A question about native English speakers and foreign languages

[DelphineMarineaux]

Hello!
I'm not a native English speaker so please bear with the mistakes and errors I might make.

I would like to ask native English speakers (particularly those that have only grown up speaking English) if you are proficient or fluent in any other language than English? As in, can you proficiently read, write, understand and communicate in another language aside from English? If so, may I ask where you learned whatever foreign language you know from?

I don't live in an English speaking country so I'm also curious to know how much education kids in English speaking countries get in foreign languages at school? And are the kids learning foreign languages on a high level? As in when they graduate from school, are they able to proficiently read, write, understand and communicate in a / several foreign language(s)?

Aaand a little bonus question: If you don't know any foreign languages, but had the opportunity to learn any foreign language in the world, which would you choose and why?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

I'm English, grew up in an exclusively English speaking family and learned French, German and Spanish at secondary school and continued them at university, where I studied a module in Dutch. I'm learning Italian now. I use my languages in my job. The bonus question doesn't really apply to me, but I would learn Russian given the chance.

Only speak English and to be honest, barely that at times.

However, I am trying to learn French, as that is what I learnt at school, so I have a very basic knowledge and one friend who I speak to once a week in French.

However, I am gearing up to learn Maltese, as this is where my family come from, my Dad's siblings all speak it, but choose for whatever reason not to teach it to any of their kids, but whenever they got together they would all speak it to each other, so I am hoping that I may have retained that knowledge somewhere in my brain

I got an O Level in French at school but that was 35 years ago and I couldn't have a conversation in it now.
I could probably just about make myself understood if I went to France on holiday but that's all.

I speak fluent French. Did A level French, went to work as an au pair in France, did a French degree and had a few summer jobs in France in the holidays.
And growing up, we had french friends and holidayed with them in France a lot.

I'm English. I wouldn't say I was proficient which is a really high level but I was quite advanced in French. I think I was good because we used to do holiday exchanges at school. So in the summer I would go for 3 weeks to France, and my exchange, would stay 3 weeks here. After my first exchange my French teacher nearly collapsed at my improvement. I then stayed for several months there but I wouldn't say I was ever fluent. I never use it anymore but I'm always surprised when I converse in french to visitors etc, how quickly it comes back. I can speak a bit in other languages.

I have a German friend who ran away to England when she was 15. Her English is fluent but she says that her German is not great because she hasn't spoken it regularly since she was 15, so her German level is that of a 15yo. I would think that would be great but if you think of what 15yos can do in English and how much their vocabulary and their flexibility in manipulating language increases as they age, I guess it's not surprising. But I thought it was interesting as I'd never thought about it before.

I teach EFL and ESOL and I think language acquisition is fascinating.

I speak French and Spanish fluently and Italian less so. I learnt French at school from age 8 and to GCSE level. And lived in France, Spain and Italy where I became fluent/ learnt the other languages. I also did German at GCSE.

MFL teaching is woeful in the UK. DS has just got a 6 in GCSE Spanish despite me trying my best to get him access to Spanish from the day he was born. I don't think people in the UK appreciate just how poorly qualified their DC are on a global stage wrt languages. It's infuriating!

I did Italian at school to GCSE level and can't remember any of it. My vocabulary was very basic even at the time but somehow I got a C in my exams. I later became fluent in French by living and working there.

@TheDistortion, I thought that too. As I said, my strongest is French but I wouldn't say I was fluent.

@ShinyMe

I grew up in North Wales, and although I spoke English at home and with my family, I was immersed in a Welsh language school from the age of 3, and did all my education in Welsh. My Welsh is a bit rusty now, but I can get by in everyday conversation and follow the tv.

My parents both speak French and have worked in France, and my dad worked in France ever summer from when I was about 4 to my 20s, and I spent quite a bit of the summer holidays out there so had French friends, and learnt French easily at school. I had no opportunity to try other languages though.

I worked in France for a year after A levels, then did French, Spanish and German at uni - both Spanish and German from scratch, to a point where I was technically fluent, but not overly confident as I'd learnt it so quickly. I then did a PGCE and taught languages for a few years, but it was so bloody demoralising to constantly get the arguments of "but miss, WHYYYYYYYYY do we have to learn French?" and 90% of the kids couldn't see the point and hated it.

Now, I'd say my French is still fluent, my Spanish and German are a decent holiday standard and with a bit of immersion get back up to being able to have a decent conversation about something more detailed, like current affairs or something, and to watch & understand the news when I'm on holiday (normal pace, no subtitles) but find something like a film or a drama harder, as they're more likely to use slang and to get faster. My Welsh is sort of similar.

I like languages, but I'm pretty much the only one of the people I know who can speak another language. I'm not aware of any of my colleagues being able to.

Just out of curiosity what do you do now that you have left teaching?

I am British and can speak another European language fluently. I studied two foreign languages at uni, one post A-level and one ab initio.

I spent about 8 years traveling and teaching English as a foreign language and picked up Italian. I then did a PGCE and now teach my strongest language from degree in a secondary school.

I agree it’s hard for schools to choose which language to teach and I would like to have more emphasis on speaking and listening but am constrained by the curriculum and the need to cover so much grammar in so little time. It is also extremely difficult to motivate the pupils because no matter how much thought and effort you put into your lessons you only have so time (2 hours per week until year 9 and then 3 hours for GCSE classes) and the majority do not see the point at all no matter how clearly you explain or how fun and Interesting you try and make your classes.

I am getting a bit fed up of the poor attitude of many pupils (not all) and even some of the parents and the general apathy and am considering speech and language therapy as a result.

I love languages and if I had more time I would learn Russian and BSL. My partner has a different native language and we hope to raise multilingual children together

I'd be fluent in a business/legal context (degree), cope ok in medical appointment (so long as it didn't get too technical, same as I'd be in English). Totally stuffed on IT problem solving beyond turn it off and on again (again reflects my English competencies).

Some obscure sporting stuff I'd find easier in French - took my oral exam for a sporting qualification in French in preference to English - having originally learned it in French. I'd also choose to go back to an original French source rather than rely on a translation - and would happily use a French/French dictionary in preference to French/English.

Yep I occasionally lose words in French, but have been known to lose the exact English word I'm looking for.

The thing I really struggle with is flipping deliberately from French to English mid sentey - eg refereeing my sport in French (normal/acceptable in the UK at national level, expected abroad) and then giving the score in English - it's really hard to make sure I actually say the numbers in English!

I also couldn't give a phone number in French unless I did it in pairs.

I can speak passable French but it gets rusty when I don’t use it.
I am trying to learn some basic Korean ahead of our trip there in 2022 but the problem is there are sounds in Korean which don’t exist in English and it’s very hard for an older person to learn these. As a result it’s very easy to be misunderstood or met with blank incomprehension.

At the moment I’m concentrating on learning the alphabet.

I think those of who are native-English have a disadvantage that when we go abroad, there is so much English spoken. It makes it harder to practice our skills. I once asked for directions, reasonably confident that I would be able to understand the answer, but the answer came in English.

In my experience, the minute someone hears an English accent they are so keen to practice their English that you'd be very lucky to be 'allowed' to speak the local language at all, even if your knowledge of eitis clearly better than their knowledge of English. I lived in Italy for several years and spoke the language well - not perfectly - and I'd constantly have people insisting on speaking English to me, even when Italian was obviously the better way for us to communicate.

I sometimes participate in an annual international competition. All instructions, wherever it is hosted, are given in English in addition to any other language, so even if we speak the language, we don't need to. Meanwhile, other participants are always building their English vocabulary related to the activity.

At the Euros this summer, they didn't even bother with the local language. All announcements were made in English, and only English, no matter where the match was taking place or which countries were playing.

That's why I don't really think it's fair to criticise British people for not learning foreign languages, when their own language is the world's lingua franca, and becoming more dominant every day. A native English speaker needs a specific reason to learn another language. The reality is that most people can get by quite well speaking just English, and even if they do take the trouble to learn another language - and learning a language takes considerable time and hard work - they may find themselves with very few opportunities to actually use it.

I‘m a native English speaker and had French, German and Latin at school. Loved learning languages. I eventually studied German and Classics with the Open Uni, and did one module of Ancient Greek. Also learned some Russian at night school, and I tried Cantonese too, but made slow progress. And on holiday I learned some basics in Czech and Lithuanian. Right now I am learning Gaelic on Duolingo and in an online class. I have a huge passion for languages, love learning them.

My German is now pretty fluent, I have done my B2 certificate and I speak it every day at work. French is rusty but comes back to me when needed, and I can get by in Russian. I‘d love to learn Welsh, my DP is a Welshman but English speaking.

I didn't learn any Mfl at school really - it was taught at secondary school but it was too late.

I learnt polish from my girlfriend (now wife) from 16 onwards - I can hold an ok conversation. I don't think If be a huge help with technical words or more formal speech as I've learnt it casually.

If I could choose any language to be fully proficient in I'd choose Korean :) love the culture

@EnidSpyton

See I'm the opposite, I teach French to adults and children and have a degree in it, and lived in France for several periods of months. But I would still hesitate to say I am fluent because although I could have a conversation with a French person, they would certainly know I am not French, and I probably would struggle to express or understand some things. And sometimes my students ask how to say something and I have to check. But maybe my definition of fluent is too high, but definitely I think some peopl say fluent when that is not really what they are.

I learned some very basic french in school, but can't say I speak it. I learned German by working there for 2 years and was (at the time) very proficient, although complicated politics did confuse me. Everyday communication and within my field (medical) I was good at. I won't say I was perfect, but patients would guess my country of origin as Dutch, Austrian, Italian (?) and of course, English.

I speak four other languages fluently.

I learned French from age 11 at school.

All my other languages I learned when I left

I had a Spanish tutor on my gap year.

I learned Mandarin during the 10 years I spent living in China.

I learned Hebrew from my husband.

I learnt French at school, and throughout my adult life have visited France because of relatives living there. So a combination of both and a liking of French cinema has meant I am proficient enough not to need English translations when in France.

I think that there is not enough foreign language teaching in schools in England, and indeed did not agree with the policy introduced around ten years or so ago that allowed pupils to stop studying them at age 14. See my thread on Latin and what I think the money should be spent on instead.

If I was to learn another foreign language, it would be Spanish, as the most useful to me I'd expect.

I learnt all my languages them outside of school though because the the school system isn’t great.

I learn mostly online and by finding exchanges. It’s tough though because when you’re native English you don’t have the same motivation to learn as other nationalities do with English. Or the same resources.

Also, the question for most English speakers is which foreign language should they learn?

Spanish is probably the most international after English but really wherever you go English is the lingua franca so it’s a bit discouraging.

I only know English really. I have a GCSE in French but I took that in 1994!

I think unless you gave a parent who speaks another language (like my SiL) or live in another country there isn't much impetus in Britain to learn a different language.

Within the British Isles and its dependents there are different languages like Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Manx, Jerrais, etc but they are minority or dying languages.

My daughter was taught a bit of Mandarin in primary school but didn't carry it on. She did Latin and Spanish from Year 7, then chose Spanish for GCSE/KS4. What her school does do however, is encourage bilingual children to take a GCSE in their parent's first language.

Still reading everyone's responses! =)

I did my year abroad in Germany and found it ridiculously difficult to practise, because everyone there was desperate to speak English to me! It was actually quite frustrating.

I speak fluent German, studied to degree level. I also speak fluent French ( I now live in France) . I can read and write in both. I initially learnt them at school; French from age 9, German from 14.

I speak English and three other European languages, one fluently, one well enough to live there without any issues ans one basic (I forgot a lot). I think one of the main barriers to native English speakers getting good at languages, apart from the teaching, is that they don't realise you have to go through the period of trying and getting it wrong. They feel too embarrassed to let people hear them make mistakes when they know they can often both communicate fine in English. Of course once tou have learned a language you realise that if people don't get things right it doesn't remain they are stupid, it just means they are learning!