Can you speak Chinese and what other languages do you speak?

Gloire_bb

Captain
Registered Member
Mediocre(at best) Putonghua.
I'm barely able to read useful articles. Only when and if I have no other choice, honestly speaking.

Russian(native), English and some French.

Ironically, my first foreign language in school was Spanish, and by now it's long gone. :(
 

vesicles

Colonel
I can speak both English and Chinese (Mandarin) as a native without any accent. I am definitely more comfortable speaking, reading and writing English, having been living in the States most of my life. I speak Chinese better than 80% of native Chinese because of my Beijing dialect, which is considered as the standard for speaking Chinese. I can't stand it when southern Chinese miss their "h" and "ng" in their words... It just makes my skin crawl... Unfortunately, I can no longer write Chinese, which is a total shame. I can understand Cantonese and Shanghainese if I was given about 10-15 minutes to warm up.

My wife can speak, read and write both English and Chinese (Mandarin) like a native. She also speaks Cantonese like a native (Hong Kong dialect, not Guangzhou dialect). She can also understand Spanish (~50-60%) and some Portuguese (not sure how much).
 

ahho

Junior Member
I can speak and write English, French, and Chinese (mandarin). I can understand Shanghainese perfectly fine, but cannot speak it very well.

Even though my mother tongue is Chinese, I feel that I have a better mastery of English, having grown up in Canada. My French used to be good, back when I was attending french schools, but I haven't used it in 20 years.

Same here, I used to be able to speak French as I have lived in Montreal. 20 years have passed and I can't really speak it anymore. Mother tongue is Cantonese, but can't read Chinese as good as I used to. I am more proficient with English since I am in Vancouver now. Did learn to read Japanese, and got good score on oral in beginner Japanese course in University. That also deteriorated since I have not use it after I finished the course. Quite sad that I didn't try harder to retain the language that I have learned
 

solarz

Brigadier
Same here, I used to be able to speak French as I have lived in Montreal. 20 years have passed and I can't really speak it anymore. Mother tongue is Cantonese, but can't read Chinese as good as I used to. I am more proficient with English since I am in Vancouver now. Did learn to read Japanese, and got good score on oral in beginner Japanese course in University. That also deteriorated since I have not use it after I finished the course. Quite sad that I didn't try harder to retain the language that I have learned

I grew up in Montreal as well, moved to Toronto for university and haven't used French since... I'm planning to send my son to a French school, but mostly because it's right beside our home, lol!

Honestly, I don't find French to be particularly useful. I'd love to learn Japanese, but alas, I just don't have the time these days!
 

b787

Captain
I grew up in Montreal as well, moved to Toronto for university and haven't used French since... I'm planning to send my son to a French school, but mostly because it's right beside our home, lol!

Honestly, I don't find French to be particularly useful. I'd love to learn Japanese, but alas, I just don't have the time these days!
Chinese speakers can read Japanese and get some idea of the meaning, but not how to speak it unless they read a children`s book that uses Hiragana and Katakana and has above the hiragana and katakana the Chinese ideograms.


I was able to read a few Chinese characters that still are used in both languages with the same characters.

Chinese writes in the same way China and air force, so when i saw the J-10 display team i could read the meaning well since in both languages they use the same ideograms.

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There is still a lot of ideograms (kanji) used in both languages with the same meaning
 

delft

Brigadier
I feel handicapped not being able to read Chinese. I'm Dutch. In school I learned French, English and German really badly. But I learned to read all three just by needing it. I learned to understand English and German from listening to the radio and can get by in both. When I went to France for the first time some quarter of a century after leaving school it took me a day to learn to understand and speak it, badly. I know a little of Czech, Russian and Spanish.
My wife is half Frisian, half German and speaks Dutch like a native, having been born in The Hague. She understands Frisian but cannot read it.
 
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