Do you speak any other languages?

Un Croissant

Do my fellow AHers speak any other languages apart from English?

I don't mean it in the sense that you say you can speak Irish on the census because you can understand Slán after the Lotto numbers.

I mean actually being able to speak the language. I'd love to learn another but because English is so prevalent and we live in a fairly one dimensional society with regards to the forners, it's hard to get a balance of interest and use.

So do you speak anything? Elvish and TxtSpeek count.

smcgiff

Does Klingon count?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I don't speak any other languages fluently but I hope a few more months here will see me with a decent level of Spanish. I previously lived in Korea but failed to pick up the language, due to a combination of difficulty and living in a bubble of foreigners and English-speaking Koreans.

Un Croissant

smcgiff wrote: »

Does Klingon count?

What is this, amateur hour? Of course it counts.

smcgiff

Un Croissant wrote: »

Of course it counts.

Then no :pac:

Drakares

I speak German well and am interested in learning other languages at some point in my life.

MRnotlob606

I am progressively getting better at Irish, after being useless at it in school. It feels better learning when it's not forced upon you.Language learning should be natural not constraining.

cloud493

German I started learning when I was doing my GSCE's, cos french was such a crock of ****, and I carried on it with up till now, I'm reasonably fluent.

corner of hells

My ma's from inner city Dublin , so I speak a bit of 'wha's story Bud ? '

whitewave

Used to be close to fluent in French and was fluent in sign language...still have a reasonable level but been meaning to take them both back up again. Would love to learn Spanish some time aswell.

The Peanut

Remember Esperanto?

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/esperanto.htm

I went out with a girl in college in the late 80's who tried to convince me that it would be an international language of business by the turn of the century so I did tried to learn it for about a fortnight. I realised fairly quickly that my ability to learn it, much like my chances of getting her into bed, were nil so my relationship with both ended; although only one of them continued to haunt me for the next 2 years.:o

Esperanto is still on the go, doesn't seem to get much media attention though.

Calina

French and German. lived in language environments for both. Smattering of Spanish and Finnish. Apparently my Italian sounds good but tbh, it's limited to "where is the nearest bank".

Picking up the Finnish again. Glutton/punishment etc.

Minjor

Irish is the only other language I'd be fluent in.

I speak French good.

Je suis un rock star. J'avez un residence. Je habitez-la, a la south de france. Voulez vous partir with me and come and restez la with me in France?

I think I listen to too much of my parents music.

I speak another language, but it's not French.

PizzamanIRL

Si, parlo un po d'Italiano

For all you who don't know what that means, it means: Yes, I speak a bit of German.

Crumpets

I'm fairly decent at German. I want to get back into the Gaeilge aswell at some point.

conorh91

I studied French as part of my degree and I still can't speak French good.

Tá roinnt-mhaith Gaeilge agam, níl me líofa áfach.

spiralism

En beetje Nederlands, ja

crazygeryy

Swahilli after about 12 pints.

iusedtoknow

yo hablo el espanish muy bueno

am actually fluent in it, see as it's the language the misses gives out to me in.

bazza1

After copious beers....I often speak total b****X!

And some German from college!

Niall_daaS

Think Irish people are lucky to have English as their 1st tongue. The importance of English will not drop as long as the US stay on the throne of the worlds economy (going along with some other mayor countries like the UK having English as well). It's too deeply established to that becoming changed. So here in Germany it's English all the way though many people learn French for it's a big neighbor (and when you go there nobody is going to speak German with you). What else? Many say it's important that Chinese will become a bigger matter for its population is the biggest and countrys importance as a trading partner will continue to grow. But I don't see that really to happen soon.

Aidric

German and passable Czech.

Peregrine

Yes, I speak English and another language on a daily basis.

I used to be able to understand and speak a bit of 2 other languages but it's been almost 10 years so that's all gone And Leaving Cert level French is still sort of fresh in my mind.

Mars Bar

Nope. I'd love to learn Spanish though.

I'm extremely jealous of Kate Abdo. As well as being pretty, she has a degree in European languages and is fluent in Spanish, German and French with English being her native language. I imagine she has lesser knowledge of other languages too.

spurious

Irish and German reasonably well. Everyday basic French and Russian. Polish I understand a lot more than I can respond to. I think they call it the 'threshold stage'.

Links234

I'm still plugging away learning Japanese, the grammar is just absolutely kicking my ass, so it's slow going but I can manage a bit of chat with some friends so I'm pretty happy about that. Also studying all the written language too, which is very intense.

Greentopia

Swedish, pretty well though may have lost fluency by now as it's many years since I lived there.

Learning Italian! or trying to.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Calina wrote: »

Picking up the Finnish again. Glutton/punishment etc.

Onnea.

Calina

Emilee Mushy Firefight wrote: »

Onnea.

Kiitos

ShadowHearth

Well, I speak Lithuanian, Russian and English.

I live in Ireland 10 years and I have less and less people to talk to in Lithuanian or Russian. At this point English is my main language. The longer I live here, the harder it gets for me to talk in Russian or Lithuanian, I start putting in English words lol, but I still understand 100% though!

Aongus Von Bismarck

I speak fluent German and it's the language I converse in with my colleagues.
I was good at Irish in school, but it has gone rather rusty at this stage.
Good level of basic conversational Spanish. 8 months in South America was the perfect way to learn.

RobertKK

I can speak a little French - not fluent, currently learning Spanish.

Shenshen

I can only speak German, English and French.

They insisted on teaching me Latin in school, utter waste of time. I couldn't even order a pizza in Latin these days.

wretcheddomain

Body language

Un Croissant

Shenshen wrote: »

I can only speak German, English and French.

They insisted on teaching me Latin in school, utter waste of time. I couldn't even order a pizza in Latin these days.

You never know. You could be served by someone with a degree in Latin and ancient greek. Arts, amiright?


(I'm an arts student)

Shenshen

Un Croissant wrote: »

You never know. You could be served by someone with a degree in Latin and ancient greek. Arts, amiright?


(I'm an arts student)

Nope, Bavarian school system. No Abitur without Latin!

spurious

Shenshen wrote: »

I can only speak German, English and French.

They insisted on teaching me Latin in school, utter waste of time. I couldn't even order a pizza in Latin these days.

But Latin gives you a head start in the grammar of many languages.

Frigating

Learning French for the LC, like to think I'm quite good at it. Want to be fluent in it one day. I'm also going to learn Esperanto over the summer, just for the craic. Heard it's supposed to be fairly easy.

Shenshen

spurious wrote: »

But Latin gives you a head start in the grammar of many languages.

So, I spend 5 years learning Latin in order to shave a few minutes off learning Spanish grammar?

I'd rather have spent those 5 years learning Spanish. Or a non-European language.

iusedtoknow

Shenshen wrote: »

So, I spend 5 years learning Latin in order to shave a few minutes off learning Spanish grammar?

I'd rather have spent those 5 years learning Spanish. Or a non-European language.

Basic spanish grammar is easy, it's when you get into the various past tenses that it gets difficult.

Adamantium

Sir Osis of Liver.

I can speak Cant.






As in "That geezers a fackin cant".

Villagio

Benny Lewis over at "Fluent in 3 months" can speak about 9.

Canard

French, Spanish and German. Still learning them of course but I'd be completely comfortable with the first two, and reasonably so with German. I have a Russian friend who I help with English but I find the Russian alphabet so hard. I'd like to try it a bit more though, as well as Italian/Romanian/Dutch. My Irish used to be great but now it's pretty bad.

Soft inda Head

Swedish. I understand Norwegian by association. When I started learning Swedish I had a habit of inserting Irish words into sentences in error. Which is a little strange as I was hopeless at Irish. :-)

Meangadh

Fluent in Irish, used to have fairly good French although it's gone pretty rusty now- I have a pretty good ear for languages though so I might pick it back up again or even try a new one. Spanish would be great to have but I love the sound of Italian.

Yurt2

Villagio wrote: »

Benny Lewis over at "Fluent in 3 months" can speak about 9.

As well as having the most punchable face this side of the Danube, he's also a fraud. Anyone who claims they can learn a language to fluency in 3 months is best ignored as a complete huckster. It's not possible, get up the yard. What he does do is learn a predictable set of responses to predictable questions about his language learning and travels in each of his target languages, and often he's not even very good at that. This is not fluency.

Herb Powell

Fluent in Irish and German (i.e have had to explain to people on several occassions that I'm not from Erlangen, sondern IRRRRRLANDDDD) , less so in French, through lack of practice, and I have 'emergency' Spanish. I can swear like mad in Polish, but that's about it.

HalloweenJack

Went to all-Irish but finished almost eight years ago now and it's got rusty, which is a shame. Don't spend anywhere near enough time back home to get enough practice of it.

I'm very confident in my Spanish ability. Have lived here for a few years and spend most of my time speaking it. I'd agree it's a fairly easy language to get a decent head start in.

I can hold a conversation in Portuguese but that's rustier than I'd like. Also have a very basic smattering of German and Czech but would not want to have to rely on them.

nervous_twitch

English and French. I studied Spanish in university, and Irish for a few years, but have sort of decided that I'd rather speak two languages perfectly then several languages half-assedly.