Most often I see Deaf people using the same sign for “know” e.g. “You know ASL?”
Among hearing people, it’s just a tease of semantics. “Speaking sign language” can be correct in English by dictionary definition, it just sounds funny.
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I guess the other part of the joke is that in English, “speaking” by definition and common use does not necessarily connote verbal, oral communication. But in ASL, the sign for “speaking” very explicitly represents a mouth making sounds, where other words like “communicate”, “chat”, or “lecture” only denote an expression or interchange of ideas
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Uhm… sorry to bump this topic up. I speak Malay , Chinese, English and Japanese as i now stay in Malaysia and my father is Japanese
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Malay script seems even more difficult to me than Japanese, it was mentioned before but I think you are the first one to speak Malay (if someone else posted that they do and I missed it I apologize).
What is your experience with these two scripts?
Actually Malay is also available in the alphebet.
The schools in Malaysia (I am in a Chinese school) normally teach Malay in the Alphabet.
Isn’t it used in everyday life?
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Sorry for the late reply. Malaysia is a multi-racial country. We use Malay , Chinese , English and Indian (I don’t know it),
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The script you were talking about is normally used in religious countries.
Oh, I see. Thanks! 
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You’re welome
English* (duh) - 
Chinese* -
Japanese (partially related to Chinese?)
*Native language
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English 
Chinese
Cantonese:heart:
Spanish❤️
Croatian❤️
Japanese
French❤️
German❤️
One heart means I know how to say hi and full hearts is I am good at it
I did not use for this because I did not want to
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My native language is obviously English and that is the language I continue to work on perfecting and improving with the most effort. However, I can translate decently comprehensive Latin passages with a Latin dictionary and some verb conjugation charts. But it takes me a VERY long time and I would never try speaking Latin aloud. I am self-taught in that language and so my pronunciation would probably be horribly off.
I am looking forward to starting Spanish this year though!
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I never thought of that. I was taught my native language from my environment as I grew up and then formally in school. I never thought of it as a language to work on.
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Same here.
I thought about that before, wondering about typical US American things like “spelling bees”, “word of the day”, increasing your (native language) vocabulary for exams… Things that simply don’t exist in Germany, and probably also not in most other countries. I assume it has something to do with the self-centeredness (is that even a good word in this context?) of US American culture. What happens in other countries is just not that important, and it’s also not important to learn other languages.
While, when you live in Europe (and the same must be true for most of Africa), where all around you many different cultures and languages exist, there’s more of a focus on learning other languages. So, increasing my vocabulary has of course always meant to improve my English, French, Polish,… My German vocabulary is big enough just because I grew up in Germany.
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I am a complete beginner in Japanese, and my Chinese knowledge exists of knowing that 不 is said bu and used before a verb to negate it, but I’ll give this a go.
Maybe the first line is talking about simplified Chinese characters and many small [differences from Japanese?]?
Next line, maybe, working in the public sector is not known for being peaceful… but rather trying to work with the hopeful aim of sleeping? Wait, 围棋 might mean 囲碁, in which case maybe the sentence ends, but you get to relax with go?
Next line: Playing go alone limits your enjoyment, but with two people, it’s war?
Last line: Go originated in China, and now has come to you via 4000 long years to provide conflict?
There were a lot of hanzi that I knew were kanji, but was very unsure of what they meant even in Japanese. 的 means aim or goal in Japanese if I recall correctly, but I think it must have a more generic, probably grammatical meaning in Mandarin.
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A Spanish speaking friend of mine once pointed out to me that spelling bees only work well in English because the spelling and pronunciation rules are wildly inconsistent. He said that spelling bees would not make any sense in a language like Spanish since the pronunciation rules are so consistent. Instead of spelling out words verbally letter by letter, a Spanish speaker typically would just say a word slower and clearer if someone else was not sure how it was spelled.
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I’m not so sure about that, although as an outsider I can see a difference between Germanic and Romance languages (about spelling complexity I mean).
French does have weird spelling as well, though.
I’m not sure, did your friend mean speaking slower would work between Spanish people (while between Americans it wouldn’t) or from a Spanish speaker to a Spanish learner?
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My friend meant that two Spanish speakers could use slower speaking to clarify spelling. Basically, he meant that fluent Spanish speakers would automatically know how to spell something if they heard it properly. He gave the example of maybe needing to clarify the spelling of a Spanish name, but even then, he said Spanish speakers would typically not spell it out letter by letter, but instead just say the name again slower so that the listener could clearly hear all of syllables.
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