Thetownend.com

How many do you speak and why?

I speak:

English
Spanish (did it at school)
French (same)
Bosnian
Croatian
Serbian
Slovenian (I can understand 95% of it, very similar to the above)

English as default setting
French I know enough to get by but not fluent
Greek I know a few phrases
learning German (listen to a lot of german music and want to know what i'm singing along to)
and British Sign Language (have deaf family member and would be nice to speak to her, and it'll be useful in my job)

Before you get a comedic or sarcastic reply, can I be the first to say that's very, very impressive.  Is there a family thing going on, or are you just very interested in and talented at languages?

If we are talking fluent, just English.  If we are talking basic travel, ordering a table, asking directions etc, you can add German to that.  Shameful really.  I blame our schooling system...

Ta, it's a family thing, I love languages, whenever I go somewhere I always make the effort to learn some phrases in that language. Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian are all very similar but have enough differences to be classed as separate languages. It's like the gulf between English and American English but a bit larger. I'm planning to learn Russian in a couple of years too.

It's a shame that this country is quite far behind other European countries with regards to learning languages in school. Most countries make children learn 2 languages from a very young age until they are 18. In this country you don't learn a foreign language until secondary school and even then it's only 1 most of the time. My cousin in Bosnia started learning English in school when he was 7 and he's pretty much fluent now.

Its a shame, because we expect everyone to know english, so most people can't be bothered. I always try and learn a few phrases in the native language. Because we expect people to speak english in the uk, so why cant us brits speak spainish in spain?

forgot to add the more languages you can speak the more women you can pull  8)

-English
-French
-German
-Russian
-Bullshit
-The language of lurve

I completely agree - linguistically, we (Brits) are very ignorant and arrogant.  I'm pleased that it is looking likely that my kids will be schooled bilingually.  Its a shame that its English and Welsh, but I'm hoping it has the desired effect on them.  I genuinely hate being a linguistic imbecile.

Its never to late to learn, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube.

Having been baiting 419 scammers for a few years, I've become semi-fluent in the Nigerian languages of Pidgin English and Igbo.

http://file011.bebo.com/13/large/2007/09/21/22/4203889533a5613998047l.jpg

I speak English reasonably well. Can muddle through most conversations in French too - want to learn it properly though. Was gutted I had to choose between French and Geography for A Level as I loved (and would have aced) both. Geography won that particular battle. Used to know a bit of German and Italian but most of that has slipped away now - just the odd phrase left.

I agree we're poor at languages. I suppose the difficulty is which language do you teach british kids from a young age? French? Spanish? You could argue that Cantonese/Mandarin would be more beneficial in 10-20 years time. Personally, I'd support a campaign to teach kids French from the age of about 4, and have them pick up another language from Year 7 and carry it on to GCSE.

I agree.

Any of the following in my opinion,

French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian.

Tell kids to pick 2 out of that 5.

Exactly right. Pigeon English is hilarious. Reply I had earlier from a scammer I've been insulting.

"GUY YOU BE REALLY SMALL BOY 4 STREET.. SEE MY ADDRESS COME NO:32 OFF
IHIMUDUMU STREET EKPOMA..I BE FULL TIME MAN FIGHTER.. AYES NO GET
LEVEL WE GO FINISH THE WHOLE AYES 4 EKPOMA 4 THE BEGE WHEN WE GET
SOO..ME NA FULL TIME LIGHTER FOR THE GREEN MEN SQUARD,,GOD PURNISH
YOUR HOPELSS FATHER AND THUBDER GO STRIKE YOU ASHAWO MOTHER WHEN I DON
FUCK SIX 6 GOOD TIMES FOR GOD SAKE...AYE LALA GO FINISH YOUR ENTIERE
LINAGE OOOO.. YOU CHEAP BASTERED "

Just out of interest, why Russian? I learnt a bit as I spent a month in St Petersburg. Wish I'd learnt a bit more to be honest. At least I got the hang of Cyrillic...

Massive language in business nowadays. Not as big as Mandarin or English but teaching Mandarin to GCSE pupils is too complicated for them at that age.

пизда  ;)

Started Spanish language classes at college for one night a week, I'm into year two now and have really enjoyed being able to talk with the locals whilst in Spain on Holidays. Still difficult to fully understand when listening to groups of Spanish people talking to each other,especially an excitable lot ! There is a girl on our course who is Dutch but is still top at learning Spanish language in a class full of English people which is pretty impressive.

Finally. I've been a member of this forum for years! Nice to get an international twist on it...

I know enough German to get by.

A basic grasp of French.

I'd like to speak another language fluently. Haven't decided which one yet.

I did French at school and hated it. Complete waste of time.

My reason for going to college for Spanish language was at the start purely for getting by whilst on holidays to Spain but i found the first year really interesting and enjoyable so carried on into year two. My youngest daughter is also doing Spanish at school so we often try to go for an hour or two speaking Spanish to each other which has helped the both of us.

reminds me of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nM2n9L7GL8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nM2n9L7GL8)

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1zK8zRCPo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1zK8zRCPo)

Mimi ni ufasaha kwa lugha ya kiswahili

I lived in Germany for little while as a kid and the schools made no effort to teach young minds a new language, I've always considered that a shame.

People with strong family links with non-English speaking countries are likely to be multi-lingual from an early age and rightly so. My missus' aunt and uncle buggered off to France some years ago and now they are all perfectly fluent. The youngest cousins (now in their 20's) are essentially French with Bristolian as their broken English, very odd.

I don't speak any other languages and I won't pretend that my French GCSE counts.

Probably because we ought to be able to master our own language first. ;D

I did french between the ages of 11-14, then ditched it because it was too hard. I do kind of regret it now, but everyone speaks english anyway (BECOZ WE R THE BEST COUNTRY EVUH RITE)

I'm not too bad at Khmer but I'm far from fluent.  I did French at school, although I probably speak more Bahasa Indonesia now, and what I know of that you could write on the back of an envelope.

Thinking of moving to Japan so I'll have to try learning at least some.  Really want to properly learn one or all of French/Italian/Spanish before I die.

French and German at school but pretty useless at both of them.  Chinese isn't too difficult to speak and understand but the writing/reading side is hard.  Too many regional dialects here though (Cantonese is just one of hundreds) and very few people speak pure mandarin.

i can get by in french and estonian but both are far from fluent. i bought a french course on CD by Michel Thomas and can't rate it highly enough - it's recorded with two other n00bs and you basically learn from their mistakes (the woman is a fucking tard so that makes me feel better also)

Can get by in french and Italian. Taught myself Italian to an okay standard, when I had a very boring job a few years ago, just to keep the brain ticking over.  To refresh I then went to the library and borrowed the Italian Michel Thomas cd's (and put them on my laptop).  As Bennett says it is a cracking way to learn the language.

I'm pretty decent at Spanish, but that's it.

Pourquoi?

I always thought I'd like to speak Welsh.

Helo, yr wyf o Loegr. Iawn 'n glws i gyfarfod â chi  :)

I'm learning Norwegian which is about as redundant as Welsh given the number of speakers and how many of them are extremely fluent in English.

I think Welsh will be my next language.

English (obviously), German (from doing it at GCSE I can grasp most of it, providing they don't talk to quickly!) and sarcasm.

Thai.

I can do a little Russian and a little Polish. Rosetta Stone is the best way to learn. I torrented my copy.

Eastern European languages are so pretty.

I'm ok at German and speak a small amount of French, Spanish and Italian. I wanted to learn all 4 to a decent level, but I was unprepared for the time required so decided to leave it for now.

That serves me right for not checking the spelling  :doh: haha

Helo, Yr wyf o Cymru braf cwrdd â chi hefyd

I too lived in Germany as a kid but had the opposite experience. Although I went to an English Forces school we had regular German lessons. Apparently some of the reason behind this was the kids picked it up quicker than the parents and so when out and about the kids could then translate things. I enjoy going back to Germany and using the language I do, however, find that if I try to speak French or Spanish I fill in the words I don't know with German words which completely baffles people!

I went to a Forces school, mine clearly wasn't as forward thinking.

Italian and French, degree level and then lived in Italy for 2 and a half years. Translator by trade so get to use one or both every day, although actually having a conversation is becoming more difficult these days!

My girlfriend went to military school in Gatow, and had the same experience... i thought it strange they weren't taught German, and a shame in many respects.

A lot of the international schools here don't teach Thai

I'm English, why the fuck would I want to learn any other languages?

All Johnny Foreigners know basic English, as they should. If they can't understand me I JUST TALK A BIT LOUDER! That usually does the trick with the ignorant blighters.

That's weird as you would think they'd all teach German. Where did you live? I was in Bielefeld.

I was in Fallingbostel.

I did German for GCSE as it was compulsory. I hated it, it is such an ugly language.

I wouldn't mind learning another language properly though.

Did german gcse as well.

Now i am fluent in Punjabi.

We have a lot of foreign students through out the year staying with us so unfortunately I have to try to speak English most of the time  :-[

Any fit eastern europeans stfcinbmth?

We did have a French hottie once, but they are usually a bit grim

Russian, because I have to.

It's a nice little earner tbh and tax free. We seem to be quite good at it too as we get quite a few that request to stay with us again should they come back to the UK it's also quite nice to learn about their lives and cultures. Have to say though we will not have any sort of Arrabic students, they are a major pain in the butt

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18384536

Somebody obviously read this thread.  ;)

racist

Can't believe I spelt Arabic wrong, must have been ratted

I wish we'd had more choice than French and German at school.

I'm quite rusty in both of those and would also like to learn some Spanish and Italian.

I know German, and am just beginning to learn Spanish using the Michel Thomas method (no homework, no memorising, just listening and repeating with his audio program).