What is your native tongue? or additional tongues?
I was born in Hakka family. I guess my native tongue is hakkanese, but Hakkanese I grew up with has no written form which made me a Chinese character illiterate.
I was educated in Bahasa Indonesia, that’s supposed to be my national language. English is third…and goes French, Spanish and so forth…
ax
My mother tongue is Pittsburghese (Yunz prolly wunt unerstan me if I ask’d “jeet yet?” and I doubt any of Yunz knows what a “jumbo samich” is either, or what an “Imp an an arn anat” is).
I have a fair grasp of the English language (American English, that is). But I usually am able to understand, and even communicate, with people who speak British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand or Canadian English. But, I sometimes have to resort to hand gestures to make my meaning known.
I took four years of high school and college French, but being an American, I can now say only “je ne parle pas francais” and “ou es la WC?”
I speak Chinese (Mandarin), but apparently only my wife and secretary understand me when I do (my son, however, has opined that my best Mandarin is inspired by conversations with taxi drivers).
I also speak very fluent Pig-Latin.
I don’t speak English, or AmeriKan…
I is a collge gradute and dam prod of it!
Chinese, that’s a joke…
German, 3 years of college and all I can say is “Ich habe gelernt (sp) aber, ich habe alles vergessen…” or something like that… Iris, Rascal be easy on me 
Sharky,
Most of the rest of the world don’t speak English out of preference and confidentiality. I don’t speak English at home nor in office nowadays. Only on the net.
ax
A guy on the street the other day asked me “what language do you blokes speak in Australia?”. Makes me laugh actually, I felt like going into a solo and singing ;
Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said,
“Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscles
I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich
And he said,
“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
Lying in a den in Bombay
With a slack jaw, and not much to say
I said to the man, “Are you trying to tempt me
Because I come from the land of plenty?”
And he said,
“Oh! Do you come from a land down under? (oh yeah yeah)
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
“High” German is my native tounge though a bit corrupted by the local dialect I used to be exposed to when I grew up.
Learned English in school (well …) but learned to speak English only during my stay in Malaysia. Hard to follow the Americans and Aussies 
but later we managed that to some extend, too.
Oh, and I did learn Latin in school but have forgotten everything. Alea iacta est.
Sharky, spot on (just insert “Deutsch” after “Ich habe”).
How come you learn English in Malaysia. One is supposed to learn Malay in Malaysia no?
Does anyone speak tagalog or Hindi here?
ax
Well, the English we learn in German schools from German teachers doesn’t get you anywhere, the vocabulary is not sufficient and you won’t use English in your daily life since all the media are in German and even movies are dubbed (no subtitles either).
So the only way to practice and really learn (speak) is by being exposed to an English speaking environment.
Ok, so Malaysia is probably not No.1 on the list, but I then again it’s the business language and widely used in Malaysia, also it was helped by the fact that I worked for an international company with several native English speaking colleagues.
I tried my luck with Bahasa but couldn’t get along with the teachers style, as well I wasn’t really committed to it. So I only picked up some words, just enough to order food and find my way around.
Besides, people always thought I speak English when I talk to them, so they never understood my simple Bahasa … Ke Tandas?
LOL…
Bahasa(Language) Malay, or Melayu, is somewhat different from Bahasa Indonesia, and we use different diction. I always find Malaysian expressions to be hilarious for some words, e.g. the word “Tandas”… 
or “Push-up” translated into Malaysian :“Setubuh dengan bumi”, which in Indonesian means “to have an intercourse with the earth”.
My native tongue is Indonesian, not bahasa.
Never heard of that push-up joke…
but heard of Artilery translated as "Pasukan hentak-hentak Bumi"and Maternity translated to “Rumah sakit korban lelaki”
that’s hilarious…
ax
Engrish
Danish, which to the surprice of many Taiwanese is the language spoken in Denmark.
Q: “What language to you speak in Denmark, English?”
A: “No, in Denmark, our language is Danish.”
Copenhagen north suburb accent, so other Danes tend to assume (wrongly) that I’m loaded.
English… I learned it in primary school, and improved on it at summer schools in Canterbury and Oxford.Writing skills have further improved since here in Taiwan.
Chinese… MA in Asian Studies - 18 months spent at MTC. I also managed to improve it while working as a Mandarin speaking guide in Copenhagen.
I guess the only Danish we know is Danish biscuit…
Monde
Mr He: You speak Danish? I thought Danish was just something people eat in New York…
I have two Danish-speaking Indonesian friends in Jakarta. They grew up in Denmark and went to school there.
A Danish comedian, the recently deceased Victor Borge, went to a cafe in New York. The waiter asked him: “Danish?” He replied:“How did you know?”. 
Funnily enough, we call “Danish” (the pastry) for “Wiennese pastry” in Denmark. 
It’s only taught in primary schools in Denmark and in Iceland. Moreover, it’s a great code language, as only 70 persons in Taiwan speak it.
I’m from Arizona, so I speak a sort of unaccented American English. I’ve done a lot of business in New York, so can speak the local dialect when I’m there and hear it on a regular basis. Same thing with Texas.
Hablo poco espa
Oh, German? Why don’t you call up on Rascal, then. He’s German and so is Iris.
You should ask my rate first but be aware classes are held in Matsu or Kinmen.
Actually I am not much of a teacher but I know from a local colleague that there are German classes held somewhere in Taipei.
Let me know if you want the details, I can find out.
i speak mandarin and english. i can speak a little taiwanese with great difficulty…but can understand most of it.
i took 4 years of french but it’s pretty worthless.
[quote=“Rascal”]You should ask my rate first but be aware classes are held in Matsu or Kinmen (Jinmen).
Actually I am not much of a teacher but I know from a local colleague that there are German classes held somewhere in Taipei.
Let me know if you want the details, I can find out.[/quote]
i would like to know the details. the company i work for had german lessons for two months (only once a week), but the classes were too crowded and unstructured. they have since stopped the lessons. at this age, i’m not sure if i really have the ability to pick it up…but would like to know the specifics anyway 