Who here is multilingual?

Sorry Fwan, I don't remember what thread it was either. I'll think about it...
Id also like to know how hard each laguage was for everyone.

-Brandon

English is my first language. I speak a little French from high school, which I try to practise when we go to France. I also learned a little German - I can remember much of it when I'm reading, but not so good at speaking it. I have University Certificates in Italian and Spanish. My prime language of study was Italian, Spanish I learned to a lesser degree. I wouldn't describe myself as fluent in any, but an eager and enthusiastic learner.

Originally Posted by mrsd

Neat thread. My questions are for those who know many languages.

1. Do you dream in your primary language? Or all of them?I only dreamed in them if I had an assessment in that language coming up - just bits and bobs - I was normally terrified!!!

2. How do you keep the other languages 'fresh', when the people you are around DON'T speak French or conversational Chinese.
I share the Staff Common Room at the Uni with my Spanish and Italian teachers - they don't let me get away with speaking English!!

3. If you have children, do you speak to them in all those different languages?
When I was studying I used to talk to my daughter in Italian and she would speak back in French.

4. Do you feel you have a 'gift' for languages? That is, was it easy for you to pick the languages up? (Or could anyone do this?)
Definitely, I find them easy to pick up - whereas Maths is all greek to me! My husband is a scientist/mathematician and cannot pick up languages.

5. What language do you find the most beautiful on the ears?Italiano.

6. What made you interested in all the languages in the first place?They just fascinate me. i love to be able to communicate in the language of the place that I go to. I also love finding similarities and differences between different languages; and the different patterns that develop like word endings tion, ity etc (sad I know)

7. How did you learn? Tapes? Schooling? Immersion?A combination of formal tutoring and lots and lots of private study, including simply being there and conversing with native speakers.

Thanks to all who respond to my curious questions.

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Wow, some cool questions, Sheryl!

No, I don't dream in anything but English, but if the language comes up in one of my dreams from another person, like a phrase or if I overhear something in the dream or whatnot, then I will understand it.

Keeping the language "fresh" is very hard. I mentioned this to Rigel on this site and we try to speak only Spanish when we converse in writing. I try to speak to everyone I can, and here in Seattle without a large Hispanic population is tough. I speak to the plant lady who does our corporate foliage when she comes around, she's great, and I also speak nothing but Spanish at the Mexican restaurant Eric and I go to. I get Asian food almost every day for lunch in downtown Seattle and speak only Korean to the buffet people. I watch a kid's Chinese language program on some obscure channel late at night if I can't sleep (like that will help??? ) and Seattle actually has a cable channel feed from Hong Kong, so I watch that all the time, for instance.

I don't feel I have a gift, I feel I have an ear for certain patterns. Other people have true gifts in other subjects, I suppose.Which is amazing because Beth said her husband is a scientist/mathmatician and these subject are known to produce great talents in both language and music due to the patterns and equations inherent in their structure. hmmmm!

I have no idea why I am drawn to languages. I don't travel the world and have no real money to tek to these places, but I like it!

I speak English and French

Well.. im jealous of all you people!

I took 3 years of spanish. I cant speak it too well, but i can understand a lot when it is being spoken.
and of course.. English.. which, lol, im not all that great at!!

I took 3 years of Spanish in school, but that's not saying alot. I am presently working with a Hispanic family which speaks little to no English, therefore, I am giving myself a crashcourse so that I may become much more fluent.

Hebrew is my first language. I studied English at school and haven't visited an English speaking country until I was 18. Even then it was only for one week. I did study English Literature at university, but my everyday English isn't that good. I learn a lot from chatting to Mary Anne and other people on MSN everyday though. I can read and write Arabic too, but don't understand spoken dialects all that well.

1. Do you dream in your primary language? Or all of them? Hebrew only.

2. How do you keep the other languages 'fresh', when the people you are around DON'T speak French or conversational Chinese. Chatting online and posting on forums. Generally, working on my sites too.

3. If you have children, do you speak to them in all those different languages? Nah, just Hebrew. We turn to pidgin English when we don't want the kids to understand, but Ron is beginning to catch some phrases

4. Do you feel you have a 'gift' for languages? That is, was it easy for you to pick the languages up? (Or could anyone do this?) To some extent. I can read French, Italian, Spanish and even Scandinavian langauages to some extent. If I see the front page of a newspaper, I will probably be able to make something of it.

5. What language do you find the most beautiful on the ears? To me it's the tone of the speaker really.

6. What made you interested in all the languages in the first place? TV series that I liked as a kid and was in English.

7. How did you learn? Tapes? Schooling? Immersion? Schooling and audio tapes where I recorded that favorite TV series and listened to them again and again and again as a 9 years old.

BTW, there's a beautiful song in Hebrew by this guy who came to Israel from Agentina. The song is about how immersed he is in Hebrew by now. How he speaks Hebrew, orders in restaurants in Hebrew, writes songs in Hebrew and even makes love in Hebrew, but at night time he still dreams in Spanish.

1. Do you dream in your primary language? Or all of them? All of them, depending on the dream. lol

2. How do you keep the other languages 'fresh', when the people you are around DON'T speak French or conversational Chinese. I watch foreign channels in cable.

3. If you have children, do you speak to them in all those different languages? no

4. Do you feel you have a 'gift' for languages? That is, was it easy for you to pick the languages up? (Or could anyone do this?) Anybody could do it if they set their minds to it.

5. What language do you find the most beautiful on the ears? Japanese but it must be spoken by a Japanese lady.

6. What made you interested in all the languages in the first place? My dad was in the diplomatic corps. No choice.

7. How did you learn? Tapes? Schooling? Immersion? Immersion

I took French class and could sorta get it written but not spoken. The teacher would say stuff and expect us to repeat it an most times I just could not make those noises. Eventually I dropped French to my dismay...she was such a pretty French teacher!

I really do like accents of all sorts, they make listening to people more interesting.

English is native tome, but I speak fluent French as I have had a house htere for 30 years and am looking for another to retire to. i did my first degree in MAndarin, and since then then have picked up a little Spanish. Now I speak Bosnian ( a version of the old Serbo-Croat) a lot of the time since I live here, though like all Slav languages the grammar is fiendishly difficult and I can't speak it well.
My favourite language is French - it is melodious to listen to and very precise.

I never thought I would be able to learn spanish, but married a latino and decided to . I am bilingual( read, write and speak). I have taken sign language classes, but I guess I will have to marry a deaf person to learn the language.

Thanks to all who answered the questions. Obviously, I think those of you who speak in many languages ARE very special people. It does say a lot about you!

I liked Anne's answer about the tone of voice being used is what makes the language beautiful. That's true. (I can ugly screech in English...

)

Now, for the next part:

How do you write Hello, I love cats, in your language? Not sure if we can view Chinese or sign language on the forum, but if it's possible, I'd love to see.

ok Sheryl, let me see if I can indulge you with this -- Jenny, Jazzy if your're around-- can you verify (Mandarin)???

Wo yue miao

Let's see, some the less represented languages:

French: Bonjour, J'adore les chats
Turkish: Merhaba, Kedilar seviyorum.
Japanese: Konichiwa, Ateshi wa aibyouka (I am a cat lover)
Croatian: Dobardan, Ya Volim Matchkas (Phoenetically spelled- I was taught in Cyrillic)

1. Do you dream in your primary language? Or all of them?
All of them.. Well.. not turkish anymore so much, but when I was younger I uesed to dream i was with baba-anne

2. How do you keep the other languages 'fresh', when the people you are around DON'T speak French or conversational Chinese.
Honestly, a lot of them have gotten rust, I've realized. As for some though, I do hear them almost all the time, so that's how. Also for a long time I used to read novels in Serbo-croatian, and RP in spanish.

3. If you have children, do you speak to them in all those different languages?
I do not have children, however, I was raised on several languages at once. (I also stopped speaking for almost 6 months when I was very small, though)

4. Do you feel you have a 'gift' for languages? That is, was it easy for you to pick the languages up? (Or could anyone do this?)
I find that I understand a wider range of languages, or can catch up with them in reading, quicker than others, though I beleive that is because I DID learn so many languages. unfortunately, as my hearing is going, I'm finding it harder to learn languages, because I simply cannot HEAR the words properly.

5. What language do you find the most beautiful on the ears?
I love slavic languages.. they're my motherland, I feel.

6. What made you interested in all the languages in the first place?
I HAD to learn them. Otherwise.. lol I wouldn't ever learn to talk

7. How did you learn? Tapes? Schooling? Immersion?
Immersion.

It is Ja volim macke in Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian and the 'c' is pronounced 'ch'

Originally Posted by turtlecat

Let's see, some the less represented languages:

French: Bonjour, J'adore les chats
Turkish: Merhaba, Kedilar seviyorum.
Japanese: Konichiwa, Ateshi wa aibyouka (I am a cat lover)
Croatian: Dobardan, Ya Volim Matchkas (Phoenetically spelled- I was taught in Cyrillic)

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wow, Denise, incredible. Vous et tres magnifique!

Mm.. I always wondered what it looked like not in cyrillic thank you Jen

I'm fluent in french and english is of course my first language. I'm an American married to a frenchman and living in France. I speak french so much that sometimes I even forget some of my english. *sigh*

Karen