What language do you speak at home?

[Trekkie]

Reading MissyDebby's invitation in Dutch and the comments that followed had me in giggles!

I know that there are many PSers here from all over the world and I've often wondered what languages are spoken by PS users at home. With such a cosmopolitan group, I'm sure we have quite a number of polyglots!

So... What language do you speak at home? How many languages do you speak? And to what degree of fluency? I'll start!

At home: English, sometimes Afrikaans. When I gossip with my gran, we speak Afrikaans!

Fluent: English, Afrikaans

Intermediate: isiXhosa and isiZulu (They're very similar), Arabic (4 years of Madrassah), Hebrew (1 year of private instruction)

Just the naughty words: Yiddish, Spanish, Hindi.

Next year I start learning Mandarin at university. I can't wait!

How about you? What languages do you speak?

 

[anchor31]

DH and I are French-Canadian, so we speak French at home. I am fluent in English however and will often speak English with my grandmother and cousin from Ontario.

 

[diamondbuggy]

Wow Trekkie, that's a lot of languages!

I must admit I'm useless at learning new languages. At home we speak English. I also understand Afrikaans quite well but I'm terrible at speaking it! A couple of my friends speak Afrikaans to me but I reply in English.

Oh and I also know the basics of Gujarati.

 

[Trekkie]

Anchor31: French is such a beautiful language, but so difficult! I've attempted to learn it several times but I'm too embarrassed by my accent, so I usually don't speak it. And because I don't speak it, I can't improve my accent... So sad...

Diamondbuggy: Nah, it's not really that many. English and Afrikaans are essential in SA, so of course I have those two. I learnt isiXhosa at home by listening to my mother bossing around the maid. I grew up in the Eastern Cape - everyone here speaks it. When I moved to KZN, I learnt isiZulu, but that was easy, thanks to my grounding in isiXhosa. They're really very similar.

The Arabic and Hebrew are the only two I actually learnt properly, with alphabet and grammar instruction and endless corrections of my pronunciation. They were extremely painful to learn! But hey, I'm glad I know a little bit of both. <insert witty politically aware statement here>

Gujarati sounds so pretty! I like the way the words flow like ripples...

 

[AGBF]

DH and I are French-Canadian, so we speak French at home. I am fluent in English however and will often speak English with my grandmother and cousin from Ontario.

Except for my problem with the the French Canadian pronunciation of French, I think I would fit in well in your house, anchor. We speak English at home. Your posting just struck me as being comfortable. My French is not perfect, but if I were in a French speaking home I could get along. With all my other languages (and I have studied Spanish, Italian, and German) I haven't really become truly comfortable. I can hobble along in the two former ones, under duress. I have really forgotten most of my German. I have had minor exposure to Portuguese, Latin, and Hebrew.

PS-My husband is a native Italian speaker.

Deb/AGBF

 

[vc10um]

I'm in the US. We speak English at home. FI learned some Spanish in High School but is fairly useless on it now. I was near fluent in conversational German by the end of High School but haven't really spoken it since. I can still manage to read and listen quite well, but my speaking abilities have gone to pot.

 

[Autumnovember]

My first language is Russian so my parents and I speak that at home all the time.

SO only knows English but I'm trying to convince him to learn Russian.

 

[princesss]

I speak English at home, but I really actually miss *living* in Spanish - speaking it at home, in the grocery store, in school... It made me really happy. I'd love to live in Spain again. And if I'm being totally honest, my goal was always to marry somebody that isn't a native English speaker/from the US so that I have to learn another language/culture.

 

[fieryred33143]

Spanglish

We speak to our daughter in Spanish when we can remember. We speak to each other in English. When I'm on the phone, I'm mostly talking in Spanish but FI mostly speaks in English so she hears both languages throughout the day.

We've been trying to speak just Spanish at home because we know that once she's in school, she'll learn English well but it's hard breaking the habit. I am also really lazy with teaching words and end up choosing whatever is easier to teach. For ex., it's much easier for her to say agua than it is for her to say water so that's what she says.

 

[Trekkie]

AGBF: Is the French Canadian pronunciation very different from the continental French? Here in South Africa we have many immigrants from the French and Belgian colonies who sound nothing like the French I was taught at school!

Vc10um: Is Spanish compulsory at US schools? I only know naughty words, I'm afraid! When I lived in Germany 5 or 6 years ago, I had every intention of learning German... But the moment people heard that I was English, they wanted to practise their English on me!

Autumnovember: You're Russian? Wow! I would love to visit Russia one day... Do you think you'll speak Russian to your kids as they grow up?

Princesss: I completely get what you're saying about a relationship 'forcing' you to learn another language! My mother only learnt to speak English properly when she was 22, from my dad! He still doesn't speak Afrikaans, so I wonder how they communicated back then! ...er... Or maybe not.

 

[kittybean]

Fun topic! I love languages.

At home, I speak Ukrainian (my first language) and English. DH isn't Ukrainian, though, so I have been speaking it a lot less since we began living together. I am hoping I'll be able to teach our children Ukrainian, but I know it will be hard with DH not being able to help me.

I also speak fluent Spanish and use it at work every day. My college degree was in Spanish Language and Literature. I have an Italian minor, but I get very little practice speaking it, so it would be hard to claim fluency at this point.

 

[jaysonsmom]

I'm fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. Speak English to husband and kids, Chinese to parents. My grandma and several of Mom's side is Japanese, so I have a very good grasp of Japanese as well.

Because I lived all over the world as a child, I also understand Afrikaans, German and Spanish. I probably cannot hold a conversation with a native speaker, but know enough to know what they are talking about.

 

[JewelFreak]

KittyBean, my impression is that Ukrainian is quite different from Russian, right or not? It does relate to other Slavic languages, no?

We speak English at home but with my Dutch husband, some Dutch. I understand it as well as I do English but my spoken Dutch is pretty funny. I speak French fluently, did business in it in France, and Italian was fluent but has gotten rusty through lack of use. I also took Russian -- can't remember much anymore but can still read the alphabet though I usually don't know what I'm saying. It's a wonderful full language. I also took some German -- it's similar enough to Dutch that I can figure out most of it -- and some Japanese. Took a little Hebrew in college, never got too far because my professor saved up jokes & we laughed through most lessons. Oh yeah, used to be able to get around ok in Spanish but that's become rusty too. Languages are fascinating in that they open a window on how another culture thinks. It's also a thrill to say something for the first time & someone understands you!

--- Laurie

 

[Trekkie]

I'm fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. Speak English to husband and kids, Chinese to parents. My grandma and several of Mom's side is Japanese, so I have a very good grasp of Japanese as well.

Because I lived all over the world as a child, I also understand Afrikaans, German and Spanish. I probably cannot hold a conversation with a native speaker, but know enough to know what they are talking about.

I get very excited whenever you talk about your experiences in South Africa! I'm very impressed that you learnt Afrikaans. Most visitors don't bother and would prefer to learn one of the Nguni languages, or something with clicks so that they can impress and confuse their friends when they get home.

My FI would love you to bits! He was educated in Afrikaans (12 years of school and 11 years of university) and whenever he hears an Asian person speaking Afrikaans he nearly has a breakdown. With so many people predicting the extinction of the language it's nice to know that it is valued by some.

 

[MissMina]

We are American in the USA but love learning about other cultures (especially cuisine) and languages.
We are both fairly fluent in Spanish although my knowledge is audio lingual so I
can't read or write.

I also have a background in French

We both study Japanese and I have mentored a Japanese Journey tribute band for the past year
making learning more personal and interesting.

At home we speak English and Japanese

 

[random_thought]

DH and I both speak some french as well as english. I've also been picking up on certain things in Spanish from living in Colorado (we have a fairly large spanish population here). The other day I was in a walmart and all of the signs were in spanish!!

 

[reader]

Redneck.

 

[Trekkie]

Redneck.

LOL! No, really! I'm laughing out loud!

Years ago, back when the internet was still young and blogging was still cool, I befriended a woman in Tennessee. She was so friendly and chatty in her emails and had nearly perfect grammar, so we really hit off. Two years ago we discovered Skype and we were so excited - finally we could really talk!

And then we did... And we could hardly understand each other! That Tennessee accent is thick! And why does it take them so long to say one single word?!

Anyway, after a few more attempts at Skype, we decided to keep the friendship on an emails and dirty jokes only basis!

 

[vc10um]

Vc10um: Is Spanish compulsory at US schools? I only know naughty words, I'm afraid! When I lived in Germany 5 or 6 years ago, I had every intention of learning German... But the moment people heard that I was English, they wanted to practise their English on me!

Unfortunately, no language except English is compulsary in most US schools, Trekkie, and I think that's criminal. We expect everyone to know and operate in our language, but we make absolutely no effort to really learn anyone else's. FI and I both went to High Schools where you had to take at least one foreign language course, and I LOVED German and took it for four years, and also was the teaching assistant at the Junior High School for one year. Unfortunately, both of us are engineers and neither had time to study foreign language in college...if we had, we would have pushed back graduation at least one semester.

 

[Dancing Fire]

half english half cantonese to my wife and 100% english to our daughters since they had forgotten how to speak in cantonese...

 

[yssie]

Trekkie that's a lot of languages!

And how interesting to see how many bi/multilingual PSers we have


I'm fluent in English and Tamil. At home with my family it's mostly English, but I have several relatives who don't speak any English at all, so learning Tamil as a child was a necessity.

 

[jaysonsmom]

I'm fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. Speak English to husband and kids, Chinese to parents. My grandma and several of Mom's side is Japanese, so I have a very good grasp of Japanese as well.

Because I lived all over the world as a child, I also understand Afrikaans, German and Spanish. I probably cannot hold a conversation with a native speaker, but know enough to know what they are talking about.

I get very excited whenever you talk about your experiences in South Africa! I'm very impressed that you learnt Afrikaans. Most visitors don't bother and would prefer to learn one of the Nguni languages, or something with clicks so that they can impress and confuse their friends when they get home.

My FI would love you to bits! He was educated in Afrikaans (12 years of school and 11 years of university) and whenever he hears an Asian person speaking Afrikaans he nearly has a breakdown. With so many people predicting the extinction of the language it's nice to know that it is valued by some.

Well, back when I was Z.A., Afrikaans was a requirement in school. Even though I went English speaking schools (almost 5 years in Z.A), we were required to study Afrikaans 1 hour a day. A lot of my friends from Z.A are half English speaking, and half Afrikaans, and due to facebook, I'm re-introduced to Afrikaans on a daily basis. When I got reconnected to all my childhood friends posting in all different language, it was like a challenge to myself, to see if I could still understand what people are posting and saying. I get to read Chinese, Japanese, Afrikaans, German, French daily.

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

Just English. Took high school French but have forgotten almost all of it. My mother speaks French and Russian.

When my grandparents met, my grandfather was from Yugoslavia (Serbia) and my grandmother was from Russia. They met in a displaced persons camp after WWII. Neither of them spoke each other's languages so they spoke to each other in German for the first few years until they came to the US and learned English together. I can't even imagine that.

I can say "spaciba babushka" to my grandma and that is it.

Has anyone had any experience using Rosetta Stone? I have an urge to learn Italian and I've been wanting to try RS but I haven't really heard any actual reviews.

Autumnovember, are you familiar with a Russian lullaby that goes "bye-you bye-you shkee bye-you?" My grandma used to sing that to me when I was a baby.

 

[Porridge]

English.

Irish (gaelic) is compulsory all the way up through school, but I've forgotten most of it and would only manage a broken conversation now. I can understand it fine though. We also have to learn at least one foreign European language here at school, my main one was French and I'm now working towards my diploma in French so it's not so bad. I also did German but found it difficult, but my parents have a holiday home there now so it's getting better with practice. And I lived in the Netherlands for a few years so my Dutch is passable.

 

[LGK]

I just speak English, but both sides of my family that I know (mom's side, and FIL & family) all speak fluent Spanish. I just went to Costa Rica with my mom and all her sisters and some cousins and such, and realized yep, it's just me and her that don't speak Spanish now. Sad! I took an intensive class on it in college, and learned quite a lot in a really short time, but of course I forgot it just as fast and it's been over 10 years ago now. Funny thing? Only one uncle and one cousin in either side of the family is Hispanic. The rest of both families just have strong ties in Central America.

My maternal grandfather was a geologist who worked on the Pan American Highway that goes through Central America in the early '70s. So he moved his whole family there, and they all learned Spanish, except my mom who, as the oldest, was married already. The result was, one sister stayed in Mexico for a few years ostensibly going to college, and one married a Costa Rican.

My FIL's family has a bunch of friends in San Salvador and they visit frequently. Both of my brothers in law spent months travelling around in Central America on trips that started with FIL hauling them to San Salvador... both of them, at different times, then took off for months on their own.

Also, my step MIL and her son speak Hebrew. My FIL, when he remarried, married a Jewish woman who is fairly orthodox. She has us participate in Passover and whatnot. We went to my step BIL's bar mitvah when he was 13. It's kind of funny, I was raised with pretty much no religious upbringing, though both parents were Irish Catholic, and so I've participated in wayyy more of the Jewish religious pracitices than anything. I wouldn't have thought it would matter one way or another to anyone- I'm not Jewish obviously but MIL likes us to do Passover Seder, it makes her happy so we do- but it does irritate my mom slightly. I think I griped mildly about having to go to Seder last year (mostly the driving 100 miles after work and then sitting through MIL singing in Hebrew for a few hours and I really do loathe that horseradish stuff, maror) and my mom was like "What! You're not Jewish! Why are you doing Passover?"

 

[AGBF]

Has anyone had any experience using Rosetta Stone? I have an urge to learn Italian and I've been wanting to try RS but I haven't really heard any actual reviews.

Yes. I have used it to learn and to teach. I love it. It will never (in my opinion) replace learning a language's grammar, but it is very similar to learning a language aurally by sitting around in the kitchen with your in-laws who speak only that language and learning it by osmosis.

I had learned French, Spanish, and German in classrooms before I met my husband. Then I was plunged into learning Italian-of which I knew hardly one word-by total and sudden immersion. I learned it completely through my ears-a totally new experience for me. Rosetta Stone (although the written word is available) is like that. (I used it for Portuguese.)

I used it to teach French to a high school senior who had had no success learning Spanish with traditional grammar books and who had wanted to try something different. I was teaching French in a traditional way to a couple of middle school classes, but I monitored him using Rosetta Stone. He did pretty well.

Deb/AGBF

 

[packrat]

English. I took one year of Spanish in high school.

We're wanting to get RS too for Spanish b/c there are a LOT of non English speakers here. It would help JD in his job now and if he were to get on the Police force it would be a benefit as well.

My dad is Swedish and I don't think he knows any of it. I tried to have my Grampa and Gramma teach me some when Grampa was still alive but it had been so long since they'd spoken it they spent a bit of time arguing on pronunciation. Gramma did make me learn how to say the words on a cutting board that she'd had hanging up in her house my whole life before she'd let me have it, tho actually I don't know if she taught me right or not! I have a Swedish/English dictionary but it doesn't do me a lot of good if I don't have anyone to help me w/the sounds and the little symbols above letters.

 

[Autumnovember]

AGBF: Is the French Canadian pronunciation very different from the continental French? Here in South Africa we have many immigrants from the French and Belgian colonies who sound nothing like the French I was taught at school!

Vc10um: Is Spanish compulsory at US schools? I only know naughty words, I'm afraid! When I lived in Germany 5 or 6 years ago, I had every intention of learning German... But the moment people heard that I was English, they wanted to practise their English on me!

Autumnovember: You're Russian? Wow! I would love to visit Russia one day... Do you think you'll speak Russian to your kids as they grow up?

Princesss: I completely get what you're saying about a relationship 'forcing' you to learn another language! My mother only learnt to speak English properly when she was 22, from my dad! He still doesn't speak Afrikaans, so I wonder how they communicated back then! ...er... Or maybe not.

Yep, I was born there I'll definitely speak Russian to them...SO knows how important that its for me which is why I'm trying to make him learn a little!

 

[Autumnovember]

Autumnovember, are you familiar with a Russian lullaby that goes "bye-you bye-you shkee bye-you?" My grandma used to sing that to me when I was a baby.

Oh my gosh, YES!! My mom would sing that to me while she was putting me to sleep! I still make her sing it sometimes =]

 

[Autumnovember]

KittyBean, my impression is that Ukrainian is quite different from Russian, right or not? It does relate to other Slavic languages, no?

[/i] you!

--- Laurie

I was born in Ukraine My dad speaks Russian and Ukrainian and when he is speaking Ukrainian I can still understand parts of the conversations. I have a Polish friend who I can understand sometimes too