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Subject: Languages

Posted by: thejazzkickazz
Date: Jul 02 03

I'm curious about the language abilities of the Funtrivia populace. What languages do you speak? Which languages have you studied? Which languages do you find difficult to study? What has been your language learning experience?

278 replies. On page 1 of 14 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
KIWI IN OZ
I speak English English, Australian English , Kiwi English and a wee bit of Maori.
At school in a previous life I studied Latin and French but have forgotten most of it although there have been so many times in my life I have been grateful for the grounding in Latin. There is a private girls school here in Victoria which has reintroduced Latin into their carriculum in an effort to raise literacy levels. I applaud them.
When I was in Bhutan I began to study Zhongka(?spelling )the native language, it was very difficult and I was not there long enough to get a real grasp of it.

Reply #1. Jul 03 03, 12:20 AM
blurrystar1
I speak English, Bengali and have been studying Indonesian since grade 4 in primary school. I'm in year 10 now and will continue to study Indonesian until year 12.

Reply #2. Jul 03 03, 1:05 AM
ankuranky3
Sir
I am Ankur and I know Hindi, English, Punjabi and Urdu. I am an Indian and so the mother toungue is Hindi. But we have got to know English to stand erect in Modern India. ooops... I too know Sanskrit. That's a fantastic language.

Reply #3. Jul 03 03, 10:11 AM
elizabethmc
Well, I've never heard of half of those languages. I can speak french.

Reply #4. Jul 03 03, 11:44 AM
TabbyTom


player avatar
I used to speak French fluently (but with a strong English accent). These days I don't create enough opportunities to speak it, so my abilities have declined.

I can read German and speak it after a fashion. I studied Latin at school and like to dip into the classics occasionally. I find I can also often understand written Italian, but I wouldn't claim to speak it.


Reply #5. Jul 03 03, 2:06 PM
simplesummer
I speak what is spoken. And what is spoken is the message, or was the language the medium more so than the message? I think we all ought to speak one language- the Ur-language spoken before the Tower of Babel incident. Nontheless, I might speak Basque, Hebrew, Essenes, Japanese, Cantonese, German, and some Urdish when I am particularly drunk. Of course, we all ought to speak French, Latin, Italian and Greek because they were once the Imperial languages of the past....but English might altogether suffice. Maybe silence is better, as my Zen monk-teacher once told me- speaking in tongues only makes the mind frenetic.

Reply #6. Jul 04 03, 1:50 AM
bruyere


player avatar
I learned almost no languages until eighteen...but music was my language thank Goodness! I wanted to be difficult and learn Russian but they didn't offer it very often.
THen however as I entered a Spanish-speaking environment, I learned Spanish, and then the language I speak every day and by which I make my living..French.
I learned Italian and a bit of German after that.

Who would have thought I'd make a living by my linguistic aptitudes? I started so late in life that most experts would have predicted my failure..yet I persist!

I used to have fun learning the name for office objects in many languages for my students from thirty different countries, just to make them wonder if I wasn't fluent.
The big joke was stapler in Mandarin, Turkish, German, Italian, Japanese, and a few more.
People would come up and make the "need a stapler" gesture..and I'd say, "ah..the zimba?"
and the Turk would say, "Heather, you don't speak Turkish do you?" I'd usually answer, "well didn't I say Merhaba to you this morning?"

Reply #7. Jul 04 03, 7:24 AM
thejazzkickazz
Harish...I speak English, or so I like to think. I'm also somewhat adept with Chinese and Vietnamese. My Spanish is very limited, but I can do the basics...as much as several years of high school Spanish would allow. I like to dabble in Latin and ancient Greek, but I would have difficulty throwing together actual sentences. Perhaps I'll study these two more in the future.

Simplesummer...for a zen monk, you are awfully chatty...

Reply #8. Jul 04 03, 10:20 AM
mk2norwich
I'm English, but as anyone who has visited England, and not just watched Disney films will know, there's really no such thing as a standard "English" accent.Many people from the north of the country would have difficulty understanding those who live in the south, and vice versa; I'm from the east, and we have trouble with other regional accents, and some who hear how we talk would doubt that we even speak our own language! A Yorkshire accent is quite different from a Newcastle or "Geordie" accent, and a broad Liverpool or "Scouse" accent sounds nothing like what is spoken in Birmingham. It is not uncommon for one Englishman to attempt to converse with another, and neither can understand what the other is saying! In many films, especially those made for the US market, England has two accents; Cockney (an East London accent) and the Queen's English, but there is so much else besides in reality!

Reply #9. Jul 05 03, 3:50 AM
guru23
I speak Finnish, English, a little Swedish and Russian. Russian is pretty hard to learn.

Reply #10. Jul 06 03, 6:32 AM
sue943
I only really speak English, I learnt Latin and French in school but didn't use them and although I can make myself understood (sort of) in France I couldn't hold a conversation.

As for the regional accents of the UK, I am fairly good at understanding them as people from all over the country have, like me, moved to this small Island so I hear many different accents each day. I don't have a regional accent, I am one of four children and two have Hampshire accents and two of us don't.

Reply #11. Jul 07 03, 5:18 PM
SOTHC
I have been learning the language of love but have been told that I do not know how to start a sentence properly and they are too short.

Reply #12. Jul 09 03, 3:44 AM
joezhou300
I speak both Chinese and English and English. My Chinese is a little rusty but I can deal with it, I can't read the characters but I can speak it, it is really hard to learn Chinese.

Reply #13. Jul 09 03, 4:27 PM
Smellykat
I speak English and Hindi. Hindi is a second language for me but I am still pretty fluent.

Reply #14. Jul 11 03, 7:40 PM
wajo
English (of the Australian variety) and Japanese - but not as well as I should. I learned French for a couple of years at university - but I find learning languages very difficult. When I finally got to Paris, after living in Japan for a few years, my French was nearly all gone and a lot of the sentences came out with Japanese words mixed in!
Some people seem to learn languages easily just by hearing it spoken - but I find I need to hear it , see it written - and understand the grammar!

Reply #15. Jul 13 03, 9:20 AM
MaggieG 5
I speak English, French, Spanish and German and studied Latin to A level (very useful). I know some Welsh and Italian, and would like to be a lot better at both. I love the way languages are interrelated and how they have evolved.

Reply #16. Jul 13 03, 1:23 PM
manvinder01
Hi!
I also live in India, so like most Indians(especially North Indians) I speak Hindi, English and Punjabi( my mother tongue). I can also speak urdu, though I cant write it.

Reply #17. Jul 17 03, 1:10 AM
motzu
I speak the language of love -åß??©ƒ®†¥

Reply #18. Jul 18 03, 2:10 AM
htenik
i speak japanese and english fluently.

Reply #19. Jul 19 03, 5:59 PM
Kaykoblue2
i speak normal chinesse and english,
but i want to learn french and japanese.
i guess the reason i want to learn
japanese is b-cus i want to b-come a
cartoonist.

Reply #20. Jul 20 03, 7:26 PM


278 replies. On page 1 of 14 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
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