caparica007

Hola David, welcome to linguaholic. What languages do you speak? I hope to see you in the Spanish practice thread so that you can help me improve my Spanish.  :wacky:

It depends on the country. Here in Portugal I think it's an option, we always learn English and then we have the option for French or German. In English native speaking countries I think they should offer Spanish first and then French, German or Portuguese maybe.

Wow... This is impressive! How come you have so many languages? Do you have a national language spoken by everyone or not really?

English is improving worldwide, I suppose India is no exception.

There are hundreds of different languages spoken in India. The most spoken are:

1.Hindi

2.Bengali

3.Telugu

4.Marathi

5.Tamil

6.Urdu

7.Gujarati

8.Kannada

9.Malayalam

10.Oriya

11.Punjabi

12.Assamese

You can see the complete list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers_in_India

Most of North India speaks Indo-Aryan languages, while South India speaks Dravidian languages. There are language familes too like sino-tibetian and Munda Austroasiatic languages.

I'm not postive about literacy rates, I know the literacy rate in India is low but it is changing. I would think most  middle class, working class and upper class in cities would know how to read and write in their mother tounge and in English. But I'm not entirely sure.

I also want to point out that the list above only applies to India, but some languages in a world language ranking would rank much higher, for example Punjabi has many speakers in Pakistan and migrant communities in England and elsewhere. Same for Tamil, Tamil is also spoke in some parts of Sri Lanka and is an offical language of Singapore and has a sizeable speaking community in Malayasia as well. Also since Hindi/Urdu are so simmilair they are often ranked together.

I think that learning languages it's a great hobby, why not, possibly you'll need the language in the future and there you go. I've studied a lot of languages and I have forgotten about most of them. Russian I studied for about 2 years possibly that is why I still have some basics. Reading is a great way to keep the language alive in your head.

Hey there Shana, welcome to linguaholic. Why are you language Spanish? We have a whole sub-forum for Spanish, I hope to see you there.

Quite right pink, practice you French or else you'll arrive in France open your mouth and nothing will come out.  :wacky:

Welcome to the forum, I hope to see you around.

I wonder what's happening inside his head so that he can organize so much information, it's probably read and memorize. What can he do knowing so many languages, the possibilities are endless...

Subtitles can be hilarious. I have watched many French films with English subtitles where there is little resemblance between what is being spoken and what is being offered in the subtitles - totally different stories so you get two films for the price of one!

That can happen too, I've seen pretty poor subtitles, but normally it's not the case. Most movies here in Portugal are in English and have subtitles, it's something I've grown with.

It's very rare for me to speak Spanish, just if some Spanish Erasmus student comes to my office and can't speak English I start speaking Spanish, but this is not common.

India is a huge country, how many languages are spoken in your country? How's the literacy level from the people that don't speak English, can they read and write Hindi or their other native language?

I think that is pretty much like any other language, hard work. If you don't have a teacher (if you are learning yourself) audiotapes are a must, that's how I did it. 

I've studied Hindi maybe 15 years ago because I was working with a publishing house that wanted to introduce a book in India. Probably I lost my time because for what I can see most people there can read English right?  :indian:

Apart from the cultural heritage lost, it's a good or bad thing for India in practical terms? I thought everyone spoke Indian in your country...

Hey there Victor, I'd say your body is 60 (pretty old indeed  ), but you seem to be a young spirit.  :party:

I hope you enjoy it here.  :pirate:

She lived in a beautiful castle on the top of a mountain, but dangerous days were about to come.  :cry:

If you learn Russian, but have no one to talk to it will be harder. What's your motivation to learn it?  :pirate:

Welcome Evelyne!  :karate:

Learning a language is hard work, I don't know how you manage to learn two at the same time. Good luck, you will find a good support here.  :grin:

That sort of situations happen to me sometimes because I work in a university and we have a lot of foreign students, so if a Chinese looking guy comes to me I never know if he will speak English or perfectly normal Portuguese... (I am in Portugal).  :wacky:

I hate dubbing. I prefer watching a show in the original language, if it is dubbed I prefer not to watch it. With subtitles it's great because you can actually learn the language while you are watching the movie.  :party:

Mmm, not really no. I can manage English and other languages and I live in Portugal so I am pretty happy I am a native Portuguese speaker.

Corazon de pollo me gusta mucho en el caldo de pollo. Ahora que veo, no se decir muchas comidas en español...  :frozen:

Aber ich wollte nicht mit ihm zusammen zu leben, aber neben ihm zu leben (near him right?).

Die Angelegenheit war jedoch äussert (what means aussert?) kompliziert/schwierig und so kam es schlussendlich nicht dazu. :grin: Genau so! 

Vor etwa 10 Jahren hatte ich einen guten Freund und ich plante mit ihm zusammen zu leben. Die Angelegenheit war jedoch äussert kompliziert/schwierig und so kam es schlussendlich nicht dazu. :grin:

If you got some questions regarding my corrections, please let me know  :wacky:

Gavarish pa russki? Ya gavario nemnoga, no ne imeiot russkuio klaviaturu...  :wacky:

I've studied Thai and I haven't found their alphabet particularly difficult. I only studied for a few months, so I didn't progress much, but after studying Chinese characters I think everything else looks easy.

Français est une langue que je n'aime pas, je ne cest pas porquois, peut-être parce qu'ils parlent mal?