Switzerland? It's a large portion French, as well as German and Italian, the Wallonia provinces of Belgium? It's been an important language historically, hence its survival and how it has spread out. It's also possible that the people who have said they speak French come from or have large experience in Francophone countries.

Edit: Or just had no other options during school.

I am suddenly having flashbacks to really bad matches of HoN.

Dutch is my first language, English is pretty much second despite that it should be French. I was born and raised in Belgium so yay for two languages. I've also lived in Denmark for over a year and took basic language classes during that year. In theory I should also know German but the one year I had that at school I didn't do any effort at all for it

The videoke culture is a national thing, though a lot more prevalent in the provinces. Pag sa probinsya, madalas ang rentahan ng videoke machine. Tricycles! Astig mga tricycle pag probinsya talaga, mas mura pa at mas malayo nararating. Sa Ilocos nun, kung hindi bus, tricycle gamit niyo lalo na at highway ang dinadaanan kahit kabilang baryo lang. Province din kami (Rizal) pero palibhasa parang kakambal na ng Manila, katulad na rin sa Metro Manila yung hitsura. Mas okay naman yung mga tahimik na sasakyan o kaya mahina lang yung tugtog. Yung mga jeep kasi sa amin, sobrang bibilis na nga, sa lakas pa ng tugtog, manginginig ka sa upuan at mabibingi ka talaga. Kahit madaling araw ganun sila.

Pinakagusto ko sana nung nang-Baguio kami makapunta ng Teachers' Camp. Nag-field trip kasi dati yung alma mater ko dun kaso hindi ako nakasama. Andami kasi nilang kuwentong nakakatakot sa loob kaya na-curious ako malaman kung totoo. Hehe. Kahit sa Ilocos ganun din sila sa multo eh, kaya bawal ka gumala pag magha-hatinggabi na. Buti na lang tabi ng highway yung tinitirhan namin dun kaya hindi masyadong nakakatakot. Ang alam ko mas nakakatakot daw pag sa parteng Visayas o Mindanao kasi mas sikat dun yung mga kwento ng engkanto, manananggal, etc.


The videoke culture is a national thing, though a lot more prevalent in the provinces. In the provinces, renting video machines is a common thing. Tricycles! Tricycles in the provinces are great, they are cheaper and can usually go longer distances than their city counterparts. In Ilocos, if not buses, you'd use tricycles to travel from a barrio to another more so because you travel through highways. I live in a province too but, since we're considered as a 'twin' of Philippines' capital city, we look similar to Metro Manila. I think public vehicles that are silent or have quiet music are preferable compared to our jeepneys that, aside from being too fast, have very loud music that's enough to make you vibrate in your seat and impair your hearing. Even during the early morning, they'd still act that way.

What I wanted to visit the most in Baguio was the Teachers' Camp. Our alma mater had a field trip there before and I wasn't able to come. They had a lot of scary stories afterwards that I was curious to know what really happened. Hehe. Even in Ilocos people are scared of ghosts that you're not allowed to roam when midnight is close. It's a good thing the place where we stay in Ilocos sits beside the highway so the surroundings aren't that scary. From what I know, it's scarier in Visayas, or in Mindanao, since stories of (insert: what's the counterpart of engkanto in English?earthbound beings? I'm thinking of goblins and elves..but I don't know what they're collectively called. Just think of them as goblin, elves, etc.) and manananggals (i'm 'americanizing' a filipino term here..since I don't know if monsters that look like this http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7uBC0kR5n74/TCm1...ggal_bw_web.jpg exist or have a name in other places) are quite famous in those regions.

Please don't tell me it's got to do with bad players speaking Filipino?

I'm not saying Filipinos are bad, just that it stands out a lot more if you lose because half your team can't communicate with the other half. It's just as bad when they're speaking horrible internet Brazilian Portugese that's like half abbreviations with no vowels. My friend tried to teach me a bit, but it was impossible.

Impossible?

Hee. We get that stereotype, I think, so I wouldn't be surprised if you said that.

I am fluent in English, although, I am passable in Spanish (I've studied it since elementary school).

I have been recently studying Mandarin Chinese (I am in love with it) and will possibly be taking classes in Hebrew. I would love to know French, but every institution I have attended does not have a French program. Alas.

Shikari has recently put me in a kick of wanting to learn Russian too, mainly because we love a particular song he found.

From most fluent to least:

English (mother language), Japanese (from four years of academic study), Ilonggo (my parents' mother tongue, but I only have aural comprehension), Spanish (from studying since elementary school; largely forgotten), Dutch, and Russian. I'm teaching myself the last two.

I speak English and English. I've had a few lessons in Squirrel as well and I'm coming along quite nicely.

English, French, Italian and German. Though my conversational/everyday German still needs spiffying up. Italian and French came to me easily, not so much the German. But I have friends who have the exact opposite, where German was easier and French/Italian more difficult. ^^;

Dutch (Flemish variant) - Mother Tongue
English (EFL + aviation) - ALTE Level 4/IELTS 7
French - Rusty after several years of neglect
German - Rusty after several years of neglect
Japanese - Passing interrest, some tourist phrases



Assuming one does an effort. (I am trying to refrain getting in to a political debate here but it is haaaard)

One doesn't do an effort Anisu, one makes an effort. See, we're all learning!

You now have one post in which to teach us Flemish Dutch. Go.

Je crois qu'il y a beaucoup de Canadiens qui jouent Lusternia. Nos deux langues officelles sont Anglais et Français, alors ce n'est pas extraordinaire que beaucoup de nous avons au moins quelques ans d'éducation en Français. Moi, j'ai completé neuf ans d'Immersion Française en école primaire et sécondaire, alors la vaste majorité de mes cours étaient en Français. Cependant, je ne parle pas la langue couramment parce que je n'ai pas l'opportunité à pratiquer. Il fait un an déjà que j'ai eu un conversation en Français; je lis des instructions sur des produits en Français de temps en temps, mais ZUT ALORS il n'y a personne à converser avec. J'avais besoin d'une dictionnaire simplement pour taper ces petites phrases et je suis sûr qu'elles sont pleines d'erreurs.


EDIT: En addition, je comprends presque rien quand j'entends un Francophone. Ils parlent beaucoup trop vite pour ma pauvre compréhension à suivre.

À mon avis, tu écris en français très plus bien que moi. Je comprends la plupart des choses que je lis, mais j'ai aussi des problèmes en écoutant les Francophones.

Ta seule phrase qui sens d'anglais est "il n'y a personne à converser avec." Je pense les Français écriraient "personne avec qui à converser". Winston Churchill, en outre.

Tu es correct! Alors oui, il n'y a personne avec qui à converser. Même, il n'y a pas trop de causes pour écrire, aussi. On peut pratiquer où on veut, c'est vrai, mais sans quelqu'un à corriger nos erreurs, on pratiquerait la mauvaise structure des phrases, par exemple, comme je viens de faire!

你们在说什么? 我听不懂法语!

フランスごはきれいですが、よみかたはむずかしいとおもいます。　わたしもぜんぜんわかりませんよ。

ちゅうごくごをかきたい。。でも、オプションをさがしません。

I speak english And only english

I've been thinking of taking courses to learn a second language, I'm just unsure what to actually learn.

そうですね。私もフランス語の読み方と聞き方が好きですが、すごく話しにくいだと思います。書き方と話し方はすごく違うんです。Silferrasはよく日本語が分かりませんか？他の日本語が分かる人もいるかな・・・。まあ、いいよ。実は、日本語をもっと練習しなければいけません。私の専攻ですが、最近あまり使いません。他の人が一緒に日本語で話しかけましょう？ｗｗ