How good are your foreign language skills.

AntarcticPilot said:
The only reasonably fluent language I have besides English is French; I can read it reasonably well, and could probably manage everyday things in it. However, I can manage pretty well anywhere in Europe, because I did classical Latin and Greek at school - and that gives me a key into the Mediterranean Languages. Oddly, modern Greek is probably the hardest for me - because the language I know is further away than the Anglo-Saxon of Beowulf! English with a smattering of German gives me a clue with Nordic languages, so between the two I can usually hazard a guess as to what notice-boards etc. say. The greek bits of Russian are OK, but the Slavic bits are opaque to me.

I should say that during a period when I was often working in Norway with Norwegians, I thought of learning Norwegian (which would allow me to communicate in any Scandinavian country). I gave up that idea when I realized that almost all Norwegians speak excellent English, and that they preferred to practise their English rather than letting me speak Norwegian!

My wife's mother tongue is Hakka, her primary Chinese language is Cantonese, and she also speaks some Mandarin (Chinese isn't a single language, and what are often called dialects are actually as different as Dutch and German). That all in addition with fluent English!

Many years ago, I was on a ship operating in Dutch waters. The local television (back before digital stations, so far fewer channels were available) mainly consisted of English language programs with Dutch sub-titles. I suspect that generations in the smaller European nations grew up learning English almost by osmosis, as a large proportion of their entertainment was in English!
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I used to work for an international consulting firm. The language that our consultants had the most difficulty to work in was Hungarian.

Otoh i had several visits to Romania and I could follow the gist of a conversation there because it is a latin language.
 
Roberto said:
Engrenages! I did not know they managed to sell it abroad; do you have "Braquo" too? I don't know the title translation, a bit like a French version of "The Shield" :D Now that's a tough one to understand.
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DVD only (and sold as "Braquo" in UK) AFAIK. Had considered buying the DVDs based on reviews. Is it good then? (Edit: This is still boaty: As visiting yachties it's mportant to know what Les Flics are saying to us...)

Camelia said:
It was the search dogs at the port of entry that impressed me.

Handler told the dog what to sniff and away it went and sniffed it!
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Surely even "Le Francais d'Aujourd'hui" covered dog french. All you need to know is "Oua". The nuances are in the inflexion. And to paraphrase Crosby, Stills and Nash, everybody wags in the same language
 
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Picked up a few words of Hindi when I sailed on Indian crew ships. However, that was 40 years ago, and I've forgot it all now.

Other than that, English and Doric.
 
Comme un native, moi..
French yotties used to think I was one of them. Which as y'all know, is the only way 'in'..

My proudest language mimic tho was being mistaken as a real redneck by the Yanks.. Yessir
 
laika said:
DVD only (and sold as "Braquo" in UK) AFAIK. Had considered buying the DVDs based on reviews. Is it good then? (Edit: This is still boaty: Important to know what Les Flics are saying to us...)
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Yes I liked it, a lot more violent than Engrenage, have you seen the American "The shield", possibly, Vic Mackey and his band of corrupt policemen, dirty politicians, gangsters etc? Braquo is similar but with some French flair.



Another French one is "Les beaux mecs", it's a single season maybe 8, 10 episodes. The story of a former gangster that escapes prison almost against its will, finds himself involuntarily back into the world and has to deal with the good and bad of his past, his golden age of gangsterism during the 50s 60s brought forward into our times. Attaching characters.
Look, if you want, I think we may still have the DVDs somewhere, but as it's my wife that knows what is ours and what we have borrowed from others, if they are ours I can post them to you, you have a look and send them back here when you have finished.
 
Sybarite said:
Imagine being forced to do all your schooling in a language other than your mother tongue. This was the case in the Eastern block countries where the schooling was obligatorily in Russian.
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Not true, Russian was the language imposed upon the Comicom countries as the premier one-you HAD to study Russian to a certain level before you could take another language-providing of course it was available.
In Poland, Czechoslovakia and the DDR the mother tongue was used for normal lessons.
If you think about it-it could never have worked any other way.
Where would the schools have found all those qualified Russian teachers? Every lesson would have been a disaster for those poor at languages.
I speak from personal experience-I have been travelling in the old Comicom countries since 1970 and have many friends in education there-including the interpreter at the Speedway in Zarnivica, Slovakia who was a Headmaster. His wife was a music and mathmatics teacher at a Zarnovica secondary school and subsequently at the University at Banske Bystrica.
Another close friend's brother was a Professor in Prague-he gave his lectures in Czech-when I stayed with him I sat in on one.
 
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guernseyman said:
Some German engineers told why they prefer to talk in English - they cannot think while talking in German, particularly because of the need to hold verbs until the end of a sentence.
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French is for lovers, German is for engineers, English is for lovers, engineers, adventures, poets, inventors, sport, and just about aything else.
 
Sybaris said:
If you understand French you will love this candid camera sketch with Sim from back in the 80's. It has to do with speaking many languages, and it is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhiPsJmKPHU

Cheers,
Per
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A grand classic. Many thanks. One summer evening we were in Bonifacio having dinner on a terrace in the port and we heard this most terrible singing coming from a nearby terrace. It was Sim doing a Karaoke along with Victor Lanoux and Marie-José Nat, well known French film stars.
 
I have some ancestors from way back who conquered 75% of the known world just so that i do not need a foreign language
& just a little more recently my father & grandfather went to war to save me having to learn German
Thanks to them all English is the second most widely spoken language, mandarin being the first.
If i have a problem with the odd ignorant foreigner i just shout louder in english
Does not always work but suits me just fine
 
Daydream believer said:
Thanks to them all English is the second most widely spoken language, mandarin being the first.
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Ehm, at the time of the Invincible Army your ancestors should have invaded and converted the whole of Spain into speaking English.

Just to shut up the several sources that today report Spanish as being the second most widely spoken language in the world :rolleyes:
 
I have spent my 40 years seafaring and shore based marine life studying languages.

I can say "Two beers please, my friends paying" in numerous languages.

At each encounter with foreign seamen I ask them the phrase in their language and then make a note in phonetics in my note book. I have more than a few now.

Watch out in Yoruba (Nigerian) "Funi me tutu" means "bring me a cold one" but "funi me toto" means "bring me the essential essence of a woman" the 'C' word actually! Guess which one I shouted out in mistake when walking into a dockside bar in Appapa, Lagos which was full of business girls?
 
Sybarite said:
I remember going into a factory in Antwep, the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. You could hold a conversation with any of the workers in English.
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Ha ! Ha ! Yes...if you address them in French they sulk and don't reply, though they understand it perfectly.:D
Then you try other languages until you get a hint of a smile...
Then you speak in English and you spontaneously get a response...funny.
 
rotrax said:
Not true, Russian was the language imposed upon the Comicom countries as the premier one-you HAD to study Russian to a certain level before you could take another language-providing of course it was available.
In Poland, Czechoslovakia and the DDR the mother tongue was used for normal lessons.
If you think about it-it could never have worked any other way.
Where would the schools have found all those qualified Russian teachers? Every lesson would have been a disaster for those poor at languages.
I speak from personal experience-I have been travelling in the old Comicom countries since 1970 and have many friends in education there-including the interpreter at the Speedway in Zarnivica, Slovakia who was a Headmaster. His wife was a music and mathmatics teacher at a Zarnovica secondary school and subsequently at the University at Banske Bystrica.
Another close friend's brother was a Professor in Prague-he gave his lectures in Czech-when I stayed with him I sat in on one.
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Ok, I have rechecked with my source who effectively told me that the study of Russian was obligatory from the age of nine onwards and it was up to 2 hours per day, every day. I had understood, wrongly, that all the lessons were given in Russian. From 1970 onwards, it was no longer obligatory.

I apologise.
 
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