The Foreign Languages Discussion Thread

[Wonderlicious]

Okay, I understand that we've had topics like these in the past, but this one is (or at least my aim for it) is to be a bit more serious and indepth then things like this (as funny as that is, it's "quite unsavoury humour" ).

Anyway, as somebody doing a degree in foreign languages (French and German), I thought that it would be quite interesting to know your experiences with them. I started to learn some French in primary (sorry, elementary for you Yanks ) school, but they were after-school informal lessons, and were really just learning basic nouns grouped to certain themes, as well as simple songs and basic expressions. It wasn't until I was eleven and started high-school (if you haven't already guessed, the school systems are slightly different depending on where in the world you are) that I started to learn French. In the first year (1999-2000), we only learnt French, but for the second year, we could choose another foreign language (German or Spanish), and I decided to go with German.

The rest as they say, is history. I've ended up doing French and German at university, and am now in the middle of a year on the continent compulsory to the degree. For the French part, I took part in the Erasmus exchange in Strasbourg (lovely city and region, but to be honest abysmal university), whilst I'm now starting an internship in Munich. I have to say, though, that I feel the lesser emphasis placed on German (and perhaps Spanish, respectively) has caused that to not come as naturally to me as French. In honesty, despite English technically being a Germanic language, a lot of its vocabulary (especially for more complicated terms) is essentially French, so I suppose that's also a factor.

I also know some basic Dutch (having rather absent-mindedly decided to do it as an optional module at uni and again in Strasbourg), but to be honest (and no offence to the Dutch), I don't think that I should further proceed with it and rather look into potentially another language if I ever felt the urge to learn one. I would say for that either Italian, Danish or Spanish. I know some basic words in those three though. I was actually going to do GCSE Italian at school during the A-Level period, but the teacher who taught it got pregnant and left, thus erasing any chance of that. I have actually bought a BBC "learn basic Italian" kit, though I can't help but think that perhaps Spanish would be more useful to learn, though.

P.S. I'm just wondering what languages are mainly learnt in the US? I'm guessing that Spanish is quite popular due to the proximity with Latin America, and French probably for old time's sake, but what about other languages? In particular, German.

[PatrickvD]

Dus als ik iets in het Nederlands typ dan kun je dat ook echt lezen?

und auf Deutch?

And for the heck of it, I shall conclude in English where my trilingual knowledge ends.

[KubrickFan]

Goh, toch meer Nederlands hier op dit forum dan ik dacht .

Well, I was taught French, German and English at high school, obviously. The first two were relatively easy, until the grammar came. Somehow I failed that with both languages. And now most of it is forgotten. I can also blame some bad teachers for that.
I more or less grew up with English. Just by watching tv and movies I was able to pick a lot up at a very young age. When I was taught English at elementary school, it was far too easy for me. It stayed that way during high school as well.
I can now read English books fairly easy, and movies as well (without subtitles most of the time). Communicating in English isn't that hard for me either, but that's mostly on the internet. So I'm really bilingual. I don't mind that at all. It's better to know two languages proficiently, than three languages just basically. But that's my opinion.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

Well, where I am in Elementary French and Kwakwalla are taught. Well, when I was in school we mainly learned Kwakwalla (a Native Canadian language) and then in our last year French was started as well. Through Middle School the same two languages were offered. In High School Spanish and Japanese were also offered.

I'm somewhat good with Kwakwalla, pitiful with French and only know a handful of phrases and words in Spanish and Japanese. I do intend to learn Japanese fully though, as well as German if I can find the time.

[PeterPanfan]

The languages available to our high school are:

French
German
Spanish
Latin
Japanese

A lot of my friends are taking German, though I'm taking French. German was my second choice, though.

[Jack Skellington]

I can write names in Arabic, most people say that they look good, especially when they're tattoos.

[The Tickler]

Great thread!

French is my first language, English is my second, and now that I'm doing a degree in foreign languages, I've been able to add Spanish and Italian to my repertoire. Mandarin Chinese, too, but having already forgotten most of what I learnt during those two semesters last year, it's not really something I'd add to my résumé.

I've been taking Spanish at the University of Ottawa for the past four years now. My knowledge of French made it much easier to learn the language, but at the same time, the little differences between the two (like with the verbs "to be" and "to like") got me confused on quite a few occasions. And then I started taking Italian a couple of years later, which left me a hundred times more confused! I really should've gone with German or Russian for my minor, but being 1/4 Italian myself, I thought it would be a great way to get closer to my family.

My program doesn't require studies abroad, but it's definitely something I'd be interested in doing. I was in Europe for two months last summer, spending one month near Florence for a study program with the university and another in Madrid teaching English to Spanish children at a summer camp. Best experience ever, bar none!

What are you planning to do with your degree, Wonderlicious? Frankly, I can only see three career options for myself: teacher, translator or bum living in a cardboard box.

Well, when I was in school we mainly learned Kwakwalla (a Native Canadian language)

That's so awesome! There are many Native Canadians where I'm from, but for some reason their languages were never taught at our schools. I guess you can't expect much from a town of 6000 people...

[Mooky]

^^ Isn't Arabic official language in Dubai?

Over here, we have three official languages (Bosnian, Serbian & Croatian), even though they're practically one and the same (think British English, American English & Australian English). Yet, people insist on dividing them, I guess it makes them feel safer not to "mix" with others

As for foreign languages, I've been learning English since 4th grade. Like KubrickFan said, movies and TV shows were pretty helpful, you learn much more words, grammar and phrases that way. I've also learned French, German, Latin and Italian in high school, and I know just enough of them to understand what's written/spoken. It's pretty easy with Romance languages, they all have their roots in Latin, so if you learn one, there's a big chance you'll learn another one easily. Oh, I know a bit of Spanish too, but nothing more than your usual soap-opera stuff, like "Cayate, estupida" or "Bruja maldita" .

[Jack Skellington]

Yes Arabic is the official language over here, God knows how much I envy you for all those languages that you know Mooky !

[Dottie]

My first language is German and I've been learning English since I was about 10. I'd say my English is very good, since I hardly read any books in German anymore if they were originally written in English and I have no problems at all talking in English and stuff. It started to feel "just normal" when I spent 5 months in SC in 2006 and I've been told my accent isn't too bad either.
Now, that I am getting a degree in English, I guess once I am finished, I might probably be as perfect as a person can be for whom English is their second language. I know I might never be as good as someone whose native language is English, but I've always wished to come close to that.

I also had French in school for 4 1/2 years, but I haven't had any French lessons for about 3 years now, so I've forgotten a lot, but I guess I could survive if I were to go to France or any country where French is spoken. I haven't forgotten everything. My French actually was good, French is just really complicated I think and so I forgot a lot of the grammar pretty quickly.

My Spanish however isn't really that great. I had 3 years of Spanish lessons in school, but somehow I have a feeling Spanish just isn't my cup of tea. I have a really hard time learning the grammar and the words, so I think I might just stop thinking about ever learning how to speak Spanish.

I would really like to improve my French again and I would really like to learn Dutch, since to me it always seems like a nice mix of German and English (no offence), the two languages I feel most comfortable speaking.

[Wonderlicious]

What are you planning to do with your degree, Wonderlicious? Frankly, I can only see three career options for myself: teacher, translator or bum living in a cardboard box.

Erm, yeah, one of those.

[littlefuzzy]

Umm... The box! Monty, I'll take the box!!




While I had Spanish in high school, I don't remember a lot of it. I am trying to learn Japanese, however (as are probably 90% of other anime fans, to varying degrees of success!)

My sister-in-law is Iranian, but I've really had no desire to learn any Farsi (I'm not really sure how close that is to Arabic.) She's been over here for probably close to 40 years, so her English is great.

[Mooky]

Yes Arabic is the official language over here, God knows how much I envy you for all those languages that you know Mooky !

Haha, "know" is a strong word, it should be more like "languages that you're acquainted with" .

[pap64]

Me being a Puertorican my native language is Spanish. I learned English through an unusual method; I was self taught as a kid using subtitled movies.

As a kid, I realized that the letters at the bottom of the screen were translations of what the characters were saying on screen. So, I learned to associate the English words with the Spanish subtitles.

For example, if the character on screen said "My house" and the subtitle said "Mi casa", I assumed that the English word for casa was house, and the word of "mi" was "My". Little by little I kept associating words so by the time I reached 5th grade I had a somewhat extensive vocabulary.

In Junior High I learned to hone my conversational English, and learned the proper words to use in a conversation. I started using an English learning kit, but then I kept going on my own. By the time I reached High School I completely understood the English language.

My accent, however, keeps me away from properly speaking in clear English, but for someone like me who grew up away from proper English speaking people I say I did pretty damn well .