| Author |
Message |
    
Dave
Moderator
Username: Dave
Post Number: 5032
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 12:48 am: |     |
On the scale of:
Smattering / Proficient / Fluent
what languages other than English do you speak/write? |
Angus MacGuyver
Citizen
Username: Macgyver
Post Number: 47
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 1:31 am: | |
Broken english, Pig Latin, Love,
HTML, Jive, Canadian ehh!, Java
and Rock-n-Roll.
|
Bobkat
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 7292
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 5:07 am: | |
Trans Siberian Uzbek |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1582
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:22 am: | |
Hebrew - very proficient, formerly fluent
Spanish - understand everything, but make REALLY embarassing mistakes when speaking (like the time I ordered "dead pussy" at a Peruvian restaurant ) |
suzanneng
Citizen
Username: Suzanneng
Post Number: 233
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:27 am: | |
A little Chinese - enough to make my in-laws understand me when they call and to wish them various holiday greetings. (can also read enough Chinese to ID the MahJong tiles)
a little French - enough to get around Paris (reading subway signs, asking for help in a shop, etc) |
jem
Citizen
Username: Jem
Post Number: 1149
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:59 am: | |
Hebrew - fluent
French - once proficient, now abyssmal, but good for reading signs and asking for help
Spanish - learned it in high school, have forgotten alot (replaced by the other two languages); can communicate very haltingly with Spanish-speakers
Question: does anyone else who's somewhat multi-lingual have an issue with the wrong language coming out at the wrong time? We have friends in France whose English is almost non-existent. They called to see how we were after 9/11, and I found myself using Hebrew words where French belonged. And when I was first learning Hebrew, Spanish kept popping in. Very frustrating. |
LibraryLady(ncjanow)
Supporter
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 2126
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 8:23 am: | |
I barely speak English, and I am NOT bragging. Five years of spanish in NYC high schools let me totally nonfluent as did a year of Italian in college. Even took a Yiddish class and can understand that language a bissel.
Wish I was exposed to other languages when I was very young. |
Crazyguggenheim
Citizen
Username: Crazyguggenheim
Post Number: 748
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 8:46 am: | |
Ou est la biblioteque? |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1585
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 8:50 am: | |
jem - that's EXACTLY what happens to me: when I try to speak Spanish the Hebrew is just dying to get out of me. I think my brain only has room for 2 complete languages, because I knew Spanish years before I became fluent in Hebrew.
Also, it doesn't help that my Peruvian/Polani/Romani/Israeli husband and his family speak that way all the time and think it's ok.
Some real quotes from my in-laws:
BIL - En este ramzor poneh smolah, y derecha, derecha hasta la sof.
MIL - Mira, ich wehes nicht! |
Chris Prenovost
Citizen
Username: Chris_prenovost
Post Number: 290
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 9:33 am: | |
Fluent in French, Proficient in Spanish and Portugese.
Smattering of English. |
redY67
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 579
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 9:50 am: | |
I took Italian and Spanish for many years and always mix them up when trying to speak. Although I do dream in Spanish sometimes! |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 4538
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:01 am: | |
Proficient in Spanish
Semi proficient in French |
Soda
Supporter
Username: Soda
Post Number: 2402
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:44 am: | |
I'm semi-lingual, but speak with fork-ed tongue... |
shoshannah
Citizen
Username: Shoshannah
Post Number: 690
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:49 am: | |
Proficient in Spanish and Hebrew. Smattering of French. Jem: Yes -- There seems to be two modes: English and non-English. When I am in non-English mode, anything can come out. It usually happens with small connector words. For example, I am famous for saying 'aval" when I mean "pero." |
Albatross
Citizen
Username: Albatross
Post Number: 447
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 11:56 am: | |
Proficient / functional in French.
Monsieur Crazy, il y en a deux. Laquelle cherchez-vous? |
shh
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 2096
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 12:31 pm: | |
Anytime I need to speak another language, Spanish comes out.
Used to be proficient in Spanish, not anymore but I understand a bit. Learned to speak as much Italian in one year of college as seven years of Spanish as a middle/high school student.
Have had to speak French and Greek and managed to figure out enough. |
Joe
Citizen
Username: Gonets
Post Number: 639
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 12:45 pm: | |
I took German in high school with the hopes of one day spying on East Germany. Then that damn wall had to come down and with it my career goal.
I now speak only "ein bischen Deutsch." Enough to order a beer and find my way to the bathroom. Then again what else does one need to know?
By the way Debby, how did you like the "dead pussy"? |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1588
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 1:09 pm: | |
Once we got the waiter off the floor it was actually quite good. Poor guy - to an Andes native chicha morada and chucha muerta don't sound alike at all.
(Chicha morada is a customary drink made from purple corn) |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 887
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 1:31 pm: | |
From my resume:
Native German speaker, with fluent english and some french. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 361
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 1:46 pm: | |
I understand more French than I can write/speak. Studied it in high school and college, but didn't have anyone to talk to....so now, it's gone. I tried to learn Spanish once, but I kept pronouncing everything as though it were French. The only other language that didn't happen to was when I learned sign language (but alas...no one to talk to, so that's gone now too). |
lamojo
Citizen
Username: Lamojo
Post Number: 133
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 1:54 pm: | |
I have a minor in Spanish and can understand a lot but I'm getting a bit rusty.
Also spent 2.5 years in Africa speaking Chitumbuka, a Bantu language.
Muli uli mose? |
Walker
Citizen
Username: Fester
Post Number: 59
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 3:09 pm: | |
Can understand and speak a little Shona, Ndebele, Samanica, Chilapalapa and Afrikaans. Fluent in English |
Dego Diva
Citizen
Username: Fmingione
Post Number: 202
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 3:13 pm: | |
Fluent in Italian
Fluent in Neopolitan dialect
Proficient in Spanish
Smattering of Japanese
I think because I grew up in an Italian speaking household, I pick up other languages and accents well. I've been in France, Japan, Thailand and have managed the language pretty well. The only place I couldn't make due was Germany. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5231
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 3:25 pm: | |
I used to be passable in "survival French" but not any more. One trouble I have is my accent is really good, so people assume I speak and understand it much better than I do. |
Pizzaz
Citizen
Username: Pizzaz
Post Number: 1385
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 3:33 pm: | |
Hungarian 
|
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 1592
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 4:32 pm: | |
Vizsla! |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 485
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 5:42 pm: | |
Proficient in French, some Spanish, Latin, Yiddish and old Anglo Saxon. |
Mayor McCheese
Citizen
Username: Mayor_mccheese
Post Number: 96
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:08 pm: | |
Pizzaz -
Magyarország egy szép ország.
Egy sör, kérem! |
Dave
Moderator
Username: Dave
Post Number: 5046
Registered: 4-1998
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:22 pm: | |
Keyser Söze! |
Chris Prenovost
Citizen
Username: Chris_prenovost
Post Number: 292
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:06 pm: | |
And just like that. . .
. . . he's gone. |
Mergele
Citizen
Username: Mergele
Post Number: 241
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 7:28 pm: | |
- Fluent (but rusty) German
- Conversational Russian and Lithuanian (with a bad habit of throwing Russian words into Lithuanian conversations)
- Kitchen Spanish (learned primarily from many bus boys in the southwest during my table-waiting career, despite the 6 years of formal instruction)
- Enough French to ask for directions, but not enough to understand the answers (when in France, I usually end up falling back to German as my French always comes out with a German accent anyhow)
And I once had a conversation - in Lithuania - with a very sweet group of Polish nuns, during which they spoke only Polish and I spoke only Russian. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 343
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 9:18 pm: | |
Parle couramment le francais
Talar en god del svenska
Snakker norsk (baade nynorsk og bokmaal) |
bookgal
Citizen
Username: Bookgal
Post Number: 604
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:04 pm: | |
French -proficient, German-smattering, Italian-smattering, and enough Latin to have a very pleasant conversation about the Gaul campaign with a very, very dead Roman. |
tabby
Citizen
Username: Tabby
Post Number: 172
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:23 pm: | |
To whoever speaks norsk: We have a friend who needs 3 songs by Greig that she needs the correct pronunciation in Norwegian.
BTW, the "tomcat" taler dansk, English is 2nd language for him. He also speaks feline, as do I... |
Pizzaz
Citizen
Username: Pizzaz
Post Number: 1386
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 9:14 am: | |
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I agree - Hungary is a beautiful country.
JÓ Reggelt Kivanok! (Good Morning, I wish for you) |
Soda
Supporter
Username: Soda
Post Number: 2410
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 11:27 am: | |
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DeborahG
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1169
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 12:05 pm: | |
Proficient (formerly fluent) Italian
Embarrassingly little Spanish and Hebrew, given that I took Spanish for at least six years and spent eight months studying in Israel.
My husband is Hungarian -- now there's a tough language. In all these years, I've learned only "yes," "no" and "little bunny." |
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