Native English speakers who speak another language

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: wings&wheels
My experience is most folks you will deal with greatly appreciate an attempt to address them in the local language...no matter how bad you may be.


+1 If i am in their country. I refuse to learn any Spanish to speak with these lazy SOB's that refuse to learn English and live in the US.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: BikeWhisperer


But my mother in law is Dutch and most of her family is still in The Netherlands. They've come over here and we've gone over there so I've taken the time to learn a new language. I quite enjoy it, and I've gotten at least an elementary level of proficiency.




My next-door-neighbour is an old Dutchman and I asked him one day what KLM stood for and he said the 3 words in Dutch.

I couldn't believe the sounds that came out of him.
I don't know how those Dutch folks can communicate with each other.

https://translate.google.ca/?hl=en&tab=wT&authuser=0#fr/nl/Royal Dutch Airline
(Click the little speaker under "Dutch")

 

[chrisri]

English is easy, but I could work on my grammar. I can understand Italian, but only simple terms, and if someone take slow to me. As for German....I have German relatives (real Germans, not imported ones), and they are always amused how I'm incapable to learn bloody language even do we are spending at least four weeks a year together. They always say German is similar to English as both are Germanic languages. They do not look similar to me. Of course I speak Croatian and understand Slovenian well.

 

[splinter]

I speak Spanish with the tradesmen at work on occasion.
Surprises a few when they discover a 6’3” white guy with blue eyes understands what they’ve been saying all day.

Our son is learning mandarin Chinese to better match up with some of his engineering/patent attorney colleagues.

 

[OneEyeJack]

One thing I don't like here in S. California is that the illegals that come here expect and even demand that we learn to speak Spanish. They say that if more people spoke Spanish it would be easier for them to apply for welfare and EBT cards. They demand their rights. They don't really want to become citizens. Instead they come here to become consumers.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: chrisri
. . . As for German....I have German relatives (real Germans, not imported ones), and they are always amused how I'm incapable to learn bloody language even do we are spending at least four weeks a year together. They always say German is similar to English as both are Germanic languages. They do not look similar to me.

English and German diverged a long time ago, and then English got laced with Latin words (when the Romans occupied Britain) and French ones (when ol' Bill the Conqueror marched into town). Certain words are still alike in English and German. But as the saying goes, English didn't merely adopt words from other languages, it ambushed them in a dark alley and mugged them.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: BRZED
Spot the quote: "Cursing in French is like wiping your a_s with silk."

No idea, I'm afraid.

My view on the sound of certain languages comes from Robert A. Heinlein, who had one of his characters say that French sounds like a cat fight and German sounds like someone being strangled, while Spanish sounds like honey dripping from a jug. (I disagree on that last. Maybe Castilian Spanish does, but Latin American Spanish sounds sharp, like knives clashing.)

English, to a non-English speaker, must sound rather like the clacking of castanets.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: BikeWhisperer
I'm pretty close to full blooded American, many generations removed from immigrant relatives with some relatives immigrating to North America as early as 1640.

Because of this I never bothered to learn another language besides English. But my mother in law is Dutch and most of her family is still in The Netherlands. They've come over here and we've gone over there so I've taken the time to learn a new language. I quite enjoy it, and I've gotten at least an elementary level of proficiency.

Just putting a little thread out there for native English speakers who know multiple languages. What other languages do you know and why did you learn it.


Ik spreek van thuis uit Nederlands. Proficiat met je resultaat en voor de getoonde inzet.

Besides Dutch and English I can read German and French, and can figure out most Italian and Scandinavian literature. It helps I used to have a Norwegian girlfriend though.

 

[BRZED]

Originally Posted By: Benzadmiral
Originally Posted By: BRZED
Spot the quote: "Cursing in French is like wiping your a_s with silk."

No idea, I'm afraid.


The Merovingian in The Matrix said that.

 

[artificialist]

Anybody have a good and inexpensive way to learn Japanese? Visiting Japan has been priority #1 on my bucket list for many years.

Where I live, there are no communities with large numbers of Japanese immigrants, so learning from a native speaker isn't an option.