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Languages Day| Pad Patter Wed July 26th

Angela Toucan

Angela Toucan

I keep looking for THAT wardrobe
Pollywog
Joined
Nov 6, 2017
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Here in Europe it's the European Day of Languages. We have a lot of languages in Europe. Even in the UK, each Kingdom has it's own National language - English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish Gaelic. Although the latter two are not spoken as much. English is the overall National Language for the United Kingdom.

At school I learnt to speak and read German, but I don't remember very much, and I picked up some Welsh when I was at University in Wales.

How many languages do you speak? Which ones?
 
English only.

I wanted to take French in high school and my mother was adamant that I take Latin. So I took Latin for 2 years. After that I was burned out on learning foreign languages. Then in college a foreign language was not required for my degree so I didn't take one.

As of this time of my life I have not traveled anywhere that doesn't speak English so it hasn't been a big deal.
 
I speak English and some rudimentary highschool Spanish. I am working on getting Italian citizenship so I've also been learning Italian through Duolingo. I am pretty good with languages (or I was until I got old and my brain stopped working :giggle ) so I try to learn a little bit before going to any country that we visit. So far, I've picked up very small bits (e.g., hello, how are you, thank you) of Indonesian, French, Croatian, German, Italian and Swedish).
 
English ... I took French in high school but the only thing I remember is part of dialog #1 ... Bonjour Jeanne, comment vas tu? Tres bien merci, vas tu? ...

I also picked up a little German when my xDH was stationed in Germany (1973-75), but it's mostly gone beyond the servicemen's favorite "Ein bier bitte." I don't even drink beer, but that was the first phrase everyone seemed to learn, lol!!!
 
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I only speak English. Two of our kids learned Spanish for their LDS missions, and my husband learned Swedish for his. I took Spanish in high school, but it didn't stick. You have to use it or you lose it, I guess.
 
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keepscrappin said:
I only speak English my two of our kids learned Spanish for their LDS missions and my husband learned Swedish for his. I took Spanish in high school, but it didn't stick. You have to use it or you lose it, I guess.
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I agree ... if you don't use a skill you quickly lose it.
 
My native language is Swedish and I can manage English ok. I took French in Junior High and German in High school. I only remember a bit French, German is a bit easier, at least to read and understand, I don’t speak it well.
 
I'm only fluent in English pero puedo hablar un pocito español (but I can speak a tiny bit of Spanish). I studied it for all four years of high school in the late 1980's plus one more semester in college and have had opportunities to practice it throughout the years, especially while I was living in southern California, where I grew up. Last spring, a new first grade student came to one of the classes I worked in. Fresh from Peru, she barely spoke any English. I worked with her every day and was amazed how much Spanish I was able to remember and use. I asked her one day, "Hablo español bien?" and she rocked her hand back and forth, saying, "Más o menos." More or less. :lol I know I sound like a toddler learning to talk when I speak Spanish.
 
I pretend to be fluent in English. My english major husband would disagree, but hey, if Shakespeare can make up new words, why can't I? :whistle

I can understand some French since I learned it in elementary school. And I can still sing "Qui a peur du la méchant loup?" in French (loosely: who's afraid of the big bad wolf), and other little ditties, along with the Canadian National Anthem. Although, I haven't learned the lyrics change, so I wouldn't sing it quite modern day. I can read French okay. And I can understand some Spanish, but only because French and Spanish have a few similarities. Oh! I can count to 10 in German because my neighbor taught me in grade school. I used to be able to in Chinese Mandarin too, but I forgot.

Alas, I envy other countries and their focus on learning languages young.
 
I’ve learned a little German and Brazilian Portuguese but I understand more when I’m reading it than when I’m listening to someone speak it.
 
English for me though I did learn French during my first year of high school but using it or remembering it twenty plus years down the track....not a chance!
 
bestcee said:
I pretend to be fluent in English. My english major husband would disagree, but hey, if Shakespeare can make up new words, why can't I? :whistle
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:D
English is an evolving language, or so I'm told. The Oxford English Dictionary has many many editions..
 
I can only speak English. I did take French in high school, but then haven't used it since much, so that's just gone. Sigh. I wish I could speak another language! I'm so impressed with the people here who do!
 
I'm Dutch, so naturally that's my first language. It also matters which part of The Netherlands you're in, cause there's a wide variety of dialects in our little country. Even alone in the province of Noord-Brabant where I'm from there're many differences in "our" dialect. Besides that, I learned to speak/read and write English, German and French. And I've also picked up a little Italian when on vacation in Rome and Tuscany.
 
I love languages and wish there were enough hours in the day, and $ for travel to practice, to be able to learn them all! I speak English as my first language and also speak Spanish, though I have no one at home to use it with and no longer work in the job where I used it everyday so it's a little bit rusty. I tried convincing my daughter to take Spanish for her high school language but she wanted to take French. So I learned French instead of her learning Spanish. Lol... I've been learning for almost 2 years now but I have a long long way to go. I would love to learn ASL one day! I'm hard of hearing and think it would probably be wise to do so too but I need some clones of myself to take that on!
 
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