Where Did You Learn English

[Fortuna]

Being born and raised in England i have never felt the need to learn another language as english is spoken worldwide. I see from the posts here that you all speak excellant english. and from what im told its a hard language to learn, even for me it is

For me to learn a new language such as kurdish, arabic or turkish is so so hard as we are not taught it in school, and i would have to travel into birmingham which is about 18 miles away from me, so too far, and the kurds really are a minority where i live, but 11 miles away is a large kurdish community, but even there no one officially teaches the language,and on searching through google i found there were differant kurdish languages, so i would be lost as to know which one to learn, though i would like to communicate with the few people i do know in my town, I guess i need to ask which part of kurdistan they are from to find out, all i know is that they are from Iraq

[tomjez]

i have never felt the need to learn another language as english is spoken worldwide

French is my mothern language

Breton SHOULD be my mothern language and I learned it alone when I was 20...

I learned english at school and by watching DVD's with subtitles

German at school

Turkish in Turkey....

[Fortuna]

wow tomjez so many languages thats great . I spent alot of time in Egypt and Turkey but never mastered the language, all i can say is hello how are you .


Breton? I have never heard of that language at all, is it some form of kurdish language?

[Piling]

Breton? I have never heard of that language at all, is it some form of kurdish language?

Sorry Fortuna... but it is as you asks : Scottish... never heard of this... IS it a sort of African language ?

Breton = Britton, one of the most ancient celtic language. Tom is an anti-France rebel.

[Fortuna]

Britton? im still confused, i told you i only speak english Really i dont know what it is

[tomjez]

loooooooool that's really cute

and actually my dear french compatriot (blaaah), breton is the most RECENT celtic language

it appeared in Britanny in the Vth century, and differentiated from welsh language...there was an intercomprehension with Cornic (Cornwall) language until it disappeared in the XVIII century...

if you wonder what Brittanny is, wonder why your country is called GREAT Britain. We're the little one

[tomjez]

I come from Bro Leon in the north west...just facing cornwall...

if you want a sample of breton language

"Bevet Breizh dieub, kaoc'h d'ar Baris" = Long live free Brittanny, f.... Paris!

[Fortuna]

wow somewhere i have heard of, i know cornwall , spent many happy holidays there when i was younger. Ok soooooooooo now tell me why we are called GREAT britian, because what is great about this country is a mystery to me No seriously i am kidding about the GREAT part, i do love the fact that i live in a free country but sometimes we take alot for granted.

[Diri]

My tounge speaks (based on how fluent I am):

Mother tounge: Kurdish
Second language: Norwegian
Third language: English
Fourth language: Turkish


Hard to place Turkish and English - as I am told I spoke fluent Turkish the two years my family stayed in Konya when I was a child... Before I even spoke a word of Norwegian or English!


Anyway - started learning English as a kid watching TV, movies etc, and at school from 3th grade... Now they changed the system - so they started teaching English from the 2nd grade...

Have to say - still learning English... It's an endless language... Realy, it is... It's such a mess - with all the foreign loan-words!

But I find my way around...


I am currently trying to improve my Persian - while I am trying to learn Arabic... Actually gonna major in Arabic, starting next semester!

It's a beautiful language...


Ps. @ Tom

Could you please shrink or just link to that HUGE map - it's ruining the whole board, being the size of an elephant... I hate to scroll to the sides...

[Fortuna]

The map was for my benefit, its ok tom ive put my glasses on now, you can shrink it . I know where to come when i need help with a new language . Im assuming all of you in here speak kurdish? If so do any of you speak sorani i think its called?

[Diri]

The thing is, Fortuna, Kurdish has two branches: Kurmancî and Pehlevî. Soranî is "South Kurmancî" and Kurmancî is "North Kurmancî". Zazakî, Hewramî, Goranî, Lakî etc etc etc - are Pehlevî...

Basically - those two are very different from eachother (Kurmancî and Pehlevî) - but Soranî and Kurmancî are veeeeeery close... They are just two dialects of the same thing... Like the Dialect I speak in Norwegian: Bergensk and the one spoken in the capital Oslo...

Either way - if you are educated - you will have little or no problems understanding the other (if you speak one of the two). But things are a bit harder with Kurmancî-Pehlevî... The vocabulary (nouns, verbs etc) is mostly the same, I suppose...

Perhaps not the right person to talk about it - I dont' speak Zazakî or any of the other dialects of Pehlevî... But from what I hear on TV they use the same words and grammatical structure...

I like to refere to them (Zazakîs) as "Warê mayo" ... Which is "Warê me" in Kurmancî - meaning "Our Camp/Place"...

Okey - I'm running around in a circle here...

To answer your question - Heval and Dyaoko speak Soranî...

[heval]

To answer the first question... United States

...and the second...I speak Soranî and a little Hewramî (oldest form of Pehlevî) too... also some Kurmancî but I'll let Kak Dîrî be the judge of that, but like he said... you really only need to speak one of the dialects very well and you can understand them all

[dyaoko]

I speak Kurdi (Sorani) , Farsi, English, Arabic and I can undrestand Kurmancy .
I undrestand "a bit" Hewrami (a kind of kurdish ) ,and a "very bit" spanish and turkish.

I learnt english by myself through books and talking to english ppl,
I learnt farsi and arabic in school .
and I am learning French in these days

I belive , that Practicing a language is the only way of learning it , no book no teacher no ... Just practice practice and practice , fortunately practicing a language is not that like Math or Physics, it is reading cool things, talking to cool ppl... and learning at the same time.

+ to tom : couldnt you find a smaller map of your bereton empire ?

[Fortuna]

You guys really puy me to shame After reading how many differant languages you can all speak makes me realise how lazy i am, and as kurdish is so totally new to me and i have friends that speak it i will try and learn sorani, in the hope that when i am in their company i can at least understand a little of what they say. They do speak english with me which is great but id like to suprise them . At first i thought they were speaking arabic as they say salam alikum everytime someone walks in the door.


I did learn one word last weekend, which was mach = kiss , not sure of spelling and im assuming its sorani, is it?

[Diri]

You guys really puy me to shame After reading how many differant languages you can all speak makes me realise how lazy i am, and as kurdish is so totally new to me and i have friends that speak it i will try and learn sorani, in the hope that when i am in their company i can at least understand a little of what they say. They do speak english with me which is great but id like to suprise them . At first i thought they were speaking arabic as they say salam alikum everytime someone walks in the door.


I did learn one word last weekend, which was mach = kiss , not sure of spelling and im assuming its sorani, is it?

Good for you!

And like I said - Mach is the same in ALL Kurdish dialects... Soranî, Kurmancî, Zazakî etc... We all say Mach...