Language studiesFollow

I speak English and remember just enough high school French to know what "au lait" means.

Flea speaks Spanish & English fluently, some Quechua, a little Arabic and just enough Italian to feel frustrated when visiting Italy. That's all from living different places or from family. She speaks a little school level French as well (which I suppose is easier when you have Spanish and Italian going for you).

I appreciate your frustration with learning a new language by yourself. I once tried learning Polish from some books & tapes and found it near impossible to pick up more than a phrase or two. Likewise Spanish. For as much as the ads say "The way you learned in school isn't the way to learn a language!", it's the only way that actually stuck with me even a little.

I'm actually working on French right now, after studying Spanish occasionally for the past few years. I can read and write it passably, but I can't roll my r's properly and I still speak with a southern drawl, which makes me nigh on incomprehensible. I can order food in Miami and make Colombian girls uncomfortable, but that's about it.

I happen to have a few acquaintances from Poland, they seem to be an interesting group of people. I intend to study Russian at university, for career type reasons. As difficult as Slavic languages are said to be, it seems pragmatic to learn the most common one.

Does flea not come here anymore?

Edited, Jun 18th 2011 9:01pm by nonwto

English naitive
Japanese used to be fluent but has gotten rusty (studied in HS/college, been twice)
Spanish was always horrible (but I still got A's in high school)
French is just good enough to get me in trouble (learned cooking/friends)
Chinese is just goof enough to not look like an idiot in front of friend's/ex-GF's parents


Books/software are ok to get basics down, but you really need to live where ever or watch a lot of tv in that language to get how people actually talk vs "proper" language.

English - my native tongue
Spanish - I understand a lot more than I speak. Between growing up with my mom and grandmother speaking Spanish to eachother most of the time and a little instruction in school, I can generally get the gist of what people are saying to me.
French - Same basic response as for Spanish, though less, since I only have a few years of high school classes that I barely remember, but I can usually recall what a word means if I hear it.
Japanese - I've learned to pick out a number of common words and phrases, but I'm nowhere near the level with it that I am with Spanish.

I speak fluent English, enough Spanish to hold a brief conversation, and I can order a beer in Italian, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Korean, and Portuguese.

Native English, which I had a hard time learning, so I speak Elnese and get a lot of strange looks. I write in Elnese, which makes using a spell checker risky. (see my cookie post for good example.)

I spent 4 years trying to learn French in middle and high school and can say I don't speak french. 3 of those years was trying to past French 1. I never learn to write in french, but I can noodle my way reading some French. We had French language Monopoly game, that I was able to translate all but one chance card.

It will be quite an adventure if I go to Europe trying to communicate, since I lip read a lot and when I'm tired, my English become scrambled.

My father traveled the world for IBM back in the 80s; he could say "Two beers, please" in about ten different languages. He said it's all you really need.

I speak English fluently. I know a smattering of words and phrases in Spanish (you almost can't get by without it in America today), German (currently studying this off and on), and Japanese (mostly due to rabid anime fandom). I can generally understand AAVE, but I refuse to speak it. Also I know Visual Basic (hey, it's a language, too).

What a coincidence, I'm looking for sailors.

I speak Southern.

Y'all.

Just English. Back in college I would say I was at least proficient, if not fluent, in Spanish. Over the weekend I tried to talk to a girl from Mexico, and totally failed. I had most of the words, but sentence structure and conjugation were terrible. I miss my long-lost linguistic loquacity

I work for the largest call center company in the world, founded and headquartered in France, with offices on 6 continents and in 90 countries. I speak the only language allowed in our boardroom - English.

The day may come when something else is needed, but until it is I'm happy to reply, "No speaky, Pablo."

No, but they're too busy out in the field installing it, so their American bosses answer the phone and pay.

Because in practice, it's the international language of business.

Why would you allow other languages in the boardroom?

They're probably not very good at international business then.

I guess you don't have to worry about running an international business any time soon.

I'm qualified. I speak English.

Does that rule apply only for official business or "small talk" also.

That would suck. I can understand official talk, but anything other than that is just ignorant and wrong.

We are talking about Moe here, aren't we?

I was speaking in general. Had I been speaking about Moe, there would be no ambiguity and simply be one rule that fits all scenarios.

Yea, I don't think it was right of the prof to get mad, but it was certainly solid advice, had it actually been delivered as advice.

That's assuming that the person doesn't already speak good English. In this case, she does.

English by birth, French in high school, German in college, Japanese for the hell of it at JASH (Japan America Society of Houston).