Other Languages..?

[Kirkatronics]

This vintage image pretty much explains it.

 

Tis a bit long so I'll just link it. I'm that considerate.

 

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/eevilmurray/otakulol.jpg

I don't get it =/

[MoogleViper]

[triforcemario]

I speak english and spanish (the latter is nearly fluent)... I know a tiny bit of French, but practically nothing

[Tellyn]

Let alone Engrish!

 

I did set myself up for that one.

[Pookiablo]

Well obviously I'm English so I speak that, but am also doing a degree in French and German, so I'm not too shabby at those. Not fluent yet, that will take years yet but when I lived in Germany and France I was able to communicate with people pretty well if I do say so myself! And I can understand most folk too!

 

Learn languages people, everything thinks knowing English is enough and yes it probably is but if you know another language, your employment prospects increase by so much!

[Tales]

I had three years with German in secondory school and three with French in high school and all I know is danke schon and merci. Obviously I can understand Swedish and Danish perfectly, but speaking them is another matter.

[Mike]

I've got a degree in French and German, although my German's actually pretty terrible, as I fogot most of it during my year in France. :p My French probably isn't as good as it was when I graduated a few years ago, though I'm currently reading Harry Potter 7 in French, and understanding almost all of it. I struggle more with understanding films/TV though.

 

Now I'm a primary school teacher I'm in charge of languages at my school, and most of the kids in my class have loved French lessons. I'm now trying to get the other teachers to do at least one lesson a week.

[Letty]

I speak English, some French, tiny bit of Swedish, even less Norweigan - and of course, the indecipherable Shetland dialect!! :D

[Foxfear]

I speak lots of languages:

 

Serbian (mother language)

Dutch (live in Belgium)

 

Learnt in school (or tv :p) English, French, Latin and German

[navarre]

I think for mainland Europeans learning one anther's language must be easier, seeing as they have this whole masculine/feminine thing going on.

[Coolness Bears]

I cannot speak any other languages really. I had a go at French and Spanish at GCSE but I was not that good a French and although I love Spanish I it got a bit to hard for me.

 

I would love to Learn Spanish and Japanese.

[stev2604]

Mon Francais est assez bon. :wink:

 

I can speak a bit of Irish as well, but not as much as I can French.

Is teanga maith é an Gaeilge! (I think I said that right).

 

I'd really like to learn German and Italian, maybe Spanish as well. Even to the level of my French. I doubt I ever will though.

[Foxfear]

I think for mainland Europeans learning one anther's language must be easier, seeing as they have this whole masculine/feminine thing going on.

 

Masculine/feminin thing?? What you talking about navarre??

[stev2604]

Masculine/feminin thing?? What you talking about navarre??

 

He's talking about masculine/feminine words, which we don't have in English.

[Mike]

I think for mainland Europeans learning one anther's language must be easier, seeing as they have this whole masculine/feminine thing going on.

 

Not if something is masculine in your language and feminine in one you're trying to learn! I would have thought that that would make it even harder than an English person trying to learn it!

[Foxfear]

He's talking about masculine/feminine words, which we don't have in English.

 

Well I think you actually do... When you are referring to things (with him, here, it)... do you always say "it" e.g. for a car?? I'm quite good in English but I never quite understood that

[Raining_again]

Well I think you actually do... When you are referring to things (with him, here, it)... do you always say "it" e.g. for a car?? I'm quite good in English but I never quite understood that

 

99% of the time cars are "it"

 

 

Some people like to describe a car for example as feminine - "she's a beauty" Its like a pet name type thing, for people who really love their car. (mostly silly men though )

[DomJcg]

I speak Mandarin

 

Ne Jiao Shenme ma?

[Jonnas]

Well I think you actually do... When you are referring to things (with him, here, it)... do you always say "it" e.g. for a car?? I'm quite good in English but I never quite understood that

 

Yeah, in english the objects aren't masculine/feminine. "It" is used for objects and animals.

 

Not if something is masculine in your language and feminine in one you're trying to learn! I would have thought that that would make it even harder than an English person trying to learn it!

 

It is pretty hard to get used to in some cases.

 

e.g.: Milk. "Leite" (portuguese) is male, while "Leche" (spanish) is female

 

But it's just a matter of time, I suppose.

 

 

The worst part are the "false friends", though. They can get you in pretty embarassing situations, if you aren't aware.

[Hellfire]

Now that I think about I suppose I can catch one or two things in Itallian :P

Wanting to learn Japanese is a mix of a lot of things: loving Japanese culture, being a very different language and to us portuguese it's easier at least to understand how to spell, considering it's pretty the same sounds and a no brainer reading romaji.

[Chuck]

I know a little of Russian, a little bit more in Spanish, a little more in German and my most fluent second language is French.

 

j'aime le poulet

[Kirkatronics]

Has anyone who got their uni degree needed it?

I don't mean just using it, i mean living where NO ONE speaks english.

[The fish]

I was in Bolougne on Thursday, and I can speak more French than I thought. I speak enough German to get by as a tourist, and the same plus more in Italian.

 

I'm considering learning either Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, or Portuguese at Uni, or possibly a mixture, as it's free, and would be useful in my foreseen line of work.

 

Well I think you actually do... When you are referring to things (with him, here, it)... do you always say "it" e.g. for a car?? I'm quite good in English but I never quite understood that

 

With the exception of boats (which are often referred to as female), all objects that lack genitals are "it".

 

Of course, there are the times when people will name an inanimate object and refer to it by the name's gender, but that's purely to confuse the hell out of people from outside the anglophone world...

[MoogleViper]

The worst part are the "false friends", though. They can get you in pretty embarassing situations, if you aren't aware.

 

I remember my language teachers mentioning "false friends" but cannot remember what they are.

[Mike]

False friends are words in two languages that sound like they mean the same thing, but don't. Like the German word 'bekommen', which an English speaker may think means 'become' but actually means 'receive'. Or in French, 'sensible' means 'sensitive'.