2026-08-10

# Languages I know

Disclaimer
 - personal

Main
 - I have native-level fluency in English and Hindi. I am most comfortable in English. I almost entirely think in English, and have to mentally translate when speaking in Hindi.
 - I have intro-level listening (but not speaking) skills in Tamil. I learned it from my family. I can recognise a few hundred words I think. I could probably improve my skills rapidly if I actually went and lived in Tamil Nadu for instance. However, I have no immediate motivation to do so.
 - I learned French in school for many years but I know approximately zero French because CBSE curriculum makes the blunder of teaching reading/writing, but not listening/speaking. Also they didn't teach that much vocabulary.
 - I tried self-learning Mandarin for a few months (one hour a day of listening to voiceovers). I now have bare minimum listening skills. I can recognise a hundred words I think. I thought learning mandarin would be useful because of ASI risk but I found it way too much of a time investment, so I lost motivation. I would much rather invest an equivalent amount of time building better AI translation tools, the UX is terrible for many of the current tools. See also: [Translation app I once built](https://translate.samuelshadrach.com)