11-03-2005 19:47									#61
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I mix up Bengali and French a lot. Occasionally really fundamental words (if you interchange the Bengali words for who and what, you get the French words for what and who, so that confuses my brain sometimes).

Anyways:

English
Passable French
Crappy Bengali
Extremely crappy Spanish

2.5 I guess?

I'm going to research in Germany (Wurzburg) over the Summer, so I'm going to make an attempt (though, probably a half-assed one) at learning German in the next couple monts. I'd like to learn Russian as well, so I could read Doesteovsky, Pushkin, and (all) Nabakov without translations. I'm reading this amazing Nabakov compilation of short stories translated from Russian atm, I can't imagine how good they'd be in native Russian.

Problem is that I'm pretty dumb as far as languages go. I have a really difficult time picking up new languages; hell, I have a hard enough trying to speak English. I'm suspect that I'm dyslexic.

	11-03-2005 19:57									#62
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well damn in this case since we are all braking the rules I handle 6 languages, the ones I mentioned, Estonian and understand some Norwegian and Danish. no wait, that's 7 languages already, damn.. Soon I will add fluent french/spanish/russian/japanese, and I am officially smarter than the rest of you peabrains.

Something mongolingual people will never understand is that when you become fluent in other languages, you are able to think differently. What what what? Yes it is very true. Weird but true. But then again most of you poopiepants are not interested in it.

	11-03-2005 21:41									#63
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quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse couple things: "au" is a contraction of "a le". saying "au l'Ouest" is ridiculous also, you should probably say "pour" Western Canada instead of "a" western canada finally, the way to say Western Canada is "l'Ouest du Canada"

To be even more frenchy:

To the west of Canada : "A l'ouest du Canada " (notice the lowercase)
The West of Canada : "L'Ouest du Canada" (notice the uppercase)
Western Canada : "Le Canada occidental"

	11-03-2005 21:42									#64
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"le canada occidental" is so horrifically pretentious that I would never say it.

	11-03-2005 21:44									#65
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saying "l'Ouest du Canada" is much more common where I'm from.

	11-03-2005 21:54									#66
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quote: Originally posted by KrazyHorse "le canada occidental" is so horrifically pretentious that I would never say it.

Ah bon?
Well, probably one of the small differences between the two sides of the ocean.

	11-03-2005 22:45									#67
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Yeah. I agree that you guys are much more pretentious than we are.

	11-03-2005 23:10									#68
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I speak Swedish, English, and German.

I understand Norwegian, written or spoken, quite well, but can hardly speak a word of it. I can read Danish, and understand most of it if spoken slowly and clearly. I can read Dutch well enough to get the gist of a newpaper article, but I won't understand everything. I know bits and pieces of Latin.

People occasionally accuse me of knowing French. This is cruel libel.

	11-03-2005 23:56									#69
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canada occidental is so formal it hurts. but i like it cuz its the correct way of saying it.

	12-03-2005 00:07									#70
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Hey Lawrence: neither of us conjugated devoir correctly when we tried to help LotM

It's subjonctif like I thought (not conditionnel like you put down ) but the proper conjugation is "que je doive"...



had to look it up in my bescherelle...

	12-03-2005 00:14									#71
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I'm learning Mandarin and that's it. I know a little French but I gave up on it along time ago.

	12-03-2005 00:21									#72
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quote: Hey Lawrence: neither of us conjugated devoir correctly when we tried to help LotM It's subjonctif like I thought (not conditionnel like you put down ) but the proper conjugation is "que je doive"... had to look it up in my bescherelle...

man, and the subjonctif is the easiest tense when it comes to when you need to use it well, its been a while since ive been to a french speaking country - hopefully in sept ill be studying abroad in geneva

which bescherlle do you got?mine has more emphasis on regles d'accord, and regles d'emplois, et les tableaux types. its got all the verbes, but very few ones actually done all the way through. you need to look in the back for the verb, and then it refers you to a similar one.

so its more then just conjugaison, but takes a little more intuition to figure out how to conjugate.

	12-03-2005 00:24									#73
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Yeah, that sounds like the type I have.

	12-03-2005 01:14									#74
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Sadly I can only speak English.....and even that's not perfect.

Used to be pretty fluent in French but a lack of French people living here makes that hard to maintain. Can get by in Spanish, Italian, and German at a push. Just.

Oh, and I can speak and write Latin and Classical Greek, but I don't think they really count, do they?

So, realistically, I guess Im just another ignorant Brit.

	12-03-2005 06:23									#75
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American English, Upper Midwestern "Nordic" dialect.

I know a few words of Norwegian; Ja (yes), Nye (no), Velkomen (welcome), God* Dagh** (good day) God Morgen*** (good morning).

*pronounced "goo"
**pronounced "dah"
***pronounced "moren"

	12-03-2005 07:47									#76
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quote: God* Dagh** (good day) God Morgen*** (good morning). *pronounced "goo" **pronounced "dah" ***pronounced "moren"

Norwegian is English with your mouth full?

	12-03-2005 08:05									#77
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this poll shows some interesting data:

1. theres 1 class clown
2. 80% of people here speak at least 1 foreign language
3. if you are bilingual, you are more then likely to be learning a 3rd language
4. most of those who study a third language dont complete it (or we would see more trilinguals)

	12-03-2005 09:15									#78
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quote: Originally posted by The Mad Monk Norwegian is English with your mouth full?

Both are Germanic languages, so many of the simple words are similar, just like in German, where "man" is "mensch".

	12-03-2005 10:29									#79
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1 language.

quote: Very strong accent, but I can listen and be understood without problems (at least that's what I think. Ask Boris, Drogue and DanS for confirmation )

Easily understandable, as I recall. You're too modest.

	12-03-2005 11:42									#80
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Bilingual, Spanish (native) and English.

I studied German for 6 years, and I studies French for 3 years when I was small. I guess with a good 6 months of immersion I could shore up the fundamentals and perhaps speak four languages. But it would take some work.

But I put myself down as 2.5 due to the 6 years of German study....

	12-03-2005 15:40									#81
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Native: English (passable)

others: Latin (I finnd it easiere to translate English->Latin, thn translate Latin->English, and I can't speak it. hell, does anyne actually know what the accent sounds like?)


My french is nonexistant, after 7 years learning the damn thing. I can just about write and not speak nor understand a conversation, and I only spent 2 years learning German, and I can pick up the jist of a conversation, even if I can't speak or write it.


Oh, and what about body language?

	12-03-2005 18:38									#82
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English, that's it...a bit of French, but I'm not even allowed 1/4 for that

	13-03-2005 06:21									#83
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Only English, something I'm more ashamed of all the time. Working for a charity dedicated to cultural understanding and exchange, everyone I speak to seems to speak multiple languages, and I feel like I'm letting the committee down. Will have to go and stay with a bilingual friend sometime and learn their language