Happier Abroad Forum Community

growup wrote: ↑

July 29th, 2018, 7:11 pm

Do any of you fine people speak a language other than English?
If so, did you learn it in school, or was it your first language?
Inquiring minds want to know
(I speak Polish, as it was my first language, English, and some conversational Spanish)

Yohan wrote: ↑

July 30th, 2018, 4:47 am

growup wrote: ↑

July 29th, 2018, 7:11 pm

Do any of you fine people speak a language other than English?
If so, did you learn it in school, or was it your first language?
Inquiring minds want to know
(I speak Polish, as it was my first language, English, and some conversational Spanish)

Many men who moved abroad away from USA and EU speak several languages, because the people next to you are not native English speakers.

I myself am a native German speaker (EU, AUT) but I rarely use it now. I speak Japanese as my daily language, and some French and also English and some Malay and can read (but not speak) a lot of Chinese, and now try to learn more about Korean...

aspiabc wrote: ↑

July 30th, 2018, 11:07 am

The U.S. public educational system is an inept wasteful gov't employment program at all levels to high school. They teach almost nothing useful for life much less other languages which should be taught starting at grade school like developed european and asian countries do. So as a result most american adults only know a smattering of a foreign language after they've forgotten the classes in high school and college elective. So without a family culture partially or fully from a different country, it's really up to the individual to seriously learn a foreign language on their own.

zboy1 wrote: ↑

July 30th, 2018, 7:25 pm

I think most HA'ers abroad speak (very poorly, at the minimum) at least one or more foreign languages other than English, unless they're living in an English speaking country like the Philippines or Australia, etc.