What languages do you speak?

[ilja]

Not to spam in the AMule Thread here my question:

What languages do you speak/write/understand ?

My native languages are Russian and German (I was born in Russia, but live in Germany for a long time). I speak English and have to learn French and Spanish in school.

And you?

[ghaefb]

My native language is slovenian, cuz I live in Slovenia :) I also speak english obviously...

[mars_hall]

English, I used to speak Latin, but that was so long ago.

[crackers]

Alas, I'm one of those hopeless ones - mono-linguistic. It seems my capacity for picking up new languages is limited to programming languages.

But for the record, I speak Texan. :D

[Prometheus]

English mostly, a lot of people confuse it with Canadian english since were so close to the border. I also speak spanish, never was perfect at it, but i can watc hthe spanish TV channel and get most of it.

[ewdi]

lol, even i'm in texas i dont speakl texan hahaha :p

i speak english of course, chinese, malay, and japanese (becoz wife force me to)

[crackers]

Originally posted by tux
lol, even i'm in texas i dont speakl texan hahaha
That's because you're too far north.

[sailor]

I speak english mainly, comprende un poco de espanol.......my wife speaks English, Spanish and some Italian...
and I also understand tex-mex...a new language...heheheh

[ilja]

@ mars_hall
You used to live in Vatican? In Germany we learn only to translate latin texts into german, but not to speak. Have you learned to speak Latin?
@crackers
Yes, that must be a hard language to learn. I heard, that in Texas, if you order some beef or a beef steak, they bring you half a cow :D

[Ug]

I speak the Queen's English, and if someone doesn't understand me then i do the stereotypical English thing and speak louder, slower with lots of arm waving. ;)

And you think I'm kidding.

Here in the UK we're by and large too lazy to learn another language, mainly due to the fact that most people we encounter are able to speal English. Something which we owe to our colonial past.

We're forced generally to learn French in high school from the age of about 11. But by and large we're all hopeless at it because they start to teach us it when we're too old. They should really start from about 5/6 onwards. Mind you the enforced teaching of French does tend to create some resentment towards France. The general attitude always seems to be that the French cannot be trusted of that they are "Surrender Monkeys". If we could all speak the language like a lot of them can speak English then I don't think there would be this hostility. It's this same detachment which generally causes he British to back away from Europe.

One language I would really like to learn is Russian though. I'd like to travel through Russia at some point. ;)

[fjleal]

Portuguese, English and French. I can also understand Spanish (because its similar to portuguese, and they live right next door...), and sometimes I can even understand some "brasilian portuguese"... But that's a challenge! ;)

[crackers]

Originally posted by ilja
Yes, that must be a hard language to learn.
It has nuances - but it seems the hardest part for most folks is how to properly spell "y'all".

I heard, that in Texas, if you order some beef or a beef steak, they bring you half a cow
Yes, but you get to specify which half - right or left.

[Ug]

My Dad when he went to Texas, couldn't get over seeing people walking around in the cowboy hats and boots. It made him laugh every time.

[mars_hall]

Way back when I was in high school, I took 4 years of Latin, and 2 years of French. I haven't had to use either of them since then, though.

[RanCyyD]

German as the native language, english and latin, if I have to push some slaves on my galley forward... ;)

[Jman]

English for me, and a little bit of Spanish.

Originally posted by Ug
They should really start from about 5/6 onwards.
Agreed. In my psychology class I was told that age 5 or six is the time to really learn languages.

Mind you the enforced teaching of French does tend to create some resentment towards France. The general attitude always seems to be that the French cannot be trusted of that they are "Surrender Monkeys".
Poor French. I wouldn't mind knowing French. In fact, I would like to learn a lot of languages, it just doesn't come easy. I got started too late.

[Bana]

I want to learn German so badly but my school doesn't teach it so I am waiting for college, but other than that: Latin.

[Eli]

Intermediate Spanish.
A full college level year of Latin, and got 'ladaure' (to praise) out of it. Made an A- both semesters though, teacher had a crush on me.

Originally posted by Ug
They should really start from about 5/6 onwards.

I will concur. I tutor first graders and we have a Japanese teacher that comes by the class at least once a week. They pick it up pretty quickly.

Sianarah.

[crackers]

Originally posted by Ug
My Dad when he went to Texas, couldn't get over seeing people walking around in the cowboy hats and boots. It made him laugh every time.

I hope it was to himself. 'Round here there's some folks that'd show you some fancy knife play if they thought you were laughing at them.

'Sides, you Brits talk funny anyhow... :D

[Ug]

Originally posted by crackers
'Sides, you Brits talk funny anyhow... :D No we talk properly. ;)
The language is called English you know, not American. ;) Although the two can be pretty difficult.

For example, my favourite soft drink is lemonade. But every time I asked for it in the states I got presented with some flat, cloudy stuff which certainly wasn't what I was after. And every time I asked for Chips I was given a bag of crisps. :mad:

Going to America did make me wonder how sdo many of you get fat though. Over here we don't have anywhere as near a problem and we invented the English Breakfast and the Fish and Chip shop. Technically we should be the fat ones.

[Finalzone]

French, English, Lingala and currently learning Japanese. I also relearn Tshiluba as well.

[imdeemvp]

my primary language is spanish and english is secondary....believe or not i have a lot of friends that come to me just becuase i know a lot about computers and 80% of those questions are from spanish speaking person that dont have much computer skills.....at work i am the computer guy even though we have a tech support dept. i am able to solve some problems....they even upgraded to xp pro just so that i dont hack the system running on a unix server :D

[Die_Lah]

South-African living in Finland :
Afrikaans, English and Finnish.
Refused to start studying Swedish when it arrived on my course schedule :D
Finnish is difficult enough to learn, speak and write.

[Ug]

We have a lot of South Africans here. They all come over here to work on our farms and do the stuff which we won't do...

[micha]

French, english and C (yes I have to speak C to my bloody, mindless students...).

And Ug for the "surrender monkeys", I guess you're speaking about WWII. Well we had to surrender since we took a freaking blitzkrieg in the face, and our army general was dumb. But we fought from inside, and the "resistance" was great and successful.

The key for international relationships is to forget all your preconcive notions.

[Ug]

Oh yea I know what you're talking about. I personally don't hold that view - I'm just highlighting the local view around here. The French are really not popular for some reason and deemed as a country which cannot be trusted particularly when they team up with Germany in the EU for example.

The celebrations of the Entente Cordial recently were sneered at by many.

[micha]

Yep, I call that the 'preconcive notion' problem. In France, people really hate americans for no reason. I spent a year in the US (Tennessee sounds good to me :) ), and I keep insulting french people bashing americans for no reason .
But we have nothing against the british now. I guess UK is more and more popular in France (well except Tony Blair). But in the UK bashing the french is a national sport ! I really like british humour.

Europe Unite !!

[Ug]

There was quite a lot of coverage in the British press last year about some French vandalising our war graves there. That really didn't go down well, I can tell you.

French humour is something I really don't understand, it doesn't even make me smile! British humour is pretty damn good though ;) A lot of our humour is very dry and sarcastic which is certainly a good thing.

Here in the UK we're pretty pro-America, of course theres a certain section of society that loathes America but by and large we'd pretty much follow America anywhere. Our main problem in Europe, is that we're the least European of all of the countries in Europe. Take the European Constitution for example, as it currently stands when we have a referendum on it the chances are that we'll end up vetoing it.

The UK doesn't have a constitution and generally people here don't feel that we should have one imposed upon us by the rest of Europe. (Something which i passionately believe) Tony Blair has a pretty tough job ahead of him of convincing people here that its a good thing.

[micha]

Well the European Constitution groups a lot of general ideas. It won't tell you how to dress in the morning. It will for example force the respect of the human rights in Europe.
About the UK having no constitution, it's a kind of freedom, but it's also very risky because everything can change from day to day (for bad or good). I don't even know the french constitution. It's not like in America where the constitution is really the reference for basic rights.
About the vandalised graves, that's a shame. There are dumb people everywhere around the world.

EDIT: well I just read the french constitution and the first article says:
France is an indivisible, secular (laic?), democratic and social republic. It (France) insures equality for all the citizens without regard to origine, race or religion. It (France) respects all the beliefs.

Well that makes sense to me.

[sailor]

Brits do talk funny...so why is it when you sing your english is perfect????
:)
music the second British invasion...

[Thoreau]

english 1st and pretty damn good french... 7 years worth :) i'm a senior at university, that's how

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
Well the European Constitution groups a lot of general ideas. It won't tell you how to dress in the morning. It will for example force the respect of the human rights in Europe. The thing is though, it will affect us quite badly. We will lose the right to choose our own foreign policy, lose control of our North Sea oil reserves, possibly have a uniform taxation rate (which would be a disaster for us - as we have much lower taxes than on the continent) and almost certainly end up with the Euro at some point. One of the most bizare things that the EU has come up with lately is their banning of Food supplements which will come into affect at some point in the near future. The EU also forced us to change our whole system of measurements from Imperial to Metric, something which many people still haven't gotten used to. The EU really is meddling in our every day lives.

We didn't have any human rights legislation until we joined the EU. But here in the UK its never really bothered us, because we as a people don't tolerate any extremism. Neither the extreme left or right has ever had any support here other than the smallest minorities.About the UK having no constitution, it's a kind of freedom, but it's also very risky because everything can change from day to day (for bad or good). Like I said, we're too tolerant as a people to need the measures set out in a constitution. Technically speaking the Queen is our dictator as she has a lot of prerogative powers but in reality she is controlled by parliament.

Our biggest objection about the whole thing, is that countries have constitutions, Presidents and foreign ministers. And it seems that people like Tony Blair want a country called Europe - something most people here don't want.

[Ug]

Originally posted by sailorsgh
Brits do talk funny...so why is it when you sing your english is perfect????
:)
This could be reversed.

You Yanks talk so damn stupid ... so why is it when you sing you talk better?

;)

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
... end up with the Euro.... also forced us to change our whole system of measurements from Imperial to Metric....
For me, the Euro is a very good thing, because I can travel in Germany, Spain,... without changing my money. But I'm not an economy expert, so I don't know about the consequences of the Euro.
About the metric system, well, the Imperial measurement system is weird to me ;) , maybe because I'm not used to it. But I really think that the metric system (the International System, actually) is easier to learn and to use.

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
For me, the Euro is a very good thing, because I can travel in Germany, Spain,... without changing my money. But I'm not an economy expert, so I don't know about the consequences of the Euro. The Euro would probably send our economy into recession as its quite a lot different to that of the continents. That would be a very bad especially considering that London is the financial capital of Europe. There are more people working in the Finance industry in London than the entire population of Frankfurt where the European Central Bank is based. When we linked the pound to the European Exchange Mechanism in the early 90s it caused a major economic crisis here with the so called "Black Wednesday" incident.

Another thing I forgot to mention is the EUs fishing policies which are very damaging to us. 80% of Europes fish stock are in British waters, and its being badly over fished and mismanaged by Brussels. We need control of our waters back, because it won't be long until its all gone if it carries on at this rate. The whole bueraucracy of it has meant that Scottish fishermen in Northern Scotland are actually not allowed to fish in the Hebridies due to ridiculous quotas.

And don't even get me started on the European Common Agricultural Policy.

For every £2.10 we spend on the EU in the UK - we get less than £1 back. Its not exactly fair. The EU makes it very hard to see what its benefits are.

[Ug]

And I'm not getting on at you at all. ;)

What benefits do you think the EU brings - other than the free trade?

[micha]

English is easy to learn for writing or reading, but I found it very tough for speaking. The problem is that there is no prononciation rules (see the prononciation of "though" and of "tough"). Well, I'm French (not my fault ;) ), and I think French is one most difficult languages to learn (it is tough even for the French).

So what do you think about the idea of an international language. I will take here Esperanto as an example, but it's not limited to it. I'd like to talk about the idea of creating an international language.

So for example the language called Esperanto was created by a physician in 1887 to facilitate the communication between people with different native language. Esperanto is said to be the easiest language to learn. You can learn how to read/write/speak Esperanto in about 6 months.

So I think an (easy) international language would be beneficial for everybody, even for english speaking people. Just come in the middle of France, and try to find someone speaking English !

[sailor]

You Yanks talk so damn stupid ... so why is it when you sing you talk better?


HMMMM...i guess you got me there...:)
i ain't got no answer to that......hehehe

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
Just come in the middle of France, and try to find someone speaking English ! Thats quite true. But then if you go else where in the EU the majority of the people i've met can speak English well. ;)

The idea of a new international language is a nice idea in theory, but it just wouldn't work. There's no predominantly international community as such, which unifies everyone to the extent that there could be a common language. Until there is then English is the best substitute.

English is relatively speaking a pretty easy language to learn - or so I've been told. Its also been spread far and wide, and has been the language of the biggest powers in the world for a good two or three hundred years. (British Empire and then more recently America).

It is a nice idea though. I just can't see it catching on any time soon. :p

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
What benefits do you think the EU brings - other than the free trade?
I found all your arguments in a couple of papers, and one of the conclusion was to create "A Europe of independent, democratic, self-governing states, trading and co-operating together. But if not, the author would rather see Britain a free and independent nation, than an off-shore province in the Peoples' Republic of Europe."
I've never been to the UK so I don't the life condition over there. EU offers me more job/study possibilities. That's the only thing I can tell right now. Since life condition is bad in France right now, EU can only improve it :) .

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
Its also been spread far and wide, and has been the language of the biggest powers in the world for a good two or three hundred years. (British Empire and then more recently America).
Damn, you forgot the French Empire created by Napoléon Bonaparte :) Just teasing you !

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
I found all your arguments in a couple of papers, and one of the conclusion was to create "A Europe of independent, democratic, self-governing states, trading and co-operating together. But if not, the author would rather see Britain a free and independent nation, than an off-shore province in the Peoples' Republic of Europe."
Thats precisely my view. ;)Since life condition is bad in France right now, EU can only improve it :) . The living conditions in the UK are very good at the moment. We didn't have any of the economic problems that the mainland Europe have had.

We also don't have a future Pensions problem which the rest of Europe will face in the future. Something to thank Margaret Thatcher for, even if she isn't a popular person.

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
Damn, you forgot the French Empire created by Napoléon Bonaparte :) Just teasing you ! And we all know what happened to him, don't we? ;)

Put into exile courtesy of the British Navy I do believe. ;)

I've heard he's quite a hero still in France.

[ewdi]

Originally posted by ilja
@ mars_hall
You used to live in Vatican? In Germany we learn only to translate latin texts into german, but not to speak. Have you learned to speak Latin?
@crackers
Yes, that must be a hard language to learn. I heard, that in Texas, if you order some beef or a beef steak, they bring you half a cow :D

coz everything is bigger in texas :p i mean everything... :)

[Bana]

I think the internet is one of the singlehandedly biggest globalization forces in the history of humankind. It has not completely manifested itself yet but in the future, kids will grow up having had played games with kids from all over the world and will have a better feel for the fact that: they are people over there in China, UK, Pakistan, and Nigeria too. Then when these kids grow to become the torchbearers of the government and economy they will be more apt to throw aside typical stereotypes and join together.

As for the american-french thing, I don't know about everywhere else but here we were seriously calling them 'freedom-fries' at least for a month or two. I don't understand why (this is what everyone tells me) the French don't like the Americans and therefore we reciprocate. We need to break the cycle somehow, possibly with the internet. so lemme start :)

*shakes hands with micha*

[crackers]

While we're on the language thing, I remember back in the Dark Ages of my college years (it was 25 years ago), the debate of the "global" language centered around either Russian or Chinese, with German relegated to reading/writing technical papers (although Russian was a close second on that). Of course, some fringe factions were really trying to push Esperanto, but that, as we see, didn't really get anywhere.

So I still find it somewhat of a surprise, Tex-centric that I am, that English (or some bastardized format of it, okay Ug?) has turned out to be the "universal" language. My hypothesis is that it was the 'Net itself that propagated this phenomenum, especially the WWW. After that, it was the economic realities that put the USA (not "America") in the so-called leadership position, but I do not believe that was the major factor.

And I thoroughly sympathize with those of you learning English as a second language. It's a pretty weird one, all right - especially regarding homonyms!

[Eli]

The french are called "fair weather friends."
The reasons dates back to The olde days like the before the industrial revolution. Around our colonization and the revolutionary war between us and England. The French bankrolled our munitions and put themselves in a chapter 13 position.

Andrew Jackson fought the French in Loisiana as a general, right before The Loisiana purchase. In which Bonaparte sold us everything west of the Miss. for 2cents and acre.

Then WWI the French did not encourage our participation. They shunned us (I believe ).
Then WWII they welcomed us, and with our boisterous rable rousing army. However we were not officially allowed in Versailles palace.

Kuwait--they were there.
Iraq--they were not.

We have both done stuff to each other, like blown up stuff *acidentally* so I really do not know why such animosity.
Incidentally that 'Freedom Fries' thing was started in a restraunt in Beaufort, NC right near where I graduated from High School.:)
------
Western Civ 2 notes helped a little
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@tux coz everything is bigger in texas i mean everything...

My granma lives in Amarillo. 50 oz steaks, GooD lord.:D

[mars_hall]

It is nice to think about politics,.... But once a person is in office there are the comprimises that have to made if that person is to stay in office. My feeling are that there is TOO Much "political correction" that prevents what is right from being implimented. Granted, I am just an out of date hippy, but when America " tried to love one another" It was just a free for all, and the ultra conservatist were able to capitolize. Extremism on either side is Just Plain Wrong! there is a mid- ground, some point of comprimise, where all sides can gain some "victory" . The world I see these days... makes me worry. So maybe I have had a few drinks, but what are my 2 young boys going to have to deal with? The past doesn't have to dictate our future. Our children shouldn't have to pay for the crimes of the past.

I'll be alright once the swelling goes down :)

[micha]

Originally posted by Bana
we were seriously calling them 'freedom-fries' When I was in the US, I really liked to order freedom fries. It was so funny, because it worked...

[sailor]

I never called them freedom fries...

and yes in Texas every thing is bigger...heheh
there was a steak house on the edge of
San Antonio that serves a 46 oz sirloin...I believe they would not charge you if you ate it in an hour...

I agree with Bana, there are more important things in this world than to fight with one another about who did what, who's fault it is...etc..etc...the internet has certainly made me see that most of us have similar desires and ideas...as long as we stay out of politics...:)

[Ug]

Originally posted by Eli
The french are called "fair weather friends." So I take it I'm in your good books then. ;)

[Ug]

Originally posted by crackers
So I still find it somewhat of a surprise, Tex-centric that I am, that English (or some bastardized format of it, okay Ug?) I'll grant you that. ;) But you've spelt bastardised wrong. :p

[Eli]

Originally posted by Ug
So I take it I'm in your good books then.
Definitely! I actually used to kick it with some boys from Waterford, when I lived in Vermont. They were hillarious!:)
I do not mind the French either. I think what they have done with Nuclear power is awesome. Expensive, but awesome.
Originally posted by sailorsgh
I believe they would not charge you if you ate it in an hour...
My cousins said Andre "the Giant" ate TWO.

You know the topic of this forum has changed dynamically.
My friends were talking about languages the other day, and mention of Elf and Klingon came into the picture.
Has anyone ever came in contact with someone who speaks either or both of these languages?
If so, do they lead reputable lives outside fantasy?

[sailor]

wasn't Andre the Giant French?

Ug..i don't think "spelt" is a word....:p

oops...it looks like it is a word according to 1913 edition of Websters... in texas we use it when we spill something..."spelt milk"...dam I guess we are backwards yokels...yeehaa!

[Ug]

Originally posted by Eli
Definitely! I actually used to kick it with some boys from Waterford, when I lived in Vermont. They were hillarious!:) We do try our best. Although Americans have a bit of a reputation around here for being dumb. They also happen to kill a lot of our men everytime we go to war alongside them. (Most of our combat casualties in Iraq were due to Americans - The MoD ought to send you a bill)Originally posted by Eli
You know the topic of this forum has changed dynamically.Its the Wibble forum, so I'm not going to enforce the topic on you all. Unless it gets nasty.Originally posted by Eli
My friends were talking about languages the other day, and mention of Elf and Klingon came into the picture.
Has anyone ever came in contact with someone who speaks either or both of these languages?
If so, do they lead reputable lives outside fantasy? I vaguely know someone who can speak some elf. Shes a bit weird though. Nice but weird.Originally posted by sailorsgh
Ug..i don't think "spelt" is a word....:p It most certainly is, young man. ;)

[sailor]

ug: It most certainly is, young man.

I have to take offense to this...I am a old man...at least 28 years on ya..
and I am not dumb just not educated...:mad:
I am going to report you to you....err...nevermind

[micha]

Originally posted by sailorsgh
...as long as we stay out of politics...:)
... and history, since our vision of history depends on where we learnt it.

EDIT: Well, thinking about that, languages are the same story. I mean for example our English depends on where we learnt it.

[sailor]

since our vision of history depends on where we learnt it.

aint that the truth...I think some of us have learned it from questionable sources...and we keep the prejudice alive for yet another generation

[Jman]

Originally posted by Ug
English is relatively speaking a pretty easy language to learn - or so I've been told.

I don't know about your source. English is very eccentric. There are exceptions to every rule, to the point of making the rules almost worthless. And in one English class we spent many days just on comma rules. I never even knew what conjugation was until I took Spanish, as I don't know of any consistent rule.

Don't get me wrong, I like my crazy language. I don't think it's easy to learn. Maybe if you're exposed to it at that young age, 5-6 or whatever. Nothing like immersion in a lanuage to get you to learn it well.


On another note, I wonder if the Internet has contributed to the death of obscure languages. In a globalized world the most common languages get the most use.

[crackers]

Originally posted by micha
I mean for example our English depends on where we learnt it.

Hey, you speak Texan/Deep South! (The actual word is "learned", for anyone that missed it.)

Helpful hint: do NOT confuse Deep South accents with Texas accents. Some of the former members of the Confederation will take extreme exception (especially if they drive a beat-up pickup with a "stars and bars" sticker on the back), while the Texan would probably just laugh and correct you.

sailorsgh: I ate two of those steaks (they were 72 oz. at the time) when I was growing up in SA. Took me an hour and a half, but I did it... (long story)

[Ug]

Originally posted by sailorsgh
ug: It most certainly is, young man.

I have to take offense to this...I am a old man...at least 28 years on ya..
and I am not dumb just not educated...:mad:
I am going to report you to you....err...nevermind The joys of being the Admin. ;)Originally posted by Jman
I don't know about your source.well The Polish people who work round here, plus the few Germans, Dutch and |Finnish people i've met.

[sailor]

I ate two of those steaks (they were 72 oz. at the time) when I was growing up in SA. Took me an hour and a half, but I did it... (long story)


was it the Herman Sons Steakhouse outside of Hondo?
I think that is where I saw the deal...I have eaten there serveral times but never took on the "Texas Sirloin"

and I think you may be right it is a 72 oz sirloin, the 46oz is just a large steak in Texas...

[ewdi]

Herman Sons? they make a nice grill there :p

[Eli]

origionally posted by sailorsgh
I ate two of those steaks (they were 72 oz. at the time) when I was growing up in SA. Took me an hour and a half, but I did it... (long story)
Can we say coronary heart disease:eek:

You would definitely need to ride your bike for about an hour each day for a week to unclog those arteries and get those High Density Lipoproteins up.

To Ug:
Is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow disease) still a problem in the U.K.?
Or do most people settle for lamb?

[ewdi]

hahahahha, we only live once :p eat all we want :p just happend i'm required to stand up and walk around sometimes in my job :p that might as well be exercise :p hahha

[Ug]

Originally posted by Eli
To Ug:
Is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow disease) still a problem in the U.K.?
Or do most people settle for lamb? We haven't had a problem with it for years. Last I heard there was an incident in the US recently. ;)

[micha]

Originally posted by crackers
Hey, you speak Texan/Deep South! (The actual word is "learned", for anyone that missed it.)
Well yeah, I learned English in Knoxville, Tennessee with a wonderful book called "Speakin' suthern like it should be spoke!"...

Actually the word "learnt" seems to be valid:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=learnt

[Ug]

Learnt is the correct English word to use.

[davidkaye]

Ikh red yidish.

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
Learnt is the correct English word to use.
You see, we need a simple, efficient international language ;)

[crackers]

Originally posted by Eli
Can we say coronary heart disease

Actually we can say "growing spurt." I grew 14 inches (almost 36 cm) in 12 months. I needed that much food...

Originally posted by UgLearnt is the correct English word to use.

I'm actually stunned by this. My Mom the former English teacher (not as in "foreign language") is pretty close to incredulous. Actually, if you read the various dictionaries, both on-line and in print (hey, doesn't everyone have an Unabridged dictionary), learnt is a colloquialism.

[Jman]

See? We're having arguments about English already. It's kind of fun though.

For more word fun, right click your Gnome panel, Add to Panel > Accessories > Dictionary Lookup. Now there is a dictionary waiting on your panel, just waiting to look up words!

For the record, I like using t endings like burnt, even if they are archaic or don't even exist. It sounds cooler.

[ilja]

Originally posted by davidkaye
Ikh red yidish.
Als Mameloshn?

[Ug]

Originally posted by Jman
For the record, I like using t endings like burnt, even if they are archaic or don't even exist. It sounds cooler. That's correct English though. It's bad English to say: I ate some burned lamb You would need to sayI ate some burnt lamb."Burned is a word which is used in the present tense and no where else. So you could sayHave you burned the lamb?But the word Burnt can be used in the past, present and future tense. ;) Have you burnt the lamb?.(English lesson over)

[fjleal]

These forums are very informative. Not only we share ideas about Linux, I'm also really enjoying the english lessons for free. Thanks! :)

[Ug]

From a proper Englishman too. ;)

[crackers]

The "burned" example is a straw-man, you bloody Limey!

Of course, who am I to actually moan. I know I "taalk reel funi."

[mostarac]

Well,

I am bosnian, so speak the "former Jugo languages", Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, -< Slovenian and Macedonian not quite due to the different dialect.

Then lived and studied in Germany, so speak that fluently too.

And yeah,currently live and study in Down Under so this language I speak as well I suppose. :D

mostarac

[ilja]

Originally posted by Ug
From a proper Englishman too. ;)

Do you know the "Proper English" Flash? :D :D

[Ug]

No, and I'm sure I don't want to. ;)

[ilja]

Originally posted by Ug
No, and I'm sure I don't want to. ;)

Of course, you want : http://fun.drno.de/flash/Proper_Use_Of_English.swf :D

[Ug]

Originally posted by ilja
Of course, you want : http://fun.drno.de/flash/Proper_Use_Of_English.swf :D You mean "Of course, you want to :" :p

[ilja]

Originally posted by Ug
You mean "Of course, you want to :" :p

As long as you don't request payment for my Englishlessons :p

[Ug]

;)

[Prometheus]

OK, its about time i jumped in in this discussion. Cant resist, been listening to you all for too long. As for the Metric vs English system, i dont care that much. I still use the English system, but hey, the US is like one of what, 3 countries that still use it? Britain joining the EU? Yeah, Britain would most definately get shafted in that exchange. I share Ug's sentiments about the possiblities for the EU. It reminds me very much of the Articles of Confederation we had here in the US before the Constitution. Ok, American History students, the Articles of Confederation was .... an impotent gov with little or no power other than the ability to forge treateis which then had to be ratified by each individiual state... correct! Granted im exaggerating some, but the A of C were pretty much crap and couldnt do anything. This is almost exactly what the EU reminds me of, but a little more refined. A whole bunch of independent states that want to do everything their own way, yet for some odd reason joined together for some yet unknown purpose.... I just dont get the point. Single monetary system, fine, but for me half the fun of Europe was changing currench every coupla hundred miles. All the pretty colors and archaic leaders on the money, all got replaced by the stupid euro. Believe me, i collect coins and money, the euro is one of the ugliest coins i have ever seen. Who designs that stuff? Come up with something better, please, for the sake of posterity if nothign else. Imagine our grandkids saying "look at grandpas money, who the heck ever used that ugly crap?" Cant help it, its the numismatist im me (and yes thats a real word, look it up if you dont believe me). Ok, what else can i ramble on about.... Oh yea, Ug, you think texans dress funny, you should see some of the people round where i live. You got poeple immitating every obscure and horrible thing you can imagine. Its bad. Ok, well, i should probably stop rambling, if i think of anything else, ill be sure to post it.

Oh yea, Queens English, pffft. Where do you get colour and aeroplane and swum (i love that word, prolly should pick on it too much). Where do you get this stuff? Oh yeah, apparently your english lessons are different from ours in the States.

[micha]

All the pretty colors and archaic leaders on the money, all got replaced by the stupid euro.
Yes, I agree with that. But euro bills are more prettier that dollar bills ;) Ok, let say euro bills are more colorful.


A whole bunch of independent states that want to do everything their own way, yet for some odd reason joined together for some yet unknown purpose....
Yes, that's the current situation. But I have a hope for a good unification of the European States. The term "good unification" still needs to be defined. EU won't be built in one day. I think it's just the beginning of a long story.

Another good thing of the EU is that I'm not anymore an immigrant in any country of the EU. I could go right now in Germany to find a job. Well technically I would be an immigrant, I have to learn the language, the culture, etc.

EU can be a good thing. We have to have a hope, and participate to make it better (like free software).

[Ug]

I still disagree. If we'd have known what the EU was going to become back in the 1970s, we would have withdrawn. If the EU does get its way, then I will leave the country - probably move to America. I couldn't stand to live in a Federal Europe.

One of the biggest differences between the American Union and that which they're planning in Europe is the fact that in America they had a common language, a common culture and more or less a common history. Here in the EU we have none of these.

[Prometheus]

I agree, the EU is inherently flawed because of the sheer number of subcultures and number of languages. The group is so diverse that its a wonder they can agree on anything. As for moving to the US Ug, youre welcome to come anytime buddy. We'd love to have you. Heck, you wanna come freeze you ass off for 7 months in winter, id even say you could come and stay with me, lol.

[Ug]

That is a last resort though. ;) I'm looking for a career as an Officer in the British Army, but I know that if I was to migrate to the US I could still join the US Army as an Officer. But an American wanting to join the British Army couldn't.

Crazy isn't it?

[Prometheus]

World's messed up that way. I thought you wanted to do Poly Sci? What happened to that?

[Ug]

I am, then I'm joining the army. ;)

[Prometheus]

Ahhh great, an army officer with a head for politics, just what the army needs.... lol

[Ug]

The Big story in todays Broadbsheets, is an adjusted version of the EU constitutition which has just crept on to the table. This one will involve the EU foreign minister issuing orders to the foreign ministers of all the countries - and them having to obey them. Great eh?

I also read today that France is the single biggest reciever of supplements from the Common Agricultural Policy. No wonder why they love it so much. ;)

(I'll try to stop ranting from now on - and get this thread back on track)

But to sum it up - what Europe needs to even start to be able to integrate is a common primary language.

[Prometheus]

Wow, makes me glad i dont live in Europe (no offense)

This thread did get really off topic didnt it, how did we get to this point anyway?

[fjleal]

Ug wrote:
(...) what Europe needs to even start to be able to integrate is a common primary language.
And guess which one would it be?... ;)

No way! Diversity is not a bad thing - by the contrary, it may be an advantage in certain situations. Of course, an united europe goes against the british politics, that's always been "divide to conquer"... :D

[j_rowe]

My natice language is English, speak a little German and Spanish, but I'm also fluent in HTML, ASP, PHP, C++, JAVA and VB :)

[Ug]

Originally posted by fjleal
Of course, an united europe goes against the british politics, that's always been "divide to conquer"... :D Our hearts have always been outside of Europe ;) And have been since the 1700s ;)

Do you want to be part of a European Superstate though? Or am I the only one here, who doesn't want it?

[Ug]

Originally posted by j_rowe
My natice language is English, speak a little German and Spanish, but I'm also fluent in HTML, ASP, PHP, C++, JAVA and VB :) *cough* Geek *cough* ;)

[fjleal]

Ug asked:
Do you want to be part of a European Superstate though?
That depends on what you call a "Superstate". I think the Common Market and the Euro are good things. Old divisions between countries make less sense with each passing day, on a globalized world. The poorer countries have received a lot of aids from the wealthiest ones, and that has conduced us to a more balanced Europe.

As for the EU's future, almost everything is being discussed right now... Who knows? But for sure frontiers are not the answer to the future!

[micha]

Originally posted by fjleal
But for sure frontiers are not the answer to the future!
I second that (at least in the Europe case). I need my polish vodka, my german beer, my scottish whisky, my swiss chocolate,....
We need to preserve the differences, or in other words, to preserve the local specialities. Language is not really a problem since we have English :)
Note that English is not the most spoken language. But at least it is the official language of more countries than any other language.
But I still think that a simple, efficient international language would be worth it. Again, English is difficult to learn, and speak (far to be the most difficult but still).

[crackers]

Originally posted by micha
Again, English is difficult to learn, and speak (far to be the most difficult but still).

From all the accounts that I've heard (first hand), from South Americans, Europeans, Asians, and the Middle East - every swingin' one of them swore up and down that English was the absolute hardest to learn. Conjugate "is", for example... :D

[ilja]

Originally posted by crackers
From all the accounts that I've heard (first hand), from South Americans, Europeans, Asians, and the Middle East - every swingin' one of them swore up and down that English was the absolute hardest to learn. Conjugate "is", for example... :D

I think English is easy. Its grammar is primitive. French is the hell to learn. :mad:

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
I second that (at least in the Europe case). I need my polish vodka, my german beer, my scottish whisky, my swiss chocolate,.... You can have all that though as long as the EU reverts to just being a trade agreement. In fact you could have all those things outside of the EU, afterall your Polish Vodka hasn't been inside the EU very long.

[fjleal]

micha wrote:
I need my polish vodka, my german beer, my scottish whisky, my swiss chocolate,....
We need to preserve the differences, or in other words, to preserve the local specialities.
Hehe... :D Sure! Specially what concerns to eating and drinking... ;)

[Igoraus]

Slovenian,Croatian,Serbian,Eanglis,litle of Deutch,

[Ug]

A fair few then!

[Igoraus]

you can use me if you whant :D

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
In fact you could have all those things outside of the EU, afterall your Polish Vodka hasn't been inside the EU very long.
Yes, but now you can buy or sell "local products". The advantage is that there is no more custom taxes inside the EU. So the products can move freely.
And polish vodka is the best, but I still have to import it to get good quality bottles. One day I may find those bottles at the supermarket.

[micha]

Originally posted by ilja
French is the hell to learn. :mad:
Hell yeah ! For sure, French will never be an international language. French language is very tough to learn, even for French people. That's why a lot of people (me first) don't know the "true French". We usually use a simplified version of it (except in literature).

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
Yes, but now you can buy or sell "local products". The advantage is that there is no more custom taxes inside the EU. So the products can move freely. The duties are no more than 3% anyway. There was a thinktank here in the UK which recently did a study about our economic relationship with Europe. It came to the conclusion that even if we left the EU tommorrow (which we don't intend on doing) there wouldn't be any real damaging effects on our economy. In fact it could quite possibly be the opposite. The EU the report revealed would have to seek a trade agreement with the UK, on the basis that we're the largest source of internal finance in the EU. If the barriers were still there, then the EU would suffer as a result.

Mind you, I'm very much a free trade advocate and would like to see greater global free trade rather than trading blocks such as the EU.

[Prometheus]

Oh please, dont tell me you support NAFTA... (North American Free Trade Agreement). Basically has the U.S. treat all other countries in North and South America as states with trade rights and the right to dump their garbage here and take jobs. Horrible, i dont know how it ever passed congress.

Oh yea, the spanish conjugation of ser (their form to to be = is) isnt much easier. soy, eres, es, somos, and.... i dont even remember the last one.... oh yea, son. Where do they get this crap from? I dont think any languages are particularly easy to learn, and all have their quirks.

[micha]

Originally posted by Prometheus
I dont think any languages are particularly easy to learn, and all have their quirks. That's why Esperanto was created. Knowing all the other languages, it was created to avoid their inconvenients. Again it is said that it can be learned (or learnt, as you wish ;) ) in a couple of hundred hours (writing, reading and speaking at a fairly high level).
But since English dominates the world, very few people want to hear about it. And I don't know if Esperanto is easy for people speaking arabian, hebrew, chinese,.... (i.e. all the people not using latin letters).

[micha]

So English people you don't wanna learn any languages ?
Well don't try French as a first language. German is pretty nice actually, and very strict in its grammar. Once you know the rules, it's easy to use. And German language sounds very smooth. It's not like that caricature of a dictator language we see on TV, it's totally different.

[micha]

EDIT: ooops, wrong button, I hit quote instead of edit....

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
German is pretty nice actually, and very strict in its grammar. Once you know the rules, it's easy to use. And German language sounds very smooth. I used to enjoy learning German when I was younger, I even went on a German exchange once.

[fjleal]

Prometheus asked:
Oh yea, the spanish conjugation of ser (their form to to be = is) isnt much easier. soy, eres, es, somos, and.... i dont even remember the last one.... oh yea, son. Where do they get this crap from?
From Latin. They get that "crap" from Latin. That's a hard to learn old language, but that's also the grand-father of many languages as they stand today: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, ... Their grammar is harder to learn that the English one, because its much richer. It's also much more melodious... ;)

[Ug]

I like the sound of Latin, latin makes for some good titles like "Dulce Decorum est". It just rolls off the tongue.

[Drenon]

Here in the UK we're by and large too lazy to learn another language, mainly due to the fact that most people we encounter are able to speal English. Something which we owe to our colonial past.

We're forced generally to learn French in high school from the age of about 11. But by and large we're all hopeless at it because they start to teach us it when we're too old.

That sums it up nicely Ug - we come out with a French GCSE, can say a few phrases at the time, then forget it all a few months later - sad really - so English only really, at the moment :(

[ilja]

Do you know the book " Three men on the bummel" by J.K.Jerome? He describes the same situation in anno 1900 ;)

[Ug]

Originally posted by Drenon
That sums it up nicely Ug - we come out with a French GCSE, can say a few phrases at the time, then forget it all a few months later - sad really - so English only really, at the moment :( Rather tellingly I failed my French GCSE. :p

[Drenon]

Rather tellingly I failed my French GCSE.

I think I only got a grade "C" - which more or less amounted to "How much is a loaf of bread" and "I live in a house" etc etc - now that's gonna get us English lads great jobs in Europe :D - mentioning Latin - in the 2nd year (Grammar school) I chose Latin over German (as a second langage to French) - now that was another fine decision I made :rolleyes:

[Ug]

I got a grade D.

[micha]

In the UK, is French always the first foreign language at school ? In France we can choose between English or German. Latin is an additional option.

[Drenon]

In the UK, is French always the first foreign language at school ? In France we can choose between English or German. Latin is an additional option.

Typically yes - French is usually seen as the first foreign language that people learn at school in England - (it's often seen as the most "user-friendly" or "familiar") - after that it's usually German.

[Ug]

I always thought German was regarded as easier. I certainly found it easier anyway.

[micha]

Yep, I also find German easier (than English in my case).

[Prometheus]

I always thought Latin was cool, and could understand it pretty well, but never could speak it worth a dang. The wierd thing is i can speak spanish just fine, whatever i think of i can say. Just cant do it in latin. German is a cool language, just sounds kinda harsh sometimes. English does too, some of the words just sound aweful, but i guess any language has its "ugly" words.

[Ug]

Originally posted by micha
Yep, I also find German easier (than English in my case). There's an irony there considering that this is an English forum.

[micha]

Originally posted by Ug
There's an irony there considering that this is an English forum. :)
No, I don't speak German anymore. I learned it during 4 years in high school (it was my first foreign language). After that I stopped German in order to learn English instead. And I have literally forgotten everything of German. I went to Munich (München in German) a couple of years ago, and I understood nothing :(

[ilja]

Originally posted by micha
[BI went to Munich (München in German) a couple of years ago, and I understood nothing :( [/B]

There is nothing to trouble about. If there is a bavarian speaking on German TV you get undertitles to understand what he says. Bavarian is not German ;)

Ilja

(far from the West of Germany ;) )

[jrblevin]

lol...I am taking german in a university (in the U.S. but my professor is from Desden) and my friend learned to speak german in Munich so we always argue about pronunciation. That explains a lot.

I also speak a little Hungarian. Its a very cool language, more structured and intricate than German, but much harder as well. I'm forgetting it fast though since I left Hungary.

[micha]

Originally posted by ilja
Bavarian is not German ;) Maybe, but they make great beer :)

[Ug]

British Ale is better ;)

Mind you i'm currently drinking a pint of Grolsch, but thats Holland i believe.

[jrblevin]

I love some Bass...also the oldest UK trademark too, right?

[micha]

For sure, don't try the French beer...

[kimatrix]

i am from bosnie but i live in nl, i speak bosnian/croatien/serbian (95% the same languages so it aint hard :P) i also speek dutch and english, and i can understand some german.

[Ug]

I had a pint of that earlier funny enough. I'm not so sure about the trademark though, but it could well be.

We've got a very good brewery locally which wins a lot of awards for its beer. So we're never short round here. :D

[pigpen]

I'm German and speak/understand

English (pretty well I hope)
French (not very good nowadays)
some Spanish (I really like this language), less Italian (to order great food :-), some phrases in Swedish and Finnish (which is a *really* cool language)

Any Finnish people around?

[melgrim]

I'm portuguese and speek
Portuguese ;) and English...
I can also undestand a little Spanish.

[Ug]

I don't "speek" anything. ;)

[melgrim]

Originally posted by Ug
I don't "speek" anything. ;)

;)

Has you can see I don't speak it that well...

[Ug]

hehe - just a common spelling error.

[pdk001]

korean mainly

[greatscot]

English and Gaelic are my native tongues. Tried to learn German, but I never could get the hang of when to use der, die and das at the correct times. I know some Russian and Greek, and just enough Spanish to get myself into trouble ;)

[armen]

i speak arabic, armenian, french and english.

[dickinsd]

I am the result of a poor education.

English Only.

I used to be able to throw a couple of lines together in Spanish, but havn't spoke it for years, so I would probably be limited to asking where the train station is several times. :rolleyes:

I can read German and understand spoken German fairly well, enough to get me by, but I seem to have a bit of an issue woth constructing scentences, sort of along the lines of Greatscots comment, remembering when to use the right word - basically the concept of tenses. :rolleyes:

So all in all I am pretty much limited to English :(

Dave

[Zigzagcom]

I am fluent in English and German, understand some Dutch and Afrikaans, French and Spanish.
I wish I would have had the opportunity to learn Italian and French as additional mothertongues, but I moved away from Europe in the late 70's to the US. Right now I am busy learning Linuxese.... :) ...a great cultural bridge.

[nephila]

I speak engligh and afrikaans.

I am fluent in English and German, understand some Dutch and Afrikaans, French and Spanish.
I wish I would have had the opportunity to learn Italian and French as additional mothertongues, but I moved away from Europe in the late 70's to the US. Right now I am busy learning Linuxese.... :) ...a great cultural bridge.


Afrikaans? Dis mos n lekker taal ne?

[raghavendra]

Hi
My mother tongue is KANNADA.
I hope you people have heard about it :)

[orbknives]

Well im from phlippines so i speak filipino 100%(our language) and English 70% (grammar errors are included!!! ^_^'), I also know some spanish words, coz from our history we've been colonized by spain, remember Ferdinan Magellan way back 1516? :)..As a proof the word CHAIR if translated to spanish is SILYA and if translated to filipino its SALONG PWET, but if you translate SALONG PWET to english its BUTT CATCHER!!! :D

[Zigzagcom]

LOL, that is funny....

[jim]

I have one thing in commom with you all I speak english

[PeTzZz]

Estonian as native language, English and poor Russian (though I learned it about 6+ years at school).

[chiku31]

My native language is chinese and I speak English as well.

[Uhlix]

English...and since i live in the south...i can understand Rednecklash, but I cant speak it very well

[sgtbob]

I speak southern english (USA) - although some yankees have trouble understanding me- un poco de Español, some Korean ( kamsamnida) a bit of Thai (sa wa de, kup) (last two just enough to get into trouble) :-)

SgtBob

[Daemon]

Greek, Romanian, English and understand couples of words from most latin based languages :)

[tschweg]

Swiss German+German(almost the same), English, basic french and a few words Thai. I'm thinking about starting chinese though.

[ilja]

Swiss German+German(almost the same).
No it isn't :D

[tschweg]

No it isn't :D

To me, yes. :p

Funny side note:
The germans living near the swiss border always tell the Swiss, that their language isn't really a language but merely a dialect (or a speech disorder). The Swiss on the other hand always insist that it's a real language but fail to prove it, since it hasn't all the key elements of a language. Like orthography, or propper syntax rules. You can spell a word any way you want it but it doesn't matter, since most Swiss can't read it anyway. But it's fun, since you can confuse the germans. :D

[ilja]

I had a real hard time understanding the ppl in Zürich :D

[tschweg]

Are you implying something here? :D

[artur]

I speak armenian (native), russian and being in US english too
Just wondering, anyone else speaks or have heard about armenian?

[ilja]

@ artur yes:
i speak arabic, armenian, french and english.
And because I was born in Russia I also know some armenian people.

[artur]

hey thanks ilja
NIce to see russian names on forum, I have russian friends too.

[Javaguy78]

I speak English as my first language. I am also fluent in French, Haitian Creole, java, C, C++, and have some experience, though not fluent, in Python, PHP, and Spanish.

[t3gah]

Not to spam in the AMule Thread here my question:

What languages do you speak/write/understand ?

My native languages are Russian and German (I was born in Russia, but live in Germany for a long time). I speak English and have to learn French and Spanish in school.

And you?

I speak the ones that other people who speak what I speak speak and if all else fails I use a pen or pencil, a piece of paper and stick figure drawing.

But to answer the question. I speak German, Spanish, some Chinese (Cantonese, not Toisan, Shanghainese or Mandarin.), my Danish sucks and I also speak Italian and of course English.

As for reading all of those languages other than English, that's another story entirely, so please don't type stuff out for me to answer.

(Speaking and reading are very different tasks. Then there is writing the answer... )

[dickinsd]

Well im from phlippines so i speak filipino 100%(our language) and English 70% (grammar errors are included!!! ^_^'), I also know some spanish words, coz from our history we've been colonized by spain, remember Ferdinan Magellan way back 1516? :)..As a proof the word CHAIR if translated to spanish is SILYA and if translated to filipino its SALONG PWET, but if you translate SALONG PWET to english its BUTT CATCHER!!! :D
Nice :D :D :D

[t3gah]

@ artur yes:

And because I was born in Russia I also know some armenian people.

Вы видели это, ilja?

http://www.linuxhotbox.com/fun/images/tumbnails/russian-linux.jpg

http://www.linuxhotbox.com/fun/images/tumbnails/russian-linux.jpg

[ilja]

It took me a while to understand the joke :D

[elz]

Norwegian, as I live here :(, English, Polish and a little bit German (currently learning at school)

[Unkemptwolf]

I speak English, and ASL (American Sign Lanuage). I can also speak an understand a small amount of spanish, but not nearly as well as the other two.

[marcos]

Minha lingua materna é o português (falado no Brasil) and english is my second language. I can also understand spanish and a little bit of french.

[cyanideoverdose]

I speak english and spanish. But i can't write in spanish, never could learn how to spell the words

[syco]

I speak English and Bad English. Yay for me.. also quite fluent in Redneck

[LeslieL]

I speak Canadian English & have learned bits of French, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Inuktitut, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. I need to learn Turkish because we're moving there this summer. Anyone here speak Turkish?

[pdk001]

i speak korean fluently and nothing else

[ieuuk]

english only... well apart from the bits of german i did for gcse and failed.

[ianmac]

I only speak English. But I speak it really well, does that count?
;)

[ieuuk]

yeah thats good enough... actually i lie, i can speak engish, american, australian... lol

[kaconst]

I speek greec (lived there for 2 years), dutch (live in belgium), and learn frech, english,ancient greek and latin at school :D

[x-nc]

English
German
Thai
Chinese (Mandarin)
Italian

[defkewl]

I speak Bahasa Indonesia since I'm Indonesian and since I wrote these in English that means I can speak & write English too. Ich sprechen Deutsch auch.

[ThijsH]

I speak English, Dutch and German. A few weeks ago I started learning Esperanto: It's really a great language. Very easy to learn, much easier then English. If we all learn Esperanto, we can forget all difficult languages ! Tip: On http://www.lernu.net it's very easy to learn Esperanto.

[codergeek42]

English and Spanish.

I feel like learning German though. :)

[Firewing1]

English (mother tongue)
French (2nd language, im ok)
Spanish (beginnner, although i'm liking it more than french :p)
Then, there's the computer ones...
python, mysql, PHP, bash, HTML, java, javascript, can understand C++ / C, DOS,
the list goes on.... lol
im also 0|< @ l337 5p34|< w00t!
Firewing1

[linmix]

Dutch is my native language so I'm proficient at Flemish (which is about as different from Dutch as American from English) plus I grew up in the south of the country (zuid-limburg) where they have pretty tough dialects which I never learned to speak, but understand just fine. Afrikaans is not too far removed from Dutch so that's not a problem either.

Then there's English (just a bit: actually I teach English :)), Spanish (just as well, since I live in Spain) Portuguese, German and French.

I studied Latin, Anglo-Saxon and some Gothic but would be hard pressed to produce more than a sentence worth of either and speaking is out of the question.

I'd love to learn more (Russian, Swahili, Japanese, Gaelic...) but I don't really enjoy learning anything if I can't put it into practice almost immediately (that's probably why I spend so many hours in front of my PC :p )

[codergeek42]

im also 0|< @ l337 5p34|< w00t!|-|0\/\/ |)4|23 J00 (411 7|-|47 4 14|\|6|_|4G3! :p

(Ow. Let us never speak of this again. ;))

[Iron_Mike]

English, Deutsch, Espanol, and with a little help from fermented hops, I'm fluent in all the rest too....:-)

[sailor]

I mainly speak english, my spanish is not that great but I can get by...Living in South Texas spanish is very commonly used language...I still use an interpeter at work.

[Truthfatal]

English, bad English, and worse Québec French.

1 4m 4|50 f41r|y pr0f1(13n7 1n L337 5p34k, 7h0u6h 1 (h347 8y u51n6 4 f1r3f0x p|u61n wh3n 17 (0m35 70 7yp1n6 7h15 dr055.

[Twey]

English, French, Spanish. My English is excellent; the other two are passable :p
| am a|so fa|r|y prof|(|ent |n leet speak, though | (heat by us|ng a f|refox p|ug|n when |t (omes to typ|ng th|s dross.The DeLeet Bookmarklet (drum roll):
javascript:(function(){ var T=( %22| 1 m /\\/\\ m |\\/| w \\/\\/ w |/\\| h |-| h |~| u |_| m |v| n |\\| n /\\/ d |) f |= h }{ i ][ j _| j _] k |< k |{ l |_ p |> p [* r |2 v \\/ x >< y `/ a @ a 4 b 8 e 3 g 6 g 9 o 0 s 5 s $ t + t 7%22 ).split(%22 %22),i,x,t; function R(t){t=t.toLowerCase();for(i=0;i<T.length;i+=2)while(t.indexOf(T[i+1])!=-1)t=t.replace(T[i+1],T[i]);return t} function F(n,i){t=n.tagName;if(i=n.data)n.data=R(i);if(t!=% 22SCRIPT%22&&t!=%22STYLE%22)for(i=0;x=n.childNodes[i];++i)F(x)} F(document) })()

[nlkrio]

Greek=the easiest language all over the world,and English.little frenchy

[RadioactiveFrog]

English is my first language, i speak a bit of french and i used to know a bit of german but can't remember it anymore. I also took latin at highschool for a year but i completly forgot all that now !!!!

:cool:

[Truthfatal]

The DeLeet Bookmarklet (drum roll):
javascript:(function(){ var T=( %22| 1 m /\\/\\ m |\\/| w \\/\\/ w |/\\| h |-| h |~| u |_| m |v| n |\\| n /\\/ d |) f |= h }{ i ][ j _| j _] k |< k |{ l |_ p |> p [* r |2 v \\/ x >< y `/ a @ a 4 b 8 e 3 g 6 g 9 o 0 s 5 s $ t + t 7%22 ).split(%22 %22),i,x,t; function R(t){t=t.toLowerCase();for(i=0;i<T.length;i+=2)while(t.indexOf(T[i+1])!=-1)t=t.replace(T[i+1],T[i]);return t} function F(n,i){t=n.tagName;if(i=n.data)n.data=R(i);if(t!=% 22SCRIPT%22&&t!=%22STYLE%22)for(i=0;x=n.childNodes[i];++i)F(x)} F(document) })()
That is a neato Bookmarklet!

[r1348]

Parlo Italiano.
I speak English.
Loquor Latine.

[hammel]

"no english, no german, no talk!"

[ilja]

"no english, no german, no talk!"
"Und wer hat's erfunden?" :D

[rayyes]

I speak English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
In fact, I got my current job because I am fluent in the first two.

[hammel]

...und Ricola!

[hammel]

"Und wer hat's erfunden?" :D

...und Ricola! ;o)

[tomcat]

Riiii-co-laaaa... :)
German, English, Spanish, French, Latin and a very little bit of Italian. :D

[desertwind]

Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi (indian Languages)
English

[Thoreau]

English, French and some Spanish

[komi]

German as native language, but I don't live in Germany! ;-)
I'm from Austria.
And guess what! I also speak (more or less) Englisch :-D

//EDIT: Oh, I forgot:
Java, C++, PHP ;-)

[tcs_chen]

I speak Chinese, English and a little Japanese, and I'm very curious about German & Spanish
BTW, I personally dislikes French, it sounds awful.

[Crux]

I speak American. And enough of others to order food, get slapped, order beer, or find a washroom.
'Acutally in person I speak hillbillie.' YEEHAW!!! git dem dare hawgs kilt soz we-kin eet.

[KimInWis]

I speak American. Can somewhat speak and mostly understand Dutch (lived and worked there for a number of years), and can order a beer or scotch in most Western European languages!

[omega*]

English, Lingua Latina (Latin)
I'm also want to learn German and Japanese, I'll possibly get the chance in College.

[axelseap]

i too speak that nonexistant language called american and a little bit of german and spanish

[FedoraTomorrow[deleted]]

When one grunts and points one often gets what one needs :)

FedoraTomorrow

[bladela]

i speak italian

HI
bladela

[Optimal Aurora]

My natural born language is English (US style) but I am trying to learn Japanese and German... On top of trying to learn and master programming languages like c++ and python and perl...

[odiseo77]

My mother tongue is spanish, but I also speak english and bit of italian

[buchalkalan]

Mother language --> Punjabi
Being a Pakistani --> Urdu
wished to go for higher education in Germany so leant --> German
Finally end up in Finland so learnt --> Finnish
:)

And English of course 'caz after school, education is mostly in English in Pakistan.

[jim]

well that depends on the site I visit
here (http://sites.gizoogle.com/?url=http://www.fedorajim.homelinux.com/?q=node/10)

[mobsta]

Well my native language is Armenian (Thought I would be the only one, but was wrong)
fluent in english (australian dialect) can read, understand russian(grew up in the old USSR) but not speak comfertabley due to not using it for about 17 years.

[bae]

daily life : malay language

primary on the net : english language

:D

[tseliot]

I can speak 3 languages: Italian, English and Spanish.

Italian is my 1st language (L1) but English is my favourite language. I love watching English films (which are not dubbed), listening to English music, etc. I also enjoy writing in English (guides, my thesis, etc.)

P.S. I study foreign languages at the University.

[Theradoor]

Swedish
english
little japanese

[gerardrubio]

Catalan
Spanish
English
French

[tho.mei]

My mother tongue is Swiss German and i can speak German and English to.

[bitrain]

Dutch, English, German and a little French. And of course Limburgs :D

[ilja]

Bitrain where are from in NL?

[linmix]

lol I am (was) from Maastricht

[InKo]

I also speak German, Russian and English... I learnt French and Spain, but it is a long time ago. :)