How many languages do you know?

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-04-21 07:07am

Officiallly, I've got a credit level standard grade in German, and I'm a native english speaker, so that's two.
I've also accumulated enough to order beer etc and be polite, if clueless, in all the major european languages.

Post by **Edi** » 2004-04-21 07:53am

Native Finnish, almost native-level English (I can think in English without needing to translate anything), and poor to intermediate Swedish and German. Those two I haven't used in years, but I'd pick them up again very quickly with exposure.

Edi

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-21 09:13am

Danish, English and German. I am also thinking of designing dictionaryies of the languages spoken by the various civilizations of the currently-on-hold sci-fi novel I'm writing. (not only the almost unpronounceable Xril language, but also Avarni and other Jardra language)

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-04-21 11:13am

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:
Zaia wrote:English and Spanish, although I know basic French, Polish and Hebrew as well. Only voted for 2 though (didn't cheat), because I'd have a hard time holding a conversation in the last three.
Otchah omeret ivrit?

I thought I was the only one...

Sliha? Shachata oti

Hebrew, french and english.

and you were wrong its

At medaberet ivrit?

Baron Scarpia · Post by **Baron Scarpia** » 2004-04-21 11:22am

English is native tongue, can read and speak French at an okay level, and have basic comprehension of Italian and German through my vocal studies.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-04-21 11:25am

Ace Pace wrote:
Otchah omeret ivrit?

I thought I was the only one...

Sliha? Shachata oti

Hebrew, french and english.

and you were wrong its

At medaberet ivrit?[/quote]

oi vey! Hebrew is a cool sounding language. especially when spoken by a fat old guy sitting in the park.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-04-21 11:27am

Which old guy in what park

If you think I don't really speak it, check my location, or ask others.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-04-21 11:52am

English and Spanish fluently, and, believe it or not, I can also understand a great deal of Middle English. Talk about a dead language.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-04-21 12:13pm

Obviously English.

Arabic, Yiddish, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-04-21 01:40pm

Zaia wrote:
YT300000 wrote:Alle rozumiesz je dobrze?
Er...something something good?

I suck.

I asked: But you understand them well? [the three languages you mentioned you sort of knew]

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-04-21 01:45pm

fgalkin wrote:
YT300000 wrote:Alle rozumiesz je dobrze?
Russian is similar enough to Polish for me to understand a lot of it. So, yes, I can understand you quite well.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

It's the same for me, and I can often get the gist of a spoken Russian sentence. But I can't read Cyrillic, so the written is beyond me. The fact that I know a smattering of Russian, Spanish, and a little German and Latin helps too.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-04-21 01:54pm

I've got Spanish and English fluently. Thanks to crazy grandparents I'm conversational in Russian and Lebanese and can read russian. I had to read my grandpa letters he got, so I had to learn cyrillic. Typing it is a bitch, though.

So, I guess that's 4, but I'm not showing up at the UN any time soon.

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-04-21 02:14pm

Besides my own language I know English, German, French and a bit of Dutch, Japanese and Tibetan, and getting started on Russian, Italian, Spanish, Portugese and Latin.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:03pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I've never gotten why people ask stuff to others in languages they say they know. Some kind of test? Don't believe them?

Hm...

Actually, I'm so rusty that I'm wondering if I'm asking right.

Maybe I accidentally wrote a sentence in Klingon. I've got to check to make sure that I'm not losing it.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:06pm

Zaia wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I've never gotten why people ask stuff to others in languages they say they know. Some kind of test? Don't believe them?

Hm...
When I was little, I used to speak conversational Polish with my grandfather. However, I can only remember a smattering of words, none of which can be used together (in any logical way, anyway).

Anyway, I said I sucked at it, so it's whatev.

And Bob, I took Hebrew in college because my best friend's Jewish. It was SO GODDAMN HARD!!! One alphabet for writing, another for reading--what the hell! That sucked, dude, with only a semester to catch up with the other people in my class, all but one of whom had been reading/writing Hebrew for as long as they could remember. Bah. Bah, I say!

Actually, it's one alephbet, just the difference between script (cursive) and block. When you have enough experience with them, you can see how they're the same letters, just written in more of a hurry.
And modern Hebrew is structured like a European language, with its sentence structure and verb conjugation. If you want a real challenge, try Biblical Hebrew! It's meshuggeneh!

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:10pm

Gandalf wrote:I speak English and enough Klingon to get by.

Qa'pla!

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:11pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Sign language... smattering of Latin and Hausa... English... and a nice assortment of cuss words in Klingon, Russian, French, Black Speech, among others. Call it 2 and (if you count Latin, Hausa, and the cuss words) about three-fourths...

Ooh! Teach us cuss words! We need to know them to really communicate!

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-04-21 03:23pm

Native Romanian, pretty good in English, a bit of French, very little German, some words and phrases in Russian....

I think that's all.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:34pm

Ace Pace wrote:
Bob the Gunslinger wrote:
Zaia wrote:English and Spanish, although I know basic French, Polish and Hebrew as well. Only voted for 2 though (didn't cheat), because I'd have a hard time holding a conversation in the last three.
Otchah omeret ivrit?

I thought I was the only one...
Sliha? Shachata oti

Hebrew, french and english.

and you were wrong its

At medaberet ivrit?

Ah. Todah.

Been about three years.. I'm just glad I didn't throw in a Japanese word on accident. I clearly need to dig out my notes and practice more.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2004-04-21 03:35pm

English, some Gaelic & Ulster Scots, and enough French to get fed, watered and laid in any european country. All in all call it 2.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:38pm

The Kernel wrote:English and Spanish fluently, and, believe it or not, I can also understand a great deal of Middle English. Talk about a dead language.

Are we including this as a language?

I can read Chaucer-era English and pronounce it and speak it as fine as any english major at a Ren Faire ever could. Thank you, anal retentive Cal GSI for English 45A!

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-04-21 03:38pm

I know spanish and english fluently (read and write, I can even make up some words

) and officially I'm supposed to know french (after studying it for 11 years in school) but it's been so long that mostly I speak it as a broken french-english mess.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-21 03:39pm

Master of Ossus wrote:Obviously English.

Arabic, Yiddish, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

Yiddish is really hard to learn after Hebrew. It's written in the same alephbet, but every other letter has changed pronunciation! Oy vey iz mir!

ukamikazu · Post by **ukamikazu** » 2004-04-21 06:27pm

Modern, living and usefully: English, Spanish (First Language), German, French, Saudi Arabic and Apache (Adopted).
Good at but rusty: Tzotzil(Ancestral), Russian, Portuguese and Urdu.
Academically and coincidentally dead: Ancient Egyptian (Middle Kingdom), Archaic Greek, Latin, Aramaic (Comparative Multiregional Method), Sanskrit, Classical Hebrew, Akkadian and Avestan/Persian.
Currently striving for: Tibetan, Mandarin/Tang Chinese, Japanese, Classical Mongolian and Turkmen.

If you're wondering, I came dangerous close to a classics degree once, but was happy enough to just minor in linguistics.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2004-04-21 06:35pm

English very well, and quite a lot of French- it's not perfect but it gets the job done.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

How many languages do you know?

Well?