*SPLIT: A better box, full of goodies

[BicycleOfDeath]

That's fine. Most of *cough* us American's only speak one. I'm fortunate enough to speak a second and teaching myself a 3rd, though, it's not going too well. What other language do you speak?

[Rasch_0]

A moderator steering a topic of topic You don't see that every day

I speak Norwegian 1st (which has two written languages+my dialect), English 2nd and German 3rd. I also know a bit Japaneese (mostly karate stuff) and I've tried sevral times to learn some Tolkien elvish.

[Gorth]

Besides my native danish, I speak german, some english and could probably survive in a french speaking environment. Always wanted to learn another language, but couldn't really decide between italian and spanish...

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

<_< I'm handicaped by the fact I was born in the UK.

 

Now I can speak perfect English if required, but I also speak my home dialect which is derived from Old Norse. I'm just about to begin learning Anglo-Saxon, this way I can treat immigrents how they treat me, and also claim to be speaking English.

 

I've always wanted to learn Norweigian aswell.

[kirottu]

I speak finnish and english and I have studied german, swedish and latin. Soon my unversity start where I

[mkreku]

I speak swedish (naturally), english, german and some spanish. But I probably forgot a lot of the spanish, even though I should still understand most of it.

[waiveddreams]

I speak Russian! I speak English but not well. I am learning French now.

[Monte Carlo]

I am a native Briton, but I speak a tiny smattering of French and have conversational Arabic. My written Arabic is better, though.

 

Cheers

MC

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I am a native Briton, but I speak a tiny smattering of French and have conversational Arabic. My written Arabic is better, though.

 

Cheers

MC

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Arabic a foul tongue if ever I heard one.

[Monte Carlo]

How dreadfully ignorant.

 

Spoken arabic varies immensely, from North Africa to the Levant and from the Gulf to sub-Saharan Africa. The "modern standard" (which is what most Westerners learn) is alien-sounding to English speakers but it isn't "foul."

 

Consider the word jameel. It means "beautiful" which, spoken and pronounced properly it is. Or aswad (black) or latif (charming). Even mundane items like manjoo (mango) or samak (fish) sound more interesting to my ear.

 

Many English words come from arabic, my personal favourites being bantaloon (pantaloons, which became trousers).

 

I think the reason why the language sounds harsh is because of the "ch" sounds of some letters words, and ghayn (which has no English equivalent). It sounds to me curiously Welsh, actually.

 

As for arabic script, I defy anyone to describe it as foul. It is beautiful to my eyes and I enjoy writing the looping, curved script for no other reason than to enjoy looking at the result.

 

Cheers

MC

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I can only write and speak both Portuguese and English, though i have been known to be able to decode some written French and improvise some spoken and written Spanish. I also know how to greet people, count from one to twenty, and barely ask how a word is said in German.

 

I'd love to know Italian, Arabic and Japanese, though.

[Powerslave]

My native language is Greek. I can also speak English quite fluently, have a lower degree in Italian, and learned some French from school...

 

As far as "dead" languages are concerned, I can read and translate from and to Ancient Greek and Latin. Speaking them, however, is a whole other issue...

 

I'm studying Archeology, so I will probably have to learn Arabic as well if I am to go excavating in Egypt sometime

[Cantousent]

I can't speak any other languages at all.

 

I'm quite proficient with ancient Greek. I'm somewhat proficient in Latin. I will be starting German soon. I'm taking a reading/writing proficiency course offered to Grad Students. I doubt I'll be able to speak it, but that's not the point. I'll be taking either French or Italian next year. That's the same deal as German.

 

I have to pass a reading/writing proficiency exam in each, although I spend a lot of time translating Attic Greek as it is, so an exam doesn't worry me in the least.

[Phosphor]

Ancient Greek is a language, and so is Latin. Just because no-one speaks it today doesn't mean it's not a valid language. Or do you mean that you can read and translate, but not actually vocalise the languages properly?

 

I took German way back in high school. Oddly, I could speak it very well but I didn't always know what I was saying, nor was a very adept at translating or writing in the language. It's a strange language, I found.

 

I'd hate to actually have to learn to speak English though. What a nightmare learning it must be.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

English isn't very hard to learn, i think. I have been told that Japanese and Portuguese are actually very hard to learn, though.

[Cantousent]

Right, you don't really speak Greek. You often end up speaking latin. However, I do read the Greak aloud simply because it helps me translate it. Apparently, my wife thinks it sounds really strange because she complains about it.

 

I like the way Attic Greek sounds. It's kind of cool. Still, unlike Latin, it does sounds weird to an American ear. Latin, though, it sounds downright familiar a lot of the time.

[Phosphor]

A couple of years ago, there was a theatrical reading of The Odyssey at the local festival. A fellow who's name I forget, apparently a noted classicist and translator of Homer, read, by way of introduction for the performance, a segment of The Odyssey in the ancient Greek. What a fantastic sounding language! I had never heard it before, and it was incredible to listen to.

[Child of Flame]

Eh, I can speak, and understand a smattering of Spanish.

 

I can read, and pronounce most of the European languages thanks to Choir...but I don't really understand anything.

 

I've found that Arabic writing is the most beatiful of any of the written languages I've seen. Very much like the Tokein Elvish writing...but that wasn't real.

[Powerslave]

I guess it is an advantage of being Greek that, while learning to speak your native language, you also learn how to speak ancient Greek...kinda like hitting 2 birds with one stone

[Morgoth]

Besides of my hopefully better becoming fluency in Englisch , I was used to learn a bit French some years ago.... actually, it wasn't that hard surprisingly, well, maybe with the exception of how they handle the numerics. 70 for example, is spoken as 50 + 20... very interesting. My sister, who resides now in France on the other hand, had never such issues with different languages...

[Cantousent]

I guess it is an advantage of being Greek that, while learning to speak your native language, you also learn how to speak ancient Greek...kinda like hitting 2 birds with one stone

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The only problem is some of the words have changed. I did, however, like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That was funny. ...And some of the words are actually the same in both ancient and modern Greek. Comedy.

[Tigranes]

I'm a native Korean speaker, learnt English, learning French, sorta-picking up Japanese and can read/write a tiiiiny bit of ancient Greek. I'm interested in Latin/Arabic since I do Classical Studies, but they will have to wait until I'm in uni

 

Personally, Japanese is much harder to learn than English or French (which weren't that difficult); of course, I learnt a lot of English living in an English-speaking country, but I picked up French from studying, and in my opinion Japanese manages to be more complex than either. An American friend of mine wants to learn Korean from me, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

[Cantousent]

Yeah, ancient Greek and Latin tend to be harder to learn than modern languages as well.

[SartriX]

I'm Dutch !.. and we're famous for talking to all tourists that drop by in -their- native tongue rather then letting them adept *cough*

 

*speaks Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, read/writes Greek and Latin*

 

 

 

oh.. and I'm actually a beta-student.. Techstuff and all, heh

[Alexia]

I'd hate to actually have to learn to speak English though. What a nightmare learning it must be.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can agree there, English is my second language. I had to learn it to study for me degree at Cambridge. Took a long time to be fluent in it and after all these years I am still not 100% at it. It is one of the hardest langauges to learn.

 

My first language is Sicilian and the Italian difference. I can also speak and read/write japanese.