What's your level?

[Trellum]

Ok guys, let's talk about the languages we know and our levels.  For that we are going to use the level definitions used by the Common European Framework, they are as follows:

 

 

A thread I read recently made me thing about this, since there are people on this forum who are learning several languages or that they already speak several languages... I thought it'd be interesting to know what level they considered their languages to be at.   I find that super interesting     I was actually think about this today... we rarely talk about levels, but lately this is something that is always on my mind, since i need to have a level of A1 in dutch in order to pass my test. 

So here it goes:

• Spanish (mother tongue)
• English C2  - 3 years to master it.
• Dutch   A1  - So far only 8 months - I slacked a lot though  
• French A1 - (6 months, but stopped too soon)

 

Your turn guys!  Please feel free to also add how long you have been studying each language! 

 

Edited October 9, 2015 by Trellum

[Gabriela01]

Good topic Trellum!

I am a native Spanish speaker, who learnt English at school. I also studied Italian for two years, but I didn't feel confortable with the teacher so I quite. 

And four years ago my husband and I moved to Brazil so I had to learnt Potuguese.

In my case:

Spanish - Native Speaker

Portuguese- C2

English- C2-C1 (If I am not in touch with the language, I start to lose vocabulary and other things).

Italian- A1 (But, I am going to study again soon).

 

[Chris_A]

I would say:

Hungarian - Native Speaker

Romanian - C2 (I live and grew up here)

German - C2 (I also lived in Germany in Austria and went to school there)

English - C2 (Virtually everything I do or everywhere I look has something to do with the English language)

[lushlala]

My language skills are as follows:

Setswana: Native speaker

English: near native, I've spoken it all my life, It's the most commonly spoken language and official language of Botswana.

French: A1 (studied for 5 years at university, studied in France for 3 months) Now rather rusty

Italian: A1 studied for a year, then spent 3 months in Italy with sole purpose of learning the language. Now rather rusty  

 

[Tyrell]

• Indonesian (mother tongue)
• English - C2
• Spanish - A1
• Chinese - A1
• Malay - B1
• Dutch - A1

I think I'm rather fluent at English. I've been learning and practicing it for years, but there's always room for improvement. I express myself better when I'm typing though, so I still have to work on my speaking English. Plus I love learning new words, and there are still a bunch of English words that I don't know yet. Expanding my vocabulary is my priority for English right now.

I just started learning Spanish, so that's an A1. Chinese, I tried to learn it in middle school and junior high school but it never really stuck with me. But I do know the basics (or some of them at least). Plus I know how to learn to ten so that's special. I try to talk to my Malaysian friends in Malay since it's pretty similar to my native language, and they fix it whenever I make a mistake. I never learned it through applications or tests, mostly only spoken and written conversations. Dutch.. my mother's grandmother is half Dutch and she talks to her in Dutch from time to time. My mother has forgotten most of it, but she still remembers some, and she often slips in some Dutch into our conversations, and I've just grown to understand it. I don't know how to write them though. That aside, the Indonesian language borrows A LOT from the Dutch, just sometimes in different spelling. According to the Wiki, it is estimated that 10,000 words in Indonesian language can be traced to the Dutch language.

 

[Wanda Kaishin]

I'm glad to see this topic brought up, and I think it would be nice if this info was included in our profile page, rather than just saying "I'm fluent". I'll just mention how long ago I started, since I consider most to be works in progress.

English - Native (53 years)

Spanish - C1 (42 years but rarely use it)

Swahili - B1 (16 years, but haven't used it the last 13)

Thai - B2 (12 years)

Japanese - B2 (10 years)

Mandarin - B1 (8 years)

French - B1 (6 years)

Russian - B2 (5 years)

Korean, Portuguese, Italian, German - not started

 

 

[FrenchFries]

English: A1 (Native)

French: C1-C2 (3 years)

I'm shocked at how being able to understand is merely delegated to C2. I thought I was pretty good at French,so this thread is like a wake-up call that there is SO MUCH more to learn. I'm excited!

[Trellum]

French, C2 is more than just understanding. C2 is more like when you have already dominated said language, then you can say your level is C2.  When you understand absolutely everything you hear and read,  ''differentiating finer shades or meaning'' as well as a good knowledge of slang in said language. At this level you can say you have mastered the language, and can express yourself with ease, as if you were using your own mother tongue   A1 is more about understanding basic things, use and understand basic phrases used in everyday life, etc.

[Trellum]

I would say:

Hungarian - Native Speaker

Romanian - C2 (I live and grew up here)

German - C2 (I also lived in Germany in Austria and went to school there)

English - C2 (Virtually everything I do or everywhere I look has something to do with the English language)

That is so interesting!  So your parents are Hungarians living in Romania then?   I met someone once who was originally from Hungary, what a beautiful language that is, but so hard to learn!   The husband of my sister in law is trying to learn it, no idea how he is actually going      Kudos to you for getting all those languages to level C2!  That is truly admirable!  Not many people can say they have mastered 3 different languages 

[Trellum]

I'm glad to see this topic brought up, and I think it would be nice if this info was included in our profile page, rather than just saying "I'm fluent". I'll just mention how long ago I started, since I consider most to be works in progress.

English - Native (53 years)

Spanish - C1 (42 years but rarely use it)

Swahili - B1 (16 years, but haven't used it the last 13)

Thai - B2 (12 years)

Japanese - B2 (10 years)

Mandarin - B1 (8 years)

French - B1 (6 years)

Russian - B2 (5 years)

Korean, Portuguese, Italian, German - not started

 

I agree   It would be much better to actually see the levels next to each language listed.   By the way, awesome list of languages!  I think it's really impressing you have taken on Japanese, Russian and Mandarin!  

• Indonesian (mother tongue)
• English - C2
• Spanish - A1
• Chinese - A1
• Malay - B1
• Dutch - A1

I think I'm rather fluent at English. I've been learning and practicing it for years, but there's always room for improvement. I express myself better when I'm typing though, so I still have to work on my speaking English. Plus I love learning new words, and there are still a bunch of English words that I don't know yet. Expanding my vocabulary is my priority for English right now.

I just started learning Spanish, so that's an A1. Chinese, I tried to learn it in middle school and junior high school but it never really stuck with me. But I do know the basics (or some of them at least). Plus I know how to learn to ten so that's special. I try to talk to my Malaysian friends in Malay since it's pretty similar to my native language, and they fix it whenever I make a mistake. I never learned it through applications or tests, mostly only spoken and written conversations. Dutch.. my mother's grandmother is half Dutch and she talks to her in Dutch from time to time. My mother has forgotten most of it, but she still remembers some, and she often slips in some Dutch into our conversations, and I've just grown to understand it. I don't know how to write them though. That aside, the Indonesian language borrows A LOT from the Dutch, just sometimes in different spelling. According to the Wiki, it is estimated that 10,000 words in Indonesian language can be traced to the Dutch language.

 

I forgot to add that instead of A1 people could use 0, because if you just started learning a language and you can't understand simple texts or know basic everyday phrases, then your level is 0.  My bad!   And yes, I've heard about the special history between the dutch and the Indonesian people. Did you know a lot people in the Netherlands claim Indonesian ancestry? My fiance's mom claims her grandmother was half Indonesian, hence the super curly hair they all have, hehehe. 

My language skills are as follows:

Setswana: Native speaker

English: near native, I've spoken it all my life, It's the most commonly spoken language and official language of Botswana.

French: A1 (studied for 5 years at university, studied in France for 3 months) Now rather rusty

Italian: A1 studied for a year, then spent 3 months in Italy with sole purpose of learning the language. Now rather rusty  

 

That's very interesting, but why haven't you continued learning further? You lost interest? 

Good topic Trellum!

I am a native Spanish speaker, who learnt English at school. I also studied Italian for two years, but I didn't feel confortable with the teacher so I quite. 

And four years ago my husband and I moved to Brazil so I had to learnt Potuguese.

In my case:

Spanish - Native Speaker

Portuguese- C2

English- C2-C1 (If I am not in touch with the language, I start to lose vocabulary and other things).

Italian- A1 (But, I am going to study again soon).

 

Wow..!!!  You already speak Portuguese fluently?  That is so interesting and hello fellow Spanish speaking buddy   Portuguese looks and sounds a lot like Spanish, that is one of the several reasons why I haven't felt like studying it (I've a neurological problem and I might get confused easily), but we will be close to Portugal, so I probably should.  It's a beautiful sounding language   Where are you from by the way?  I'm curious because we are both native Spanish speakers    I love to hear the stories of fellow Spanish speakers who took a leap of faith and decided to move to a different country!  Just like I am doing  

Edited October 12, 2015 by Trellum

[hungary93]

Well native tongue of course does not matter here sooo, maybe:

english - c1

german - a2

romanian -a1

 

[lushlala]

I forgot to add that instead of A1 people could use 0, because if you just started learning a language and you can't understand simple texts or know basic everyday phrases, then your level is 0.  My bad!   And yes, I've heard about the special history between the dutch and the Indonesian people. Did you know a lot people in the Netherlands claim Indonesian ancestry? My fiance's mom claims her grandmother was half Indonesian, hence the super curly hair they all have, hehehe. 

That's very interesting, but why haven't you continued learning further? You lost interest? 

Eh no I didn't just lose interest LOL Life happened and for reasons I'd rather not go into, some thing took precedence over my interest in language learning. Sadly that meant I had to put it in the back burner for a while, and a while just kept getting longer and longer. it's nice to know that i may soon have the option of going back to my learning, because it's something I've wanted to do for ages

RE the history between the dutch and Indonesian; that's very interesting! I never knew about it, and it seems pretty random LOL

[lingualbabe]

My levels would be:

Filipino/Tagalog - mother tongue

English - C2

Korean - A1

I hope to learn more from the Korean language and also learn other languages. 

[Tyrell]

I forgot to add that instead of A1 people could use 0, because if you just started learning a language and you can't understand simple texts or know basic everyday phrases, then your level is 0.  My bad!   And yes, I've heard about the special history between the dutch and the Indonesian people. Did you know a lot people in the Netherlands claim Indonesian ancestry? My fiance's mom claims her grandmother was half Indonesian, hence the super curly hair they all have, hehehe. 

Ah, well I suppose I should give some of those languages a 0! I want to add a few more languages and give them a 0 but that won't exactly benefit me so I'll skip on that (being a jack of all trades suck to be honest). And oh my, really? I actually didn't know that! There are a lot of people here who claim Dutch ancestry (they're usually very attractive, upper class people) but I didn't know it's like that in Netherlands as well. That's very interesting though! 

[Trellum]

Ah, well I suppose I should give some of those languages a 0! I want to add a few more languages and give them a 0 but that won't exactly benefit me so I'll skip on that (being a jack of all trades suck to be honest). And oh my, really? I actually didn't know that! There are a lot of people here who claim Dutch ancestry (they're usually very attractive, upper class people) but I didn't know it's like that in Netherlands as well. That's very interesting though! 

Hehehe, I think my mother in law's grandma was Indonesian, my mother in law is so proud of that.  But it's kinda funny the only trait that according to her has survived is the curly hair, because her kids are pink/white and have blonde hair and blue eyes.  We are always joking about that   My fiance also jokes about that, about how Indonesian he looks, lol.  How is your dutch by the way?  Maybe we can exchange a few dutch words here and there  

[Tyrell]

Hehehe, I think my mother in law's grandma was Indonesian, my mother in law is so proud of that.  But it's kinda funny the only trait that according to her has survived is the curly hair, because her kids are pink/white and have blonde hair and blue eyes.  We are always joking about that   My fiance also jokes about that, about how Indonesian he looks, lol.  How is your dutch by the way?  Maybe we can exchange a few dutch words here and there  

Hmm, I'm not sure if curly hair is really associated with being Indonesian though. But maybe your Indonesian ancestor has curly hair, so that's great!
My Dutch is.. well, not very good, to be honest. I mean I know some words here and there, and there are probably words that I've been saying that is actually Dutch but I just don't realize it. But if I was to speak to a Dutch person, I'd most likely recognize at least a few words! I can't make a sentence though, I just know what the words mean haha. And even then I probably can't spell them right since the spelling is almost always different.

[Trellum]

Eh no I didn't just lose interest LOL Life happened and for reasons I'd rather not go into, some thing took precedence over my interest in language learning. Sadly that meant I had to put it in the back burner for a while, and a while just kept getting longer and longer. it's nice to know that i may soon have the option of going back to my learning, because it's something I've wanted to do for ages

RE the history between the dutch and Indonesian; that's very interesting! I never knew about it, and it seems pretty random LOL

Oh the same thing happened to me, when I was 16 I really wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but sadly life got in the way.  I still managed to keep improving my English though, but I forgot about all those languages. And to this day I don't know if I'll ever do what I planned     But I'm glad to read you will give this another try, good for you!   And yes, I didn't know much about it either until I was in the Netherlands, Indonesia was a dutch colony but gained their independence while ago.  It's quite interesting, apparently a lot dutch people have Indonesian ancestry and visce versa. 

[Trellum]

Hmm, I'm not sure if curly hair is really associated with being Indonesian though. But maybe your Indonesian ancestor has curly hair, so that's great!My Dutch is.. well, not very good, to be honest. I mean I know some words here and there, and there are probably words that I've been saying that is actually Dutch but I just don't realize it. But if I was to speak to a Dutch person, I'd most likely recognize at least a few words! I can't make a sentence though, I just know what the words mean haha. And even then I probably can't spell them right since the spelling is almost always different.

 I'm not the dutch one   My fiance is Dutch, but I am not. His mother swears they have curly hair because their Indonesian roots,  but maybe next time I see her I'll tell her what you told me. You know more since you are Indonesian yourself.  You know your country and your people, she doesn't, lol.  But she always wants to pretend she knows more than everyone else (even if she knows she is wrong), just some months ago she wanted to direct me while I was cooking a dish from my own country!  So to be honest I always take what she says with a grain of salt  

[lushlala]

Oh the same thing happened to me, when I was 16 I really wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but sadly life got in the way.  I still managed to keep improving my English though, but I forgot about all those languages. And to this day I don't know if I'll ever do what I planned     But I'm glad to read you will give this another try, good for you!   And yes, I didn't know much about it either until I was in the Netherlands, Indonesia was a dutch colony but gained their independence while ago.  It's quite interesting, apparently a lot dutch people have Indonesian ancestry and visce versa. 

I have to say you've done so well of yourself, in terms of learning foreign languages. So don't be too hard on yourself. You must also have a good aptitude for it, so I bet you'll manage just fine if you ever decide to revisit some of the languages you left behind. 

[Trellum]

I have to say you've done so well of yourself, in terms of learning foreign languages. So don't be too hard on yourself. You must also have a good aptitude for it, so I bet you'll manage just fine if you ever decide to revisit some of the languages you left behind. 

Thank you, I hope you can go back to studying french  soon    Learning English has been the best decision I have ever made, learning a new language can really pen a lot doors, i'm sure for you too.  Just give it a try. It seems this world we are living  in is becoming more and more globalized, so that is good for us people who are into language learning     More opportunities for us! 

[lushlala]

Thank you, I hope you can go back to studying french  soon    Learning English has been the best decision I have ever made, learning a new language can really pen a lot doors, i'm sure for you too.  Just give it a try. It seems this world we are living  in is becoming more and more globalized, so that is good for us people who are into language learning     More opportunities for us! 

Thank you to you too, Trellum! I sure hope to pick up both my French and Italian where I left off in the near future. The only problem is that Italian is not as easily accessible as french here. But hey, I guess that's what modern technology is for, right? These days there really is no real excuse for not learning anything, including foreign languages. I mean, with all the online resources, including some very good free ones, we can all take advantage of and exploit all these resources made available to us to realise our aspirations. I'm glad that you succeeded in teaching yourself English up to the point where you are. It's amazing

[lushlala]

 I'm not the dutch one   My fiance is Dutch, but I am not. His mother swears they have curly hair because their Indonesian roots,  but maybe next time I see her I'll tell her what you told me. You know more since you are Indonesian yourself.  You know your country and your people, she doesn't, lol.  But she always wants to pretend she knows more than everyone else (even if she knows she is wrong), just some months ago she wanted to direct me while I was cooking a dish from my own country!  So to be honest I always take what she says with a grain of salt  

Hehe you made me laugh with the description of your (future) mother in law LOL I know people like that, but I'm sure she means no harm. She probably thinks she knows it all by virtue of being older. The best thing to do is what you do, plus just entertain her and let her think she's in the right LOL

[Trellum]

Thank you to you too, Trellum! I sure hope to pick up both my French and Italian where I left off in the near future. The only problem is that Italian is not as easily accessible as french here. But hey, I guess that's what modern technology is for, right? These days there really is no real excuse for not learning anything, including foreign languages. I mean, with all the online resources, including some very good free ones, we can all take advantage of and exploit all these resources made available to us to realise our aspirations. I'm glad that you succeeded in teaching yourself English up to the point where you are. It's amazing

Have you tried Memrise?  If not, I really recommend it to you, don't waste your time with Duolingo if you ever go back to french or Italian, it only confuses you more.  With Memrise you can create your own word lists! It's awesome!   I plan to learn a lot words using it (7 weeks away from my test) then I'll start using a paid site, so after one year I might be fluent in dutch (then I iwll be ready for the last exam! yaaay!)   But if you want to continue teaching yourself Italian and french, you can't miss verbix!  It's so useful too    Just get yourself a nice course, I recommend you the Larousse series, their grammar books are very nice, very well put and not too thick, just perfect.   

 

Hehe you made me laugh with the description of your (future) mother in law LOL I know people like that, but I'm sure she means no harm. She probably thinks she knows it all by virtue of being older. The best thing to do is what you do, plus just entertain her and let her think she's in the right LOL

Oh... she is a nightmare, believe me, lol. But I try to tolerate her the best I can (she and her husband did something awful and never apologized), it's ok, before going to the Netherlands I had read about dutch people being peculiar   I am not the kind of person who believes everything she reads, but let's say I am now a believer,  I learnt this the hard way, I always try not to talk with her much, she turns even a small comment into a debate war  Hehehe, god help me D: !!

[lushlala]

Have you tried Memrise?  If not, I really recommend it to you, don't waste your time with Duolingo if you ever go back to french or Italian, it only confuses you more.  With Memrise you can create your own word lists! It's awesome!   I plan to learn a lot words using it (7 weeks away from my test) then I'll start using a paid site, so after one year I might be fluent in dutch (then I iwll be ready for the last exam! yaaay!)   But if you want to continue teaching yourself Italian and french, you can't miss verbix!  It's so useful too    Just get yourself a nice course, I recommend you the Larousse series, their grammar books are very nice, very well put and not too thick, just perfect.   

 

 

Oh... she is a nightmare, believe me, lol. But I try to tolerate her the best I can (she and her husband did something awful and never apologized), it's ok, before going to the Netherlands I had read about dutch people being peculiar   I am not the kind of person who believes everything she reads, but let's say I am now a believer,  I learnt this the hard way, I always try not to talk with her much, she turns even a small comment into a debate war  Hehehe, god help me D: !!

Oh dear, that's terrible! I know the type, for sure. Those who are just NEVER satisfied, no matter what you do. All you can be is yourself and be decent and polite towards her; no more, no less, and you should be fine. I was blessed with a lovely mother-in-law, but at first I had problems with my brothers-in-law because they couldn't stand me, and I never even knew why. I knew I couldn't change them, and didn't want to jump through hoops for anyone. I remained true to myself, didn't change who I am and they soon came around. Not that were now the best of friends, but at least now we're more cordial.

[Bokyy]

The best way to learn foreign language is to go in countries where that language is official. I have been learning English a few years, and have C1 level, but I want to improve my knowledge, and achieve C2 level. So I am planning to go in English speaking areas, where I can use English in everyday life. Now I am living in Eastern Europe, far away from native speakers, and I can learn English only from the Internet or books. It is still okay, but it is not enough to achieve proficiency level.