I'm just curious how many languages people here speak, what order you learnt them in, how long it took you to learn them, etc.

Personally I am a native English speaker. I tried learning French when i was around 10 from my Grandparents, but never found it interesting, was forced into attempting to learn it again for 3 years at secondary school. I could understand it, but only because i could pick out some words and then guess the rest. I could never make my own sentences with it.

I have spent the past 3-4 months learning Esperanto. Whilst nowhere near as fluent in it as English and still unable to type/write/speak without stopping continuously to look up words and think how to phrase it, i already prefer it to English, and hope in the future to become as good as a 'Native' speaker in it.

Sorry for rambling a bit there..... I tend to do that. So when/how did you learn your languages?

I, too, am a native English speaker, but tried to teach myself Japanese with some horrible software back a few years ago. I memorized some phrases, learned very minimal grammar, and could understand nothing, so I eventually just gave up. A few years later, I searched on Google for "international language" out of curiosity, and found Esperanto, and decided to learn it. I can't remember what my reason was for learning it. From Esperanto, I learned a lot more about languages, and with this new knowledge, I plan to venture back into Japanese once I become fluent in Esperanto. Laŭ mia opinio, you have to learn the grammar of the language and plug in words, and have a thorough, deep understanding of the language. You can't just memorize phrases.

Good luck with learning Esperanto!

I only speak English and Esperanto. I am currently learning German in school, and it is a lot easier having already learned Esperanto. My mind is no longer locked into literal translation, so the grammar is very easy to understand compared to some of my peers.

I hope to someday be able to speak German and Spanish fluently.

I speak German as a first language.

I've been learning English since 2004 and I think that I can express myself quite well (and with relatively few errors) in this language.

I've been learning French since 2006. It is a lot more difficult than English, but I think that I can express my thoughts in this language as well - although I do so with a lot more grammatical errors.

In 2007/2008 I did a beginner's Spanish course, however I didn't learn a lot there. Afterwards, in 2008, I started learning Latin (though we only learn to translate Latin texts, not to produce them ourselves), and some months later I started learning Esperanto, which I believe I speak on a similar (if not better) level as English.

Since 2009, I've been learning Spanish again although I can't speak a lot yet.

I'm sort of like the poorer quality version of darkweasel with slightly different languages.

I speak Australian English, intermediate Esperanto (actually, that should be writing intermediate Esperanto, my speaking hasn't been practiced much), I've finished beginner's Indonesian and French at university (only doing Indo intermediate), and am probably going to take up Japanese this year at beginners level since I've never had formal education in it.

This does not include things I've quite amateurishly and casually studied in my spare time

The problem for me is that I'm acquainted with many languages but don't have enough knowledge in them to say I speak/write them. Esperanto's the only one I've got up to the level where I can use it to 'replace' English if I need to, with my Indonesian skills being equal to that of a young Indonesian child - I'd survive, but 'every day would be an intense learning experience'

@josephschwenker, I reckon phrases are still very good, for instance I can tell you all these aspects of Swedish grammar (if I still remember them) but I can't say anything about how you speak it other than really bad 'tourist level' swedish. But I guess (I don't know if you'll agree) that maybe one needs the skills in order to understand why certain phrases are the way they are so they can appreciate them and learn them better than just cramming with a phrasebook?

(anyone having trouble with quotes? I get this weird &amp amp amp rubbish come up)

As a native Eastern German at school I learnt Russian for 6 years but I was not interested in it so it slowly faded away. Because I was such a bad pupil at school I was not allowed to learn English as second foreign language. At that time it was not really a loss because there were no real use for it in our communist society. But I picked up some Polish when I was hitch hiking in Poland. Later when the wall came down I realized that the/ world /communicated in English and I started on my own with it. Some years later I understood a bit more about communication and I found EO with its appealing idea. Mi estas ja ankoraux komencanto.

I've been doing French and German in school for about five years, although for German GCSE I had it one-to-one with a tutor because there weren't enough other people who chose both languages to organise a class so the school found a tutor.

I started learning Japanese in an after school about four years ago and I really loved it. After AS the class split up and now I learn one-to-one with the teacher.

I started learning Esperanto about two years ago just for fun, I guess.

I'm trying to learn some Icelandic at the moment, too.

A brief note for anyone interested in learning Slovak - E@I, the organization behind lernu.net, is working on a free website to teach Slovak online. The site is called Slovak Online, and it is funded by the European Union, among other organizations. According to E@I's website, it should go live in March 2011. The site has been designed by some of the same people who are behind lernu, and it builds on the experience gained in the creation of lernu. Slovak Online will be available in multiple languages, which will eventually include Esperanto.

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Esperanto was my first second language, and I started learning it when I was about 15. I am now fluent, though my vocabulary is still lacking in some areas, especially with regard to certain household objects and cooking ingredients.

I had four years of Latin in high school; it was mainly translation of Latin texts, as you would expect. I had two years of Yiddish in university; I am not very good, but my Yiddish allows me to make myself understood on a tourist level in Germany (if I take care to avoid words of Slavic and Hebrew origin) and also to understand a small amount of basic German. Incidentally, if you find Slavic languages difficult, I suggest studying some German instead, if you plan to go to Eastern Europe, since it seems to be widely spoken as a second language.

I am conversational in Italian, which is mainly from self-study, but I did take a semester-long course. I can read novels (slowly) but my vocabulary isn't good enough to have an in-depth conversation about anything.

I did a bit of self-study in French and I can read children's literature and communicate on a tourist level, but listening comprehension is a problem, and my French level is far below my Italian level.

I went through a beginner's course book in Hebrew and gained a basic understanding of the grammar and a small core vocabulary, but I could not communicate in Hebrew even on a tourist level, not without learning some more words, at least!

I would love to learn Hebrew to a decent level, and also Russian, but those will have to wait. Due to a planned relocation, I need to study Italian intensively at the moment.

erinja:According to E@I's website, it should go live in March 2011. The site has been designed by some of the same people who are behind lernu, and it builds on the experience gained in the creation of lernu. Slovak Online will be available in multiple languages, which will eventually include Esperanto.

That would be excellent - I think many people have probably though "dang, if only every language had a site that presented it the way Lernu! presented EO". I too have dabbled in the magic of the slavic languages and it'd be interesting to see how this works out!

erinja:A brief note for anyone interested in learning Slovak - E@I, the organization behind lernu.net, is working on a free website to teach Slovak online. The site is called Slovak Online[/lig/quote]I'm looking forward to seeing this site. A while back I spent about a year in Slovakia and I tried learning the language. It's a pity, because I then let it go and I haven't used it for many years.