Who speaks a second language?

[It's Snake Pliskin]

I'm interested in knowing who speaks other languages and why.

I speak enough Japanese and can read and write basic stuff. It is one of the hardest languages to read and write but is enjoyable to use. I study it for fun and hope to use it to some professional extent in the future.

I have studied some French and Spanish but find them to be of no use in Australia. I would like to speak 3 languages and am unsure whether to learn another asian language or a european one.

Any comments would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dutchie]

Guess which second language I speak.

 

[tech/a]

My wife speaks in a tounge foreign to me!
She even thinks differently to humans.
They actually have written books on the topic."Men are from----

 

[Joe Blow]

I can only speak English fluently, but I know how to order a beer, get a room and say please and thank you in about half a dozen languages.

Travel is my passion, particularly backpacking. I like travelling cheap and for as long as possible. I have travelled to twenty-seven countries so far and plan on seeing a lot more before I make my final exit from this Earth.

In fact, I leave in about eight weeks to backback through Eastern Europe to Turkey. Been planning this one for a while.

 

[wayneL]

I can only speak English fluently, but I know how to order a beer, get a room and say please and thank you in about half a dozen languages.

Travel is my passion, particularly backpacking. I like travelling cheap and for as long as possible. I have travelled to twenty-seven countries so far and plan on seeing a lot more before I make my final exit from this Earth.

In fact, I leave in about eight weeks to backback through Eastern Europe to Turkey. Been planning this one for a while.

How big is your backpack Joe?

Is there room for about 70kgs

 

[Joe Blow]

How big is your backpack Joe?

Pretty small! I only need a couple of pairs of jeans, some shirts, and a weeks worth of socks and underwear to get me from laundromat to laundromat.

Thanks to the fact there's no Euro in eastern Europe I figure I'll be able to get by on about $50 a day. $15 for a bed in a youth hostel, $15 for food, $10 for beer and $10 for other expenses (museums, art galleries etc). I've been to Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary before and enjoyed myself so I'm keen to catch up with Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey to finish the job. I might see what I can do about taking a quick peek in the Ukraine too.

 

[GreatPig]

I only speak English fluently as well, but learnt French for a number of years at school and more recently have been learning Mandarin Chinese. Also learnt a tiny bit of Japanese some years ago before I went there on holiday.

My wife speaks a few Asian languages: Vietnamese and Chao Zhou fluently, Mandarin pretty well, and Cantonese passably.

GP

 

[Epsilon]

No kudos for for correctly guessing what my mother tongue is.....
My nom de plume gives it away.....
Now, in addition to english I speak another language (almost) fluently, plus some Latin and few words in several Asian languages......Aaaa...and few words in Zulu(!!), having lived in South Africa for about a year.....
Joe...I would say, many of us "suffer" from the same "travelling bug".....I was recently in Vietnam and Malaysia.....First time in Vietnam ....About twentieth time to Malaysia. I loved Vietnam! Great country, very nice people......

****** Congratulations to all Sydney Swans fans......We lost...(JUST) the Grand Final......

 

[DTM]

I'm interested in knowing who speaks other languages and why.

I speak enough Japanese and can read and write basic stuff. It is one of the hardest languages to read and write but is enjoyable to use. I study it for fun and hope to use it to some professional extent in the future.

I have studied some French and Spanish but find them to be of no use in Australia. I would like to speak 3 languages and am unsure whether to learn another asian language or a european one.

Any comments would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Same as you Tina with Japanese. My conversational language is a lot better, especially after a few beers. Speak French, Italian and Tongan too.

 

[Bronte]

English,Australian,American,Canadian,South African,New Zealand!!!!
I learnt French and some Spanish at school.....
Hardly used the knowledge so far.
Need to travel more.
Nice one Joe.

 

[chansw]

I speak English and Cantonese. English is the main language I speak and write since I come to Perth in 1990.

Dutchie, can I ask you how difficult to learn Dutch? thanks.

 

[krisbarry]

French, had to study it at school.

Cannot remember much of it now...

although my French teacher just seemed intent on recording movies from SBS, bringing them into class and making us watch these erotic french films, where all the characters ended up naked and in bed together....or was that the sex education clasess, ohh I am all confused now. LOL

 

[Chief Wigam]

Tina, Mandarin is a good one to learn. It'll get you around Asia. Chinese live just about everywhere on earth.

I live in Singapore now and am considering taking lessons.

I can speak Serbian/Croatian.

 

[dutchie]

G'day Chansw

I learnt Dutch from my parents as a child so I don't know how hard it is to learn from scratch. Probably about the same as learning French or German.

Don't need to know Dutch in the Netherlands as most people can speak English (not many other countries use it either).

Good luck if you have a go at it.

 

[GreatPig]

my French teacher just seemed intent on recording movies from SBS, bringing them into class and making us watch these erotic french films

But isn't "ooh, aah, mmm" the same in every language?

GP

 

[krisbarry]

But isn't "ooh, aah, mmm" the same in every language?

LOL

To true, except the accent would make the "ooh, aah, mmm" more or less pronouced depending on which accent was being used.

As a matter of fact there are many universal languages such as....farting, burbing and laughing to name a few.

 

[Happy]

Applies to sounds with cut throat too

 

[ob1kenobi]

I can understand American and Queensland!!!!

Can understand Pidgin English (from my time in PNG), Biblical Greek and some Latin (enough to get me in and out of trouble).
PS. Bill Cosby has a very funny sketch on languages!

 

[Epsilon]

"Biblical Greek and some Latin (enough to get me in and out of trouble)."..

Biblical Greek? ....Whoa!!!!! That's really amazing.......!
Where, if I may ask, did you manage to learn (of even master(?) Biblical (almost ancient, classical....) Greek OB?

Can you please cite something that you know in Greek?

Gia prospathise na grapseis kati, se parakalw)
Cheers!!!!!!!!!

 

[ob1kenobi]

I never said I had mastered it, quite the contrary, enough to get me in and out of trouble!

Example:

John in his Gospel writes " In the beginning was the word and the word was with God." (Jn1:1) The biblical Greek that John uses for word is Logos! Much has been written as to what John meant by using logos since it tends to mean a word softly spoken so that it could barely be heard on the other side of a large lake. The early Christian community used a fish symbol. The word for fish = ICHTHUS which is an acronym for: Iesous=Jesus CHristos=Christ THeou=of God Uiou=the Son Soter=the Savior. Thus Jesus Christ of God, the Son, The Saviour.
Thus for the early Christians this became a symbol they could use without fear of being persecuted for it.

The second part of your question. I studied Theology / Religion at Post Graduate level in Melbourne. The person who taught me New Testament Studies, Christology, Judaism was one of the collaborators for the Jerusalem Bible, the version used in most main stream Christian Churhes for their services, including the Catholic Church. It was pretty much impossible to work with this guy without having to learn the language in order to understand him at times. Trust me, I wouldn't do it for the sake of it!!!! Most theology courses will require you to either learn one of the two Biblical languages (Biblical Hebrew or Biblical Greek) or to at least be familiar with it so that you can understand it when you need to! Thankfully I don't have a big use for it these days!