Foreign Languages

CraigK said:
Raised in western Canada, I speak English. My mother is Icelandic. I know a few polite phrases in that language. My father is Ukrainian. I know only the choicest swear words in his mother tongue.

As a young adult I moved to Quebec in the 80's in order to:
1. Learn French
2. Chase girls

Mission accomplished on both counts. I met my wife in Trois Rivieres and 21 years later we still only speak French at home.

Years ago, we moved to Italy for a short while . I was able to learn enough Italian to get myself in and out of trouble.

I'm now working on a bit of German.
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I agree about the opposite sex part -- if you are living abroad and single it motivates you to learn (even languages) -- helped me get good at Spanish in Chile
 
Latin is a favorite of mine. I had four years of Latin and really considered it a mis-spent youth until I became involved with a Colombian girl. The Latin helped me learn Spanish, so much so that when I would struggle for a word in Spanish I would fall back on the Latin word. Many times the words were very similar especially when dealing with legal terms (girl was a lawyer).

I have heard that when you learn another language it actually changes the way you think and reason. I totally believe that. I had very different outlook on things before learning Spanish and now it is something that is a part of how I think. America today with it's english only policies does not know what it is missing out on. While yes a common language needs to be identified for business and communications. I really would not care if I had to start learning Afrikans because it is just more spice for life. IMHO.

DougK said:
I'm a native English speaker and I used to be reasonably proficient in German (three years of it in high school and another semester in college). I can't speak it very well now, but I still occasionally dream in German. I really should bone up on it but for some reason I'm really fascinated with French right now and just bought an instant immersion French course for my Mac. I also managed to pick up a smattering of Latin and Greek during college, not enough to speak the languages but enough to get me by during my ancient history classes.

I think the best language class I ever took was when I was in ninth grade. My school had a really cool one-year program called "Foreign Language Experience". We took four weeks of Spanish, four weeks of French, four weeks of German, and three weeks of Italian, along with a week or so of Portuguese, a week of Swedish, and a week of Japanese. The focus was on mastering basic communication skills that a traveler would need in that country, but for that short period of time we were immersed in whatever language we were studying at the time. I didn't realize how much of it really sunk in until I went to Mexico a few years ago and was still able to get by. Most useful class I ever took.

We just don't put enough of a premium on learning other languages here in the US, which I find sad; it really opens up your world view. My fiancee and I have decided that whatever else our future children do, we want to make sure they're fluent in at least one language besides English.
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My native language is Greek, a language that is relatively rare outside the geographical confines of Greece and dusty departments of classics. Like everyone else back home I was forcefed English and French from an early age. I loved learning English and hated French so I ended up fairly competent with the former and completely useless with the latter. Ages ago I did a pretty intensive course in Spanish - at the time I was conversant but as I have left the language unused for what must be some ten years now, I am rapidly approaching the levels of comprehension I have in French (i.e. none whatsoever). Foreign languages must be practiced, they aren't a spectators sport. Last, I always take pride in my ability to survive when in Italy despite the fact that I don't speak Italian. I speak a version of what I call 'Mediterranean body language' - works always in the Mediterranean neighbourhood.
 
stumar said:
As i put down my "Basic German" text book for the evening i was just wondering how many RFF'ers are Bi/multi Lingual or are there many of you leraning a new language too?

I am , Very slowly, trying to learn some German, for no real imediate purpose other than for my own self fulfilment as it were. Anyone have some good language learning tips they could share?

Stuart.
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Try to use it everyday...

Better still, live/study/work in place where they use those languages.

Guess I am lucky enough to do that with both English (NZ) and Mandarin (China; using Simply Chinese characters). Beening a HK chinese, my mother language is Cantonese, and we use Tradiational Chinese characters.

Now I am learn girlfriend's south Hunan dialect...
 
DougK said:
I'm really fascinated with French right now and just bought an instant immersion French course for my Mac.
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Your Mac does not need a French course. It already speaks French!

I think the best language class I ever took was when I was in ninth grade. My school had a really cool one-year program called "Foreign Language Experience". We took four weeks of Spanish, four weeks of French, four weeks of German, and three weeks of Italian, along with a week or so of Portuguese, a week of Swedish, and a week of Japanese. The focus was on mastering basic communication skills that a traveler would need in that country, but for that short period of time we were immersed in whatever language we were studying at the time. I didn't realize how much of it really sunk in until I went to Mexico a few years ago and was still able to get by. Most useful class I ever took.
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That's a brilliant idea.

colin
 
Here's a tip or two for native English speakers, who would like to get their English up to the level of that spoken by foreigners... :)

1. use a spelling checker
2. try to remember the differences between their, there and even, god forbid, they're!
3. same with its and it's.
4. and even to, too and two


They're you go! Its not to difficult.

Oh and most importantly:

5. read what you've written, before posting it. Please.

colin
 
colinh said:
Here's a tip or two for native English speakers, who would like to get their English up to the level of that spoken by foreigners... :)

1. use a spelling checker
2. try to remember the differences between their, there and even, god forbid, they're!
3. same with its and it's.
4. and even to, too and two


They're you go! Its not to difficult.

Oh and most importantly:

5. read what you've written, before posting it. Please.

colin
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Prof. Higgins, I pressume? ;)
 
rogue_designer said:
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
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I know a minute amount of Latin, but that I can understand. Hilarious. I can read it, yet I don't think I can write it!

On a "similar" note, there's this little written phrase used here and there, in Spanish: "tonto el que lea esto". ;)
 
I learned some Latin while I was a middle school student in Germany. Knowing German and English allowed me to get by in Norway after figuring out how to pronounce their words. Then, by reading a word quickly, I would try to relate the sound to a word from English or German, and quite often I got the right meaning.

Raid
 
raid said:
I learned some Latin while I was a middle school student in Germany. Knowing German and English allowed me to get by in Norway after figuring out how to pronounce their words. Then, by reading a word quickly, I would try to relate the sound to a word from English or German, and quite often I got the right meaning.
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Once upon a time I spent two weeks in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. I did that same trick when reading Swedish car magazines. It takes effort and time but it's doable.

Danish sounds odd to my ears, a giant mix of Dutch, English, German en Frisian, and often I'd be able to understand what's being said (in general terms) if people speak it slowly and when I know the topic or context. Luxembourgian is a similar mix, and even odder to my ears. But that language I can't understand. I might be able to read Danish; I wouldn't know about Luxembourgian. :)
 
stumar said:
As i put down my "Basic German" text book for the evening i was just wondering how many RFF'ers are Bi/multi Lingual or are there many of you leraning a new language too?

I am , Very slowly, trying to learn some German, for no real imediate purpose other than for my own self fulfilment as it were. Anyone have some good language learning tips they could share?

Stuart.
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Ahha... we are talking about language tips! :D
A good Russian joke about language tips:
- Optimistic people here in Russia learn English
- Pessimists in Russia learn Chinese
And realists... well, realists learn AK-47 :p
 
Russian(native)
Hebrew(spent twice as much time here as in Russia so I call it native as well)
english(aquired,fluent)
 
QUAsit said:
Ahha... we are talking about language tips! :D
A good Russian joke about language tips:
- Optimistic people here in Russia learn English
- Pessimists in Russia learn Chinese
And realists... well, realists learn AK-47 :p
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What's so pessimistic about it?

10 years ago, russian merchants came to china to see stuffs, now they come to buy. ;)

Many of them even reached as south as Shenzhen, which is the city just across Hong Kong border. One camera shop owner told me that's how he use to get Lomos and older russian camera items in the old days.

Photographic goods are still being traded in the northern chinese border, no idea which merchants goes to which country. Arax's Kiev 88 can be ordered in Benjing.
 
Pimsleur from the Library!!!!

Pimsleur from the Library!!!!

So, I have been fretting spending my camera money to buy a Pimsleur Italian program until talking with a friend this weekend. "Go to the library" he said.

What a genius!!!!

Here in CT and I supposes elsewhere, the Pimsleur language programs are freely downloadable from our libraries. Now, I have a library card and visit with my son semi regularly, but I had no idea this service was available. So, last night I skipped the children's room, entered that scary quiet adult section, and yup, the library director signed me up on their affiliate list and last night I downloaded the first part of Pimsleur Italian.

This is pretty cool.
 
I start forgetting german (native language), speak a little english (which doesn't help at all in Japan), forgot my french (since I came to Japan) and didn't really learn japanese ... (albeit three and a half year "surviving here) ... :bang: result: I'm getting speechless ....;)
 
Immersion works best--Live there if you can. I left (former)E. Germany as soon as I could. Now I speak almost accent-less English. In school, everyone had to take Russian. I did not find it as easy to learn or to hang on to once I left... German to English was quite an easy transition though.
 
rover said:
Here in CT and I supposes elsewhere, the Pimsleur language programs are freely downloadable from our libraries.

...

This is pretty cool.
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Very cool - no such luck here in Chicago - not as far as I can tell. I'm thinking of going with some of the Foreign Service Insititute programs, rather than the Pimsleur tho. Save *some* money for lenses.
 
rogue_designer said:
Very cool - no such luck here in Chicago - not as far as I can tell. I'm thinking of going with some of the Foreign Service Insititute programs, rather than the Pimsleur tho. Save *some* money for lenses.
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My local Library is affiliated with Net Library

http://www.netlibrary.com/

The director told me I didn't have to have a card to our library, but had to sign up on line as an affiliate of the library. Maybe you can find a way to get a user name and password.
 
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