Other languages? 3

[rjoubert]

It seems to me that most of the people that frequent this forum have a firm command of the English language, whether they be from across the pond or here in the US. I'm just curious as to what other languages you all know.

I took 4 years of French in high school, and I took a year-long course in Korean while I was in the Army. While I was taking the course in Korean, it seemed that all of knowledge of French slowly leaked out the other side of my brain. Apparently, there's only room for two languages in my head. I am so amazed by people who know several languages. One of my Korean instructors, a sweet 60+ year old Korean lady, was fluent in 5 or 6 different languages!

 

[LNBruno]

Oes-day ig-pay atin-lay ount-cay?

< M!ke >
I am not a hamster and life is not a wheel.

 

[ESquared]

I took one year of German in High School and have lost most of it, I could probably read signs with the knowledge and order from menus.

I can understand Spanish fairly well (if not spoken too fast) and can speak simple things in it, although my ability to speak is degrading since I've been learning Portuguese. I evidently pronounce it well, based on comments from native speakers.

I can understand Brazilian Portuguese quite well (if not spoken too fast) and can say quite a bit in it. It's an ongoing project as my wife is from Brazil and she is teaching our son Portuguese. The Portuguese spoken in southern Brazil where s becomes sh and z becomes zh... that is a lot harder for me to understand. I'm doing pretty well on pronunciation across the board, except for "[&atilde;]o" which my wife says I say well only about half the time.

The Spanish/Portuguese and a lifelong interest in language allow me to puzzle through Italian and French and get about 70%-80% of the meaning on simple topics, more on Italian than French.

[COLOR=#aa88aa black]Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.[/color]

 

[2ffat]

Q: What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
A: Tri-lingual

Q: What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A: Bi-lingual

Q: What do you call someone who speaks one language?

[hide]An American![/hide]

I speak American but I can understand English, too. (Can't speak it though. )

James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[thekl0wn]

After drinking those ten beers, can you still order in Spanish?

Sad part is, I think I conversed better after the 10 beers. Or at least I didn't care near as much!

 

[pinkgecko]

I was fluent in Portuguese, but it's leaving fast. Can read Spanish, but don't ask me to speak or write. Took four years of French in high school, and I remember about ten words total.

[blue]Never listen to your customers. They were dumb enough to buy your product, so they have no credibility. - Dogbert[/blue]

 

[Olaf Doschke]

German is my native tongue. Besides english I had Latin lessons in school, but didn't succeed to learn enough as a base to either study medicine or learn more roman languages.

I studied physics, and you need english for that. Though finally I am working in the IT industry, and though you can get through with german in IT, I still try to brush up my english by forums, by reading and by watching movies and tv series (on DVD) in their original english version.

Maybe one day I'll get motivated to try learning spanish.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[kjv1611]

Olaf, just move to the U.S.

In some parts, you'll end up learning Spanish whether you want to or not! And that just feels all wrong to us "normal" Americans that speak English first and all that. If we were in Europe, it probably would be as much an effect - in the language area.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[addy]

I am from the UK and I have a reasonable knowledge of French, learnt from School and numerous holidays there. I am by no means fluent but I can handle most everyday situations.

I have a smattering of German which pretty much amounts to me being able to order beer.

My friend's dad used to work for Customs as a translator at the nearby Port and Aiport and he was given bonuses and pay increases based on the languages he could speak. Some langages paid more than others, for example, French was very common so wasn't worth much but Russian and arabic languages were rarer so were worth more.

He was a natural at learning languages and could speak German, French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Russian and even Urdu and I believe.

All I know is he was never short of cash.

 

[stubnski]

And that just feels all wrong to us "normal" Americans that speak English first and all that.

kvj1611 - Are you saying that to be a normal American you have to speak English as a first language? How does it feel wrong?

I do believe that a person entering the USA or born here should make a effort to learn English well enough that (s)he can communicate with others, but I don't think it isn't normal to speak other languages as a first language. My great grandma came from Germany and could only speak German at first. She learned English but had a slight German accent until the day she died and she was as normal as you can get.


Stubnski

 

[kjv1611]

The "normal" was just speaking of natural born, or of the majority type thing. Not trying to say someone is weird for speaking another language.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[vbSun]

A discussion on language might not be complete without a reference to India.

Different States in India has different languages, Hindi and English commonly used for administration purposes. Presently there are 18 languages identified in Indian Constitution. If someone is interested in a list, below it is.

Assamese
Bengali
Gujarati
Hindi
Kannada
Kashmiri
Konkani
Malayalam
Manipuri
Marathi
Nepali
Oriya
Punjabi
Sanskrit
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu

Most Indians are conversant in more than two languages. I, being an Indian living in UK, can read and write in three languages from the list above and converse without much trouble in two other. If you let me add English to the list of languages I know and a bit of Russian I learned a long while ago, my brain probably will explode if I endeavour to learn another language.

On a lighter note, that also explains why I am not good in the language that Managers speak.

 

[philhege]

Unless you become a manager, vbSun, you'll never master or even make passing sense of that language.

 

[Stella740pl]

You also see to speak VB.

 

[Stella740pl]

Sorry, make that "seem", not "see".

 

[vbSun]

Yes Stella, a bit of VB has to be added there..

 

[Olaf Doschke]

As so many of you speak a little german, perhaps you can spot the word by word translated german idioms in this german english fun letter from a bavarian to the nasa:

Greet God!
I write you, because you must help me. I have seen your space shuttle in the television.
In colour. And so cam me the idea to make holidays in the worldroom.
Without my crazy wife.

I am the Kraxlhuber. The King of Bavaria was my clock-clock-grandfather.
I stand on a very bad foot with my wife. Always she shouts with me.
She has a shrill voice like a circle saw. She lets no good hair at me. She says
I am a Schlapp-tail. She wants that I become Buergermaster. But I want not to be
Buergermaster. I have nothing at the hat with the political shit. I want my Ruah.
And so I want make holidays on then moon. Without my bad half. But I take my
dog with me. He is a boxer. His name is Wastl.
So I want book a flight in your next Space Shuttle. But please give me not a window place. I would kotz you the rocket full, because I am not swindle free. And no standing-place please. And please do not tell my wife that I want go alone. She has a big Schrot-Gun. She would make a sieve from my ass.
I need much comfort. A nice double room with bath and kloo and heating. And windows with look to the earth. So I can look through my far-glasses and see my wife working on the potatoe field. And I and my dog louhg us a branch (haehaehae). We will kringel ourself loughing (hoehoehoe) !
Is was loose on the moon? I need worm weather and I hope the sun shines every day.
This is very good fuer my frost-boils. I need not much. A good bread time, a good Haxn
and a Mass beer.
Have they chew-tobacco on the moon? If not, I bring it with. Is in the rocket place for my
drive wheel?
Tell the man of the moon that I come. I hope he has no wife. We can make outflights
with my drive wheel. We can make crater-wandering. I bring him the Bavarian national hymn bei. We can make tobacco chewing. We can drink a lot of hopblossom-tea. I hope he is no Preiss !!! We can spuck around the bed. We can make finger-hooking. I bring the Bavarian flag with and we can dance shoeplattler around it.
Have they flies on the moon? If yes, I bring my weather-frog with. He will get fat like a otter.
I want make 5 weeks holidays. When you have no new rocket after 5 weeks, I wait for the next rainbow and drive with my Radl.
Please make a good price - under friends. I cannot pay so peppered prices, because my
pocket money is not so much.
Send your answer to my neighbour Wastl Hintermoser.

I have the honour.

Your Alois Kraxlhuber

Bye, Olaf

 

[Marcs41]

That is hilarious, but you really need to know German to get the nice parts!

Personally, being from Belgium, I need to speak Dutch and French as a default, Flemisch being my mothertongue (the Belgian Dutch if you want). On top of that, we have a part that is German, so I speak that too, and to get to the rest of the world, English. Due to vacations, I learned Italian and recently Hungarian (now THERE is a challenge!).

So, it helps as I am able to communicate with almost anyone, but more important, I can understand what they say behind my back when they still think I don't, hahaaa!

Marc
_{If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC!}

 

[Stella740pl]

Marc,

I can understand what they say behind my back when they still think I don't, hahaaa!

Do "they" at least say something nice?
Or it would be better to not understand?

Or, and I like the free tip in your signature.

 

[rjoubert]

I can understand what they say behind my back when they still think I don't, hahaaa!

That reminds me of when I was Korea. A friend and I were walking out to one of the local village bars and passed by a group of college-age Korean guys. One of them, who was obviously drunk, yelled to us in Korean as we passed by. He screamed, "Hey, do you want to die?!?!"

I calmly turned around and replied to him in his native tongue, "Watch your mouth you stupid {bleep}." He was more than a bit shocked, and none too happy about my reply.

 

[kjv1611]

[Realizing This not be grammar forum, but funny, thought it.]
Wow, rjoubert, you were Korea?! You must have been purty big, hu? Guess you didn't have any bullies pushing you around!
[Realizing This not be grammar forum, but funny, thought it.\]



--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me