Can anyone speak a foreign language?

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English to me is the foreign language - i'm a native Portuguese speaker! But also i can speak Spanish.

 
I can speak and understand all parts of the English language, of course, as I am American.

I can also speak and understand Igbo (Nigerian), as it is spoken in the household I grew up in. Composing in classical Igbo grammar is another story though.

By marriage, I have "inherited" Norwegian (all of it was Swedish Kingdom by the time they immigrated over here) and German relatives. So I am trying to learn Ronmol/Bokmol and Deustch to be able to communicate freely. I am doing okay after nearly three years of learning, I am able to hold an easy conversation with a little slang here and there.

For occupational purposes, I had to brush up on the French I took in school for three years so that I could read and understand some scientific journals while I was still working as a ChemE intern. I am currently learning business-oriented Portuguese so that I won't have to use a translators to speak with my Brazilian suppliers, and then I get better prices that way.

I learned and used functional informal Mandarin so that I could go to school in China for a term. I was relatively surprised at how easily I was able to pick it up, but then writing/reading is a different story. I'm glad I get to practice my Chinese in the Ranch 99 markets around here... I always love their reaction. One employee at the check out counter nearly wet herself when I asked about the next shipment of fresh chrysanthemum tea!!! ROFLMAO!!!!

I am learning Japanese for fun. I can read Hiragana and Katana fluidly, but sometimes only in terms of pronunciation, there are times I won't know what the word means and then I have to look it up. The Kanji still throws me though. Watching alot of anime and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has seriously helped me out. More people should learn it to prove to yourself that you can learn languages if you get over the embarassment factor of making unfamiliar sounds. It's not a tonal language, and they have alphabets that function the same way our Roman alphabet does.

I tried my hand at Arabic, it's kicking my ass. I got as far as the basic nonesense phrases: "Hi. My name is..." "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you." "Welcome" and so forth. I just kept getting the alphabet screwed up. I tried to say something cute to a MuT member here, but I think I may have accidently cussed her out. She was not happy with me. .:Shout out:. My apologies!!!

I think my brain is getting full at this point. So I may have to come back at the Arabic later when I have mastered the other ones.

 
Wow Nox! How do you keep all those languages in your head!?
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I speak german, I had 4 years worth of classes. And a very good teacher if I may say so myself. I have a hard time starting up a conversation but I can take someone else's lead.

I can understand Filipino but don't expect me to be able to make complete sentences any time soon lol

I'm really impressed with Nox, I'm inspired now.

I really need to learn Spanish because all kinds of people will talk to me in Spanish, and I'm not offended or anything, I just don't know how to speak it! I'd really like to be able to respond sometimes instead of like "umm sorry". Plus my boyfriend's family speaks Spanish. lol I should get on that.

 
Spanish, according to my mom is my "first" language.

But I grew up speaking English.

I was forced to take bilingual classes from 3rd up until 7th grade.

Basically - my math, science, literature and anything else were taught to me in Spanish and I had the most difficulty learning and speaking it when I was in 3rd and started the program.

When we moved from Frisco to Pittsburg, my mother put in my emergency card that Spanish was my language was spoken at home. But I never, ever spoke it and barely understood it. So oops on her part. It was a bad experience. I came out from it learning Spanish. But it doesn't make up for all those traumatizing experience. Haha.

After all these years, I've forgotton many of it but can still hold a conversation if need be. I have a harder time translating. But I can completely understand Spanish.

And if I had the time... I can probably pick up Italian quick.

And I also pretty much know all the bad words in any language. HAHA.

 
Originally Posted by Kee /img/forum/go_quote.gif haha! sans blague!!
I'm from western Newfoundland . . . almost everyone here can trace their ancestors back to France. My grandfather came here from St Malo.

Irish priests made everyone stop speaking french years ago though, and changed place names and surnames. My hometown was called "La Grand' Terre" , now it's 'Mainland", my grandfathers name was changed from 'Olivier" to 'Oliver". Pretty sad.

In the 80's parents got together to fight for a french school though, That's how I learned french. I went there from kindergarden until I quit at 16.

I haven't spoken french since I left school though
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I think I'm losing it, even though I can still spell/read/understand it very well. I just feel nervous speaking it
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héhé, je vais te faire travailler dur !
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it reminds me of what happened in Brittany during the last century. since the 19th century, the government has always wanted to eradicate all the languages spoken in France, and declared french as the only official language.

Bretons used to be very despised by the rest of french people, considered as idiots, rude and weird people living on what seemed to be a very hard and unfertile land. parents had to change their children's names and make them sound more "french" just so they could fit more in the society, and because to tell the whole truth, being despised all your life you finally come to feel ashamed of yourself and your kids are ashamed of you. everyone thought it would be the death of breton.

now parents are fighting to have schools were breton can be taught alongside french, and i'd say many french are now very attracted by all the legends, if not the beautiful land in itself. there's even special courses at the university of Rennes, including history on the celtic peoples, or the "celtic" languages.

i've never been to Saint Malo, but i will one day visit the pirates' city.

 
Sad that things like that happened to people
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it's weird . . . I still remember how to spell correctly, my french grammar is still very good . . . I undertsand it perfectly . . . but when it comes to saying something in french I tumble over my words
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I think I'm just out of practice.

Of course, having a Franco Terre-Neuvienne accent doesn't help. Our dialect came from French fisherman . . . we don't sound like the Quebequois, so we get mocked a bit sometimes =/ I still say 'Tchen" instead of "tien", "tchuisine" instead of "Cuisine", "Tchuillère" instead of "Cuillère", ect.

Funny thing though, whenever I get angry I seem to remember how to speak french well enough! lmao!

 
I speak Dutch and English..

Had French in school.. so i can read it a little bit..

And in Holland I had to have German in school.. It's kind of similar to Dutch, but i was really bad at it haha..

 
Originally Posted by Kee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sad that things like that happened to people
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it's weird . . . I still remember how to spell correctly, my french grammar is still very good . . . I undertsand it perfectly . . . but when it comes to saying something in french I tumble over my words
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I think I'm just out of practice.

Of course, having a Franco Terre-Neuvienne accent doesn't help. Our dialect came from French fisherman . . . we don't sound like the Quebequois, so we get mocked a bit sometimes =/ I still say 'Tchen" instead of "tien", "tchuisine" instead of "Cuisine", "Tchuillère" instead of "Cuillère", ect.

Funny thing though, whenever I get angry I seem to remember how to speak french well enough! lmao!

LMAO !! i'd love ot hear you speak french though, i'm sure it's not that bad. actually i'm even sure your accent is cute.whenever i'm angry or frustrated i start swearing, using some *ahem* cute and delicate words of french
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j'adore l'accent québécois, encore que parfois j'ai du mal à comprendre Céline ....
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Originally Posted by magosienne /img/forum/go_quote.gif j'adore l'accent québécois, encore que parfois j'ai du mal à comprendre Céline ....
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LMFAO!!!! I have to agree though, there's something about that accent that's just...très sexy
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I met a guy in Quebec one time on a school trip :eek: /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> oh man, I wanted to take him home
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lol, yes, so terribly sexy, i fall for it everytime !

lol i just remembered that ad for Molson : and it is pronounced "zed" not "zee"!

yeah !
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I can speak German, not fluently though. I learnt it for 5 years- mainly grammar and cases.

 
I would love to learn German and Finnish. I want to live in Finland some day
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Wes and I never had a honeymoon, we're waiting until we can afford to go to Finland to see Tuska Open Air and Germany to see Wacken Open Air
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i can speak chinese cantonese english and a lil swedish ~

i m going to learn spanish this coming school year

 
Aude, I just caught your comment about the Molson add!!

"I pronounce it "tird", not third

And eating French fries with cheese makes sense, mon ostie"

LMAO!

 
Originally Posted by Kee /img/forum/go_quote.gif Aude, I just caught your comment about the Molson add!!
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"I pronounce it "tird", not third

And eating French fries with cheese makes sense, mon ostie"

LMAO!

looooooooooolokay, ahem, big time

when i was little i used to think Rock Voisine was the sexiest man on Earth.

 

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