this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
23 points (96.0% liked)

Casual Conversation

2077 readers
199 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.


RULES (updated 01/22/25)

  1. Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling. To be concise, disrespect is defined by escalation.
  2. Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible. You won't be punished for trying.
  3. Avoid controversial topics (politics or societal debates come to mind, though we are not saying not to talk about anything that resembles these). There's a guide in the protocol book offered as a mod model that can be used for that; it's vague until you realize it was made for things like the rule in question. At least four purple answers must apply to a "controversial" message for it to be allowed.
  4. Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate. A rule of thumb is if a recording of a conversation put on another platform would get someone a COPPA violation response, that exact exchange should be avoided when possible.
  5. No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc. The chart redirected to above applies to spam material as well, which is one of the reasons its wording is vague, as it applies to a few things. Again, a "spammy" message must be applicable to four purple answers before it's allowed.
  6. Respect privacy as well as truth: Don’t ask for or share any personal information or slander anyone. A rule of thumb is if something is enough info to go by that it "would be a copyright violation if the info was art" as another group put it, or that it alone can be used to narrow someone down to 150 physical humans (Dunbar's Number) or less, it's considered an excess breach of privacy. Slander is defined by intentional utilitarian misguidance at the expense (positive or negative) of a sentient entity. This often links back to or mixes with rule one, which implies, for example, that even something that is true can still amount to what slander is trying to achieve, and that will be looked down upon.

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I am a native English speaker and recently started learning Esperanto a few weeks ago. I was inspired by a TED Talk that explained how Esperanto is an excellent first choice for those interested in acquiring multiple languages.

Due to its relative simplicity, learning Esperanto effectively prepares your brain for learning additional languages, making the process quicker and smoother.

So how many here speak different languages and what are they?

top 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 points 37 minutes ago

English natively and Spanish as a second language. Those I use every day. I can read and write Latin which I use a few times a week, and know a few words and phrases in Japanese, Lakota, French, German, and Italian.

If I were to learn a fourth language I'd prefer Lakota or Gaelic, but French would be the most useful to me and Italian or Romanian the best combination of use and ease.

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 23 minutes ago

Native German, fluent English. I struggled, however, with French, Italian, Spanish, as I just can't wrap my head around it. Languages are super hard for me.

Programming languages, though? I can write about 20 of those. Easy... 🙄

[–] fxomt@lemm.ee 1 points 40 minutes ago

Arabic and English. I'm learning esperanto, Ukrainian and Latin all at the same time (Latin is most important and Esperanto is least)

I'm also learning a very little amount of Hebrew since it's similar to Arabic in a lot of ways. Like Scottish and English.

[–] pancake@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 47 minutes ago

English, Spanish, Basque, French, some Russian, currently learning German.

[–] Limitless_screaming@kbin.earth 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Arabic, English, some German, and can read / write Syriac Aramaic (Mostly use it to write Garshuni).

[–] fxomt@lemm.ee 1 points 37 minutes ago

I can very vaguely understand the Syriac script. How similar is it to Arabic? I assume Aramaic and Hebrew are pairs and so are Arabic and Syriac.

[–] EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

日文,Chinese,英語 この三個言語を話すのは有用,but 有時我的brainがバラバラに使いがち。

[–] Jomn@jlai.lu 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

French and English natively. I did learn Russian at school for 7 years (but I forgot most of it now), and I am currently learning Japanese.

[–] SneakyWeasel@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

May i ask how you are learning japanese? School, self-taught or online videos?

[–] inlandempire@jlai.lu 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

French is my native tongue, I can converse in Creole and have a convincing accent because of my family;

I learned English, Spanish, Italian at school (in that order), few words of German later on my own, learned some Swedish vocabulary on Duolingo, Icelandic basics for when I visited, I can only read and pronounce Cyrillic without understanding it.

I'm interested in Korean lately, but haven't even started

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

French native, Esperanto and English conversational. Good notions of Italian. Notions of German (the language I'm trying to learn), Luxembourgish and Norwegian. I learnt but forgot Latin, Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew (I still can read them if I have a lot of time and a good dictionary).

[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 hours ago

I'm English (distinction from British as there isnt any programme for or impetus to learn celtic languages like the other countries) and for a long time the only other language I spoke was French to a very, very poor and sub-conversational level (from school).

Since 2016 or so (on and off) I've been learning Dutch. When you tell people that, the first question you get (from both english native speakers and the Dutch) is 'why'?

So whilst I work and live in the UK, my company has a bunch of EU offices and I have worked closely with our large Belgian office for almost 10 years now and as of last year I now work for that EU branch of the company and my current project is with a Dutch client which has spurred me on a lot recently to learn again.

I also have two Dutch friends (from other ends of the country) who help and encourage me.

So I'm currently at a basic/low conversational level, I can deal with every day basic interactions.

Sure, Spanish, French or even German makes a lot more sense to most people but I have so many strong links with the Netherlands that Dutch is the only one that makes sense to learn for me and is the one I use the most by miles.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 9 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Man, TED talks suck.

That guy scammed you into learning a conlang with the excuse that it does something that all languages do and nobody is even telling you.

Just learn a romance language if you want access to a family of concepts that will carry over easily, friend. It comes with the bonus of being able to talk to people.

Anyway, I'm often light on personal info here, but I'm in a bilingual territory, learned English as a kid, the basics of a couple others through life stuff and I get a few more through osmosis because all languages do that Esperanto trick.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

All languages do that, yes, but as Esperanto is easier than the others, it makes it a very good first language.

I learnt English at school for almost 10 years without being able to have a discussion. I learnt Esperanto in a few months, actually used it to communicate with foreigners, and a few months after I was able to communicate in English. My English is still far from perfect, but without Esperanto I wouldn't even be here.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That seems more like a teaching methodology problem than a target language problem. Honestly, I don't know where you are, but the way English is taught in schools in many regions is terrible, so that doesn't tell you too much about the relative merits of learning Esperanto.

But hey, if you got it out of your system that's good for you. I don't begrudge anybody learning a language, even if it's a made up one. I just wouldn't want to support the idea that monolinguals should go out of their way to tackle conlangs, or Esperanto specifically. Go learn something you're curious and motivated about.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 1 points 50 minutes ago

Yes, you're right that it's a methodology problem (I'm in France), and even more right when you say that motivation is the key. It's easier to learn a harder language if you're motivated than an easier one but without motivation.

However, because of its regularity, Esperanto is objectively easier than all natural languages. And it's a thing to take into account.

[–] python@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Russian at a Native level, because my parents speak it (so I can barely read)

German at a Native level, because I've been living in Germany the past 20 years.

English at a C2 level, just from school and because all my online activity and all my entertainment is in english.

And some French and Latin back from school, but learning those was horrible and I'd like to forget as much as I can.

I absolutely hate learning languages and hope that I will never have to do it again. But the reality of living in Europe is just that you never know whether you'll wake up one day and decide to move to the Netherlands or Denmark because there are great jobs there 🤷

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 6 hours ago

Native Arabic, fluent English, less fluent Japanese, bad Chinese.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

I wish I could speak multiple languages. I’m envious of people who have this skill. I’ve tried repeatedly to learn other languages and I still struggle. The education system in the US has failed so many of us on this front

[–] viking@infosec.pub 8 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Native German, fluent English, conversational Norwegian (and by extension passable Swedish; and I read 100% Danish but suck at speaking/listening comprehension), passable Dutch, Luxembourgish and French, and basic Chinese (mandarin).

Edit: And I passed Latin in high school (grades 5 through 10), so I do manage to read inscriptions in old buildings and churches, and pick up written Italian and Spanish because of it.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Whoa! I'm having a tough enough time just learning Esperanto, which is supposed to be easy. But bruh, you are a whole other level. Awesome!

[–] phanto@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Vi devus rigardi Incubus, kun William Shatner! Gxi estas tre stranga.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 1 points 6 hours ago

Ha, I was going to ask if OP had seen Incubus, but I guess you beat me to it.

[–] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Cantonese, Mandarin and English. This is the basic languages for Hongkongers (which I am) and I refer to this as 2.5-lingual, because Cantonese and Mandarin are both Chinese.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 hours ago

Dialect is their own language. Don't sell yourself short, because i can't understand a word of hakka despite knowing mandarin and a little bit of cantonese and hokkien.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago

Ojibway ... or a dialect of Ojibway in northern Ontario. It's my first language I spoke for about the first four years of my life and dominate language I spoke until I was about 13, then I started actually speaking English all the time starting at about 18. It took me years to get used to full on English conversation but now I'm comfortable in it. I still remember my Indigenous language but I seldom use it because I have no one to talk to any more. I don't live close to my family or friends who speak it and even in my home community and group, the language is dying out. I think I'm pretty much the last generation who fully spoke the language because everyone after me speaks prominently English and Ojibway second (if they speak it at all).

So I can safely say that Ojibway is my first language and English is my second.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

I speak a few.

English - Should start out with English since it's the lingua franca even though it was my second language in two ways. The "native" language of my specific community was a pidgin, so I had access to half of the English language. I would learn this half and the other half later, and yet still be dragged down by my sloppy order of learning, my neurodivergence, and my "hermeneutic" thought process while engaging in dialogue.

Morse Code - My adoptive parents were huge with their communication business at the time. I have absolutely no memory of this, and it's possible they may be exaggerating, but they told me they tried teaching me Morse Code before they taught me anything else to see if I would "pick it up", and they said they stopped when it "worked too well". It is true I have known how Morse Code works for as long as I remember (even though this isn't saying a lot, the parts of my childhood I remember go back only as far as five years old).

Toki Pona - It is said to be the world's easiest means of speaking to learn. I picked it up before my teen years, the Toki Pona half one year and the Toki Ma or Kokanu half years later.

Dothraki - I picked this because I really used to like Game of Thrones. Perhaps the only one I picked up neatly in one piece.

Other languages - Not fluently, but I also know bits and pieces of Tahitian, Maori, and Portuguese. Portuguese was my class of choice in middle school, but after I completed that class, the language mostly just vanished from me. Being the "kiwiphile" (Kiwi culture admirer) I come across as, I also would sneak Maori equivalences to sayings into projects and endeavors, such as an artist ID tagline saying "kia tau te aroha noa ki a koutou" ("grace be upon you").

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm proficient at Portuguese, Italian, and written English. I can also understand some Latin and German. Plus a few Romance languages through mutual intelligibility.

Due to its relative simplicity, learning Esperanto effectively prepares your brain for learning additional languages, making the process quicker and smoother.

Ah, the propaedeutic effect? I think that Esperanto shows the "guts" of the grammar faster than other languages do, and that helps learning languages with similar features.

Ah, the propaedeutic effect? I think that Esperanto shows the “guts” of the grammar faster than other languages do, and that helps learning languages with similar features.

Yep, that's what they say.

[–] plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 5 hours ago

Czech (native speaker) and English, but as I am now in Spain I wish I learned some Spanish, nobody here speaks any English. Yesterday some guy told me that only phrase that he knows is "Beer, very cold." So that's that.

[–] kionite231@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 hours ago

Hindi Urdu Gujrati Arabic (only reading) Russian (only reading)

[–] Truffle@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

Native spanish, fluent english, conversational german, few phrases in arabic. Can read latín and ancient greek at school level. Went to bilingual schools all the way through grade school, lived in different places around the world for short periods of time.

Native English, forgotten my German, and refreshing my Japanese.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Chinese and Japanese. Learned some others but forgot sadly.

[–] admin@lemmy-mormonsatan-u23030.vm.elestio.app 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Oy, those are tough ones for us English speakers.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 2 points 8 hours ago

In my personal experience Chinese is only hard in the beginning. It’s an analytic language which in my opinion requires zero thought (sarcastic) compared to Japanese which is very synthetic. Japanese on the other hand is hard as hell for me. I pretty much approach is from a Chinese standpoint and it’s a challenge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_language?wprov=sfti1#List_of_analytic_languages

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You win the interwebs today. ❤️

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 2 points 7 hours ago

English. Some french, but not quite at a conversational level.

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago

Only very basic Korean, in addition to my native English. I have studied four languages (Mandarin Chinese, Italian, German and Spanish) but I've forgotten pretty much all of it because I haven't been able to use it in the real world like I can with Korean. I don't think I'll ever bother with learning another language. Getting my Korean up to a proper conversational level would be a big achievement so I'll aim for that instead.

[–] ExtremeDullard 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

“Merci beaucul”

[–] shikitohno@lemm.ee 1 points 6 hours ago

Native English, then Spanish, Portuguese and French, in order of proficiency. I speak Spanish all day at work, have a fair amount of Brazilian media and a sizable Brazilian population here that I interact with on occasion. Ironically, though I've been studying French the longest, I didn't have any real use for it aside from reading after high school. Now, there's a couple of French podcasts I'll listen to, but I still find French television to be pretty boring, so I mostly get to use it at a French book club, on the rare occasions I can attend. Currently, about halfway through a degree to try and address how lopsided my skills in French have gotten, while also having an easy option to tick the box for jobs that want a degree, but don't care what it's in.

I still have a long list of languages I'd like to learn, but they tend to share the unfortunate characteristics of simultaneously being difficult to learn, while also having very limited practical application for me. One of these days, I'll actually stick with learning something more useful again, like German, rather than going through Japanese, Icelandic, Finnish or Irish for another round to see if I can stick it out.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago

Swedish and English

I don't know if it has changed, but when I attended school in the mid 90s here in Sweden, English was normally taught from year 4 in school (the year of your tenth birthday), and you keep taking English up through year 13 (including gymnasiet)

[–] Stamets@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Fluent in English. I can understand/read most Quebecois French from classes when I was a kid but zero ability to speak it. I know more Russian or Greek than French. Otherwise it's just languages that aren't super useful like Klingon or Latin.