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!

 

[kjv1611]

[Realizing this grammar forum actually be!]
Realizing need pay more attention to forum title for thread when posting.
/[Realizing this grammar forum actually be!\


--

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

 

[rjoubert]

Why yes, I was Korea for a while. I had the title until someone else beat me for it.

 

[Marcs41]

Well Stella, it can be nice, but it is the funniest when it isn't. Amongst us, we speak Flemisch, other their language and when we leave we say something (in THEIR language) like 'goodbye and have a nice evening, hope to see you again' or something...
The expression on their faces is priceless!

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!}

 

[mmerlinn]

Two years of German & Latin in high school. Und eine Jahre bei Karlsruhe.

Can't speak much of them, but can understand bits and pieces of the written forms.

However, I have been a 'student' of languages starting around the time I began learning to read & write English. Was fueled by a book my folks had that was issued by the GPO about printing standards, typefaces, etc. for EVERY language the U.S. government printed documents in.

When I was in Germany, I had the opportunity to take a test. There were 57 questions in the test. Every question was a sentence in a non-English language with one word missing. There were four multiple choice answers available for every question. Most of the answers were very similar to each other, so it was important to know the "context" of the sentence to choose the correct answer. We were given 90 minutes to answer the 57 questions. I was able to answer 54 of them in the alloted time. No one else out of the 50 or so there answered more than 5. Final score?? I got all 54 correct. Most never even got 5 correct.

The language??? It was a FICTITIOUS MADE-UP language constructed specifically for this test with a complete set of rules for grammar, word order, word meanings, etc. Most people tried translating each sentence trying to find the appropriate word to fill in the blank. I translated nothing. I looked at the structure of the sentence. If the space needed a NOUN, I went looking for a NOUN in the choices. If ADJECTIVE, ADVERB, PREPOSITION, POSTPOSITION, INPOSITION, or whatever, that is what I chose. In those cases where more than one NOUN, VERB, or whatever was in the list, I examined the declension & conjugation rules to determine the correct answer.

Needless to say, I HAD A BALL WITH THAT TEST!!!!

Even though I cannot speak any language fluently other than American English, I can often pick up something written in a Germanic or Romance language and ferret out some of the meaning. Once I was at a restaurant with a friend who had been born in South Africa. His native language was Dutch. He had a biography in Dutch about Friedrich Porsche with him. He passed it around so all there could look at the pictures. When it got to me I dutifully looked at some of the pictures. But I also puzzled out a paragraph or two. When I gave the book back I asked my friend about some of what I had read. His response? "You know Dutch?" My response? "No, I have never seen a Dutch book before."

Basically I understand many of the rules of languages and use them to find the meanings. An example of this is in this page (

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/6620/rules/f89ling.htm)

which I put up on the net and which professional linguists classify as a "crackpot" site. However, those rules have always worked for me even if they don't fit in with what the "experts" think or believe. Crackpot or not, by using them I can determine meanings of words in most Germanic & Romance languages, so I guess my response is, "The proof is in the pudding!"


mmerlinn

"Political correctness is the BADGE of a COWARD!"

 

[rjoubert]

mmerlinn, that test sounds a bit like the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery) test I had to take in the military. It was a made up language, with similar questions to the one you described, plus various other types of questions centered around this fictitious language. With the score achieved on the test, the military then determines the highest level of language you are aloud to take at DLI (Defense Language Institute).

From about.com...

The DLAB consists of 126 multiple choice questions. Applicable service policies require that each candidate for attendance at the Defense Language Institute be a high school graduate. For admission to a Basic Language Program, the following minimum DLAB scores are required:

- 85 for a Category I language (Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)
- 90 for a Category II language (German)
- 95 for a Category III language (Belorussian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Slovak, Tagalog [Filipino], Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese)
- 100 for a Category IV language (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)

The article also states that the highest possible score is 176. I don't remember the exact score I received, but I believe it was around 140. I ended up taking Korean.

 

[sha76]

They class German as harder than French? Weird, I found totally the opposite. Admittedly the weirdness may all lie with me!

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[Welshbird]

I think I speak SQL.

In fact, after a very long day at the office I have found myself in my kitchen, hand on the refrigerator door, thinking "SELECT * FROM BEER_SHELF"

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[rjoubert]

Fee...I believe that falls into a broader category of "Geek speak"...don't feel bad, I've done it too, except I usually use the Visual Basic dialect.

 

[LNBruno]

Fee, I think this could be a statement for much trouble:

SELECT * FROM BEER_SHELF

Maybe modify it a bit?

SELECT TOP 10 * FROM BEER_SHELF

;-)

[small]I'll have what the gentleman next to the beer shelf is having.[/small]

< M!ke >
Your right to an opinion does not obligate me to take you seriously.
- Winston Churchill

 

[Welshbird]

My beer shelf isn't all that full! (Due to many bad days recently... *sob*)

Maybe

SELECT * FROM BEER_SHELF where TEMP < 5 and Expiry > sysdate

Now I'm beginning to frighten myself...

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[philhege]

SELECT * FROM BEER_SHELF

> 0 rows returned.

AUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!

SELECT money FROM BANK_ACCOUNTS.BeerFund

> 0 rows returned.

GAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!11!!!

 

[sbrews]

while I can understand and/or figure out some words in spanish, I am fluent in binary, hex and octal.

Seriously, though, if you pay attention to all the English words you know and look at their history, you'll be amazed at where they came from. (cant think of any good examples at the moment

Add a little color to your PUTTY terminal: faq52-6627

 

[ascotta]

I have been known to be able to have a small conversation in Swahili, and know a smaterring of most european languages. Well enough to order beer, and enough to work out how much it cost. I then know a few rebuffs when ripoff is tried.

[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[Rofeu]

Jambo, Scott, habari?

anyway, only Kiswahili you really need = Pombe baridi moja, tafadali!

Cheers,

Roel

 

[ascotta]

Mzuri sana, asante sana.

Moja Kenyogi.

Interestingly tafadali is only used by tourists, or so I was told by a young Kenyan.

[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[Rofeu]

My aunt and uncle live in Kenya (for about 15 years now) and I think they also use it. From what I know you have the true Kiswahili that they still speak in the tribes and then the "city"-swahili. I think tafadali belongs to the latter.

Doesn't really matter, I don't claim to be any more than a mere tourist

Cheers,

Roel

 

[SimonDavis]

I speak Engish 1st, and have lived in brazil for 10 years so I also speak reasonable Portuguese.

I found that the French I spoke (never fluent anyway) became ever more polluted as I learned Portuguese, to the point that I have more or less lost the ability to speak it at all.

I have found (although a gross generalisation), that people who have learned 2 languages really fluently - for example kids with parents who speak different languages - can add a 3rd 4th etc more easily than someone who learns a second language later.

 

[rjoubert]

While I was amazed by my Korean language instructor at DLI knowing 5 or 6 different languages, I am even more amazed by my friend's 5 year old son who I believe is a genius. He is home schooled, and on top of already knowing some Tagalog (his mother is filipino), he is currently learning to speak Mandarin Chinese and Hebrew. And these were courses HE chose...they were not forced upon him. His thirst for knowledge impresses me to no end.

 

[philhege]

That's great stuff.

Researchers say that the older you get, the less aptitude you have for learning new languages, excepting of course full immersion.

And speaking a language isn't like riding a bicycle; it's use it or lose it, IMHO and in the experience of others in this thread, it appears.

So I was glad to get some Spanish early on. Since we've left SoCal, even that's fading. Fortunately I can still stumble through a conversation in PR or DR.

 

[mjldba]

This is just my opinion but I think when young children are exposed to new languages they absorb them like a sponge.

When my daughter was about 4 or 5 she was able to count to 20 in native our English, my Mother taught her to count in French, my Dad taught her Hungarian, and my ex-in-laws taught her to count in German.

She also picked-up some conversational words in these languages along the way but when she started elementary school Spanish was manditory and she excelled. She is a senior this year & her Spanish teacher is encouraging her to seek a college with a top shelf Spanish program so she can continue to grow.

Just a guess but I think being exposed to various languages early in life nutures some kind of specific brain activity that developes/nurtures "pathways" that can be exploited down the road.