I read and speak Danish which was the language that my parents insisted on speaking in the home unless we had company who did not speak Danish. My mother was born and raised in Denmark. My father spent time there after WWII and fell in love with the people and culture. He met my mother in SF when she worked for the Danish Consulate and taught Danish as a 2nd job - the rest is history. When I was in 1st grade the family moved to Denmark for a few years, but returned to California when my father was unable to earn enough money to support the family. My father spoke Danish as fluently as my mother before he died.

I also speak some Spanish, less French and Arabic, but always learn important phrases and words in the language of the country in which I plan to visit.

I speak French after living in Switzerland for 10 years and can read Italian pretty well and some German.

None of my languages other than English are fluent, I wish they were. I did French at school and Chinese at university, and then short intensive courses in Italian and Portuguese.

Travelling in German speaking countries, I always feel a bit embarrassed that I can only marshall tourist phrases, but it's never an actual problem.

I speak fluent Australian English, and, whenever I'm in the USA, often get the impression that I'm speaking a 'foreign' language as far as the locals are concerned. Perhaps surprisingly, English-speaking Germans understand me quite easily. That's probably why I try to get to Germany every year for a few weeks!

I find my smattering of <i>Metric</i> affects my proficiency in <i>Military-time</i>, so that I unwittingly do &quot;+/- 10&quot; instead of the more accepted &quot;+/- 12.&quot;

I live in the Swiss-German speaking part of Switzerland and work for an international company where English is the &quot;official&quot; language. I spend my days surrounded by people with so many different mother tongues and an impressive range of language skills. I have rudimentary German skills which I'm often embarrassed to use as I'm surrounded by so many more advanced English-speakers. But, I'm determined to improve and continue to work at it.

One thing I do notice is the large number of mis-communications that occur in this kind of environment. I wonder if others have experienced this. Often people feel they are fluent in another language, yet they misconstrue meaning. So often, food comes the wrong way, appointments aren't for the right time, work is done slightly not to order, etc. etc. I have come to just accept that this is a normal part of life in a society that mixes German, French, Italian, and English. It is fascinating and really quite nice too. The Swiss are very skilled at languages.

It is nice to be the resident English native speaker in my office. So often people come to me with questions about how something should be said best. The questions are often quite interesting, and language really is a window to understanding cultures.

I hope to have the opportunity to study some other languages as I enjoy and am fascinated by them. I would choose Arabic if I had the time.

I had to laugh at the poster who is debating whether to learn Swiss-German but probably won't &quot;bother.&quot; It is such a difficult dialect to learn, and requires years of study. Even with a strong, strong desire and commitment level, most adults make very slow progress. Kids are able to pick it up.

This also explains the reason so many Americans are not fluent in another language. We study language in high school and use it on an occasional trip abroad. Fluency requires an early start with foreign languages and a lot of time spent amongst native speakers. This is a luxury most Americans don't have.

Interesting topic, Pal.

gruezi

and maybe someone can tell me how to get an umlaut on my iBook keyboard?

PalenQ,

sounds like my German is similar to your French, although I find myself reading German on the web almost every day now.

It's a good thing I speak functional German. I just returned from a two week trip to Germany (Mosel, Harz, No. Schwarzwald), and for a week only four people ever spoke English with me. One was the manager of the 3-star hotel in the Harz. The Germany hotel assoc. requires for 3 stars that a hotel has a bilingual (German/English) &quot;staff&quot;. He was the only one who ever spoke English to me; the rest only spoke German.

Two others were DB counter workers.

There were five youngish (~30) people on the train to Mannheim, and although my accent is obviously American, they never tried to speak English to me.

At a coffee shop in Baden-Baden I pointed out several errors (&quot;Everthing Bagel&quot;, &quot;Sunried Tomato Bagel&quot;) in the English words on the menu. A few minutes later a man (British, I think) came in and wanted to use the WC. They (2 girls around 20) tried to explain to him that it was 50 cent for non-customers, but he couldn't understand German, so they had me translate.

&gt;&gt;Australian English, and, whenever I'm in the USA, often get the impression that I'm speaking a 'foreign' language as far as the locals are concerned. Perhaps surprisingly, English-speaking Germans understand me quite easily.&lt;&lt;

No surprise. We learn Oxford-style English at school and you Aussie pronunciate pretty close to these rules.

Actually, we understand Americans very well if they are articulate. However, many Americans speak as if they had a ping pong ball in their mouth and this makes it difficult.

<i>Actually, we understand Americans very well if they are articulate. However, many Americans speak as if they had a ping pong ball in their mouth and this makes it difficult.</i>

Don't confuse differing accents with being inarticulate.

Although Oxford English might be the &quot;standard&quot;, few English actually speak it. I was in London for a few days, and I left wondering if I really spoke English.

Some Brits once asked me why I travel to Germany rather than England, and I told them it's because I have an easier time understanding the language in Germany.

Since over half the native &quot;English&quot; speakers in the world are American, we should start calling the language &quot;American&quot;, and use west coast/TV American as the standard.

<i>and maybe someone can tell me how to get an umlaut on my iBook keyboard?</i>

The preferred way is to use the HTML character code strings. That way, your characters will be rendered properly in any computer running any browser (which is not guaranteed when you use the multi-keystroke approach).

<b>&amp;auml;</b> = &auml;
<b>&amp;euml;</b> = &euml;
<b>&amp;iuml;</b> = &iuml;
<b>&amp;ouml;</b> = &ouml;
<b>&amp;uuml;</b> = &uuml;

Thanks Robes!

gr&uuml;ezi

ahhhh, that feels so much better!

You can copy these characters and paste them into your documents:

&auml;&ouml;&uuml; &Auml;&Ouml;&Uuml; &szlig; &euro;

I just switch my keyboard setting to US-International and use the diacriticals along with the letters. Takes a bit getting used to, but it's become second nature to me.

traveller,

That's what my kids do... I guess I could too, but I had hoped there was an easy &lt;ctrl&gt; + key...

Anyway, I've written down Robes keystrokes for when I need to be grammatically correct.

gre&uuml;zi

St Cirq,

At work I have an international keyboard and I'm still always switching my Ys and Zs... And I can never find the punctuation even though it's sitting right in front of me!

gre&uuml;zi

Yes, Larryin Co

though most Britains speak English, most do it very poorly IME

And that Britons speak foreign languages a lot - that's not my experience - just the really educated ones like on Fodor's do - No one on Coronation Street speaks anything but some kind of pigeon English (except Dev and other Indians/Pakis) and i think this is typical of the average English bloke - struggles to speak English and knows nothing else.

I speak enough German to get around. The use I've gotten out of it the past 40 years from 3 trips totalling about 3 weeks in Germany certainly wasn't worth the time, effort, and money it cost in high school and college. I've never had occasion to use the language other than those 3 trips.

Oh, wait, occasionally a crossword puzzle clue will involve a German article (der, des, dem, den, eine, etc.)

English,Italian,French and some Spanish.

PalenQ wrote: &quot;though most Britains speak English, most do it very poorly IME&quot;

Stones, glass houses.