[Aberlour10]

No doubt, the members here have an "ocean" of knowledge in various disciplines. Just out of curiosity, what about foreign languages, which do you speak and how would you rate your skills?

1- like native
2- nearly like native
3- fluent
4- advanced
5- moderate
6- school basics


I start with >>>>

Polish - 1
German - 2
English- 5
Russian- 6
Dutch - 6

[kenberg]

Minnesotan 1
New Yorkese 4
Alabaman 6

The first time I was in Paris I spent the first day asking "Do you speak French?" "Non".
I decided ok, I did pass a written exam in this stuff for my Ph.D. so off to get a book and practice. My best was at a docking point for boats that took passengers down the Seine. There was just one sailor there and I managed to learn that the place was closed because the river was too high and they were hoping to open back up soon. On my last day there a car pulled up and a passenger shouted out to ask for directions. In a complete fit of overconfidence I started over to help and then realized that a. I don't know my way around Paris and b. I don't know French. I suggested that they ask someone else.

On the same trip I was (later) taking a train from Madrid back to Paris, and sharing a compartment with some folks just returning to Spain. This was a few years after Franco was kicked out and they had been in exile while Franco was still in charge. It was very very stilted Spanish but I was highly interested and they were tolerant so we had a good conversation.

I passed an exam in German also but I don't know Scheisse.

In a bar in Girona someone tried to teach me Catalan. Probably this doesn't count.

[aguahombre]

Before you take Ken to task for his choices ---English is a foreign language in the U.S.

[babalu1997]

 aguahombre, on 2011-November-27, 19:24, said:

Before you take Ken to task for his choices ---English is a foreign language in the U.S.

me speak english

once my boss said i spoke english as a second language like a native. that was because i made him pay me $20 to show him where ombudsman was in the dictionary.

i enjoy pointing out mistakes to the native: "Additional parking IN the rear". I cannot help it but wonder whose rear is being parked upon (or parked in)

i did try to pontificate in latin once to a cantakerous main bridge room expert. But he said my latin was worse than my bridge.

[onoway]

Seems to me there is one person who used to be.. maybe still is... on BBO who knew at least a phrase or two of something like 200 languages. I'd be hard pressed to name 200 languages.

At one time I could manage a conversation in Central American Spanish if nobody was fussy about tenses and syntax.

[gwnn]

Hungarian 1
Romanian 2
English 3

Icelandic 5
German 5
Dutch 5
Polish 6

Couldn't pick up a language properly since I was 10

[Cascade]

Which languages are foreign?

English 1
American 2 (but i don't spell it so well)
French 6
Tongan 6
Maori 6

Although they are problem sub-basic.

I did some very basic German, Italian, Spanish etc 30 or so years ago.

[Fluffy]

I can understand portuguese, italian and maybe french if they speak very slow (just because they are related to spannish) but don´t think it qualifies as a 6 even, other than that some english and spannish

[helene_t]

Danish 1
English, Dutch 2
German 3-4
Esperanto 4
French 5
Russian 5-6
Spanish 6

I used to speak fluent German and French, and I was able to manage in Spanish, so I guess I could pick those languages up quickly. But it has been a while.

I can sorta manage in Swedish and don't have major problems in Norwegian. But when I speak those languages I basically just speak Danish while mixing it with the few words from Swedish/Norwegian that I am aware of. And try to avoid aspects of the Danish language that I know course problems for other Scandinavians.

My partner is Polish and I slowly get better in picking it up when she talks with her family. But I can't speak it at all.

When I was young I studied some other languages as well, especially Mandarin. But I only got to get a basic grasp of the grammar. My vocabulary never became large enough to use it for anything serious.

[BunnyGo]

English (American, but I watch a lot of British TV) 1
Hebrew 4
French 5-6 depending on how recently I've memorized vocabulary.

In general, I can pick up grammar and accents fairly quickly, but vocabulary eternally eludes me...this includes English.

At times I'd've rated my Hebrew as high as a 3, but spending time in an academic environment here has pointed out that I cannot hold particularly deep conversations in Hebrew.

[Oof Arted]

English

But proper English not like the @yanks' over the pond have done to it

[aguahombre]

 Oof Arted, on 2011-November-28, 08:59, said:

English

But proper English not like the @yanks' over the pond have done to it

And yet you still consider it a foreign language to you? Proper English is truly a foreign language here, over the pond.

[Free]

1 West Flemish (Bruges area)
1 Dutch
3 English (except for the spelling of the word "awful", I always write it "aweful" for some reason)
4 German
4 French
6 Spanish

[ggwhiz]

English - 5

When I was in grade 4 my French teacher was a maternity leave replacement, a grandmother with a thick Scottish brogue. Toasted me for any other languages forever and English for years.

[Elianna]

English 1
Hebrew 3/5 (depends if we're discussing oral language, or require any literacy skills)
French 6
Spanish 6 (But I'm working on it)
Hungarian 7
Farsi 7

(I added some that I feel are even worse than sub-par, but I do have a passing familiarity with and have attempted to learn in the past.)

[gwnn]

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

[Aberlour10]

 gwnn, on 2011-November-29, 17:53, said:

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

I spent a lot of time in Hungary in my youth, but what I have learned does not qualify me even for 9. Zeus & Co had to be drunken while they created Hungarian language at Olympus;-)

[Elianna]

 gwnn, on 2011-November-29, 17:53, said:

respect for anyone who is above (below?) 8 in Hungarian, I say

What was good about learning Hungarian was that it was so different than all the other languages I've attempted to learn, so there wasn't going to be a case of my attempting to use vocab/grammar from a different language in it (like French and Spanish).

I started learning Hungarian because I studied abroad there. Now I would say that I can't speak it at all, but I can take a running stab at common phrases, know my numbers, and know how to say that I don't speak Hungarian, and speak a little Hungarian.

I could likely read a child's picture book.

But darned if I could pronounce the difference o or u with an umlaut over it correctly (sorry, don't have an appropriate keyboard).

[Gerben42]

Dutch 1
English 2
German 2
French 4
Afrikaans 5
Italian 6
Russian 6

[gwnn]

 gwnn, on 2011-November-27, 23:05, said:

Hungarian 1
Romanian 2
English 32
Dutch 53

Icelandic 5
German 5
Italian 6
Polish 6

Couldn't pick up a language properly since I was 10 I'm awesome.

FMP.