User:AmusedRepose/Lang



Philosophy on Language
I'm a firm believer in the concept that Wikipedia should be an endeavor that does not discriminate based on languages. Many of the articles I'm interested in require sourcing in other languages, and as a result I've had to pick up the basics of several languages.

The listed Babel codes I have are for the languages I'm most comfortable with. That means, usually, I can at least speak, read, and write in them. I also have a list of languages I'm capable of reading, but that I limit only to the purposes of understanding references.

Capable languages
I am capable of speaking but not writing in several variants such as 閩東語, and I speak 福州話. I study 中古漢語 but saying I speak it would be a stretch. Much of my chinese has deteriorated over the years, to the point where I could honestly downgrade it to 2.

I can make my way in اللغة العربية, specifically I was taught to read in مغربي by an Algerian, so that I could read the القرآن. I am not as familar with other local variants, and am particularly inept at deciphering anything Maltese.

Je suis à l'aise mais à peine éloquent en français.

I can use Altavista to translate German but I don't speak a word of it.

I am very shaky in Spanish since I haven't used it in years, but I can still siga una conversación. :p

My latin is strictly for making satiric puns.

My command of Russian is mostly book knowledge (I have been told it is для-фекалии), but I can kind of make my way if you use simple words and don't get fancy with tenses.

My command of English is at a professional level since I have written papers, articles, and am working on a book, and I have taught English to grades 4 through 12 in the US educational system.

Translations
I can translate Chinese, French, and some Spanish.

I am in no way qualified to translate anything from Russian or Arabic into English, since my skills there are shaky.

Incapable Languages
I can make my way, very slowly, through the following:


 * Portuguese
 * Estonian
 * Gaelic
 * Japanese
 * Norwegian
 * Danish (particularly weak)

Can't say that I speak much of them, but I can say a few sentences in each and I'm roughly slightly below 1 status in each.