What Languages do you Know?

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This has been a growing passion of mine the past couple of years. It's become quite an obsessive hobby. Language learning easier to fit in time wise and ultimately more practical than star-gazing. Not to mention the costs of a nice cassegrain telescope. If you see a man walking or sitting in Starbucks with earbuds in his ears stammering to himself in a foreign language then it probably is me. I've gotten a few strange looks while driving too.

English: Native

Spanish: I would consider myself an advanced-intermediate reader, an intermediate writer, speaker and and lower-intermediate listener. Typical high school and college stuff...remembered very little. Ive done some pretty aggressive self-study the pass year or two. Will likely hire a tutor by the end of the year. I want to take and pass the C1 CEFR exam by the end of next year. The reasons are many for learning Spanish...communicating with my neighbors, people at church with poor English skills and employment opportunities. If we home-school, I want to teach Spanish to my child(ren). It has obvious utility in the US but Spanish is a great gateway language to Latin, French or any other Romance language for that matter.

Ancient Greek: Had three semesters in college and will continue again someday with self-study to study Scripture more closely as well as Patristics and the Pagan classics.

Latin: One semester in college. At this time, I don't see going into it that much. Who knows...

French: I just started self-study yesterday!! Mrs F. had four years in high school and has retained a lot. It is going to be "our language." Besides French opens a lot of doors culturally, historically and even career wise. Goal is passing C1 exam in 2016. If my wife and I ever do foreign missionary work it will likely be in French. France, Quebec, Haiti and many African countries are all parched for lack of the Gospel.

German: Have not started. Want to learn for cultural and employment reasons. Goal is passing C1 exam by 2017.

Russian: Have not started yet. My goals for this language are more modest, B1 exam by 2019 but higher in proficiency for reading. I've enjoyed the Russian literature that I've read in translation. I think it is a beautiful language to hear.

Great question Ben. I drive my wife crazy talking about Spanish and other languages.

How inspiring!

As far as learning Spanish and Russian are concerned we have a lady in our church (Heartland) who is from Guatemala who offers Spanish tutoring. If you'd be interested in getting her contact info just let me know and I can pass that on. Also, Brad Hansen (one of our elders) was a Russian major in college and lived in Eastern Europe for some time. I was actually just talking to him the other day and he mentioned how hard it was to find people in Wichita whom he could talk with. So if you do start Russian and are looking for a conversation partner I could always put you in touch with him as well. :)

Thanks everyone for your answers. I'm once again impressed! Keep 'em coming!

Sending you a PM... :)
 
I have great admiration for anyone studying a language to proficiency especially those here that have a good knowledge of Arabic or/and Hebrew....totally difference script from what we are used to with hardly any cognates.

On another note, has anyone here taken a CEFR exam? If so, which one and do you have any recommendation for preparing to take one?
 
Languages I Know
English: Comes naturally
Spanish: Four years, passed out of two classes in college
Greek: Self-studied, still self-studying here and there, some limited fluency
Latin: Self-studied, some knowledge, not proficient
Kayah Li: East Asian language spoken by 350,000 people in the world, could write, pronounce (with a thick American accent), and put together very simple sentences
Hebrew: Self-studied, uphill and shlow-mo

Languages I want to learn
German
French
Dutch
Japanese
Chinese
Gaelic
 
English (proficient; English major & former English teacher)
Spanish (rusty; Spanish minor, but haven't used it for a few years)
Biblical Greek (competent; 3 classes in seminary, audited a 4th)
Some very limited Latin & German (mostly theological terms I've picked up here & there)

Up next: Hebrew. Whether through seminary or self-study remains yet to be seen. I must say, our laymen here on the PB are putting me to shame! Way to go, y'all.
 
:lol: Carn Stephen, spell them as you say them now...."Delit thu Inglush bet." You don't want to have people falsely believing you guys pronounce things properly! :wave:
 
English -- Native speaker

German -- Took six years of German. I speak it fairly well but it gets rusty since I have few occasions to use it. But, I do listen to German music, read German books/publications, and travel to Germany so it never goes away.

Koine Greek -- Just what I've learned in seminary. Fairly basic at this point but want to expand.

Want to learn:
Middle German -- I've just barely begun learning some basic Middle German

Latin -- Currently I only know a few theological phrases/terms

Hebrew -- I plan on taking this in seminary
 
I know English. Well, I also know a little German, and Spanish, and Latin, and Thai; but not enough to count.
My wife, however, is fluent, speaking, reading and writing, in her native languages of Burmese and Nepalese. She also is fluent, speaking, reading and writing, in Turkish, Hindi, and English; and fluent speaking only in Kachin. She is close to fluent, in speaking, Thai and Finnish. She also speaks some Hebrew and Arabic. She also converses easily in Punjabi, and Urdu; but she says that is just a carryover from speaking Hindi and Nepalese.
 
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English, native speaker
Dutch when I was a child, self-defense against parents telling secrets
German in college
Amharic, the Ethiopian trade language, just the numbers and some greetings at present, but I understand a lot with context.
Wolaitta, the local tribal language, level 3+, about. I use it every day.
 
English - native
My college major was Classics (Attic Greek and Latin) - 60 semester hours, still "fluent"
French - 2 years in college - conversational speaking; near fluent reading
German - 3 semesters - can read with occasional help from a lexicon; can communicate haltingly
Hebrew - 2 semesters - not so strong these days :(
Russian - self-taught, only enough to handle the basics of general conversation
Tagalog, Burmese - just enough to greet and ask "how much?"

My wife is fluent in Tamil and Malay (in addition to English), with a smattering of Mandarin

Oh, and my igpay atinlay is really strong :)
 
Native English speaker

Four years of high school German, but my teacher was from Alabama and rarely made us speak it in class, didn't instruct via immersion, etc. Maybe 100 words left.
Two years of high school French, two years of college French---can read slowly, speak basic phrases
One year of high school Latin

Working on Spanish via DuoLinguo

One semester plus self-taught ASL (American Sign Language). Hearing loss is genetic in my family, plus I have childhood damage/loss. We had already planned to sign with Gracie, so it was a huge help when she was a late talker. She and I still sign a good bit (esp in church---Sit! No talking---listen to Daddy!), and I sign during the library story time.
 
I've studied Latin, French and Gaelic, but, to my regret, have not applied myself to my studies.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
 
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