which, just like Neapolitan, they are still alive. These languages and dialects are not taught in school so the only way to learn them is by listening to those who passed it on which I think it's pretty cool.

In my day-to-day life I speak a mix of Italian and Neapolitan (but there are people who speak only the latter) but we try to use only the former when we speak to people from other parts of the country who wouldn't be able to understand us. Nowadays our local language is getting "italianized" a bit but it's still different from it, just like Spanish and Italian or other Romance languages.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to let Lemmers know about it :)

Thank you for teaching us. I love learning about languages.

Polish living in Poland, I know English, I don't speak it much though, currently learning Japanese

The UK.

I am fluent in English and good enough in Mandarin to get by.

Earlier in life I was passable at French in France, but I have lost that now. It's been overwritten by the Mandarin from having spent a few years in the PRC teaching English.

Born & raised in the US, lived in Poland for the past several years. Speak a good bit of polish, enough to navigate most interactions with strangers but not enough for deep conversations with the father-in-law.

American, I speak English, Thai, and Korean.

I wish I knew how to write Korean nicely. Is definitely easier to speak for me than to write it lol.

Nice try glowy

glowy?

Fed! I know you transmit radio into my head! Ever since you implanted these metal teeth into my mouth!

I'm part Scottish, part English. I speak:

English - idiomatically French - conversationally
Italian - I just want to reply to people in French all the time
German - I can ask where the station is
Japanaese - I can say 'I do not understand'

I can say "I do not speak French" in six languages!

Me ne parolas la Francan.

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Cxu bone parolas vi la Esperanton?

From Croatia, can speak Croatia/Serbian/Bosnian at native level.

Know english decently enough, can somewhat understand some small amount of german ( cousins that live in germany ), and can understand most balkan/slav languages.

Dabbled into japanese with duolingo back in highschool almost 7 years ago and stopped cause tf is up with their writting system.

stopped cause tf is up with their writting systems.

FTFY.

United States and I speak English and a little Spanish but I wish I knew more Spanish.

I'm from Japan and Japanese is my first language. I hate it.

I hate it.

Can you elaborate?

Nope. Too much reasons to hate this country.

Talked to two Japanese students who went to Europe because they hated their home country, like you do. Both were adamant they would have become a number in the suicide statistic if they wouldn't have gotten out of the country. They didn't plan on returning, ever.

Just saying there is a way out, I guess that's what I thought was needed to be said.

That's good to hear. I'm planning to study in Europe.

I also wonder, what is the hubbub

Which part? Being from Japan or the language?

Both.

Lithuanian.

I speak Lithuanian, English, some Swedish and traces of Russian.

From Mexico Magico, and I speak Spanish, English, enough French and enough Portuguese brasileiro to get by. And I am currently working on improving my Korean because I live in a city that has a huge community.

I'm from the UK and speak English and am fluent in British Sign Language. I can speak enough French and Spanish to navigate a short holiday, which means I suck at both.

I’m from the US and English is my native language. I took French in high school and minored in it in college and was actually pretty fluent in it for a while. A decade after graduating I married a native French speaker from Quebec, but our semiannual trips to Quebec to visit her parents now remind me just how much fluency I’ve lost. I’m still fine in common daily tasks but get into a deeper conversation and I start floundering.

I used to work in a technical role at a Spanish-language TV station and picked up some, but that’s also disappearing now ten years on.

I guess it’s a use it or lose it situation.

USA. English fluent, decent Spanish.

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I’m from England and I only really speak English. I speak a little French because I lived in Morocco for a few years but it’s really not that good.

One thing I learnt while living overseas is that while English people aren’t very good at speaking other languages, we’re really rather good at understanding foreigners trying to speak our language, even when they get half the words wrong and use a really thick accent.

we’re really rather good at understanding foreigners trying to speak our language, even when they get half the words wrong and use a really thick accent.

This is actually something I only realized after coming to Japan. It's surprising how much English tolerates mistakes when a small-ish mistake can completely throw off a Japanese speaker from what you're talking about. I wonder how other languages compare.

Mexican American. I speak English, Spanish and some Japanese.

Same here! But I'm Mexican from Mexico.

Last year I've gotten to reading full-length Japanese news articles with little to no help with the Kanjis.

It's funny how many Latinos are naturally drawn to Japanese. I always blame the loads of anime we got throughout the 90s.

That’s so cool man. I’ve been pretty dedicated to studying every day. Hope to visit in a year. But yeh I think word pronunciation makes me think of Spanish.

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India - Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, and English

Depends what you mean.

By country of birth: I'm from PRC

As in "Where are you posting from?": USA

I speak Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and the the basic words of Spanish such as: ¡Hola!, Uno, Dos, Tres, Bruenos Dias, Muy Bien, ¿e tu?, Me habla pizza (Thanks, Spanish class. Still can't get the Spanish alphabet song out of my head lol 😅). And I can read like English (obviously), most basic Chinese characters, I think I know the top 100 of them, I'm more confident in identifying the characters if its in simplified. And techically, I can read the Kanji parts of Japanese (since they are basically Chinese). I hear some Japanese and Koreans words and can make out *some* of the words because they are so close to Cantonese. (I think Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese, decended from a common language). I could only write in English, after 10+ years of never using Chinese, I can't write shit beside like few basic words and my name in Chinese.

(I think Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese, decended from a common language)

Idk about Korean but I do know that Japanese loaned tons of words from Chinese when they imported Kanji but they're otherwise unrelated afaik.

Australian here.

English and basic German

Dutch but I live in England. Speak Dutch an English fluently and French and German reasonably well.

Colombian here. I speak Spanish and English. I can read Portuguese, French, Catalan, Italian and little bits of Romanian and Esperanto. I have minimal understanding of Japanese, Dutch and Hindi.

I'm trying to balance learning Spanish and Esperanto. I'll confess I'm much better at Esperanto. I'm still not anywhere near fluent.

From Germany and know German and English. I can read Dutch and understand snippets but speaking it is beyond me.

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Brazil. Fluent in Portuguese and English, though I understand a tiny little bit of Dutch. I can understand Spanish sometimes because of similarities between it and Portuguese.

Italy: Italian, English(mostly slang), some Spanish, some Esperanto, and some of my local language(Sardinian)

From USA. Fluent in English and Russian (self-taught and lived in St Petersburg and Moscow for a number of years).

Denmark. I understand Swedish, Norwegian and German. I speak Danish, English and Dutch.