[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
When I was 7-8, watching simple things like Cartoon Network helped a lot, along with listening to English music. I consider myself quite fluent, pronunciation wise and speaking wise, as I'm still learning my Finnish wife a lot of English (Pronunciation, definition and sentence structures).
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I think it's quite equal, of course there are a lot of words that I don't recognize/know. I find typing a lot easier, as it's pretty hard to communicate in Netherlands. (people tend to have ego's)
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/B]
Daily.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Not quite, it's really similar to Germanic languages like Dutch and German, so it's easy for me. For Finnish people it's a problem though, they tend to pronounce the "u" as "ooh", making them sound like cavemen. Accent is a big problem among people.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
Music, TV, internet.
[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 I've lived in Finland for about half a year. To my surprise there were a lot of similar words in Swedish in comparison to German/Dutch. Along with Finnish there were a lot of similar words. I ended up teaching the Finnish people a lot of basic stuff. (I lived close to the border between Finland-Sweden)
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
It differs by mood, English has just a bit of a different feeling with thoughts. Thinking in Dutch just sounds weird when you actually realize it.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
[B]Since I've started using the Internet. I've learned almost all my English from playing RuneScape (bleh).[/B]
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
[B]I can type it better, however I can speak it well too.[/B]
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
[B]As much as possible.[/B]
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
[B]No. [/B]
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
[B]As I said, I learned most of it from playing RuneScape (bleh). Once I got English in High School it was too easy.[/B]
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
[B]I mostly think in English. My native tongue is Dutch.[/B]
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
Started learning english aged 9 at school in Lithuania, learned it until I was 12 and moved to Ireland, then I kinda had to learn it as I went to school here from local kids and teachers and whatnot, I gotta admit it was difficult at first and some kids mocked me about being bad at English, eventually I got better and became fluent. In fact I was one of 4 people who took higher level English in my class and I also got 2nd best english result in the class being only Lithuanian in a class of 20+ locals.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
No difference really, although I do prefer sending out emails at work and whatnot to calling people, because sometimes you can get people with weird accents or in generally are hard to talk to and it gets annoying.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Every single day, at work and at home with my cousin, he's Lithuanian too but we seem to talk English a lot, mainly cause everything we talk about always consists of facepunch like puns and jokes and most of them only work in English.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Accents, No other language I know has so many different accents, I know people who studied English at Uni in Lithuania and when they came over here to Northern Ireland they couldn't understand a word of what locals are saying.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
Only bare essentials i learned at school, rest was from Internet, local school (Everything was English here after all) TV, and other friendly kids who did wan't to help me improve.
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?[/B]
Mostly English now, although it depends on what I am thinking about and what Language it is set in. If I am thinking about a conversation I had with my mum earlier then I tend to think in Lithuanian, if I am thinking about a movie I watched its English, if its something else then its just a mixture really.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
At about 6-7. Yes.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
I type better
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
It's not very common, but it happens.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Some pronounciation, but nothing else.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
I learned most of it from school, but when I began to learn my brother teached 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 understand Norwegian and can read Norwegian and Danish.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
'bout 25% English, 75% Swedish
[QUOTE=LiquidNazgul;33493209]
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
Everything around you is written in english. When i was 8 i got my first videogame. I was not learning english at that time, but i knew enough to navigate through the game. When i was 12 i started playing an online game (phantasy star online). I already considered my english superior in comparison to everyone else of my age around me. But this was the first time i had to write it instead of reading it. It was bad english but I managed using only words i knew, avoiding the ones i didn't know, and asking if i didn't understand something.
In 2005 i joined facepunch and got banned for using internet language, forgetting to capitalise and not using punctuation marks.
It's been a learning process and it still is. Trying to pick up new words and improving my grammar by copying others.
I don't feel like i am fluent in english.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
Type. I noticed that at school people were better at speaking, but i learned it from reading not hearing.
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
It's in my brain. When i think it's often in english, but not always. It also serves me well when watching unsubbed movies and games. But i like it best for making witty cross language jokes.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Pronunciation i find hard because in english you have to make sounds we don't use (this applies to all the countries you mentioned). Simple things like "that" take effort to pronounce. ([url]http://www.youtube.com/user/Prepoceros#p/search/3/WnUO6tFqdHU[/url])
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
See 1.
It's easier than my own native language to learn because it has fewer exceptions and easier grammar.
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? Both
[/QUOTE]
Basically, CS 1.6 taught me English.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
Honestly, I have no idea. I really don't. I don't know when I decided to "learn" English. I don't remember when I learnt English. All I know is, I can type and speak it. No, I don't consider myself fully fluent now. Because sometimes, I read words that I don't know meanings of them. Sometimes, I can't pronounce some words. But I do look into them and learn them.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
I think I can type it better than speaking it.
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
Well, even though I'm Persian, I can also speak Arabic, I use it 75% of the time when I'm outside. I go to a private school, and I know some friends, that speak either both Arabic and English together, mixed, or Persian, Arabic and English together. That's how I am. But, even though I'm Persian, I know more English than Persian or Arabic.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Eh, nope.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
I learnt English on the Internet. Believe it or not, I did! If I read a whole sentence that I wouldn't understand, I'd Google each and every word and learn its meanings. I also learnt it from reading, and just basically, looking at how others type and stuff like that. No, it wasn't difficult.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
I think in English, and Persian. Sometimes both, but mostly Persian.
[b]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/b]
In... 1st Grade, I think? And no, my English is a lot less fluent than I'd like it to be.
[b]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/b]
I'm much better at typing English than I am at speaking it, but I guess that's partially because I'm a pretty shy person, and I'm afraid of making myself look like an ass by making a mistake.
[b]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/b]
I play a ton of games in English, so... daily, I guess. Oh, and English has a much wider range of swears than Polish.
[b]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/b]
The fact that I have problems with remembering tenses, as in I can use them, but I'm screwed whenever I'm supposed to use a specific tense ("what the fuck was "Past Perfect" again?"). I have the same with Polish, my native language.
[b]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/b]
Private English school. Games, a ton of 'em. Music. And no, I didn't find it difficult.
[b]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?[/b]
A bit of both. I tend to mutter in English whenever I play a game (maybe I should try making a Let's Play of something?)
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
I think I was 9 or 10 or something when I started playing Runescape. I learned by playing, but I just knew how to say a few short (mostly runescape related) phrases.
After that I joined a forum about something where I had to type in English which was very difficult for me. When I was 13 or something, we got proper English classes at school which helped a lot because I didn't know anything about grammar.
I got bilingual education at school, which meant most of my classes (not all) were in English, so that helped too.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I think I can make myself more clear when speaking, because small mistakes can be overlooked when speaking. When typing, I sometimes have to think about the correct structure of the sentence and everyone will notice if you choose the wrong structure.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Not often, except in English class.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Words like 'extremely' and 'definitely' are really annoying. Also the words 'necessary' and 'immediately'.
Also I am terrible at understanding what people are saying in English. If you speak English to me on the microphone, I will go 'huh' and 'could you repeat that' all the time
I found words like 'they're' 'their' or 'your' 'you're' really easy to use. It was just like, one day I didn't know the difference (very long time ago), then one time I read that "-'re" means "are" and I never got confused again.
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Mostly Dutch, but sometimes English too
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
1st grade. Fully fluent? No. On rare occasions I have to google translate a sentence to make sure I wrote the correct translation(word), or use google to make sure that I spelled something right.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
Type. I'm horrible at speaking English because I speak very fast irl.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Apart from translating TV in my head, not often.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
No.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
I guess facepunch has helped me a lot. Unless I'm working on some assignment, I don't spend much time on english sites except facepunch. Not really difficult because I use it everyday.
[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]
Not many. Norwegian is kind of easy to understand but I can't speak it nor write it. I learned German in school tho.
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Native tongue.
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
From school, but mostly video games.
I probably started to learn English properly when i joined facepunch! Ohh, the smartness system was the shit! Really helped me a lot.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I'd probably type rather than speak, but i can speak English quite well and i like to talk in English.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Pretty much all the time on my computer, my OS and programs are all in English.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Nothing much, maybe just one, where the fuck i put the "a" and "an" i get them mixed up quite easily.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
I did explain this in the first question.
[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]
Just Finnish. Even though Finland's second native language is Sweden, i don't know a word of it i just don't have any motivation to learn it.
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Mostly Finnish, but sometimes i do think in English, makes some stuff easier, especially when thinking about something that has a lot of terms
that can't be translated into Finnish or i just remember the terms better in English such as chemistry.
[quote][B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
I started learning English at around 7 in school I guess. But beforehand I had picked up a lot of the language from television and computer games. Media has always been my greatest resource of English, until I came to Facepunch. I now speak it fluently with little to no accent, and I got my English grade in school set long before we graduated.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I type it better than I speak it, but that's because I'm more used to typing it. I speak it to my teachers and through Skype with some English mates from time to time.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Time to time, not very often. I speak it in school during English class.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Not really. It's kind of different from how you build sentences in Swedish, but once you get the basics down it's not a particularly big problem.
[B]5. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
As I mentioned before, movies and games helped me a lot. Music too. Most grammar I got from school, but vocabulary and such I got from media. At first I had problem with [i]to, too[/i], [i]your, you're[/i], [i]then, than[/i] etc etc, but Facepunch helped me learn the differences.
[B]6. 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 don't really [i]know[/i] other Scandinavian languages per se, apart from a few words, but when I speak Swedish to Norwegians or Danes they usually understand me and vice versa. They are very, very similar, and as long as you keep it slow it should be no problem.
[B]7. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Both, actually. Depends on the situation. If I am at the moment speaking English, I will think in English and vice versa.[/quote]
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
At the age of 5-7 when the cartoons that I've watched weren't dubbed. I'm not sure if I'm fully fluent or not.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
It depends on what word or sentence I want to tell the other person. Sometimes it's easier to type it, but at times speaking helps.
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
I don't use it much, except for English lessons at school nowadays.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Nothing so far.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
I did learn it in school but cartoons like Looney Tunes, Catdog, Tom & Jerry etc. helped me quite a lot.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
I mostly think in English.
1. [B]When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
When i was 5, watching Cartoon network, school helped a little but what made me improve my english was the internet, I'm 20 at the moment so that's 15 years of english!
2. [B]Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I speak as good as a write, my accent feels awkward sometimes but oh well.
3. [B]How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/B]
all the time
4. [B]Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Nope
9. [B]If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
See answer 1
76. [B]When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
I think in english 80% of the times, here's a tip for you guys, thinking in different languages when you have to make a tough decision will give you a very different perspective on the issue(or non-issue?) Not just english though, think in spanish, german, chinese or even latin, try to embrace each cultures as your own during your thoughts and the results are a very informed decision, not getting any much better than this i guess.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
When I was about 6-7 I started learning English by playing the mmo Runescape.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
I can type English better.
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
Only like once/twice a week, in college.
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?
-
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?
I think in English mostly.
[b]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/b]
When i were 6~7 years old. Not really.
[b]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/b]
Im decent at both, but i simply hate to talk in English.
[b]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/b]
Sometimes, but i think in English for some reason... :tinfoil:
[b]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/b]
The grammar, and how i suck at it.
[b]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/b]
Console gaming when i were 5, and then PC gaming when i were 7. Yes, but i got better after reading some forums.
[QUOTE=LiquidNazgul;33493209]
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?
[B]You could possibly say that as a wee lil lad, way before any obligatory education. My dad is an engineer who works with computers a lot, and is very skilled in technical english, and I got introduced to computers (Amiga 500 at the time) at preschool age. All computers back then were fully english, so when I wanted to do something on them, I had to deal with it. The earliest of all, I simply asked my parents what meant what, and they usually helped me.[/B]
[B]Yeah, I dare to say that although I often fuck up the syntax and I am pretty sure I remember quite some spelling wrong, I think you could say I am fluent. I can understand common spoken language, as long as it's at least decently pronounced, and I can speak english myself, although my pronounciation sucks balls, as I basically nowhere to practice it.[/B]
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
[B]
I can type significantly better. I have little practice in spoken english, so my pronounciation sucks, but I think that's not a long term problem, I just need some experience in that area.
[/B]
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
[B]
Barely ever. Pretty much only during english classes at school.
[/B]
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
[B]To a sharp tongued Slav, it seems like you guys basically can't use your mouth for shit. A semi-serious advice for beginning learners says, that a Czech should practice English pronounciation with a piece of boiled potato in his mouth. We have rolled r's and other various sharp stuff which would apparently be impossible to pronounce for quite a few english speakers. It's more of amusing than frustrating.
[/B]
[B]Other than that, I personally prefer English over my maternal (Czech).
[/B]
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
[B]
First, computers and games + parents, later, internet and various literature of it + online dictionaries (by now I am quite confident that I already surpassed English knowledge of my parents.
At school, I learned only very little of what wasn't grammar, and now I am considered to be one of the best in English in the year of my school (by the way, my maternal Czech is considered to be pretty damn shit)
[/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?
---
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
[B]
A bit of both. It's slowly happening more and more in English, and less and less in Czech.
[/B]
And if you have anything else to add by all means do.
[B]
Due to my pick of school and course, I have obligatory German classes, and I have to say that although German sounds rad, learning German fucking BLOWS.[/B]
[/QUOTE]
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
Back when we got Nintendo 64. I was 4-5. I'm not perfect, but I get the point across.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
I type better.
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
Rarely.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Nothing about the language itself.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
Internet, games, television. I really like how english shows in Finland are mostly subtitled rather than dubbed (because dubs are fucking horrible in most cases and it helps learning). Wasn't difficult, just learned as time passed.
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 speak a little bit of swedish. I don't really like the language but I guess its useful.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
I occasionally think in english, especially movie quotes.
I didn't really learn english at first, it just kind of stuck with me by watching a lot of Cartoon Network. Started learning english in school when I was 8, though.
I express myself better in english when speaking rather than typing, imo. When I type most of the sentences seem weird, faulty and out of place or whatever.
When not on the internet? Err... Umm... Games and english lessons, mainly. Yeah. I think in english half of the time aswell, due to being on the internet a lot.
Past tenses fuck me in the ass.
As mentioned before, I learned english from cartoons. It kind of happened sub-conciously, cause I'm pretty sure I didn't understand anything at first but then gradually it started to make more sense and I could understand what they were saying & stuff.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now? - When i was pulled from my french school, and popped into an English one, knowing about 100 words in english. No where near fluent.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa? - i can speek it better then type ( my spelling is at about the level of a 8 year old (thank you auto spell check)
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? - a bit, whole family is french, besides my gf.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of? - Spelling, and how some words are spelled, and how they are said ect.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult? School..and i still learn things now.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
I think at about age 12. Not fully fluent.
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
Better at typing
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
Almost never, except at English classes at school.
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Words that end with 'th' kind of bother me. When I hear Dutch people try and talk English and exaggerate the 'th's' it sounds really stupid.
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
I didn't learn much English from school, I've watched Cartoon Network a lot when I was 12 and they would put on shows in English with Dutch subtitles and I would learn much from it. Then I further developed my English thanks to forums like these.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
I usually think in Turkish or Dutch, not in English. I can count much faster and do math stuff in Turkish in my head.
[b]When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/b]
I started learning basic English in the two final years of primary school, but the first year of high school was the time where I really started grasping the English language. That wasn't coincidentally however, because that was also the year where I developed my addiction to the internet. I speak English almost completely fluently now and I'm noticeably better at it than other people of my age in Holland.
[b]Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/b]
It's not that, when talking, I can't think fast enough to be able to speak English well, but I have difficulty pronouncing some words, so it's far from fluent. I'm much more comfortable with writing English.
[b]How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/b]
Daily, all of my physics books and exercises are in English.
[b]Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/b]
Nothing at all. Most of the grammar and spelling makes sense, which makes the language very easy to learn. It's certainly feels like a relieve after having been taught French and German. "Pronunciation" is the only word that makes me think twice before writing it down, I have no problem with words like "necessarily" and "definitely".
[b](Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?[/b]
It's actually kinda weird, but I think almost solely in English. That's mostly because of Facepunch and the English-oriented education I'm in now.
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
I actually do not know. I think it started with entertainment, mostly games on the PS1 and on the computer, because they required me to understand certain things. I think in the beginning I just asked my parents what this or that meant, and I guess that's how I learned.
I honestly don't know how I got to actually be able to form sentences in English, because I was already pretty good at English when we started having it in school.
Also interestingly, I think my littlebrother has done exactly the same. For a long time I remember reading and translating things in the games he plays, and then all of a sudden he's writing to me in English over steam. [I](I mean this started like a couple weeks ago.)[/I]
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
I like to say that I write better English than I speak Danish. For a long time I would communicate mostly on forums and in chat-rooms, exclusively in English, while I didn't talk nearly as much Danish in real life. I still suffer from this, what happens is I have a sentence I want to say, but the sentence will only work in English so it takes time before I can come up with a good Danish sentence.
But actually [I]speaking[/I] it is a whole different thing, I'm pretty bad at that and I often sort of fall over because my pronounciation can't keep up with what I'm trying to say.
And I hate the idea that I might have a Danish accent.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/B]
More than many others I think, in my little group of friends in school, we randomly change between speaking English and Danish for some reason. I'm pretty sure this isn't a normal thing to do though. Then of course there's English lessons, but those are ez-mode.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
They don't have the sound "Y". In Scandinavia and other countries like German, Y (or ü) sounds totally different than in English. In English it's just pronounced like I.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkE48xoVxPI[/url]
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
Well I guess I already answered this. Frankly I don't remember most of it. It has definitely not felt very hard. It probably was to begin with, but I've always sailed through English lessons so all I remember is English being really easy.
[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]
Just Danish. I can't speak any of the others, nor can I understand what they say that well. But I can understand Swedish and Norwegian text most of the time. Not because I've been exposed to those languages, but simply because they are so similar to Danish.
Almost all the points in these videos are also true for Danish: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpHniCEHY7I[/media]
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Not sure about all my thoughts, but I know that almost all of my 'internal discussions' are in English.
[QUOTE=DOG-GY;33501057]well you're now referring to titles of people, which i can understand. I would say that objects are just as arbitrary. For example, why would the female gender be any more appropriate to assign to a computer than the male gender? It's simpler to just consider the object genderless.
countries having genders is pointless, yes.[/QUOTE]
It kinda depends, in Icelandic words are gender specific but it helps to designate a word's function in a sentence and its tenses and such when it comes to shit like declension.
Declension is great for helping you tell what tense a sentence is in and if a word is being used as the possessive, etc.
For example, the Icelandic word for horse is the male "hestur" and would change like this depending on context:
A horse = Hestur
About a horse = Um hest
From a horse = Frá hesti
To a horse = Til hests
Now, when we're able to look at words to get an idea of their function we mostly use the gender designations to help indicate a word's definiteness or indefiniteness. (In English the word "The" serves the same purpose.)
[B]The[/B] horse = Hestur[B]inn[/B]
About [B]the[/B] horse = Um hest[B]inn[/B]
From [B]the[/B] horse = Frá hest[B]inum[/B]
To [B]the[/B] horse = Til hests[B]ins[/B]
And so on.
If a language doesn't have any declension like English for example then gender specific words don't really feel necessary imo.
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
started at the age of 8
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
no
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?[/B]
Technical words in english, everyday (mecanical engineering yo). Complet english, very rarely
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
I can't type or speak it properly, I didn't listened properly in my english class throughout the years and I've fucked up on the verb conjugaison.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
Learned a lot from playing SC (original) online when I was young. Yes it was difficult, there is a lot of slang and stuff that I couldn't find out in the dictionnary
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Both, and this is weird as fuck
Another grievance I have with english is the fact that you use the same pronoun for animals as you would for objects. Why?! :( I call my cat a "she", because she's a living thing.
[B]1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?[/B]
I have more than once had a perfectly understandable, relatively deep conversation with native english speakers (even an Asian/Scottish one with a pretty thick accent), so I consider myself relatively fluent, and consider myself to have been that more or less since I were 10-11 years old. I do think more about the wording when speaking english than danish, but I consider that a result of my slight perfectionism.
[B]2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?[/B]
My vocabulary is pretty good both spoken and written, but I tend to be more effective at writing.
[B]3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet? [/B]
Seldom. I do use it now and then, but it's incredibly situational. As others have pointed out english lessons tend to be extremely easy for avid internet users.
[B]4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?[/B]
Nope. It's a lot easier than, say, my native tongue, danish. We have random "en/et" (a bit like a/an, but it is seen in "one -" and "the -") assignments, which if you choose wrong, sounds incredibly WRONG. Apart from that, we have a huge amount of loanwords and an even larger amount of words not pronounced intuitively, what with silent letters and the like.
Well pronounciation can be a bitch at times, but it's usually not difficult to hear when something sounds right or wrong.
[B]9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?[/B]
I'm an incredibly science-nerdy guy. As a kid I enjoyed watching documentaries almost as much as Tom&Jerry and the like, and those are almost always better in english.
[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]
Yup. I'm Danish, but I've spoken with both Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic people, and apparently my dad once spoke casually to a woman a check-in in an airport in the Netherlands
, only afterwards pointing out he'd been speaking danish the whole time. I'll have to say though, Icelandic in written form could to me as well be finnish. I don'
t get it! D:
[B]76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both? [/B]
Mostly danish, but I DO actually think english at times. Mostly to get even more variety into my thought patterns. :3
Cartoon Network taught me during the first few years.
1. When did you start learning English? Would you consider yourself fully fluent now?
When I was around 6 years old, my big bro started teaching me English and got me interested in the language from an early age. In school I was the best always, and with time I kept improving. Facepunch also helped me a lot, especially with making sentences in English properly.
So yeah, I think I'm pretty fluent at it by now
2. Can you type it better than speak it, or vice versa?
I type better than I speak, my accent kind of stops me from talking in clear English. I am comprehensible though
3. How often do you use English when not on the Internet?
Pretty rarely
4. Anything particularly weird or frustrating about English you know of?
Nothing, it's a pretty simple language
9. If you didn't learn English from school, how did you learn it? Was it difficult?
Answer at the first question, it wasn't that hard since as I said, I started from an early age. By the time I was in school and learning I already knew how to say a lot of numbers in English, and a decent number of words too.
76. (Got this idea from Yzoo) When thinking, do you think in your native tongue or English, or a bit of both?
Both. Sometimes I think fully in English.
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