For Those Outside the U.S.

I'm from India. My country has many regional languages. This is the speciality of our country.. So I know my own language, the official language of my country - hindi and the official foreign laguage- English. Oother than these three, I learnt French in my school days. I had great fun while learning French and I loved it. So out of my own interest I learnt the language. But now I do not have any friends with whom I can communicate in French. So my French grammar, vocabulary everything is gone. English is the common language that we use in my office. We are very comfortable with it. It becomes very easy to communicate with our clients at other localities too. Other than English, I cannot communicate in anyother language with my online friends.

I live in Malaysia where majority of the people here speaks Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Other minor languages are like Kadazan, Iban, Bidayuh etc are spoken in Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia). 1. How do you know English? Our country was under occupancy of British, Diuch and Japan. English are teach in the school as a subject at all level. Now science & mathematic tought in English at the primary school. 2. Do you need English for your job? No. However know other language such as English will help. 3. Are you around English speaking people? No. However I make my master degree in UK and advance diploma in Japan. 4. Advantage of knowing English Many advantages. Can read many books, can participates in international conference & training etc.

I am going to come into this so that I can see what others have to say. I think this is going to be interesting in the end.

I am from the Philippines and English is our second language. I actually work in a call center and people from the US would often times ask me where I'm located and I'd always answer in the Philippines. Some of them would ask me if I'm an American and if I'm not how come I have excellent English skills. I would always answer them it was the primary language in my family. I grew up in a family who prioritized the English language because it is the universal language. They want to make sure that wherever I am I will be able to understand and speak fluent English. I studied in a catholic all girls school whose primary language is also English and it is also a basic subject in school. I converse well and I can fully express what I want to say.

English is my second language. But I really don't learn it on purpose. I had watched friends for ten years. Besides, I am attracted by American dramas. As a result, I get used to the English environment. As a postgraduated student, I have to read lots of English papers so as to do my research. Also, In order to get my degree, I have to publish some English papers. Finally, we have to give English reports to the public every week. Thus, For me, I watch English, read English, write English and speak English all the time though it is not my native tongue. This is how I live with English!' Take care!

hi ladyjarhead. i'm from the philippines and yes i do speak and write fluent english. in the philippines, english is a subject taught as early as preschool so filipinos grow up with english as a second language. you can say that being good in spoken and written english is a double edged sword. many filipinos get jobs, especially international ones, because we are fluent in english. proof of this is the sprouting call center companies here in the country. the customer service representative you're talking to on the other line about your computer problems, medical records, and credit card billing might be a filipino. lol! on the other hand, some filipinos flaunt their english accents, western, southern, and what have you, and totally forget our own language. would you believe that some radio disc jockeys and celebrities flaunt their ignorance of tour own language claiming that they do not know how to speak filipino? to them this is a badge of coolness and what's more shameful is that some ignorant filipinos completely swallow this sham hook line and sinker! i personally think that learning and speaking another language aside from your native one is a necessity what with the shrinking world we have right now. i for one would like to learn niponggo, french, spanish and german but at the same time i'm tryign to learn a number of local dialects here in my country. i think our national hero jose rizal says it best, those that do not know their own native language stinks more than a rotten fish. of course, that sounds better in filipino. lol!

I am from Chennai Tamilnadu state in India.My mother tongue is Tamil.Heard about it? I speak English very fluently as most of us who had finished their school.English is taught to us from the childhood.In fact it is so natural for us to know English.It is the legacy the British left us as the leave our country giving us the independence.Of course knowing English has enabled us to work anywhere in the world except a few countries.

[b][/b]choiocampo explains it alot. there's a lot of advantage if you can speak english. it's a plus if your looking for a job. it serves as a lingua franca for many.

I am going to reply to this discussion because it is fascinating and very interesting. I am a native English speaker because I come from Great Britain. I learned French for five years when I was at school. At the moment I am learning Spanish. We British people are not known for our skills in learning foreign languages. I see advantages to being able to speak common languages when traveling. I can get by in Germany as I can speak a few German words. I can speak French and the local people appreciate that. One day I hope to able to speak Spanish really well and then I can go to Central America and South America. I hope that you don't mind me responding because I am like you a native English speaker.

I am from the Philippines and we speak some form of English. We have a number of different native languages of which I can understand about a dozen. I took up English in school where I also studied Latin for four years in high school along with Spanish. On my own I studied French and Italian and a smattering of Chinese. I also write in computerese being proficient in about a dozen computer languages. I hope this information helps in your survey. If for some reason the lingua franca of the world suddenly changed to Martian, I would probably learn it too, just as quickly.

Hi there Ldyjarhead. I am from Romania (Europe) and my native language is romanian. I have learned english first of all from cartoon network (when i was a child) but also learned it in kinder garden, in school, high school, college (as a first foreign language). My second foreign language would be francaise. I also know a bit of spanish. English is a must in most of the work environments here in my country as most of the work places are foreign. Well, i only practise it on the computer and in school - the only other place i had the chance to speak it for a longer time was when i was in Greece on holiday.

hi there. i come from indonesia, and have indonesian languages for our nationality languages, and have many native languages. for english i'm still learning about it, so sometimes if i read some writing in english i have to think a lot for it, and never far away from dictionaty, so i think mylot is best for practice, and sorry for my poor english

Hello Ldyjarhead :) I am from Indonesia. My native language is, of course, Indonesian :) I can speak Indonesian, English, knows a little French and Chinese (but I cannot write in both). I know English since I was a kid. My mom get a private tutor for a private English lesson that came to my house twice in a week. I am not using English at regular base, but I use it a little in some conversation :) I haven't get a job, but yes, I need it for the study at my university. Of course it would be a great advantage for me if I understand English because my university uses English as the learning base and for the Final Project Report and Presentation. :) I don't practice English anymore, I have stopped the private tutor since years ago because I moved to another town for studying. And I see lots of advantages of knowing more than one language, one of them, at least I could make a good money here in myLot using my English skill :) Thank you for bringing this up, Ldyjarhead. Have a nice day

I'm for portugal, and here we learn english in school, and i'm glad for that, otherway i can't post here. i already now a little bit of spanish and french (i use it in work) Now i'm tinking in try learn chinese

I've always found this interesting as well, and wondered the same thing. I know we here in the USA wish we could be taught many of the other languages out there, but hope they are learning ours as well. I have heard some from other countries even say English was one of the easier languages to learn as well.

I live in the U.S. now but I'm a native of the Philippines. In my country, English is the main language of instruction, of course save for the "Filipino" subject which is our national language (otherwise called "Tagalog"). Almost everyone can converse in English or at least understand the language particularly in the city of Manila. We use our native language in everyday living, though. There are so many Americans and English-speaking Europeans in my country now so we got to speak English once in a while. Besides, as far as my country is concerned, English is the business language. Being able to speak/read/write in English has helped me a lot (and a lot of Filipinos as well) in getting higher-paying jobs. Many have gone to different countries as well because there is no language impediment. It is indeed helpful to be bilingual or multilingual if one wants to go international. I myself can also speak Spanish, French, German, and a bit of Chinese. Thanks for this discussion!

First of All, English is not Just a language of US. but it is also the language of Briton and many other common wealth countries. The accents differs though. I'm from India. India have a lot of languages, each state have their own official local language it is like 30. There are 300 more other spoken languages in India. There are states in India with English as official languages. My First language is "Malayalam" because I live in kerala state of India. My National Language is "Hindi" and I speak it to a limit. However I don't have to use Hindi in my daily communications or in offices, I'm not much fluent in Hindi even though it is my national language. But in Northern side of India most people knows Hindi or it's "Urdu" dialect, which is famous among Muslims in Northern India. English we learn from schools, either from the pre-school or 4th standard depends on the medium of instructions, we have a lot of English medium schools and local language medium schools as well. I can speak English well. Now I work with different nationalities so I improved my English. For white color Jobs English is a must, For local jobs its not. I learned in a "Malayalam" medium school, English started from 4th Grade onwards. After 10th Grade, medium of instruction changed to English and continued. In Indian schools English, Hindi and Local language are subjects. Some Internationally hosted Indians schools may not have local language though. We have option to choose additional languages like French, German, Urdu, Samskrit, Arabic, Spanish, etc. depends on schools. I know Arabic, but I can't speak it, but I try to do it. I can read and write and interpret pure Arabic to a limit. My mothertougue: Malayalam I know four Languages: Malayalam (read/write/speak/interpret), Hindi (r/w/s/i), English (r/w/s/i), Arabic (r/w/i(60%)) I learned English from schools, and speaking improved from colleges, work place, chatrooms, forums, etc. I work around Enlgish speaking people as well. I practice English with co-workers, and with my wife :p Knowing an International languages help us to communicate out of our box and get more informations and Jobs.

Knowing English is of course of great advantage as it is the international language. I have learned English from my school as it is a compulsory subject. My native language is urdu. It is of great advantage for me to know englsh.

hi... I'm from Philippines here in our country it is really important to learn the English language. Basically, Filipinos first learn the basic English from their parents. It is a major subject in the school from pre-schoolers to college there would always be an English subject. And I'm proud that even the poor people who actually don't have any chance to finish their schooling knows how to speak English although their English is not that good you would still understand it. Not only in verbal English but Filipinos can also write English. That's why we could easily communicate to other people who don't know our language.

I write\speak english.that is my first and native language. i have learned to speak\write french and spanish.but i am better at french.in school we are taught french mostly.a second language is up to us to study in high school. but i am english first and foremost. i might have other forms of language i was taught as a child but those i have no reqalelection of.