Agreed, hiragana and katakana are the abc's of japanese, I can hardly believe anyone can be proficient at Japanese without memorizing them. Learning in romanji just seems... elementary.

Hey, don't take it too hard, we're all learning.

I'm French and I speak... french, and proficiently english. I'm litterate in Spanish but I can't understand oral properly.

In France you are obliged to learn a 2d language (most of the time, either spanish or german) starting from 8th grade. I don't know why the hell the french National Education decided to force us to do this, since French people can barely understand English properly and are known to have the worst level of foreign language in Europe.... xD

I have 2 native languages: Hungarian and Romanian. I currently live in England so English is my third proficient one. Studied Spanish in university and studied one year there, which is my fourth. Learned German for 10 years during my school years. Also studied bit of Japanese in uni, but I'm not proficient in that. I find it difficult though sometimes to switch from a language to the other.

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whatever

I read, write and speak in Russian, Hebrew and English (yes, simultaneously ;p).
And that's it.

It seems to me that this thread has somehow turned into a penis measuring contest.


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Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Like the rest of the world...

1. English
2. Chinese (Cantonese + Mandarin)

I can get by with a bit of French and my Vietnamese listening skills are perfectly fine, but tell me to read/write/speak the language and I'd be screwed. A distant relative called the other day, but since I don't speak a word of Vietnamese and she doesn't understand English, we were just conversing in "um's" and "ah's." It was rather sad when she finally hung up, seeing as I understood every single thing she said.

I took 6 years of French immersion. My grammar is pretty terrible, but I can read it quite well, and people can understand what I mean when I speak. I can also hold a decent conversation in it.

While I wouldn't take a job in French, I would take one where French would be used sometimes. So I figure that is proficient enough for me to pick "English and..."

Oh, and I'm Canadian, for those interested.

I pretend I know English and Spanish, but I'm proficient in neither.

I know English and Spanish well enough, matey.

I'm in the process of learning Japanese, yet I can't do anything too fancy with it.

Those comments alongside each option don't really spice up the poll, yet they can irritate some people.
They're on you Lamb, since you chose to include them.

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ミレニアム・マ スター１８

I know someone who knows 6! Approaching Hayate the Combat Butler Heroine's (female hero, characters) status!

I know English (mother tongue) and I'm in my 5th year of learning Japanese. I studied for 2 years in college and the other 3 years as self taught. I know enough vocab to read some manga and 1st grade novels.

I know English, French, Italian, German and my mothertongue albanian

And there I was, ready to throw a hissy fit.




English only, though I'm Swiss/Israeli and lived in England until four years ago. Also am the only non-tri-or-more-lingual member of my family.


I figure I'm only capable of one language, as when I learned Hebrew as a kid, I forgot English, and when I re-learned English, I forgot Hebrew.

Here's another way: Try asking people. I actually think it will be much quicker learning the language by talking and listening, since I lived in Japan when I was small, all I can remember is how to speak, now I want to learn the letters properly again. I doubt one can say that one doesn't knwo the language in that case.
If you want people not to get annoyed by your comments, learn how to write one that has no such effect. Otherwise, live with it or continue to discuss.
You start with kana first, nobody's saying otherwise. Would you like me to record my lesson as proof that we start with hiragana, which you have to learn by yourself later on, and then kanji? Nobody's saying katakana's not important, but we just do it later on or the students should learn by themselves.
Well, how about just leave it at that, in 2 years I'll be 19 and I am pretty sure I can reach to your level.

Last edited by giinko at 3:54 pm, Apr 28 2012

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Man is more ape than many of the apes.

Albanian, huh... That's neat. *~*


... Agreed.

I am...

Fluent in English, know some Vietnamese, learning Japanese, and know random Spanish (Mis pantalones estan en tu suelo..... among other things).

But I answered "Just English" to be on the safe side..... Lol~

Love,
Pika.

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I can speak French & English. I can speak Korean as well, but my grammar still isn't perfect.