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The languages you comprehend


Turbo19

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Knowing the the New York metro area is one of the most diverse areas in the country, and encompass people of many ethnicites and cultures, I was interested in hearing the languages you speak, read, and write. If you choose, you can label your proficency level of each category on a 1 to 10 scale.

 

My info.

English: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 10, 10, 10.

 

Spanish: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 9, 10, 8.

 

French: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 9. 10. 9.

 

Portuguese: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level. 7, 7, 6.

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English: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 10, 10, 10.

 

Spanish: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 7, 7, 5

 

Italian: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 7, 7, 6

 

The sad thing is that Spanish was my first language, but I just haven't really had a chance to practice it. My mom sometimes speaks to me in Spanish, but I got into the habit of responding in English. I have relatives down in Peru that I speak on the phone with every week, so I guess that helps, but the problem is that it's once a week and not particularly advanced Spanish. I guess I could pass a high school-level course in Spanish, though. (That's why I have it down basically the same as Italian, because I took that in high school)

 

I know two words in Russian: Da & niet. Does that count for anything? :P I actually used to know a little bit of Hebrew, but I'd need to refresh my memory on it.

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English: 10, 10, 10.

French: something like a 5, 7, 5...oughta be higher

Italian: sadly about a 3, 2, 1...used to know more, before I gave up that cause...

 

Where do I put Patwa lol? Blame that on having too many loud Jamaican friends...

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English: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 10, 10, 10.

 

Spanish: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 7, 7, 5

 

Italian: speak, read, & write.

Proficency level: 7, 7, 6

 

The sad thing is that Spanish was my first language, but I just haven't really had a chance to practice it. My mom sometimes speaks to me in Spanish, but I got into the habit of responding in English. I have relatives down in Peru that I speak on the phone with every week, so I guess that helps, but the problem is that it's once a week and not particularly advanced Spanish. I guess I could pass a high school-level course in Spanish, though. (That's why I have it down basically the same as Italian, because I took that in high school)

 

I know two words in Russian: Da & niet. Does that count for anything? :P I actually used to know a little bit of Hebrew, but I'd need to refresh my memory on it.

 

Many of my friends and classmates do that as well. It's more common than one would think.

 

English: 10, 10, 10.

French: something like a 5, 7, 5...oughta be higher

Italian: sadly about a 3, 2, 1...used to know more, before I gave up that cause...

 

Where do I put Patwa lol? Blame that on having too many loud Jamaican friends...

 

Always start with profanity. It grows on you.

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Spanish

 

Read 10

Write 7

Speak 9

 

English

 

Read 9

Write 10

Speak 10

 

French

 

Read 2

Write 1

Speak 2

 

just learning French..

 

Cool. What I found useful in my situation was reading the French part of multi-lingual text, then reading the English/Spanish translation. It truly helped me have a better understanding of the languages. I will say though, once my writing skills in French were alright, I started confusing French grammar with English grammar for a while. After a while though, you'll get used to it.

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Pardon me OP on this post but I will refrain from using numbers to explain my language proficiency.

 

  • English: Proficiency is good I guess, I can recite the alphabet backwards, but I can always use improvement. :lol:

 

 

  • Chinese (Mandarin): Not so great.. I can speak it a little bit, but struggle with the reading and writing.

 

 

  • Hindi : Ditto

 

 

  • Chinese (Cantonese): Ditto

 

 

Even as my father is Chinese, mom Indian we never used Chinese or Bengali in the household. Now trying to learn the language that I nearly lost. I feel very ashamed at myself for not grasping the language sooner. But it's never too late. :(

 

I'm comtemplating learning Korean as I gain proficiency in Chinese in the years to come as circumstances permits. B-)

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English - I speak well, I read well and I write well. Slang or no slang.

 

Spanish - I can speak some..profanity wise and some gestures. I can barely read and write most of it.

 

Cantonese - I can speak fairly well but not great. I can't read it and I can only write my name and some other characters.

 

Mandarin - Same as Cantonese

 

Creole - I used to know common gestures and such during my High School years. Can't read or write them though.

 

Russian - Learning how to speak it, fairly okay. I can't read much of it though, I can write some.

 

And I know some phrases in other languages from Jamaican, Vietnamese and Taiwanese.

 

Welcome to New York eh?

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LOL... Let's see... Fluent in Italian, Spanish and English.

I speak some French, a bit of German and understand Brazilian Portuguese very well since some areas of Brazil have a heavy Italian influence. Also remember a bit of ASL (American Sign Language).

 

Other than that I've seen all sorts of languages since I work in the field.... White Hmong, Blue Hmong, Farsi, Burmese, Croatian, Vietnamese and some African languages amongst many others. Sometimes we even get requests for tribal languages so nothing EVER surprises me. I have a great contact in Hawaii who literally travels the world for linguists from the remote countries and some languages are a real pain to deal with in Microsoft Word. I rarely have a routine day that's for sure. lol

 

In college in the states, people always would think I was some oddity for knowing so many languages, but in Europe, it is quite common to speak 3 - 5 languages.

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Pardon me OP on this post but I will refrain from using numbers to explain my language proficiency.

 

  • English: Proficiency is good I guess, I can recite the alphabet backwards, but I can always use improvement. :lol:

 

  • Chinese (Mandarin): Not so great.. I can speak it a little bit, but struggle with the reading and writing.

 

  • Hindi : Ditto

 

  • Chinese (Cantonese): Ditto

 

Even as my father is Chinese, mom Indian we never used Chinese or Bengali in the household. Now trying to learn the language that I nearly lost. I feel very ashamed at myself for not grasping the language sooner. But it's never too late. :(

 

I'm comtemplating learning Korean as I gain proficiency in Chinese in the years to come as circumstances permits. B-)

 

 

Interesting... I just assumed you were maybe black or something since you're in the Bronx... I know Parkchester for example has a decent sized Asian population. Are there many Asians there where you're at?

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Interesting... I just assumed you were maybe black or something since you're in the Bronx... I know Parkchester for example has a decent sized Asian population. Are there many Asians there where you're at?

 

 

There are Asian American residents here up in the boogie down, not many, but as we well know there is no centralized Asian American community here unlike Brooklyn, Manhattan or Queens. Could change however in the years to come however.

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There are Asian American residents here up in the boogie down, not many, but as we well know there is no centralized Asian American community here unlike Brooklyn, Manhattan or Queens. Could change however in the years to come however.

 

Yeah, Parkchester has a sizable Asian population and Riverdale seems to have a small Japanese population, along with a few Koreans. The Japanese seem to be in the heart of Riverdale around 239th & above. It's usually younger Japanese folks that I've seen though on the express bus in the past.
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English : speak, read, write

Rate : 9 (I have a stutter/speech deficit), 9, 9

 

Spanish : read, speak, write

Rate : 10, 8, 9

 

Italian : read, speak

Rate : 8, 4

 

French : read, speak

Rate : 5, 5

 

Spanish is my first language but due to my lack of speaking it regularly, my speaking proficiency has dropped significantly.

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