How many languages do you speak?
- Thread starter PropriedadDeClubDenbow
- Start date
Heh, neither of my foreign ex-bf's helped 
English is SO widely spoken that many of us English types tend to be lazy where other languages are concerned. I studied French at school but can only remember enough to order lunch or book a hotel room for the night.
I feel like a bit of an ignoramus on the language front, though I know a few Rueda calls but I don't think that really counts.
I feel like a bit of an ignoramus on the language front, though I know a few Rueda calls but I don't think that really counts.
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
English (actually American English and I can make pretty good wild guesses on British English)
German (and most German dialects but not the far north dialect and not Swiss German)
Still attempting to learn Spanish, I learn some on vacation then forget all within a few weeks.
My brother is a whizz at languages. At one point he could speak English, German, French, Swedish, three different Swiss German dialects and could even pronounce Czech and Chinese like a native speaker although he didn't know what he was saying.
German (and most German dialects but not the far north dialect and not Swiss German)
Still attempting to learn Spanish, I learn some on vacation then forget all within a few weeks.
My brother is a whizz at languages. At one point he could speak English, German, French, Swedish, three different Swiss German dialects and could even pronounce Czech and Chinese like a native speaker although he didn't know what he was saying.
Finnish, swedish, english, french
I put myself down for 3 on the poll.
Fluent English and Modern Greek (read, write, speak). My Spanish is what you might call near-fluent, I will usually 'fool' a native speaker for a casual conversation but ultimately I'm either going to evince a suspicious lack of vocabulary or make a grammatical error that will expose me.
Learned a lot of Latin and a small amount of Ancient Greek but have forgotten most of both by now.
Based on Spanish and Latin I understand about 50-75% of spoken French (can follow a casual conversation or read a technical paper) but can't say anything. In grad school I used to hang around with a motley crew of European expats and the French crowd were always entertained by the fact that I would follow their conversations perfectly well but participate only in English.
Fluent English and Modern Greek (read, write, speak). My Spanish is what you might call near-fluent, I will usually 'fool' a native speaker for a casual conversation but ultimately I'm either going to evince a suspicious lack of vocabulary or make a grammatical error that will expose me.
Learned a lot of Latin and a small amount of Ancient Greek but have forgotten most of both by now.
Based on Spanish and Latin I understand about 50-75% of spoken French (can follow a casual conversation or read a technical paper) but can't say anything. In grad school I used to hang around with a motley crew of European expats and the French crowd were always entertained by the fact that I would follow their conversations perfectly well but participate only in English.
Ron Obvious
Son
That's not what I understand with near-fluent, that's what I'd call near-native. Fluent is when you can speak fluently, continuously. According to my measures you don't have to be able to 'fool' natives. People usually over-estimates their language skills, so when applying for jobs etc. you have to up your skills.
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
There are a few languages where it is virtually impossible to 'fool' natives...and thats just the normally spoken languages. Imagine trying to learn the South African Khoisan languages with their clicks and attempting to 'fool' a native.
As i first attempted to learn Spanish, a buddy asked me why ?-- i replied " so i can become illiterate in 2 languages "
sweavo
Changui
Heheh!
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
Hmmm..I thought Italian was Spanish with waving your arms about.
Regarding 'fooling natives,' this is of course easier in languages that are widely spoken and therefore have many different regional sounds. Spanish is one of these - nobody ever thinks I'm from their country but I could always be from some other country in which Spanish is spoken with a slightly different accent/intonation. (People guess Argentina and Spain a lot; that's probably based more on appearance than accent though).
Modern Greek is spoken by such a small number of people that the accent is relatively homogeneous (there are some variations of course, but they're widely recognized). I actually sound more recognizably 'off' in Greek than I do in Spanish because I grew up outside the country for the most part, and my intonation is not-quite-typical.
Yeah, that's true. I notice a lot of people who are still in the "?Donde dolor?" stage will put Spanish on their CVs. But I'm not going to put 'near-native' on my CV, that's just weird. I just list the languages and let people inquire if they care.RonObvious said:
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
This is of course somewhat true of English non-native speakers. Its pretty hard to tell the difference between Dutch or Scandinavians speaking English. I made the point about orange face paint as a dead give away on another board, but nobody got it.
(hint: Oranjer = the football team fans = orange face paint = house of orange = the royal family of the netherlands)
Yeah, Nordic people and the Dutch seem to have very little trouble learning and pronouncing English. It's always clear to me they're not from 'around here' but it's not always clear (depending on the situation and the individual) that they're not native speakers.