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I was an English Major, too. Before that, I was a French Lieutenant (but there was a problem with a woman - you may have heard about it).
Actually, I majored in English and minored in French, so I'm fluent in both - in an academic sense. But there aren't any Anglo-Saxons or Middle Englishmen to chat with any more, and the conversational French taught here is all but useless when haggling in les Halles. I have also studied German and Russian, so I can read the signs and ask questions, but I rarely understand spoken answers without asking for simplification. <i>"Nein - das heisst, ich <u>lerne</u> Deutsch..."</i> |
Fluent 2
Good 1 Get by 2 Forgot 1 (latin) who need it in real life any way |
<b>.</b>75 |
Interesting that this post has been around since 2000 - and is still getting replies!
Aside from the obvious English..French, Italian, Latin, Greek (needed for historical research), limited German (sister lives in Berlin so I can get around while visiting there), Spanish, and Afrikaans. Goal is to learn Russian - my aunt and uncle live in Moscow and I want to visit soon! |
I speak English, Spanish and French. I am Anglophone. I learned my French in Canada but I also have spent a lot of time in France. My accent is definitely Quebecois. When I speak French outside of Canada people say" Vous venez du pays de Celine Dion, ne c'est pas? You come from the country of Celine Dion! Pretty funny! In Quebec they know I am anglophone of course. But I always use French there and even after a weekend I feel totally immersed. Its a great place to learn and people really appreciate the effort. Its also pretty essential when you leave the touristy areas.
I lived in Spain for 2 years but strangely enough, the accent that I have is more Latin American. I have travelled quite a bit there too. I could never capture the rythm of the Spanish from Spain. I can immitate the accent but it does not feel natural to me. I studied 2 years of Italian way back when but during a trip to Italy. I actually remembered enough to get by. There are tons of Lusophones(portuguese speakers) where I live but my brain is much too cluttered to learn another language. Quite honestly, I dont have any desire to learn to speak it. Portuguese seems very different than Spanish. Id rather maintain or improve my Spanish and French and maybe Italian . This a great thread! |
I'm fluent in English. My French is horrible, but quite functional, and noone has ever laughed at me - to my face, that is! I can have basic conversations in (Lebanese) Arabic, and can follow a slightly more complicated discussion. My theory is that if you know 20 words in any language, you can survive, and I've survived in Spanish and Italian.
Unfortunately, I also know more Latin than my 9th grader... |
Native tongue: American English
Passable: Mexican Spanish, which I learned traveling around Mexico as a young child. I have forgotten a lot from lack of use, but it comes back very easily (just ask the guy I told off at the gas station in Hermosillo a few years back). Rudimentary at best: German. Took three years in high school and a year in college, but if anybody asks, ich habe viel vergessen. Currently trying to learn at least to pronounce some Irish and Welsh, if only to avoid embarassment during our upcoming trip when asking directions to places with Irish or Welsh names. |
A Swiss guy, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.
"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he asks. The two Americans just stare at him. "Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?" he tries. The two continue to stare. "Parlate Italiano?" No response. "Hablan ustedes Espanol?" Still nothing. The Swiss guy drives off, extremely frustrated. The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language." "Why?" says the other. "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good." |
LOL!
We should start the 2006 resurrection of this thread: OK - Fluently: English, French Kinda sorta get by: Portuguese Read: Spanish and Italian |
I SPEAK three languages: American English, German, and Spanish.
I understand two languages: American English and German. I need a total immersion in Spanish before I will be able actually to understand native speakers. |
Mother tongue: English
Fluent in Indonesian Rusty in Malaysian and Italian Schoolgirl French Smattering of Portuguese and Spanish Even less German and Japanese Trying to learn: Farsi |
Fluent: English
Can survive in: German and Korean Looking back at the time and money my parents, the US educational system, and I spent for me to "learn" various languages (Spanish, French, German, Korean) at various times, it was really pretty much a waste of both the time and the money. Over the past 50+ years, I just haven't had enough opportunities to use the languages to make it a wise investment. A couple of 2 week vacations in Germany and visits back to Mrs. Fly's family in Korea certainly didn't make "learning" those languages worthwhile in terms of costs and effort involved. Even living in the American southwest for many years didn't make the years of Spanish classes worth it. For most English speakers, spending time and money really learning a foreign language (I'm not including learning some useful phrases for a vacation trip as "learning") might be a nice hobby, but not especially cost effective. However, for someone aspiring to any sort of career involving frequent contact with people speaking other languages, it would certainly be useful and cost effective. And with increasing globalization, more and more such careers are opening up. Much more useful have been various courses covering world cultures, religions, and history. |
Mother tongue: Dutch (Flemish)
Fairly Fluent: English, French and Spanish Basics: German, Italian and Catalan I can get some basic Portuguese and Swedish for example, by comparing them with related languages I do know. |
mother tongue- English
speak- Russian and Spanish want to study more- Korean and Italian know enough -French And as a child, my mom's best friend (who speaks Mandarin Chinese) taught us polite expressions in Mandarin. I thought it was really cool then, but mostly she used it to tell us things in public ("don't stare", "say hello", "try one piece", etc...) I wish I still remembered those expressions! I would guess that if I heard a child getting reprimanded in public in Mandarin, I might have a flash back!! %%- |
I wasn't around when this thread started. I've missed a lot!
English: native Italian: fluent. Started studying after college French: HS and college. It improves when I'm in France Spanish: learning. Get by because of similarity to Italian |
Some interesting replies.
My mother tongue is American English. I can get a museum ticket or a restaurant table in German, French, or Italian (which is actually rather sad, since I studied a couple of those for years). My uncle tried to teach me Attic Greek when I was a child, but I was as impervious to learning it as I was to learning modern Greek years later. I visited Athens knowing how to say nothing more than "Hello," and "Thank you." And now I've forgotten even that. Once I could read Latin with great fluency and recite Roman poetry almost beautifully (I thought), but it all rotted right out of my head years ago. |
Interesting thread, so I should add to it, although nothing distinguished.
Mother Tongue: English Reasonably good French (lived there one summer and high school courses) A little bit of Russian (college courses) Limited Italian and Spanish (what I studied for trips) I'd love to learn Swedish, but it's so easy to get by in Sweden with English. |
I speak, read and write English, French and Italian - all fluently.
I can get by in Spanish, both speaking and reading, and I read Latin fairly well thanks to several years of Latin in school. I know some traveler's mandarin chinese (about 300 words probably) and took one year of russian and can speak about 20 or 30 words, so basically have forgotten most of my russian! I also learned some arabic for my trip to Jordan and Egypt, but just enough to be polite and gracious when eating or shopping. |
Bilingual: Spanish and English
Fluent: French and Catalan Conversational (no writing, hardly any reading): Norwegian and German Forgetting (but not without a fight) Mandarin Chinese Learning: Syrian Arabic Key phrases: Cherokee (thank you, Daddy!) Claire |
Fluently: English only
But I can do basic tourist communication (verbal and written) in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italain, German, Dutch and the German-based Scandinavian languages. And I learned about 25 words of Hungarian for my trips (but everyone wanted to practice their english). But slavic languages are a complete mystery to me - and those are my next goal - as well as learning the Cyrillic alphabet. Oh - and I have about 8 phrases in Japanese. |
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