Non-Native English Speakers: how u lrn engish? - General

As a linguist I've found it fascinatingly fascinating that Facepunch has an unusually large population of people that can speak English well AND it's not their native language, since many other forums I haunt are full of people who can't speak it, or type it anyway, to save their own lives (and a few of those people were native English speakers, go figure). I also think it's cool that the Scandinavian nations, along with Germany and Holland (of which Facepunch also holds an unusually large number of) all basically indoctrinate their kids at a young age to speak English. Hell I think they do this in many other European countries but in those nations in particular it seems almost everyone there has at least a smattering of English. Not so much in France or Spain, for whatever reason. And in America? Well I think that's self-explanatory. So now, non-native English speakers, if that's the correct name, I'm hoping you can answer some of my probing-ing questions: 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? 3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? 76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [QUOTE=Yzooo;33493757] 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? Practically never, except I do tend to think in English. [/QUOTE] And if you have anything else to add by all means do.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? -Back in school but I hated it and didn't want to learn it. And no I guess I'm far away from fluent. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? -I think I can type it a little better than speaking it. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? -Daily. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? -Nothing. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? -Actually I really started speaking english like a year or two ago. I was "forced" to learn it since most of the stuff on the internet is written in english. And it wasn't that difficult. 76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? I sometimes think in english. And there are moments when I could've sworn I saw an english youtube video with german language and the other way round.

1. On 2nd grade but I didn't really learn anything back then. Well, not fully fluent but pretty good anyway. 2. Type it, I sound a lot smarter when I'm typing than talking. 3. Daily also. 4. Jamaican accent. 5. I learned almost all my English outside from school, from TV, movies and stuff like that. I study it also. 75. I can talk Swedish pretty well. I'm Finnish.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? -Back in preschool and I liked it.I guess I'm not too far away from fluent. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? -I can type it a better than speaking it. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? -Daily. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? -Nope. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? -I picked up a few words from the cartoons. The Jetsons were SO CASH

1. Started learning English in school in the fourth grade, but things really picked up when I found out about the internet not long after. I would consider myself fully fluent. 2. I think I'm better at typing it, but only because I can't really do all of the pronunciations and have a slight accent. 3. Sometimes when I text my friends. 4. Nope. 9. I got autobanned for bad grammar/spelling a couple of times on Facepunch back in the beginning, because my main source of English before that was Runescape :v: I think it also helps that TV and film is never dubbed here (as opposed to Germany, for example, where everything is dubbed), except for kids movies. 75. I can read both Norwegian and Swedish well, but I'm a little better at understanding spoken Swedish than spoken Norwegian because I have relatives there. It's difficult though, because both languages are all smooth/flow-like. I can't speak the languages, apart from a few words.

1. Not sure, maybe on the 3rd grade, was 9 years old back then 2. I can type it better, as speaking requires some quick improvising. 3. Not often, very rarely actually, but I've noticed that I swear in english a lot nowadays. Dunno why. 4. Pronounciation, some accents 75. My swedish sucks

Here in Denmark kids usually start learning english at a very low age already, playing with words and singing english songs at 1st grade where as proper grammar education comes in 4th grade i think. I'm 21 and got it in 5th grade i remember. Beside from that what really makes it all easy and accesible is all TV shows american or english is native language with subtitles and the interest of video games and computer kind of forces you to understand it to become part of the community around it as our native languages community is very small (only 5.5mill people in Denmark). Not to mention movies in cinema are all english as well with danish subtitles. Except childrens movies are dubbed. 1: 10-11 years old. Yes i consider myself fluent ever since i got a computer when i was 12 i've been learning and understanding through games (especially online multiplayers with human interaction) 2:Yes i guess, i can speak too but ofcourse theres and accent and sometimes i forget the words. i find typing easier overall 3: Daily with friends when talking about video games, internet stuff etc. 4:Not really 9:TV, internet, video games, pop culture, the interest of learning something new and be part of a more global discussion. 75:German which is obligatory in school here, 7th grade. Else i understand swedish and norwegian if it's spoken fairly slow, norwegian is easier to understand better tho. I was only just 15 when i joined fp and wasn't too good at expressing myself properly without alot of grammar mistakes so i was just lurking for years, hence my low postcount The only thing i consider annoying is english languages lack of metric daily usage but imperial only where everybody else in the world uses metric english as a international language should've adopted, (usa) to metric long ago. So much easier

1 - I started learning english at a young age, I remember practising with my mother when I was 7 having small conversations on trips, all in english. I consider myself fully fluent. 2 - I type better, since I have more time to think up my answers and make corrections here and there. It's always something I don't get to do while I'm speaking, and since I don't speak in English a lot, I guess that part of my brain is rustier and doesn't work that good. 3 - All the time. Except on facebook, even though even facebook is set to use english on everything it can. 4 - Not really, some accents here and there but that's more of a regional issue than an issue with the language. English actually makes more sense for me than my native language (but then again my native language is portuguese, it's ridiculously complicated if analysed through a looking glass like they did in high school). 9 - School didn't prepare us for crap. After 6 years of an English curriculum with 3h per week most people can read and write to some degree, but are incomprehensible if trying to say something out loud. Television, the internet, videogames and some starter classes for kids when I was young helped.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? -I started when I was a child.Not really fully fluent because I tend to mix up words when engaging into conversations but sometimes I can speak fully fluent 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? -A little bit better than speaking it. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? -Not a lot.I find it awkward to use it when talking to my friends(which can't speak english for shit usually). 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? -Pronouncing things.Why do you always make my tongue feel weird :v:(usually in conversations) 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? -I don't remember much of how I learned English but I know cartoons played a huge part in talking in english. [editline]30th November 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Butthurter;33493355]-words-[/QUOTE] Television bros!

1. In thrird grade, I speak fairly fluent. 2. I speak it better then I write it. 3. Every day 4. No. 75. I can read Norwegian, and I can understand both Norwegian and Danish if spoken. (Danish is harder though.)

[QUOTE=LiquidNazgul;33493209]As a linguist I've found it fascinatingly fascinating that Facepunch has an unusually large population of people that can speak English well AND it's not their native language, since many other forums I haunt are full of people who can't speak it, or type it anyway, to save their own lives (and a few of those people were native English speakers, go figure). I also think it's cool that the Scandinavian nations, along with Germany and Holland (of which Facepunch also holds an unusually large number of) all basically indoctrinate their kids at a young age to speak English. Hell I think they do this in many other European countries but in those nations in particular it seems almost everyone there has at least a smattering of English. Not so much in France or Spain, for whatever reason. And in America? Well I think that's self-explanatory. So now, non-native English speakers, if that's the correct name, I'm hoping you can answer some of my probing-ing questions: 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? And if you have anything else to add by all means do.[/QUOTE] 1. First grade - it's mandatory here. I definitely am. 2. I think I'm slightly better at speaking. 3. Practically all of the time. 4. Nothing really. 9. Although I did learn at school, stuff like Cartoon Network, the Discovery Channel and video games helped me [I]a lot.[/I]

I believe I began learning English sometime in my first years of school (7 - 9 years old), I consider myself pretty fluent at speaking it. I can probably type it a little bit better since I get more time to think it through, but there's not much of a difference really. I primarily use Swedish when off the Internet. I only speak English occasionally. There's nothing particularly frustrating about it that I can think of. I learned English from a mixture of school, movies and videogames. I believe videogames are the largest reason I got good at it due to them usually being in English. I don't really [I]know[/I] any other Scandinavian languages, but Swedish is quite similar to both Danish and Norwegian so I can usually understand a lot of it.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? Started at a very early age, would say around 6-7 years old. Yes, I would consider myself fully fluent. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? It's sort of a tie, but if I had to choose I would say that I type it better. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? Practically never, except I do tend to think in English. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? Not really. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? Gameboy/Computer/Videogames/Movies, I guess I can't really say if it was difficult because I was so young when I started learning it. 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? I understand Norwegian pretty good, but I can't speak it, never really had a chance to learn it.

Non-native english speaker here! [b]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/b] I've learned English progressively as a little kid, first when I was just 8-9 years old... by the time I was 18-19 I was pretty comfortable writing, reading and listening stuff in English, but I haven't had a chance to speak it with anybody; I'm 27 now and I'm fully fluent. I've even taken the [url=http://www.ielts.org/]IELTS exam[/url] and I scored 7/9. Heh [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-smug.gif[/img] [b]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/b] I think I'm slightly better at speaking it than writing it, because sentences pour out of me faster by speaking them than by writing them... anyhow, I sound just like I write in English. [b]3. How often do you use English off the Internet?[/b] I IM people from other teams located in various parts of the US, so I use it pretty often. I don't have many conference calls, though. [b]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/b] Hmmm nope. Oh yeah, some accents are a bitch to understand! (I'm looking at you, aussies ¬¬) [b]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/b] I pretty much learned it by watching lots of english movies and cartoons as a child, and I didn't really pay any attention to the English classes in school because I already knew what the teacher was talking about (I've never studied for English and I've always got B+s or As :v:). It wasn't hard at all for me to learn; I really like the language so I enjoyed it thoroughly. Hope that helps! :D

1. Around/before preschool, and yes I would consider myself fluent. 2. Writing comes more naturally than speaking. 3. Every day. 4. Not really no. 9. Through cartoons and video games, it was gradual so it wasn't difficult.

Native spanish here. 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? I started around age 10 or so, i showed interest and my aunt had this great home course that i learnt my first lessons from. Then i signed up for an institute, and six years later, here i am, a day before my final test. I consider myself fully fluent. Besides this little thing where i always mistake in for on and viceversa. Something i've been told is "weird" about me is that i think in English, rather than translating stuff to Spanish, then formulating my response in Spanish and translating it to English. This, they say, is the sign that i'm fluent in the language. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? From what i've been told i'm good at both, my pronunciation is lacking a bit, but frequent voicechatting with people is pretty much teaching me all i need to know. It's happened that people i've been talking to on steam for a while notice i'm from Argentina and ask me if i moved there from an English speaking country :buddy: 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? Besides English classes, not much. Not many people i know in person speak English as fluently as i do. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? That thing about in and on, and there's always some word that i'll say via voicechat, get corrected, and realize i've been pronouncing it wrong until that point. And since i've been saying it wrong i'll continue to do so. "I-run" for iron instead of "eye-urn" is a good example of that. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? I don't find learning it difficult. I learnt from books, subtitulated TV series and movies (which affects my english to where i often include pop-culture references or slang, which combined with my latino accent sound "weird" to people :v:) and the institute and teachers. Elementary and high school English classes are severely lacking here. People just don't want to learn the language.

[b]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/b] To be honest I'm not quite sure when I began learning English. Here in Sweden a lot of people actually know English pretty well, and everything on TV is never dubbed, it only has subtitles. So I'd say that I was exposed to the English language very early in my life. And then the video games and the internet came into my life... All of my early video games were in English so I kept asking my dad what come characters in those games told me to do, which he helped me with. Later on in multiplayer games I tried chatting with other players using the chat, and I read what others wrote trying to understand as much as possible. The English education here in Sweden is great, too. I'd consider myself fully fluent. I have no problems [i]at all[/i] with speaking, writing or understanding spoken or written English. [b]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/b] I'm by far more able to write English than speak it. This is because of three reasons: 1. Only later on in my life did I have opportunities to actually speak English: language trips to England and Germany. I also attend an international school here in Stockholm since only two years back. 2. When typing English you're given time to prepare sentences and thoughts whereas in spoken English you have to say everything "immediately", so to speak. 3. My tongue fucks up when stumbling over words sometimes while speaking English, since it's so used to speaking Swedish all the time. [b]3. How often do you use English off the Internet?[/b] As mentioned I attend an international school, so it would be all the time. Because when I'm not there, I'm on the internet, basically. [b]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/b] Idioms. [b]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/b] Covered most of this question in answer 1. Difficult? I honestly can't remember. It took me about 6 years to go from next to no English to being able to understand it passively. So I'd say that since I was exposed to English a lot it has been a rather quick process to learn it. [b]75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that?[/b] Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are considered to be mutually intelligible. I can understand spoken and written Norwegian and written Danish (but not spoken) fine. All Norwegians I've met can understand me speaking Swedish and I understand them. Danes and Swedes aren't exactly able to have a conversation, though. However, I do know some Finnish, but this is only because my mom is from Finland, otherwise no swedes (at least that I know of) know any Finnish. Though many know a few obligatory swear words or phrases.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? -Well, my mom taught me the English alphabet when I was about 8 years old, you know, what every letter sounds like and that kind of stuff. Kind of went on my way from there. I consider myself as fluent as an average native English speaker right now. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? -Vice versa, my spelling is ok but English spelling just has too many exceptions for me to remember. I constantly use Chrome's spellchecker while using the forum. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? -While not online? I really don't use it at all, though I want too. English sounds better to me than Hebrew, although I can express myself better in Hebrew. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? -Your FUCKING EXCEPTIONS [B]FUCK[/B] Hebrew is a very neat and organized language, since it hasn't changed much in the last 3000 years. For example, If you give me the old testament in Hebrew, or any old Hebrew text for that matter, I can read and understand about 98% of it right away, and the other 2% from context-The only difference across the years is the Grammar, not the actual words and expressions, so it's more like a different dialect than a different language. English has changed so much that I doubt I, or even you, can read something written only 400 years ago and properly understand it. English has a lot of leftover bullshit in its grammar and spelling, and it pisses me off. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? -I learned my English from watching movies and playing video games. The music came after that. It wasn't difficult, It's just that a lot of my entertainment was in English, so I eventually learned to use it. The fact that I learned it through watching other people speak it means that I have no noticeable Israeli accent when I speak English- I have a typical American accent.

1. About 9 years old 2. I'm better at speaking it 3. I use it rarely off the internet. 4. Nope. 9. I learned it in school. 75. I can speak one scandinavian language, which is Danish.

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? I started learning it in kindergarten when I was 3 years old. One of the teachers always asked us to talk English only, but when we couldn't understand she explained the word or whatever. As for considering myself fluent, it all depends how you determine the "Fluency". I can freely speak and listen to others, if that's what you mean. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? Both are okay for me, but I still think typing for me is better than speaking, since, after all, I type a lot over the Internet 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? Sadly, I use it only on my English lessons, or when somebody asks to talk in English, or when annoying my friend who hates English :v: 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? The tenses. The fucking tenses. Russian is my first language, and we have a bit different sentence logic in Russian, so sometimes it's quite difficult to 100% correctly construct the sentence. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? See 1. It wasn't that difficult since I was only 3-4 years old, and learning language at an early age is either too trivial or you just don't remember the headache.

1. I think I started learning English around my 7th year. I was a real fan of Thomas the Train Engine and because my father bought the movie. Unfortunately it was entirely in English so I couldn't understand a word of it. Apart from that I actually learned most of my English from video games. Mostly Age of Mythology and Dawn of War. I indeed consider myself fluent. I actually think in English most of the time and I have a habit of forgetting words in Dutch despite knowing them in English. 2. My accent is practically indistinguishable from a normal RP accent and I speak without hitches or stutters. Though I can do fairly convincing Irish and Scottish accents too. 3. This is a bit of an ambiguous question. Do you mean English adapted from the Internet or "do you speak English when you're not surfing the web"? Since it's likely the second one: Yes, I sometimes speak English with my friends or just generally. 4. Not really, my comprehension of the Language is basically on the same level as my Dutch, though I still have to get my CAE. I finished my FCE with the only A in my class! 9. Yes, I knew basically everything before I even began with my English lessons. But as far as I remember it wasn't difficult or anything. It just gradually became better. One remark though: You claim that the Germans also teach their children English from a young age. But as far as I know this isn't true. The Germans dub everything and that's a big factor in learning a language. If you can understand everything, why should you learn anything else?

[QUOTE=LiquidNazgul;33493209] 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? [/QUOTE] 1. Grade 4, although I've had mini classes where I've learned verbs and random words. Also video games. 2. I'd say I can type it as well as I can speak it. 3. Daily, considering I live in Canada. 4. The lack of words for different family members. Also, it's funny how languages work. You really have to use them and practice not to forget them. For example I was fluent in Hebrew before I moved to Canada, today I can only say about five words in Hebrew and can't read or write. I've completely forgotten it all, almost as if English replaced it.

[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B] I started learning English properly when I was about 14. I wouldn't consider myself fully fluent, but I'm pretty decent. [B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B] I'm better at speaking it unless I'm given time, but pretty decent at both. [B]3. How often do you use English off the Internet?[/B] About every day. [B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B] Not really - no. Maybe some pronounciation. [B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B] I learnt it from my brother, online and watching TV. [B]75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that?[/B] I understand what the swedish and danish say, but I can't speak swedish or danish.

Yes! A questionnaire that applies to me! 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? - I started learning it when I was a small kid, watching spiderman. I learned by reading the subtitles and listening to what they said on the show. I'd consider myself as good as most native english speakers. 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? - I type it better, since I don't speak english in my day to day life. That being said, I understand english speech and I can make myself understood, too. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? - In english courses in school, whenever a foreigner asks me for directions. As mentioned above, not very often. 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? - Not really, it's a pretty easy language. 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? As I mentioned in point 1, I watched spiderman. That was the earliest I started. Then playing games further helped me. 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? - I am a native speaker of Finnish and Swedish, since I am fennoscandian or whatever. I understand norwegian and danish in text a little, since they are very close to swedish.

Lots of Swedes here, so relevant video :v [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLJWDGNqoD0[/media]

1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? At the age of 8 or so, and yes 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? Type better. 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? Nearly always 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? i wish the word soccer didn't exist so there would be only football sounds kinda lame to translate "futebol" from portuguese to "soccer" in english when theres football :I 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? Started off with pokemon on gameboy, around at age 10 i started learning it with the internet and no, english is piss easy language, nothing compared to portuguese, or spanish which is also insane...

Why are the questions numbered so oddly?

[QUOTE=LiquidNazgul;33493209] 1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? [B]At 5 more or less. I would consider myself almost fully fluent (problem is I don't speak it very often, so I need a few lines before I get into the flow and remember what language I am speaking so I don't start using Swedish pronunciation on English words while throwing in a few Italian ones by mistake), albeit with an accent[/B] 2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? [B]Depends. Generally I prefer speaking, especially in front of people, but I think I can type it better, since there is no accent when typing.[/B] 3. How often do you use English off the Internet? [B]Not sure how you mean. English I've learned from the internet? Always. English slang that are used on the internet like noob? Never.[/B] 4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? [B]Maybe a few words like "Horror". Having a Guttural R (no I'm not French) makes it kind of a bother to pronounce.[/B] 9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? [B]Videogames, internet and movies, hadit been for school I'd know a tenth of what I know now. No it wasn't difficult at all, also because I enjoyed it[/B] 75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that? [B]I'm not Scandinavian, but living in Sweden I can speak Swedish. Yes I can understand and somewhat speak Norwegian, and mostly understand Danish.[/B] [/QUOTE]

[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B] Started in like either 3rd or 4th grade. And yes I like to consider myself fluent in English. [B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B] I definitely feel more comfortable writing English than speaking. I don't know why, it's perhaps because I find my "accent" weird, because in my head I'm speaking English perfectly. [B]3. How often do you use English off the Internet? [/B] Not often. [B]75. For Scandinavians, kinda off-topic but: how many other Scandinavian languages do you know? I ask because apparently more than a few of you guys can speak at least one or two other Scandinavian languages with at least basic conversation level. Do you get a sense of that?[/B] I understand Norwegian, and I can read Norwegian and Danish. [B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B] Bit of both I guess.

[QUOTE=Venezuelan;33494443]Why are the questions numbered so oddly?[/QUOTE] who [QUOTE=timmyvos;33494277] One remark though: You claim that the Germans also teach their children English from a young age. But as far as I know this isn't true. The Germans dub everything and that's a big factor in learning a language. If you can understand everything, why should you learn anything else?[/QUOTE] That is a good thought, I honestly don't know a lot about the German education system. When I went there last year though it seemed almost every German knew at least basic English, and I didn't just go to the big cities. Also it's interesting how you sometimes forget things in Dutch. That's language attrition, and it's actually affecting my Dad much more, who's from Cuba. He speaks Spanish fairly well but doesn't use it a whole lot now a days and speaks both English and Spanish with a New York accent, him being raised there.