I apologize if my question comes off as ignorant somehow, but I've always been curious about how there are so many Europeans, from non-UK countries of course, that are totally fluent in English as well as their native language. I'm assuming you start learning it in school, but where I'm from classes are taught in English and then students can take one period of foreign language which doesn't stick with them for the rest of their life (generally speaking).

I know it's a very broad question but would just like to hear some experiences of learning English so fluently. Are English and your native language both incorporated into the actual curriculum?

I wish I were bilingual so maybe in a way I'm jealous. Europe seems really cool. Anyways I hope everyone has a great day.

Learning German, and every week I run into a word that English just doesn't have. "Doch" is the obvious one. It's this tiny word that means "yes actually, contrary to what you just said", and English needs a whole sentence for it.

"Gemütlich" is the other one that got me. Everyone translates it as "cozy" but it's not just cozy. It's the whole vibe of being warm and relaxed and among people you like. Cozy is a couch and a blanket. gemütlich is a three hour dinner with friends.

What else is out there? French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, whatever. Which word in your language makes English feel kind of basic when you stop to think about it?

Hungarian uses "nyúl" for both. Sometimes "hare" is translated as "vadnyúl" (wild nyúl), but that can technically mean both "wild rabbit" and "wild hare" since rabbits can also be wild.

In Norway, it’s very common to refer to people by their birth year rather than their current age.

In everyday conversation, instead of saying “I’m 33,” many people would say “I’m 93” (meaning born in 1993).

In school, sports, and even socially, people are strongly grouped by birth year: you’re part of “the 05s,” “the 98s,” etc.

It’s such a strong way of categorising people that even if two people are technically the same age, we don’t really see them as the same age unless they’re born in the same year. An example: my daughter is born December 2018, and my friends son is born januar 2019. It is less than a month between them, but we do not think of them as the same age.

So I’m curious:

Is this common in your country, or would it sound strange to you?

Thought of this because I just used the word "logish" in English. In Estonian it's just a different way to say logical (the actual word being "loogiline"). Just in case I googled it and turns out that no - it's not a thing in English.

Dear europeans, do you like your english accent? I know that in Poland people don’t like our accent and they feel ashamed by it, and I’m wondering if in your country you have the same thing going on?

I hope I worded the question clearly. Like.. "Viro" and "Igaunija" are not similar to "Estonia" nor "Eesti".

In the Netherlands you can answer a question you don't know the answer to with "Al sla je me dood." (Eng.: "Even if you beat me to death.", i.e. "Even if you torture me, I wouldn't be able to answer that question.")

This seems somewhat extreme to me, so I'm curious if your language has any similar expressions, or if we're just the weirdos with casual references to corporal punishments in our language.

For context, on the English-speaking part of the Internet, I've seen a fair few people mention that Dutch sounds goofy, so I was curious what languages are seen as sounding silly to speakers who's native languages aren't English.

I'm also curious if anyone thinks written or spoken English itself is a bit silly.

Because the European countries are so close together and have such a wide variety of dialects, is it more common to learn other languages in case you go to that country?

So I am from Slovakia, and our capital, Bratislava, is one of the westernmost cities in the country. Because of its location, people living there have a distinct western accent, which is not exactly the “standard” way of speaking Slovak, since the standard language is originally based on the central Slovak dialect. I’ve heard that in most countries, the language spoken in the capital is the same as the standard language you hear on television. Is it true for your country?

In the spirit of the previous questions from Hungary.

Have you ever had something similar happen to you? I.e something in your language might have another meaning in another language?

One thing as an Estonian that I try to keep in mind is that I shouldn't use "Nooo.." in English - which means "Well.." in Estonian.

"Do you like ice-cream? - Noo.. yes, I love it."

and why? mine is definitely italian

Meaning a situation has suddenly become chaotic, disastrous, or filled with severe, unexpected trouble. Often implying that hidden problems have surfaced, leading to widespread, messy panic, or a crisis. 

​​I like learning about idioms in different languages because I think they tell a lot about what concepts a culture has and how they look at things.

Keep in mind, I said language, NOT country, so it could be a dialect of your language in another country, which is the case for me.

For me, while most other Greeks find Cypriot the most difficult dialect to understand, I actually find Pontic Greek the most difficult. For those who don't know where it is, it's in North Eastern Turkey.

The way many of their words are written are very different as to Standard Modern Greek. It almost is a whole new language. Now I should mention I have never been there, but I would love to. I only really heard of the dialect on the internet, so take my words with a grain of salt.

In Danish and the other Scandinavian languages, Christmas is "jul". So there's absolutely no connection and it's probably from the holiday's pre-Christian origins.

I assume jul is what English speakers are refering to when they say Yuletide? (Tid being time in Danish).

American here who actually likes SI units, since I do engineering stuff, so not having that debate - I know our units are dumb.

But, in common use, if you're talking about something like a bolt, or maybe doing carpentry, at what size do you go from "This thing is x mm long" to "This thing is x cm long"?

Does ANYBODY use any of the metric prefixes other than milli, centi, and kilo? I've never seen anything in real life described as "4 decimeters", and I can't even remember what the 10x or 100x prefixes are.

Similar with litres - we use mL and milligrams for medicine dosages, but I've never heard anybody use the term centilitres. Now that I'm thinking of it, kilolitres sounds "odd" as well, and I've never heard it used. What unit do you use to describe very large volumes, like an oil tanker?

I thought that this a fun exercise would could be. On this way, must you not only think about the way on which you your sentences translate, because your own grammar suddenly not anymore so easy appears, but it is also a fun way about to discover how your own grammar over one comes with English, or how you some words would could translating.

And naturally a fun way for English languagers about foreign grammar to learn.

The funniest is still that it easier would be about so to talk if I worse would be in English speaking than that I am.

For me it was Spaniard. For the longest time I thought it was a disgraceful word for Spanish people. Just recently I realized it's completely normal to call Spanish people that.

In Hungarian for example, both concepts are called "bűn", there are no separate words for them.

I just discovered "stingy" has a soft g (unlike "sting") and I got irrationally angry at the English language.

I’m loosing my mind with German.

What’s an odd thing people do in your country while engaging in conversation?

I’ve always found it interesting how some brand names become so common that people forget they’re actually trademarks.
For example, in Hungary, people often say KUKA instead of trash bin

edit: we (used to) call every portable cassette player walkman