A question for English as a second language people

[Dark Lord Cam]

English is complex when you get into writing. Otherwise, it is easy.

[The Loner]

Yo en realidad no hablan español estoy usando traductor Google

Jeg taler ikke dansk heller selvom jeg ville elske at lære.

Weten het ook niet Nederlands ......

kein Deutsch .....

日本ではない良い........

But my english is good.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

I'm better at English then my native language. I think, eat, sleep, and play Morrowind in English (hopefully with Daedric once I learn it).

[JJKG]

Soy estudiando Espanol (haven`t got any accents) en mi instituto, y es bastante dificil, pero es divertido tambien.

The hardest thing for me about learning Spanish is memorising which verb endings go with which tense. The thing is, when you speak a language naturally, you don`t realise just how complex it is.

[Dracomagne]

Estoy en el nivel tres de clases de español de mi escuela.

This is the first year that I have to speak Spanish for a grade. I've heard from ESL people about being able to switch languages in their head before speaking. It fascinates me that the mind works like that sometimes. I'm almost to that point with Spanish, but if I go too fast my grammar gets terrible.

[Leilah]

English is my second language (and Afrikaans still isn't a made-up language), but when I started to study translation at the beginning of the year, I saw something worrying: my English is better than my Afrikaans. When I make translation mistakes regarding word choice, it's usually because I misunderstood the Afrikaans, not because I don't know the correct English word. My grammar isn't quite as good as it could be, but it's good enough that my lecturers only know my first language by my surname. Also, I tend to not notice whether someone is speaking Afrikaans or English. My mom's the same way. Words in either language go in, and we output the right language without noticing. Weird.

[Generalno1]

I actually have a problem where i make direct translations from english to hindi, and they don't make sense anymore.
such as "How did it go?" makes absolutely no sense when directly translated.

[Cuddle_Fish]

Here's a question: how many of you traveled to an English speaking country while you were learning? How much or little did it help you? Do you have someone you can speak English to frequently?

I feel a little jealous of you non Americans because most other countries start second language classes pretty young right? My youngest sister got lucky and our elementary school started a French club while she was there. She's only 15 now and they're already required to only speak in French in class.

I'm just now learning Russian at the age of 21. Almost a whole semester in I'm much better I reading than speaking. If someone speaks it to me I freeze up haha.

[the Savage Hippie]

No translation. I just think of what I'm going to write in english and then I write it. I will occasionally edit my posts if I think I can better it or spot bad grammar, a bad choice of words or mispelled words etc.

[Тeatime]

I think and write in English when I'm on the forums or playing a game in English. It may be my third language but I feel fluent in it.

[Frost Mage]

English. That being said, I was born in an American home, so saying my English is good isn't necessarily impressive. I try to keep my English in forums more like British English, as it is more proper. I also, unlike some people (*cough*Wolfie*cough*), like to have proper grammar. Seriously I'm like OCD about it .

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

That's kind of like me. I like proper grammar.

I am way better at English than the other language I speak, seeing as I was born in America.

[Mithrandir]

I was born in Texas, USA to Mexican parents so Spanish is really my first language. But now I speak the English language loads better than I do Spanish (I would call it Spang-lish or Texano Spanish). But I never think in Spanish except when I'm with my fellow hispanics.

[Caz]

I was born in the UK but some may remember I moved to Germany quite a while ago, therefore I can at least compare the situation.

I speak both languages fluently so I have no problem getting into conversations in either, the only thing that can happen is that I know a word in one language but can't for the life of me think what it was in the other, even when it was something very common. I sometimes just forget stuff at random.
Writing papers in German is a bit harder for me than in English because although I understand pretty much everything I read, when I'm writing my standard vocabulary is much smaller. So I often find I can't think of several ways to form my sentences and have to watch out not to repeat myself. Or worse, I can't even think of one way to form it, and sit there for ages staring at the same line.
Presentations in German... usually go well, but I sometimes end up with the same problem when writing. Except it's much more obvious of course when I stop talking because I have no idea how to say what I want to say.

I also noticed recently that I dream in both languages... that was just a bit strange, because unless I'm writing or speaking German, I always think in English...


And another funny-weird fact, I've just started learning Ancient Greek as a part of my studies and already the alphabet is growing on me. I found myself using the wrong letters in the wrong language...

[Avron the S'wit]

That being said, I was born in an American home, so saying my English is good isn't necessarily impressive. I try to keep my English in forums more like British English, as it is more proper.

Would it bother you if, as a linguist, I told you that statement is incorrect? British English is no more proper than American English, and vice versa, but there is that fascinating appeal for the accent. I once read a scholar propose that Americans like the British accent as a lingering effect from the colonialism days. Not so sure if that is true but it's an interesting idea.

Actually, it's very fascinating to think about how some people think certain dialects of the language they speak are "more proper" or "more correct." A social linguist actually once proposed an idea about this and made up a simple test called a linguistic insecurity test, which gets a feel for how a speaker feels about his own language compared to a standard or a dialect he thinks he prefers. I did a test on this in university and actually found that certain factors affect this more than others, but it's still pretty interesting to crawl inside a person's head!

[MARS]

How about a repost!

I was born in Germany to a German mother and a Greek father. According to them I learned both languages without mixing them up at all despite only speaking Greek with my dad, something my sister can't pride herself with (yay!). I started studying English when I was 7, I think, and continued nonstop until I was 16 at which point I got my proficiency in English (from Michigan University) certificate with honours. So, as far as Greek law is concerned I'm fit to teach at private language schools. I don't think that's true, but my English is good. I can speak fluently (though talking to native English speakers makes me nervous) write well and read just about any book with minimal use of dictionaries.