What languages do you speak?

[manzanadulce]

Add: when in conversation in real life while learning, most native speakers are fairly patient and will let you finish and try to understand in slower paced countries in South America. If you try to do that in Spain or Miami, it won't happen. If they speak English also, they will switch immediately as they are always in a hurry.

i don't know where in spain you found anyone fluent in english but in my vast experience living in and traveling around much of the country that is NOT the case. i lived in Valencia and Sevilla and it was the BEST thing for my spanish because i could not rely on english to help me at all.

in miami, of course, the level of english is much higher as it is still part of the united states, but i went with my Cuban boyfriend in 2016 for 5 days to dance and we didn't speak english to anyone the entire trip. that being said, i'm sure if we tried, they would have been able to speak it to us, but in many parts of miami, spanish is preferred.

 

[manzanadulce]

If/when I master Spanish I'd love to learn French, Portuguese or Italian.

Speaking from someone who speaks Spanish, plus a little French and Italian and has been to Portugal recently, I'd say Italian is the easiest to learn after knowing Spanish. I worked for an Italian company for a little over a year and during that time, just by communicating via email with Italians in Italian and reading company materials in Italian and taking a few Italian lessons, I became conversational to the point where when I went to Italy for my 30th birthday and was in a very non-touristy part where English isn't widely spoken, I could manage perfectly.

Portuguese, on the other hand, is very easy to read as a Spanish speaker but when spoken it sounds so different that it's very difficult to understand. However, many Portuguese understand Spanish very well and most speak a little bit, too, so knowing Spanish helps you a lot.

 

[David]

Did anyone learn a second language as an adult? I am trying to learn Spanish and using tapes and Rosetta Stone.

Yes, I am in my forties, and have learned to read, write and speak Chinese. The app HelloTalk can be great for finding a study partner.

 

[Aurel]

Slovak (native), fluent English & German (albeit my German is a bit rusty since I didn't use it much in the past 10 years), learning Spanish

+ speaking Slovak comes with the perk of being close to other slavic languages, so my passive Czech is almost at the native level (but speaking and writing is worse since Czechs usually understand Slovak so I don't need to use it), and can somehow understand the topic of conversation in Polish, Slovenian, Croatian, etc.

 

[DJ Yuca]

using tapes and Rosetta Stone.

I know a cheap but very good online Spanish teacher. She's Bolivian and if you can do an hour or so every week with her then you'll make really good progress. If you're interested I can PM you her details.

 

[SoFloW]

Russian native
Hebrew native
English native
Spanish learned

Once you know a few languages new romance languages are easier to learn.

 

[Observer(JB)]

While English is my first language, I also speak Spanish and Portuguese.

 

[Latinjazz]

Spanish (first language)
German (first language, too)
French
English
Italian
Swiss German (If you can count that as a language, but it is quite different from German)
Portuguese - (slow or written...)

And I took 2 years of Russian private lessons and one year of Japanese private lessons, but I forgot nearly everything! Soon I need to take lessons again. Languages are a big big hobby of mine...

 

[A5200]

Spanish (native) . English and some French

 

[David]

Russian native
Hebrew native
English native
Spanish learned

Once you know a few languages new romance languages are easier to learn.

Spanish (native) . English and some French

While English is my first language, I also speak Spanish and Portuguese.

It would be cool if we could have some threads here that are not in English.
Ex. "Spanish Only, but all welcome". Then we can practice talking about salsa and dancing in Spanish or other languages. Do you think you guys could help me by getting some of these threads going a little bit? I would really enjoy it myself and I would be sure to study the translations and try to give good responses back to you. I also consider languages a central part of my life. I could definitely get some Chinese people to come over here and do a Chinese thread.

 

[Latinjazz]

It would be cool if we could have some threads here that are not in English.
Ex. "Spanish Only, but all welcome". Then we can practice talking about salsa and dancing in Spanish or other languages. Do you think you guys could help me by getting some of these threads going a little bit? I would really enjoy it myself and I would be sure to study the translations and try to give good responses back to you. I also consider languages a central part of my life. I could definitely get some Chinese people to come over here and do a Chinese thread.

What a great idea! I’m in!

 

[A5200]

I´ll do my best to contribute !!

 

[azana]

Well, we basically need people to get some threads started...Latinjazz, Manzanadulce, A5200? My (learned) Spanish and street Osaka-ben (Japanese) are nowhere near good enough, I'm afraid

 

[Latinjazz]

I'm already thinking about a thread subject, but at the moment nothing comes to my mind...
I'll open one when I'm a little less busy.

By the way, I share your love for Japan, and for the Japanese language!
It's a pity I have to pass when Kanji appear - a thread in Japanese would be the non plus ultra!
Next life...

 

[manzanadulce]

Well, we basically need people to get some threads started...Latinjazz, Manzanadulce, A5200? My (learned) Spanish and street Osaka-ben (Japanese) are nowhere near good enough, I'm afraid

Thanks for the shout out @azana, I am happy to participate in a "Spanish only" thread but prefer if one of the native speakers starts it!

 

[Sabrosura]

It would be cool if we could have some threads here that are not in English.
Ex. "Spanish Only, but all welcome".

Well, we basically need people to get some threads started...Latinjazz, Manzanadulce, A5200? My (learned) Spanish and street Osaka-ben (Japanese) are nowhere near good enough, I'm afraid

Thanks for the shout out @azana, I am happy to participate in a "Spanish only" thread but prefer if one of the native speakers starts it!

I'm already thinking about a thread subject, but at the moment nothing comes to my mind...
I'll open one when I'm a little less busy.

We already have a Spanish thread -- currently at the top of the Salseros Anonymous section https://www.salsaforums.com/threads/español.19952/

 

[Latinjazz]

We already have a Spanish thread -- currently at the top of the Salseros Anonymous section https://www.salsaforums.com/threads/español.19952/

Yes, we are aware of it.
I think azana’s idea was a thread in Spanish with a certain topic - that’s at least what I understood and just tried to post..

 

[Francisco Fiko]

I fluently speak Spanish, English and French (both the Canadian version and the European one) and have learned some Italian, Greek and German. I would be happy to participate in multilingual threads.

 

[bailar y tocar]

It would be cool if we could have some threads here that are not in English.
Ex. "Spanish Only, but all welcome". Then we can practice talking about salsa and dancing in Spanish or other languages. Do you think you guys could help me by getting some of these threads going a little bit? I would really enjoy it myself and I would be sure to study the translations and try to give good responses back to you. I also consider languages a central part of my life. I could definitely get some Chinese people to come over here and do a Chinese thread.

This would be fun. I wonder if contributors would go off on tangents as much as they do in the current threads in English.

Also curious to see how people would respond to the statements with the logic "XYZ is AB & CD but not EF". In the English language threads responders tend to assume that these statements are absolute, i.e. >XYZ is 100% AB and 100% CD but 0% EF< and spend endless time refuting the statistic by identifying the one example that proves the logic wrong. That approach to communication is very unusual in Spanish. German has so many qualifying terms that it would be weird for a native speaker to assume anything is 100% or 0%.

 

[David]

This would be fun. I wonder if contributors would go off on tangents as much as they do in the current threads in English.

Also curious to see how people would respond to the statements with the logic "XYZ is AB & CD but not EF". In the English language threads responders tend to assume that these statements are absolute, i.e. >XYZ is 100% AB and 100% CD but 0% EF< and spend endless time refuting the statistic by identifying the one example that proves the logic wrong. That approach to communication is very unusual in Spanish. German has so many qualifying terms that it would be weird for a native speaker to assume anything is 100% or 0%.

My second language is Chinese. It is very logic based, because every word (character) has a long history, and a more explicit meaning. I guess I can only be responsible for my own use of logic.
我第二语言是中文。每个字有悠久的历史，还有有更明确的意思。我只负责我自己的逻辑。