Foo - Do You Speak a Language Other Than English?

Do you speak another language (or more than one?)

If so, what motivates you?

Any other thoughts on being bi-lingual or multi-lingual?

Lately I've been trying to learn Italian. I've worked at it pretty hard for the past few months and have really come to respect people who can master more than one language.

French was my first language, but then I lost it :(. NOw I am taking latin, though I hate it. A lot of the french language is still with me, I can understand most of what people say to me in French but cannot usually speak back well

A bit of Spanish. Grew up in San Diego - even back in the 60's there was a lot of spanish being spoken in the area. Brother and sister both took spanish in high school, I followed in their footsteps (though I was living in Michigan by then). Friends and I spoke to each other in broken spanish for several years after high school just for the fun of it. Both of my children have taken 4 years of spanish in high scool, I was able to help them, and can still communicate fairly well with them.

Working in the automotive industry, spanish is not a big help (yet), but may have to learn a bit of german or japanese....

BTW - cycling and photography are both international languages!

I can speak beginner French (highschool).
I continue to develop my understanding of Polish (family heritage, connecting with my roots) and hope to be fluent in it one day.
I'm slowly learning Spanish and can understand it pretty well (Puerto Rican boyfriend).

I hope to have multi-lingual children some day :)

Spanish, Russian and Bulgarian, and English is actually my second language. I've noticed it gets easier after the first one, and it really helps if you spend at least a couple of weeks in a country that speaks the language you're learning... really makes a huge difference. I love learning new languages and have also been considering Italian but one thing that's kinda annoying is that it doesn't take long to forget a lot of what you've learned once you stop practicing... I've already managed to forget a huge chunk of the Russian grammar :(

I can speak Alabamian, in a pinch. Mississippian still eludes me, however.

I can understand a moderate amount of Spanish and can speak a fair amount. I've only taken 3 years of it and plan to continue my studies. Languages do get easier once things start clicking in your head; this took 2 years for me.

My Wife speaks Spanish and English. I have learned to understand what she is saying in Spanish to me. She is Puerto Rican having moved to NYC when she was three. The language there is known to them as "Newyor Rican" A mixture of Spanish and English loaded heavily with Bronx accent. She can listen to a New Yorker and tell what Borrough they are from as well as what part of Puerto Rico they are from if they come from there. There is a "southern" drawl that people of Puerto Rico have that is usually spoken in the mountains of their country. There are many more accents and dialects of Spanish speaking people than there are of even English speaking people.

My first language is English.

While growing up in Central Maine, I learned French while in high school. During those years, I had the help of a French-Canadian woman in learning conversational French on top of what I already studied. This has helped for when I vacationed in Northern France in 1987 as well as my visits to Quebec from time to time.

What motivated me to study French was a) the requirement that I study another language for at least a year, b) I am able to learn another language well through the use of phonetics, c) Maine borders Quebec and there is quite a number of French-speaking people who live up here, and d) my parents and I had been planning to vacation in France for a number of years and being able to speak french would help a lot.

Studying and learning French was a lot of fun.

I can talk like 35%spanish and like some words in Finnish.

Do you speak another language (or more than one?)

If so, what motivates you?

Any other thoughts on being bi-lingual or multi-lingual?

Lately I've been trying to learn Italian. I've worked at it pretty hard for the past few months and have really come to respect people who can master more than one language.

Ojibwa, French and English.

From growing up in Canada.

Oh thats cool; FOo mastaaa!

Oh thats cool; FOo mastaaa!

Oh, word?

Ya w0rd..ite?

Ya w0rd..ite?

It's not "ite", it's "a'ight".

n00b.

I'm still working on English, you want me to speak another language?

Who made you t3h linquistic mastur.. Ya daz ryte.

stf^ b4 I pwn j00.

In what, spelling?

In what, spelling?

liek, duh

i em t3h spel m4st3r!!!2113shift+one14

|_º|_ R3@|** T#!$ |=ºº

|_º|_ R3@|** T#!$ |=ºº

ZOMG!!21

lawl

Marginal skill in Fanakalo, and can count to ten in Turkish and Spanish. Curse in several languages.
Fanakalo is the mining language used in Southern Africa and was required in my job. My favorite phrase was:
Lo leopardis edla lo mamakazi ka mina. ( the leopard has eaten my mother-in-law) :D

I speak some Spanish from high school, from travelling in Mexico and Spain, and from living in Houston. In college, I wanted to learn a really different language, so I studied Japanese. Japanese is different. Learning to write in Chinese characters adds another layer to what it means to be literate. I haven't kept up with the Japanese in the past few years, though.

Vietnamese
English
4 years of German in college... can speak just enough to get by :D
3 years of HS Spanish... though it's all forgotten now

wish I knew some Arabic and Russian, too

I can speak French, read it and understand spoken french, mostly
residual from HS and college.
Speak some Afrikaans, understand alot more of it but can't read
it worth a damn, thats from living there for 5 years.
Can read some Dutch, mostly bicycle advertisements
and a smattering of German (enough to get around in Germany on).

I only speak english... but I also know sign language... do you class that as another language?

Slowly learning Nihongo.
Steve Desu.

My native language is Vietnamese...

I went to a private Catholic school, so I spoke French at school...

Then I came to the U.S. and learned Engrish

I tested out of the language requirements in school with French, so at university, I studied Russian for fun...

Spent 6-months learning Tagalog for my 6-week Rotary GSE trip to the Philippines (http://www.gururacing.net/GSE1998). Funny thing was as we traveled further north, they said I spoke Tagalog with a Pangasinan (southern) accent...

Last night, we had an international-party and had a tonne of people from foreign lands... :)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/DannoXYZ/Parties/InternationalPano2b.jpg

French is my first language, I also speak english fluently and know a bit of german and spanish. The way I was raised left no room for limiting yourself to one language, I passed that on to my children who speak 2 languages. Sometimes it does get confusing..hehe

Excuse me stewardess, I speak Jive :D

looks like that gets you confused.. do you mean five?;)

Excuse me stewardess, I speak Jive :D

:roflmao: :beer:

I can speak French, read it and understand spoken french, mostly
residual from HS and college.
Speak some Afrikaans, understand alot more of it but can't read
it worth a damn, thats from living there for 5 years.
Can read some Dutch, mostly bicycle advertisements
and a smattering of German (enough to get around in Germany on).


Mama mia, Lotek! Non parla italiano???

C, C++, Java, Perl, Ada, Visual Basic, C#, CDATS (company proprietary), IBM/360 Assembly.

Yup...I'm multi-lingual. :)

Excuse me stewardess, I speak Jive :D
:beer: Classic!!

C, C++, Java, Perl, Ada, Visual Basic, C#, CDATS (company proprietary), IBM/360 Assembly.

Yup...I'm multi-lingual. :)

You beat me to it (and by "it" I mean the nerdiest response in this thread). I'm knowledgable in C++, Java, Visual Basic, IBM Assembly (sort of), and PBASIC.

As far as languages that normal people actually communicate verbally in (I'm not saying that there aren't people who speak C++), I can still remember some of what I learned in Spanish and Arabic.

Lotek - where in SA did you stay?

I speak English, Afrikaans and a bit of Zulu. I lived in SA for 10 years, was taught Afrikaans in school, learnt to speak and understand it in the army. Nothing like someone yelling at you with a gun to make you want to learn faster. It has been 9 years (March 17th) since I arrived in NA so I can speak it very well anymore, but I can understand it. Zulu from place names and basic yes, hello, stuff. My youngest sister had to learn Zulu in school. My older sister can now speak Japanese - she teaches English in Japan whilst doing her 4th Dan.

Also some other language, I was watching a movie and recognised that they were saying hello. Sotho or Xhosa. That's the trouble with having 11 official languages :-)

Also the more you speak, the easier it is to recognise words in other languages. Norwegian, Dutch and German have very similar words to Afrikaans (even though it is based on Dutch, not everything is the same)

Now that I live in Canada, I am starting to pick up some french - although mainly written because I don't know anyone who speaks it (and we don't have a TV) French people probably wouldn't understand me because I pronounce it with an Afrikaans pronunciation of the letters - again because I have no reference for the spoken french.

I was born in Zimbabwe, and my father speaks a mixture of English, Afrikaans and Shona without realising it - until somone in England (he works for the railways there now) doesn't understand what he is saying.

Anyway, languages are kinda fun/interesting.

American English, after almost 20 yr here :)
Learned French at school many moons ago but can still get by.
Learned Russian after college then worked in the USSR for a long time. Was fluent but a bit rusty now.
Can get by in German.
Always loved foreign languages, but got my degree in chemistry.

looks like that gets you confused.. do you mean five?;)

No...I meant Jive....it is a classic line from the film "Airplane." ;)

lol!! Omg must have been 20 years since I saw that movie! got to rent this one again just for the fun of it!

I understand French much better than I can speak it, and I know enough Russian to know how much I don't know.

So, I'm mostly monolingual, but my daughters are both fluent in another language. One in Japanese and the other in Spanish. (Yay for Rotary exchanges!)

Spanish. My mom is Mexican and my grandfather lived with us when I was growing up. He spoke only a little English. The funny thing is that when I was little my mom insisted that her Mexican relatives only speak English to me and my sister. We grew up hearing it but not really speaking it. And we both ended up having to go to Spanish speaking countries to study before we could speak it well. It's fairly typical of 2d and 3d generation Mex.-Americans, at least in California.

I also speak Russian, or at least I used to. I lived in Kazakhstan for a year and a half doing international development. And the funny thing is that in Central Asia, a Mexican looks like a Tajik or Chechen or maybe Azeri to the locals.

English is my first language, and I am fluent in French (dual-citizen/lived/will live again in France). Languages are easier as you learn more. Portuguese and Spanish are my current projects, but I've been slacking on them recently.

I don't understand any of those technolanguages. Okay, maybe a little BASIC.

5. GOTO
10. END

Do you speak another language (or more than one?)

Essay Iyay ooday. :D

C, C++, Java, Perl, Ada, Visual Basic, C#, CDATS (company proprietary), IBM/360 Assembly.

Yup...I'm multi-lingual. :)

Haha, that's what I usually say to people when they ask what languages I speak. They usually don't understand. Guess only us computer type people get it. I know some C++, VB, and am learning Java.

As far as real languages...I took spanish for three years in high school and all I learned was "Puedo ir al bano, por favor?". Then I just left class and wandered the halls all hour. :)

I've been learning German from year 4 to year 10. In year 10 it seemed very boring for me so i gave up on it...

French is my native language, still speak, write and read it regularly. English second, Spanish third though I am losing the latter more and more due to lack of practice.

Ebonics.

Imay unetflay inay igpay atinlay! :D