What is the second language of your country? Can you speak it?
By tjades
@tjades (3591)
Jamaica
May 8, 2008 8:29pm CST
The second language of my contry is Spanish. I did basic spanish in school and even though I love it I just couldnt seem to score well in my exams.
I dabble with the language but would like to become fluent.
What about you?
What is the second language of your country?
Are you fluent in this language?
1 person likes this
18 responses
@pooh08 (671)
• Vietnam
13 May 08
My mother language is Vietnamese. The second language my country use is English. I can speak it but not fluently. I think in the future, my country has a three language. It's Japanese. Because Japan has plan invest into my country. Now they have some plans are carry out in my country.
1 person likes this
@se7enthbird (8307)
• Philippines
9 May 08
english. i can not say that i am fluent but i can speak english. i can speak to peopel whose first language are english. schools all over our country teaches english from nursery up to college. sometimes it is much easier to speak english than our native tongue.
@se7enthbird (8307)
• Philippines
9 May 08
our native language is filipino or we mostly call it as tagalog. the thing about tagalog is that we have old terms that when old folks say it we dont know the meaning but it is still tagalog. the tagalog words also adopted spanish words like silya, labakara, kutsara and other spanish words. thats the reason it gets complicated.
@tjades (3591)
• Jamaica
9 May 08
Ok. I am read a novel based on the war which took place in the Phillipines between the Japanese and the Americans during World War II.
It is entitled Share of Honor by Ralph Graves. I read of places such as Bataan, Manila, Santo Tomas and Carabangay. I wonder if those places were real or just made up and if they still exist today.
I read some thing about a Jose Rizal who seems to be a local hero.And as for words...I saw dalaga (seems to mean girl), suksok (not sure but as to do with male female relation) and umalis kayo (go away).
I found it to be a very hard book to read because of the cruelty of the war yet so fascinating i could hardly put it down. (lol)
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
12 May 08
English is the second language in my country. Every student in the primary school is compulsory to learn our national language, Malay. For a Chinese school student likes me, Chinese is my second language. Besides we have to learn English as well. So English becomes my third language. My English language of curse is not as fluent as those who study in the English school.
@moovendranm (8)
• India
12 May 08
In india so many languages were used in every state at the same time maximum no of people know only their mother tongue only.So here second language is comes under self interest only.Thanks.
@midautumn (219)
• China
9 May 08
the second language of my motherland is English.
I have study it for about ten year.
when I was young,It's impossible for me to do listening and talk to foreigners.
although I have spent much time on studying English,I still can not speak a mouth of fluent English.
anyway,I will try.
@midautumn (219)
• China
14 May 08
thank you very much for your encouraging comment.I will try to do more speaking writting and listening.
I often imagine one day I can master English as a native English speaker.
thanks.
@katbalu102 (377)
• Philippines
11 May 08
in my country we have so many dialects. i dont even know all of them. but the second language that we use would have to be english. english was easy to speak as i grew up because my siblings and i were taught to speak in english while we are in the house. and english is also the language used in the school that i was in, plus it is widely used all over our country. i would have to say that 85-95% of the people in my country speaks the language. but i would love to learn another language, its really fun learning it. hard but fun.
@katbalu102 (377)
• Philippines
13 May 08
oh my god! i didnt know that i posted twice on this comment.. sorry about that... my computer was not working well that day and my 1st comment didnt show so i made a new one. but i didnt know it got added up. my bad!
@xtinelee (3371)
• Singapore
12 May 08
My second language is Chinese Language, and yes, I can speak and write fluently in this language, since I have started learning this language since young. :) It's alright I guess.. since this language is also a form of communication for me, other than English.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
12 May 08
Its English. Most people here learn english in school at a young age and can speak fairly good english and communicates very well with it. :)
I believe i am fluent in english. i can read very well and i can express myself well too with this language.
@dfollin (25351)
• United States
9 May 08
My country is the United States and Iam part native american.I was born in our capital.I grew up with everyone speeking english.If things keep going the way they are english is going to be our second language and yes I speak it.I applied for a job about 15 years ago and did not get it only because I did not speak spanish.
@elisa812 (3026)
• United States
9 May 08
I guess spanish would be the second language here, too. I took spanish classes in middle school and high school, so I got pretty good at it for awhile, but now that I've been out of high school for awhile, I've lost a lot of what I learned. I'm kind of sad about it since I did so well with it when I was younger, but I didn't really have time to take spanish classes anymore in college, and I didn't really have anyone to practice it with either. I would like to try brushing up on it again though sometime. I was never really fluent in it, but could carry on a conversation pretty well.
@tjades (3591)
• Jamaica
9 May 08
I too really want to become fluent in spanish plus there are atleast two more languages I would like to learn at least the basic in.
Lucky you doing so well at it in school. I guess my teacher couldnt understand why I did so badly on her test either as I was one of her best students for classwork.
Thanks for sharing Elisa. (lol)
@dutchie65 (4)
• Netherlands
12 May 08
Our 2nd language is English but a lot of the Dutch speak German or a little French as well. It is a part of the school programm to learn one or two different languages.
@mhayelynna (363)
• Philippines
9 May 08
our second language here is english, not to boast but i think every filipino knows, even a single englush sentence, even if some has a not-so-good grammar, im proud that we totally adopted the english language, and we try to improve it even more, in school we study english from pre-school to college, and even in graduate schools.
@katbalu102 (377)
• Philippines
11 May 08
i would have to say that english is the second language that we use. we have a lot of different dialects though and i dont know all of them. lol. but with english, when i was younger we were already taught to speak english in our household. and in our schools it is the language used when classes would begin and etc. plus, it is widely used all over our country. so it was pretty much easy to learn it. i would love to learn a new language though but i find it difficult to do so, but i think it wouldnt stop me from trying it anyway.
@meiteoh (416)
• Switzerland
11 May 08
Over in Malaysia (where I'm from), it's Malay and then followed by English and other languages like Mandarin and Tamil/Hindi.
I actually consider myself a native English speaker because we speak English at home plus a mix of Chinese dialects. My Malay is not that bad either but I prefer speaking English - been at it since I was very young.
Over in Switzerland, it's German, French, Italian and Swiss. Since I live in the French part, naturally I have to speak the language BUT it's basic French and the thing is, I'm terribly shy when it comes to speaking a language that I'm not fluent in...
@Dollyswallowjiang (37)
• China
9 May 08
mine is english and in my country most students study english for a long time about ten years also ,but we just do some reading work and a little listen ,all that just prepare for the exam and most of us seldom speak it ,but i think language is a tool ,if we learn it just for the exam and not chat or talk ,it is useless .
@joimarquez (1836)
• United States
12 May 08
i can speak english fluently..which i learned in school. i know how to speak tagalog (filipino), because im filipino...born and raised in the philippines...i know a bit cantonese (hongkong chinese) and urdu (pakistani language). i have lived in hongkong for 2 years and i have a pakistani boss when i was working there in hongkong.
@megumiart (3771)
• United States
9 May 08
I think Spanish is my country's second language, too. It's offered as a class at practically every high and junior high school here. I took a year of it in High school and I now a little bit from my Peruvian friend, but I'm no where near fluent.
@peierlin (57)
• China
9 May 08
The second language of my country is English. Since I have been learning it from middle school, now I feel more confident about it. Also because now I'm studying in an English-speaking university, I have improved it a lot. I think good language environment is important for learning a second language. At university, I'm also learning Spanish, but just at the primary level, for Spanish I still have a long way to go. It is pleasant to know that you are also learning Spanish, as you say you love it, you can improve it, wish you good luck!
