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Languages | Pad Patter 9.22.22

HavaDrPepper said:
I only know English since in high school I took 2 years of classes in a "dead" language. I wanted to take French but Mom insisted on Latin. The only thing I remember is "veni, vidi, vici" aka "I came, I saw, I conquered".
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LOL … I wanted to take Latin in high school, but *my* parents insisted that I take French.
 
I studied basic French and GCSE German at school. Can only remember a little bit of it now. My husband comes from a family of linguists. The least linguistic of them speaks 2 foreign languages well, the most about 8. All of them have lived and worked in some of those languages.
 
Well, first of all - I'm Swedish. My English is fairly ok. Then I understand Norwegian. Took German for 3 years in high school, but I don't remember much. I guess I would survive in Germany, I know enough words, but they would have to add the proper grammar themselves. LOL Have black belt in starting to learn languages, and then get bored. So I've started with Spanish, Russian, Finnish and classic greek.

Currently I have Norwegian on my Duolingo. I want to be better at it. It's a language I can hear and understand & sort of speak, but I'm not used to read it. It's kinda similar to Swedish, they just spell words a bit weird. LOL
 
I'm Dutch and our language is horrific to learn for anyone not native, so we're kind of forced to learn multiple foreign languages starting from elementary school. So I've learned German, French, Spanish and English. At a later age I spent some time in Portugal as well and I speak a bit of Portuguese. But for most languages I'm mostly good at listening, reading and writing. Speaking is not my forte....

I currently work at a Uni where I help people work with a learning platform so that's cool! My English is fluent, I am not a person who thinks they're good at things....but I know my English is very good. I get a lot of compliments while traveling. Though, I really have an American English accent. Which is fine but I would really like to also learn to speak more British English. I think its hard because of watching a lot of American tv shows? I did grow up watching the BBC a lot, but it hasn't helped hehe.... Okay, enough rambling haha ;-)
 
Oh, I forgot Dutch. I started with Dutch once too, since we were planning to move there, but that didn't happen. Anyway ... all I remember is "prachtige Grachten" (sp?), because I said I would never be able to pronounce that LOL
 
I took two years of French in high school and remember bits and pieces and can string small phrases together, but definitely not enough to speak it fluently. I also took a couple semesters of German at a local community college when my church choir was planning a trip to Germany, but then 9/11 happened and the trip was canceled because nobody wanted to fly. :(

I am definitely in awe of multi-lingual people. I wish our country started language learning at a much younger age. I think kids can learn and retain much better than high school age kids can.
 
Only English these days unfortunately. I did do one year of French at high school but have forgotten 99% of it now. I do have plans to learn New Zealand Sign Language though once I’m working mainly for professional reasons.
 
umyesh said:
I definitely read Portuguese better than I speak it. My kids all make fun of my pronunciation…
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ohhh...I'd LOVE to have a conversation with you! I love to hear "gringos"(people from other countries, specially from Europe and US) speaking portuguese!! but I must tell you, Duolingo teaches Portuguese from Portugal, it's easier to learn Brazilian Portuguese! =)
 
so, I'm Brazilian, I speak Portuguese. I read and understand English and Italian, and I wish my pronunciation was better, but I can handle writing well ( I think...lol).
I can understand Spanish, it's similar to portuguese and Italian...but speaking is not my best.

I started French via Duolingo and it's much harder that I expected. this language I can't handle very well, unfortunately!
 
Angela Toucan said:
I studied basic French and GCSE German at school. Can only remember a little bit of it now. My husband comes from a family of linguists. The least linguistic of them speaks 2 foreign languages well, the most about 8. All of them have lived and worked in some of those languages.
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That’s very cool your husband comes from a family of linguists. I can’t imagine speaking eight languages.
 
tanteva said:
Well, first of all - I'm Swedish. My English is fairly ok. Then I understand Norwegian. Took German for 3 years in high school, but I don't remember much. I guess I would survive in Germany, I know enough words, but they would have to add the proper grammar themselves. LOL Have black belt in starting to learn languages, and then get bored. So I've started with Spanish, Russian, Finnish and classic greek.

Currently I have Norwegian on my Duolingo. I want to be better at it. It's a language I can hear and understand & sort of speak, but I'm not used to read it. It's kinda similar to Swedish, they just spell words a bit weird. LOL
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I love your black belt comment Eva haha and I never knew the similarity between Norwegian and Swedish so thanks for teaching me something new.
 
Vrielinkie said:
I'm Dutch and our language is horrific to learn for anyone not native, so we're kind of forced to learn multiple foreign languages starting from elementary school. So I've learned German, French, Spanish and English. At a later age I spent some time in Portugal as well and I speak a bit of Portuguese. But for most languages I'm mostly good at listening, reading and writing. Speaking is not my forte....

I currently work at a Uni where I help people work with a learning platform so that's cool! My English is fluent, I am not a person who thinks they're good at things....but I know my English is very good. I get a lot of compliments while traveling. Though, I really have an American English accent. Which is fine but I would really like to also learn to speak more British English. I think its hard because of watching a lot of American tv shows? I did grow up watching the BBC a lot, but it hasn't helped hehe.... Okay, enough rambling haha ;-)
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You are so knowledgeable Hanna! That’s awesome your English so good that you receive compliments; that’s how my husband is with his Spanish.
 
I wish I could speak more languages! Latin would be so cool...

I am fluent in English (usally LOL) - glad I am a native speaker because man, there are too many weird things to learn in it!! I admire you who learn English as an additional language! I took French in high school and a couple university classes. I can read it OK (enough to understand my kids' school work, anyway) but speaking and understanding aren't my forte. You have to speak slowly for me to pick up what you've said. The unfortunate part is that when I've travelled to France or Quebec and want to practise, everyone speaks at least some English so they switch once they peg me as a English speaker.

All four of my kids have done French immersion from Kindergarten. There's a French immersion school just around the corner from us. They definitely have better accents than me but some days...I wonder how much they know LOL!
 
Karen said:
I took two years of French in high school and remember bits and pieces and can string small phrases together, but definitely not enough to speak it fluently. I also took a couple semesters of German at a local community college when my church choir was planning a trip to Germany, but then 9/11 happened and the trip was canceled because nobody wanted to fly. :(

I am definitely in awe of multi-lingual people. I wish our country started language learning at a much younger age. I think kids can learn and retain much better than high school age kids can.
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I wish our country started language learning younger too! My first intro to language class was in seventh grade.
 
littlekiwi said:
Only English these days unfortunately. I did do one year of French at high school but have forgotten 99% of it now. I do have plans to learn New Zealand Sign Language though once I’m working mainly for professional reasons.
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I like your plan to learn sign language Jennifer. I only learned a little bit with my first child and I’ve forgotten it all now.
 
Ferdy said:
ohhh...I'd LOVE to have a conversation with you! I love to hear "gringos"(people from other countries, specially from Europe and US) speaking portuguese!! but I must tell you, Duolingo teaches Portuguese from Portugal, it's easier to learn Brazilian Portuguese! =)
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I’m sure you would get a kick out of my Portuguese Ferdy haha
 
Ferdy said:
so, I'm Brazilian, I speak Portuguese. I read and understand English and Italian, and I wish my pronunciation was better, but I can handle writing well ( I think...lol).
I can understand Spanish, it's similar to portuguese and Italian...but speaking is not my best.

I started French via Duolingo and it's much harder that I expected. this language I can't handle very well, unfortunately!
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I’m sorry French is harder than you expected. I’m sure you’ll catch on eventually.
 
sberkan said:
I wish I could speak more languages! Latin would be so cool...

I am fluent in English (usally LOL) - glad I am a native speaker because man, there are too many weird things to learn in it!! I admire you who learn English as an additional language! I took French in high school and a couple university classes. I can read it OK (enough to understand my kids' school work, anyway) but speaking and understanding aren't my forte. You have to speak slowly for me to pick up what you've said. The unfortunate part is that when I've travelled to France or Quebec and want to practise, everyone speaks at least some English so they switch once they peg me as a English speaker.

All four of my kids have done French immersion from Kindergarten. There's a French immersion school just around the corner from us. They definitely have better accents than me but some days...I wonder how much they know LOL!
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I can’t imagine learning English as a second language either! It is so confusing sometimes!
That’s awesome your kids have done French immersion! My kids have done Portuguese immersion since first grade.
 
I grew up in San Diego so when it came time to choose a language for high school, I picked Spanish. I took it for all four years, plus one more semester in college. It has been useful, even a little here in Virginia. At my peak, after high school, I described my fluency as that of a preschool child (plus I could write short essays!) but now the thing I say the most is "Hablo pocito español" and single words like pointing out the color "verde" to a kindergartener.

I think it's awful that we don't learn second and third languages from young childhood in school here in the U.S. and admire people who are multilingual.
 
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