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Member Survey: What languages can you speak, write, or read?

What languages can you speak, write, or read?

I only know English, though I did take a little French in junior high school, and some Spanish in high school. I can make some basic sentences in Spanish, understand some phrases, and can usually understand or guess the meaning of simple billboards or advertisements in Spanish. I consider myself moderately proficient at French pronunciation. For example, I can often pronounce wine names, types, or labels correctly.

Second question: Why do you have an interest in language?

I think I like language for the sound of it. Most of my language skills are in my ears. I know when something sounds right, even if I don’t know why. My biggest challenges with English are remembering certain rules of punctuation, and remembering the names and functions of the parts of speech. I suck at diagramming sentences. However, I know when something sounds confusing or poorly worded.

I love to listen to poems or audiobooks, too, especially if they are well read, and performed by a British person. I also memorize and recite poems all the time, and I think it must be for the pleasure of hearing them inside my own head once again.

I also appreciate language for its emotive qualities. I can read a sonnet by Shakespeare and be moved to tears, and I think how incredible it is that a man can write a short verse, and some 400 years later it can affect me—or anyone for that fact—to the point of tears. That is the magic of language.

Tags: bilingual, language, reading, speech, trilingual, words, writing

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on August 14, 2009 at 5:14pm

I also enjoy listening to audiobooks for the same reason. Plus, if the narrator is really good, and it's a work of fiction, then it really brings it to life.

I'll check that account. I didn't notice any requests, but maybe I'm stupid.

Don't Sleep... has been posted to A|N several times. A video I think, and maybe in the book club, too. It does sound interesting.

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on August 14, 2009 at 5:47pm

I prefer to read as it helps my retention rate. I have a more difficult time trying to retain information from an audio source. I down load transcripts of documentary programs, so I can better understand what I hear, or watch with subtitles on if they have them.

These days however despite that I actually use audio books and regular ones simultaneously. I have discovered that if I listen with just one ear, I retain the information at a much better rate. Frankly I like the audio books because they are much easier to carry around, then a book or two everywhere I go. I now will read at home to chapter ends and swap off to the audio book version when I am out at work, out on the weekend, or working around the house.

Edit (spelling, structure)

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on August 14, 2009 at 6:15pm

Jaybarti, I like fiction and poetry on audiobook as I can remember it better. Non-fiction is harder to soak-in when it is on audiobook.

As far as editing your response:

I am tempted to put a comma here: I prefer to read, as it helps my retention rate. Otherwise the flow (without a comma) is more appropriate for a sentence like this: I prefer to read while in bed or on the couch. See the difference?

You wrote: I down load...
Correction: Isn't download a single word now? I believe it is.

You wrote: I down load transcripts of documentary programs, so I can better understand what I hear...
Suggestion: I don't think you need the first comma. Should read: I down load transcripts of documentary programs so I can better understand what I hear..., because "so I can better" is a simple continuation of "documentary programs." There is no need for a pause there.

You wrote: ...or watch with subtitles on if they have them.
Clarification: We're talking about audiobooks, but now you are switching to TV. We all know exactly what you mean. It's not confusing. However, I think that the rules of clarity (if there are any) would indicate that you should add the word TV in there. Ex: ...or watch with subtitles on the TV if they have them.

You wrote: These days however despite that I actually use audio books and regular ones simultaneously.
Correction: Read that out loud to yourself. These - days - however - despite - that... That sounds confusing. Perhaps it would be better as: However, despite the fact that I use both audiobooks and regular ones, I have discovered that if I listen with just one ear, I actually retain the information at a much better rate. What do you think of that sentence?

You wrote: Frankly I like the audio books because they are much easier to carry around, then a book or two everywhere I go.
Suggestion: Frankly, I like the audiobooks because they are much easier to carry around with me than a couple of books [are].

You wrote: I now will read at home to chapter ends and swap off to...
Suggestion: Now, I will read at home all the way to a chapter's end, and swap off to the...
Alt sugg: Now, I read at home to where a chapter ends, and then swap off to...

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on August 14, 2009 at 6:24pm

Yeah, I really struggled with that entry, I even hesitated when it came to posting. I knew that a lot of the grammar was rough and not exactly correct.

Thank you as always Dallas, this is why I am here.

The second to last one about the audio books was pretty close to my first draft, I changed it and I am now wondering why.

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on August 14, 2009 at 6:29pm

Don't thank me. That's why I'm here, too. I wish I was as smart as Don.

You wrote: The second to last one about the audio books was pretty close to my first draft, I changed it and I am now wondering why.
Suggestion: The second to the last one about the audiobooks was pretty close to my first draft, but I changed it and now I am wondering why.

I'm fairly certain that you should not separate the words am wondering with another word, like now. I don't think I can recall the name of the rule, but I believe it is not correct.

Permalink Reply by Jaume on August 14, 2009 at 5:43pm

I could read up to 1,200 wpm in my 20's and 30's when I was fully concentrated, and I could "diagonally read" newspaper articles (printed in narrow columns) at least twice as fast while retaining a good enough comprehension of them.

I can't do that anymore. When I try speed reading today, I am so often distracted by my own mental digressions, that I often 'wake up' to realize my eyes continued to scan the text while my thoughts were wandering in another direction.

Paused to check. Around 660 wpm. Not as bad as I feared.

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on August 14, 2009 at 5:49pm

Jaume said: ...when I was fully concentrated...
Correction: You mean: ...when I was fully concentrating...

But to me, fully seems to be a poor word choice, though not an incorrect one by any means. I might be inclinded to say "completely concentrating" instead.

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on August 14, 2009 at 6:04pm

Back in the bad old publishing paste-up days (it wasn't that long ago for some places) you had to learn to read backwards and upside down. I thankfully didn't have to do it for very long, I was hired to setup the computers at my first job in publishing. I was asked to help out during deadline, it was a lot of paste-up, it used to twist my brain a bit though. I got used to reading that way after a few hours, swapping back was an effort.

Permalink Reply by Stephen Moore on August 15, 2009 at 2:05am

What languages can you speak, write, or read?

I can speak only English; Australian English is my particular dialect. I can also read and write English.

I can read, with only a little diffuculty, languages using the Cyrillic alphabet, but have no idea what the words mean.

I studied Italian in high school for two years, but have forgotten pretty much all I did learn.

Why do you have an interest in language?

I don't know, not ever really having thought about the why of it all: I just love language. Idly flipping through a dictionary, going where-ever the words take me, has been an interest of mine since my teens. And no dictionary is worth its salt unless it has etymologies included in the definitions.

I like learning about the history of the English language. Indeed, I would like to be able to read Beowulf in the original Old English (Englisc), and understand it.

There are a few languages I would like to learn, just for the pleasure of learning them: Englisc; Gaeilge; Cymraeg; French; Russian; and a passing interest in Latin.

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on August 15, 2009 at 4:27pm

Can you tell us more about the Cyrillic alphabet, and about Cymraeg? I don't know anything about them.

Permalink Reply by Jaume on August 15, 2009 at 4:47pm

Cymraeg is Welsh for the Welsh language. The Cyrillic alphabet is the one the Russian use.

Permalink Reply by Caitlin Rocco on August 15, 2009 at 6:28pm