Years ago we arrived in San Gimignano, Italy, from France. We stopped at a hotel, La Cisterne (sp?). I asked if they spoke English? No. German? No.

They asked me if I spoke French? I did not but we had just come from France and I had learned enough to ask for a room for two and did so. Thereafter everyone in the hotel spoke French to us. I knew no more French than Italian but could not tell them so. So, we all got by on second-hand French. It made for a fun memory.

Regards, Gary

HI, Gruezi:

I wasn't referring to an international (or European) keyboard, I was referring to keyboard settings on an American keyboard. You have choices about which English settings you want. One is English - International. If you switch your keyboard settings to English - International, you then can easily type letters with diacriticals, by hitting the diacritical key, then the letter key. It's a bit more complicated than that (you have to hit a third key, the Shift key, if you want to put a diacritical over a capital letter, e.g., but once you get used to is, it's a lot easier, IMO, than memorizing those ASCII codes or whatever they are).

Has nothing to do with a European keyboard, which drives me crazy!

I have been actively pursing German and am in my third college-level German course. With that being said, I must not have that knack for language because I'm not quite getting it. We are learning simple and present past tenses and it's confusing the heck out of me! I can read it and write it okay, but my listening skills are about non-existent unless my instructor is talking ridiculously slow. I guess I'll just have to move to Europe so I can brush up on my German!

Tracy

The problem with using those keyboard shortcuts (Apple key, Ctrl key, and so on) is that not all keyboards produce character codes that render correctly in all circumstances. So you type "Champs Élysées" and the person reading your post sees "Champs Ælys¶es" or some such garbage.

The best way by far is to use the standard HTML strings. They really aren't hard to remember: acute, grave, circ, cedil, uml, tilde cover the vast majority of cases - or you can keep this link on your browser toolbar: http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

My first language was Hungarian. I and my sister both learned English when we attended kindergarten. Our whole neighborhood back in Cleveland spoke on HU. I speak enough German to get by. I would love to learn Chinese. Maybe one day.

My DD is also bi-lingual. However she can count to 10 in German, French, Spanish, Japanese. (Not bad for a 6yo)

I can make myself understood when speaking basic sentences and questions in French. But I can't understand it when it is spoken to me.

My LW is just the opposite...she can hear and understand French pretty well, but can't form sentences of her own fast enough.

Working together, we form one barely passable francophone. Throw DD into the mix now, and we're about good to go!

Just wanted to thank Robes and St. Cirq again for your umlaut suggestions... and keyboard empathy.

Also, I noticed I was so busy trying to get the keystrokes right that I misspelled my own moniker!

I am getting so pathetic it scares me.

grüezi

I think memorizing the codes for the umlauts keeps my brain frisky and young. . .

At least I know these three by heart: ä, ö, ü

I keep a cheat sheet handy for the rest.

Tschüss!

Hi enzian,

I have already made the cheat sheet in case I forget where I learned how to do this!

early alzheimer's grüezi

The question is not what you speak. The question is will you understand the reply :)

I am still fluent in russian, if anybody needs help.

Finnish, French, Italian, Spanish and Indonesian plus tourist words in German and Swedish

I studied French in high school. We won't talk about how long ago that was or what my grades were. DH had a similar experience with Spanish, in even more ancient times. We both love opera and could probably express undying love in Italian if we could sing. Mostly what we've retained are a few polite phrases. About 10 years ago, I took a brief crash course in Greek so I could be polite to DD's mother-in-law, too.
Other than that, we've muddled our way through Western Europe with English, smiles, and mille pardons, excus'es, por favors, danke schoens, and what ever else we can glean from a phrase book. So far, it's worked.

Fluent in Russian and Hebrew. Not the world's most useful languages, I must say.

Anna Roz

Unfortunately I only speak English. I've studied both Spanish and French but am still at a very basic skill level.

That said, no, I have never found "the dread language barrier" traveling in major cities of Europe. Some people are blessed with natural skills of getting around and being understood, even without fluency in the local language. I'm one of them.

Not speaking a language shouldn't stop one from traveling...however the basic phrases and words are a BIG help and apprecited by Europeans.
We lived in French West AFrica, (Senegal) for 3 years, and HAD to speak French,in daily life, shopping etc...getting things repaired etc. I've never considered myself a linguist, but got along fine and could carry on somewhat of a conversation.THis was 30 years ago...
What amazes me is that on our trips to FRance and West Switzerland over the years the language has "come back" while traveling, We never speak it at home in TX. It's a lot of fun, and as I said..."I suprise myself".
Living in Portugal 2 years we spoke POrtuguese but were able to get along there with more English....and the Portuguese language hasn't really stayed with us, (except for the greetings, thanks, etc.)
WE have never felt a language barrier in Italy, Germany etc..once past the familiar phrases.

I speak enough Spanish to stay out of jail and amuse the relatives.

I speak restaurant in French and Italian and I am fluent in Brooklyn.

Portuguese is my native language, and I am fluent in English and Spanish in reading, writing, speaking and hearing comprehension).

I studied French for over eight years, but now I am only fluent in reading, do some writing and speaking, but need to spend a week in France before I really begin to make sense of a lot of replies I get to my questions.

I never studied Italian, but I can read it with no problem, have some hearing comprehension and can get by speaking tourist Italian. I studied Latin for about six, which probably helps my Italian.

According to my opinion this is really very nice and informative post. This post really provide me lot of useful and good information.
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lauran


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To make sure to know what really is important in life, I like to think that I have a good understanding of many Spanish and a few German slangs (I mean the really bad ones...) :) I like to use them when possible although I have been told I don't have a native accent in either and thus mostly sound stupidly funny ;)

Robes - I like your ascii codes, but how would one manage in a document? My Character Pal widget works, at least in NeoOffice, my text editor, and Text Edit but I don't know if it would in other programs.