Lingusitics What Are the Native Languages Spoken by PF Members?

[Evo]

I'm trying to learn italian. it's kinda hard though.

You can recognize a lot of the words from the latin roots. Seriously, if you learn a bit of latin, you will be able to understand most European languages. I bought a great course "Barron's Mastering Italian", developed by the Foriegn service institute, it's the same course used by the US Government to train diplomatic personnel. It has hours of audio, they teach you how to position your tongue which changes the sounds from English to Italian, huge difference. Cool course.

 

[JamesU]

my pimsleur CD's sais that THEY were used by the US Government to train diplomatic personnel. back off! :briggrin:

 

[Evo]

my pimsleur CD's sais that THEY were used by the US Government to train diplomatic personnel. back off! :briggrin:

Hey, I shucked out $80 for this course, to heck with your course! Did you have to repeat "da" for two hours? If not, your course isn't as detailed as mine.

http://www.audiobooksonline.com/shopsite/media/Barrons_Mastering_Italian_Level_1_Foreign_Service_Institute_Language_compact_discs.jpg

 

[JamesU]

I had to repeat lei aabout 1,000 times. and they broke it up so you could understand better

 

[Evo]

I had to repeat lei aabout 1,000 times. and they broke it up so you could understand better

Well, we'll both be able to speak like natives. I like Barron's because they actually explain where to position the tongue in your mouth to change the sound from American to Italian. The difference was astounding. Many people can't handle Barron's though, it's extremely detailed, with the intent to make you sound like a native speaker as opposed to just knowing words. As one purchaser put it "Do you really need to know the syntactical name of the sounds you're learning to learn them (semi-vowels, etc.). You'd better be a nit-picking linguist to care even one bit about these lessons." Uhm, yeah, I want to be able to speak Italian correctly. That's kind of the whole idea behind learning to "speak" a language as opposed to spewing out words.

 

[JamesU]

Mine's not that detailed!

 

[Evo]

Mine's not that detailed!

Pimsleur is a much easier course, learning words and not getting as involved with losing the American accent and understanding the grammar.

 

[honestrosewater]

Native: English. I know Igpay Atinlay.
I learned the tiniest bit of Ancient Greek and Latin in an attempt to read some original old works - but it didn't happen. I learned a tiny bit of Italian, because I think it's so much fun to speak. So I can spit out some phrases and make a loud, melodramatic fool of myself (I like to use big hand gestures with them too ). I watch a French course occasionally on the PBS/USF channel, but I haven't picked up much of it (everyone speaks French - there's no English at all).
I'm beginning to learn some languages as part of my linguistics studies. Latin and Ancient Greek are the only languages that I've been planning to learn. I'll most likely learn others too, but I haven't yet decided which ones. I could see myself learning at least a dozen languages, though perhaps with limited lexicons. I was quickly discouraged with other approaches, but the approach Evo described, combined with general knowledge about language, is already making things much easier and more sensible.

 

[marlon]

le capiché l'Italiano?

it should be "capisci Italiano" or "Lei capisce Italiano ?"


marlon

 

[marlon]

Seriously, if you learn a bit of latin, you will be able to understand most European languages.

Well, that's true for Spanish, French and Italian. You will be able to recognize some words but that really is not worth anything. There is a big difference in recognizing some words or being able to engage in real-time conversations.

regards
marlon

 

[marlon]

Latin and Ancient Greek are the only languages that I've been planning to learn.

NICE

I hope it is not for practical use, though.

You do realize that in order to learn good Latin, it will take you about six years, right ? Here in western Europe, you can study Latin in high school for six years. Besides, to know whether you "have good Latin knowledge", you should be able translate the entire Latin mass, just to get started
Hey, what does my signature mean ?


Here is your first lesson : http://www.truecatholic.org/masstrad.htm

regards
marlon

 

[Joel]

Swedish - Native
Finnish - Fluent
English - Fluent

Scattered words and phrases: Hebrew and Italian

 

[marlon]

Besides, you need to realize that learning Latin implies a thourough study of ancient Roman literature and culture, which is very interesting in itself. One particular text i liked is the original version of Moliere's play l'Avare. The original text is of the hand of Titus Maccius Plautus

Just so you would know : Maccius is Latin for clown

regards
marlon

 

[marlon]

my pimsleur CD's sais that THEY were used by the US Government to train diplomatic personnel. back off! :briggrin:

You know, a great way to learn extra Italian (after having done the grammar and vacobularium) is to study libretti of Italian opera's. I have done it and learned a lot from it. I suggest you start with the opera's of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini,...The italian is still the same. Here are some libretti from the Stanford database :

Le Nozze Di Figaro
Complete List

the best way to learn is to engage in conversations with native Italian speakers. You must have the luck of being able to do so ofcourse.

regards
marlon

ps : if you ever want to have some lessons in italian, please let me know. I have always liked languages, even more than science.

 

[honestrosewater]

Thanks for the info. How did you learn Latin? Do you know if Wheelock's Latin is good?

Hey, what does my signature mean ?

With the slanderers silenced, sentenced to piercing flames, call me with the blessed.
OR
When the wicked have been confounded, doomed to the devouring flames,
count me among the blessed.

I cheated. My own translation was something like: You can confuse me, abuse me, set me on fire, and shower me with praises. Like I said, I failed miserably at my first attempt to learn Latin.

 

[kaos]

Hokkein,Mandarin,Cantonese (chinese dialects) + english + Malay

 

[marlon]

Thanks for the info. How did you learn Latin?

i took it in high school

Do you know if Wheelock's Latin is good?

sorry, dunno

When the wicked have been confounded, doomed to the devouring flames,
count me among the blessed.

don't worry, i would have given the same explanation. It takes some time to learn Latin, be patient, you will get there

marlon

 

[closure]

I can speak only Mandarine and Engilish

 

[Zantra]

fluent in english and french- learning spanish

bits and pieces of german, italian, japanese and tagalog

 

[Archon]

Czech (native), English, and Spanish so far. Probably Latin/French next.

 

[bomba923]

Native languages: Russian, Tatar
Fluent in English

trying to pick Portuguese at the moment, after that Latin

In that case, then try out the Russian @ PF:

Меня зoвут Миша.

[size=+1]Как вас зoвут ??[/size]

(your real name, that is )

 

[loseyourname]

Ke Aleman nnaboiro, and I'm the only one. Aside from that, though, English is native. I'm not conversationally fluent in anything else, but I know enough to read some Spanish and Classical Greek. I'm trying to learn Irish, but I just began. I'll probably try to at least learn some Welsh after that, maybe a couple other Celtic languages, mostly for scholarly reasons, as almost nobody still speaks them. Woni Tsalagi (Cherokee) awaduli, but there aren't many resources for it.

 

[honestrosewater]

Ke Aleman nnaboiro, and I'm the only one.

You finished your language?

 

[loseyourname]

You finished your language?

No, but I could hold a conversation as long as it didn't require any vocabulary I haven't invented yet (theoretically, anyway; as the only speaker I'd need to hold a conversation with myself). The grammatical and syntactical structures are decided and all. One proto-language and one sister-language and I'll be done. I've even begun with the mythology and the history to support it. You never realize how much a language reveals about a culture until you start doing this stuff. It's quite exciting.

 

[Kalimaa23]

Dutch, French, English, some German, Italian and Latin

 

[honestrosewater]

No, but I could hold a conversation as long as it didn't require any vocabulary I haven't invented yet (theoretically, anyway; as the only speaker I'd need to hold a conversation with myself).

Well hopefully you won't use any vocabulary that you haven't invented yet.

The grammatical and syntactical structures are decided and all. One proto-language and one sister-language and I'll be done. I've even begun with the mythology and the history to support it. You never realize how much a language reveals about a culture until you start doing this stuff. It's quite exciting.

Yeah, it sounds like fun.

 

[Grotesque Puppet]

French and English

 

[1123581321]

english, learning spanish and latin (but i won't take enough years of latin to speak it very well)

Fibonacci

 

[Nomy-the wanderer]

Native arabic. A part of my family speak french as their mother tongue, we r a francophonic city, and this type of people who speaks francoarabic is familiar...

Add to those 2 languages, english and a bit of italian( enough to get me where i want and for a nice conversation ), i used to speak coptic( i can't say a complete phrase by now, it's rarely used) too which is an old egyptian language written with letters extracted from greek alphabet...

 

[EvLer]

So...I am at least 3rd Russian here?
technically my "native" language is Belarusian ... and Russian.
Only меня зовут Оля.

@bomba923: i think it's an "o" instead of "a", check it with "зов"