Thread: What's your native language?

I just don't like the language, it's too weird, even being a native speaker, and a grammar "Nazi," per se.

Originally Posted by RusskiySnaiper

..., even being a native speaker, and a grammar "Nazi," per se.

We don't mind a grammar "Nazi"!
In fact, we would totally appreciate you correcting our grammar mistakes, anytime and everywhere in the forum. So, don't hesitate, please!

English simply has more words and more ways of saying a particular thing.

Maybe that's because you lived in England for too long?

So what's wrong with English then!? I am glad to have spoken it from childhood because it must be a devilishly tricky language to learn in later life. Our spelling, phonetics and pronounciation are all over the place and made no better by other versions of English to be found all over the world and especially in South Africa/ Kenya, the USA/ Canada, the Indian sub-continent, Australia/ New Zealand not to mention regions of the British Isles, where amazing differences are to be found a few miles apart. Grammatical structure is a constant source of debate even among us Brits. Now Russian, on the other hand, is really beautiful! It is easy on the ear, very structured and the grammar is like the inside of a Rolex watch,- a delight to behold! Tell me Дастин, what does English sound like to a foreign ear?

Originally Posted by ladoga

So what's wrong with English then!? I am glad to have spoken it from childhood because it must be a devilishly tricky language to learn in later life. Our spelling, phonetics and pronounciation are all over the place and made no better by other versions of English to be found all over the world and especially in South Africa/ Kenya, the USA/ Canada, the Indian sub-continent, Australia/ New Zealand not to mention regions of the British Isles, where amazing differences are to be found a few miles apart. Grammatical structure is a constant source of debate even among us Brits. Now Russian, on the other hand, is really beautiful! It is easy on the ear, very structured and the grammar is like the inside of a Rolex watch,- a delight to behold! Tell me Дастин, what does English sound like to a foreign ear?

Are you sure you're asking the right person?

Originally Posted by ladoga

what does English sound like to a foreign ear?

dry, stiff and official
I found that my voice becomes a little lower when I speak English(American), comparing to Russian. Same goes to all foreign bilinguals that I heard
Must something to do with English vowels I think

British is rather sexy

English.

Doomer -

dry, stiff and official

Interesting! I can relate to that. And I find British accents sexy too They sound more educated/intelligent than Americans, to me.

English (Amer.) is the only language I know, but I am trying to change that by learning Russian.

Russian. And now I`m learning English.

My native language is Greek. I know English and I have started learning Russian.

моротхи

Originally Posted by sawat.datta

моротхи

Маратхи?

My native language is Russian. I know English, but not at the desired level..so I want to improve it. And I also learning German (it is even more interesting for me than English), but I only recently started and know about 100 word's and a little bit of grammar.

Russian/Ukrainian are my native languages (I'm from Ukraine but I speak in russian). Now i'm trying to learn English, that's why i'm here on this forum. I will be glad to have a conversation with different english speaking people, and will be glad to help you with russian language.

Russian,Ukrainian!!!

меня мароти и хиндий

да. потому что , я иэ (мумъои) индия

My native language is Serbian (BCS), if someone needs help with it... I've been learning French and German, now I want to start with Russian.

Tagalog with dialects Visayan and Chabacano..

Привет!
My mother tongue is English. The language of the country I've lived in most of my life is Swedish. I've used both at a high professional level every day for more than 40 years. My daughter's mother tongue is Finnish. I've used German professionally. The language I get the biggest buzz from using is Serbo-Croat, but I've only got a rough working knowledge of it The language I most regret not knowing or devoting time to learning is Chinese. The language I've been most pig-headed about wrestling to the ground (after Finnish) is Latin.
Russian I've always wanted to learn, but never really got to grips with until a few years ago. Close personal contacts with Kazan', Kemerovo (now moved) and St Pete. Preferred methods of learning - good textbook, bilingual mail and chat (my friends write in Russian, I write in English), and close combat with Pushkin and Bulgakov. That is, I read a chunk in Russian noting what I don't understand and looking some of it up, then read a faithful translation, then reread the chunk in Russian.
I've just spent a few days in Riga in Latvia. When people didn't understand English, I asked them to explain in Russian - it worked on the whole, so I suppose you could say I've got a working knowledge of Russian.