be trilingual

For a family dinner party 2 weeks ago, I used recipes in each of my 3 languages. :)

_{All three were yummy, but the Slovenian one (Peach tiramisu) was especially delicious!}

Trilingual

I wonder when you can actually say that you can speak a language. I am not sure

I have a complete understanding of everyday English ( Shakespeare is a completly different matter)

I have a grasp of Irish and can understand everyday German & French.

Would like to develop my French accent more and be able to write better in all those languages

It just happened to me, I didn’t plan it. It’s useful to be sure, but it’s not exactly something people should necessarily do unless circumstances are such. Learning a foreign language is another issue altogether, being trilingual, i.e. native or almost native in three languages is something else.

I’m now regularly writing a blog in (_{properly written! no “OMGLOL txt speek” for me, thank you :P}) Croatian. I’ve calculated that I produce 22 words of useful content per minute on average, so I’m even thinking about Nanowrimo next year after seeing all the excitement on 43T. :)

Due to having a (_{very talkative}) Slovenian boyfriend, I’m speaking Slovenian even more often. This has a detrimental effect on my verbal skills in Croatian, so I’ll just have to call my Mum more often (_{guess she won’t complain}). But I’m learning new words from a very wide range (_{from knitting to paragliding ;)}). I still need to practice writing non-technical stuff more often, but eh, there are thousands of people less literate than me, so it doesn’t seem like a big priority. :P

I speak English more often due to some changes at work. I have an idea for a blog in English, but first I have to get used to writing regularly, because keeping two blogs alive feels like too much to handle at this point.

PS. Also, for all Nanowrimers: Write or Die is a great little webapp, if you haven’t found it yet. ;)

I’m a native Dutch speaker, and I’ve learnt French (8 years) and English (4 years) in school. Furthermore I’ve studied Latin and some German (in high school) and I’ve got some basic understanding of Spanish, but that’s by no means conversation grade knowledge.

I’m reasonably fluent in 3 languages: Croatian (_{+ a dialect of Croatian spoken in the region where I grew up, and it’s a language of its own, trust me}), English and Slovenian. I can speak and read and write in all of them. What I’d like to do is take it to the next level and be articulate in all of them. I can still remember the feeling of knowing the right word instead of grasping for it and settling for a similar one in the end. :( I want to feel like that again.

I’ll forget about my other languages (Italian, Japanese, German) for a while and work on these three. Sure, it would be nice to be a polyglot, but at this point I feel it’s better to do a few things well than a lot of things poorly.

The strategy is to read more in Croatian and Slovenian (95% of my reading is in English), to write more in all 3 languages (and write properly, not just stream-of-consciousness journal entries and chat/txt speak) and to listen to “proper” language more often (radio shows, podcasts).

I might add subgoals for these things later. For now, I’m making writing a part of my summer challenge – I’m trying to do the BBC’s Get Writing mini-course in my 3 languages. I think I won’t strive to read more in Croatian and Slovenian, as I have a mountain of books in English to read first. As for listening, I’m not going to work extra hard on it, but I will listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I’m running.

well i’m originally turkish, i have been learning english for 9 years and german for 7 years and i’m pretty fluent in both of them :) it absolutely helps you to improve yourself…

I’m into my fourth semester and have read the first 3 chapters of this novel! I’m considering a semester abroad in spring 2009. I’m beginning to have dreams in French and although I’m sure they’re not grammatically correct, I think that’s a big deal.

Yo he acabado todas las clases de la gramática española que ofrece mi universidad. Estoy tomando una clase del proceso de desarrollo social y económico en Latinoamérica y España, y se conduce la clase en español. Intento decidir cuál idioma quiero estudiar después de este semestre, ¿chino o francés? Francés sería más fácil seguramente, pero me intereso más por chino porque es como un arte. Es posible que tendré que tomar francés para estar admitido a un conservatorio.

Might just worry about this later, when I can do it more sincerely and intensely.

Humans really don’t multitask that well.