Rex

I don't often start new threads here, but this article in today's Boston Globe - - http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/00...e_largeP.shtml - - strikes a chord with me. How many of us Euro-junkies here are also language junkies? And the converse question applies as well. <BR> <BR>Moi, je suis. <BR>Dass bin ich. <BR>Soy. <BR>Sono anche.

Dona

Rex, <BR> <BR>I have become an Italian language junkie in recent years - since my first trip there, in fact... <BR> <BR>Started taking lessons in '91 with ny Italian travel companion - and have been studying ever since. Well "studying" may be too strong a word -- now we're down to once a week Italian chat with an instructor, where we talk about what we want to talk about - and drink wine and eat olives, etc. <BR> <BR>Like an Italian vacation each week... <BR> <BR>It has truly opened up a new vista for me - I follow Italians all over NYC just listening to them talk!! <BR> <BR>LOL <BR> <BR>Dona

julie

What is a "language junkie?" It is my experience that most places in the known world either understand Enlish or Spanish. Regardless of what the French think, French is not a universal language. The most difficult language for me to understand is the kind of "english" they speak in Yorkshire, in the country towns. It is there that you can finally understand what Churchill meant when he called England and America "two countries separated by a common language."

Helena

Rex, what a fun article! Count me in. So far, I've got English (obviously, although it was a second language for me), Czech, French, and Spanish. This means I can understand and stammer uselessly in Russian, Polish, Slovak, Italian, and (excuse my ignorance) whatever it is that's spoken in Yugoslavia (Serbian? Croatian?), and a few more. I'm a language junkie, and I get a huge sense of satisfaction out of being able not only to communicate, but also to be able to conduct business in a foreign language. <BR> <BR>Julie, I think you're missing out on a lot of fun by relying on English or Spanish. For one thing, there are many places in the world where you'll have trouble finding someone who speaks either. But that's not the point, really, it's not about need. It's about the excitement of learning and the way knowing a foreign language gives you a unique window into the culture and psyche of a people. Truly. <BR> <BR>I'm reminded of a man I met in Costa Rica a number of years ago. He spoke no English, and his Spanish was not what I learned in school and also a whole lot faster than anything I could process at the time. Still, he managed to explain to me an interesting tidbit which has changed the way I think about language: In Costa Rica, as in the Czech Republic, when someone misses the bus they say (direct translation), "the bus left without me" or "the bus left on me." In English, we say, "I missed the bus." I don't know what it says about the Costa Rican people, but I can definitely put it into context here in the Czech Republic. After so many years of not having control over their environments, the Czechs have adopted a way of speaking where the responsibility for an event lies with what I call the "Ubiquitous They." I've also had great fun learning colorful idioms and expressions of how different languages indicate stupidity, intelligence, or whatever. Once you learn to speak a foreign language (without translating each thought from English) a whole new world opens up, and I, for one, am hooked. <BR> <BR>

topper

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lindi

I am definitely a language junkie! My first language is Hungarian and I also speak English, German, French and Spanish on various levels. I also learnt Russian for one year when I was grade two, so you can guess how much of it I remember after 10 years. (i'm 18 now.) Everybody says I'm good in languages, especially after I got the best grade in my French class where my classmates have been studying French for 7 years, and me? 6 months. I just love learning languages and I can't wait to learn Russian, Italian, Greek, Suaheli etc. Of the languages I know, I think Hungarian would be the hardest to learn. Our longest word probably is "megszentsegtelenithetetlensegeskedeseitekert" . My attempt at translating it would be: "because of your continuous pretending of being able not to be made unholy". As you can guess we don't use it very often. The grammar is so hard that we had grammar classes (2 a week) for 12 years of school. <BR>The trouble is that if I don't speak the language for a long time, I start to forget it. I don't know whether it's any use knowing so many languages, but I want to be a foreign service officer/ambassador, so it might be useful. Also, I think it is awesome being able to talk to so many different people. <BR>and the best way to learn a language? It's by moving there. My family moved to Canada 3 years ago, and after 4 years of learning, my English is pretty good. <BR>By the way I'm sort of looking for email partners (friendly conversation) in Spanish, German and French (French-beginner level, Spanish-middle level, German-advanced-was 3 years ago) and maybe even English or Hungarian (although I already have many of those) So if you feel like it, you could write me a few lines. bye, lindi

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Eric

Dass bin ich. <BR>To ja. <BR>Eto ya. <BR>En az vagyok.

Art

Hi Rex, just saw this one today. I spean fluent German as well as English, a little bit of spanish and am now studying Polish and Romain for my trip next Sept. I'm finding Polish very difficult although it may be the tape course I'm using. I used Primsluer for Spanish and received Pimsleur Romainian last week and really like their approach.

Rex

Hi, Art - - hope you have seen my earlier message asking you about the dates of the September trip I mention it often in answers to other questions (search "vlads castle"). I sure hope some other people will take an interest in this trip. Maybe top it again? <BR> <BR>No surprise about Polish - - your first Slavic language? I took a year of Russian back in 1968 (summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school) - - I didn't get to go to Europe that summer (for the first time) because of the student riots in Paris (which sorta spread across the ocean to the Democratic convention in Chicago). I did go the following summer. <BR> <BR>Anyhow, I have not had occasion to keep in touch with any of that Russian, but I do feel it coming back looking over the introductory Polish (and Czech) stuff I have bought for myself. <BR> <BR>And Romanian is supposed to be a Romance language, but I suspect that it will be even more "foreign-feeling" than the other four. I think that it "sounds a bit like" Portuguese (Which I have barely dabbled in) - - a bit "swishy" - - but maybe the vocabulary still ressembles French the most closely. I am not sure. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>