Languages

[Zafur]

"Be Prepared" is my favorite song from "The Lion King", hands down.

You're talking to a guy that watched "Spongebob" and "Golden Girls". Trust me, I don't think it's odd.

Definitely. You knew that they had to use a second voice actor in the English version?

Basically, that's Rosetta Stone's methodology in a nutshell.

Though for material, I don't think it should start simple. Go big or go home.

[snip]

Except Rosetta Stone doesn't teach or clarify on grammar. Methods like this won't help with much past the beginner level. I don't think that you should start out with anything too complicated, I still like the idea of starting out simple, but you should definitely move on to the harder stuff when you're able to.

[Okami]

English, obviously, is what I know best. I took two years of French in high school, don't know a lick of how to pronounce anything....I'm fairly good with reading it, perhaps not in getting the literal translation, but at least in knowing what it says. And because French and Spanish are so closely related, I can look at something in Spanish and decipher what it says with little difficulty. Um, and I also know some Latin, from Choir for six years.

I, personally, am hoping to learn ancient Greek in college...and maybe ancient Hebrew as well. (And I hope it is obvious as to why :tongue: )

[Gallade]

Main language: Dutch

Other languages:

English -> I can understand it but I have sometimes difficulties with finding words. And my grammar is far from perfect..

German -> I can understand most words but I can't speak it. There are similairities with dutch.

French -> learned on school but my French is horrible.. I know some basic words

G.

[Poryhack]

What do you call a person who speaks three languages?

Trilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks one language?

American.

It's funny because for the vast majority it's true. And even funnier when you consider that English is one of the harder languages in the world to learn.

Seriously, what kinda f'ed up language has competitions in which nerdy children struggle to spell words correctly?

I pale at the thought of how much time and money was spent teaching me the in and outs of English grammar (not grammer, as logic would dictate).

[randomspot555]

My personal struggle with foreign language was I went to elementary school when it wasn't a requirement for college graduation. So my school put very little effort into any foreign language program. Our spanish teacher changed every 6 months, if we were lucky.

But when I got to high school, foreign language was not only a requirement for most college degrees, but also a requirement for the honors degree at my high school. It was the only major difference between it and the regular diploma, besides a handful of electives.

And so I struggled through 2 years of French and couldn't qualify for the honors degree. I said fuck it and dropped it after the 2nd year. I could've done a 3rd year, but I would've had to do perfect to still achieve the honors diploma.

I recognize that foreign languages are important not just for education but to live in a world that is growing "smaller" in many, many cases. But development of foreign language and the skills to get that knowledge need to start much earlier than high school.

Edited June 24, 2009 by randomspot555
Read the rules :) Swearing in moderation is acceptable. And if one swear word isn't in moderation, then what is?

[wraith89]

What do you call a person who speaks three languages?

Trilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks one language?

American.

It's funny because for the vast majority it's true. And even funnier when you consider that English is one of the harder languages in the world to learn.

Seriously, what kinda f'ed up language has competitions in which nerdy children struggle to spell words correctly?

I pale at the thought of how much time and money was spent teaching me the in and outs of English grammar (not grammer, as logic would dictate).

This.

I realize Americans do not learn foreign languages until they are in their mid teenage years. In Europe, people learn their native language along with other languages when they are much younger... like when they're 5 or so.

[SilentFox]

upper-mid teenage years at that

here we are learn russian and english almost immediately really but most either never use english or fail it and never use it

[Jiggy-Ninja]

This.

I realize Americans do not learn foreign languages until they are in their mid teenage years. In Europe, people learn their native language along with other languages when they are much younger... like when they're 5 or so.

Middle School foreign language classes SUCK. Literally the only thing I remember from middle school French is un, deux, treux, and oi and I apologize to any French people here since I probably spelled even those wrong. I don't even remember how to say no. I know a little bit more about Spanish since I had classes in elementary school, but I wouldn't stand a chance in a conversation.

I don't think there's much of an incentive to learn other languages in America since most of the rest of the world learns English anyway.

[Enkidu]

Lets see here,

4 years of japanese : I can speak well enough to get around japan and have moderate conversations with people, I can read all of the Kana ( Hiragana and katakana ) but only know 300-ish Kanji. I also count in japanese in my head sometimes as I can do it about as fast as I can in english.

3 years of spanish, but I only remember enough to find my way once lost, ask for things and get myself into trouble.

2 years of Chinese, I learned quite a bit actually as they don't have Kana like japanese so I know maybe 300 - 350 characters.

1 year of french, Italian and Korean. I really don't remember much from them, but I can at least recognize the language if I see it and know how to pronounce tones and count, et cetera.

[Godzilla231]

Languages I know:

Engliash-No duh, I was the one who knew it without taking classes unlike my big bro:creep:

Spanish- It's part of my race and I too knew it like the rest of my family, but I kinda need to work on it, i've gotten lazy on it

Languages I want to know:

Japanese- like most say, an Anime thing, but I really want to go to Japan one day, learn and experience the country

More Spanish- Since I got Lazy:bidoof:

German- Hey, who knows, maybe I want to go to Oktoberfest :grog:

Itaian- It seems like a great place to visit, so I want to be ready:smile:

And many more, who knows.

[Kevin Evans]

Japanese: Technically, my first language. I grew up speaking japanese, but i rarely use it now :0

English: The language I use the most

Chinese: I know a little Though, i think i might learn some more

Dannish & Norweigan: I know very little, though I want to learn it It seems pretty easy. Kva de. Jeg er pikk... Vi er elle banana I have no clue lol

Finnish: I attempted to learn Finnish, but failed. I ussually listen to finnish rock though (no, not HIM). I can still count to like 10 though, yksi, kaksi, kolme, nelja, viisi, kuusi, kaksi... something like that

Canadian: Fluent ofc!

C#: I'm pretty awezum at using C# as a language Jk jk

[Zafur]

..Canadian...xDDDD

Yeah, I've heard that joke before. I live in an area where everyone's second language is either Spanish or Creole. I feel so left out. Lol

But yeah, part of the problem with Americans learning a second language is if they're monolingual, they'll probably be more likely to think "everyone speaks English anyways" than someone else who's bilingual by the time they'll be required to learn it, and they're only going to see High School language courses as useless. Most high school courses suck anyways.

[Arqui]

Before, I wasn't interested in English... But, a day, I started to listen to music that I liked it so much. These songs were in English, and thanks to that, now I can speak or write English more or less, and I use it so much.

So, thanks to songs ^^ They're very important to learn a language.

Also, I've learnt HTML, CSS, PHP, and now, I'm interested in MySql (PHP required), JavaScript and to improve PHP.

Here, in Spain, English language is obligatory. And French becomes obligatory when you start to study graduate.

[Poryhack]

Lets see here,

4 years of japanese : I can speak well enough to get around japan and have moderate conversations with people, I can read all of the Kana ( Hiragana and katakana ) but only know 300-ish Kanji. I also count in japanese in my head sometimes as I can do it about as fast as I can in english.

3 years of spanish, but I only remember enough to find my way once lost, ask for things and get myself into trouble.

2 years of Chinese, I learned quite a bit actually as they don't have Kana like japanese so I know maybe 300 - 350 characters.

1 year of french, Italian and Korean. I really don't remember much from them, but I can at least recognize the language if I see it and know how to pronounce tones and count, et cetera.

That's quite the collection; how/why did you learn all that?

[Enkidu]

Thanks, well I just like learning languages, it was a hobby of mine back when I was younger.

Solving puzzles, playing bass, Drawing/Painting/Photography/Photoshop, Hiking, Reading, Kendo, learning languages with the rest of my time filled with video games or hanging out with friends or going out on dates are the things I do on a regular basis aside from school and work that fill up a lot of my time.

So I guess it was just one of those things that I was really interested in because I was good at it and liked it enough to be able to study it a lot on my own, and take a class for it and not get fed up/frustrated/bored with it :F