Language|Pad Patter 6.22

[bestcee]

I know from checking out your pages in the gallery that a lot of you speak or write in at least one other language.

So, How many languages do you know? What's the primary one you journal in?

And, if like me, your language skills are a little lacking, what language do you wish you could speak?

I learned French in school, and while I'm not good at speaking it, I can read a fair amount of it still. I'd love to learn Chinese if given the opportunity!

 

[michelepixels]

I reached what I called a preschool level of Spanish speaking ability after 4.5 years of studying it in high school and college, and it was refreshed a little bit in middle of the last decade when my kids were little and watched Dora but due to lack of practice I've lost a lot of it.

I would be interested in learning any languages. I just love words in general. Over the years I've learned a few words in French, German, Swedish, and others.

 

[Lindzee]

Greek, French and English are spoken every day in our home. I am only proficient in English, but my sons and my husband speak all three fluently.

 

[Scrapping with Liz]

English and ASL. Working on ASL, definitely not fluent, but I can finally have a decent conversation with my deaf tutor.

I learned a little bit of Mandarin, but boy is that hard! I can count to 10 and I recognized a few phrases while in China...but that's about it!

 

[~Mary]

I am a total loss at languages. I took 4 years of Spanish and have lived in El Paso for over 11 - still can't speak it or understand it. I'm a little better at reading it but my vocabulary is very rusty. Hubby speaks Russian (army trained), some Korean, some Bulgarian, and some Ukranian (self trained). Older daughter has been teaching herself Japanese for several years. My brother is proficient in several - mostly the romance languages - but he has a Master's in German Lit and taught German for a few years before he went to med school. So jealous.
I have always wanted to know Russian but I'm not dedicated enough to learn it.
So English for me. Just English.

 

[enjoyyourpix]

English only. Took French 3 years in HS. I'm not sure why, but my teacher had me self study French 2 over the summer and I took Fr. 3-4 my sophomore and junior year. I dropped out of Fr 5 my senior year. I was struggling with reading novels and writing paragraphs and had a full load with other classes so I said au revoir. Oh, and I did semester of Spanish in college and Italian 1 in HS for fun. Overall, I suck with foreign languages.

 

[Tiff]

We speak English. In high school I studied Spanish for 4 years and was really good at speaking it! Then I never used it and lost it all. Well, kind of lost it all. I've been doing the duolingo app on my phone (off and on) and I've been impressed how much comes back really easily.... Well, the reading part, not so much the speaking part.

 

[kimingvtx]

I can only speak English, but I wish I knew Spanish because I live in Texas! My daughter will be home for a couple months. She can read some old Greek and Hebrew from learning those at seminary! I also don't always understand "cat" although my cat would like me to.

 

[navaja77]

I can speak English and Navajo. English is only spoken in my house since my DH is not Navajo. It's been hard trying to teach Navajo to my kids when we are immersed in an English dominant environment.

 

[IntenseMagic]

I had 4 years of high school Spanish, but it has mostly been lost over the years. I would love to learn another language, just not sure which one it would be

 

[BevG]

I only know English and about 10 or so computer programming languages (although those are now out of date). I tried to learn Latin with the kids a few years back. I don't remember any of it.

 

[scrapsandsass]

I can speak English and Navajo. English is only spoken in my house since my DH is not Navajo. It's been hard trying to teach Navajo to my kids when we are immersed in an English dominant environment.

That is so amazing. Don't give up!!! These languages need to stay alive.

It is so frustrating to me that the US is so intent on expecting everyone in the world to speak English.

I was pretty good with Spanish for a long time, and then fell out of practice. I took several years in high school and then my roommate and I spoke Spanish frequently for some reason. Then a few years later, one of my good friends was Spanish fluent, so we'd talk in Spanish on the way to work (we carpooled). But then I lost a lot of it. I've been refreshing online because I think it is important to be able to learn and communicate with others. I also want to know and be able to teach Kennedy since he is 1/4 Mexican, and even though he has no one around on that side of the family, I want him to know about the language and culture.

When I was in Paris, it was hard because even though I'd try to say a French word, somehow my brain mangled it and Spanish came out instead.

 

[MrsPeel]

I grew up in Portuguese & Spanish, speak read and write both. I never studied English in my life, but ended up being a government interpreter... I also helped in French & Italian (French I studied in school.... like centuries ago) but I have not really spoken much of either, though I know my French saved us in Paris when we took my mum and again in Euro Disney when I took Sarita....
I usually journaled in Portuguese for my Month in Review, or when I have to write down something that won't come out in English, but in general I try journaling in English , even if I will later change it to Portuguese for printing.
Either way, am sure you know, I always explain the page (our at least I try) in the page description. Sometimes I think is a waste of time ...but here I Love learning to know you all through your pages, your stories....I feel closer to even the people I don't much talk one 2 one thanks to that...... I think the page gains a world by the journaling...even though I don't journal in all my pages lately, I end up sometimes adding the journaling for ourselves here later

 

[KarenW]

Having a second Language was such a low priority at our school when I grew up. There were no languages taught after year 8 and those who wanted to study had to go via correspondence courses.

Mu eldest learnt Latin, until year 10 and French until he finished high school, it came in handy on his gap year and surprisingly enough when we travelled through Vietnam. My youngest is studying Chinese and loves it. He is planning to go to China with his class next year.

 

[MrsPeel]

Having a second Language was such a low priority at our school when I grew up. There were no languages taught after year 8 and those who wanted to study had to go via correspondence courses.

Mu eldest learnt Latin, until year 10 and French until he finished high school, it came in handy on his gap year and surprisingly enough when we travelled through Vietnam. My youngest is studying Chinese and loves it. He is planning to go to China with his class next year.

We had Latin in secondary school, I did also till year 10 (or was it 9?) and it helped me when I was trying to learn German (which I gave up LOL) and also helps with most languages, I think kids should study Latin now...

 

[StefanieS]

I speak English but can read and understand Afrikaans and German to some extent.

 

[bestcee]

Took French 3 years in HS.

Most of the French I remember best is not the high school French I took, but the mandatory French in elementary school in Canada. I can totally sing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" in French!

It is so frustrating to me that the US is so intent on expecting everyone in the world to speak English.

I'm excited because I found out that there's a bunch of schools in my area that will start kids with languages ranging from Chinese to Romance languages to Latin starting in 1st grade. It's encouraging to me!

 

[MrsPeel]

So, I was scrapping, and I made a note to come here to say, something that happens a lot to me is that I start writing in English and then switch to Portuguese or Spanish without realizing until is all done...sometimes I even leave it LOL
any of you get this? the ones living in a country that is not your mother tongue?

@bestcee LOL I can sing Au clare de la lune, mon ami pierrot (which I dont know name of the song) and Frere Jacques!!!! I used to be able to sing Edit Piaf and some Jaques Prevert stuff , friends of mine gave music to the petit dejenueur poem...I can't even remember the melody now...
Funny I used to LOVE all things French, as a mater of fact I chose French in secondary school instead of English, these days I don't get to listen to much French stuff...

 

[klee73010]

I speak English. I can read French and Spanish fairly easily. In high school I took Spanish and worked fast food (so I can take orders in Spanish from a McDonald's menu and talk to the Spanish ladies that worked the grill when I as there!), in jr high I had taken French, and I've taken French in college, too. I can sign the alphabet, and am teaching my kids to sign that as well. We did some baby sign language with them as babies, especially with my son, who's ears were constantly infected and delayed his speech a little longer than my daughter's speech development. I have taken a sign language class or two, and can "sing" some songs I learned from church ages ago.

I wish I were more fluent in all 3 of those, Spanish, French and sign language.

I was going to suggest DuoLingo app, but I see Tiffany had already mentioned it!

Hubby took Japanese for a semester and would love to learn it again. I have a story to scrap about that, actually... my tattoo has my name in Japanese on my back, and he read it, just as our friends were introducing us to each other. Hearing someone read my name in Japanese was such a shock, my first look at him was actually in disbelief and total amazement. only one other person has ever read it on my back to know it was my name, without me telling them... and that second person was actually just a few months ago... friend of a friend of my husband's, so I didn't really know him. Hubby's reaction to that was similar to: "no.... that's my game, dude!"

 

[jesskab]

I've taken Latin, basic Mandarin, Ancient Greek, Italian, & French. I was raised by my Mexican-American single mother & her parents. My husband is Guatemalan.
What does this all mean? I speak English comfortably & a bunch of other stuff uncomfortably. I can carry on a conversation in French. I can still read Latin and Greek. I understand Spanish very well, but get embarrassed speaking it because I sometimes mix up my tenses. But, at work I do take calls in Spanish. So, I guess it's good enough. We use English & Spanish with our kids.