Subject: Language Learning
Posted by: Lochalsh
Date: Feb 07 10
Do you speak more than one language, or do you wish you did? Do you think being able to express yourself in more than one language (and. therefore, more than one culture) is a valuable skill?
Posted by: Lochalsh
Date: Feb 07 10
Do you speak more than one language, or do you wish you did? Do you think being able to express yourself in more than one language (and. therefore, more than one culture) is a valuable skill?
67 replies. On page 1 of 4 pages. 1 2 3 4
tezza1551 
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Isn't this already covered on the Humanities Board "What language would you learn?". Last posted to on 5th January. Reply #1. Feb 07 10, 9:52 PM |
Lochalsh
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Ah, maybe so, and thanks for pointing that out. My intent here was not to focus on "which" language but rather on "why" language. Reply #2. Feb 07 10, 10:07 PM |
lesley153
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As well as starting an interesting thread! The thread in humanities is more about business languages, though. Unfortunately this thread probably belongs in humanities, where it would run double the risk of being amalgamated with the existing one, even though it's quite a different concept. I learnt a few languages at school, and picked up a few words of other languages here and there, but find it quite dispiriting, in a foreign country, to try to pay someone the compliment of using their language, to find that they are trying not to laugh, and then respond in cut-glass, perfect English. I've probably used the bit of French I know twice. It was invaluable for conducting an argument in a French railway station. I had been to Spain in a car with three boys, one of who had borrowed the family car, and it had broken down on the way back, as well as having a lot of its contents (clothes, gifts, tent!), nicked. We went home by train. Someone told me that we could get a train that went all the way to the coast. When we came to buying the tickets, the ticket seller said we had to change at Paris. So I said "That's not what we were told," in my best school French, while the boys watched and didn't understand a single word. Great fun. The other time was quite recent. I answered the phone to my sister-in-law's mother, who is Lebanese, and speaks Arabic, French and Hebrew. So French it was, albeit halting and not too exciting. A lot of it had disappeared since the argument in the French station. This time, my open-mouthed audience was my son, who got GCSE French but still thinks it's a collection of snorts and strange nasal sounds, and had been learning for two years (with the same teacher) before I learnt that he didn't know the difference between a little a, and a little a with a line on top. This makes me think that being French doesn't mean you will automatically be a great teacher of French: and that perhaps we should check the competence of our existing language teachers before we get them branching out into Mandarin Chinese. On the other hand, the Latin I learnt was invaluable, for grammar and for word meanings. Much more use than the others. Reply #3. Feb 07 10, 10:27 PM |
| lesley153
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PS This doesn't guarantee that my grammar is to be copied, or that I know what anything means half the time. It just helps. :) Reply #4. Feb 07 10, 10:29 PM |
daver852
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I speak a little Italian and a little Spanish. They were very easy languages to learn. Then I tried to learn Irish (Gaelic). It must be the most difficult language in the world. There are no words for "tes" or "no." I am convinced God invented whiskey and Gaelic to prevent he Irish from taking over the world. Reply #5. Feb 07 10, 10:52 PM |
xbunny
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my mother tongue is english,I am fluent in french,written and oral,I also know some spanish. To say that this has helped me in the work industry,not really,I am not in a higher pay scale nor up the ladder.Knowing these languages just makes the problem go away faster. Reply #6. Feb 07 10, 11:15 PM |
| xbunny
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If I also may add that I should perfect my mother tongue first(english) culturally speaking,when traveling to Australia had I known that I was "rooting for the Socceroos" team meant a whole new meaning,I certainly would have looked that one up first rather than be red faced...and I thought I was so cool knowing what a barbie was. Reply #7. Feb 07 10, 11:23 PM |
| tezza1551
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Oh xbunny ! Now we know that the x = x rated ! Don't ever let anyone tell you that the USA and Australians speak the same language ! Reply #8. Feb 07 10, 11:26 PM |
| Lochalsh
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I've been studying and teaching Romance languages since forever. I started with Latin when I was 15 and 16, and I think that everyone should study it as a basis for grammar and vocabulary skills in English and several languages. Even after all these years, I get excited when I'm able to communicate with someone in his or her own language. There's the brain challenge, but, more than that, I feel like I'm paying some sort of tribute or courtesy to the other person's culture. Well, except in Germany, where the inhabitants switch to English once they hear my German. I'm such a dumkopf sometimes! I felt particularly at linguistic sea in traveling to England for the first time, despite the fact that I'd been in most of Western Europe. I expected to communicate well but got in all sorts of trouble with words that looked the same as American English but had entirely different meanings. You know what I mean! For one innocent example: I thought I must be coming across as a genius since people answered many things I said with "Brilliant!" Thanks for your interesting replies. I'm glad you found this thread, misplaced though it may be. May I still plead newbie-ness after four months? Reply #9. Feb 07 10, 11:51 PM |
| xbunny
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Tezza the funny thing is a shop keeper in Sydney asked where I was from and said Canada,ah he says you use "centigrad" also,so we speak the same language,ha you are right,there are so many differences just in the english language alone. Reply #10. Feb 07 10, 11:53 PM |
| Lochalsh
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xbunny, I googled "rooting for the socceroos" but couldn't find out what the phrase means. Shall I just let my imagination run wild? :) Reply #11. Feb 07 10, 11:56 PM |
| Lochalsh
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I should have said "English and several *other* languages. I need to work on my skills. Reply #12. Feb 07 10, 11:59 PM |
guitargoddess
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I know just French (and mostly just Canadian-French at that, though in the upper years of high school we focused more on France-French... it's mostly the same, grammar-wise and stuff, but there's a lot of different vocabulary, same as any language with a lot of dialects, I guess). I'm not quite fluent though. You'd think I would be, with 14 years of school in French immersion, but the actual speaking French part was never emphasized in school. My French reading and writing is near-fluent, but my speaking is only intermediate (according to the Federal goverment assessment). In addition to not spending much time in free-form French speaking in school, it's also been 5 years since I took any French in school (chose the non-bilingual university in town to go to, and they wouldn't let me take the second language French class in first year because they said my French was too good and I'd get too good of a mark... go figure). Anyway. I can still use it in a professional sense since most work business is conducted via e-mail anyway, but even on the phone and in-person, I can definitely speak well enough to be understood and communicate with no misunderstandings. My problem is that I'm not confident, and if I hear myself say a word that I know is wrong, I get flustered, and start stumbling more. Hopefully if I get a full-time government job I can take advantage of all the language training they have, and improve my speaking skills. :-) I also 'know' a bit of Italian, but it's not, like, "real" Italian, it's the Italian that my grandparents speak in their home (I guess their regional dialect, but my mom calls it "kitchen Italian". It's not the same Italian you'd hear in Rome, anyway). I can't speak it like off the top of my head, if you asked me how to say something, but I know select words, and I understand when they talk to me in Italian (I just have to reply in English). I can do okay with reading easy Italian too, I get the basic gist, but don't understand completely. Reply #13. Feb 08 10, 10:27 AM |
| tezza1551
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I did French and Latin at school for 5 years and loved them both. Latin has been useful over the years, particularly in nursing; French, I last used when my cousin brought his 10 year old nephew to stay - nephew was newly arrived in Australia and spoke not a word of English. (I let him loose in the shearing shed and sheep yards and he soon learned the worst !) Working as a nurse in a large abattoirs where around 50% of the workers had Malay as their first language, I quickly learned the basics and could understand a lot more than I spoke. Of my own peoples' language, Noongar, like most of my mob, I can speak a few words, but as it was forbidden in the Stolen Generation days, few of us speak it fluently, and many of those who do have learned it in a classroom situation. Reply #14. Feb 08 10, 5:30 PM |
| tezza1551
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Forgot to say: My mother was born in Singapore of Scottish/ Irish parents, and learned Malay as her first language. When they went "home" the other kids would demand they speak Malay to them, so Mum & her sisters would very seriously count them in Malay. Also, as Mum got older, she would lose the English word and substitute the Malay word.. so the cat became the "kuching" and so on. Reply #15. Feb 08 10, 5:33 PM |
| Deunan
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Due to lack of usage, I've lost three languages. While I wasn't perfect in any of them, I could at least understand what was said and avoid making mistakes when I responded. Reply #16. Feb 08 10, 5:41 PM |
| Lochalsh
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Tezza, you were fortunate to have 5 years of French and Latin made available to you. I grew up in a small town in the middle of the U.S., and my school offered only two years of Latin, then two years of Spanish. I ate it all up and wished for more! And now, thanks to some of you, I will not "root" for a team if ever I land in Australia! You know, we could do a whole thread on "Dangerous English"! Reply #17. Feb 08 10, 5:43 PM |
| Lochalsh
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Well, now that I think of it, we couldn't do a thread on "Dangerous English"; it wouldn't be around for long! :) Reply #18. Feb 08 10, 5:49 PM |
| tezza1551
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Deunan, that is sad. Is there no opportunity for you to get in touch with them again ? I had not used my French for mor than twenty year when Adrien came to visit.. but within a day or two, I could communicate, at least on a basic level.. "what do you want to eat?"... "Go and have a shower".." leave the snake alone, it's poisonous"... Reply #19. Feb 08 10, 6:10 PM |
satguru
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For some reason I always liked the sound of German, and of course is very similar to the language of my grandparents and beyond, Yiddish, which I know just enough of to alienate people I speak to who don't. I learned French and Hebrew, neither of which are a lot of use outside their respective countries, but as well as liking the sound of it I was pushed into learning a little Gujurati (from NW India) as where I was teaching in 1989-91 that was the majority language and the only way to keep up with what they were saying in class. I'd far rather learn something I can use without going abroad and to one specific country, and that is the second language in Middlesex so had I stayed there longer would have learnt it to a much more useful level. Without help now it's not so easy, the pupils used to give me lessons at lunchtimes. Reply #20. Feb 08 10, 7:05 PM |
67 replies. On page 1 of 4 pages. 1 2 3 4
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