Language

Use

Study

Speaking

Listening

Writing 

Reading

Notes

English (UK)

>20 years

>10 years

Fluent

Fluent

Fluent

Fluent

My mother tongue. This site is in English. Draw your own conclusions...

German

2½ years

9 years

Fluent

Fluent

Fluent

Fluent

Did 3 years of language courses at University and studied in German for a year there.

Bengali

8 years

1½ years

Good

Good

Fair

Good

Read the excellent Teach Yourself Bengali. Wrote a Bengali typing system while living in Bangladesh

English (US)

1 year

-

Good

Fluent

Good

Fluent

Went to American speaking school & worked in an American NGO. I need a spellchecker for some spellings.

Danish

2½ years

1 year

Good

Good

Fair

Good

Lived for 2 years in Denmark when I was younger, have kept visiting family & friends since then.

French

6 months

6 years

Poor

Rusty

Fair

Fair

Steady regress since 'A' at O-Level... :( 

Bengali sign language

3 years

-

Fair

Poor

-

-

The language is missing a lot of words and a fingerspelling system.

Dutch

3 months

Poor

Rusty

Poor

Fair

Korean sign language

9 months

-

Poor

Poor

-

-

No formal study - mixed with Bengali Sign Langauge.

Korean

9 months

9 months

Poor

Fair

Poor

Poor

Very context dependent - not good for general use.

Italian

1 month

1 month

Very Poor

Poor

Poor

Fair

A lot of helpful similarities with Latin...

Hindi

-

5 months

Very Poor

Poor

Poor

Poor

I studied this in 2003, moved to communicate with the Indian poor. 

Swedish

-

3 months

Almost useless

Poor

Almost useless

Fair

I took a beginners course at University in Kiel, Germany. Very similar to Danish.

I had the wrong idea about languages for years until ... I got to know a party of Norwegians in a train over a bottle of vodka

Latin

-