To those who are fluent in a second language

[-nobodyknows-]

1. At what age did you start studying/learning it?

2. How long did it take for you to become fluent?

3. Do you "think" in that language when you hear it, or do you translate it into your native language in your head?

 

[bankai]

My second language is something I learned as a small kid. Learning ability really goes down with age. It's going to be much tougher at an older age to learn languages especially. I knew some other people who knew 3 to 4 languages and they all learned those languages at a young age. It's something you learn pretty intuitively at that age.

But language learning ability varies a lot from person to person. I learned it by simply speaking to local people that lived around me. And yes, I think in that language as well.
It took me a few years to learn it . But I never tried to intentionally learn the language. I just started speaking it with people who lived around me at that time. As a kid it came easy though or rather it came quite naturally.

I'm trying to learn Japanese now. But it's a struggle. I end up losing interest after some time🫩


@Tord knows several languages,maybe she can answer as well.

 

[L9my]

I'm trying to learn Japanese now. But it's a struggle. I end up losing interest after some time

same

 

[FoxSauce]

Well my mother tongue is Spanish but i learned english since 5.

Tbh it was ry fun and easy for me. People often asked me to help with english homework. (Im not trying not to brag)

Funny ibstarted learning cuz i used to watch dvds in Spanish like 5 years old and one of my sisters broke the remote so we couldnt change the language so. Yeah kinda glad that happened plus tv shows work too.

 

[mirror_mercury]

I don't know Japanese

I don't know Chinese

I don't even know English

So I'll bark and meow instead

 

[Scythe]

From one of the many none English speaking countries.

1. Since I was in kindergarten.
2. Can't remember honestly, grade 5 maybe?
3. I use both, rn I'm thinking in English, generally I think in whatever language I use atm.

 

[starinthesky]

1. Around age 7
2. I actually had a really rocky start and I was often made fun of for my hilariously bad english but then the internet really made me take off. I became fluent pretty early
3. I think in english, yeah. I prefer it to swedish in almost all aspects.

 

[princexhhn]

I know other languages but that's because I come from SEA and I'm mixed, so when growing up and learning to talk, I learned about… 4 fucking languages at the same time. The same way a little American baby grows up and speaks English, I never consciously put in the effort to "learn" the language I just know it

And yeah I think in those languages randomly, sometimes my mind can string together a sentence using words from all 4 of those languages. I don't do it on purpose, either

 

[ElTopo]

1. At what age did you start studying/learning it?

2. How long did it take for you to become fluent?

3. Do you "think" in that language when you hear it, or do you translate it into your native language in your head?

1. Since kindergarten, but I started seriously putting my mind into it when in high school, before that I was very bad at English
2. I'd say 3 years
3. The first one, learning to think in the language you want to communicate in is probably the most important step I think.

 

[Manaaja]

English since maybe 10 years old.

I don't know. I feel it was stuck at "What is bread? I like cake." for years until it suddenly evolved into "Would mademoiselle want her sparkling water in a crystal glass adorned with jewels acquired from arid wastelands and brought to you by yours truly?" in an instant. The thing is language is a mind game, if you believe you suck, you do worse than you'd do if you were confident.

I have to give head a point, though I have also translated while wearing my ribcage inside my skin. Wait, what was the question? Yeah, I think in the language I hear. Think about this page alone, it would take me ages to translate everything on this page.

 

[Tord]

For context I've learned Finnish, German, English, Russian, and Norwegian over the course of my life. But I am unsure if English should count because I am not fully confident in that one.

I can hold conversations in English though. Just not to degree levels.

I am also unsure if German should count because I was born in Germany.

But with that out of the way...


1. All of them at really different ages. I've known German and understood Russian since my childhood due to growing up around Russian adoptive parents.

I've learned Norwegian as a tween - teenager for my biological family, they live over there.

I've began studying Finnish in my late teens until adulthood just for lulz. Considered dropping it various times. Happy I never gave up in the end.

And English I started learning around 2 - 4 years ago.


2. German, self explanatory.

Russian, off and on for my entire life and learning from hearing others speak it constantly.

English, not fluent, skipping.

Finnish, 4 - 6 years.

Norwegian, about as long as a Norwegian toddler - child would need. So like also ~6 years right?

Never learn two languages at once, personally as a tip from me. I would've taken shorter had the other language not distacted me if that is important to you...


3. I think in German language in every case, and translate other languages to German in my mind.

 

[Forveleth]

American sign language
1. My 30s
2. I took three semesters at a college and was not fully fluent but I could hold a simple conversation.
3. As this is not a spoken language, I did not think in words, but rather images or feelings of concepts I was trying to convey. I would occasionally see the signs themselves in my head.