Which languages do you speak?

I am from Germany. My basic English dates back 35 years. To translate the smell comments it's a challenge for me. The translator helps there a lot. It makes fun and is training for me.

Hey, I just added a new feature.
Native English speakers, does this sound ok?

"Perfumes of this brand have been rated 73 of 100% in average.
850 ratings have been submitted so far."

English
Macedonian

& I would love to learn Arabic for future travels

German, French, English!

I have this grandiose delusion that I can speak German. The reality is, whenever we've visited Germany, Germans respond to my feeble attempts at their native tongue by answering in perfect English. The message is very kind but clear, "Don't bother, we've got you covered." There's nothing patronizing about it, they're always very nice. Even my own son recognizes my deficiencies although he's far less forgiving. If he's within earshot during one of these exchanges he'll clench his teeth in embarassment and hiss, "Dad, they don't understand you! Just say it in English!"

I also recognize dibs and dabs of French and Italian as needed for my job as a musician. My love of perfume has also expanded my ability to cobble together a better understanding of French but, in reality, I'm just a typical mono-lingual American.

Apart from my native Danish:
Reasonable English (I hope). I understand and read Swedish and Norwegian without a problem.
I read German well, understand quite a bit of it when spoken, but I can barely speak it anymore. I think too much about that killer grammar
I read some French and Spanish, a little Italian... and some Dutch. (When you know some English and German, Dutch is not too bad to read). I'm totally lost when I hear it spoken!

I'm fluent in English, but also in Afrikaans (a language indigenous to South Africa) which is Dutch/Flemish based. I understand Flemish and can converse with a natural speaker, and can follow a conversation in Dutch too. I speak Spanish really poorly and enough French to order breakfast in Paris . The French become very helpful when one attempts to speak their language! I also curse very well in Italian teehee. I love languages but don't really have the time to learn something else ... altho' I'd love to learn Arabic.

I am Spanish and German, so I speak those two well, as well as English. My French used to be better than it is now, and I speak averagely Norwegian and Swedish. Danish I can read and try to speak, but understanding it is difficult because Danes have something stuck in their throat
I also can communicate in Italian, and a little in Dutch, Portuguese and Greek. Japanese and Chinese I've been learning on and off all my life without being able to move forward much.

This is truly hilarious. Who around here is going to want laser hair removal in Edmonton, Canada, pray tell?

German,
but it only now gets unearthed from the depths of the brain, as I have spent nearly 40 years in the United States.

We learned British English in School, and upon my arrival I asked for directions in Times Square, NYC, a policeman with: "I beg your pardon, Sir, could you ..." to be interrupted with, "What do you want, Miss?" Now the Yankee English seems normal to me, slang and all.

French is an extra acquired with an au pair stay long ago, in Paris. Today I watch French DVDs with or without subtitles, and since the movie is rolling along, the French is absorbed without any problem, better than with that Rosetta Stone method.

I see that I never answered the question. Well, I'm fluent in French, and in Spanish-speaking countries I quickly rehydrate my former fluency. I hardly ever use Spanish otherwise, though I took several Spanish and Latin American literature and film courses (all in Spanish).

My German is sketchy. I really love German, but it's impossible to raise my level because Germans always speak English better than we speak German. I only began learning German after I had finished college, so obviously I'm 12+ years behind! When in Germany, I am able to communicate effectively, and I also can read German pretty well. I always make mistakes in writing German because every sentence presents something like one hundred error possibilities. Es ist nicht einfach.

I studied Japanese for two years but have not used it since I went to Japan several years ago. Nihon-go wa amari dekimasen!

I studied Swedish for two years, thinking that I might move to the Aland islands. But then I realized that it would be like living in Minnesota. Jag talar inte Svenska.

I achieved proficiency in Italian and took several literature courses, but have not used it much except while in Italy. Italian was my easiest language to learn because of the grammar overlap with French and the vocabulary overlap with Spanish. Posso parlare.

I think that's it. Oh, right: a bit of Latin.

Veni, vidi, vici.

Did you have a difficult time with Japanese? It absolutely defeated me.

I actually love Japanese, but getting to a decent level of proficiency requires an incredible investment of time, since the kanji are all and only a matter of memorization. The grammar is minimalist, to put it mildly, but learning all of the necessary kanji is nearly impossible, unless one abandons all of one's other endeavors and interests!

I was happy to have achieved a "survival" level before my trip, making it possible for me to travel alone even out in the sticks, where all romaji dropped out of the picture. It was like travelling through a different planet. I loved it!

I still own several Japanese books (including Kanji dictionaries!) and would love to redirect my OCD to that language at some point, but until I have another trip scheduled, it does not make a lot of sense... alas, I cannot justify upgrading my Japanese language ability for Japanese's sake!

I second that. And the real shame is, my granny was Dutch and never taught me her native tongue.

Sometimes I hear that some people have mathematical skills and not language skills, and the opposite, too.
Does one exclude the other?

Women usually have a knack for talking, I mean languages ... thoughts just tumble out, flow ...

Math is another matter. At this time, my son is taking Summer School in Statistics. Oh dear, although the concepts are not hard to understand, the actual application with homework is another matter. For me, at least - (he seems to manage). I find Statistics very abstract and neutral, actually the opposite from writing emotionally about perfumes, as we do here in eloquent reviews.

No. Mathematical, language, and musical ability are all correlated.

Yes, that is what my math teacher also used to say, teaching music and English as well (the math part of my brain seems to have a defect, though.)
As for the language part, I am not good in any language. I speak German fluently, but I lack many vocabularies and still struggle with the right noun marker! I'm far from being a fluent English speaker.
Latin at school, but long forgotten almost everything. In hindsight, I should've taken French. I utterly failed in my several attempts at learning it, but feel I should tackle it again (like Don Quixote).
All in all, bits here and there, but none which I could conscientiously declare as "my fluent language". Comments are often easier for me to write in English though, than in German.
The verbal expression wasn't gifted to me, regardless of the language. I think someone eloquent and skilled in one language will be well-spoken in a foreign language as well (as seen with many authors), than someone who generally struggles with verbal communication.

Your English and German are both fine, Anessa! Aren't you fluent in Japanese also?
Another Don Quixote here, btw., doing poorly at my attempts to revive French (and Russian).

Sorry I missed your post here (from last year...) and also, thank you for your kind words, Mia!
But then, you better would not have/hear me speak German when I am tired
I am fluent in Japanese and used to do some interpreting, but I do not consider myself "proficient" in that language neither.
By the way, you are someone who proves again what I had assumed in my previous post; people gifted with verbal expression are skilled in any language, no matter native or foreign.

Thank you for the compliment, Anessa! If so, aren't you too?

Anyway, I think above hypothesis maths, language and musical ability are all correlated quite interesting but don't agree. There certainly is an intersection between music and maths and between music and language, respectively. However, these aren't identical, I'd argue. The former I see in harmony and rhythm, the latter in intonation and pronunciation.

Besides Dutch I can read , speak and write (very well) English,
reading and speaking German , writing goes not that easy any-more,
French : reading , writing and speaking on a lower level, it's been to long ago since I followed French lessons at high-school
Afrikaans I can read and understand when people speak this
Several Dutch dialects ( there are so many dialects in our small country) are understandable for me
Flemish I can understand too

Mia, I'm generally very "heavy-mouthed" and have always admired those who are so well-spoken
I find your observation regarding the correlation of the three fields very interesting! For the grammar of a language, systematical thinking might connect to music (theory-wise) and maths, too?

Parfummaniac, I would be very glad if I could write such reviews in German like you do!
Dutch is an interesting language to study, especially if one knows German.
The dialects in Japan are like completely different languages so that you'd have to learn new. There are subtitles in films when people speak dialects, too. I am from the capital city which belongs to the Central East, and had difficulties when interpreting for people from other regions.