Lingusitics How many foreign languages do you speak/read?

[rhuthwaite]

I am fluent with english, then have studied: zulu, afrikaans, german, french, japanese and I am currently being taught romanian by my romanian penpal. I do however mix english in if I am speaking a language and don't know a word, just put on the accent and say the english word, they sometimes understand what I mean

 

[Chi Meson]

aye I ken wit yer saying oh these gallas dialects, tho scots tisnea really English anymore tho, you ken, mucker?

Aye! I wis jist gaunnae say tha'.

 

[MeJennifer]

okay am I the only one for three? Proofs how old I am. In the dark ages of the educational system in the Netherlands, it was mandatory to study three foreign languages (German, French, English) with the philosophy that a small country has a lot of foreign neighbours. German and French are not a problem, but English..

Being able to speak many languages is great, but, each time I visit the Netherlands I get bombarded with anglicisms and Americanisms.

Once I was in a regular coffee shop, you have to qualify that when you visit the Netherlands, in Rotterdam, and looked at the menu, no "klein", "middel" and "groot" but " small", "medium" and "large"

It is funny, many Dutch insist on immigrants taking integration classes and exams while at the same time their speaking is loaded with anglicisms and their culture is infested with Americanisms.

 

[Gokul43201]

This brings my foreign language total down to zero...though if I add up my grammatical and vocabularistic skills in German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Latin and Creole, I might be able to match nearly any 3-year-old.

 

[radou]

It is funny, many Dutch insist on immigrants taking integration classes and exams while at the same time their speaking is loaded with anglicisms and their culture is infested with Americanisms.

Same story with the Germans.

 

[Anttech]

It is funny, many Dutch insist on immigrants taking integration classes and exams while at the same time their speaking is loaded with anglicisms and their culture is infested with Americanisms.

Its simply because of hollywood...

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Same story with the Germans.

English maths is loaded with Liebnitzism's works both ways.

\frac {dy}{dx} = \frac {dy}{du}.\frac{du}{dx}

I always found the short hand easier to deal with though as in this case it's a little different than simply fractions but the multiple chain rule shows how they cancel out.

F'(x) = f '(g(x)) g '(x) depends on the equation

 

[Andre]

Being able to speak many languages is great, but, each time I visit the Netherlands I get bombarded with anglicisms and Americanisms.

Once I was in a regular coffee shop, you have to qualify that when you visit the Netherlands, in Rotterdam, and looked at the menu, no "klein", "middel" and "groot" but " small", "medium" and "large"

It is funny, many Dutch insist on immigrants taking integration classes and exams while at the same time their speaking is loaded with anglicisms and their culture is infested with Americanisms.

You're quite right, although there are a few odd Dutch words, which still survive. Quite a interesting difference with Germany where I live currently, where puritism rules, as well as in France. Almost everywhere a computer is a computer except for the Germany ("Rechner") and the French ("ordinateur"). Also foreign movies are spoken in, instead of using subtitles. This is perhaps why Dutch youth have quite a edge over their German and French counterparts, for learning other languages.

But other elements of the Dutch culture as in art, architecture, writing, theatre, kitchen, etc is still existing and some people think that it should stay that way, therefore one should learn about tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, nasi goreng and taxes in the intergration classes

 

[MeJennifer]

nasi goreng

Right, nasi goreng, in Holland, with a Heineken beer, by the "afhaal Chinees", translated, "the pickup Chinese".
How more Dutch can you get!

 

[arildno]

English, German and the linguistic perversion known as Neo-Norwegian

 

[SticksandStones]

I speak English, and that's about it. I took 2 years of Spanish in High School...and remember none of it.

I think I'll minor in German though, I've always wanted to go there.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I can for the being able of speak three languages, English the best.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm fluent in two languages...American English and British English (brilliant!).

I learned Spanish in college, but haven't used it in so long, I'd be hard-pressed to construct a single sentence anymore. I used to be pretty good at understanding spoken Spanish (having been immersed in it by association with a Spanish-speaking friend and all her Spanish-speaking family and acquaintances), but was never very good at speaking it.

I used to be able to read Latin too, but that's not very useful for anything other than knowing the origin of medical/anatomical terms.

 

[Pyrrhus]

My native language is Spanish. I speak fluently english, and i speak with the profiency of a toddler russian and portuguese.

 

[mattmns]

My native language is English. I am slowly learning Russian though.

 

[jtbell]

Quite a interesting difference with Germany where I live currently, where puritism rules, as well as in France. Almost everywhere a computer is a computer except for the Germany ("Rechner") and the French ("ordinateur").

German purism is far from absolute. When I visited Germany a couple of years ago, I was amused to see the spread of the word "Ticket" in place of "Fahrkarte", for example in the "Tagesticket" that many city bus/tram systems offer.

 

[scorpa]

I only speak english, if I had to I might be able to get by in french, but it would be tough...I can hardly remember any of it anymore. I would love to learn russian one day, I'm hoping to maybe start learning it as an arts option next year.

 

[radou]

Interesting, a lot of people seem to like Russian. I wonder what the motivation is. Does it sound so exotic?

 

[scorpa]

Interesting, a lot of people seem to like Russian. I wonder what the motivation is. Does it sound so exotic?

I've just always been fascinated by the country, I love reading and learning about it. I'd really like to go there one day and figure it would be easier if I understand the language haha. My grandma was born there and maybe that's where my interest started.

 

[radou]

I've just always been fascinated by the country, I love reading and learning about it. I'd really like to go there one day and figure it would be easier if I understand the language haha. My grandma was born there and maybe that's where my interest started.

That's nice, it's always a good motivation.

I never liked Russian, it sounds somehow cold. Although it sounds similar as my native language, we have a considerable amount of words in common.

 

[xiaoxiao]

My native language is Chinese and I speak English. Can understand some Japanese and Korean as well.

 

[mattmns]

Vodka, Chess, what more could you ask for?

My Russian instructor told us last semester about a tradition at his university: When he was in college all men were required to take a military class, and during the final for this class everyone would pitch in and buy a bunch of bottles of vodka and put them under the military instructor's desk, and if there was enough vodka the instructor would go easy on grading the final However, a few years after he left the tradition ended, and I think he said military class is no longer mandatory for men anymore.

 

[whitay]

I speak fluent Australian English. G'day Mate. However I'm learning German as much as I can before I leave for Germany in 16 days. I find as I keep learning reading German becomes easier, but speaking I'm unsure of and constructing a good sentence is quite daunting. I watch TV shows in German to see if i can improve my listening skills. I am usually picking words and never getting a full sentence. My ability to speak and understand German is quite worrying since I have 16days before my 11month exchange there.

Therefore I'm going to say I can only really speak one language.

 

[tehno]

okay am I the only one for three? Proofs how old I am. In the dark ages of the educational system in the Netherlands, it was mandatory to study three foreign languages (German, French, English) with the philosophy that a small country has a lot of foreign neighbours. German and French are not a problem, but English..

Congrats.
But I see Pool results votes say 6 members (~20%) have already voted for '3 or more foreign languages' option!That's quite fantastic if I may say.

 

[z-component]

English is native language, can read/write/speak competent French.

 

[Bladibla]

English English and Korean.

 

[BobG]

I speak fluent Australian English. G'day Mate. However I'm learning German as much as I can before I leave for Germany in 16 days. I find as I keep learning reading German becomes easier, but speaking I'm unsure of and constructing a good sentence is quite daunting. I watch TV shows in German to see if i can improve my listening skills. I am usually picking words and never getting a full sentence. My ability to speak and understand German is quite worrying since I have 16days before my 11month exchange there.

Therefore I'm going to say I can only really speak one language.

I sympathize completely. If you have to translate back to your native language, you're lost - you're always listening too slow to keep up. I think you probably have to be able to think in a foreign language if you hope to keep up - something I've never been able to do with short trips.

I imagine the getting around will be pretty exhausting for a little while. It's hard when you have to actually think about every 'normally' trivial step of anything you do. And then there's always that deer in the headlights look when you ask for a stamp and the clerk rattles off every option of stamp you can choose from. It's a little overwhelming for a while.

 

[turbo]

I could probably get back up to speed in both French and German in relatively short order, if necessary. My native tongue is American English, and I grew up in a French-Canadian family (though I was not encouraged to speak French because my family wanted me to be more integrated with the English-speakers in my schools). I took a couple of semesters of German in college and was invited to the the department-head's annual party (beer, sausages, cheeses, etc), as a rookie, so I must have been doing OK...

 

[marlon]

My native language is Dutch but i am fluent in English and French. I am quite good in Italian and i understand some German.

marlon

 

[J77]

I'm currently learning Dutch and I can get by in France with my high school French