are you bilingual...what other language do you speak fluently?

[Deelight]

I speak English and Serbian fluently and can read and write Cyrillic, apparently since the breakup of Yugoslavia I can technically classify myself a polygot because I can now speak Croatian and Bosnian LOL.

I can also murder French, and speak random single words in Dutch, Italian, German that picked up on my last trip .

 

[AdiS]

Date: 1/18/2009 8:23:28 PM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 1/18/2009 4:13:57 PM
Author: AdiS


Well, I can give you some Macedonian lessons if you want, since my first language is Bulgarian which is pretty close. Macedonians and Bulgarians can understand each other in a conversation perfectly well. And maybe a separate refresher course on the rude stuff

I'm also fluent in English and German and I'm planning on learning Italian soon. Ive always been good with foreign languages and literature. Alas, the same couldn't be said abouth math and science...

Really AdiS? I'm terrible with it, I find the alphabet stupidly hard - although I must admit, I'm not sure how much we would've learnt from my Bubba either - it seemed the only time her and my dad would talk Masso was when they argued, lol

I can understand my Bubba for sure on b'days and holidays, when she says 'sukash parde' (sorry don't know spelling) - which means 'Would you like some money?'

You know, the thing about the languages from this region - Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. - is that to the people listening (foreigners I mean) it always seems that we're fighting over something. When it gets to the point where they're wondering if they should interfere in order not to let us kill each other, it turns out we're actually discussing the shopping list for the grocery store or something. lol

I remember this one time I was with a business partner from England when my secretary came in with some papers I had to sign. I quietly told her to come back in two minutes when we'd be done talking. Then I said to the Englishman:
"Sorry about that."
Him (nervously): "Ouch. What did she do?"
Me (confused): "Nothing really. Why would you think she'd done something wrong?"
Him: "Well, you were scolding her!"
ROFL

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 1/19/2009 2:59:41 AM
Author: AdiS

Date: 1/18/2009 8:23:28 PM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 1/18/2009 4:13:57 PM
Author: AdiS


Well, I can give you some Macedonian lessons if you want, since my first language is Bulgarian which is pretty close. Macedonians and Bulgarians can understand each other in a conversation perfectly well. And maybe a separate refresher course on the rude stuff

I''m also fluent in English and German and I''m planning on learning Italian soon. Ive always been good with foreign languages and literature. Alas, the same couldn''t be said abouth math and science...

Really AdiS? I''m terrible with it, I find the alphabet stupidly hard - although I must admit, I''m not sure how much we would''ve learnt from my Bubba either - it seemed the only time her and my dad would talk Masso was when they argued, lol

I can understand my Bubba for sure on b''days and holidays, when she says ''sukash parde'' (sorry don''t know spelling) - which means ''Would you like some money?''

You know, the thing about the languages from this region - Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. - is that to the people listening (foreigners I mean) it always seems that we''re fighting over something. When it gets to the point where they''re wondering if they should interfere in order not to let us kill each other, it turns out we''re actually discussing the shopping list for the grocery store or something. lol

I remember this one time I was with a business partner from England when my secretary came in with some papers I had to sign. I quietly told her to come back in two minutes when we''d be done talking. Then I said to the Englishman:
''Sorry about that.''
Him (nervously): ''Ouch. What did she do?''
Me (confused): ''Nothing really. Why would you think she''d done something wrong?''
Him: ''Well, you were scolding her!''
ROFL

Ha, I know what you mean, and I like your anecdote. I also find this with some asian languages, it appears as if they are shouting at each other when they are not..
There''s a good chance that as a kid I could''ve mistaken them just talking for arguing..but knowing my dad and bubba, they likely were arguing

Thats just their way, lol..

grocery list..tee hee

 

[Deia]

I'm a quadrilingual (does that even exist or do you just call it polyglot after 3 languages?)

I speak Brazilian Portuguese, French and English to native standards. I also speak Spanish fluently but not to native standards as it wasn't a language I picked up while very young. I learned it the traditional way - through classes in high school, but as I spoke Portuguese already it was very easy to learn! (I skipped a few levels lol) Someone asked me wether I was from Paraguay once so I can't be too bad at it!

I must admit that I do find it "easier" to pick up languages than some of my friends do... I just think some people find it easier than others. Not sure if this is related but I suck at math lol.

I tried to learn Mandarin while living in Singapore but all I ended up with was some Singlish

I also took about a year of German lessons at uni, but it's still pretty basic (I just didn't enjoy it)

It's exciting to see how many people speak more than one language!

 

[Deelight]

Date: 1/19/2009 2:59:41 AM
Author: AdiS

Date: 1/18/2009 8:23:28 PM

Author: arjunajane

Date: 1/18/2009 4:13:57 PM

Author: AdiS



Well, I can give you some Macedonian lessons if you want, since my first language is Bulgarian which is pretty close. Macedonians and Bulgarians can understand each other in a conversation perfectly well. And maybe a separate refresher course on the rude stuff

I''m also fluent in English and German and I''m planning on learning Italian soon. Ive always been good with foreign languages and literature. Alas, the same couldn''t be said abouth math and science...

Really AdiS? I''m terrible with it, I find the alphabet stupidly hard - although I must admit, I''m not sure how much we would''ve learnt from my Bubba either - it seemed the only time her and my dad would talk Masso was when they argued, lol

I can understand my Bubba for sure on b''days and holidays, when she says ''sukash parde'' (sorry don''t know spelling) - which means ''Would you like some money?''

You know, the thing about the languages from this region - Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. - is that to the people listening (foreigners I mean) it always seems that we''re fighting over something. When it gets to the point where they''re wondering if they should interfere in order not to let us kill each other, it turns out we''re actually discussing the shopping list for the grocery store or something. lol


I remember this one time I was with a business partner from England when my secretary came in with some papers I had to sign. I quietly told her to come back in two minutes when we''d be done talking. Then I said to the Englishman:

''Sorry about that.''

Him (nervously): ''Ouch. What did she do?''

Me (confused): ''Nothing really. Why would you think she''d done something wrong?''

Him: ''Well, you were scolding her!''

ROFL

Adi It also probably has to do a lot with the arm waving, A lot of Eastern Europeans wave their arms around when they talk - me included LOL.

 

[AdiS]

Date: 1/19/2009 7:18:34 AM
Author: Deelight

Date: 1/19/2009 2:59:41 AM
Author: AdiS


You know, the thing about the languages from this region - Macedonian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. - is that to the people listening (foreigners I mean) it always seems that we''re fighting over something. When it gets to the point where they''re wondering if they should interfere in order not to let us kill each other, it turns out we''re actually discussing the shopping list for the grocery store or something. lol


I remember this one time I was with a business partner from England when my secretary came in with some papers I had to sign. I quietly told her to come back in two minutes when we''d be done talking. Then I said to the Englishman:

''Sorry about that.''

Him (nervously): ''Ouch. What did she do?''

Me (confused): ''Nothing really. Why would you think she''d done something wrong?''

Him: ''Well, you were scolding her!''

ROFL

Adi It also probably has to do a lot with the arm waving, A lot of Eastern Europeans wave their arms around when they talk - me included LOL.

Oh, yes, that''s so true! Hubby waves his arms so much and so enthusiastically when he''s explaining someting, he looks like a windmill. lol I, on the other hand, not so much. I''m more of the quiet and collected type. Obviously it still seems like I''m reprimanding people when I speak though!

 

[arjunajane]

Ya, I talk with my hands quite a bit too - my friends used to take the mickey outta me in school.

 

[AdiS]

Date: 1/19/2009 10:27:40 AM
Author: arjunajane
Ya, I talk with my hands quite a bit too - my friends used to take the mickey outta me in school.

The Balkan soul speaking, what can you do...

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 1/17/2009 2:18:47 AM
Author: WishfulThinking
I speak no languages besides English, my native language. Oh how I wish I could. I took almost 10 years of French at the Middle School, High School, and College levels and cannot speak or read more than a handful of words and phrases in it, even though my comprehension isn't terrible. For an otherwise intelligent individual I find this both appalling and sad. My grandparents speak Portuguese and live in Portugal, so Portuguese was my mom's first language, but I can't communicate very well with my grandparents because even with lessons I just cannot learn the language.

I think I have a brain block when it comes to language-learning. I am a huge advocate for teaching children multiple languages at a young age when it's easier for them to understand because I think that being multi-lingual is an extremely useful skill in today's world. Just, please... be kind to your children if they're as terrible at it as I am even after putting in years of dedication and effort. Please.

I speak portuguese as well as my native english. It - portuguese - is not an easy language to learn.

I was also fluent enough in French to be offered a position in Customer Service with Air France but I've since lost a lot of my fluency.

WT, where in Portugal do your grandparents live?

 

[laurel25]

I only speak English fluently, but can read French & Spanish and can get the gist when reading Italian most times and actually once managed to have a conversation over the phone with a native Italian speaker AND get my point across, despite that fact that I''ve never learned Italian (granted the point was just telling the woman that her husband was away from his desk at lunch, but I was shocked I actually did it!). I can listen to conversations and understand, but have trouble when people speak very rapidly. I''ve always been able to pick up reading languages pretty fast and always been much better at reading than speaking. I also have a few words of Japanese & Mandarin & some American Sign Language.

It''s funny, for some reason there are certain things that always stick out in my mind in certain languages - like I always think "brosser les dents" instead of "brush teeth" and I always, in my head, sing Jingle Bells in Spanish.

 

[Lulie]

In chronological order: Spanish, Italian, Latin [schooling] English, Arabic [work] & Aramayan [or chaldean, depending who you''d ask]

 

[AGBF]

Date: 1/19/2009 5:56:32 PM
Author: laurel25

I only speak English fluently, but can read French & Spanish and can get the gist when reading Italian most times and actually once managed to have a conversation over the phone with a native Italian speaker AND get my point across, despite that fact that I've never learned Italian (granted the point was just telling the woman that her husband was away from his desk at lunch, but I was shocked I actually did it!).

Reading what laurel wrote above led me to remember some of my recent reflections on Italian. It is a bit off-topic, but relates to being bilingual, so I'll share my thoughts in this thread.

Although I am not bilingual, my husband must be considered to be by anyone's standards: he was born and raised in Italy where he managed to obtain an education at a classical high school and a university. His university degree was in classical literature, so it is clear that at one time he had mastery of the Italian language. He studied Greek and Latin as did all classical high school students of his era in Italy, which reinforces the notion that he must have had a good grasp of Italian at one time, been able to manipulate the language, read and write it fluently. Naturally he was able to understand it when it was spoken quickly and when it was in songs or movies, since it was his native tongue.

I know that now my husband's grasp of English is perfect. He has a slight accent when he speaks due to the age at which he learned to speak it. (It was not his second language.) Nonetheless, he has a flawless grasp of its grammar and usage.

What I have recently noticed is that the Italian my husband speaks, even with his sister, who is also an Italian expatriate-although an Italian expatriate to Israel-is not the Italian spoken by his cousins who have continued to live in northern Italy.

At first I thought that my husband's cousins had a Genoese accent and that that was what accounted for the difference in speech. (My husband assures me that they do have a Genoese accent!)

They also speak quickly, especially our male cousin's wife.

That does not account for all the difference in speech between how they speak and how my husband and his sister speak to each other, however. I have now been listening carefully.

When I listen to my husband and his sister speak to each other in Italian, it sounds to me as if someone put a 45 RPM record on 33 RPM. (This may make no sense to anyone too young to remember vinyl records!) That means that it sounds as if someone slowed my husband and sister down unnaturally! When they speak Italian they just don't speak as fast as my cousin's wife does! I understand them!

And I have started to think that is because they are no longer speaking like real Italians!

I may be wrong. I know that they comprehand like real Italians, but I wonder if they still speak in the style of the Italians of Italy? This is a complicated question in regard to my sister-in-law, because although she has lived in Israel for many years her husband was Italian and they spoke Italian with their children at home when their children were young. They also associated with Italians and had Italian mothers-in-law and ate pasta. Over time, however, their children grew up and married other Israelis of non-Italian backgrounds and not everyone spoke Italian all the time.... My sister-in-law may still speak more Italian than my husband, but she may not speak it all day the way she used to.

The question I am addressing is, do you remain fluent in your native language? I know that Henry Kissinger once said that he was in the unique position of being unable to speak any language without an accent. For those of you who are bilingual, how many of you get to use both your languages regularly and how many of you feel that you have lost some of your native language (although you could presumably get it back with practice) ?



Deborah

 

[arjunajane]

Date: 1/19/2009 11:03:21 AM
Author: AdiS

Date: 1/19/2009 10:27:40 AM
Author: arjunajane
Ya, I talk with my hands quite a bit too - my friends used to take the mickey outta me in school.

The Balkan soul speaking, what can you do...

 

[Black Jade]

Date: 1/17/2009 7:36:09 PM
Author: Harriet

Date: 1/17/2009 1:32:54 PM
Author: Black Jade
I speak totally fluent English (obviously) and totally fluent French, and read and write both.

I speak very very good Mandarin Chinese, and read it very fluently. I translate modern Chinese poetry sometimes and publish it.

I can read the New Testament in Greek. Koine Greek is not a spoken language, so I don''t ''speak'' it.
I can function in Spanish--I can''t hold a real conversation, but I can ask for and understand directions and I can do my grocery shopping. I can read Spanish very fluently though. I can read the newspaper and I can read novels, which I do for fun sometimes.

I messed around with a lot of other languages, but don''t know them. I tried to teach myself Russian for about three years. I think it is the world''s most beautiful sounding language. It certainly has some of the world''s most beautiful literature. I can read some things sometimes but not very well and I can''t hold a conversation. I apparently have an authentic sounding accent, but since I can''t say anymore than hello, how much does it cost, I love you and where''s the bathroom, the accent is not that useful!

I don''t think its true that only children learn languages well. I didn''t speak any of these languages before I was 11. I didn''t even speak good English until I was five! I''m from a country where they theoretically speak English, but its a very broken dialect. I went to public school and was speaking this dialect and since this was years ago, before political correctness, they sent me right to speech therapy and made me stay there until I sounded like a middle American, which I still do. I learned some stuff in speech therapy which I think helps me to learn other languages and I know it helps me to teach them (I taught French and I taught Mandarin Chinese at college level for many years). The key things with learning another language are to listen, listen, listen and repeat, repeat, repeat. Find a native speaker and repeat stuff after them, and watch their mouth and lips when they talk and make your mouth move the same way. Even if you think you sound funny! Go places where the native speakers are and keep speaking to them. It''s best if you find people that can''t speak any English, or you will end up switching to that (especially because most native speakers are anxious to learn English. This is what keeps happening to me with Spanish. Spanish people in this country are so anxious to learn English that they won''t speak Spanish with me for more than 2 seconds.) And most of all, don''t think you have no gift for languages because your only experience with language study was in a classroom of 30 people that met for an hour a week taught by someone with a strong American accent themselves! Nobody could learn a language under those circumstances, it has nothing to do with your age or your talent. Try again now!

Hi,
The hubs took Chinese in college, but still can''t get the tones straight. Also, he can''t say ''qu'' (as in ''go''). Any tips?

Hi, Harriet.
Sorry for the delay answering. I''m not on this forum every day.

So far as the tones, I suggest that your husband get one of the Mandarin learning tapes and just repeat over and over and over again. Keep practicing sounds using all four tones- I used to practice a lot using ''ma'' since it''s a pretty good test to be able to say "Mama ma ma" so that a native speaker can tell that you are saying "Mommy scolds the horse", rather than something else.

I was only able to learn the difference between qu and chu when I learned the Zhuyinfuhao system--the bopomofo that they use in Taiwan. I don''t think it''s as clear when you''re using pinyin, because they use ''u'' for both the sound after the ''q'' in "qu'' and the ''ch'' in ''chu'' and actually they are quite different sounds.

The ''u'' in ''qu'' is very similar to the ''u'' in the French word ''tu''. It''s a sound that doesn''t exist in English pronunciation, which is why it is hard to get (and why so many English speakers pronounce French ''tu'' as if it were ''too'').

If your husband doesn''t want to learn zhuyinfuhao, he should try to get hold of a native speaker and get them to repeat for him "ji'' "qi" and "xi" until he can hear the difference between those sounds and "zhi" "chi" and "shi". I used to have my students look at my mouth when I said these sounds. THe j,q,x set are said with your lips apart almost as if you were smiling and with your tongue flat inside your mouth. The zh,ch,sh set are said with your lips kind of shaped like a circle and with YOUR TONGUE ROLLED. The rolling of the tongue is really essential. Some old romanization system used to write "shi" as "shr" and it does come out with a bit of sound like that--when your tongue is rolled.

Hope this helps.

P.S. It will make a difference where the native speaker is FROM, also. Many native Chinese speakers can''t say "shi'' so that it sounds any different from "si". Of course you as a foreigner don''t want to offend someone who is a native by saying that you think their Mandarin is not standard (I remember how offended I was in France by people asking me not to speak English to their children because they wanted them to have a ''correct'' British accent and not a ''non-standard'' American one). and you can learn a lot from any native speaker. Just not this particular thing from every one.

 

[Black Jade]

Date: 1/17/2009 11:01:43 PM
Author: arjunajane

Date: 1/17/2009 6:56:07 AM
Author: MrsG

Date: 1/17/2009 2:49:45 AM
Author: arjunajane


MrsG, don''t worry I am sure you will get there! I know when I was learning, when I did go over there things started to fall into place that didn''t make sense in the classroom.

I definately think children have a greater propensity for picking up language easier than us adults though. Did you speak it when you were little?

No, my first language is Russian. I started English when I was 11. By the time I moved to the States for college at 17 I was fluent. My mom (English teacher) made it her goal that I spoke English fluently and went above and beyond your typical school curriculum. Ladies, please go easy on your future children when it comes to foreign language leaning

She was convinced that leaning was based on memorization, so she made me memorize dialogues, long ones. I had to do 5 a week
(checked every Friday) and if I didn''t know them by heart, I got one of my privileges taken away

Not fun...I hated it! But that along with summer long ESL programs abroad worked for me and sister. She still lives in Russia and is also fluent in English.

We recently moved to Indonesia, so I''m attempting to learn Indonesian now. So far I know 2 words

Hi Mrs,
Very interesting, thankyou for explaining.

I''m jealous of you living in Indo - I would love to do that for a year or two.
I wouldn''t worry, I''m sure you''ll pick it up. I find the people there (and in Asian countries in general), are very keen to help you practice. Good luck.



Black Jade, just fyi I don''t think anybody said that only children learn languages well. I said that children in the West should be encouraged to learn languages more than they are, and that often it is easier if you start young, before your language is ingrained such as with adults. I believe this to be true.
Of course, this doesn''t mean I think adults can''t learn or shouldn''t - quite the opposite actually was my point.

My post wasn''t aimed at you. I actually wasn''t replying to anyone else''s post--if I had been I would have quoted it. As someone who speaks several languages I often hear people say that they can''t learn because they didn''t start as children and I was using my example to show that this is not true. Of course I am not against teaching children languages. I don''t believe that they necessarily learn better but they certainly are more open to it, generally. They are not afraid that they can''t do it as many adults are.
No offense was meant and I hope none was taken. We are all replying to this topic because we are interested in languages and in ways of learning them, I believe so there''s nothing to feel hostile about.

 

[chrono]

I''m a trilinguist, not counting the dialects, and another Bahasa speaker.

 

[musey]

I used to be pretty fluent in spanish, but I''ve fallen out of practice with it.

I plan to learn Arabic and Korean sometime within the next 5 years or so. I''ve tried Japanese and find it SO difficult.