Non-native English speakers

[Cielo]

Spoiler for Hidden:

I am a native speaker of American English.  I'm migrating toward Canadian English, slowly but surely.

I'm curious about our non-native English speakers.  The language can be difficult to learn, even when it's your first.

If English is not your first language, which is it (second, third, etc.)?  How/When did you learn it?  Did you learn English in your own country, or did you travel somewhere to learn it?  Have you ever lived in an English-speaking country?  Among the non-native speakers you know, how good is your English?  What else do you want us to know about your English skills?  Inquiring minds want to know!

It's my second language. Started learning it once I got into middle school (when I was 11).
Learned it in China but now I'm in the States as a graduate student.

Among non-native speakers, my English is on the average level I think.
My oral English is not good because there were few chances for me to speak English when I was in China.
Besides, I don't think my vocabulary is enough, especially when talking about everyday life.

School, starting from fifth class (~10-11 y/o, nowadays they start way earlier).

It's the same in China. They start learning in primary school now.

Chinese on the other hand seems to be a very practical language, and it's also easy to create your own funny expressions that still manage to make sense (I once heard a taxi driver say he thought a hospital ate the other hospital).

That's true. You can organize the words more freely.
I guess the driver was talking about the competition between two hospitals, and maybe the 'losing' one was closed or bought by the 'winning' one, right?

[ARTHANASIOS]

If English is difficult, then my lagnuage will be (litterally) all Greek to you!
I've learnt most of English by videogames (I play computer games since I was 5 years old or something and had the luck to encounter the DOS era), but I also started classes while being at 3rd class of junior school.
Despite of having a Proficiency diploma in English, I still do a few silly mistakes here and there, mostly due to writing fast and carelesly, though Greek way of thinking has also caused me using English grammar and vocabulary in an odd way.

[Annele]

Uhm... Thanks for being nice, but English is easy, just as about every european language. Once you try Japanese, you realize that.

I've learnt Maori, and English would be hard as heck if it was my first language. I haven't tried Japanese though, so I don't know how hard it is.

[Pella]

If English is difficult, then my lagnuage will be (litterally) all Greek to you!

While I was in the Navy, I taught myself the Greek alphabet.  The following year, our ship spent two months in Hania, Crete, and I learned modern Greek pronunciation.  Therefore, I can "read" Greek, although I still don't know what most of it means. 

[DigitalPixel]

My second language is Spanish.  Yo no sé mucho, sin embargo,

[0arsios]

Umm i learned english as a second language. i learned it while growing up because i was born in America but to an Arabic family so i learned both pretty much at the same time.

[shadow303]

I am a native speaker of American English.  I'm migrating toward Canadian English, slowly but surely.

I'm curious about our non-native English speakers.  The language can be difficult to learn, even when it's your first.

If English is not your first language, which is it (second, third, etc.)?  How/When did you learn it?  Did you learn English in your own country, or did you travel somewhere to learn it?  Have you ever lived in an English-speaking country?  Among the non-native speakers you know, how good is your English?  What else do you want us to know about your English skills?  Inquiring minds want to know!

English is my third language. I'm natively German speaking (to be precise my native language would be an Austrian dialect) and Italian is my second language, which I started to learn with 7-8 years as all the German kids in our region. I started to learn English (and also Latin) in Highschool with about 15 years, but I never lived in an English-speaking country.
I guess my written English is quite good, because I need it also at work, but I have not really much practice in spoken English.

I personally think English is a quite easy language, especially if you speak German, because it is somehow similar and a lot easier regarding grammar and related exceptions.
I don't really agree that Latin is difficult, but I probably felt it that way because it is very similar to Italian
Recently I've also tried to learn some Japanese (very basic stuff.. I can barely say a couple of sentences ) and found it really hard.. probably because I have no knowledge at all in Asian languages and therefore no real reference for it.

[Demonite]

I personally think English is a quite easy language

maybe, in fact, English is the easiest language in Europe that I've known, since English doesn't differ masculine and feminine nouns (except she and he)

I don't really agree that Latin is difficult

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/lesson03/default.htm --> I think this makes me think Latin is difficult...

Learning languages is pretty fun (especially when you write your name in the other alphabets). So, how's Italian, shadow303? I want to learn it after I've learned Russian a bit.

[Dm]

Minor thread hi-jacking, but I really like the thought of learning the other languages, specially Italian. It seems easy enough, similar to my own natural language, and I can understand some bits even though I never studied it. But I'm probably a 0.1/100 though.

[shadow303]

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/lesson03/default.htm --> I think this makes me think Latin is difficult...

As I already mentioned my personal experience with Latin was probably that way, because it has quite a lot in common with Italian, as all "Roman" languages (also languages like Spanish have some similarities). For instances:

Latin: habemus papam
Italian: abbiamo un papa
Spanish: tenemos papa
(English: we have a pope)

But you are right, Latin has the most complex grammar rules, especially since the decline/endings of the words reflect a lot of information, like the gender (masculine, feminine or neuter), the case (also singular and plural) or the time for verbs. And there are 6 cases in the declension, while e.g. German has only 4

So, how's Italian, shadow303? I want to learn it after I've learned Russian a bit.

It's not so difficult, but I can't really answer it in a post.. but I guess if you read the whole (two billion post long ) thread for Italians in multilingual, you'll be an expert

Learning languages is pretty fun (especially when you write your name in the other alphabets).

Yes I agree.. I recently learned some Hiragana and tried to write my name in Japanese

[Dm]

Y'forgot poor portuguese.

Teremos um papa or Vamos ter um papa.

[shadow303]

Y'forgot poor portuguese.

Teremos um papa or Vamos ter um papa.

Interesting - I personally always thought Portuguese is quite different from the other "Roman" languages. At least if I hear Spanish I'm able to understand minor parts with my Italian knowledge, but the few times I've heard Portuguese I wasn't able to understand a single word