What languages do you speak?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

As for me - it's French, German, Spanish, rusty Cantonese (though it's better when I'm tanked up on San Mig in some seedy Wanchai bar), Welsh (though I've forgotten lots through lack of practise) and various swear words in nefarious foreign languages picked up on world travels.

I get by in English, too (just about). After several exotic cocktails, I speak gibberish, rubbish and fluent Klingon.

How 'bout you?

C J

― C J, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ich kann Deutsch und in bisschen Spanisch.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Schiess!

― Dan Perry, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dutch and English. I have a basic knowledge of Japanese, French and German.

― nathalie, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ebonics

― JM, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ko korero ahau i te reo Maori

Ya govoryu po ruskii ni horosho [Russian]

And some French, but that's bad.

― debaser, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

English well, and varying levels of German, Japanese, and Konkani (an Indian language).

― Vinnie, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A vague amount of Spanish, no more, alas.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Scots, English.

― david h(0wie), Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

german and french, relatively proficiently. some polish (proficient with polish cuss words).

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

German, Italian, French, some Spanish and Portuguese, a pretty good understanding of Gaelic (ta Mum), and all my Welsh comes from Gorky's.

― Damian, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You are really trying to get to know us, aren't you!

― Mandee, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have studied Spanish, French, and German. I think my French is the best of the three, but it's not that good.

― rosemary, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

English and Latin (well, maybe "speak" isn't quite the right term).

― Jordan, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

same here. I have no clue how to converse with people who don't speak English but at least I could make talk with some old monks. Next year in school I will take Greek (ancient not modern though). I wanted to take Russian but I had to drop it to fit physics, grrrr.

― Maria, Monday, 22 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

At the moment:

Portuguese, but I can only understand newscasters

Spanish, but only well enough to hold a slow conversation (probably the same for other Romance languages)

Welsh, but it takes me several listens to discern what Gorky's and Co. might be saying

Finnish, but I freeze when someone springs a genitive plural on me

Classical Greek (I often mutter to myself in it), but my vocabulary is lacking

― kieran, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Portuguese, English and a passable Spanish that after 5 minutes turns into Portunhol

― Chupa-Cabras, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Chupa's way of entertaining himself -- going to Buenos Aires and drunkenly talking loudly in Portunhol about how well Brazil did in the World Cup. The locals embrace him with such fervor after these statements that he almost dies with excitement.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

hmmm.... going back to school to learn more languages...and linguistics.
I speak English, Nederlands, Deutsch and love the concept of language. Given three wishes: Wish number one would be to be able to speak every language ever spoken by humankind.

Per mare cognatique flumino curro, dat mare dante amnes mihi sed nom possum voltes iffugere ipse meos. (Johannes Battadeus).

― Perry Bernard (panterus), Thursday, 19 September 2002 08:58 (twenty-three years ago)

i can speak essex, gcse standard french (woo!), a bit of real latin and am pretty fluent in igpay atinlay.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 19 September 2002 09:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Wo shou de chong wen. ma ma ho ho. ta men do gao xi wo: 'ni shou de gung hao!' but I don't believe them.

that's Mandarin Chinese, and a bit of French, and tiny bits of Farsi and Roma. But English right now.

― jon (jon), Thursday, 19 September 2002 09:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I speak scurvy dog. Arrr.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 19 September 2002 09:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Portuguese, German, English (heh) and l33+ hax0r sp33k.

I've also managed to bluff my way through French class for six years now without being able to build a decent sentence.

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 19 September 2002 09:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember a bit of French, but am far from fluent now. I also have an O Level in Latin, but don't find that I need that terribly often.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 19 September 2002 11:23 (twenty-three years ago)

i speak spanish and catalan.
also a little bit of french. no english though. i use a translator.

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 19 September 2002 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I can read more languages than I can speak. Speak = English, French & German, read = as above + Spanish, Italian, Dutch & Latin. Other Romance languages can be figured out with difficulty - I pleased myself by deciphering some Romanian the other day.

― Mooro (Mooro), Thursday, 19 September 2002 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

English + French

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 19 September 2002 13:05 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

I speak Cockney dialect

Oi Gunvas!

― Dexter, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 02:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I speak the international language of Love.

Yeah, I said it.

― jm (jtm), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 02:22 (twenty-three years ago)

I can struggle in French, struggle badly in German, and ask for beer in Croatian. But that's about it.

― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 02:50 (twenty-three years ago)

spanish, polish... mostly forgotten my french, german, greek and sanskrit sadly

― zemko (bob), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 02:53 (twenty-three years ago)

English, some French, and a few phrases here and there. Like in Danish, I can say "Are you pregnant? It's not mine!"

― phil-two, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 02:55 (twenty-three years ago)

English, of course; some rapidly fading French; some even-more-rapidly fading American Sign Language; some quite decidedly faded Esperanto; a smidge of Spanish; and a semester's worth of German taken many years ago.

― Chris P (Chris P), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 03:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Hangookmal, Nihongo and Zhong wen; I struggle with all of them, though, moreso with the latter of the three. Also just enough Deutsche and Espanol to get by in a restaurant or an airport. Like CJ I know curse words in several more languages but that's about it. I own dictionaries for a bunch of languages I never intend to learn fluently.

― Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 03:47 (twenty-three years ago)

French, very basic Russian (learning, but the cases, they're killing me). Millar, did/do you learn languages for the gov't or foreign service ?

― daria g, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 05:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I learned Korean for the USAF, I took a little Japanese in college. After I basically breezed through the Korean course (supposedly it is k-tough) I realized I enjoyed languages and was good at them (reading anyway) so I decided to learn some more. I heartily recommend the Living Language series of books and people I know say Pimsleur is the greatest (though it's a little pricy for me).

I'm also addicted to Langeschiedt's dictionaries (the little vinylback yellow babies).

― Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 05:26 (twenty-three years ago)

English, Hindi, Hinglish, Urdu would counct since i know Avadhi Hindi, and I know lots of introductory phrases and dirty words in French after taking it in school for like 9 years (but nothing else)

― Vic (Vic), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 06:36 (twenty-three years ago)

In decreasing order of fluidity: English, German, French, Modern Greek.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 11:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Impeccable English, fluent Japanese, barely recognizable French.

― JS Williams (js williams), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

English and little bits of lots of other laguages that I've just sorta picked up. Did French & Greman at school and then promtly forgot 90% of it, I have an Italian friend so can swear magnificently in Italian, my parents have a house in Spain so I can just about get buy with my tourist Spanish and I speak a little Nepali

― smee (smee), Wednesday, 12 February 2003 11:58 (twenty-three years ago)

in descending order of fluency: english, japanese, swedish, russian.
i can also order food, drink and painkillers in french, german and spanish, and i can figure out newspaper headlines and photo captions in most slavonic languages. i can barely manage "thank you" in thai.(them tonal languages is tricky)

― cameron, Wednesday, 12 February 2003 12:33 (twenty-three years ago)

sixteen years pass...

this guy is incredible. Moses aka Laoshu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a-3Wz8joi4

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Monday, 24 June 2019 16:28 (six years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.