How did you learn English/your second language?

Well, my native lang is Arabic.. I've learned English by myself, by all means believe me lol. I used to read & write a lot in English when i used to be in high school ( Everything used to be in Arabic in my days @ school . So everything i did was on my free time ) .. After that, I enrolled in a Canadian Curriculum Based College in my country, had a chance to have friends from different nationalities , races etc .. So i guess that helped a notch :-P

Loved reading about everyones experiences ...fascinating. Well here is my story lol. I was born in Kashmir & came to England when i was 3. I didnt go to school until I was 7 (the reasons my mom has given for this lapse is that 1) I was small for my age & they didnt think I was old enough to go to school yet (?!) and 2) the local school didnt have any space for me & then my parents forgot to enquire again - what were my parents thinking!!!)

At that point my first language was a Kashmiri dialect & I could also speak Urdu which is the national language of Pakistan. I remember clearly on my first day at school I could not understand a word anyone was saying in class & I felt so isolated cos i couldnt speak/understand English but kids learn quickly & I soon picked up the lingo. However my mom then took us kids back to Kashmir for a year so I properly started to go to school in England when I was 8. Despite these setbacks I was quite proud (& a little amazed) that I got a Grade A for my English Language & Literature "A" Levels. The main reason for this is my love of reading I read anything & everything as a kid and that really helped.

I learnt French at school & I wish I had paid more attention in class now. I still remember a bit but could not hold a conversation with a French person as I have discovered on my travels...haha... Je suis desole.

Then when I was about 19 I taught myself to read & write Urdu its a beautiful language & in written form is very similar to Arabic. I can also read & write Arabic but I cannot speak or understand it lol. One of my friends at work asked me to write her sons name in Urdu for her as she was going to gte a tattoo. Check out urdu on line. Its very pretty.

For now like alot of you out there I would love to be able to speak Korean fluently so I wouldnt have to rely on the subs so much!

I was born in the Philippines, so my first language was Tagalog. But I moved to the US when I was four, so I had to learn English. Fortunately for me, my kindergarten teacher was Filipino so she was the one who taught me English.

wattomelons wrote: Unni, I'm sorry I'm not better in French. All I remember from my classes are: J'ai soif. J'ai faim. Je voudrais un hamburger! and Je suis Canadienne...even though I'm totally not Canadian, I'd say that anyway just in case.

Like a few others here, I was born in the US and my first language was English. In fact, it's the only language I'm fluent in. I did learn enough French in high school to be conversational, but never used it once I graduated so I lost it rather quickly. Since I live in Florida, I know a little Spanish by default even though I live in Northeast Florida, where it is a little less common than in the southern region of the state.

I'm always impressed by those who speak English as a second language, especially when they're super proficient, like Unni. When I first met her, I didn't know English was her second language. She seriously speaks it better than most Americans. She even knows the colloquialisms...or if she doesn't she doesn't let it show lol.

As of now, the language (besides English) I know the most of would probably be Korean. I know a tidbit of vocabulary and grammar. I can spell out words in hangul most of the time, although some vowels and ㅂ,ㅃ,ㅍ ㄷ,ㄸ, ㅌ and ㄱ, ㄲ, ㅋ still trip me up. I really want to learn this language fluently, but unlike Spanish, French, Japanese or various Chinese languages, Korean is not taught in many Universities here. Boo, I say.

Awww! Thanks dongsaeng! I'm seriously touched by your words.

Don't worry about the French, I still remember the basics: "Où est la salle de bain?", "J'ai soif", "J'ai faim.", "Parlez-vous anglais ou espagnol?" and so on... lol. I'll help with your Spanish if you want. LOL, I'll keep interjecting bits of Spanish into our conversations as I always do.

First language - English
Second language - Spanish

I learned Spanish after being taught it in school for 6 years. I know little a bit of French. And now, I'm trying to learn Korean.

villageries wrote: first language---filipino....spanish.....english (they practically taught us this languages at the same time when we were young)
second language---french.....korean...japanese

WOW are you fluent in all of those?

My first language is English and Yoruba. My second will be German (I moved to a German speaking country). I'm also learning how to speak Korean and Japanese also.

First is French Second is English and Italian I learned english by myself while playing mmo and watching tv serie (might be why it's so bad ^^) , Italian I just moved to the country without knowing the language and went to school there