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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.
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
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bill E on -
Yes, and the subsystems of languages--the sound system, the word-construction system, and the sentence-construction system--work very mathematically (or at least can be described that way). But in real use, as you noted, it is communicative competence that counts, and damn the rules! But we still recognize and admire unusual facility with language.
As I'm sure you know, "rouge" is French for red, so the Khmer Rouge was the name of the communist movement in Cambodia, which, in Khmer, is known as Kampuchea. In English, we almost always use "Cambodia" for the name of the country and "Cambodian" for the name of the language. Also note what Jaume has to say below. -
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Permalink Reply by Femina Irata on -
I speak English natively. I started taking Spanish my freshman year of high school (5 or 6 years ago); my pronunciation is good, my reading is almost fluent, writing is kind of clumsy, and my speech goes anywhere from pretty fluid to "duuuuuuuhhhh..." depending on the topic. I'm also studying French as of recently, mostly so that I can read French literature in the original. I've taught myself little bits of a lot of other languages, and some stuck. Eventually, I'd like to learn a few more living languages, at least to a level where I can read their literature, along with Latin and Old English.
I have loved languages since I was little. I learned to read before I was two, so it seems obvious to me (and to many people who have known me) that language is my intellectual strength. When I was a kid, I would invent my own languages, and I would spend my free time reading about ancient cultures and foreign languages. I have always been drawn to etymology, onomastics (the study of names), and phonology - I guess that's just what my brain grasps best.
My fascination with language is so deeply rooted in my history and identity that I find it hard to pinpoint exactly why it attracts me. I think one reason is that language itself - the sounds, the scripts, the idioms, the way it flows seamlessly together - is something that strikes me as deeply beautiful, in part because it arose through the contributions of every person who has ever spoken, and because it is thousands upon thousands of years old and still changes every minute, and because no matter how much it changes, words preserved from the past can remind us how similar we all are. -
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Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on -
Wonderful response, Femina.
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Permalink Reply by Femina Irata on
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Thank you. :)
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Permalink Reply by Klaus Motan on -
...my native language is German, or (we really do make a difference) Austian.
...joining this group, hoping to brush up my English a little bit...oh, dont most of you use American (there´s a difference too, I guess)?
...can speak (not so easy to understand correctly) a little Italian.
...as my job affords, I can stutter a few sentences and phrases in French, Spanish, Turk(ish?) and Russian, enough to buy me a coffee or ask for the right way, but not to mention it.
...have been taught Latin in school, but forgot everything except a few quotations.
...understand Schwyzerdütsch (mostly) -
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Permalink Reply by Klaus Motan on
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...sorry, typo-demon caught me too
Austian means Austrian... -
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Permalink Reply by Bill E on
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When were you at DLI? I work there now, writing DLPTs (Defense Language Proficiency Tests). I know some of the old Polish faculty. Can you remember (and say) who your teachers were?
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Permalink Reply by Bill E on
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30 years ago? Well, it's possible then that the couple was the Gajewskis; I can't remember what the husband's name was at the moment (he has passed away in the last couple years, unfortunately), but the wife's name is Suzanna (might be rendered as Zusanno in Polish). She is about ready to retire and is a good friend. I wonder whether there was a student by the name of Tucker Mansager. He was a Polish student I think around that time. He ended up being Commandant for a couple years recently.
I also love hiking around the Monterey Bay area with my family. Yosemite is great too. If you look at my page, you might see some familiar-looking pictures.... -
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Permalink Reply by Christy Gonzalez on -
What languages can you speak, write, or read?
In addition to English, I can speak, read, and write fairly conversational Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin. I'm currently rusty in Japanese and Mandarin, but I could pick them up again with a small bit of study. I know small amounts of French and Italian and a handful of words in other languages, but I wouldn't say it's anything substantial.
Why do you have an interest in language?
I don't really know. I've always had an aptitude for picking up languages faster than most. Beyond that, I have a love for sounds and speech patterns. I drift into a foggy hypnosis while listening to the flow of sounds that I cannot understand. It sounds like a song to me. That could be due in part to my training as an actress. After listening, I have an urge to learn the language and understand! I also enjoy accents and at one point considered a career as a voice coach for stage. In addition, I find that one expands his or her knowledge of life when learning languages. Other languages have words for concepts we may not often ponder because there are no equivalent words in our native language(s). Though on top of all of this, of course, I love the idea of being able to converse with as many people as possible. -
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Permalink Reply by Tom Pandelaere on -
What languages can you speak, write, or read?
My mother tongue is the Belgian variety of Dutch, also known as Flemish, which I speak with an accent that is recognisable as that of the Province of East Flanders. We Flemings are taught French from the age of ten, it being the language of ‘the others down there’. At twelve, we are taught English as well, which I have always spoken in a distinctly British way. I deciphered the phonetic alphabet and forced myself to sound like an educated gent. When abroad, I like fooling people into thinking me an Englishman. I chose the option ‘Latin and modern languages’ in school and was also taught German and Spanish. When I went to university, I decided to go for ‘Germanic languages’ (one had to pick two of a family in those days).
English and German are the two languages I speak at a level comparable with Dutch, and I maintain them as well as I can. Having moved to Wallonia, I am now forced to speak French on a daily basis. And I try to appreciate it, but I shall never love the sound it — too nasal, too monotonous a syllable length, annoying intonation.
I decided to learn Scottish Gaelic for my master thesis, which I did on my own for four years; I still understand the gist of what I see written, but it is dwindling apace.
My recent interest is Danish. I took it up over a year ago by dint of courses aimed at Germans, and I find that if you speak both German and Dutch, learning Danish is really a piece of cake. I recently went to Denmark and, to my satisfaction, found myself able to engage in conversation, albeit very slowly.
Why do you have an interest in language?
I always have had one. I am terrible at mathematics, which is also my greatest frustration. I have always been fascinated by astronomy, but studying it was out of the question. Ergo, I focused upon language, wrote whensoe’er I could and bluffed my way out of everything through sheer vituperative obloquy. I am now a professional translator and must hence restrain myself in the demesne of pursuing linguistic opacity. Woe is me. -
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Permalink Reply by Howard S. Dunn on -
I speak English and can read French. My conversational French is not great and it has been over 20 years since I have had much occasion to use it. I have lived in Brussels and Geneva (Bruxelles et Genève)
As an aside, I remember a skit by Monty Python in which two cavemen are standing next to each other when a third walks up. He launches into an enthusiastic speech about his new invention, language, and all the great things that can be done with it. But suddenly, crestfallen, he states that, of course, he cannot be understood because he has only just invented language.
At this point, one of the other cavemen bonks him on the head and turns to the third caveman and says, in French:
"Je le tué parce-que je déteste les Anglais." (I killed him because I hate the English.) -
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Permalink Reply by Yannick on -
What languages can you speak, write, or read?
Italian: speak, write, read
Portuguese: speak, write, read
I can read well in English but my grammar is not very good yet.
I also can read in Spanish and I've studied a little bit of Latin some time ago, but it was just for small texts translation, and I don't remember it very well unfortunately.
Why do you have an interest in language?
My interest has increased recently, and it probably started with formal languages. Now I'm interested in studying linguistics, but first I must improve my English knowledge before trying some linguistics book.
After that I want to learn Spanish for real, and then probably French. After that only God knows. -
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