Foreign Languages

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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The Chicago Public Library System had a good selection of tapes, books, and videos last time I checked, but maybe things are different now. Just in case you didn't know, the Foreign Service Institute programs are technically in the public domain in the US since they were created for the government using tax dollars. A group of people have taken it upon themselves to make these available online. They have some material and they keep adding more. Unfortunately it isn't the best quality and languages with unique sounds like Hungarian and Armenian for example would be near impossible to learn "correctly" from the files they have produced. Spanish, Italian, and German should all be pretty easy. Check it out: http://fsi-language-courses.com/

Hope it helps.
 
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Hi!

That's fantastic to see how many people here are multi-lingual.
It is amazing that so many of you seem to know or learn German, it is a quite difficult language, really.

Well, German is my mother tongue. I'm pretty good at English, I suppose.
Living in the country where a language is spoken really helps a lot.

I learned Latin and know some words in Spanish and Italian and I just started to learn Dutch and Danish, since I like the people there a lot, but it's no serious tuition - I wouldn't have the time for that.

I'm a big fan of Scotland, but I never managed to learn Gaelic, although I like the sound of the language very much.

Kent
 
Native Russian, but I dont speak it as well as english (I lived and went to high school and college in US). I've been here in germany for almost 6 years, and can speak german pretty well. Sometimes I also get a feeling that I am becoming "speechless" ;) I only speak russian about 20 min a week with my parents, my german is far from perfect, and my english is definitely not getting better in germany.
 
Recent joke as told by my American boss...;)

What do you call someone who speaks three or more languages?...Multi-lingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?...Bi-lingual

What do you call someone who only speaks one language?...


American
 
Lancastrian (moat dialects including Bolton and Balckburn), Mancunian and Yorkshire. I can understand Glaswegian, some Highlands, Brummie, Scouse and cockney but I can't speak it.

If you come to the UK from any other English speaking country, you'll know what I mean ;)
 
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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I was 2nd generation Canadian on my dad's side... which is Bohemian-Czech... and my dad's parents spoke minimal English... so whenever I was with them, I spoke Czech, as well as some Russian, Polish, Ukranian, etc.

I have a thing for languages... I pick up root words easily... and if I am plunked down for longer than a month in any one spot, I usually end up mimicking the accent and cultivating a gift for conversation in that particular language.

I also - apparently - have a slight Eastern European accent when I speak certain words. And living - almost - my entire life in Canada... I pronounce certain words with a marked accent... evident in words like "eh" and "oot and aboot". My Nana was Scottish, and maintained her accent which she passed on thoughtfull in her many expressions.

I sometimes end up sounding like a drunken scottish granny with an eastern european coo... finishing many sentences with the word "eh".


:D
 
I am from USA, and a native English speaker. I had 4 years of French in high school and 2 years in college. I read French pretty well, but am pretty lousy at speaking it (lack of use/practice). I also know a smattering of Spanish that I learned through a couple of courses at a local community college- enough to order food and beer, get a hotel room, or ask directions. I love to travel, and it helps greatly to be able to speak a little bit of something other than English.

Lastly, I know a few choice Polish profanities.
 
My native language is Spanish, and I'm fluent in English and French. I can also easily understand Portuguese and Italian.


It's not a surprise for me to find so many multi-lingual people here. As I could GUESS, besides lots of Europeans, which I agree are more proned to be multi; this forum is visited by many Artists, Professional Photographers and International Photojournalists. Am I right?

It's true that the "average Joe" in the US only (barely) speaks English... as the "average Juan Pérez" in México only chews something you can tell is Spanish... :D

Regards.
 
Native English speaker. Was awkwardly conversant in German a few years ago, although that's slipped a bit. Tried a couple of times to learn Latin, although my brain apparently isn't wired for it.
 
English is my mother tongue, but then learnt French at school (which I enjoyed - only by learning French did I really understand English).

Lived in Italy and learnt Italian, with the prior knowledge of French helping enormously. While there, also picked up some of the local dialect.

Then several years in Holland got me some basic Dutch.

The Italian helps to decipher Spanish and Portuguese.
 
luxemburgish (native), german, french, english.

At the office I have to speak a lot of french, because nearby half of the people come from France or Belgium.

While reading english all the day, I really feel a lot of difficulties speaking and writing. I just have not enough training doing this.

Jacques
 
I'm still having enough trouble with English. When my grandmother was alive, I did manage to converse a bit in French, but I was horrible at it. I did take some Latin in school, so I can maybe pick up some words in Italian.

I'm too old now to try anything new though.
 
I'm too old now to try anything new though.
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Rubbish! :)

My grandpa was 65 when he started out learning English. He wanted to be able to talk with his grandchildren, who were born in the US.

You're 51. You still have 25 or more years to go. You can learn another language "easily" in that time.
 
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