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Who can speak more than one language?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
Just another one of the things to do before I die, which'll probobly never happen. Anyway, does anyone speak another language? Is it because of where you live (tourism etc) or did you just learn? How long did that take? A degree course? Thanks.
Post edited by JustV on

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Erm, learnt the languages I know properly from home (and TV, movies, songs). And then German at school. And currently learning Spanish.
    I find it easier to learn new languages when you already know some in advance, as many share rules and vocabulary.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I learnt german for 5 years at school. But that's pretty much gone out of my head now.

    .:Crispy:.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So would you say it was a waste of time?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Capacity
    So would you say it was a waste of time?

    Knowing more languages is never a waste of time. Sometimes simple references fly over your head as you don't understand them. When you've learnt a new language you'll suddenly find yourself thinking "ah, that's what he/she meant". And also in simple human relations, it shows some kind of insight to know a language beyond one's own.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was directing that more at Crispy because 'that's pretty much gone out of my head now'. Jacq what languages do you speak? I used to know this guy from Belgium who spoke loads of languages, can't remember them all though and he said he learnt almost all of it from TV.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    He probably spoke flemish, german, french and dutch.

    Either way, I speak fluently Danish (which means I automatically understand most Swedish and Norwegian) and Hebrew. To a decent degree English.
    And know a basic German, which would get me understood and enables me to understand other Germanspeakers. Even Autrians :eek:

    Currently learning Spanish, which isn't too hard. Just need to get my ass in gear and do some work instead of just doing it all in class.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I wish I'd have been born somewhere where knowing that many languages was considered. I think those were the languages he spoke yes, but he said something about Spanish or Portuguese too.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Capacity
    So would you say it was a waste of time?

    Well it was part of the compulsory education so I had no choice but to do it. If I had the choice then I probably would've done something different.

    But I wouldn't say it's a total waste of time because you can vaguely understand what a German person is saying. So if they say 'Your mother is a dog' then you will understand rather than smile & think they said something nice.

    .:Crispy:.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Um, I can speak decent Spanish and German - I'm doing one at uni, and the other I did at A Level and also speak at home occasionally because my parents used to live there and I was born in Austria. Also I speak a little Italian (started that from scratch at uni) and, perfectly uselessly, Latin...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im not fluent in any language apart from my own.

    Learnt spanish, russian and latin at school, and can use russian and spanish when im abroad to get around without a problem.

    When i was a lot younger i used to know about the same amount of Afrikaans... but since my nanna died ive had nobody to practice it with and remember very very little.. my mum moved over here when she was 12 and she probably remembers only a little more than i do! Its terrible really...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did french at school, french and spanish at college, and am now doing french and italian at uni........so thats 4 languages that I speak, including english...........and I'm almost fluent in french! yay me!!!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I speak French and Russian, and I did GCSE Italian, which I have mostly forgotten now but hey, it might come back if ever I'm in Italy!

    Polish is my next aim though!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did A level German so I'm pretty confident with that but I wouldn't say I'm fluent. I'd probably get there if I went to Germany for a few weeks and were forced to speak it constantly but I've never been to a German speaking country so I'm just restricted to the classroom stuff.

    I'm taking Latin and Ancient Greek as part of my degree in Classics but I can't really speak those, just read them, and it wouldn't really be much help if I could! I'd love to learn Modern Greek though.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I speak French and Spanish - only to A Level standard, but I was surprised at the degree of fluency that actually gives you. It was great when I worked in Spain for a week, I was in an office with no English speakers and we were chatting about the same things I can chat with when I'm working here! Of course I make stupid mistakes, and my accent isn't perfect, but I can get by.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I can speak the odd sentence in Spanish, the odd word in Manderin Chinese, and I did Russian to just-past-GCSE level. I dropped the AS because I couldn't get my head round it, and stood next to no chance of passing it. I would've loved to have carried on though, if it hadn't been for the AS and therefore important. :/
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Welsh is my first language, English second. I tried learning french too. I'm not into learning new languages really...never appealed
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I speak English. And Spanish to where I've got up to in A-level standard. I love Spanish. It's such a pretty language.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    French to A level. Watched Amelie the other night and was surprised at how much I can still remember. Currently studying for a degree in German (post A level) and beginners' Russian although I did get a GCSE in it 2 years ago. Russian's definitely my favourite. I really want to learn Polish and Spanish.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Britney
    I'm not into learning new languages really...never appealed

    Same for me. I am currently doing GCSE latin and french. Latin I love, it's pretty simple once you learn grammar and vocab and its a fun subject. But you can't go out and speak it because its not a spoken language any more! French however, is a waste of time for me. I'm one of those people who just can't learn a new language. I just forget everything and I can't construct sentences properly. It takes me a minute or more to understand one sentence that is said to me. As I said, I'm hopeless.......









    but I've been predicted an A* in French so oh well!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did both french and german at GCSE got A* and B and have continued both to A Level:) I love languages, i speak random basic bits of spanish, italian, russian and dutch also.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i did french at school to GCSE level, i loved it until 3rd year when i got a hellish teacher and my intrest just dropped and i did fuck allin class becausde i got a row over anything

    shame because before that french was my best subject, got straight A's until then, ended up with a C finnaly after struggling through the exam (and writing notes to myself in my dictionary i.e cheating)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i know too many lagueages i get confused. i don't know them all well but i'm fluent in at least 2 and hopefully 3 soon
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    hehe...english is ma own language, so one
    been learning French and Spanish for years now, so 3
    did italian GCSE in 6 months...4
    learning Mandarin Chinese...can hold basic conversation...so practically 5 lol

    doing chinese and spanish at uni...

    random bits of Cantonese and German and Dutch?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i love to learn languages. it gives me a real sense of achievement when i can communicate with someone in another language. i learnt french to A-level, german to gcse, italian to gcse, a bit of spanish for holiday and a bit of dutch when i went on hockey tour to holland. i can also count to 10 in japanese thanks to being bored on a music tour bus and a japanese speaking friend!! i can speak irish too ;-)
    The Sillystring
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