Thread: What languages do you speak?

I used to be able to speak and understand some Irish,
but have gotten away from it. I keep thinking
of getting back to it, as I have the books and cds,
but this new hobby of straight razors has taken
over. Maybe some day.

John

I know a little French (enough to order in a restaurant and not be too surprised at what I get) and a little Spanish (Mexican style).

I can't speak for younger generations, but my generation in the USA didn't have the opportunity to learn a foreign language in school until 9th grade... and a 9th grader is consumed almost wholly in dealing with hormones and persuing the opposite sex... girls were our foreign language.

I think it's much easier when you're exposed to other languages at a much younger age... small children raised in a multilingual environment just seem pick up languages naturally, w/o any formal schooling in them. I also believe that once you've learned a 2nd language, then additional ones become progressively easier. I think, because of the size of the USA, there was little opportunity for most of us to meet/hear a foreign language unless we lived in a big city like NY or Miami, or near the French-speaking Canadian border, or near the Mexican border... otherwise, unless we had a grandparent or other relative that spoke the language, we were never exposed to anything but English as children.

Originally Posted by azjoe

I know a little French (enough to order in a restaurant and not be too surprised at what I get) and a little Spanish (Mexican style).

I can't speak for younger generations, but my generation in the USA didn't have the opportunity to learn a foreign language in school until 9th grade... and a 9th grader is consumed almost wholly in dealing with hormones and persuing the opposite sex... girls were our foreign language.

I think it's much easier when you're exposed to other languages at a much younger age... small children raised in a multilingual environment just seem pick up languages naturally, w/o any formal schooling in them. I also believe that once you've learned a 2nd language, then additional ones become progressively easier. I think, because of the size of the USA, there was little opportunity for most of us to meet/hear a foreign language unless we lived in a big city like NY or Miami, or near the French-speaking Canadian border, or near the Mexican border... otherwise, unless we had a grandparent or other relative that spoke the language, we were never exposed to anything but English as children.

In Louisiana , there kind of has been a revival in learning French --- not necessarily Cajun French which I have a hard time following --- but Parisian French. All of this is linked to the local Cajun culture as well as the French influences of New Orleans. When I was a kid, most of my friends, who were Cajuns , had parents or grandparents who spoke exclusively in Cajun French at home ---- this wasn't the case for me, so looking back it was kind of unique I guess.

Justin

Serbian's my first language (Croatian/Bosnian are just different names for it and Macedonian's not much different, which also means I can communicate with Bulgarians). I speak English fluently (never had to take ESL classes, even when I was f.o.b.) and I can hold a simple conversation in Spanish (most comfortable with Chilean but i chatted with Colombians and Mexicans in NV). I dabbled a bit in Russian (English and Russian were compulsory in my elementary school), Italian (grade 10, but I still remember a bit of it) and Latin (since I majored in History/Classics).

English is my native language. I had to learn ASL (American Sign Language) for some of my students back when I was teaching full time. I also do fairly well with French.((Still not 100% on the French though. I am working hard on it though.))

This is an interesting question, personally French is my native language, but I can speak and write pretty good English and I can figure out Spanish and Italian

regards

Norm

I'm learning Spanish right now and can speak a little German but by the order a beer and find a bathroom criteria I would also have to add Japanese.

French native, spanish second, english third, all fluent. I also speak mexican, porto rican, cuban, peruvian, chilean, bolivian, costa rican, and few others.
I do understand italian and portuguese. Few words of armenian and Cz.

I'm humbled by my forum friends here as I only speak a poor American English. All my grandparents were Norwegian immigrants and spoke a very heavily accented English. My parents both spoke fluent Norwegian, but saved it to keep certain details secret from my sister and me. Alas, I'm only monolingual to this day.

Years ago I attended a recital given by the remarkable Finnish basso Martti Talvela. At the end of the recital I dragged my friends, who I had dragged to the event, backstage to meet Mr. Talvela. One of my friends, a student of Russian, complimented the singer on his excellent Russian language skills, upon which Mr. Talvela commented that it wasn't anything special as he spoke seven languages. Further humbled...

and so it goes

Bruce, that's very interesting.. My mom/grandma/grandpa/uncle used French when they didn't want me to understand something. Because of that, I developed an aversion to it, so when they finally decided to teach me, it didn't really take. In retrospect, it would have been useful considering which country I moved to at the age of 14 lol.