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

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

I don't know if my poll answers need a bit of explanation, but you get one anyway. ;)

I'm not a native English speaker. In fact, I didn't speak any English till about age 5 when I started school. But tbh, I've been speaking English pretty much since that time, and arguably I speak it better than any of the other languages I speak.

I learned my native tongue via my parents (imagine that), but I also learned a couple of other Indian languages by cultural osmosis (movies, mostly). I grew up in Canada in an officially bilingual city, so I learned French in school, and later, we lived in Francophone Africa, so more cultural osmosis/immersion, lol.

At college, I learned German (because of a boy...isn't that always the reason, lol?), and I really enjoyed that. Then, because I wasn't quite done with the whole language thing, I also learned Italian. I'm not fluent by any means, however.

Finally, thanks to law school, I have a working knowledge of Latin, although again, nowhere near fluency.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Explanations are not required, but I am delighted to receive them! If I weren't incredibly fascinated by the way people acquire multiple language skills, I wouldn't have created this poll!

I grew up with lots of friends whose parents were from India and other Asian countries, and while most of them understand a great deal of their parents' native language, they're not particularly good at speaking it--and very often, they're reluctant to do so! I've worked with many bilingual children, and a lot of them seem to feel as if their parents' native tongue is some sort of special family language, and not to be spoken outside the home. Speaking to one's parents in Tagalog, or Telugu, or Cantonese in public becomes akin to having your mother address you by your childhood nickname in front of your friends!

When I worked with children who spoke Spanish at home, I was desperate to practice my language abilities! But when I would speak to them in Spanish, they'd answer me in English. Even little kids--as young as three--had a very clear definition of when Spanish is used and when English is used, and one DOES NOT speak Spanish with the white girl at school!

I find your life history, and your history of languages, to be especially fascinating! Do you think learning more than one language from an early age has helped you to pick up others?