Can you think in a second language or need you translate in your head first?  

Hi Prash, so when you never do mind speaking in three languages you mean you think in them and don't need to translate, is that right. That is an enviable achievement. When I speak to someone in my second language I don't compose first what I am going to say as I know others do, but then I usually have to backtrack to correct tenses and verb ends. As you speak three languages fluently I presume one of them is your own so what age did you start with the other two, as I know it is much easier to start as a child.

I Learnt the Languages When I Was A younger .. Surely Not A Recent development .. My Vocabulary Too Correspondingly Improved .. So I Don't Complain Of First Translating To My Native Language And Then putting My Words Across .. I Am Very Happy Knowing all these Languages Well ..

Bravo Prash.

Hi Mis, but you use English daily online even when in Italy. You have actually achieved the feat of thinking in Italian though which is fantastic, how long did it take you to feel that you were doing that if you came to the language at the same time as you came to Italy?
Now I think about it for myself I suppose I do translate in my head a lot less than I used to but my Greek goes through phases of being fine or much less than fine.

My first language is English and my second language is gibberish...

When I'm here Thea I think in English about what I am going to write but I don't actually say it out loud. I have a few English friends and when we get together we usually use English but we have to punctuate here and there with an Italian word as all of seem to forget how to say certain things

My son was born three years after I arrived here and I can recall that I was thinking in Italian on that occasion

Lamb which of the two do you use when you think (or does it depend on what you are thinking about?)

Mys it's obvious that lamb writes in English but thinks in gibberish.

Three years wasn't long but were you away from the English language surrounded by mainly Italian, that does force it faster? I always speak English at home with my son as he uses Greek all the rest of the time. I also do your trick of throwing local words in when English is being used but they are the sort of words one automatatically uses here. I couldn't mylot in Greek though because I would have to turn the order of the sentence round to put the words in the Greek order which means I've still got a way to go to really thinking in Greek.

There was no-one who spoke English here when I arrived, except for the person I arrived with, who then started talking in Italian as soon as we landed.

I took it upon myself to learn it as soon as possible so that I could start working. I arrived in the April and did a summer season washing dishes and making beds until the following October. In the January I landed a job as a secretary where English was required for all the correspondence.

Living among the locals is, inmy opinion the fastest way to learn a language. I then polished up by reading as much as I could in Italian whicn helped in learning how to write (all those darn accents were a pain ). I finally learnt to write in a correct manner... by using chatrooms in Italian on MSN. Some great people there who were interested in learning basic English and they helped smooth out my mistakes in Italian

Hi mys, so you were really pushed into it straight away which is the best way. I presume the person you arrived with was actually italian so helped you out along the way in the language. Did he make you speak Italian at home as well or could you fall back into English?

Arriving here between two villages was a different matter for me, one village is more involved in the tourist trade so desperate to learn a bit more English so when I attempted to speak in Greek they want me to speak in English which really doesn't help. Then I started spending most of my time in the fishing village which an all year round place rather than a tourist place and was able to get on with a lot more greek but at first managed best when a bit of both languages were spoken. I actually prefer to speak Greek to someone who doesn't speak any English as I have to do it and don't feel self conscious at all.

But believe me I have gone through many bizarre language ordeals.

I pushed myself because I wanted to learn it. I had done French at school and many things are similar. We spoke both at home at the beginning and then mostly Italian.

You have done well too in the short time you are there. I guess that if you want to eat, you have to learn how to ask for it

If you want to eat, you must learn how to open your mouth. Unless you use a tube placed in your trout.

I know it's not polite to do this but Akuler really, a tube in your troutWe don't even have any trout here. Mys, got any trouts in Italy?

We have to many Thea! Can't stand them but all myfriends bring their 'catch' at the week-end

Maybe Aku intended 'throat' ?

Hi Mys, so you have kamaking fishemen bearing trout. Rather partial to it myself but none of them around, but they must have them somewhere or there wouldn't be a greek word for them

I just love your logical thinking Thea!

Over here they offer interpreters for American tourists who accompnay them on a guided tour of the local attractions

Hi Lamb, tech speak is indeed a foreign language and not even an attractive one at that, at least some foreign languages have melodic rhythmns and sound attractive whilst tech language is about as attractive as a bucket of something nasty.

Both the British and the Americans are masters of speaking loudly so the locals can understand them, even when told that said local speaks not a word of fyoreign lingo, and why should he. For instance how many bank tellers could speak Greek if I wished when arriving at their counter, yet the Greek ones are expected to speak English. I particualarly admire their nice trick of pretending not to speak English when they actually do unless one has mastered the art of greeting in their language and use a big smile at the same time, so much more power in that than a loud voice.
Would we laugh at you, only when you make the inevitabe faux pas of something really crass like asking for vinegar with chips.

Or butter on my tomatoe sandwich...

But you'd have to bring your own butter with you and it would probably melt on the plane. Butter would not go down well in the land of the olive.

Hi Ireine, that is really interesting that you use English at home, is your husband Malaysian or English. Definitely when these languages are learnt from early childhood one is able to use them with much more confidence than when tackled at a later date. My son is completely bi-lingual in Greek and English and can also swap from one to another without losing his flow, whilst his third language of French will take much longer as he has no one to communicate with it in.
I know what you mean about searching for a word you know and never use in your first language anymore, I've had that happen a couple of times and it feels a bit strange.

Hi Iriene, I think we Malaysians are multi lingual. I am a native from the land below the wind and I do speak mandarin like the native chinese speakers. Bahasa Malaysia and English are core subjects in school so we do not have problems in our daily usage of these languages.

Dear Thea,

My husband is a Malaysian-Chinese too. Most Malaysian
Chinese will either speak their 'mother tongue dialect'
or English or Mandarin at home. And most Malays family
will either speak Bahasa Malaysia or English at home.

As what Zandi and Akuler (both Malaysian) mentioned, English
is our second language..actually Malaysian are multi-lingual.
Most of us can speak more than 3 languages plus other dialects.

Due to this we have 'Malaysian English' which is we always
like to put a 'lah' behind every sentence during conversation.
Eg : "Don't be like that-lah!" or 'I also want-mah" -chinese style!

That's why they mentioned 'Rojak Language' which means a sentence can
have many languages / dialest in it!...

Jack of all Languages but Master of None...lol


Your son is very good with his Greek and English, keep it up!

I thought you are Kadazan or Dusun

Rojak languages is the best to learn a few languages at a time

Hi zandi, you obviously had the advantage of learning these extra languages whilst young which I think is necessary to prepare one for a good aptitude in languages. An adult learner does find it much harder as at the beginning automatically translates everything in ones mind but with greater usage more words flow just naturally. The UK teaches other languages in the most ridiculous fashion, waiting until a child is about 12 before starting whereas my son is completely bi-lingual in 2, learns a third, and in one more year will start on Ancient Greek too.

akuler - Yes, am a native (kadazan) but am quite a linquist. Are you a kadazan too or Malay?

Dear Zandi,

Wow, you are a kadazan but can speak very fluent Mandarin.
Do you attend any Mandarin classes or do you go to Chinese
school when you are in primary school. I thought of sending
my son to Chinese school but after a long thought, my husband
and I decided to send him to Kebangssaan school. What a waste,
he can only understand a bit of Mandarin but cannot read and
write...

Irene, I only attended primary one as I couldn't catch up with the pinyin. But one of my siblings is a mandarin lecturer in one of the local U. I think she must be the only native lecturer in Malaysia. If am not wrong. I send my two sons to chinese schools only up to primary level and transferred them to kebangsaan schools. It is a well worth efforts studying a foreign language as they are making good use of the language now in the working world.

@Zandi,

I am Bugis since there is no Malay in Sabah. But my x is mix (Kadazan, Chinese, Bajau and Brunei). I live in Luyang before so I have a few kadazan Dusun friends but never try their montoku or lihing.

@ akuler..oh you're a Bugis orang Pahlawan ke? But you sound a lot like the dusunic. You should try our montoku and lihing. You know I have in my pub a liqu0r that I concocted which I label 'lemontok'. The taste is mild but the kick is beyond compare. Do you drink? Aramaiti...

I drunk a few times a long time ago when I work with a company that our boss always encourage us to drink. He always bring us to the club especially after work. But now I already insaf. Never want to try it again.

Hi akuler, as I've already told you your use of English is excellent and any small errors don't need thinking about. You also write it much more clearly than many English speakers, I believe we've only had one language misunderstanding in all this time of communicating whereas others have left me baffled, particularly those who insist on using that nasty text abbreviation which only degrades a language.

So how do you speak English, I'm curious. Personally I have no linguistic skills and am perfectly aware that I sound like an English person speaking Greek, whilst my son sounds more Greek than the Greeks. The other way round happens with me, I often go into a shop and ask for something in Greek and they answer me in English, this is in places where I am not known. What gives me away, my Greek pronuounciation, or the fact that don't look Greek. I realise now they do it from politeness but at first it used to drive me mad when I was trying to use my new language in public.

If I speak to someone I knew, I think I can speak it well. I might stuck here and there during a this conversation but I can still manage to keep it on track.

The problem is when I have to speak with someone in a formal situation like presentation or interview. Sometimes I lost somewhere and have a long pause or log ah......... in between my sentences. But they need to say it clearly and without slang. Otherwise I totally lost.

I'm with you on that one akuler. I can't bear people who mumble and don't speak clearly, I have one Greek friend I've known for a few years and I never understand a single word he says as he mumbles, but fortuantely the Greeks also have difficulty understanding him too, so it doesn't make me feel silly. But I have to look round desperately for someone to translate. It is easier to ask people to speak slower when they are in front of you but the people who know how to do that forget it completely when they phone up and it can all end up in total gibberish.
Did you get my pm akuler?

It is a new one or the yesterday one? I didn't receive any today but I receive one yesterday.

All the time are according to Malaysia time

Yesterday my time, any time your time.

I receive it already. And even reply it too. Didn't you receive it? looking for your response in that.

No, didn't receive a reply to pm.

Thanks

Hi dianmelydia, another responder with more than two second languages, there are indeed some talented linguists within the mylot community. I don't carry anything around with me generally to translate with unless its an appointment for something where I think I might need a bit of help and then I just take along a pocket dictionary. But you can think in the second languages and reinforce them with an electronic dictionary when the ocassion arises.

Hi vandana, you sound like me, often I have to search for the right word but for myself I find it much easier to express myself clearly in my second language than to understand back, so I'm lucky that people who don't speak my first language understand when I don't understand a word and try to think of another way to say what they are saying so I can understand.

I will tell my son you sent him a smiley. He has the remarkable ability of being completely bi-lingual but it is easier for children to take in another language when young, than it is to master one in adulthood. In another year he will begin to study ancient Greek which already covered a little, so that the roots of all words will become much clearer.

Hi Hatley, i thought you knewI am perfectly fluent in English as it is my first language, my second language is Greek but I write about Greek things as this place is my home, most of my friends are Greek, my son insists he is Greek and is perfectly bi-lingual, my man is Greek, and I've unwittingly been sucked in to lots of Greek ways.

As to Spanish I took a whole year of it in school in the UK and can now proudly say in Spanish 'my house is orange' which actually it isn't as I have better taste than that. And in French I have the marvellous ability to remember ' a vacuum cleaner is used for cleaning a carpet'. So you get a real grasp there of the teaching abilities brought to second languages in English schools.

Hi stvasile, no real suprise there at all that you have several European languages under your belt.Actully this is a really lazy question but something I never thought about before, does Romanian have the Greek or English alphabet system or some other one?
Until I asked this question I didn't really notice that I have stopped translating in my head most of the time but I still have a long way to go without making many many mistakes.

The Romanian language uses the Latin alphabet, the one we write in here on myLot. There are a few extra signs that express some special sounds, but it's basically the Latin alphabet. That's not much of a surprise as around 90% of the Romanian words are of Latin origin (that's also why it's easy for me to understand some of the other Latin-based languages such as the French, Italian and Spanish language).
I've studied some Russian in school for 3 years, so I can also read and write using the Cyrillic alphabet, and I know most of the Greek letters because they are internationally used as symbols in mathematics or physics. It is, however, very difficult for me to read Greek (I read the words letter by letter first ), and I have no idea on when a letter or another is used (for example, if I know correctly, the sound "i" is marked in some words by the letter iota and in others by the letter ita. The same goes for the sound "o", represented by omega or by omicron).

Russian as well. I did think you'd have the Latin alphabet but a few extra symobols were rather expected to. Greek whilst appearing very difficult is absolutely phonic and words are pronounced as they are written unlike in English, however it does take a while to come to grips with a language which uses five e's and all the different dipthongs, plus the certain combinations of letters which are impossible for a foreigner to get their tongue round, such as ft, I can never ask for something cheap in a shop as cannot pronounce it properly so have to ask for one that is not expensive. Anyway 'cheap' is a dangerous word to use as it is the same as the verb 'to spit' so it could sound like I want to spit on someone.

So is mastering Greek too a future plan?

No, don't overrate my knowledge, I'm not really mastering anything. Maybe I do know English pretty well, but the other languages I don't know very much in. As for Russian, my knowledge is extremely limited - I do know how to read and write, but I know only a hundred words or so.

As of learning Greek, that's really not on my list. I did gather material to start learning Japanese (of which I know about 20 words or so ) but I couldn't find more time and motivation to start learning.

Romanian is a phonetic language too, so I really don't think I'll have a problem with the "ft", if it's like in words similar to "elefteria"

Oh it's no problem at all when it's in the middle of a word, it's when a word begins with certain letters or combinations which just aren't used in English.
It's rather the same as many foreigners being caught out with the two extremely simple English words of 'soup' and 'soap', they often just can't say them, they say 'shoop' for soup and 'shoap or shoop' for soap.

Actually I think Romaninan, English, and a fair grasp of three other European languages is pretty impressive, plus the ability to read in Russian. I hate it when foreigners move here and never attempt to learn the language as often happens here. Personally I've found it really hard work getting to grips with a second language but on days of easy communication it makes it all worthwhile.