Languages?
- Thread starter jjjjustin
- Start date
Nic
Strata Poster
I think I do fairly well at English.
I got an A in Spanish at GCSE, but that was 10 years ago. I still know enough to get by, just. I can usually read a page and get the gist of what's going on, I'm just not very good at remembering enough to actually speak or write it. Also, all correct tenses of verbs and sentence structure have gone out la ventana. Like I say though, I can survive for a week in Spain (i.e., buy food, drink, transport and accommodation) mostly without resorting to English.
I know a tiny bit of French too, but its fairly pitiful. I'm more-or-less limited to please, thank you, the numbers 1-10 and a few random disjointed words that are completely pointless. I studied it at school for 2 years, but hated every minute of it. I can order my lunch in French, but that's about it.
I got an A in Spanish at GCSE, but that was 10 years ago. I still know enough to get by, just. I can usually read a page and get the gist of what's going on, I'm just not very good at remembering enough to actually speak or write it. Also, all correct tenses of verbs and sentence structure have gone out la ventana. Like I say though, I can survive for a week in Spain (i.e., buy food, drink, transport and accommodation) mostly without resorting to English.
I know a tiny bit of French too, but its fairly pitiful. I'm more-or-less limited to please, thank you, the numbers 1-10 and a few random disjointed words that are completely pointless. I studied it at school for 2 years, but hated every minute of it. I can order my lunch in French, but that's about it.
I speak English, fairly well I hope!
I got a B in GCSE French, but I think that my ability has dropped a lot more since then! I find reading French much easier than speaking it though. I find the conversation situation difficult because I'm not great at listening to 'fast' (well it's normal for them, but you know what I mean) French and my vocabulary isn't really good enough. Don't forget that all I was taught in GCSE French was basically the contents of my pencil case! Having said that, I can just about get by reading French and having brief conversations (think being served at a till).
So I'm only going to put one for the sake of this topic.
This pretty much sums up my view on languages:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZRf0ZmxAQ[/youtube]
Knowing more languages may be useful, but it doesn't necessarily make you smarter.
I got a B in GCSE French, but I think that my ability has dropped a lot more since then! I find reading French much easier than speaking it though. I find the conversation situation difficult because I'm not great at listening to 'fast' (well it's normal for them, but you know what I mean) French and my vocabulary isn't really good enough. Don't forget that all I was taught in GCSE French was basically the contents of my pencil case! Having said that, I can just about get by reading French and having brief conversations (think being served at a till).
So I'm only going to put one for the sake of this topic.
This pretty much sums up my view on languages:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZRf0ZmxAQ[/youtube]
Knowing more languages may be useful, but it doesn't necessarily make you smarter.
My English is middling to good (I like to think), but not great. Other than that, I can get away with conversing in sign language at a basic level - enough to get what I want to say across, but I'm not good at reading it (you don't listen to it :lol: ).
Time for an early morning anecdote
I was in Paris one evening (six years ago, almost to the day :lol: ) with the family (sans maxi-minor_Furie who hadn't been created yet) and Mr Clam. We were at DLRP, but had headed into Paris for the evening.
We were waiting for the train to take us back at about 10:00 p.m. and we're in a grotty, nasty station. The station was deserted and we had to kind of break through the barriers to get in, but the timetable said the train would stop here, so we thought it wouldn't be an issue. We got to the platform fine though (avoiding all manner of Cthuloid beasties I'm sure).
I needed a wee, so headed off to find the bogs. My French is similar to Nic's, Odd, disjointed words I can't seem to forget. Mr Clam claimed to be okay at French, so came with me to help out (finding the toilets, etc, not to help me have a wee). Being a responsible adult (stop sniggering at the back), I had everyone's train tickets, so it wa spretty important I made my way back before the train arrived. We had 30 minutes or so.
So I manage to find to world's most disgusting "auto-loo" out by the entrance to the station. It's dark, nasty and deserted (except for me and Mr Clam).
I do my business and we start to head back the way we came. Heading down the stairs towards our platform, we meet a gaggle of gendarme - armed French police.
We both "allo" to them and smile. They look sour faced, hold up their arms and start battering us in angry French.
It's one of those moments in your life when you know that things have the potential to go downhill particularly quickly, no matter how happy a disposition you put on... In fact, a happy disposition is likely to make things worse, as we discovered...
Obviously, it became very rapidly apparent that we spoke very little French, and they spoke absolutely no English (or chose not to). Words like "town hall", "right", "left", "rabbit" and "chicken" aren't much use in a conversation with an angry policeman - I suggest you try to explain what you're doing in a dark Parisian station late at night, to men coming from a toilet, both in biker jackets... Thankfully using the above words I know in French, "we've been to a Village People fancy dress party and popped to the loo to do our business" can't be said...
The word "billet" came up from one of the police chaps, and I know this word too... It means "ticket"! Hurrah!
I have tickets! I have eight tickets for all the family_furie (extended) waiting on the platform somewhere in the depths below us.
I produce them all and offer them to the police man.
He suddenly gets very angry.
He unclips his gun holster and puts his hand on the gun hilt.
I am suddenly very glad I went to the toilet just a few minutes ago.
He starts to yell and points angrily at the tickets. I just start to crap myself. Mr Clam isn't doing much good as my official "I know some French, I'll help you out" guide. I suspect he too is crapping himself.
I remember breaking through the barriers to get on to the platform. The sinking feeling gets rapidly worse...
I now have to try and explain (using town hall, right, left, rabbit and chicken) that I have a family waiting on the station below, and that's why I have eight tickets (two of them children's tickets). I have to explain the train is coming, I hope... It's not working... "rabbit, left, townhall, right, rabbit, right, chicken?"
I remember another word... Enfant! Child... Point to me and say "moi enfant!" Apparently saying I'm a child in piss poor French isn't endearing me to this guy, who it now seems is firmly committed to pistol whipping the ignorant Brit in front of him... And probably pissing on his battered body afterwards (it's amazing how quickly the mind can run through these situational outcomes).
So, tension is high, the Brits are about to get pistol whipped for some kind of ticket fraud/black market ticket sales and it's looking like family_furie will be enjoying the rest of the holiday without furie (we don't mind being sans Mr Clam ).
Suddenly, one of the gendarme seems to remember she actually speaks English. She's understood the whole exchange. She rapid fires French off to the guy in my face, who smiles, gives me back my tickets and then waves me on past him.
Just like that. What bunch of bastards :lol: They all say good night and wave as we (covered in many varied types of bodily fluid and excretions) make our way back to the platform, just in time for the train to pull in.
I assume it's dull on that duty, and I can imagine them having a good laugh about it later on at the station... I hope that guy gets kidney stones!
So yeah, my French isn't too good and it's made me very nervous about foreign travel :lol:
Nic said:
Time for an early morning anecdote
I was in Paris one evening (six years ago, almost to the day :lol: ) with the family (sans maxi-minor_Furie who hadn't been created yet) and Mr Clam. We were at DLRP, but had headed into Paris for the evening.
We were waiting for the train to take us back at about 10:00 p.m. and we're in a grotty, nasty station. The station was deserted and we had to kind of break through the barriers to get in, but the timetable said the train would stop here, so we thought it wouldn't be an issue. We got to the platform fine though (avoiding all manner of Cthuloid beasties I'm sure).
I needed a wee, so headed off to find the bogs. My French is similar to Nic's, Odd, disjointed words I can't seem to forget. Mr Clam claimed to be okay at French, so came with me to help out (finding the toilets, etc, not to help me have a wee). Being a responsible adult (stop sniggering at the back), I had everyone's train tickets, so it wa spretty important I made my way back before the train arrived. We had 30 minutes or so.
So I manage to find to world's most disgusting "auto-loo" out by the entrance to the station. It's dark, nasty and deserted (except for me and Mr Clam).
I do my business and we start to head back the way we came. Heading down the stairs towards our platform, we meet a gaggle of gendarme - armed French police.
We both "allo" to them and smile. They look sour faced, hold up their arms and start battering us in angry French.
It's one of those moments in your life when you know that things have the potential to go downhill particularly quickly, no matter how happy a disposition you put on... In fact, a happy disposition is likely to make things worse, as we discovered...
Obviously, it became very rapidly apparent that we spoke very little French, and they spoke absolutely no English (or chose not to). Words like "town hall", "right", "left", "rabbit" and "chicken" aren't much use in a conversation with an angry policeman - I suggest you try to explain what you're doing in a dark Parisian station late at night, to men coming from a toilet, both in biker jackets... Thankfully using the above words I know in French, "we've been to a Village People fancy dress party and popped to the loo to do our business" can't be said...
The word "billet" came up from one of the police chaps, and I know this word too... It means "ticket"! Hurrah!
I have tickets! I have eight tickets for all the family_furie (extended) waiting on the platform somewhere in the depths below us.
I produce them all and offer them to the police man.
He suddenly gets very angry.
He unclips his gun holster and puts his hand on the gun hilt.
I am suddenly very glad I went to the toilet just a few minutes ago.
He starts to yell and points angrily at the tickets. I just start to crap myself. Mr Clam isn't doing much good as my official "I know some French, I'll help you out" guide. I suspect he too is crapping himself.
I remember breaking through the barriers to get on to the platform. The sinking feeling gets rapidly worse...
I now have to try and explain (using town hall, right, left, rabbit and chicken) that I have a family waiting on the station below, and that's why I have eight tickets (two of them children's tickets). I have to explain the train is coming, I hope... It's not working... "rabbit, left, townhall, right, rabbit, right, chicken?"
I remember another word... Enfant! Child... Point to me and say "moi enfant!" Apparently saying I'm a child in piss poor French isn't endearing me to this guy, who it now seems is firmly committed to pistol whipping the ignorant Brit in front of him... And probably pissing on his battered body afterwards (it's amazing how quickly the mind can run through these situational outcomes).
So, tension is high, the Brits are about to get pistol whipped for some kind of ticket fraud/black market ticket sales and it's looking like family_furie will be enjoying the rest of the holiday without furie (we don't mind being sans Mr Clam
).Suddenly, one of the gendarme seems to remember she actually speaks English. She's understood the whole exchange. She rapid fires French off to the guy in my face, who smiles, gives me back my tickets and then waves me on past him.
Just like that. What bunch of bastards :lol: They all say good night and wave as we (covered in many varied types of bodily fluid and excretions) make our way back to the platform, just in time for the train to pull in.
I assume it's dull on that duty, and I can imagine them having a good laugh about it later on at the station... I hope that guy gets kidney stones!
So yeah, my French isn't too good and it's made me very nervous about foreign travel :lol:
BetaKitten
Mega Poster
I really can't say i speak any more than english. Though i can get along with some basic French, German and Spanish. Oh and a few bits of Russian... (Can't read it though!!)
Does l337 speak count? :wink:
Does l337 speak count? :wink:
A
Anonymous
Guest
Let's see here...
I speak and understand:
Swedish - obviously
English - from 4:th to 12:th grade
German - from 7:th to 11:th grade, even though my speaking abilities have gone down since then
Japanese - studied it for half a year at the University, so I have a basic understanding of the language, I know enough to survive in Japan
I understand:
Norwegian - I don't need to speak it since it's so similar to Swedish which they understand perfectly
Danish - same thing as with Norwegian, but a bit harder to understand
Written Dutch - almost German, don't get me started on the talking bit...
(Icelandic - have similarities with the other Scandinavian languages so I could probalby figure out some of it, but I have too little experience with it to say for certain)
Then I know a few phrases and basic words in a handful of other languages which can be useful to impress people
So say 6 or so languages...
I speak and understand:
Swedish - obviously
English - from 4:th to 12:th grade
German - from 7:th to 11:th grade, even though my speaking abilities have gone down since then
Japanese - studied it for half a year at the University, so I have a basic understanding of the language, I know enough to survive in Japan
I understand:
Norwegian - I don't need to speak it since it's so similar to Swedish which they understand perfectly
Danish - same thing as with Norwegian, but a bit harder to understand
Written Dutch -
almost German, don't get me started on the talking bit...(Icelandic - have similarities with the other Scandinavian languages so I could probalby figure out some of it, but I have too little experience with it to say for certain)
Then I know a few phrases and basic words in a handful of other languages which can be useful to impress people
So say 6 or so languages...
MinteButtons
Mega Poster
I speak English, obviously.
I've been doing French for 5 years and Spanish for just over a year.
I've been doing French for 5 years and Spanish for just over a year.
Ollie
CF Legend
I'm terrible with learning languages. I've had lessons in French, German, Spanish and Welsh. Although I seem to forget everything I've learnt in the lesson as soon as I step through the door.
I'd love to learn another language though and actually remember it. Everyone says all these little phrases in other languages and I have to ask what it means.
I'd love to learn another language though and actually remember it. Everyone says all these little phrases in other languages and I have to ask what it means.
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
English and a good bit of French, only because I was forced to learn it for nine years! I tried teaching myself German, but failed.
My English is passable I suppose.
I got an A in French at GCSE, and then a C at A' level. Back then (12 years ago) my French was definitely at a conversational level, but it's really gone down the toilet since then, basically due to not using it for over 10 years.
However, I found that when I went to Paris a couple of times in the last 18 months, I had no issues with communicating in French on the "situational" level: shopping, trains, directions, restaurants etc.
Korean? Hmmmm, it should have been a lot better than it was given how long I lived there, and what I did know has very quickly disappeared since I left. I never really studied it, but picked up a lot. Basically, my vocabulary is pretty good, but I never studied the grammar of it. I can read and pronounce it almost perfectly, but I can only really understand about 25% of what I read. Again, I would have very few problems in the functional use of the language (getting around, shopping etc), but an actual conversation wouldn't happen.
With Japanese I only really got as far as the basic greetings/introductions and counting a bit. I'd love to learn more of it though. I just think it sounds really cool, and apparently my pronunciation was really good.
I got an A in French at GCSE, and then a C at A' level. Back then (12 years ago) my French was definitely at a conversational level, but it's really gone down the toilet since then, basically due to not using it for over 10 years.
However, I found that when I went to Paris a couple of times in the last 18 months, I had no issues with communicating in French on the "situational" level: shopping, trains, directions, restaurants etc.
Korean? Hmmmm, it should have been a lot better than it was given how long I lived there, and what I did know has very quickly disappeared since I left. I never really studied it, but picked up a lot. Basically, my vocabulary is pretty good, but I never studied the grammar of it. I can read and pronounce it almost perfectly, but I can only really understand about 25% of what I read. Again, I would have very few problems in the functional use of the language (getting around, shopping etc), but an actual conversation wouldn't happen.
With Japanese I only really got as far as the basic greetings/introductions and counting a bit. I'd love to learn more of it though. I just think it sounds really cool, and apparently my pronunciation was really good.
jjjjustin12 said:
fixedjjjjustin12 said:
I speak 4 languages fairly well - German, English, Dutch & Spanish. I'm fluent in German & English, but understand both Dutch & Spanish better than I speak either one. My Dutch is a bit rusty since I haven't lived there since 1981, but I've had no problem understanding any Dutch I've heard since then. And you really can't get by as an American soccer reporter without understanding Spanish. I also understand quite a bit of French too, but haven't had to speak it much since the late 1990s.
For those of you wanting to learn German, don't waste your time. Spanish or Mandarin Chinese are much wiser choices IMO.