listening to T.A.T.U.(russian pop) while going through the topics, I got to wondering what languages the members here speak. if you don't speak any besides english which would you like to?

I can say the alphabet in german, count to at least 100 in german, 10 in spanish and korean (I took tae kwan do) and am starting to learn russian. I am also planning on learning japanese, german and french, and am thinking about checking hebrew out. (I like linguistics)

(epited to insure correct spelling)

FYI - we had a similar thread going here on this: How many languages do you speak?

It's old & closed now, so feel free to carry on here. Just thought you'd like to know.

I speak English and some Latin (in a few more years I'll be fluent)... "Latin," you're thinking, "I didn't think you could speak Latin." Well, of course you can. Latin has an accepted pronunciation, so why not? But if there was another language I'd like to learn, it'd have to be Russian (they offer Russian at my school, and I look forward to taking it next year).

TennesseeLeftWinger, I took Latin in High School, as well. I, admittedly, don't remember much of it anymore, but I do think that it helped me a lot with my vocabulary skills in English.

I have a decent Spanish vocabulary, but the verb conjugations screw me up so conversing isn't exactly easy (but I can watch Spanish tv and understand MOST of what's going on...'cept when they talk too fast!). My step-father is Mexican so I get to practice my Spanish recognition/translation skills when his family is talking to him about our family in Spanish, LOL I also speak bits of French now that I'm here in Belgium, mostly your basis greetings and I can identify just about every item on a menu (I know all the "important stuff" ).

I can count in many languages (Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German, Russian, Arabic) and know the alphabet and pronunciation of letters in many languages as well (more than I can count). The fact that I'm into name etymology has helped me with recognizing the pronunciation of different letters in different languages. I know a lot of vocabulary in all kinds of languages from my name interest and research.

I've been called "a natural" when it comes to languages because I can pick up accents and inflections in a heartbeat - it's just those pesky words that escape me

The other languages I most want to learn though are Spanish (fluently), Japanese, Arabic, Swahili, and Turkish. Turkish I WILL be learning (at least basics) before I go back to the states because we have free Turkish languages courses on base here (and Portuguese, which I might take up if I have the time). There are some free online language courses that I've been trying to "get into". Would have been so much easier had a second language been a requirement in elementary school! I think it's sad that we are one of the few countries who only speak one language (meaning the vast majority of the population). I have some friends from various African countries whom I met in college and they all spoke at least 6 languages. Usually that was their major native tongue (Wolof or Swahili) a regional language, French, Arabic, German, and English.

Fun topic!

Je parle francaise un peu. I took two years of French, but alas, have forgotten most of it. I'd like to relearn it as well as Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, and Latin, but I don't think I have the time.

I SPEAK AMERICAN!!! (I'm kidding!)

Unfortunatly I took Spanish nine years ago and have pretty much forgotten all of it but the good stuff!

I'm stupid.

My friend has a masters in Latin, and I used to make fun of him all the time, until I realized what an asset it is learning any Romance language. I am really into vocabulary, and Id toss out a word to him and he'd tell me the meaning, even if he'd never heard the word before.

I can speak a little French (basically ordering in restraunts, train tickets, small bits of conversation, but if I want to tell a story from my past? Forget it!)and I know some phrases in Japanese (and I can count to 100 in japanese). After I master French, I would like to learn Russian, Japanese and Portguese.

I forgot, I can speak Pig Latin!

I speak English and Russian. My wife is Russian and we speak mostly russian in the home. I am learning to read in it a little. My wife knows 5 languages going on 6

I speak English (obviously...it is my major in addition to just my language)

I took 4 years of french in middle and HS and went up through level 3 honors...I still remember a lot of it but sadly not enough to converse well (I can speak only basically) tho I can still dechiper what is being said and read fairly well. Its been at least 4 years since I've taken it.

I am currently taking Italian. I took level 1 fall semester last year but missed a lot of class due to chronic tonsillitis (which eventually was taken care of the following semester by a tonsillectomy). I am currently taking level 2 (speedy class) this summer at the community college to prepare me for level 2 at the university. I must take up through an intermediate level to graduate.

I wish I had begun to learn languages earlier. I would love to know latin, italian, french, german, irish (Gaelic) if I had the time and the brain power to do it. Its HARD to learn languages after age 12 as the critical period for language acquisition ends then. I find linguistics facinating and am thinking of making it my minor.

*There is a woman in my italian class who speaks portugese, french, dutch, english and is now learning italian...I marvel at it. Her children are tri-lingual speaking portugese, dutch and english.

I really think America needs to introduce foreign language class into the elementary schools.

Hey at least we have one thing in common, right? I also speak a little Italian.

CP

I highly recommend Michel Thomas' language CDs. I learned more (usable) Italian from his CDs than any other home study course. A few things are (minorly) incorrect, but by the time you know enough to pick up on those types of idiosyncracies, you are almost fluent.

I speak some French, and was starting to learn Russian a little while ago. French is fiarly easy to practice, because any online gaming thing has french people on it .

I do not speak or understand a word of English. I wish I did. It seems like a nice language. I only speak Swahili. I cannot write in any language.

All of my posts are dictated to a beautiful blonde translator who types them into English. By the way, she is naked.

(translator's note: somebody save me from this bad man, please! I have been a prisoner here for eight months!)

hahaha

edited to add: oh and MrsP thanks for the recommend!

I took three years of spanish, although my spanish teacher was also my track coach. I got straight A's in spanish

I still remember a lot 10 years later, it's a very easy language to learn once you have memorized the vocabulary.

Too true! I have a nice sized vocabulary in Spanish but need to re-teach myself how to conjugate verbs - I can understand almost anything, can read Spanish well, just can't carry on a conversation if it's not in present tense!

Michel Thomas' language CDs don't come in russian!!!

I am using the pimsleur cd's which work well. (I almost got lesson 2 after listening once) I also need to learn to read and write cyrillic which will be more difficult.

Sorry, Unabomber
I think he only speaks the romantic languages. His CDs are available in Italian, spanish, and french...but I'm not sure of any others. They are incredible. I learned more from 2 hours of instruction on those than my friends did after 3 years of private tutoring. That's no exaggeration, I assure you.

I was very motivated to learn. My aunt showed up at my pensione the day after I arrived in Italy speaking a mile a minute (she didn't speak English, and erroneously assumed my mother taught me italian). I didn't understand a single word. After an afternoon of listening to those tapes I understood most of what she was saying. After listening to them about 5 more times I could almost carry on a decent conversation. Of course, there's nothing like immersion so after 2 years I was functionally fluent. I can't write Italian to save my life, though, even today. I plan on getting some formal instruction before I return to Italy...probably in 3 years. My youngest son is an Italian citizen, after all!

MrsP - it's interesting that you say you can speak and understand Italian but can't write it. The language for me is German but my knowledge of it is opposite of yours. After studying for four years in HS & college (but no immersion), I can still read and comprehend it well but for the life of me could not hold a conversation.

Is that one of those left brain/right brain things?

I don't know. LOL!
My mom doesn't know how to write (very well) in English, so I suppose it isn't that unusual. I can read Italian a bit - at least, the signs and things like that. I don't think it would take long but I've never had any formal education in it, nor has my mother in English. I suppose that's the difference.

I dont think its that bizarre when people cant read or write in a language they can speak. When I lived in France, my neighbor was/still is American (her husband is from Argentina) and she had been living in France for about two years. She speaks French well enough, but can not really read or write it. Since she had no formal education in it, and the pronunciation of letters is different, it would make sense that she can not really read it. Just like if a child never went to school, he would grow up speaking English but not reading or writing it (especially if no one taught him the letters of the alphabet).

I also used to work with a guy who's father was Thai, so he grew up speaking Thai, but never learned to read or write it. Nor does he know the Thai alphabet.

Jaime, I hear German is extremely difficult to learn! Do they have the subjunctive? In all the Latin languages they do, and it really throws me off, since it hardly exists in English.

What I think would be a more interesting question (if I am allowed to hijack the thread topic), is what do most people think is the most difficult part of learning language? As I already stated, in French the subjunctive tenses and the constant changing of masculine and feminine are probably the most difficult things for me to get used to.

It was the same for me with Italian, Kim. The subjunctives and verbal conjugations were the hardest to master. Actually, my aunt told me that many Italians never really master it. Even worse, every region had their own dialect. A northern Italian was very often unable to understand a southerner (I suppose that isn't very different from our own language! )

Vocabulary was easy for me. There is a similarity between the romantic languages and ours, and it is possible to guess the meaning of most (italian) words when you know what to listen for.

sure, long as it stays on topic, which is languages.

I think if one applies them selves the can learn to read and write any language. long as you have pronunciations for the alphabet, it can be easy. you just need to practice reading and writing it. I find things in russian for instance and use this translator and use the virtual keyboard feature to type words I find in russian (cyrillic) (like old soviet propaganda posters) and get the translation for it. I use a page with pronunciations of russian (cyrillic) letters in conjunction so I know what sounds the letters I type make, and sound them out as I type. this, and I learn some things from the verbal lessons, such as "not" which is HE in cyrillic (pronounced n-ee; H=N E=ee)



I found german a fairly easy language when I took it in high school, as it is similar to ours (both come from latin) and there are many similarities, like father, which is fatter,(SP?) or mother, which is mutter(SP?) or "was ist das" (pronounced vas ist das) among many others. cyrillic is more difficult. for instance, put in the russian symbols (in above translator) for D O G and you spell mastiff (which is TECHNICALLY right, mastiffs are dogs ) but the cyrillic word for DOG is six symbols long (AD doesn't support cyrillic, which is understandable) and in transliterated russian is SOBAKA (pronounced as spelled)

sobaka was the first cyrillic word I've transliterated on my own btw
(edited to add--)

I cab almost read russian now. it is ctually very simple once you know the symbols meanings. understanding what something says is the hard part, even once I transliterate it.

While I understand that German and English are similar (both being of the germanic language family) along with the Romance languages and English, I have been told by some friends who have learned German that its rather difficult, and those same people think that Romance languages are easier than Germanic. While English is based off of the Germanic languages, most of its words are based from latin, and I hear the sentence structure is more forgien...I cant give any examples since I dont know German. Although I do think it may be more difficult because not only do they have articles in masculine and feminine, but in neutral, and I was told the entire sentence structure changes with verb conjugation.

Does Russian also have articles in masculine and feminine?

You're right about about masculine, feminine & neuter articles, but sentence structure doesn't necessarily change based on it. How is does change, and what confuses me to this day, is that some verbs are split up and the verb's prefix is put at the end of a sentence. With long sentences this gets very confusing because you have to remember which verbs were in the sentence and which one gets the prefix - and of course, it is that prefix that can change the meaning of the verb.