Foreign Languages

[MrHorus]

Out of interest, who speaks any and which ones and how well?

People always say how bad us Brits are at languages, so I'm wondering if that's still true or if it's just a myth.

And no, TdC and others from Foreignistan aren't allowed to comment for obvious reasons

 

[Scouse]

To my disgrace I (and all of my mates) speak "fuck" and "all" in terms of other languages.

I occasionaly joke that everyone else can speak English anyway - but it's kind of true.

In the Brits defence - I guess if we were born somewhere in Europe and a lot of the popular culture was in English we'd find it easier to learn the language through simple exposure.

The only exposure to foreign languages I got was at school - with nothing outside of school (no films, TV etc.) - so it was difficult (and when I was a kid it seemed pointless) learning a language I wasn't using.

 

[Raven]

A little bit of German, I was born there (GB Army base) and a tiny little bit of French, enough to introduce myself, order food/drink etc. French stuff is only what I learned in school and a little from visiting relatives who live over there.

Not enough in either to hold any real conversation, though I can understand most German if its written down and I have some time to think about it. Its one of those things that I keep meaning to do but never get around to doing. I would like to learn Chinese or something though, as Scouse says, the vast majority of Euros can speak English pretty much fluently so there is no real practical point in learning one of them.

 

[TdC]

DISCRIMMINATIONALISM!!!!1

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Know a little Japanese from a course I did a couple of years ago and trying to learn French again but other than that i'm in with the sad state of English who just know English. Not that I don't want to rectify that, languages are quite fascinating, it's just that i'm a bit thick when it comes to actually learning them

When I went to Belgium this year had a go at Flemish but all I got out of it was please and thank you, heh.

 

[Scouse]

Well, maybe Teedles can comment, since he obviously can't speak a word of English (and probably not ooojifloojidoogliflugle either, despite coming from oojiflooglyland)...

 

[djpringle]

Currently learning Vietnamese so I can try to communicate badly with the in-laws. Doing a lot better with the reading writing aspect than getting my tongue round the tonal side of things.

Arabic is next on the list later this year, which should definitely be a reading challenge!

 

[Preatoria]

I am from Belgium and I speak the following languages:

- Dutch/Flemish: Native
- English: Very good
- German: Average
- French: Average

German is kinda easy to understand if you know dutch. French is a bit more difficult and i would love to get my level of french a bit higher.

 

[TdC]

Well, maybe Teedles can comment, since he obviously can't speak a word of English (and probably not ooojifloojidoogliflugle either, despite coming from oojiflooglyland)...

I can speak, read and write English and Dutch fluently, I can speak some German, French and Spanish. I know how to say "Two cappuccino's please" in Danish, which is about as hard as speaking English, and I used to be fluent in Indonesian but no longer speak it.

However, recently in the train I listened in on two ladies speaking Bahasa interspersed with Dutch and kept having random words pop into my head.

Sadly when I went to Iceland in '08 nobody was interested in teaching me Icelandic

 

[Lazarus]

enough french to get by and enough spanish, german and italian to get beers at a bar.

Wife speaks fluent Punjabi, some Urdu and nags like a native Scot.

 

[DaGaffer]

Basic Spanish. (and I do mean basic).

 

[Scouse]

I speak Spanish, French, German, Greek. Sod it, every language!

That's if we're counting "enough to get beers at a bar"

 

[Vasconcelos]

Spanish: native
English: excelent
Italian: average
Portuguese: average

Still I cant bloody understand a word in french or german

Does classic greek learnt in school count?

 

[Fweddy]

I'm learning British Sign Language. Does that count for anything?

If not then I'll go stand in the ignorant section

 

[old.Tohtori]

English, easiest foreign language there is.
Native finnish ofcourse.
Med level swedish.
Some(just tidbits, holiday level if that) spanish, french. Bit mroe german.

Oh and since i know swedish to smoe degree, reading some dutch, norwegian, icelandic etc etc is a case of deduction.

 

[georgie]

Didn't you go and live in Spain for a while, Toht? Or did it not go through in the end?

English and Basic French (with a capital B) here.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Didn't you go and live in Spain for a while, Toht? Or did it not go through in the end?

English and Basic French (with a capital B) here.

I went for a vacation there, bro went to live there.

 

[Mabs]

English, easiest foreign language there is.

really ? i always thought, and people always say, english is a fucker to learn, cos the "rules" dont apply 80% of the time, so its a lot of extra understanding/learning involved

personally :
english: well enough
french + german : used to be almost fluent, nowadays, not so much

 

[00dave]

No Toht is right. I was talking to a mixed group in january when I was snowboarding, it was me, two Israelis, a Belgian and 3 French and they all said how easy English was to learn. Apparantly it's a complicated launguage overall but the basics are so versatile you can't go wrong half the time, broken English is still very understandable.

One of the French girls used the word "the" as an example, it always stays the same, the boy, the girl, the car, the blue car, the hermaphrodite, the shit that Trem comes out with sometimes (she didn't use the last two obviously). But in French it can change on the context of the subject, I think she also said the word car changes when you describe it as a blue car.

The other reason why us English types don't learn another launguage is because we really don't need to, most of the worlds TV entertainment comes from English speaking countries and also English is the universal launguage, for example all air traffic control is conducted in English.

 

[ECA]

I learnt good Japanese - I can understand the majority of conversations and speak it well enough also.

It's actually a very simple contextual language to learn to speak - the problem is the writing system is completely ridiculous.

2 versions of the alphabet that are not difficult to learn ( Hiragana for japanese words/sounds and Katakana to indicate foreign/other situational japanese words ).

The **** of the problem is Kanji - 3000+ symbols.

If you don't need to be able to write Japanese well though - then it is a very easy language to learn to speak.

 

[Raven]

really ? i always thought, and people always say, english is a fucker to learn, cos the "rules" dont apply 80% of the time, so its a lot of extra understanding/learning involved

personally :
english: well enough
french + german : used to be almost fluent, nowadays, not so much

Advanced English is hard but its easy to learn if all you want to do is communicate.

 

[Jupitus]

English is my native language, so no problem there.

French I can get around in and get a get a round in, so that's kinda covered. I will also occasionally speak conversationally in snippets of basic French - in business the French are the only Europeans who sometimes refuse to parlez l'anglais, since they are *****, so sometimes it can be good to 'show a bit of effort' so to speak.

In Italian I can count to ten and say 'hey nice tits!' whether the girl's tits are large or small, and also 'nice body'.

In German I can handle pleasantries, but the krauts being the krauts there aren't very many pleasantries to go round.

I can say 'thanks very much' in Turkish - good when you fail to tip at the local barber's shop where I work.

I don't know a single word of Scottish and can't understand a bloody thing they say.



*bans Jup*

 

[old.user4556]

Since I've started working with people from different countries, I feel very ignorant only being able to speak English where as they can communicate in their native language plus English. It makes me want to learn more languages. On the other hand, I agree with Scouse in that everyone seems to be able to speak English, so why bother? This is particularly applicable to the Indians who have a raft of different local dialets (urdo, punjabi, hindi, sanskrit etc.) so it makes it easier to speak to each other in English. I noticed the guys I work worth default to English when talking with each other, sometimes flipping into Hindi if they recognise they both speak it.

 

[DaGaffer]

The British beat themselves up too much about not being able to speak foreign languages; I live in a country where most people can't speak their own language. (Not that I don't get great pleasure in reminding them of that fact. Cultural Imperialism FTW!)

 

[old.Tohtori]

I live in a country where most people can't speak their own language.

So...england?

 

[old.user4556]

The British beat themselves up too much about not being able to speak foreign languages; I live in a country where most people can't speak their own language. (Not that I don't get great pleasure in reminding them of that fact. Cultural Imperialism FTW!)

I think it's fine if you're strictly UK orientated, but in a larger and more global playing field I feel slightly uneducated next to the guys that have multiple languages.

 

[MrHorus]

One of the French girls used the word "the" as an example, it always stays the same, the boy, the girl, the car, the blue car, the hermaphrodite, the shit that Trem comes out with sometimes (she didn't use the last two obviously). But in French it can change on the context of the subject, I think she also said the word car changes when you describe it as a blue car.

Yes, in general romance languages are very highly inflected and you can tell a lot about what is being described (gender, amount etc) based on just the word itself:

Inflection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English: Native
Italian: Passable
French: I can read to a basic level and understand context, if not details.

I want to really improve my Italian this year, make good inroads into picking up some French skills and then have a think about learning German as I'd quite like to live there at some point.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Out of interest, what methods has anyone here found to be best in learning a new language?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Out of interest, what methods has anyone here found to be best in learning a new language?

Long vacation, english to X guidebook, don't speak english.

 

[TdC]

for me, going to the country and speaking it. I've never been able to learn a language in school and always had low grades for tests :/