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Ellen Kotzin Loyal user UPSTATE, NY 280 Posts |
I speak English (duh), French (fluently), Spanish (interm), German (eleme), Greek (elem), some Polish, Hebrew and Hindi (jugurati).
What do you speak? Ellen l'enfers c'est les autres harryandersonfan.com |
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Cheshire Cat Special user Wilmslow, UK 941 Posts |
English and basic French. Must really get into Spanish though as would not mind buying a little place down there one day. Ok, we all speak English, but how many speak the Queen's English!! - no Cockney, Geordie, Lancashire, Southern States, West Coast, Aussie, Canadian 'preacher' etc. Start off by saying: "my husband and I warmly welcome you to the Palace. One must take care not to step in the corgi droppings. Fetch the poop scoop Philip".
Funny how English sounds to others. Some USA accents immediately suggest the insertion of a question mark at the end of each sentence. My cousin in British Columbia always sounds like a preacher to me also. |
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vinsmagic Eternal Order sleeping with the fishes... 10957 Posts |
PIg latin
double talk english vinny |
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HiveMind Veteran user 303 Posts |
Ellen is my new hero.
I am learning German (3+ years) and speak several dialects of computerese. Also some Techno-can (what I call the abominable Net jargon we are forced to endure). I tried Hebrew but learning on your own is harder than I expected, so I'm going to just focus on learning ancient Greek, but only reading it of course and only the greek in the Iliad. I tested in the Military ASFAB high enough that they were going to send me to Monterey for the 1 year MI linguistic course they have, but they ended up not passing me in the physical. I should have lied about the athsma, I just wasn't aware they would reject me for it. I guess the official, proper answer is: 1, I only speak American English with any real proficiency.
"Free will is an illusion." - B.F. Skinner
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hkwiles Special user Howard Wiles 797 Posts |
In addition to English, I speak "passable" French and German.
The sad thing is - when I learnt them at school there seemed little point, unless you were going to teach them as a language ! Hardly anyone went abroad and the European Common Community didn't exist!!. Still- its funny how I have never forgotten what I learnt. I think we in England are lazy because our language is more or less considered the universal one to have. Howard |
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Magix Elite user 432 Posts |
I've studied Spanish, Hawaiian, and American Sign Language. But I'm not fluent in anything other than English, and just barely!
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Margarette Special user Memphis area 956 Posts |
American Southern English, of course
Spanish(fluent) Japanese(basics) American Sign Language(fluent...yes, it is considered another language) Russian (smattering)
The only stupid question is the one not asked.
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Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
Ellen, you old polyglot you. You are my new hero, too. The Sartre quotation swung it for me. Is it just Jean Paul, or do you also like the other existentialists? I have a soft spot for Camus.
Apart from modern English, I speak and read French (used to be fluent but it is starting to creak after a few years of neglect). And I can read a bit of Latin. I can also read middle and Old English without frowning. Aceparties brings up an interesting point. We, perhaps unfortunately, make all kinds of assumptions about people based on their accent. That's why call-centre staff usually have what is regarded as a 'friendly' accent. I remember from my University days, this example, which well illustrates that these reactions are subjective and cultural. In some 'posh' American accents, the 'r' can be post-vocalic. It is sounded, and noticeable in a phrase like 'fouRth flooR'. 'Hmm', we think. 'That person is cultured, intelligent, and probably wealthy'. However, in the UK, the post-vocalic 'r' is found mainly in West country accents. When we hear it here we can think, 'Rural, probably poor, and a touch simple'. Both reactions are prejudiced. And when we make them, they say everything about us, and nothing about the person speaking. Warm regards, Caleb Strange.
-- QCiC --
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Reg Rozee Special user Vancouver, Canada 592 Posts |
Other than English, French is the only other one I know a lot of (try avoiding learning French in Canada - impossible!). But I love languages and know various amounts of the following:
Japanese Gaelic (Scottish) Arabic Latin German Mandarin Esperanto Klingon OK, you can argue about whether those last two should be there. Does anyone else here speak any Esperanto? I tried learning to read classical Sanskrit a number of years ago but never got very far unfortunately. -bigwolf {*}
Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. -Phillip K. Dick
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -Chico Marx |
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Peedlkyle New user I live in my house 98 Posts |
English is my primary language and I can't understand much British.
I am in my third year of French and can read, write, and speak it passably. I have extreme difficulty understanding it when spoken to me though, so it does my little use in the real world. VERY LITTLE ASL- My mom took a few month long training session and taught me a little. I can actually list the words I know the list is so short: cabbage, bacon, spagetti, grapes, chocolate, love, me, hello, god, attention, children. It's funny most have to do with food... Pig Latin (does it count?...)
On the other hand, you have different fingers.
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marko Inner circle 2109 Posts |
English and Ebonics
Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.
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Ellen Kotzin Loyal user UPSTATE, NY 280 Posts |
Ok--
If we also include pieces of language-- I also do latin,yiddish, polish and japanese. As well as understanding european roots in ital..to spanish..to catalan...etc.. As for ESPERANTO I still don't understand why it is classified as an artifical (since around 2 mil speak it)--it is considered one of the easiest to master because it is so simple compared to other langs--everything is pronounced exactly how it's spelled. Conjugating verbs is so easy! Caleb--I love existentialists and other French folk--since I studied it in college.I did theatre too (enjoyed NO EXIT)... My strength was stendhal and le rouge et le noir... ANyway--in general I love other countries/cultures/languages/people/foods etc..LOVE EUROPE! Languages are so fun to me they are like codes almost, where I love to try to read ones I don't know and figure them out. Accents are another thing--LOVE the differences--I think OHIO (northern) has the plainest NON accent of US (I grew up there)...UPSTATE NY has a definite nasality and twang--then there is the PITTSBURGH (daan tahn) and the maryland/philly Warsh your clothes...LOVE IT!! Ellen harryandersonfan.com |
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Ron Giesecke Special user Redding, Ca. 947 Posts |
Hungarian, as a hobby, and American Sign Language (as an occupation).
Cheers, Ron |
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Reg Rozee Special user Vancouver, Canada 592 Posts |
Quote:
... Esperanto is actually going through a bit of a revival thanks to the Internet. Besides free learn by email courses where you are assigned a tutor and other learning web sites, there are also Esperanto chat sites where you can practice your skills with live humans on the other end. It really is unbelieveably easy - after about 20 hours of study over 4 weeks through an email course and some books, I was able to carry on a conversation I could not have had after years of regular French classes. ^Gis! - lupego {*}
Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. -Phillip K. Dick
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -Chico Marx |
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HiveMind Veteran user 303 Posts |
I know people who HATE esperanto. They will
argue to the bitter end that it is not a language, never will be and is ridiculous and absurd. I respect it for what it is and think there is some merit to it. For those who know it, how easy do you think it would be to teach it to a french speaking person, or chinese... in otherwords, what is its international value?
"Free will is an illusion." - B.F. Skinner
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RiffClown Inner circle Yorktown, Virginia (Previously Germany) 1579 Posts |
English, a little Italian and I'm fluent in computer.
Rob "Riff, the Magical Clown" Eubank aka RiffClown
<BR>http://www.riffclown.com <BR>Magic is not the method, but the presentation. |
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Marshall Thornside Inner circle chicago 2016 Posts |
I speak Fake Chinese and Write Fake Chinese. Learned from my Uncle George [Johnstone].
you will remember my name
World's Youngest Illusionista 7th greatest pianist in the world Go Red For Women and Stroke Ambassador www.mai-ling.net |
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Reg Rozee Special user Vancouver, Canada 592 Posts |
Quote:
On 2003-03-04 16:26, HiveMind wrote: Yes, believe it or not Esperanto is a very politically-charged topic. Latin scholars in particular often loathe it. There has also been some disagreement within the language movement itself over the years. There is a language called Ido, which is simplified Esperanto, created by members who were unhappy with the speed of evolution overseen by Esperanto's international congress. It is becoming more like a natural than artificial language - there are even people now whose native tongue is Esperanto, taught it by their parents before any other. Arguably it's international value is quite high, especially for anyone with a background in Romance languages. It is especially easy because every letter has only one sound, every sound is represented by only one letter, and there are no silent letters. Many of the roots have a Latin base. It seems to be more popular with people that do not have English as their first language. People with a non-European native tongue find it a little harder to learn but still easier than any other European language. There are actually Esperanto radio stations in some countries. In many English areas, it seems to be "off the radar" so to speak. It actually sounds the most like Italian when spoken I think. It can be quite fun to speak because it uses a fixed set of affixes to create new words from roots, which means anyone who knows the root and the affix system (there are a set, limited number of prefixes and suffixes) will understand the new word. For example, I changed the root "lupo" which means wolf to the word "lupego" which means huge wolf in my previous post. -bigwolf {*}
Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it. -Phillip K. Dick
Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? -Chico Marx |
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Night_Crawler New user 61 Posts |
I speak English, and French (8 years )because I'm in French immersion.
Night_Crawler |
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Ellen Kotzin Loyal user UPSTATE, NY 280 Posts |
Night crawler--
In immersion do you mean you are living in France? Ellen harryandersonfan.com |
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