Anyone here speak a foreign language?

dendenz

If so do you reckon you will look for emp,loyment with that language, have u found languages easy ?

simu

Fluent French, some German, a little Italian, a tiny bit of Japanese.

If so do you reckon you will look for emp,loyment with that language

For any good jobs, you need other skills apart from just knowing another language. Would be handy if I ever wanted to work in France, though.

have u found languages easy ?

French was easy - I did an Erasmus year in France so I picked it up easily enough.

German is a little bit trickier.

Italian is ok as it's pretty similar to French.

Japanese is totally different but really cool!

dendenz

I am fluent in French as I lved in France for a while but wouldnt mind having a go with Arabic or Russian or something out of the ordinary!

simu

Go for it! That's what's cool about Japanese - it's so different to European languages that learning it really challenges your perception of what is and is not possible in a language.

bla

yes i speak a foreign language - english

simu

Originally posted by bla
yes i speak a foreign language - english

Níl sé sin cruinn!

English is also recognised as an official language of Ireland by the Constitution!

Victor

I can get by in French and survive in German. You would be amazed who long you can live with very little of the native language. That said if it's an employment requirement you'll be shot down day one. I don't plan on working lontime abroad.

ChumpStain

Me English good speak.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by simu
Níl sé sin cruinn!

English is also recognised as an official language of Ireland by the Constitution!

Actually for most of us in the EU English is a foreign language - just like American

Civilian_Target

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Actually for most of us in the EU English is a foreign language - just like American

Which means they don't understand GW Bush either!

And BTW, I speak decent french.

Agent Smith

i have enough french to get by.....



(i think)

Exit

Yeah, enough French to get by.

sionnach

fairly ok with french, i intend on learning spanish over the summer.

Lukin Black

Fluent French & Spanish, basic Italian and Portuguese, very basic German and Finnish.

Dunno if I'll be getting a job with them. I hate speaking languages over the phone and the only jobs I see with them are teaching or telephone support or sales, and I detest the little brats that seem to make up half of the 'students' at secondary school level.

luckat

dendenz, foreign languages will get you a start in eurowork and foreign affairs, but there are a couple of things to consider.

First, you're going to be working away from Ireland, which is fine for a few years, but you may not want to live abroad forever; some study I read somewhere also said that people do better in their own country - on the basis of whole career lives - than in any foreign country because they have better contacts.

Second, what language/s you speak is important. French, German, Spanish and Italian are a bit of a drug on the market - though French is necessary for eurowork, Spanish if you want to work in South America.

At the moment eastern European languages are in demand, because of the need for translation in the new states acceding to the EU.

But as simu says, you need other skills. Fluency in many languages is not going to get you interesting or well-paid work - it's just a good start. Translation and interpretation are relatively low-level jobs; they won't get you the ambassador's gig by themselves.

If you want to get good at learning languages, get the Michel Thomas tapes. Thomas was born in Poland, I think; he was picked up while fighting with the Belgian Resistance against the Nazis and put into the concentration camp in Dachau. There he realised that inability to understand each other was a major cause of conflict between people, and he spent his time developing a method for learning any language very fast.

You can buy CD sets and tapes in a few languages; if you use one of them, it gives you the basic skill to learn any language. I wish he'd done one for Irish. (Ah now, lads, don't start.)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books-uk&field-keywords=michel%20thomas&bq=1/ref=sr_aps_all/202-5914312-9078258

SuperStudent

I speak Arabic, Russian, Chinese & Australian.

BKtje

Dutch and German.

The Germans a bit iffy when it comes to writing but i understand 90% (dutch is quite similar )

echomadman

I can get by in German quite well, after a few days in the country I can pass for a native in terms of accent and syntax, (until my vocabulary runs out)
also thinking of learning arabic, and maybe a bit of spanish I might give those cds luckat reccomended a go

MrBigglesworth

I've been living in Germany for the last few months, not actively learning the language yet but fully intend to very soon with maybe linguaphone or something. Know some French.

Gordon

Currently being force fed Greek. Moved over to Greece recently and am not fluent so my bosses are forcing me to speak Greek with everyone in the office.

I learned French for 7 years in school and couldn't string a sentence together, came to Greece and after a year of living here my Greek was miles better than French.

Victor

Originally posted by luckat
Spanish if you want to work in South America. [/url]

American Spanish and European Spaniish are aparently quite, but not totally, different.

netman

I speak fluent English and Croatian, and speak French, Dutch and German (as in I've studied those languages).

Overall I found the languages quite easy. I mean most european languages share the same roots, and you find a lot of similarities between them which makes it quite easy to get started. I suppose if you wanted to know a language as well as a native it would be quite challenging, but if you're looking just to get by it doesn't require much effort.

And if you don't use a language, you'll find that you're forgetting all that you've learnt years before. I've studied French for 5 years, and have barely used it since. I was trying to get back into it, and as you're going through the books you find that things are familiar, but there's not much difference between starting from scratch and picking up from where you were 15 years ago.

lili

hem hem...
i can speak only my own language fluently.
but i can get english, german, spanish and portugues.
also italian is easy enough to read.

Hobbes

Learning Korean at the moment. Know some, can read it better then I can speak it.

Pinkchick03

I'd love to learn japanese! How'd you do it?

Fluent French, some German, a little Italian, a tiny bit of Japanese.

OH my god! I was in greece last summer 2002 and oh my god what a hard language

learned French for 7 years in school and couldn't string a sentence together, came to Greece and after a year of living here my Greek was miles better than French.

Fair play! Does YAMOS mean Cheers?

I know a bit of french that would keep me going! I'd love to learn Japanese!

blondie83

I can speak French quite fluently, and I have basic Spanish, German and Japenese. Have to agree with Simu here, Japenese is a really interesting language to learn. It's very different, what witj the 3 alphabets, and little picture thngs, but thats what makes it fun!:D

blondie83

I'd love to learn japanese! How'd you do it?

I'm doing it in college(UCD). We're offered the chance to do a language for the year, but it has nothing to do with our course, so we don't fail the year if we fail it. It's just two hours a week, but it's really enjoyable, because it's a bit of a contrast to the stuff we do on our course (all kinda technical!). The teachers put in a lot of effort too.

Pinkchick03

3 Alphabets no way

It's very different, what witj the 3 alphabets, and little picture thngs, but thats what makes it fun!

ahh!

simu

Originally posted by blondie83
I'm doing it in college(UCD). We're offered the chance to do a language for the year, but it has nothing to do with our course, so we don't fail the year if we fail it. It's just two hours a week, but it's really enjoyable, because it's a bit of a contrast to the stuff we do on our course (all kinda technical!). The teachers put in a lot of effort too.

I did the same for a year when i did an Erasmus year in France.
unfortunately, it's hard to find classes outside Dublin here. I use books now - the books I have are in French but, in my experience of learning other languages, the Assimil books are quite good (used them for German and Italian).

I didn't bother getting tapes for the Japanese books (I was broke at the time!) but they'd probably help you learn faster. That said, Japanses pronunciation isn't very hard at all.

SuperStudent

Recepci¨®n a los estudiantes verdaderos del mundo!

§³§Ö§Ý§î§ã§Ü§Ú§Ö §Ý§ð§Õ§Ú §Ú§Þ§Ö§ð§ä §à§Ò§â§Ñ§Ù§í §ã§Ó§Ú§ß§î§Ú

Ik denk niet iedereen hier de intelligentie heeft om een andere taal te leren

SuperStudent

DEUTSCHER IST Eine EKELHAFTE SPRACHE

SuperStudent

Ma l'italiano è piacevole la mia intelligenza è superious a tutto altrimenti

DUX

English, Italian and Spanish (fluent)

German (basic)

Russian (starting a course next week)...gotta be ready for May, when the doors to Ireland will be opened to all those lovely eastern european ladies :-)

fozzle

I can get by in French and I used to know a smattering of Russian, although I think I'd probably have to start from scratch again with that.

I'm hoping to learn Spanish over the next few years, and anything else I come across, as my job will hopefully take me all over the world.