MyLot Friends Who Speak English As A Second Language - Name Your Language Please

I am from India, "Malayalam" is our mother tongue if u read it reverse also it is the same.I appreciate you heartful adoration for those who mother tonque is not English.In India we have several states but different lanugages.

Thank you for this recognition... i live in the Philippines an i am proud to say that my country is considered as the largest english speaking country in Asia...we learn English as early as in the kindergarten... and it is used everywhere... so most Filipinos know how to speak this language but in different levels of course.. When i was still working abroad... most Americans are quite amazed because they say that i speak English very good and that i should lose the my accent an try to use the American accent instead... well i told them outright that i love my filipino accent and that this sets me apart from other nationalities...

Hey Stranger, how have you been? I do wish I knew several other languages, but I don't. I do belong to the Miami Indian Tribe of Indiana. The Tribe has classes to bring back our language. I have a book with the translation of the language. I wish I lived closer to our tribal office so I could attend the classes. I do admire some of our fellow mylotters who are learning English as a second language. Shame on anyone who makes fun of any of them. I think they do a bang up job, they do alot better then some of us who speak English as our first language. If you get a chance, check out my picture of me and my new "boyfriend". I started a discussion about us, complete with picture too. Its a real picure of me too. Take care, its nice seeing my favorite ole hag. I have missed you.

lol..thanks, Kitchenwitch. But even though we speak another language at home, most schools in India use English as the first language (the British English...Queen's English). So, most of us usually have a hard time learning our own language than we do English. In fact, I grew up in the Middle East and only spoke Malayalam (my native language) at home. So, my dad taught me how to read and write Malayalam script at home so that we could write letters to our relatives in India. But most of my friends there didn't even speak Malayalam well enough and still do not know how to read or write it. They communicate only in English and find it a problem when they come to Kerala (the state in India that has Malayalam as the official language). By the age of 7, children are able to grasp around 7 languages and that is the best time to introduce them to many languages. But since English is the universal language and parents do not want their kids to be left back in the rat race, they insist on the kids speaking English and not their native tongue (which wasn't the case at my home...we weren't allowed to speak English at home with our parents...though we did all our thinking in English and spoke to each other in English)

I also admire those who take the time and effort to master a new language! It's really hard to explain my situation. I can say that I am most fluent in English (read a lot of English novels and pocketbooks) but my heritage is really Chinese and maybe mix that up with 1/8 Spanish. I do study though the main language in China, Mandarin, in my school and speak occasionally my grandparents' tongue, Fukien (another dialect in Fujian, China). I live though in the Philippines so I am fluent in Filipino too because naturally, you have to speak the language of the country you're born in right? Haha! It's really funny to explain what language I'm most fluent in because I am not English nor American. My 2nd most fluent is Filipino and then Chinese (Chinese, is really a darn hard language but I love our culture) so I'm some sort of confused linguist here. I don't know if I'm a master of my languages, but I do hope I can. I really do. And then it's off to another language! (I'm considering Japanese since I'm such an anime freak)

Well that's awkward, i am dutch myself but on school we have to learn dutch, English, German and French when your at high school some schools even have Spanish and Latin in the package included! So thats why i get most of the customers from America asking me what languages i know! :-P

My husband is Dutch and speaks English too. It amazes me when he can speak other languages too. He can also speak German and French. There are other languages that he can speak, but not fluently, but enough to carry on a conversation. We have often discussed that it is a shame that our children do not have to learn another language as a requirement of their education. I do recall the guidance counselors telling their students that they should take a second language if they are going to college as most colleges require at least 2 years of a second language. My husband has tried to teach me to speak Dutch without much success. I know a few words, most of them aren't good! I commend anyone that can learn a new language.

well I type in a yorkshire accent with a dialect too. Lol in many maqny ways this makes English my second language. Of course all Americans struggle with our language so i guess you all should be congratulated blessed be

i must say that in pakistan also when a person speaks bad english than people always make fun of that person but i feel that he has some guts to at least try to speak foreign language.

very good Donna,i to would like to say that even though they may not have the english down to a fine line, they have got lots of courage to come on a baically all english web-site and have tried very hard to fit in with us..I would also say that i am very proud of you guys too..I don't know if i could be so brave as to do thos..I have also noticed that you have gotten better at speaking english as well, i have noticed that too..So you continue doing what you are doing until you get it down,just learn from us...CONGRTULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU....

Hey stranger from the Us,I can understand what you are felling when you post this discussion.I can say just thank you for your appreciation.I can speak Zarma and Haoussa that are the popular languages of my coountry (Niger) in West Africa ( hey :) Niger is different to Nigeria because most of the time it's a confusion and my country is a french speaking language,yes we speak french where I'm from).Just that I've been in love with English since my secondary that I meet it and the way it's easy to learn with English.For example if you search on the web about a technology the the English pages results are always higher than the french result,and one need to be up to date. Anyway know and tell people in your area that we are plenty that try our best to know read and speak English,it's like a challenge here.

Well, I'm from Croatia so Croatian is my mother tongue, but I've studied English for more than 8 years and I think I'm getting quite good at it. Also, I understand German (but I can't speak or write in German :P) and I know Latin. It's quite handy to know a foreign language and I think it should be a must in schools all over the world. English, German, French, Spanish and Italian are one of the most commonly spoken languages, so why not learn them. You never know if you're going to get lost in a foreign country :)

Wow! What a nice post to read. It says your discussions is 3 months old and I am happy to bring it back to life again :) I have never thought that way before. I have been studying English since I was a child. Well, it was a personel hobby for me at first but then it became an obiligation at school and then in high school. the first year of the high school was prep class and we studied english for 1 year. There were many friends with me but only 3 of them managed to learn english at a reasonable level. I had some bacground with it so the prep year was a "walk in the park" for me and it was the year that I enjoyed most :) It is really important not to see any language as a subject or lesson. you should see it as another way to live. Personaly, I really feel like a different person when I am talking english, and I feel like another person when I am talking in Turkish (my native language) and they are both me! I feel enhanced by that. In addition, my new ambition is to learn spanish. Spanish is looking like a very logical language to learn because it is close to other frank languages like french,portoquese,italian. A few years ago I had started studying it but then I couldn't manage to find more time to study Spanish. but one day I will. It has always been a pleasure for me to speak with other people with the new language I learnt. When I was going to prep class, I used to join foreign IRC channels to improve my english. I made some friends from there and I am still talking to them. It has been more than 7 years after all! Again, Donna. I am really pleased to see your thoughts about that... I feel kinda flattered :) but learning a second language is not a great thing really. I decided that when I heard that sentence from a slovenian friend: "I speak 7 languages but I can use only 5 of them fluently" hehehe :D I doN't think I will ever be able to learn 7 languages!

Thanks, I'm from Latin America and my native language is Spanish. I'm new here and I just don't know what to say but I'm very glad that I can share my time with people like you. Thank you!

Indonesian, and Chinese

Well, thank you for your sincere appreciation. My first language is romanian and my third, but not yet mastered is french. It is sad that you don't even learn a second language. It's true your own language is of international use but still... i know you could use another one for something.