Foreign Languages, Anyone?

Yo también. ... with regard to the Español < I have a second home in Southern Spain...so I can speak enough to get by ...

I can speak English fluently .. with a Scottish accent, a little tiny bit of Italian, because I worked and lived there for a short time ....and I can speak nonsense pretty fluently too.. but other than that no.. lol
 
I speak Hungarian fluently and enough Spanish to get by in California. I used to speak French but have forgotten a lot and I was never fluent in it.
 

Oh yes I know schoolgirl French... when I first moved to Spain, and I was just learning the language I kept getting French and Spanish mixed up in a sentence...or with numbers I'd start off counting... Uno, dos, tres...then I'd launch into quatre, Cinq, six, sept etc...LOL>..
 
When it comes to learning languages, I'm a total dud. But then I have an Austrian cousin who speaks and writes perfect English and never lived in an English speaking country. She prefers British English. So, we've got this thing going (in e-mail) where speaking of her mother she writes "Mum". And writing back I write "Mom". Is that wrong of me? Should I follow her preference?
 
Olivia said:
When it comes to learning languages, I'm a total dud. But then I have an Austrian cousin who speaks and writes perfect English and never lived in an English speaking country. She prefers British English. So, we've got this thing going (in e-mail) where speaking of her mother she writes "Mum". And writing back I write "Mom". Is that wrong of me? Should I follow her preference?
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We don't use /mum/ in American English. She could easily use /mom/ which would be more courteous since she isn't a native speaker of either British or American English.
 
Olivia said:
When it comes to learning languages, I'm a total dud. But then I have an Austrian cousin who speaks and writes perfect English and never lived in an English speaking country. She prefers British English. So, we've got this thing going (in e-mail) where speaking of her mother she writes "Mum". And writing back I write "Mom". Is that wrong of me? Should I follow her preference?
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Not at all. Nothing wrong with your choice. People from different countries/cultures are bound to write some things differently. As long as you can communicate effectively, I see no harm in it. Here, in Canada, both mum and mom are used relatively interchangeably. I do it, myself.
 
No Olivia...because she's speaking British English when she's saying MUM, and you're speaking American English by saying Mom, she'll absolutely know the difference and she'll learn by it.


I have a friend in Spain, he's Bulgarian, he has never set foot in an English speaking country, yet he speak English fluently, as well as his own native tongue..and Turkish, and Russian, and Italian ( he works for an Italian company in Spain) Romanian, and Spanish like a native. he was completely self taught back in his native Bulgaria.. incredible..


I also know a Young (early 20's) chap who was one of my staff until I retired this year... I thought he was American when I first interviewed him for the position, his accent is generic American and fluent ... although he does speak somewhat like Steven hawking ( almost robot like)...anyway I thought no more of it until a few months later when we got chatting about his background... and in fact he is Bulgarian , had only been living in England for 9 months with his parents..had never set foot in an English speaking country until he came here to London... I was stunned, I asked him how come he had an American accent, and he said.. '' I learned the English language from watching American TV shows''..he went on to say that he hadn't realised that British English and American English were different until he arrived in the UK, and everyone kept asking him where in the States he was from...
 
I read French; I write idiomatic French as well. I can speak it correctly, but I'm poor at aural comprehension. That's no problem since I don't encounter French speakers. I've spent perhaps a month total in French-speaking areas.

I can read German gun magazines and philological material. German is an easy language for those of us who have studied inflected languages. I read and write Latin which has helped me to decipher Italian and Spanish. Spoken Latin is really an affectation these days although a small college here in Wyoming emphasizes it. There was a Latin broadcast from Finland, but the radio station recently dropped it.

Greek isn't all that hard grammatically, but the vocabulary is huge, It's larger than English apart from technical terms. There's a verb that translated into English means to turn into a fish.
 
When I was a child I was taken to India for
4 years, so I spoke Hindustani and Urdu.

Later in life I was in Germany with the Royal
Air Force and learned a bit of German.

Still later I went to work in Holland and taught
myself Dutch, because of this I could speak to
South Africans in their own language because
Afrikaans is old dutch.

Later I drove trucks all around Europe and learned
a bit of French and Italian in order to get food, drink
and fuel.

I started attending classes a couple of years ago
to learn Spanish, but the class was closed because
there were not enough students.

Unfortunately because of lack of use, my languages
have faded, though I can still use them with a struggle,
but I am nearly fluent in Spanish, a language that I don't
really need, but it was interesting meeting new people
and learning another tongue.

Mike.
 
I took Spanish is high school and French in college....but if you don't use it you lose it! (mais si vous ne l'utilisez pas, vous le perdez!)
 
Olivia said:
When it comes to learning languages, I'm a total dud. But then I have an Austrian cousin who speaks and writes perfect English and never lived in an English speaking country. She prefers British English. So, we've got this thing going (in e-mail) where speaking of her mother she writes "Mum". And writing back I write "Mom". Is that wrong of me? Should I follow her preference?
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Olivia, it depends who you are referring to, your mother will
always be "Mom", your cousin's mother should always be "Mum".
I think.

Mike.
 
Olivia, it depends who you are referring to, your mother will
always be "Mom", your cousin's mother should always be "Mum".
I think.
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Not to her Mum. Her Mum doesn't speak English, British or otherwise. :)

But that gives me an idea. From now on, her MUM shall be "your Mother".
 
I took French in high school, used it twice, both times in Quebec. In Martinique everyone that we encountered spoke excellent English.
I learned some Spanish by listening to tapes when I was on the road. I will not go hungry or naked and I can get my gas tank filled. I have visited 7 Spanish speaking countries.
When I worked in the US office of a British company, we tended to speak with a "mid-Atlantic" accent.

When necessary I can speak fluent Red-Neck.
 
Manatee said:
I took French in high school, used it twice, both times in Quebec. In Martinique everyone that we encountered spoke excellent English.
I learned some Spanish by listening to tapes when I was on the road. I will not go hungry or naked and I can get my gas tank filled. I have visited 7 Spanish speaking countries.
When I worked in the US office of a British company, we tended to speak with a "mid-Atlantic" accent.

When necessary I can speak fluent Red-Neck.
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I'm a bit like you, Manatee. In high school I studied French, Latin and German and was pretty good at translating backwards and forwards but conversations? Very hesitant. I attempted some German in Frankfurt once and they answered in English. I decided after that I would not make a fool of myself and stuck to my native tongue.

When necessary I can speak fluent Strine. It is seldom necessary.
 
I think I am a fool for not learning Spanish long ago. It kept me from getting an advancement on my job at one time. I know a few words of Spanish but not enough to get by. I find a big smile works pretty well when I'm in a public place with the non-English speaking. To answer the question, I only know English.
 
Iodine said:
I think I am a fool for not learning Spanish long ago. It kept me from getting an advancement on my job at one time. I know a few words of Spanish but not enough to get by. I find a big smile works pretty well when I'm in a public place with the non-English speaking. To answer the question, I only know English.
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Yes, that is true sometimes. The closest town to me was 98% Spanish speaking 5 or 6 years ago, not sure what it is now. Everyone is pleasant to me though and I get by OK when I stop there.
 

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