If you could speak another language fluently

[Soubriquet]

What would it be?

I think I would choose Spanish. It sounds so musical to me

Swedish, its my partners first language so it would be nice to talk to him in his native language, plus I could understand him when he is on the phone, so spying when he is most likely having a moan about me is a bonus 😄

I’ve always wanted to learn Latin and Russian... so basically two languages that I’ll never need to have a full conversation in 😂 (no links to or plan to move to Russia). If forced to choose one, it’d be Latin.

Arabic

It’s such an expressive language or Russian

And Spanish

Hi OP - I speak Spanish and thought you might like to know that Spanish friends have told me that English sounds really musical to them.

Turkish, despite having lived there for a couple of years and going back often I am ashamed to say I know very little. I'd also want to learn Arabic and Japanese and relearn the languages I once knew.

I've had a thing for understanding Korean for ages. It just sounds so interesting.

I'm pretty good at Spanish. I taught myself and took a GCSE within 6 months (joined evening class after Christmas. I don't know why I'm saying all this probably because I haven't achieved much else in life . Anyway, I doubt I'll be fluent any time soon. Brexit messed up my long term plans and short trips are but a distant dream. Damn covid.

@ Prokupatuscrakedatus i think talent helps. I’ve been trying to learn french for over 30 years and I’m still crap!

Esperanto any one remember this gem

Spoken by a surprising number of people!

DD told me about it

French so I could communicate with my in laws better

Bengali so I can converse with our patients where English is not their first language. It would also save the surgery money by not having to use Language Line. Having to display information in English and Welsh is pretty pointless as they don't understand either language (I don't understand Welsh either) and they could miss out on vital services.

I would also like to be able to speak Mandarin/Cantonese for the same reasons.

Mandarin without a doubt.

I speak a few Euro languages plus a bit of Japanese. But when I came across Mandarin I was blown away... against all my expectations, as well. It's just the most beautiful language. I'm not learning it formally, I just try to absorb it through music / films etc. which is probably why I like it so much.

French. Have never had a holiday in France (have driven through a lot), not fond of France ans not fond of a lot of the cuisine etc but bloody hell it is a sexy language. Oh I guess I wouldn’t be speaking it much . . . Hmm may need to rethink.

My exh was Syrian but Kurdish, he refused to teach me Arabic I learned a fair bit of Kurdish before I visited his family in Syria, it's a very guttural language and more similar to Turkish. His siblings and cousins spoke very good English though!

Im learning German. It’s a labour of love I think.

The easy German YouTube Chanel did a great video where they asked loads of people if you could wake up tomorrow speaking another language, what would it be?

A lot of people were learning one language but wished for a different one, because they were actually actively enjoying learning.

So If I. Could wake up tomorrow having put zero effort in, I’d say Russian or Arabic, or maybe Hindi, just so I could delve into media from another culture. I’ll stick with learning German the slow way.

I did used to think that some people couldn’t learn languages, and that I was one of them. But when friends had kids, and I saw them all learning to talk, I realised. Most of us have all learned at least one language. There has to be room for another.

Chinese as it looks so difficult and I love a challenge!

@Chaotica Welsh is my first lanuage and I absolutely love people making the effort to speak to me in it, regardless of your level of fluency. Keep speaking it amd you'll be fluent in no time, da iawn!

Hungarian. It’s really hard, and I’m quite good at languages.

Russian, just beautiful, or old English or Norse. Fantastic recordings of the latter at the Museum of London. Sounds like poetry.

I'd like to be fluent in sign language.

@Soubriquet

I think Polish would be a useful one to learn too

Especially with many Polish speaking people who work with me. They are fluent in English but it’s very heavily accented and as I’m deaf, I struggle to understand them. I might understand better if I was able to speak Polish

Ha! Good luck. I consider myself a linguist, I teach MFL and learnt reasonable Japanese when I was in Japan. But when I lived in Poland I tried really really hard and got nowhere. I can just about order a beer. It’s savagely hard. Also not particularly useful IMO as all young Polish people speak English, not that they necessarily should. But they do. I used to teach them english, and can confirm they are generally extremely good.

German. I love the country, people and culture and it would be great to be able to speak the language fluently. I can get by, but it’s frustrating when my attempts to converse in German invariably get replies in fluent English.

Spanish definitely but if I could be greedy and choose another language I'd say Japanese. I picked up the very basic when out there a few years back and I'd love to learn it and also be able to write Japanese