Dear Dozy, No I am not fluent in any second language...however what I do is learn "I love you" in as many languages as possible and that usually breaks the ice...so you can just wing it with smiles and communicate okay...
Once in Albuquerque for example I stopped for Mexican food, well no one there spoke English! So I decided to give it a go anyway, hauled out my few words of Spanish, ended up with a delicious meal and lots of compliments on my "vast" linguistic Spanish competence...
* * * I can look at Slartibartfast words above for example, and see it is prolly German, and he is saying something about he learned it in school.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 26, 2017 6:57 PM MDT
One of my chess opponents, an ageing American, told me that when he went to Francis with the navy his shipmates taught him how to greet a Parisienne. He didn't realise that what they had taught him was very specific indeed but it worked out well and the young lady gave him breakfast afterwards.
Sono fluente in Italiano, frutto di un'infanzia benetta dalla prezensa del secundo marito del mia madre, Vittorio. Un uomo davvero meraviglioso che è morto troppo presto.
I speak and read some Spanish, can still decipher enough German to be socially functional, but am proud to be fluent in Italian. Some might say I do reasonably well with English as well.
As I described, my stepfather Vittorio (who was a merchant from Livorno) taught us Italian. A wonderful man, we became essentially a bilingual household. I traveled to Italy with him three times as a youth. Vittorio died of a stroke soon after my 13th birthday. His influence was a great gift in my life.
Even sadder, my mother's eventual third husband was more like her first, my neglectful/drunk/always broke redneck American father.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 26, 2017 11:27 AM MDT
My "step" family was also Italian. Although they frequently spoke Italian and I picked up some words and phrases....I do wish I would have asked them to teach me more. Italian is such a beautiful language.
Not crass at all. Just another of my silly answers. There are only minor differences, but I learned how to pick up on them years ago. It's all still English and I like to pick on Canadians.
A little bit of German passed down but not fluent. Signed up for it in high school but German and French were dropped from curriculum from low student numbers right before the school year started. So had to change to Spanish, Latin, or ASL. So ASL it was. Was forced to take Spanish in JRHS but none of it clicked and hated taking it. Oddly enough my JRHS Spanish teacher was an old German lady with a thick accent so I really couldn't understand a word she said in Spanish.
We had two French teachers and I doubt if either one could have made themselves understood in France. We didn't learn as much as we might have done otherwise. Like your Spanish teacher. some teachers should stick to other subjects.
She was actually a great linguist and was fluent in 7 languages. I just couldn't hear the language I did not understand with the accent on top of it. Then again having zero interest in it and pissy I was forced to take it didn't help either.
I was excited about being able to learn any foreign language. I remember bits but I only lasted a couple of years at high school so I didn't get enough to be useful.
Yes, I speak English besides my native language. Furthermore another language at same level and a third one that's so rusty I could not make a full conversation in it. I read and understand several languages besides these. Hmm.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 26, 2017 6:58 PM MDT
Europeans tend to learn languages far more easily than we colonials. I guess when you have the opportunity to interact with other languages regularly it gets easier. Or maybe there's a European language gene. :)
I don't know Didge. It won't be all European countries. Besides culture, educational system and other factors will be influencers. My ex, US American was actually very great at French and she was surprisingly skilled learning my native language. I've also met a gorgeous Australian woman who seems to have skills to adapt words and phrases of my native language.
Slartibartfast 