Languages - Do you Triumph or Faiiiil?

[T-3]

I wouldn't say that you have rusty English, not in written form anyway!

 

That's because I don't want people to notice. I try to avoid all possible mistakes like a snake, who crawls through a burning bush.

[Shino]

I'm kinda envious of all the language options you guys have. I had no idea that latin was so widely taught around Europe.

Edited September 7, 2009 by Shino

[Mr_Odwin]

I'm kinda envious of all the language options you guys have. I had no idea that latin was so widely taught around Europe.

 

It varies widely from school to school. At my secondary school to do a Latin GCSE you had to give up a Tuesday lunchtime (no thanks).

 

OT I did french for three years and then dropped it. A year of the French overlapped with a GCSE in German. I got an A, but that means so little these days. I can recall the basics, which is alright since I finished my GCSEs in 1995. :p

[Raining_again]

The only language (apart from mother tongue) that I could study was French. And this was as recent as 2003

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I'm kinda envious of all the language options you guys have. I had no idea that latin was so widely taught around Europe.

Funnily enough, Latin and Ancient Greek aren't taught much in Denmark. I think only 14 gymnasiums in total offer them as subjects, and not all of them even have enough students interested to create teams. I was just lucky.

[navarre]

Interesting to see that so many people on here have experience with German

I'm from Germany, so it's obviously my mother language.

 

My 2nd best language is English, though it probably became a little rusty, ever since I left school. I also had fairly good grades in French and I can still understand some of it, but I more or less lost the ability to say something in it.

I had Latin too, and although it wasn't exactly my forte, I can still understand some basic stuff.

 

About a year and a half ago I tried to teach myself Japanese. I made it to a point, where I could read kana and build some basic sentences, but I had to take a break from it due to limited time. I guess I'm going to restart soon.

At some point in the future I'd also like to learn Spanish and Italian.

 

I did a year of French and a year of German, and was forced to choose. Seeing as English and German are both Germanic languages, unlike French, which, along with Portugese, Spanish, Italian and Romanian is a Romance language, I found it a great deal easier than French.

[Febee]

We only got offered latin because my school was a very traditional grammar school. and also full of crap haha

We learnt German from year 7, and then in year 8 we had to choose from Spanish, French or Latin to do a second language. and then we got to drop one language in year 9, but we still had to keep one.

[Jonnas]

Well it is my first day out of the country and I've already forgotten the one Portuguese word I learnt. Goodbye. B something......

 

...Adeus?

 

That's because I don't want people to notice. I try to avoid all possible mistakes like a snake, who crawls through a burning bush.

 

Usually, I find that the non-native english speakers are the most careful ones with their grammatical errors. Also, since common misspellings (like "should of") and slang usually come from native english speakers, this leads to the interesting ocurrance where non-native english speakers can be more eloquent than the native speakers.

Dannyboy and Eenuh are good examples of this. You seem to be one as well, from what little I've seen.

 

I'm kinda envious of all the language options you guys have. I had no idea that latin was so widely taught around Europe.

 

While I don't mind missing Latin (outside of curiosity and certain professions, there isn't much reason to learn it), I find it interesting that, here in Portugal, the only compulsory foreign latin language is French.

I wonder if it was decided that Spanish/Italian/etc. could be picked up more easily, while French was the trickier one...

[Ashley]

Does anyone know of any good sites (or podcasts/iPod apps) for 'holiday french'. I remember some basics from GCSEs but it would be nice to catch up a bit.

[Razz]

Does anyone know of any good sites (or podcasts/iPod apps) for 'holiday french'. I remember some basics from GCSEs but it would be nice to catch up a bit.

 

No idea about the podcasts, sorry, but how's the Italian going?

[Roostophe]

By the by, I've decided to learn Korean. Their writing system interests me a lot and I'd like to know more Korean than just "Annyong". :wink:

[chairdriver]

While I don't mind missing Latin (outside of curiosity and certain professions, there isn't much reason to learn it)

 

Latin was the most worthwhile thing I ever did at school. I learned more about English from Latin classes than I did from English lessons.

 

Learning to translate English into Latin is a great mental exercise, because you have to juggle so many things in your mind at once. Doing it makes you feel cleverer.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Latin was the most worthwhile thing I ever did at school. I learned more about English from Latin classes than I did from English lessons.

 

Learning to translate English into Latin is a great mental exercise, because you have to juggle so many things in your mind at once. Doing it makes you feel cleverer.

Indeed, trying to translate to and from Latin and Greek is most likely the most enjoyable part of it. And it does indeed make you feel cleverer.

 

I think many people don't understand how much you actually learn from the classics. Not only do you get a deeper understanding of the workings of the Roman languages and languages in general, but you also learn much about the cultural, scientific, philosophical, political, etc. roots of modern thinking.