Spanish is my main language, and started English since playing video games at 5 years old but became more fluent many years later.

My native language is Polish. I started learning English when I was 11. I seem to have a knack for learning languages because I always got good grades without much effort (unfortunately, I wasn't so good at other subjects...).

@chrum
Well, I'm Slovak and I can tell Czech from Polish anytime.

For Slovak people is kind of natural to understand Czech (and the other way around). It's mainly based of the fact that once upon a time 20 years ago we were one republic. Historically Czechs and Slovaks were friendly and supporting each other from a long time ago.
Moreover it's similar and when you come into contact with it from early childhood (watching fairy-tales <3 ) there's no chance you won't understand it.

Although Polish is reportedly closer to Slovak, we come across each other less often, so even if I roughly know what's the other one saying I can't tell all the details or answer in Polish.

Uh. That would be it.

Besides I started learning English when I was about 5 or so, but it was more like "Hello, I'm English, nice to meet you." than actual learning.

And then there's a bit of German I know and Russian and a tiny bit of Japanese (Every otaku gets through that stage of "I will learn Japanese!" and so did I.. Hope I will continue with it someday. <3).

Another Polish-speaking Pole reporting for duty. Though I read and listen and write in English so much, I sometimes think and talk in English without even realizing it...

My native language is Netherlands but i'm from Chinese origin
I learned English at school when i was 10 but i understood it fairly early

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Live for something otherwise u'll die for nothing

Top three (so far):

1. Spanish/English
2. Polish/Finnish
3. Portuguese

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Far-off places with sweet sounding names.

@KuroiMarimo Might be because of my not-so-big experience with Czech/Slovak but I can't tell them apart at all... <feeling just a tiny bit ashamed here>

狂気 Spanish, English and Portuguese seem likely, but why does this forum attract so many Poles/Finns? Neither is an overly big nation...

@chrum
well, Slovak and Czech are really simillar, so you don't need to be ashamed at all. for example "suche plody" are in Slovak "suche plody" too. Everyone who learned one of them would have difficulties telling them apart. Polish is a lot different from Slovak. Not all of us even understand it. I can, but I don't think I would be able to say a sentence in it.


...
btw., if the internet would be in German, all people would speak German. Just saying. Seeing some people I know that can't speak English, all of them visit only our websites and watch movies with dubs. So I can understand why a lot of English speakers don't know other language. (not offending here)

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if there is an option between "to do" and "not to do", I will always choose the latter.

"what kind of crazy, twisted conclusion is that...?" - banana bread no puding

Perhaps manga is relatively popular there? Or perhaps just the percentage of people active on internet forums is high among manga readers? There's popular forums about manga and anime in French, Spanish and many Asians languages but probably not in the languages of many smaller (European) nations (probably) so maybe they come to English sites instead? Or maybe Finns and Poles are just generally more active on internet forums and stuff.

Last edited by 狂気 at 9:55 am, Oct 16 2013

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Far-off places with sweet sounding names.

Or maybe we are so self-conscious that we have to underline every time that "we are Poles and that doesn't mean that we are village idiots"... or maybe it's just my imagination?

Idk about the Finns though...

I wonder what is it like to be a native English speaker.. How do you choose then your second language?

Last edited by chrum at 1:55 pm, Sep 25 2013

Trick question, for Americans anyway - most of us don't learn a second language.

Most US schools don't offer foreign languages until Jr. High or High School (grade 6-7 and higher) which of course is past the age when learning a second language is easiest. When I was in school the only languages to choose from were French & Spanish; I think those are the most frequently offered and then maybe German...some places with populations that speak other languages probably offer those languages as well but nowhere I went to school did.

In bigger towns/cities there are probably private language schools kids can go to, but smaller towns often have nothing for foreign languages.

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"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
-James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Native language is French.
The only other language I'm (more or less) fluent in is English. I actually learnt from watching series/movies with the english subs, and reading books in english.

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My first language is Brazilian Portuguese.
My English is pretty good in comparison to other people I know. In Brazil, English Language is in the curriculum throughout school life, but honestly what they teach doesn't do much for anybody. Most people learn more from videogames and computers rather than at school. The internet was the best English teacher I ever had.
I also took Spanish classes in middle school.

same here. Although I learned a little bit of Spanish in kindergarten (when I was 5) after that, I didn't have another language class until 8th grade. Our choices were Spanish and Latin. When I got to 9th grade, they started offering French. Anyways, even though I got great grades in Spanish class, I stopped after 4 years because I realized that I still couldn't understand any of it outside of Spanish class. I tried watching a few Spanish shows for practice, but was completely lost without subtitles and eventually got tired of trying.

I didn't expect that.
In Poland first foreign language (99% cases that would be English) is usually introduced in the 1st-3rd grade (but classes are also held in some kindergartens), and later, around the beginning of Junior High (7th grade), but sometimes even in the 4th grade you get to learn a second foreign language (usually German, French or Russian, less often: Spanish or Italian or minority languages).
Without the knowledge of at least one foreign language you won't pass the exams at the end of High School (Polish, Math and Foreign Language are compulsory)