I grew up in French but started learning English in 1st grade, twelve years ago. I've had terrible teachers until high school, so I don't really know how I got to an acceptable command of the language. Otherwise I took Spanish for three years, had to start over in high school. I figured I had a gift for languages so I decided to get into the Languages profile for college, and here I am learning German and Italian. I'm having a blast and I got on the Honours list.... twice! My goal is to reach 10 languages.... not there yet, heh. Portuguese and Spanish have so much in common, you'd probably have an easy time learning Spanish. It's like Italian; all you need is basic knowledge of French and Spanish to understand most of it. Native English speakers usually have much more difficulty because the English language doesn't really have masculine and feminine, so adjectives don't agree with nouns. They also tend to struggle with the accent, I find that quite funny.
If so, then I can understand HTML, but I don't go around making websites or anything. Just to add, I also know a few phrases in Japanese from all of my anime escapades, and I can recognize languages fairly quickly.
I am from a country where people speak a different language (dialect)every 1000 kilometres or so (sometimes less). I have lived in different parts of the country over the years. So, I can understand (and speak a bit) about 6 local languages here. Fluency wise I can speak Manipuri (mother tongue), Hindi (national language but mainly I learn it from Bollywood movies), English (really the lingua franca and the true official language of India), and of course there is HINGLISH (hindi+english) which is the real language spoken in urban India today. A sample of Hinglish: Arre yaar, come on na.
I've well versed in Spanish, German, and French, self-taught Japanese basics, and know small Italian phrases/bits from curiosity and whattnot. I thank my mother every day for placing me in a Spanish Immersion program at my elementary school, mainly because I believe without it I never would have learned about my passion for languages, and how easily they came to me. 6 years of Spanish, 5 years of French, and 3 years of German.
I'm fluent in English and mostly fluent in French, I still have some minor issues with writing long pieces of work. I know a good amount of Spanish, I took 6 years of it, and I also recently started learning Italian. I'm trying to learn as many European languages as I can, because I would LOVE to move there.
Am I a bit late to join this thread? I suppose it's still on the first page... English is my third language. Gaidhlig and Gaeilge are first and second, respectively. I also know some Gaelg. I've lost count of the number of languages my girlfriend speaks quite well; English isn't one of them. The bizarrest is probably Nganasan, although I don't think she could have a conversation in it. There's a distinct lack of native speakers of one of the smallest Siberian languages in the far north of the British Isles.
I understand 4 languages, speak 3. My firtst language is Duth, second is English and third is German. Though it is my third language doesn't mean I speak it fluently yet: that will come. I can make myself clear in it . I understand French .
I'm fluent in gibberish! I can hold my own in French and Sign Language so long as they don't go too fast.
