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I was just wondering because I think it's extremely cool when someone can speak more than one language fluently.

I myself am fluent in Russian and English, since I was born in Russia (Moscow) and moved to the United States when I was 7 years old. Of course, in terms of grammar, English is much easier for me but I can read in both languages. However, with Russian, I have to sit there with a dictionary so I can look up every word that I don't understand. Which is a lot of words.

Also, what language do you prefer to read in and why?

crazyrussianmaria wrote:I actually speak Russian fluently, since I was born there. But since I came to the United States when I was 7 years old and never attended school there, I didn't get to learn Russian grammar and good writing. So yeah, that's why I write Russian in English letters. It's just easier for me to spell it out by sounding it out. Russian is hard.

I always wanted to learn French. Sadly, my mother made me take Spanish back in school and I hated it so much that after I finished, I didn't retain any of it. Well, maybe a very small amount.

I lived in Russia for two years and have been studying the language for about nine. You are probably more fluent than I am; I would call myself upper intermediate. But I read it a lot and write it quite a bit, as I have a lot of Russian friends (texts, emails, etc.).

I agree 100% - Russian is hard!

Where are you from in Russia?

My sister was fluent in Russian, I never learned it.

During my education (high tech, chemistry, biology, math) I found that German benefited me the most. So I learned reasonable German. The Italian and French came from my opera singing and general love of music, so I've sung in chorales and opera in Latin, Italian, German, and French.

I've found the very best way to retain a general knowledge of any language is to get a daily newspaper from that country, Frankfurter Allgemeiner or whatever. Unfortunately, skill with a foreign language will become shaky and go slowly away if you don't keep up with it.

Right now I can pick my way thru some phrases and a bit of writing in those 3 languages (I can also still read Latin and of course pronounce it but I'm lost with most of the words).

I lived in Russia for two years and have been studying the language for about nine. You are probably more fluent than I am; I would call myself upper intermediate. But I read it a lot and write it quite a bit, as I have a lot of Russian friends (texts, emails, etc.).

I agree 100% - Russian is hard!

Where are you from in Russia?

Oh wow. Where in Russia? I am from Moscow. I bet you are better at the grammar aspect of it though. I mean, I have the grammar level of a five year old probably. There are so many rules, Russian is very hard. Much harder then English I believe. Plus there are like many, many ways to say the same thing. Good for you by the way, I don't really read or write in it. I prefer English all the way. Although, I am going to make my daughter learn it. I just love knowing two languages and it's so much easier to learn when one is young. Where do you live now?

-- 15 Jan 2016, 23:18 --

moderntimes wrote:My sister was fluent in Russian, I never learned it.

During my education (high tech, chemistry, biology, math) I found that German benefited me the most. So I learned reasonable German. The Italian and French came from my opera singing and general love of music, so I've sung in chorales and opera in Latin, Italian, German, and French.

I've found the very best way to retain a general knowledge of any language is to get a daily newspaper from that country, Frankfurter Allgemeiner or whatever. Unfortunately, skill with a foreign language will become shaky and go slowly away if you don't keep up with it.

Right now I can pick my way thru some phrases and a bit of writing in those 3 languages (I can also still read Latin and of course pronounce it but I'm lost with most of the words).

Opera singing? Wow, that's awesome. I myself took many years of vocal lessons and I loved it and was good at it but I stopped for some reason. Mostly what I sang was musical songs though. I love watching it though, have seen many over the years.

Daily newspaper? Where do you find newspapers in other languages? And yes, I agree. You have to either speak it daily, write in it daily....etc. The only reason I still speak Russian fluently is because I speak it with my mother and have a bunch of Russian friends.

crazyrussianmaria wrote:Oh wow. Where in Russia? I am from Moscow. I bet you are better at the grammar aspect of it though. I mean, I have the grammar level of a five year old probably. There are so many rules, Russian is very hard. Much harder then English I believe. Plus there are like many, many ways to say the same thing. Good for you by the way, I don't really read or write in it. I prefer English all the way. Although, I am going to make my daughter learn it. I just love knowing two languages and it's so much easier to learn when one is young. Where do you live now?

I lived in Moscow too! (I live in Florida now.) On the east side, the район was Перово. I lived kind of between the metro stations Перово and Новогиреево. And you?

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on Russian grammar, at least to a point. I don't know, my Russian friends tell me that my Russian is pretty good. But there are lots of subtleties to Russian grammar that I still struggle with - prefixes, some verbs forms, deverbals, participles, etc. As Russians say, it's a very богатый язык!

It's awesome that you want your daughter to learn it. After a person is about ten years old, language learning takes place in a different part of the brain, and it is much more difficult. So the younger, the better!

(By the way, I don't know what happened here. The threads seem to have gotten mixed up.)

Yes, luckily for me i can speak Arabic, English, and Turkish. I feel extremely fortunate that i was able to learn them.

Yes, it seems the threads are a bit mixed up. I just started a whole new thing for it because I thought we could talk more about it on here. Honestly, when I was young I moved around a bit and I haven't lived there in so long I kind of forgot where I lived. The only thing I remember was that, for a time, I lived with my grandma on the metro stop Aeroport. That is all I remember. It doesn't help that I also haven't been there in at least three years, if not more. I really want to go there with my boyfriend and my daughter one day. It would be nice to see my whole family, I miss them.

I keep telling my boyfriend to learn it and I even brought him Rosetta Stone for his birthday last year but he doesn't have any energy I guess and he's always busy or tired. He should know the basics by now, we've been together for three years! My daughter will definitely have to learn it though, she's not going to have a choice. And if she doesn't like it right away, I just know she's going to thank me later.

Turkish? Arabic? Wow, all languages I do want to learn. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen due to there not being enough hours in the day.

While I can't speak Russian, I know about 3.5 langauges.

I grew up speaking English and Chinese (And if we differentiate between Mandarin Chinese and the dialects, then I learnt Mandarin in school, and spoke a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien at home), and now, I'm taking all my classes in Japanese (lectures in Japanese, tests in Japanese, essays in Japanese, etc).

And the .5 language would be Bahasa Indonesia. It's only a .5 because I only have a really basic grasp of it - enough to introduce myself, ask for help and get directions

There are so many languages I want to learn though - I want to master Bahasa Indonesia (and by extension, understand the differences for Bahasa Melayu), Italian (I took one semester of classes, but couldn't take it this term), and to brush up on my Latin and Ancient Greek (I can only read them with the help of a dictionary). Plus, French, Spanish, etc. But those are like, really low priority now.

Eustacia Tan wrote:While I can't speak Russian, I know about 3.5 langauges.

I grew up speaking English and Chinese (And if we differentiate between Mandarin Chinese and the dialects, then I learnt Mandarin in school, and spoke a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien at home), and now, I'm taking all my classes in Japanese (lectures in Japanese, tests in Japanese, essays in Japanese, etc).

And the .5 language would be Bahasa Indonesia. It's only a .5 because I only have a really basic grasp of it - enough to introduce myself, ask for help and get directions

There are so many languages I want to learn though - I want to master Bahasa Indonesia (and by extension, understand the differences for Bahasa Melayu), Italian (I took one semester of classes, but couldn't take it this term), and to brush up on my Latin and Ancient Greek (I can only read them with the help of a dictionary). Plus, French, Spanish, etc. But those are like, really low priority now.

Wow! Good job! That is quite impressive. How old are you? I'm just curious because I have heard that it's easier to learn a language the younger you are, although some people are just naturals at learning languages and catching on quick. I learned English super quickly because I was seven when I moved here and young. On the other hand, I had a good friend who was amazing at languages and is still amazing at them in her 20's. I guess some people just have a talent for it.

crazyrussianmaria wrote:
Wow! Good job! That is quite impressive. How old are you? I'm just curious because I have heard that it's easier to learn a language the younger you are, although some people are just naturals at learning languages and catching on quick. I learned English super quickly because I was seven when I moved here and young. On the other hand, I had a good friend who was amazing at languages and is still amazing at them in her 20's. I guess some people just have a talent for it.

Thanks! I'll be turning 23 this year - I learnt English and Chinese at the same time (while growing up), and I started Japanese when I was about 18/19 (it was the year I turned 19, but before my birthday, if that makes sense). Bahasa...I only started when I was about 20, which may be why it's one of my weakest languages.

I think the age one begins learning, and the extent of immersion/opportunity to use the language are the two biggest factors in how quickly and how fast one masters a language.

Tawfiqalqeisi wrote:Yes, luckily for me i can speak Arabic, English, and Turkish. I feel extremely fortunate that i was able to learn them.

Wow. Really? Me too.

My main language is English, although I know Arabic, Turkish and Afrikaans (which is similar to Dutch).

My native language is Bulgarian and I speak some English and Russian. I can read in Russian without problems and I do it for I can't always find the books I want to read in Bulgarian. Reading a book in English is not so easy to me, but I am trying sometimes because I want to improve my skills.

I'm sort of Tri-Lingual, if one wants to count Sign Language. With that I have known English, my whole life. Sign Language I took in elementary school, but have benefited and expanded on it since. Ten years ago, I meet my husband, who is German. Nonetheless, I took it as the perfect opportunity to educate myself about the German culture and learn the language.

@Jessicapape wow. I am very interested in sign language. In what way would you say that it is different to spoken languages, and would you say that it is very developed. For instance, could you convey a meaning precisely, or are the amount of words less than spoken words?

I speak English, but have studied German quite a bit. I'm not quite fluent, but I could struggle through a surface-level conversation.

Russian has always interested me! Cool to know so many people on here speak/know it.