Who wants cheese?

[apple_pathways]

The POLL to accompany my post about languages. As usual, I cut myself off because I ran out of time, and not necessarily because I finished asking everything I wanted. So take note: there may be follow-up questions! XD

For the purposes of this poll, we will use the following definitions from Wikipedia, that bastion of academic rigor and accuracy: (Also see this article on multilingualism.)

Language fluency is used informally to denote broadly a high level of language proficiency, most typically foreign language or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote fluid language use, as opposed to slow, halting use.

Conversational means able to carry on a casual conversation, but not necessarily without halts in speech, or gaps in vocabulary.

Skip any questions that don't apply. Pretend that it's not weird I spend so much of my free time coming up with meaningless LJ Polls written in unneccessarily-academic language.


[Poll #1706752]

Please leave any details you're willing to share about your language abilities and experiences learning foreign languages in the comments below!

Comments

[jesterjoker.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of people who haven't replied in comments! I'm curious.

In a friendly context :D I like to say I can hold a conversation in Spanish. If it revolves around subjects I'm a nerd for and have picked up words by reading the Spanish newspaper El Pais, I can ramble about ghosts and monsters and scifi and some traces of technology.

I've watched tons of anime so I was exposed to lots of Japanese from damn near the very beginning. I like to watch them in the original language unless the dubs are good (if the series is good or not all that long, I'll watch both!) and I've been working on actually /remembering/ some of the words I find. Seems important, you know?

I listen to lots of gothic and symphonic German music, so I've picked up a bit of it.

I want to learn more and more languages, but it isn't always easy to find the time. When I find scifi/fantasy/techno/metal in the languages I have a slight idea of I try to keep my hand in. I watch so many Hong Kong movies Cantonese is starting to sound extremely cool to my ears, too. :D

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of people who haven't replied in comments! I'm curious.

Me too! I especially like to hear from Americans who are fluent in a language other than English who didn't grow up in a bi/multilingual household. (Which is the case for the vast majority of bi/multilingual Americans I know!)

Growing up in such close proximity to the Detroit auto industry, I grew up having quite a few Japanese friends whose parents came over here for work. I was exposed to anime and Japanese cartoons/characters through them, but...it just never caught on with me! (To be honest, I'm not one for cartoons to begin with.)

I also have several friends I grew up with whose parents immigrated from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, and a few whose parents came from India. In college, I had a Filipino roommate who was very involved in the Filipino American Students' Association, as well as several pan-Asian groups; plus my childhoo friends who also got involved in Asian-American student orgs.

As a result, aspects of many Asian cultures are very familiar to me! I can't say I speak much Japanese/Cantonese/Tagalog, but I can certainly hold my own in an asian restaurant! XD

[jesterjoker.livejournal.com]

The closest I got to actually growing up with Asian friends was wanting to go to Tokyo desperately, and one of my friends, however problematic we get, still share that urge.

I'm vaguely envious of all your Asian friends, but that's a bizarre thing to feel because things like that just shake out to chance! The sooner I move, the sooner I figure (half-joking, half-not) I'll probably spend all of my time in Little Tokyos anyway. ;)

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I feel really fortunate to have grown up with such a diverse group of friends! It's definitely given me a broader worldview, and as a social worker, it's done a lot to help me feel comfortable with people of backgrounds different to my own.

That's a huge incentive to move! Ready access to Asian grocery stores is pretty much essential to my existence. What would I do without a nearby supplier of fish sauce and lichi candy? :P

[jesterjoker.livejournal.com]

Diverse people! Diverse foods! O_O

If I was in a weird mood, that would be an odd juxtaposition! O_O

I keep working on the move but it doesn't seem to happen. Damn jobs.