how many languages do you speak, and which ones??

just curious how many members of riu are bilingual and which languages that you speak?

I speak English, Si habla espanol, and I can understand a bit of French, German, and Portuguese. I've been meaning to learn another language (spoken, not just rough translation or reading.)

My brother speaks 8 (he cheated, he learned in the USMC) and my kid speaks Engilsh, Spanish, Hopi, Arabic, Japanese, and a bit of Cantonese.

minnesmoker said:

I speak English, Si habla espanol, and I can understand a bit of French, German, and Portuguese. I've been meaning to learn another language (spoken, not just rough translation or reading.)

My brother speaks 8 (he cheated, he learned in the USMC) and my kid speaks Engilsh, Spanish, Hopi, Arabic, Japanese, and a bit of Cantonese.

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damn, that's impressive minne.. do you find once you know more than one, it's easier to learn another ?

I can speak Mexican when I'm drunk, but only when I'm drunk.

Yes. The Romantic languages all kinda clump together, as do Germanic languages, Asian languages and Middle-eastern. You learn one tongue, you'll only need to learn some verbs (most nouns, tenses, etc. translate really closely.) Unfortunately, right now the only other languages that I could learn with free resources and locals to help out would be Slavic or Germanic. Both hurt my ears.

My brother said his trick was learning Spanish and Farsi, after that, all romantic languages kinda roll off the tongue, and Middle Eastern and Eastern languages were easier to pick up.

My kid, most of that was just me being an asshole. We would watch movies together, (starting with cartoons when she was just learning English.) I'd put on the native language and the subtitles. "watch it in English daddy?" "Nope, learn to read or learn to speak <insert language>" By the time she hit 1st grade she could converse in Japanese, Cantonese, English, and Spanish. At school (up on a small rez south of Taos) the students required to learn Hopi and Spanish, as only a few of the kids in school were native English Speakers. My best friend's family converted to Islam and their daughter began learning Arabic, my kid picked it up with her, so they could have a "secret language." Rumor has it that my kid likes to taunt the new step-dad by speaking in foreign languages (or proper English.)

a little german. a little spanish. enough to get around. wish i could speak mandarin. i could get a job making a lot of money.

I speak english of course and being born in Canada I also speak french tho it's been some time.

I speak english and am fluent with sign language.

Tri-lingual. Hablo Castillano, je parle Francais, English but of course. Plus others which I can read and understand.

lahadaextranjera said:

Hablo castillaño, je parle francais, English but of course. Plus others which I can read.

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hey girly, did you know spanish before you moved to spain or did you jump in the deep end first and learn it there?? ty..

i only know english even though i took 3 years of french in hs.. it's on my short list of things to do, learn a second language though..

i just wanted to see how many members here spoke more then one for some inspiration..

Just English.

I'm half-heartedly learning Mandarin. I can't speak it, but I know more than the average joe. I can actually interpret some Chinese characters now too. My daughter will grow up having English and Mandarin spoken in the household daily so that's a bonus. Thinking Spanish will be a good one for her to learn also.

Edit: Yeah I took 3 years of German in high school and didn't learn shit.

Hell its all I can do to speak a few words of English. Hardest language I know.

racerboy71 said:

hey girly, did you know spanish before you moved to spain or did you jump in the deep end first and learn it there?? ty..

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Hola! Que tal?

No, I could only count to ten. I still havent had lessons. 8 years now!! I learnt French at School in England.

i no english good cuz i wuz born here duh

I got the English obviously and 2 different dialects of French, both very different. Some Spanish, enough to survive and Korean. Not fluent Korean though. Taught English there for a couple years.

lahadaextranjera said:

Hola! Que tal?

No, I could only count to ten. I still havent had lessons. 8 years now!! I learnt French at School in England.

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that's awesome lahada.. much respect for that.. i knew a guy who wanted to learn french so he moved to paris. seems like a good way in all honesty..


and that's awesome that you're going to expose your kids to more then one language neo... just one question for you though .. you said you don't speak mandarin, and mandarin is spoken around the house, does the wife talk to herself or what?? lol.. i kid, i kid..

English is my first language and Ottawa/Ojibway language ( Anishinaabmowiin ) " is my second .. Wish it was the other way around , learning to think in another language is the challenge for me personally ...

ich spreche ein wenig deutsch , english and hardly both

Submerging yourself in a country is the best way to learn. You've got to wanna do it though. I didn't want to be like some of the other English who can't speak after a decade and rely on their kids!! I have friends that don't speak more than two words in English. Because I didn't take lessons in Spanish I've ended up absorbing/reading Catalan too, by accident. I don't speak it though. One day eh?

I loved the mistakes I made when learning. For example, once I wanted my friends to speak more slowly and I said "hablas mas degustación" instead of 'despacio' 'slowly'. Even today im careful when I order a chicken sandwich though!!