What languages can you speak, read, or write?

I used to be fluent enough in French that I could sit in a Paris cinema and understand (most of) a French film without subtitles. I was hopeless at it in school (didn't even take it for GCSE) but having a French mother-in-law and two holidays a year over there forced my hand.

I've also got GCSE Latin which is about as useful as you'd imagine in the wilds of Tyrone...

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

If you know Latin AND Greek, you can trace a majority of the words anywhere. Hell, even if it's a language only you know, your mind is stronger for learning

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

The 2 weeks I spent in Holland last Summer made me able to understand every word you said! Someone told me Lekker there, with a slightly different meaning... hehehe!

In Germany, they only use "lekker" for great taste, in Holland, they also use it for that, but it kinda means, "really good"

My username hints at a bit of foreign book learning but don't tell anyone.

Yes... English is a mixture of Germanic language with some other cultures mixed in.. in the 5th Century when the Angles and Saxons invaded Britain, they brought the Germanic language... then in 1066 when the Normans invaded as well.. they brought most of their language.. and through out time, the language took on more and more cultures in the UK and as it traveled to the US... it added more through the centuries....

There is a great BBC series on this called "The Adventures of English" narrated by Melvyn Bragg... I really loved watching that...and there is a book he wrote by the same name ..... Im sure the book came out long before the series...

check your messages...

I've got Latin O Level , which tells me I'm older than you
It's pretty handy tho you must admit at having a guess what another Romance language word might mean

You're not that much older - I was the first (maybe second? One of the two anyway) year of GCSEs. I was the only one in my year to do GCSE Latin. Also did Classical Civilisation and A Level Ancient History.

Yeah, joking aside Latin is occasionally pretty useful.

I'm impressed with your A Levels!
There were three kids in our Latin class. Our teacher was the least likely Latin teacher you could imagine. Thinking back he was only a lad and had the strongest Scouse accent of all the teachers but the great thing about him is that he was a fanatical Evertonian so me and him got on great while the other two swotty kids got fed up with the footy talk

English is my native language. I took Spanish for a couple years in high school and retained just enough to find my way around and make basic small talk. I can read and write it a little better than I can speak it, but that isn't saying much, haha. Since my best friend is fluent and always translates, I've never really been pushed to improve. One day...


I can read and write Biblical Greek...VERY slowly. Like, it would take me 5 minutes to read two sentences because I have to think about the letters. I only learned it so that I can study the New Testament in its original language if I need to.

I know enough American Sign Language to get by, but I plan to be fluent by this time next year! For some reason, signing has turned out to be MUCH harder for me than learning a written/spoken language I'm gonna need a really good ASL teacher!

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--Jamie R.

I know some basic american sign language as well. Mydaughter and i used it together. I doubt she remembers much of it.

Sign language is a great choice. I used to be fluent in Makaton from my days teaching special needs but can hardly remember any of it.

I was taught English as a primary language in school, and I also picked up a lot of American slangs as a kid while watching movies. Being Chinese, I also know Mandarin as well as Hokkien (of which the latter my parents use very often in the household, hence I'm more familiar with Hokkien than Mandarin).

Aside from that, I don't really know that many 'fancy' languages like Spanish or French... I know very few words in Japanese from watching anime, but I do try not to use that in my daily conversations... I'm not a weeaboo. <.<

In regards to writing the language, I haven't read Mandarin for such a long time that I'm rusty at it, let alone writing it. I used to be a really good Mandarin reader back in elementary school, but that isn't saying much... As for Hokkien, you can't really write Hokkien as it's a form of dialect, so at most, you can only write the pronunciations of the words like the 'romaji' of Japanese. I'm fine with reading and writing English, of course, though my vocabulary isn't that strong.

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“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so ****ing what." - Stephen Fry, The Guardian, 5 June 2005

English, English, English

I am a native English speaker. I also took 2 years of Latin in 1985-1985, and I grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood as a kid, so I have some survival Spanish skills. I also took Japanese for a while, but have forgotten most of what I learned.

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English and Klingon

Speak, write, read, understand - English and Lithuanian
Write and read - Russian

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"Anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time."

Arabic (1st language), English, Kurdish (I can only speak/understand Kurdish, can't read or write) and a little bit of French because the Lebanese like to mix Arabic with French and English for some reason.

Letuva, right?
I can read some of Russian, since some of their letters were taken from the Greeks.

Normaalnja!